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Examines parent involvement contracts in charter schools, exploring data from a survey of California's charter schools and comparison schools. The study finds that charter schools have greater levels of parent involvement, but the involvement may be due to selectivity in the kinds of families participating in charter schools. (SM)

Background: Patient and community engagement in under-resourced communities is a key issue for precision medicine research. We report proceedings from a community-academic partnered conference in Los Angeles to promote community understanding of precision medicine and generate engagement recommendations.Methods: Planning group review of planning, presentations, and audience discussions from facilitator notes and participant survey data from a one-day conference.Findings: Community-academic planning broadened community participation and presentations. More than 80% of survey participants indicated they would participate in the national precision medicine initiative, and most were willing to share diverse sources of data. Discussions identified trust concerns related to historical research abuses, data privacy, potential effects of findings on health care, personal safety, research procedures, the time-frame for benefit, and confusion about different initiatives. Concerns were balanced by belief in science to improve health. Recommendations included a community partnered participatory approach with support for local community and academic teams to engage stakeholders with written/online resources and partnered workgroups addressing key concerns.Conclusion: Conference participants expressed high willingness to participate in precision medicine studies, but discussions highlighted trust and transparency issues and suggested community partnered research with local capacity building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale Food-insecure people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) consistently exhibit worse clinical outcomes than their food-secure counterparts. This relationship is mediated in part through non-adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART), sub-optimal engagement in HIV care, and poor mental health. An in-depth understanding of how these pathways operate in resource-rich settings, however, remains elusive. Objective We aimed to understand the relationship between food insecurity and HIV health among low-income individuals in the San Francisco Bay Area using qualitative methods. Methods Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 34 low-income PLHIV receiving food assistance from a non-profit organization. Interviews explored experiences with food insecurity and its perceived effects on HIV-related health, mental health, and health behaviors including taking ART and attending clinics. Thematic content analysis of transcripts followed an integrative inductive-deductive approach. Results Food insecurity was reported to contribute to poor ART adherence and missing scheduled clinic visits through various mechanisms, including exacerbated ART side effects in the absence of food, physical feelings of hunger and fatigue, and HIV stigma at public free-meal sites. Food insecurity led to depressive symptoms among participants by producing physical feelings of hunger, aggravating pre-existing struggles with depression, and nurturing a chronic self-perception of social failure. Participants further explained how food insecurity, depression, and ART non-adherence could reinforce each other in complex interactions. Conclusion Our study demonstrates how food insecurity detrimentally shapes HIV health behavior and outcomes through complex and interacting mechanisms, acting via multiple socio-ecological levels of influence in this setting. The findings emphasize the need for broad, multisectoral approaches to tackling food insecurity among urban poor PLHIV in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food insecurity continues to be a major challenge in the United States, affecting 49 million individuals. Quantitative studies show that food insecurity has serious negative health impacts among individuals suffering from chronic illnesses, including people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV). Formulating effective interventions and policies to combat these health effects requires an in-depth understanding of the lived experience and structural drivers of food insecurity. Few studies, however, have elucidated these phenomena among people living with chronic illnesses in resource-rich settings, including in the United States. Here we sought to explore the experiences and structural determinants of food insecurity among a group of low-income PLHIV in the San Francisco Bay Area. Thirty-four semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with low-income PLHIV receiving food assistance from a local non-profit in San Francisco and Alameda County, California, between April and June 2014. Interview transcripts were coded and analysed according to content analysis methods following an inductive–deductive approach. The lived experience of food insecurity among participants included periods of insufficient quantity of food and resultant hunger, as well as long-term struggles with quality of food that led to concerns about the poor health effects of a cheap diet. Participants also reported procuring food using personally and socially unacceptable strategies, including long-term dependence on friends, family, and charity; stealing food; exchanging sex for food; and selling controlled substances. Food insecurity often arose from the need to pay high rents exacerbated by gentrification while receiving limited disability income–​a situation resulting in large part from the convergence of long-standing urban policies amenable to gentrification and an outdated disability policy that constrains financial viability. The experiences of food insecurity described by participants in this study can be understood as a form of structural violence, motivating the need for structural interventions at the policy level that extend beyond food-specific solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new biologically related, struvite-type phosphate mineral, hazenite, ideally KNaMg2(PO4)2⋅ 14H2O, has been found in and/or on completely dried-out or decomposed cyanobacteria on porous calcium-carbonate (mainly calcite and aragonite) substrates in Mono Lake, California. The mineral occurs as radiating clusters of prismatic crystals and is colorless, transparent with white streak and vitreous luster. It is brittle, with the Mohs hardness of 2~2.5; cleavage is good on {001} and no twinning was observed. The measured and calculated densities are 1.91(3) and 1.88(2) g/cm³, respectively. Hazenite is biaxial (+), with nα = 1.494(1), nβ = 1.498(1), nγ = 1.503(1), 2Vmeas = 41(2)°, 2Vcalc = 42°, X = b, Y = c, Z = a, and does not fluoresce under long- or short-wave ultraviolet rays. The dispersion is strong with r < v. It is soluble in water. The electron microprobe analysis yielded an empirical formula of K0.97(Na0.96Ca0.02)Mg2.07 [(P0.98S0.02)O4]2 ⋅ 13.90H2O. Hazenite is orthorhombic with space group Pmnb and unit-cell parameters a = 6.9349(4) Å, b = 25.174(2) Å, c = 11.2195(8) Å, and V = 1958.7(3) ų. There are many structural similarities between hazenite and struvite, as also revealed by their Raman spectra. The hazenite structure contains six symmetrically independent non-hydrogen cation sites, two for Mg2+ (Mg1 and Mg2), two for P5+ (P1 and P2), one for Na+, and one for K+. It can be viewed as three types of layers stacking along the b-axis, in a repeating sequence of ABCBABCB…, where layer A consists of Mg1(H2O) 6 octahedra and NaO6 trigonal prisms, layer B of P1O4 and P2O4 tetrahedra, and layer C of Mg2(H2O)6 octahedra and very irregular KO6 polyhedra. These layers are linked together by hydrogen bonds, plus the K-O bonds between layers B and C (K-O5-P2). Interestingly, the combination of layers B and C in hazenite exhibits a configuration analogous to the struvite-(K) structure. Hazenite is believed to form in high pH environments through the involvement of cyanobacterial activities. To our knowledge, hazenite is the first struvite-type compound that contains two structurally distinct monovalent cations (K and Na), pointing to an exclusive role of biological activity in the mineralization process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the possibility that in schools where an informational and social support network is available and where a sufficient technological infrastructure is in place, computer use may be a powerful catalyst leading to more constructivist practices on the part of teachers. Survey research at 153 schools of the National School Network provides evidence that under these favorable circumstances, teachers' sustained use of computers and exploration of Internet resources is related to their increased use of constructivist teaching practices and may even change teachers' pedagogical beliefs that underlie such practices. The relationship between computer use and pedagogical change is particularly strong among secondary teachers in social studies, science, and noncore subjects. This article discusses three alternative theories to account for the observed correlations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the use of parental involvement contracts in California-area charter schools for the process of education reform. Evidence for greater levels of parental involvement in charter schools; Possibility that this involvement may be due to selectivity in the kinds of families participating in charter schools.

Provides information on San Diego city in California and on the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) National Conference and Exhibition that will be held in the city. Description and features of San Diego; Information on how the city suffers from a lack of affordable housing; Theme and sponsors of the conference; Four major programmatic and policy areas that the conference will focus.

The article focuses on the development of economy and politics in California. It dealt with the environmental uniqueness of the state in the continent and its area scarcity as it provided an overview of the reasons for the area's late settlement and its climatic parallelism with the U.S. The reasons for its abandonment from the Europeans were also studied which was followed with a period of historic growth.

Objective: The authors' goal was to determine whether changing the insanity test in California in 1982 actually affected use of the insanity defense. Method: They gathered information on all individuals who entered the insanity plea (N=1,300) and all those acquitted by reason of insanity (N= 665) in seven counties in California 3 years before and 3 years after the change in the test of insanity. They focused on whether California's revision of the insanity test affected the number and rate of insanity pleas, the number and rate of insanity acquittals, the characteristics of individuals using the defense, the target offenses, and the length of stay of insanity acquittees. Results: The reform did not affect the rate of insanity pleas or acquittals, the characteristics of those using the defense, or their length of confinement. Conclusions: Although the reform had no direct effects on the use of the insanity defense, the authors hypothesize that an indirect change in criminal sentencing practices led to a decrease in the number and rate of insanity pleas and acquittals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food insecurity, which affects 37 million individuals in the United States (U.S.) and disproportionately burdens women, minorities and older adults, is a well-established determinant of poor health. Previous studies suggest social capital, defined as the material and social benefits arising from relationships among individuals within and between groups, may be protective against food insecurity. Drawing on this evidence, calls have been made for interventions and policies to promote social capital to address food insecurity. However, limited research has explored in-depth how social capital shapes the lived experience of food insecurity in the U.S. We explored how older women from three settings in the U.S. used forms of social capital to navigate their food environments. Between November 2017–July 2018, we conducted 38 semi-structured interviews with food-insecure women aged 50 years or older enrolled in the Northern California, Georgia, and North Carolina sites of the Women's Interagency HIV study, an ongoing cohort study of women living with and at risk of HIV. Interviews were analyzed using an inductive-deductive approach. Women from the three sites explained how they drew upon different forms of capital to access food. Women in Georgia and North Carolina depended on support from members within their social group (bonding social capital) to address food insecurity but described limited opportunities to build relationships with members from other social groups (bridging social capital) or representatives of institutions (linking social capital). In contrast, women from Northern California frequently used bridging and linking social capital to access food but described limited bonding social capital. Findings show how the role of social capital in protecting against food insecurity is diverse, complex, and structurally determined. Intervention implications are discussed. • The forms of social capital available to access food are structurally determined. • All forms of social capital had limitations in providing reliable food access. • Social capital interventions to address food insecurity must be context specific. • Structural interventions to address food insecurity are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Aging populations in the United States exhibit high rates of food insecurity and chronic illness. Few studies have explored the neighborhood-level drivers of food insecurity among such populations, and how they intersect with experiences of aging., Objective: The aim of this study was to explore how aging women experience food insecurity in the United States, and the neighborhood-level factors that influence these experiences., Design: Semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted to elicit participants' perceptions of how their neighborhood influenced their experiences with food security and aging., Participants/setting: Thirty-eight food-insecure women aged 50 years and older were purposively sampled from the Northern California, Georgia, and North Carolina sites of the Women's Interagency Human Immunodeficiency Virus Study. Interviews were conducted between November 2017 and July 2018 at the three Women's Interagency Human Immunodeficiency Virus Study sites., Statistical Analysis: Three researchers thematically analyzed the data using an inductive-deductive approach., Results: Participants described neighborhood-level drivers of food insecurity that centered around three themes: accessibility of food from traditional food stores, the role of food aid institutions, and the intersection of aging with the food environment. Participants explained that food insecurity was related to limited access to food stores largely due to long distances and poor public transportation in Georgia and North Carolina, and high food prices in Northern California. Most participants described being dependent on food aid programs, but found this difficult due to poor quality food and long wait times. Aging-related issues emerged as a cross-cutting theme, with fatigue, poor strength, and chronic illness amplifying barriers to accessing food., Conclusions: Findings from this study reveal the structural barriers that aging women face in accessing healthy food within their neighborhoods, and how experiences with aging and chronic illnesses exacerbate these barriers. Although future programs should address common neighborhood-level barriers such as the accessibility and affordability of healthy foods, they should also be tailored to aging women and the local context., (Copyright © 2021 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Pollination services are compromised by habitat destruction, land-use intensification, pesticides, and introduced species. How pollination services respond to such stressors depends on the capacity of pollinator assemblages to function in the face of environmental disruption. Here, we quantify how pollination services provided to a native plant change upon removal of the non-native, western honey bee (Apis mellifera)-a numerically dominant floral visitor in the native bee-rich ecosystems of southern California. We focus on services provided to clustered tarweed (Deinandra fasciculata), a native, annual forb that benefits from outcross pollination. Across five different study sites in coastal San Diego County, tarweed flowers attracted 70 insect taxa, approximately half of which were native bees, but non-native honey bees were always the most abundant floral visitor at each site. To test the ability of the native insect fauna to provide pollination services, we performed Apis removals within experimental 0.25 m 2 plots containing approximately 20 tarweed plants and compared visitation and seed set between plants in removal and paired control plots (n = 16 pairs). Even though 92% of observed floral visits to control plots were from honey bees, Apis removal reduced seed production by only 14% relative to plants in control plots. These results indicate that native insect assemblages can contribute important pollination services even in ecosystems numerically dominated by introduced pollinators.

Disability benefits have become an increasingly prominent source of cash assistance for impoverished American citizens over the past two decades. This development coincided with cuts and market-oriented reforms to state and federal welfare programs, characteristic of the wider political-economic trends collectively referred to as neoliberalism. Recent research has argued that contemporary discourses on 'disability fraudsters' and 'malingerers' associated with this shift represent the latest manifestation of age-old stigmatization of the 'undeserving poor'. Few studies, however, have investigated how the system of disability benefits, as well as these stigmatizing discourses, shapes the lived experience of disabling physical illness in today's United States. Here we present qualitative data from 64 semi-structured interviews with low-income individuals living with HIV and/or type 2 diabetes mellitus to explore the experience of long-term, work-limiting disability in the San Francisco Bay Area. Interviews were conducted between April and December 2014. Participants explained how they had encountered what they perceived to be excessive, obstructive, and penalizing bureaucracy from social institutions, leading to destitution and poor mental health. They also described being stigmatized as disabled for living with chronic ill health, and simultaneously stigmatized as shirking and malingering for claiming disability benefits as a result. Notably, this latter form of stigma appeared to be exacerbated by the bureaucracy of the administrating institutions. Participants also described intersections of health-related stigma with stigmas of poverty, gender, sexual orientation, and race. The data reveal a complex picture of poverty and intersectional stigma in this population, potentiated by a convoluted and inflexible bureaucracy governing the system of disability benefits. We discuss how these findings reflect the historical context of neoliberal cuts and reforms to social institutions, and add to ongoing debate around the future of public social provision for impoverished and chronically ill citizens under neoliberalism., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

STRIDE (Stanford Translational Research Integrated Database Environment) is a research and development project at Stanford University to create a standards-based informatics platform supporting clinical and translational research. STRIDE consists of three integrated components: a clinical data warehouse, based on the HL7 Reference Information Model (RIM), containing clinical information on over 1.3 million pediatric and adult patients cared for at Stanford University Medical Center since 1995; an application development framework for building research data management applications on the STRIDE platform and a biospecimen data management system. STRIDE's semantic model uses standardized terminologies, such as SNOMED, RxNorm, ICD and CPT, to represent important biomedical concepts and their relationships. The system is in daily use at Stanford and is an important component of Stanford University's CTSA (Clinical and Translational Science Award) Informatics Program.

While the momentum for health care reform stems from the concerns of the middle class rather than the poor, we should recognize that managed care--at least as an ideal--can still represent an improvement over the fee-for-service system. For the reality of managed care to approach its promise for underserved communities, issues surrounding cost-sharing, preventive health, traditional providers for the poor, and premium adjustment must be resolved.

The California Diabetes and Pregnancy Program (CDAPP) began in 1984 as a multicenter, collaborative project with support provided by the state Department of Health Services, Maternal and Child Health Branch. Between its inception and 1988, it expanded from three to eight perinatal regions, making the CDAPP model of care available to patients in 19 clinical affiliate sites. The care was provided by a multidisciplinary team composed of physicians, a diabetes educator, a registered dietician, a social worker, and appropriate consultants. The elements of this model of care included comprehensive patient education, active patient participation in care, maternal and perinatal medical assessment, and collection of standardized patient information adequate to allow a programmatic and medical evaluation of the CDAPP. Despite impressive growth of the program by December 1988, statewide implementation of CDAPP is incomplete.