Members Of Minority Communities Research Articles

To the species composition of Phytoseiid mites (Parasitiformes, Phytoseiidae) of the National Nature Park "Ichnyansky"(Chernigiv Region, Ukraine)

New data on the species composition and distribution of phytoseiid mites (Parasitiformes, Phytoseiidae) in plant associations of the National Nature Park “Ichnyansky” were obtained. Twenty species from 9 genera of the family Phytoseiidae are recorded: Amblyseius andersoni, Amblyseius herbarius, Amblyseius obtusus, Amblyseius rademacheri, Neoseiulus danilevskyi, Neoseiulus reductus, Neoseiulus zwoelferi, Euseius finlandicus, Kampimodromus aberrans, Kampimodromu corylosus, Dubininellus echinus, Dubininellus juvenis, Typhloctonus tiliarum, Amlydromella halinae, Amlydromella pirianykae, Amlydromella rhenana, Amlydromella clavata, Amlydromella verrucosa, Typhlodromus laurae, Galendromus longipilus. The calculation of the occurrence index (P1, %) of the identified species of phytoseiid showed that its maximum value is observed in E. finlandicus. This species is also the most numerous in the total number of collected specimens in the sample. Kampimodromus aberrans, D. juvenis, G. longipilus, K. corylosus, N. danilevskyi, N. zwoelferi and T. tiliarum should be considered as the most rarely encountered species with index of occurrence of 1.3%. The remaining species have intermediate values of this index. The analysis of literature data on the occurrence of phytoseiid species with the highest value of the index of occurrence (E. finlandicus, A. pirianykae and A. andersoni) in the plant associations of adjacent zones (Polesie and Steppe Zone) allowed us to reveal some regularities. In Polesie, E. finlandicus (Kolodochka, 2011) is the most common species. In the Steppe zone, E. finlandicus also has a high index of occurrence and is the third most common species of predatory phytoseiid mites. Such a high occurrence of this species is caused by a wide range of its potential victims. Euseius finlandicus is an euribiont, however more adapted to shrub vegetation. The decrease in the occurrence index of this species from Polesie to the Steppe Zone is explained by changes in the moisture content of biocenoses, as well as due to the gradual replacement of tree-shrub vegetation of grass. Amlydromella pirianykae and Amblyseius andersoni are found mainly on herbs. The detection of these species on trees and shrubs should be considered as incidental finds. The characteristic biocenoses for these species are the wet bayrachnye forests, floodplains of rivers, meadows. When choosing a biocenosis for habitat, humidity plays a key role. The analysis of the phytoseiid mites species complex in the plant associations of the Ichnyansky National Natural Park showed the presence of one dominant species, one subdominant, five types of first order subdominant and 13 minor community members in the community.

‘Until we have laws … everything is useless!’: intersectionality, self-identified needs and inequity among sexual and gender minorities in Macedonia

There exists limited understanding about the intersectional nature of needs and inequities among sexual and gender minorities in Macedonia and Eastern Europe. We conducted a qualitative, cross-sectional and national needs assessment among 71 sexual and gender minority community members using semi-structured focus groups and interviews. Thematic analysis was used to better understand their self-identified needs, their concerns about equity and the intersectional nature of their needs. Community members discussed a wide range of health and healthcare needs as well as the social and structural factors that influence those needs, including: cultural norms; victimisation and safety concerns and the role of law, policy and politics; education and democratisation of knowledge; and economic and housing opportunities. Needs were patterned across different sexual and gender minority subgroups such that those experiencing heightened marginalisation (e.g. trans* persons) also experienced compounded forms of inequity. Given that sexual and gender minorities in Macedonia have numerous structurally induced intersectional needs, multilevel and multifaceted strategies are needed to ensure that their rights and needs are respected, protected and fulfilled at structural, community and individual levels.

Nutrition risk among an ethnically diverse sample of community-dwelling older adults.

To assess the prevalence of nutritional risk among an ethnically diverse group of urban community-dwelling older adults and to explore if risk varied by race/ethnicity. Demographic characteristics, Katz's activities of daily living and health-care resource utilization were ascertained cross-sectionally via telephone surveys with trained interviewers. Nutrition risk and nutrition symptomology were assessed via the abridged Patient Generated Subjective Global Assessment (abPG-SGA); scores of ≥6 points delineated 'high' nutrition risk. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses were conducted. Urban.ParticipantsWhite, Black or Hispanic community-dwelling adults, ≥55 years of age, fluent in English or Spanish, residing in the city limits of Chicago, IL, USA. A total of 1001 participants (37 % white, 37 % Black, 26 % Hispanic) were surveyed. On average, participants were 66·9 years old, predominantly female and overweight/obese. Twenty-six per cent (n 263) of participants were classified as 'high' nutrition risk with 24, 14 and 31 % endorsing decreased oral intake, weight loss and compromised functioning, respectively. Black respondents constituted the greatest proportion of those with high risk scores, yet Hispanic participants displayed the most concerning nutrition risk profiles. Younger age, female sex, Black or Hispanic race/ethnicity, emergency room visits, eating alone and taking three or more different prescribed or over-the-counter drugs daily were significantly associated with high risk scores (P<0·05). One in four older adults living in an urban community prone to health disparities was classified as 'high' nutrition risk. Targeted interventions to promote healthy ageing are needed, especially for overweight/obese and minority community members.

Whatever Gets you Through the Night: Officer Coping Strategies after the High-Profile Line of Duty Deaths in Dallas and Baton Rouge

The policing profession has recently experienced events that affected officers across the nation. Several high-profile cases involving police and members of minority communities intensified the tensions among these groups. Amid public criticisms of policing, law enforcement officers have become targets of attacks. Multiple cases of officer ambushes and assassinations have further troubled the already stressful occupational position of law enforcement. This study investigates what coping strategies officers used after the deadly attacks on police in Dallas, Texas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana that occurred in July, 2016. We also investigate how the coping strategies used affects job motivation among officers. Our findings suggest officers turned to three coping strategies: support networks, stoic self-help, and self-medication. These coping strategies were found to be ineffective mechanisms for protecting officer job motivation; however, some strategies adversely affected motivation more than others. Understanding how officers are coping and why effective strategies are not being employed adequately is imperative for both the safety of officers and the public.

The Individual and the Ummah: The Use of Social Media by Muslim Minority Communities in Australia and the United States

How are perceptions of self and ummah (community) reflected in social media use by members of Muslim minorities in two Western countries, Australia and the United States? This paper explores the use of social media by members of minority communities for the purposes of self-representation and community-building, and perceptions of social media use among members of Muslim minority communities, as a means for them to challenge the narrative of Islam found in mainstream media associated with homogeneity, violence and militancy. The paper is based on analysis of responses of a targeted sample of members of representative Muslim student organizations at two tertiary institutions in Australia and the United States. Asian countries of origin are strongly represented in the migrant and international student communities of these two countries. The survey respondents were asked about their use of social media in relation to how they engage in public discourse about Islam, and how it is used in the negotiation of their religious and secular identities.

Is Critique Jewish?

Is Critique Jewish? Martin Kavka Jeffrey A. Bernstein. Leo Strauss on the Borders of Judaism, Philosophy, and History. SUNY Series in the Thought and Legacy of Leo Strauss. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2015. Pp. xxx + 228. Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft. Thinking in Public: Strauss, Levinas, Arendt. Intellectual History of the Modern Age. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016. Pp. viii + 304. What does modern Jewish thought do? I forget. Perhaps I never knew. Oh, I remember what it once did (and still occasionally does). It argued about the rules for the proper use of concepts from the Jewish tradition, which is to say that it did philosophical theology. Or it argued that secularized Christian society needed Jews and Judaism, which is also to say that it did philosophical theology. But what can modern Jewish thought do at a time when theology does not provide meaning, either because God is understood to transcend human concepts, or because the number of people for whom God is a vivid idea is on the decline? What strategies can those who work in the canon of modern Jewish thought use to make this canon relevant? Three possible answers present themselves. One answer is that those figures who had been seen as representative of philosophical theology are now moved to the front of the canon, but not as theologians. An example of this would be the thought of Emmanuel Levinas (1906–95), for whom (at least in his second magnum opus, Otherwise Than Being, or Beyond Essence [1974]) the religious relation with transcendence could never be reduced to theological terms, leaving any account of [End Page 253] divinity comfortably vague.1 Another answer might simply be to dump the canon, admit that the thinkers in the canon of modern Jewish thought simply have no pull anymore, and say instead that the exemplars of Jewish thinking today who deserve power and authority in Jewish studies (and among its audiences) should come from critical theory, in part because of the refusal of metaphysics that is typical of those in the circle around Adorno and Horkheimer.2 A third answer might be that our postdogmatic age should value the difficulty of arriving at the truth; in that case, the thinker who should be privileged in this canon is Leo Strauss, on account of what some scholars take to be his inability to decide once and for all between Athens and Jerusalem as the proper city for human life. In all of these attempts to mend the canon for our secularized age, critique and skepticism—of theology, of metaphysics, of any inquiry reaching its telos—become the Jewish arts. This is not to say that in a time of increased secularity, critique becomes prevalent because critique is somehow secular.3 None of the thinkers explicitly or implicitly named above are secularists. But it is to begin to point out one problem with this strategy, namely that the prevalence of skepticism is a double-edged sword for members of minority communities. On the one hand, it is the most powerful cultural weapon against those members of majorities who take the correctness of their norms (and the identities that own those norms) for granted. On the other hand, there is nothing preventing that weapon from being turned on oneself, from emptying one’s own identity so that the very difference between oneself and the majority community disappears. After critique, one is no longer identifiable as a member of a minority community; one is no longer identifiable as anything except a critic, perpetually marginal. It is the strangeness of critique’s power that I want to highlight in discussing Bernstein’s and Wurgaft’s recent books on major figures in twentieth-century Jewish thought, Strauss, Levinas, and Hannah Arendt. The argument of Bernstein’s book is encapsulated in its title. Past scholars trying to figure out just what Strauss stood for (if anything) had [End Page 254] made one of three arguments: Strauss chose the philosophical life (the position represented as the city of Athens, in which right authority is rational authority) over the life committed to the need to obey divine law (the position represented as the city of...

Migration as Crime, Migration and Crime

We are currently witnessing growing social tensions and intense debate concerning a putative “migration crisis”, evidenced by a resurfacing of century-old fears of “unwanted newcomers” and increasing friction between the authorities and members of migrant and minority communities. Social scientists often assume that such issues are of fairly recent advent. They suggest that, today, (im)migration controls result in an unprecedented criminalization of immigrants, and their increasing exposure t...

Examining the role of minority community spaces for enabling migrants’ performance of intersectional identities through occupation

ABSTRACTIt is well established in the occupation-based literature that people’s engagement in meaningful occupations is reciprocally connected both to their identities and to the environments within which such occupations occur. However, less is known about how access to or exclusion from certain environments may shape the performance of identities by enabling or constraining opportunities for occupational engagement. We examined the role of minority community spaces (e.g. schools, places of worship, community centres) for supporting participation in occupations among French-speaking immigrants and refugees in Canada who settled in two Anglophone dominant cities. Fifty six people from diverse countries participated in eight focus groups (four in each city) conducted as part of a larger, four stage comparative case study. An intersectional lens was adopted for the theoretical analysis of verbatim transcripts. We present findings according to three themes. First we discuss the implications for occupation of living in an Anglophone dominant context as an official linguistic minority. Second, we attend to the paradoxical role of the Francophone minority community in the integration experiences of French-speaking immigrants and refugees. Third we explore the role of minority community spaces for supporting their occupational engagement and performance of intersecting identities. We contend that community spaces can provide important opportunities for linguistic minority community members to engage in meaningful occupations, but these must attend to the heterogeneity of the populations they serve.

The State between Minority and Majority Nationalism: Decentralization, Symbolic Recognition, and Secessionist Crises in Spain and Canada

This article addresses the debate about the relative utility of accommodative federalism as a method of conflict management in multinational states. Comparative scholarship on this issue assumes that territorial reform translates into political stability or instability through policy substance. This article tests that assumption against processes of institutional accommodation of Catalan and Quebecois demands for autonomy and recognition. The comparison demonstrates the absence of a linear relationship between institutional change and political instability. When autonomy for minority regions is extended without symbolic recognition, subsequent majority response unfolds in the policy arena, mostly through attempts to symmetrize autonomy arrangements (self-amplifying sequence). However, when the extension of territorial autonomy is combined with formal symbolic recognition, it paves the way for majority political backlash (reactive sequence). Open political opposition by a segment of majority political community, in turn, stimulates secessionist sentiment among members of minority community.

The stop and search of minors: A ‘vital police tool’?

Police stop and search powers have been widely criticized for the disproportionate manner in which members of black and ethnic minority communities are targeted. However, the use of such powers on minors in England and Wales has largely escaped comment, despite good evidence that such practices are harmful and counter-productive. Whilst data on the stop and search of under-10s and even toddlers has been reasonably widely reported by the mass media, there has been little interest in the welfare of older children who are subject to such police powers. Drawing on police data, qualitative research and information obtained through Freedom of Information requests, this article considers the relationship between potentially corrosive stop and search practices, young people’s use of public space and the question of vulnerability. It is concluded that policy and practice around the use of such powers should be amended to take account of the specific needs of individuals under the age of 18, and that children’s welfare should be a central consideration.

Long-Term Survey Is Necessary to Reveal Various Shifts of Microbial Composition in Corals.

The coral holobiont is the assemblage of coral host and its microbial symbionts, which functions as a unit and is responsive to host species and environmental factors. Although monitoring surveys have been done to determine bacteria associated with coral, none have persisted for >1 year. Therefore, potential variations in minor or dominant community members that occur over extended intervals have not been characterized. In this study, 16S rRNA gene amplicon pyrosequencing was used to investigate the relationship between bacterial communities in healthy Stylophora pistillata in tropical and subtropical Taiwan over 2 years, apparently one of the longest surveys of coral-associated microbes. Dominant bacterial genera in S. pistillata had disparate changes in different geographical setups, whereas the constitution of minor bacteria fluctuated in abundance over time. We concluded that dominant bacteria (Acinetobacter, Propionibacterium, and Pseudomonas) were stable in composition, regardless of seasonal and geographical variations, whereas Endozoicomonas had a geographical preference. In addition, by combining current data with previous studies, we concluded that a minor bacteria symbiont, Ralstonia, was a keystone species in coral. Finally, we concluded that long-term surveys for coral microbial communities were necessary to detect compositional shifts, especially for minor bacterial members in corals.

PROFESIONALNI I RODNI IDENTITET NOVINARKI U VOJVODINI –NOVINARKE KAO DRUGE

Rad se bavi položajem žena u novinarstvu u Vojvodini sa idejom da istraži uticaj i ukrštanje različitih faktora, kao što su rod, profesija, obrazovanje, etnička pripadnost i društveni položaj na formiranje identiteta novinarki. Žene u novinarsku profesiju ulaze kao druge, a kako pojedina istraživanja pokazuju (Milivojević, 2011, Matović, 2013), bez obzira na brojnost žena u medijima, profesionalna i društvena moć i dalje pripada muškarcima jer oni i dalje drže upravljačke strukture u medijima. Novinarke pripadnice manjinskih nacionalnih zajednica su dvostruko drugo u odnosu na novinarke iz većinske zajednice i muške kolege u sopstvenoj zajednici. Istraživanje je rađeno po metodi usmenih životnih priča 16 novinarki različitih generacija koje su radile ili rade u različitim medijima u Vojvodini, na jeziku većinskog naroda ili na jezicima manjinskih nacionalnih zajednica. Rezultati istraživanja ukazuju na intersekcionalnost drugosti intervjuisanih novinarki jer se ne zasniva samo na polnim razlikama i relaciji muško-žensko već se temelji na različitim identitetskim kategorijama kao što su etnicitet, rod, jezik, starosna dob, socijalni status, društveni položaj i ideološki okvir.

ON THE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPENSATION CLAIMS ARISING FROM THE WIDESPREAD DESTRUCTION OF RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE KOSOVO CONFLICT

The violence which spread through Kosovo in the first months after the arrival of the UN and NATO troops left many Serbs, Roma and members of other minority communities without homes. Their houses were set on free, demolished and looted. In the following years almost nothing was done to enable their return. The reconstruction projects were scarce, while the extra-judicial property restitution mechanisms had no mandate to deal with the destroyed property. Left with no other remedy, between 2004 and 2005, the owners of demolished property lodged a great number of compensation claims before the courts in Kosovo. The plaintiffs sought damages from UNMIK, KFOR and the local institutions established after June 1999. Despite the fact that the compensation claims had become well known for the controversial decision of UNMIK to order stay of proceedings in these cases, as well for the complex legal issues they posed, so far there have been no official accounts of their basic characteristics. The author aims to fill that lacuna by presenting results of the research conducted on the copies of the compensation claims lawsuits archived in the Court Liaison Offce in Gračanica/Graçanicë.

Squaring the Circle of Multiculturalism? Religious Freedom and Gender Equality in Canada

Abstract The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is globally unique in that it includes explicit commitments to the values of multiculturalism and gender equality. Section 27 of the Charter provides that: “[It] shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians,” whereas section 28 states that: “Notwithstanding anything in this Charter, the rights and freedoms referred to in it are guaranteed equally to male and female persons.” The Canadian experiment (as I will call it) offers us a rare, living laboratory in which a thriving constitutional system searches for legal and institutional pathways to addressing seemingly incongruous demands, obligations, rights, and protections. This article identifies a range of concrete legal responses developed and articulated by Canadian judges and other policymakers in response to claims for fair inclusion raised by members of religious minority communities. Contributing to ongoing theoretical and legal debates, I will conceptualize three variants of such fair inclusion claims. I will then assess what the Canadian multicultural experiment can teach other comparable countries about principled and pragmatic responses to the challenge of “living together” in shared spaces such as workplaces, schools, courthouses, and during citizenship ceremonies. The discussion will then explore the promises and pitfalls of a jurisprudential approach that resists the hierarchy of rights formulas, and tries instead to cover all grounds so as to neither erase diversity nor sacrifice equality.

Narendra Modi and Northeast India: development, insurgency and illegal migration

ABSTRACTAt this stage, it would be premature to assess the performance of the Narendra Modi-led Government of India and its policies towards the country’s Northeast region, but there are some indications to address key issues of the region, such as infrastructure development, insurgency and illegal migration. Apart from taking necessary steps for ensuring speedy implementation of infrastructure projects initiated by the previous government, a spate of new infrastructure projects has been launched. Shortly after assuming office a peace agreement was concluded with an important insurgent group, the National Socialist Council of Nagalim-Isak-Muivah so as to ‘empower’ the Naga people as well as conducted an operation against insurgents along the India–Myanmar border in the immediate aftermath of the killing of some military personnel. The agreement is expected to help restore normalcy and promote development in the region. At the same time, the signing of another agreement for exchange of territories with Bangladesh will ensure many stateless people the liberty to choose the citizenships of either India or Bangladesh. However, the approach towards the larger issue of illegal migration from Bangladesh into the region is still unclear, but the new government has expressed keenness to welcome members of minority communities of Bangladesh should they suffered persecution there. This article will discuss some of these issues.

Metabolic Capabilities of Microorganisms Involved in and Associated with the Anaerobic Oxidation of Methane

In marine sediments the anaerobic oxidation of methane with sulfate as electron acceptor (AOM) is responsible for the removal of a major part of the greenhouse gas methane. AOM is performed by consortia of anaerobic methane-oxidizing archaea (ANME) and their specific partner bacteria. The physiology of these organisms is poorly understood, which is due to their slow growth with doubling times in the order of months and the phylogenetic diversity in natural and in vitro AOM enrichments. Here we study sediment-free long-term AOM enrichments that were cultivated from seep sediments sampled off the Italian Island Elba (20°C; hereon called E20) and from hot vents of the Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California, cultivated at 37°C (G37) or at 50°C (G50). These enrichments were dominated by consortia of ANME-2 archaea and Seep-SRB2 partner bacteria (E20) or by ANME-1, forming consortia with Seep-SRB2 bacteria (G37) or with bacteria of the HotSeep-1 cluster (G50). We investigate lipid membrane compositions as possible factors for the different temperature affinities of the different ANME clades and show autotrophy as characteristic feature for both ANME clades and their partner bacteria. Although in the absence of additional substrates methane formation was not observed, methanogenesis from methylated substrates (methanol and methylamine) could be quickly stimulated in the E20 and the G37 enrichment. Responsible for methanogenesis are archaea from the genus Methanohalophilus and Methanococcoides, which are minor community members during AOM (1–7‰ of archaeal 16S rRNA gene amplicons). In the same two cultures also sulfur disproportionation could be quickly stimulated by addition of zero-valent colloidal sulfur. The isolated partner bacteria are likewise minor community members (1–9‰ of bacterial 16S rRNA gene amplicons), whereas the dominant partner bacteria (Seep-SRB1a, Seep-SRB2, or HotSeep-1) did not grow on elemental sulfur. Our results support a functioning of AOM as syntrophic interaction of obligate methanotrophic archaea that transfer non-molecular reducing equivalents (i.e., via direct interspecies electron transfer) to obligate sulfate-reducing partner bacteria. Additional katabolic processes in these enrichments but also in sulfate methane interfaces are likely performed by minor community members.

Systematic Review of Engagement in Culturally Adapted Parent Training for Disruptive Behavior.

This article reviews the literature reporting engagement (enrollment, attendance, and attrition) in culturally adapted parent training for disruptive behavior among racial/ethnic minority parents of children ages 2-7 years. The review describes the reported rates of engagement in adapted interventions and how engagement is analyzed in studies, methods to develop adaptations, and adaptations that have been implemented. Seven studies were identified. Parental engagement varied across and within studies. Only one study examined whether adaptations improved engagement compared to non-adapted intervention. Frequent methods to develop adaptations were building partnerships or conducting interviews/focus groups with minority parents or community members. Adaptations included addressing cultural beliefs (perceptions of parenting skills), values (interdependence), or experiences (immigration) that affect parenting or receptivity to interventions; ensuring racial/ethnic diversity of interventionists; and addressing cultural relevancy and literacy level of materials. Future research should examine engagement in adapted interventions compared to non-adapted interventions and examine factors (e.g., immigration status) that may moderate impact on engagement.

Reflecting On RaceBlack Man In A White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections On Race And Medicine By Tweedy Damon New York (NY) : Picador , 2015 304 pp., $26.00

In his debut memoir, BlackMan in aWhite Coat, physician Damon Tweedy navigates two complex worlds: society at large and the US health care system. Tweedy, an assistantprofessor of psychiatry atDukeUniversity Medical Center and a staff physician at the Durham VA Medical Center, painfully details numerous cases of racism and bias in health. In some of the cases, he was the victim; in others, providers’ racism was directed at patients. Tweedy also points out the flaws in the health care system that play a role in health disparities seen between black and white patients, including the system’s deep roots in institutionalized racismand its tendency to provide different levels of care based on income, education, and other factors beyond a patient’s control. He also shows that the problems surrounding health issues do not rest solely on the health system or physicians but also on patients’ decisions and cultural influences that can negatively affect health. Race is consistently a factor in the management of patients, warranted or not, Tweedy notes, and he refers to current literature and trends in care, both anecdotal and as described by researchers. He reflects on his role as a provider, tracing his time through the stages of medical education. His evolution as a physician occurred against the backdrop of the traditional training process physicians go through, which easily breeds bias, he points out. Medical students are taught to recognize disease patterns and prevalence, with an emphasis on race and other social factors, hewrites. Providers take this knowledge and create mental shortcuts, or stereotypes, to arrive at medical decisions that fit the diagnosis. This practice is a detriment to patients, but it remains a mainstay of medical decision making. The book is written in a case-based format, with each chapter representing a case—not of a disease or health condition, but of the flaws in the sometimes biased health system that minority patients and physicians must operate in. True to reality, not all of the cases have happy endings. Indeed, some end in tragedies that could have been avoided had the system been better equipped to address the needs of all patients. The book’s strength is the author’s astounding introspection. Tweedy’s ability to recount details about patientprovider interactions and their downstream effects on him is impressive. As he candidly discusses his own experiences and the patient cases, he reflects on how his upbringing and education explain his biases and put limitations on relationships with patients. Yet unfortunately this book—and others like it—fails to focus enough on changes that can and should be made to eliminate health disparities betweenminority and other patients. Much progress has been made to improve the care of all patients, with special attention paid to those considered on the fringes of society. Tweedy, in part because of the semi-autobiographical style of his book, describes the evolution of health care alongside his personal timeline, which leaves him little room to highlight the more recent efforts to eliminate disparities. Nor does he offer any major recommendations for addressing racism in medicine going forward. It is important, too, to remember that Tweedy’s book is a memoir and should not be taken as representing the experience of all black doctors. At times while reading the book, I felt as though the author was telling my own story as a black physician coming of age. In one scene, Tweedy recounts being misidentified by a professor as a member of the maintenance staff—why else would he be in a classroom? It is disheartening to know that so many other physicians have likely had similar negative interactions, but it is encouraging to know thatmanyhaveovercome thepotentially damning effects of bias in medical education. Yet some of our experiences differed, which offers a reminder that each physician brings his or her ownperspective to the table and should not lumped into a group based on race. Tweedy closes the book by noting hopeful trends. For example, the health system is evolving into a higher quality and more efficient environment than the one in which he trained, with better medicine, amore stable physician workforce, and better facilities. He also hints at the opportunities the Affordable Care Act offers for improving the lives of patients with limited access to health care, in particular members of minority and other underserved communities. Race is truly just a social construct, he concludes, emphasizing that if we took time to care for one another genuinely through self-reflection and understanding, our relationships could overcome perceived racial boundaries. ▪

Spatial Distribution of Minority Communities and Terrorism: Domestic Concentration versus Transnational Dispersion

Qualitative studies of terrorist movements frequently highlight the importance of diaspora communities as important factors in producing and sustaining terrorist activity in countries. The underlying theoretical argument is that bifurcation of tight-knit minority communities between countries nurtures separatist or irredentist sentiments among affected community members, thus prompting terrorist activity, while minority community members in other countries might mobilize financial and political resources to support terrorist activity among their compatriots. In this study, we empirically test whether transnational dispersion, versus domestic concentration, of minority communities in countries produces higher incidents of terrorism. Conducting a series of negative binomial estimations on a reshaped database of around 170 countries from 1981 to 2006, derived from the Minorities at Risk database and the Global Terrorism Database, we determine that both transnational dispersion of kin minority communities and domestic concentration of minorities within countries increase terrorism and that transnational dispersion is a particularly robust predictor of terrorist attacks.

Minding the gap: Elucidating the disconnect between arts participation metrics and arts engagement within immigrant communities

A growing gap between national metrics of arts participation and the many, evolving ways in which people participate in artistic and aesthetic activities limits the degree to which such data can usefully inform policy decisions. The National Endowment for the Arts’ Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) is the primary source of arts participation data in the USA, but this instrument inadequately evaluates how members of minority and immigrant communities participate in the arts. As the USA nears a historic demographic shift to being a majority–minority nation – non-Hispanic White individuals will no longer be a demographic majority by about 2041 – obtaining more accurate measures of artistic activities that are meaningful to a more diverse population will be of increasing importance for public policy-making. To better understand the extent to which the SPPA's questions capture the range of artistic activities engaged in by members of immigrant communities, we cognitively tested a subset of the survey's questions with Chinese immigrants to the USA as a pilot case. We found that interviewees participate in a range of culturally specific and non-culturally specific arts activities that they did not report in response to the survey's questions. In this article, we draw upon these interviews to discuss the reasons underpinning the gap and suggest implications for updating research tools and future research. A better understanding of the gap between measured and actual “arts participation” will lead to improved measures and information to support artistic expression and arts more reflective of contemporary society.