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Epidemiological evidence suggests that regular physical activity (PA) positively impacts individuals' mental health (MH). The PA-MH relationship may be critical among immigrants owing to psycho-social-cultural influences. This scoping review of 61 studies employed a holistic bio-psycho-socio-cultural framework to thoroughly investigate the complex relationship between PA (across life domains) and immigrants' MH in Western countries. A systematic search of five electronic databases (Medline, PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO and Anthropology Plus) was conducted to locate relevant articles. No limitations were applied to study design, age, gender, home country, MH condition or PA type. A bio-psycho-socio-cultural-informed conceptual model guided the analysis of the multi-domain PA-MH relationship. Immigrant PA-MH studies were conducted and reported most commonly in the USA (38%), Australia (18%), and Canada (11%). Overall, PA was positively related to MH. Each domain-specific PA appeared to be associated with unique MH-promoting pathways/mechanisms. Leisure-related PA may support MH by enhancing self-agency and minimizing risky behaviors, whilst travel- and domestic-related PA may promote self-accomplishment and physical engagement. Ethnic sports appeared to enhance resilience. Occupational-related PA was associated with either positive or negative MH, depending on the type of occupation. A bio-psycho-socio-cultural-informed model is required to gain an encompassing and integrated understanding of immigrants' health. The first iteration of such a model is presented here, along with an illustration of how the model may be used to deepen analysis and understanding of the multi-domain PA-MH relationship among immigrants and inform public health planners and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has thoroughly documented how out-migration of the educated and skilled from rural areas leaves behind a poorer population and creates pockets of rural poverty. Recently, studies have recognized that the poor are also geographically mobile and that poverty migration patterns can reinforce rural poverty concentrations. In this process, certain impoverished rural communities in economically depressed regions receive a disproportionate share of poverty migrants, concentrating poverty in certain locations. This paper examines the conditions and processes through which poor rural communities become likely destinations for a highly mobile segment of the rural poor and near-poor. Utilizing case studies of depressed rural Illinois communities, it investigates how the interplay of community factors and the behavior of migrants transforms rural communities from residentially stable to highly mobile, impoverished places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data drawn from the 2000 US and the 2001 Canadian Censuses, this paper analyzes the onward emigration of Canadian immigrants to the US between 1995 and 2000. The characteristics of an estimated 48,336 Canadian immigrants who made an onward emigration from Canada to the United States are examined. This paper also seeks to determine whether onward foreign-born emigrants are representative of immigrants in Canada and Canadian-born emigrants to the US. Results indicate that onward emigrants are primarily young, married, possess a bachelor's degree, earn incomes of $100,000 US or greater, and reside in large immigrant-receiving states and metropolitan areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New York, Los Angeles, and Miami are primate immigrant centers within the U.S. metropolitan system, attracting new immigrant arrivals as well as serving as focal points for internal migrants. Using the segmented assimilation framework as a foundation, this paper emphasizes the role of geography and migration within the assimilation process. Focusing upon selected origin groups, migrant selectivity and the determinants of migration are evaluated and compared, highlighting the differential role of primate centers. While the New York and Miami metropolitan centers clearly dominate Dominican and Cuban migration systems respectively, the role of primate centers is less clear among other national origin groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon the segmented assimilation framework, and using the 1990 5% PUMS file, the paper compares the assimilation of selected Chinese immigrant cohorts, based upon age and period of entry. Including a spatial component within the framework, we examine whether differences in the organisation and assimilation of immigrant groups exist across space. For each cohort, contrasts are made with reference to location in the New York Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area (CMSA), with the analysis focusing upon differences in spatial assimilation with respect to acculturation, socioeconomic characteristics, internal migration, and immigrant characteristics relative to other immigrant and native‐born groups. The analysis is updated using Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) data files from the 1990s. Results suggest that space, and location in space, alter the assimilation trajectory of similarly defined groups. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GIS-based measurements that combine native raster and na- tive vector data are commonly used in environmental assessments. Most of these measurements can be calculated using either raster or vector data formats and processing methods. Raster processes are more commonly used because they can be significantly faster computationally than vector, but error is introduced in converting vector data to raster. This conversion error has been widely studied and quantified, but the impact on environmental assessment results has not been investigated. We examined four GIS-based measurements commonly used in environmental assessments for approximately 1000 watersheds in the state of Maryland and Washington, D.C. Each metric was calculated using vector and raster methods, and estimated values were compared using a paired t-test, Spearman rank correlation, and cluster analyses. Paired t-tests were used to determine the statistical significance of quantitative differences between methods, and Spearman rank correlation and cluster analyses were used to evaluate the impact of the differences on environmental assessments. Paired t-test results indicated significant quantitative differences between methods for three of the four metrics. However, Spearman ranks and cluster analyses indicated that the quantitative differences would not affect environmental assessment results. Spearman rank correlations between vector and raster values were greater than 0.98 for all comparisons. Cluster analyses resulted in identical assignment for 88 percent to over 98 percent of watersheds analyzed among vector and various raster methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussions of immigration, settlement and adjustment within the U.S. do not typically refer to immigrant status (i.e., refugee versus family preference), and instead refer to the foreign–born population as an aggregate. Distinguishing between refugees and other immigrant arrivals likely means differences with respect to their geographic distribution and embodied human capital owing to differences associated with the reasons for immigration (forced versus voluntary), period of arrival, and immigration policy. The lack of differentiation by group within the existing literature is typically due to a shortfall of detailed information relating to admission status within publicly released data files. Yet concrete knowledge of differences by admission category is important in understanding overall patterns of settlement and adjustment within the foreign–born population. This paper therefore explores potential differences with respect to settlement and endowed human capital between immigrants and refugees. Identification of the major sources of refugees within Immigration and Naturalization Service data files allows the refugee population to be identified within the 1990 Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS), therefore increasing the range of variables and measures associated with the refugee population available to researchers, and points to the diversity of the refugee population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The distribution of the immigrant population reflects a dynamic system that evolves over time and differs by arrival cohort and national origin. Government policies, new information, employment opportunities, housing, racism or other cultural effects may be responsible for subsequent migrations and changes in the population distribution of the foreign-born. Using data from the 5 per cent Public Use Microdata Sample, 1990, this paper compares settlement patterns of immigrant arrival cohorts within metropolitan Chicago, filtered through the lens of Zelinksy and Lee's heterolocalism framework. Cohorts are defined based on period of arrival in the US and by age. The spatial geography associated with each arrival cohort is constructed with respect to areas of relative concentration within the metropolitan area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research note proposes new summary measures for migration that use geographic distance as a descriptive factor, establishing a linkage between migration fields and earlier measures of migration – net migration and migration efficiency. By factoring distance into migration efficiency and net migration, we create analogous and complementary measures defined as attraction efficiency and net attraction, respectively. These measures differentiate between proximate and distant migration flows and summarize the spatial extent of flows to or from a region that we discern in the study of migration fields. The analysis uses BEA level geography and migration data from the 1990 census to examine and illustrate these measures, and to compare the results with the traditional measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies the predicting nutrient and sediment loadings to streams from landscape metrics. Health of water resources at regional and national scales; Effects of high levels of nutrient and sediment loadings on both humans and aquatic ecosystems; Differences in the nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment models.

The Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) is proposing an ambitious agenda to assess the status of streams and estuaries in a 12-State area of the western United States by the end of 2003. Additionally, EMAP is proposing to access landscape conditions as they relate to stream and estuary conditions across the west. The goal of this landscape project is to develop a landscape model that can be used to identify the relative risks of streams and estuaries to potential declines due to watershed-scale, landscape conditions across the west. To do so, requires an understanding of quantitative relationships between landscape composition and pattern metrics and parameters of stream and estuary conditions. This paper describes a strategic approach for evaluating the degree to which landscape composition and pattern influence stream and estuary condition, and the development and implementation of a spatially-distributed, landscape analysis approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the comparison of the Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) and Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) public use files on intended and initial settlement patterns of 1985-1990 United States immigrants. Scale, direction, and magnitude of adjustments made to the immigrant settlement system; Similarities of the settlement patterns.

Using a new set of landscape indicator data generated by the U.S.EPA, and a comprehensive breeding bird database from the National Breeding Bird Survey, we evaluated associations between breeding bird richness and landscape characteristics across the entire mid-Atlantic region of the United States. We evaluated how these relationships varied among different groupings (guilds) of birds based on functional, structural, and compositional aspects of individual species demographics. Forest edge was by far the most important landscape attribute affecting the richness of the lumped specialist and generalist guilds; specialist species richness was negatively associated with forest edge and generalist richness was positively associated with forest edge. Landscape variables (indicators) explained a greater proportion of specialist species richness than the generalist guild (46% and 31%, respectively). The lower value in generalists may reflect finer-scale distributions of open habitat that go undetected by the Landsat satellite, open habitats created by roads (the areas from which breeding bird data are obtained), and the lumping of a wide variety of species into the generalist category. A further breakdown of species into 16 guilds showed considerable variation in the response of breeding birds to landscape conditions; forest obligate species had the strongest association with landscape indicators measured in this study (55% of the total variation explained) and forest generalists and open ground nesters the lowest (17% of the total variation explained). The variable response of guild species richness to landscape pattern suggests that one must consider species' demographics when assessing the consequences of landscape change on breeding birds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expands the human capital model to compare the migration propensities of Cubans, Mexicans and Puerto Ricans within the United States between 1985 and 1990. Examination of effects of personal factors, the economic environment and the presence of fellow nationals; Immigration history of each nationality; Influence of culture on migration behavior.

Examines the demographic effects of internal migration and immigration. Population gains of states and metropolitan areas; Internal migration of the foreign-born; Demographic balkalization of the United States population; Evolution of the migration debate; Presence of immigrant magnets.

Explores the temporal and spatial settlement patterns of immigrants to the United States to determine immigrant adjustments and immigration-migration-settlement linkages. Different settlement trajectories and the relative success or failure of immigrant groups; Immigrant population composition by selected country; Population-distribution of the foreign-born.

Examines the 1985-1990 primary, return and onward interstate migration patterns for blacks and whites in the United States. What the classification of the two categories are based on; How migration streams, migration rates and net migrations evaluated; Information on similarity patters for both black and white; Where migration is most prominent; What are some differences observed.

Applies a three-level nested logit model to the microdata of the 1990 United States census to explain the 1985 to 1990 return and onward interstate migration patterns of the elderly. Personal factors; State attributes; Motivations for a return or onward migration.

Coarse-scale, multitemporal satellite image data were evaluated as atool for detecting variation in vegetation productivity, as a potential indicator of change in rangeland condition in the western U.S. The conterminous U.S. Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) biweekly composite data set was employed using the six-year time series 1989-1994. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) image bands for the state of New Mexico were imported into a Geographic Information System (GIS) for analysis with other spatial data sets. Averaged NDVI was calculated for each year, and a series of regression analyses were performed using one year as the baseline. Residuals from theregression line indicated 14 significant areas of NDVI change: two with lower NDVI, and 11 with higher NDVI. Rangeland management changes, cross-country military training activities, and increases in irrigated cropland were among the identified causes of change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In the last decade, state and national programs and policies aimed to increase access to postpartum contraception; however, recent data on population-based estimates of postpartum contraception is limited., Methods: Using Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System data from 20 sites, we conducted multivariable-adjusted weighted multinomial regression to assess variation in method use by insurance status and geographic setting (urban/rural) among people with a recent live birth in 2018. We analyzed trends in contraceptive method use from 2015 to 2018 overall and within subgroups using weighted multinomial logistic regression., Results: In 2018, those without insurance had lower odds of using permanent methods (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 0.72; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.53-0.98), long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) (AOR, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.51-0.89), and short-acting reversible contraception (SARC) (AOR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.47-0.81) than those with private insurance. There were no significant differences in these method categories between public and private insurance. Rural respondents had greater odds than urban respondents of using all method categories: permanent (AOR, 2.15; 95% CI, 1.67-2.77), LARC (AOR, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.04-1.65), SARC (AOR, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.15-1.76), and less effective methods (AOR, 1.38; 95% CI, 1.11-1.72). From 2015 to 2018, there was an increase in LARC use (odds ratio [OR], 1.03; 95% CI, 1.01-1.05) and use of no method (OR, 1.05; 95% CI, 1.02-1.07) and a decrease in SARC use (OR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.95-0.99). LARC use increased among those with private insurance (OR, 1.05; 95% CI, 1.02-1.08) and in urban settings (OR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.02-1.07), but not in other subgroups., Conclusions: We found that those without insurance had lower odds of using effective contraception and that LARC use increased among those who had private insurance and lived in urban areas. Strategies to increase access to contraception, including increasing insurance coverage and investigating whether effectiveness of existing initiatives varies by geographic setting, may increase postpartum contraceptive use and address these differences., (Copyright © 2022 Jacobs Institute of Women's Health, George Washington University. All rights reserved.)

Cell transplantation therapy aspires to repair and restore lost function while minimizing the risk of harm. The potential for harm arises from cell instability, variability, inappropriate behavior, and/or transmission of adventitious pathogens. Quality assured and controlled assessment and production of human cells for clinical use ensures that the risk of harm is minimized. Application of quality standards requires thorough planning and consultation with regulatory authorities on process and product specifications, as early as possible at the research and development (R&D) stage. Here we outline considerations applicable to all human cells in relation to regulatory governance, the route to the clinic and Cell Therapy Product (CTP) characterization, with special emphasis on human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC).

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is the foundation of quality care, but EBP is not widely adopted. This study evaluated the impact of a hospital-wide EBP nursing project on the organizational culture of a Magnet hospital. Results of pre- and postintervention surveys suggest the intervention increased the nurses' confidence in the hospital's EBP environment. Belief in EBP was related to confidence in implementing EBP in practice.

We conducted an extended follow-up and spatial analysis of the American Cancer Society (ACS) Cancer Prevention Study II (CPS-II) cohort in order to further examine associations between long-term exposure to particulate air pollution and mortality in large U.S. cities. The current study sought to clarify outstanding scientific issues that arose from our earlier HEI-sponsored Reanalysis of the original ACS study data (the Particle Epidemiology Reanalysis Project). Specifically, we examined (1) how ecologic covariates at the community and neighborhood levels might confound and modify the air pollution-mortality association; (2) how spatial autocorrelation and multiple levels of data (e.g., individual and neighborhood) can be taken into account within the random effects Cox model; (3) how using land-use regression to refine measurements of air pollution exposure to the within-city (or intra-urban) scale might affect the size and significance of health effects in the Los Angeles and New York City regions; and (4) what exposure time windows may be most critical to the air pollution-mortality association. The 18 years of follow-up (extended from 7 years in the original study [Pope et al. 1995]) included vital status data for the CPS-II cohort (approximately 1.2 million participants) with multiple cause-of-death codes through December 31, 2000 and more recent exposure data from air pollution monitoring sites for the metropolitan areas. In the Nationwide Analysis, the influence of ecologic covariate data (such as education attainment, housing characteristics, and level of income; data obtained from the 1980 U.S. Census; see Ecologic Covariates sidebar on page 14) on the air pollution-mortality association were examined at the Zip Code area (ZCA) scale, the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) scale, and by the difference between each ZCA value and the MSA value (DIFF). In contrast to previous analyses that did not directly include ecologic covariates at the ZCA scale, risk estimates increased when ecologic covariates were included at all scales. The ecologic covariates exerted their greatest effect on mortality from ischemic heart disease (IHD), which was also the health outcome most strongly related with exposure to PM2.5 (particles 2.5 microm or smaller in aerodynamic diameter), sulfate (SO4(2-)), and sulfur dioxide (SO2), and the only outcome significantly associated with exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2). When ecologic covariates were simultaneously included at both the MSA and DIFF levels, the hazard ratio (HR) for mortality from IHD associated with PM2.5 exposure (average concentration for 1999-2000) increased by 7.5% and that associated with SO4(2-) exposure (average concentration for 1990) increased by 12.8%. The two covariates found to exert the greatest confounding influence on the PM2.5-mortality association were the percentage of the population with a grade 12 education and the median household income. Also in the Nationwide Analysis, complex spatial patterns in the CPS-II data were explored with an extended random effects Cox model (see Glossary of Statistical Terms at end of report) that is capable of clustering up to two geographic levels of data. Using this model tended to increase the HR estimate for exposure to air pollution and also to inflate the uncertainty in the estimates. Including ecologic covariates decreased the variance of the results at both the MSA and ZCA scales; the largest decrease was in residual variation based on models in which the MSA and DIFF levels of data were included together, which suggests that partitioning the ecologic covariates into between-MSA and within-MSA values more completely captures the sources of variation in the relationship between air pollution, ecologic covariates, and mortality. Intra-Urban Analyses were conducted for the New York City and Los Angeles regions. The results of the Los Angeles spatial analysis, where we found high exposure contrasts within the Los Angeles region, showed that air pollution-mortality risks were nearly 3 times greater than those reported from earlier analyses. This suggests that chronic health effects associated with intra-urban gradients in exposure to PM2.5 may be even larger between ZCAs within an MSA than the associations between MSAs that have been previously reported. However, in the New York City spatial analysis, where we found very little exposure contrast between ZCAs within the New York region, mortality from all causes, cardiopulmonary disease (CPD), and lung cancer was not elevated. A positive association was seen for PM2.5 exposure and IHD, which provides evidence of a specific association with a cause of death that has high biologic plausibility. These results were robust when analyses controlled (1) the 44 individual-level covariates (from the ACS enrollment questionnaire in 1982; see 44 Individual-Level Covariates sidebar on page 22) and (2) spatial clustering using the random effects Cox model. Effects were mildly lower when unemployment at the ZCA scale was included. To examine whether there is a critical exposure time window that is primarily responsible for the increased mortality associated with ambient air pollution, we constructed individual time-dependent exposure profiles for particulate and gaseous air pollutants (PM2.5 and SO2) for a subset of the ACS CPS-II participants for whom residence histories were available. The relevance of the three exposure time windows we considered was gauged using the magnitude of the relative risk (HR) of mortality as well as the Akaike information criterion (AIC), which measures the goodness of fit of the model to the data. For PM2.5, no one exposure time window stood out as demonstrating the greatest HR; nor was there any clear pattern of a trend in HR going from recent to more distant windows or vice versa. Differences in AIC values among the three exposure time windows were also small. The HRs for mortality associated with exposure to SO2 were highest in the most recent time window (1 to 5 years), although none of these HRs were significantly elevated. Identifying critical exposure time windows remains a challenge that warrants further work with other relevant data sets. This study provides additional support toward developing cost-effective air quality management policies and strategies. The epidemiologic results reported here are consistent with those from other population-based studies, which collectively have strongly supported the hypothesis that long-term exposure to PM2.5 increases mortality in the general population. Future research using the extended Cox-Poisson random effects methods, advanced geostatistical modeling techniques, and newer exposure assessment techniques will provide additional insight.