Community Research Project Research Articles

Cardiovascular health among Asian Indians (CHAI): A community research project

The object of this research was to assess cardiovascular (CV) risks in Asian Indians in California. We conducted eight focus groups and a pilot survey using community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods. Focus groups were held in six communities. Surveys were conducted by telephone or in person in areas selected for high population densities of Asian Indians. We selected focus group subjects by snowball sampling (n = 57). We held six English and two Punjabi groups. We used a surname-based phone list from three area codes for telephone interviews (n = 254). We added 50 in-person interviews for comparison (total n = 304) and did 50 interviews in Punjabi. We held community meetings for dissemination. Focus groups discussed CV risks; themes developed aided survey development. In-person and telephone surveys were feasible. Telephone surveys were more gender-balanced and people more often answered alcohol, tobacco, and income questions. Self-reported prevalences for hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and diabetes were 20.4, 35.3 and 10.6%, respectively. Only 11.9% of persons reported ever smoking cigarettes. It was concluded that CBPR methods were effective in this exploratory study assessing CV risks in Asian Indians. Hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes were more prevalent in participants than the population average; other risk factors were less common (tobacco).

Designing assistive technologies for medication regimes in care settings

This paper presents some early design work of the Care in the Digital Community research project begun under the EPSRC IRC Network project Equator. Gaining a comprehensive understanding of user requirements in care settings poses interesting methodological challenges. This paper details some methodological options for working in the domestic domain and documents the translation of research into design recommendations. We report on the importance of medication issues in a hostel for former psychiatric patients and present an early prototype of a medication manager designed to be sensitive to the particular requirements of the setting.

Volunteer environmental monitoring and the role of the universities: the case of Citizens' Environment Watch.

Universities can provide a stable home for launching collaborative community research projects. Citizens' Environment Watch (CEW), an environmental monitoring initiative based at the University of Toronto, has made significant contributions to environmental education and stewardship in Ontario, Canada. Following dramatic cuts in provincial monitoring programs, citizens and youth have used chemical parameters and biological indicators to gauge water and air quality, and to identify areas requiring remediation and pollution prevention efforts. The relationship of Citizens' Environment Watch to government agencies, funders and other grassroots environmental groups has evolved over the past 5 years as CEW attempts to remain effective without taking on the investigative and enforcement roles to support the regulatory enforcement that has been largely abandoned by government. We explore the challenges inherent in developing and maintaining a volunteer organization that carries out rigorous and useful scientific work and we outline the ability of a university to help overcome these critical challenges. Finally, we present lessons learned for the benefit of other citizen and youth monitoring projects.

Doing practical research downunder: a methodological reflection on recent trends in Aberdonian practical theology

This paper conducts a geographical meditation on recent trends in practical theological methodology and emerges out of the author's unique position, doing practical theology in Auckland, New Zealand, while supervised by John Drane in Aberdeen, Scotland. This paper reflects on two recent practical theology texts from within the University of Aberdeen and the manner in which the use of human narrative allows a conversation with the Christian tradition within a missional and communal framework. The paper then explores how these methodological trends were employed downunder, in a New Zealand community research project. This doing of practical theology generated further methodological meditation, firstly on the place of the local and secondly on the ethics of entertaining the Other. The argument is made that methodologically, practical theology must seek a more nuanced understanding of the local, and both embody and articulate a gospel imperative.

Senior nursing students' participation in a community research project: effect on student self-efficacy and knowledge concerning drug interactions arising from self-medication in older adults.

Senior nursing students' participation in a community research project: effect on student self-efficacy and knowledge concerning drug interactions arising from self-medication in older adults.

Creating a positive experience of research for people with psychiatric disabilities by sharing feedback.

This paper describes a consumer evaluation that explored the reflections of persons with psychiatric disabilities on receiving individualized feedback following participation in a community research project. Findings indicate that feedback is an important element of research, offering a valued means to reciprocate participants' contributions. Feedback can facilitate mutual learning, fostering hope and empowerment, while participation in performance tests without feedback may reinforce negative self-evaluations. Feedback needs sensitive presentation and discussion, focused on strengths, to be experienced as worthwhile and respectful by people with psychiatric disabilities. This is particularly important as their self-identities may already be undermined by experiences of mental illness. Researchers need dedicated time, resources, and training to incorporate individual feedback in research.

SHENNAN, I. & ANDREWS, J. E. (eds) 2000. Holocene Land–Ocean Interaction and Environmental Change around the North Sea. Geological Society Special Publication no. 166. v + 326 pp. London, Bath: Geological Society of London. Price £79.00, US $132.00; members' price £35.00, US $58.00; AAPG/SEPM/GSA price £48.00, US $80.00; hard covers. ISBN 1 86239 054 1.

This publication presents 14 papers that have arisen from the Land–Ocean Evolution Perspective Study (LOEPS) which forms part of the Land–Ocean Interaction Study (LOIS), a NERC-funded Community Research Project. While LOIS has a number of objectives, each incorporating a variety of fields of study, the LOEPS programme attempts to further our understanding of the way coastal systems work and how they may respond to natural and anthropogenically driven changes. The papers found in this publication are concerned with the Holocene evolution of coastal systems within the River–Atmosphere–Coast Study (RACS) site …

The Community as Text: Using the Community for Collaborative Internet Research

Describes a year-long community research project used for the last seven years with the author’s senior English class, part of the web-based student research collaboration project called “The Kansas Collaborative Research Network” (KanCRN). Describes teaching students how to research their community; four on-line research tutorials; structure of research tutorials; publication of results; and other KanCRN tutorials.

Limitations of How We Categorize People

Social policy researchers and policy rules and regulation writers have not taken advantage of advances in assessing ways in which social representations of ideas about people can convey alternative explanations of social life. During the past decade a growing number of scholars have considered how representational practices and the representations that are outcomes of such practices have value. Neglecting to consider representational practices has consequences including failure to mobilize and sustain alternative ideologies that reject narrow perspectives on families and communities. As evidenced by recent OMB rulings on census categories, the dominant sense of meaning of population—and hence family and community—is quite similar to the 17th century sense of people as objects of a particular category in a place from which samples can be taken for statistical measurement. However, the contrastive analysis presented in this paper points out how sustained attention to consequences of use of sets of information categories collected to enumerate population to inform social policy can still materialize. In the wake of federal welfare reform, policy makers are particularly interested in questions of benefit relative to social service delivery and community revitalization. The presentation includes lessons learned from several dozen family, youth, school and community research projects.

Analysis of demersal species assemblages from trawl surveys in the South Adriatic sea

Two trawl surveys were carried out in the summer months (June–July) of 1996 and 1997 along the whole South Adriaticarea (Mediterranean sea) for the first time, using the same vessel and the same sampling gear (European Community Research Project `MEDITS'); previous research data referred only to the south-western Adriatic side. A total list of 168 demersal species (fishes, cephalopods and crustaceans) was obtained during the surveys; species abundance data (individuals/trawling hour) were processed accordingto multivariate techniques in order to describe the composition and the distribution of the main species assemblages within the investigated area (10–800-m bathymetric range). Multivariate analysis of MEDITS survey catch data showed a strong relationship betweenfish assemblages and depth, while the influence of depth was lower with respect to cephalopod and especially crustacean assemblage distribution.

Learning Science for Social Good

SUMMARY This conceptual case study explores two dynamic tensions, substantive and pedagogical, fundamental to teaching research in community psychology from a service learning perspective. The substantive dynamic tension is seen in traditional versus adventuresome approaches to community research; the pedagogical dynamic tension occurs in classroom instruction versus field work. To address the substantive tension, students were introduced to the epistemology and methods of adventuresome community research and then used both adventuresome and traditional elements in conducting a community research project. To address the pedagogical tension, class and field sessions were used to complement one another for student preparation, action, and reflection. Four guidelines for designing community research courses from a service learning perspective are articulated.

Self-stratifying coatings — an overview of a European Community Research Project

The objective of the project, which was funded by the European Commission and Europwan coatings and resins manufacturers, was the formulation of liquid self-stratifying coatings which after application as thin films spontaneously form two coherent layers, thus providing an undercoat and finishing coat in one operation. As a first step a database was compiled of the relevant physical properties of polymers used in surface coatings. This necessitated extensive new measurements of solubility, surface energies, phase equilibria and other parameters. A theory of stratification was developed for films comprising binary mixtures of polymers in solution and tested for a wide range of polymer mixtures. Group-contribution (UNIFAC) theory was employed to predict phase-separation and surface properties. A preliminary study was also made of the principles of formulating waterborne stratifying coatings from aqueous polymer dispersions. Solution coatings were successfully formulated for steel, plastic and wood substrates. Their performance was then evaluated under industrial spray application conditions. The mechanism of formation of stratified films in the experimental compositions could be described in terms of the solubility relationships of the polymer mixtures, the surface tensions of the separate phases and the kinetic aspects of solvent evaporation from paint films. Principal component and discriminant analysis of the experimental data generated quantitative equations for calculating the probability of stratification from the physical properties of polymers. For medium to high solids application, the coatings were liquid in liquid emulsions rather than homogeneous solutions. The problem of reproducibly locating pigments in the two layers was not fully resolved and would require further study to achieve commercially viable coatings. A fuller description of the research including experimental details is to be found in the accompanying papers from the participating research institutes.

Database applications supporting Community Research Projects in NERC marine sciences

Abstract Traditionally, oceanographic data management has been strongly cruise oriented. However, the organization of research into Community Research Projects, such as the North Sea Project and Biogeochemical Ocean Flux Study (BOFS), has produced a requirement for handling multidisciplinary data from a large number of research cruises as an integrated dataset. The code of practice for the project dictated that data were to be exchanged freely between project participants throughout the duration of the project, after which the data were to be brought into the public academic domain. The data management strategy therefore had to provide both a vehicle for data exchange within the project and a mechanism for subsequently making the data available to a wider community. These problems were solved by BODC through the adoption of two technologies. Relational database technology was used to integrate the data and, through access over the UK academic wide area network (JANET), provide the data exchange mechanism. Electronic publication of the datasets on CD-ROM provided the mechanism for expanding the dataset user base.

Community forests in Canada: An overview

A great deal of attention is being given in Canada at present to the idea of community forest. This is occurring at a time of unprecedented attention to forest management on one hand, and to community empowerment on the other. We conceive of a community forest as a tree-dominated ecosystem managed for multiple community values and benefits by the community.We review the literature and present examples of community forests in Europe and the United States. For Canada, we present an overview of community forest initiatives, policy developments, and research projects. For communities contemplating the concept of community forest, we present a series of considerations that need to be made early on: (a) landbase; (b) range of resources involved; (c) property rights and tenure options; (d) models of administration; (e) decision-making; (f) public participation; and (g) financing.The apparent growing interest in community forests in Canada has opened an exciting and challenging frontier for forest interests. We are convinced that Canada's future will be characterized by increases in people's demands for community forests, and by more experiments and trials to test a variety of manifestations of the concept. Learning from both successes and failures is vital. Key words: community, forest, community forest, community forestry, social forestry, Canada, forest management

Implementation and Institutionalization of Heart Health Programming in Schools: The Pawtucket Heart Health Program Experience

Abstract The Pawtucket Heart Health Program (PHHP) is a community research and demonstration project examining whether population-based interventions to decrease the prevalence of risk factors will reduce CVD morbidity and mortality. Intervention programs and materials have been promoted and implemented using a variety of channels including worksites, churches, physician offices, and schools. School interventions which targeted all 23 Pawtucket public and parochial schools included: curriculum materials; Heart Healthy Cook-Offs; Get Fit USA, an exercise campaign; after school Heart Health Clubs; Cholesterol SCOREs (screening, counseling, referral events); STOP, a smoking prevention program; Fun Foods for Kids, a nutrition program for young children; risk factor reduction campaigns for faculty and staff; and consultation to improve the school environment, i.e. smoking policy, school lunch. These comprehensive school interventions were designed to improve the heart health knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors...

Social defence and community empowerment

Abstract This article introduces the idea of social defence, which is nonviolent community resistance to aggression as an alternative to military defence. An outline is given of some connections between the grassroots orientation to social defence and strands within community development. A community research project on telecommunications is described to illustrate the possible connections that can be forged between social defence and community empowerment.

Setting the research record straight.

Your news feature, Team spirit (June 23), though a well- presented and accurate report on the community research project I co-ordinate, contained one error that reflects badly on standards of care in Dorset. The article stated: 'More than a third [of clients] had pressure sores.'

Trace gases and air-sea exchanges

The most widety used approach for calculating the flux of gases across the sea surface is from the product of the concentration difference across the interface and a kinetic parameter, often called the transfer velocity. During the NERC North Sea Community Research Project (CRP) a considerable effort was made to improve our knowledge of both of these terms. Concentration measurements were made on nine survey cruises (February to October 1989) for dimethyl sulphide (DMS) (and its precursor dimethylsulphonioproprionate DMSP, both dissolved and particulate), as well as for a variety of natural and man-made low molecular mass halocarbons. To better define the relationship between transfer velocity and wind speed a novel double tracer technique was used on two of the process cruises in the North Sea CRP. The tracers added to the water were SF6 and 3He and from the measured change in their concentration ratio over time, four estimates of the transfer velocity were made, one at a rather high wind speed (ca. 17 m s_1). The results are in general agreement with the relationship of Liss & Merlivat (1986) based on laboratory and lake studies and theoretical considerations, and constitute their first real test at sea. Combining the above results for the transfer velocity with the detailed concentration fields measured in the CRP has enabled us to calculate fluxes across the sea surface for the measured gases with a much finer time and space resolution than was possible hitherto. Some implications of the calculated fluxes for atmospheric chemistry in Europe are discussed.

The European Community's Research Projects in the Field of Health Services

Collaboration within the European Community (EC) over health problems and their possible solutions has progressed significantly during the past decade. The pursuit of appropriate choices among a variety of issues has resulted in a growing demand for comparable health data. EC efforts to coordinate the health services research of the member states in the fourth Medical and Health Research Program (1987-91) are discussed. Its contribution to the development of information relevant to the EC's health needs as well as financing, policies, and practices is outlined.

A Preliminary Investigation: Asian Immigrant Women Garment Workers in Los Angeles

During winter quarter 1991 at UCLA, students of a graduate course, “Critical Issues in Asian American Communities,” focused on Asian American workers in the Los Angeles garment industry as a community research project.’ Issues concerning working class Asian Americans are often overlooked. Much research has examined ”middle class” issues that focus on upward mobility such as the glass ceiling in employment, the model minority portrayal, and admissions quotas in higher education. Although important in addressing the ways that institutionalized racism adversely affects Asian Americans, such research does not represent a complete picture of the realities within our communities today. Several studies have examined Asian garment workers in San Francisco and New York City? Yet, there has been little research on workers in the Los Angeles area? Currently, Asians constitute 10 percent of the area’s estimated 120,000 garment workers. Our study is a preliminary step to document the everyday experiences of garment workers from four communities: Chinese, Korean, Filipino, and Southeast Asian (Vietnamese and Cambodian). From their stories, we hope to identdy some patterns as well as differences among Asian ethnic groups. Also, as graduate students with certain class privileges, we can use our knowledge and resources to bring about social change in our communities.’