Neighborhood Centers Research Articles

Healthy Minds: Improving Access, Integration and Efficiency in Primary Mental Health Care

In early 2013, the North Coast NSW Medicare Local (NCML) initiated a process for redesign of the delivery of its mental health services, including the Access To Allied Psychological Services (ATAPS) Program. The Australian Primary Mental Health Care system has two key components: ATAPS and Better Access. Both are Commonwealth funded and accessed via General Practice. Healthy Minds aims to provide mental health services to some of the most vulnerable members of the North Coast NSW community who have complex social needs and who are less likely to visit a GP, or are less likely to recognise the need for help. Healthy Minds breaks historical separations and disconnections. It combines Better Access and ATAPS funding and co‐locates private providers within Community Service Organisations (CSOs) and public services to deliver psychological support. Healthy Minds improves access by: 1) Providing services within organisations which are already being accessed by vulnerable groups, reducing the need for further transport, or orientation to new services; 2) Providing a ‘soft’ entry to mental health services by delivering them within less stigmatising organisations, such as employment agencies, family support services or neighbourhood centres; and 3) Partnering with organisations who are able to assist vulnerable groups to access a GP in order to receive their initial referral (e.g. by providing transport, making appointment, issuing reminders) and are able to provide the same support to enhance attendance rates with the Private Practitioner. Healthy Minds improves integration by: 1) Placing Private Practitioners within CSOs, community and public health services which are meeting the social needs of the person, allowing for greater connection of the services, communication, and integration; and 2) Using ATAPS to fund Private Practitioners to attend Case Conferencing within those organisations. Some of the types of CSOs in which Private Practitioners have been co-located include employment agencies, women’s shelters, Aboriginal Medical Services, family support services, homelessness services, youth services, neighbourhood centres and disability services Healthy Minds improves value by: 1) Identifying clinical space with organisations which can be used by Private Practitioners free of charge, reducing overhead expenses; 2) Reducing the ATAPS remuneration to match the Better Access item numbers so that there is no disincentive to bulk-bill – allowing Better Access funding to be used when ATAPS funding is exhausted; 3) Minimising the travel costs to the consumer by providing services within a setting they are already World Congress on Integrated Care 2014, Sydney, November 23-26, 2014. International Journal of Integrated Care – Volume 14, 8 December – URN:NBN:NL:UI:10-1-116613– http://www.ijic.org/ accessing; and 4) Potentially reducing ‘Did Not Attends’ as clients are familiar with, and familiar to the organisations. Initial estimates and observations indicate that this approach has more than doubled the number of access points for psychological services across the North Coast of NSW. The six months to December 2013 has seen a 42% increase in the number of ATAPS sessions delivered, compared to the previous year. This has been accompanied with a 61% reduction in the average cost per session for the North Coast NSW Medicare Local.

도시 집합주거단지의 개방성 지수와 물리적 환경요소의 상관성 분석 연구

The study analyzed correlation between openness index of urban housing complex and physical environmental factor. Through this, the author tried to find problem in aspect of planning for constructing urban housing complex that communicates with surrounding environment and improvement direction along with discussion on public character of urban housing complex. And the study has a meaning that through correlation analysis with physical environmental factor of block unit and boundary area unit, discussion on openness in the aspect of public character was drawn to boundary area space of urban housing complex. As a result of analysis on correlation, there was strong positive correlation between building coverage and Physical Access Index(P.A.I). Floor area ratio and number of average floor shows negative correlation_over average, with Surrounding Boundary Space Index(S.B.S.I). And block size shows negative correlation_over average, with View Corridor Index(V.C.I). In the relationship with use of surrounding land, openness was most highly assessed when it was next to commercial land. In the frontage condition, openness was highly assessed when it was next to neighborhood center street(NS) and block linkage street (BS) which play a role of a daily life street. In the direction of boundary area, a result could be obtained, which reflected tendency of preference for southern exposure.

A Variational Level Set Model Based on Local Clustering for Image Segmentation

For images with intensity inhomogeneities that can’t get accurate segmentation results, this paper proposes a variational level set model based on local clustering. First,based on the model of images with intensity inhomogeneities, we use the K-mean clustering algorithm for intensity clustering in a neighborhood of each point of images with intensity inhomogeneities, and define a local clustering criterion function for the image intensities in the neighborhood. Then this local clustering criterion function is then integrated with respect to the neighborhood center to give a global criterion of image segmentation. This criterion defines an energy function as a local intensity fitting term in the level set model. By minimizing this energy, our method is able to get the accurate image segmentation. The image segmentation results prove that our model in the aspect of segmenting images with intensity inhomogeneity is better than piecewise constant (PC) models, and the segmentation efficiency is higher than region-scalable fitting (RSF) model.

Neighborhood Center Design (Set of Cultural-social-leisure) in Order to Reduce the Social Pathology, a Case Study Shah – Hoseini Neighborhood, Bandar Abbas

Urbanization provides the citizen a specific way of life with relative welfare. However, regarding structure quality and life standard, all neighborhoods are not the same. These differences are usually as norms. Due to economic-social factors and consequential results, some neighborhoods deprived from the same level of development in other neighborhoods. The difference in development level has eventuated in many social and cultural challenges. Emergence of blight texture is one negative consequence to name, that can with providing by participation to solve this problem. The participation of people in a parish activity has different dimensions. Shah-Hoseini neighborhood was faced with a shortage of capitation and standards, low quality of life on Bandar Abbas that leads to social pathology. The aim of this study is neighborhood center design in order to reduce the social pathology, identify social problems in the neighborhood and provide optimal strategies for neighborhood center design. Analytical using strategic planning and multiple criteria decision making method were used in this study. Data were gathered in two different levels: urban experts in the municipality of Bandar Abbas and specialists in university. The result showed designing neighborhood center is not possible without considering social participation. The role of community and social interactions in neighborhoods are very important so that scientists don’t consider a public or open space without social interactions as an urban space. Accordingly it seems to achieve a dynamic and vibrant neighborhood center, there is no way except improving social interactions.

Things and places from the city. Consumption practices, settlement and belonging of second generation migrants in Lisbon

While much scholarly work has been produced on the complex topic of contemporary migration, there is still relatively little literature on its intersections with material culture and consumption practices. But the impact of migration on material experiences goes beyond attachment to objects from home; it can change peoples’ perceptions of themselves, restructure their patterns of social interaction and, I believe, alter the balance of relationships maintained not just with those left behind but also with those who migrated to other localities as well as those who share and inhabit the same places.Drawing on the results of an ethnographic study carried out in Lisbon with teenage boys and girls of African descent, this paper aims to explore the interface between migration, materiality and place and, more significantly still, how personal, cultural and geographical trajectories, and positioning and belonging policies are marked and partially constituted through the relationship with mass produced goods which are acquired and used in very specific urban contexts. The study will draw particular attention to two aspects. The first stems from the fact that everyday things such as clothes, mobile phones, sneakers, food and music would seem to be appropriated according to a specific logic in order to materialize the teenagers’ collective identities and positioning strategies in specific key places such as the neighbourhood, school or city centre where they sometimes go clubbing and shopping. The second concerns the existence of an intense on-going transnational circulation of objects, which informs the existence of a complex social network based in multiple locations. Besides contributing to the maintenance and strengthening of family relationships, the continuous circulation of goods stimulates the production of a hierarchical representation of the world – a constellation of different places linked by complex transnational networks- and therefore of the best migration destinations, based on what is sent and received.

2013 Late-Breaking Clinical Trial Abstracts

### Nitrites in Acute Myocardial Infarction Nishat Siddiqi1, Margaret Bruce1, Christopher J. Neil1, Graeme MacLennan2, Seonaidh Cotton2, Sofia A. Papadopoulou3, Baljit Jagpal1, Sue Brown3, Fatima Perez Gonzalez3, Satnam Singh1, Konstantin Schwarz1, Martin Feelisch4, Nicholas Bunce5, Pitt O Lim5, David Hildick-Smith6, John Horowitz7, Melanie Madhani8, Nicholas Boon9, Dana Dawson10, Juan-Carlos Kaski3, Michael P Frenneaux10. 1Dept of Cardiovascular Rsch, Univ of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom, 2Health Sciences Building (third floor), Centre for Healthcare Randomised Trials (CHaRT), Aberdeen, United Kingdom, 3Cardiovascular Sciences Rsch Centre, St George’s Univ of London, London, United Kingdom, 4Faculty of Medicine, Univ of Southampton, Southampton, 5Cardiology Dept, St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust, 6Cardiology Research Unit, Brighton and Sussex Univ Hospitals, Brighton, United Kingdom, 7Basil Hetzel Unit for Translational Health Research, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Adelaide, 8Centre for Cardiovascular Sciences, Univ of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom, 9Centre for Cardiovascular Sciences, Univ of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 10School of Medicine and Dentistry, Univ of Aberdeen, Aberdeen Introduction :Despite reperfusion therapy for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure remains a major sequel. Reperfusion leads to further damage, described as ischemia-reperfusion-injury (IRI). This contributes up to 50% of the final infarct size. In pre-clinical models nitrite potently protects against IRI in the heart and other organs. Hypothesis :Intravenous (iv) sodium nitrite, administered immediately before opening of the infarct-related artery, results in significant reduction of IRI in patients with acute ST elevation MI (STEMI). Methods :In this phase II, randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind, multicentre trial, 220 patients with first acute STEMI and TIMI 0 or 1 flow were randomised …

The Classroom as an Extension of Our Society: Empowering Students through Technology in Service Learning to Bridge the Global Digital Divide

The rapid development of our society created a number of social issues including the global digital divide which can be encountered on international, national and local levels. My papers discusses the role and importance of engaging students in discussing, understanding and contributing to the bridging of this gap using their information technology skills in a service learning experience to help people who don’t have access to technology or the necessary computer skills to succeed in our society. Volunteering for 15hours in centers like Julie's Family Planning, ABCD Parker Hill neighborhood center, Notre Dame Education Center, students experience firsthand the impact of the lack of technology skills and access to technology on various groups of people, and get a chance to help these people.Students keep an online blog to record and reflect on the outcome, meaning and importance of their service learning activities, such as: teaching computer classes, designing curriculum, tutoring in computer skills, database entries and cleanup in offices computer upgrades. They share in their blogs the meaning and importance of engaging in service learning to solve social problems using their own technology education. This experience expands our classroom to engage and empower students to become active and responsible members of our society, while using their formal information technology education in a practical way.

Localization Development Research of Neighborhood Center Business Model-Taking Suzhou Industrial Park as Example

This article summarizes the characteristics of Neighborhood Center, such as "family", "neighborhood" and so on. Analyzing from source constitutions of resident population, consuming behavior characters, business format characteristics and transport organizations, it discusses success and shortcomings of Singapore Neighborhood Center mode during the process of localization in Suzhou and comes up with improving policies in localization development through on-the-spot investigation and questionnaire surveys of construction planning and operation performance of Suzhou Industrial Park Neighborhood Center.

Unpacking Transformation: Committing to Community in Education and Health Care Reform

(First paragraph) As we near the end of 2013, let 's round out this volume 's editorial discussion on the essentialness of community voice in realizing the potential and well-being of individuals and families. The concept of community engagement is not new-the settlement house movement is a vibrant example of efforts to better “whole” neighborhoods through community and family-focused services (United Neighborhood Centers of America [UNCA], n.d.). From this legacy, a focus on mutualism appears to have the favor of most social workers. Further, an important aspect of the Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers (Code of Ethics) calls for supporting and guiding participation in public policies and tenets that are important to the daily lives of individuals and their families: “Social workers should facilitate informed participation by the public in shaping social policies and institutions” (National Association of Social Workers, 2008, §6.02). Indeed, “all professionals working in commun...

Invisible Lines Crossing the City: Ethnographic Strategies for Place-making

Helsingborg, a coastal city in southern Sweden, initiated a long-term re-development project called H+ in 2009, aiming to convert industrial harbor space in the city’s south into a new, livable urban neighborhood and city center. The project aims to create an open and ’tolerant city’ in Helsingborg over the next twenty years. In 2010-2011, H+ used an open-source planning method as a strategy to incorporate multiple working methods and ideas into the planning process. As a cultural analyst, my role with the H+ project and the City of Helsingborg was to mediate social and cultural perspectives and development strategies between plan-ners and citizens. Focusing the project’s vision towards incorporating existing communities and their values, I applied an ethnographic method to culturally map Helsingborg’s social cityscapes. Cultural mapping integrates social and physical places into one map. It is a useful methodological tool in accessing ’cultural’ knowledge, translating ethnographic data into usable maps for city planners in the process of developing the H+ area. This article addresses how ethnographic meth-ods and cultural mapping engages with and revitalizes city planning, essentially a process of place-making the H+ area. An applied cultural analytical approach provokes planning practices and questions how and if planning can be more open and inclusive through deeper understandings of unique places that emerge from the relationships between people and spaces. The ’invisible,’ yet well-known, segregating line (a street called Trädgårdsgatan) in Helsingborg creates a particular condition that the city must contend with in order to achieve its vision of a ’toler-ant city.’

Are HPV vaccination services accessible to high-risk communities? A spatial analysis of HPV-associated cancer and Chlamydia rates and safety-net clinics

While HPV vaccines can greatly benefit adolescents and young women from high-risk areas, little is known about whether safety-net immunization services are geographically accessible to communities at greatest risk for HPV-associated diseases. We explore the spatial relationship between areas with high HPV risk and proximity to safety-net clinics from an ecologic perspective. We used cancer registry data and Chlamydia surveillance data to identify neighborhoods within Los Angeles County with high risk for HPV-associated cancers. We examined proximity to safety-net clinics among neighborhoods with the highest risk. Proximity was measured as the shortest distance between each neighborhood center and the nearest clinic and having a clinic within 3 miles of each neighborhood center. The average 5-year non-age-adjusted rates were 1,940 cases per 100,000 for Chlamydia and 60 per 100,000 for HPV-associated cancers. A large majority, 349 of 386 neighborhoods with high HPV-associated cancer rates and 532 of 537 neighborhoods with high Chlamydia rates, had a clinic within 3 miles of the neighborhood center. Clinics were more likely to be located within close proximity to high-risk neighborhoods in the inner city. High-risk neighborhoods outside of this urban core area were less likely to be near accessible clinics. The majority of high-risk neighborhoods were geographically near safety-net clinics with HPV vaccination services. Due to low rates of vaccination, these findings suggest that while services are geographically accessible, additional efforts are needed to improve uptake. Programs aimed to increase awareness about the vaccine and to link underserved groups to vaccination services are warranted.

Vestigios del recurso costero en el sitio arqueológico de Teopancazco, Teotihuacan, Estado de México

This research is a synthesis of the work Capture, preparation, and differential use of the ichthyofauna found in the archaeological site of Teopancazco, Teotihuacan , which emphasizes the discovery of different bone fish found in the archaeological context of Teotihuacan, something truly unusual in this area of the central Mexican plateau. The archaeological site where took place the finding of these materials is the center of neighborhood of Teopancazco, site that is located on the periphery of the ceremonial center, and tourism, the mythical «City of the gods». Here the presence of fish varieties such as bobo mullet ( Joturus pichardi), red snapper ( Lutjanus sp), common snook ( Centropomus sp), mojarra ( Diapterus sp) or barracuda ( Sphyraena barracuda), to mention some, breaks with the false idea that, at pre-Hispanic era, the ancient Teotihuacans had no access to, or taste for, coastal resources.

Modeling the Travel Behavior Impacts of Micro-Scale Land Use and Socio-Economic Factors

The effects of neighborhood-level land use characteristics on urban travel behavior of Iranian cities are under-researched. The present paper examines such influences in a microscopic scale. In this study the role of socio-economic factors is also studies and compared to that of urban form. Two case-study neighborhoods in west of Tehran are selected and considered, first of which is a centralized and compact neighborhood and the other is a sprawled and centerless one. A Multinomial Logit Regression model is developed to consider the effects of socio-economic and land use factors on urban travel pattern. In addition, to consider the effective factors, cross-sectional comparison between the influences of local accessibility and attractiveness of the neighborhood centers of the two case-study areas are undertaken. Also the causality relationships are considered according to the findings of the survey. The findings indicate significant effects of age and household income as socio-economic factors on transportation mode choice in neighborhoods with central structure. One the other hand, no meaningful association between socio-economic or land use variables are resulted by the model for the sprawled case. The most effective land use concept in micro-scale is considered to be satisfaction of entertainment facilities of the neighborhood. Also the descriptive findings show that the centralized neighborhood that gives more local accessibility to shops and retail generates less shopping trips. In considering the causal relations, the study shows that providing neighborhood infrastructures that increase or ease the accessibility to neighborhood amenities can lead to higher shares of sustainable transportation modes like walking, biking, or public transportation use.

Provenance of glass shards in archaeological lime plasters by LA-ICP-MS: implications for the ancient routes from the Gulf of Mexico to Teotihuacan in Central Mexico

We present the chemical characteristics of samples collected from the central courtyard of Teopancazco, a neighbourhood centre in Teotihuacan (Mexico), the most important classic Mesoamerican city. The rhyolitic glass shards used as aggregates have a composition comparable to the glass material sourced from the magmatic system of Altotonga (located along the route to the Gulf Coast). People travelling from the Gulf Coast may have transported the glass shards to Teotihuacan during the Xolalpan phase (350–550 AD). However, the reasons for using glass shards as a construction material remain unknown. These new data confirm the close relationship between inhabitants of Teopancazco and the Gulf Coast already revealed by previous archaeological and archaeometric studies.

Initiating and maintaining recreational walking: A longitudinal study on the influence of neighborhood green space

ObjectiveThis study examined prospective relationships of green space attributes with adults initiating or maintaining recreational walking. MethodsPostal surveys were completed by 1036 adults living in Adelaide, Australia, at baseline (two time points in 2003–04) and follow-up (2007–08). Initiating or maintaining recreational walking was determined using self-reported walking frequency. Green space attributes examined were perceived presence, quality, proximity, and the objectively measured area (total and largest) and number of green spaces within a 1.6km buffer drawn from the center of each study neighborhood. Multilevel regression analyses examined the odds of initiating or maintaining walking separately for each green space attribute. ResultsAt baseline, participants were categorized into non-regular (n=395), regular (n=286), and irregular walkers (n=313). Among non-regular walkers, 30% had initiated walking, while 70% of regular walkers had maintained walking at follow-up. No green space attributes were associated with initiating walking. However, positive perceptions of the presence of and proximity to green spaces and the total and largest areas of green space were significantly associated with a higher likelihood of walking maintenance over four years. ConclusionNeighborhood green spaces may not assist adults to initiate walking, but their presence and proximity may facilitate them to maintain recreational walking over time.

Exploiting local intensity information in Chan–Vese model for noisy image segmentation

Due to the material property and imperfections of imaging devices, noise often exists in real-world images. This paper presents an improved region-based active contour model—Robust Chan–Vese (RCV) model for noisy image segmentation. First, for each point in a region, a local energy is defined according to the difference between the intensities of all points within its neighborhood and the intensity average of the region. Then, for the whole image domain, a global energy is defined as a data term to integrate the local energy with respect to the neighborhood center. Finally, the overall energy is represented by a level set formulation, from which a curve evolution equation is derived for energy minimization. Due to a kernel function in the data term, intensity information in local region is taken into account to guide the motion of contour, which enables RCV model to cope with noise. The improved method has been evaluated on synthetic image and industrial CT images. Compared with several popular level set methods, the experimental results show that RCV model is not only less sensitive to contour initialization, but also more robust to image noise while preserving the segmentation efficacy.

Adaptive segmentation of magnetic resonance images with intensity inhomogeneity using level set method

It is a big challenge to segment magnetic resonance (MR) images with intensity inhomogeneity. The widely used segmentation algorithms are region based, which mostly rely on the intensity homogeneity, and could bring inaccurate results. In this paper, we propose a novel region-based active contour model in a variational level set formulation. Based on the fact that intensities in a relatively small local region are separable, a local intensity clustering criterion function is defined. Then, the local function is integrated around the neighborhood center to formulate a global intensity criterion function, which defines the energy term to drive the evolution of the active contour locally. Simultaneously, an intensity fitting term that drives the motion of the active contour globally is added to the energy. In order to segment the image fast and accurately, we utilize a coefficient to make the segmentation adaptive. Finally, the energy is incorporated into a level set formulation with a level set regularization term, and the energy minimization is conducted by a level set evolution process. Experiments on synthetic and real MR images show the effectiveness of our method.

Potential Best Practices for Enhancing civic Engagement Outcomes (Field Notes)

This Field Notes brief reports on 20 potential best practices that relate to enhancing civic engagement outcomes for human service organizations as part of an initiative by the Alliance for Children and Families (Alliance) and the United Neighborhood Centers of America (UNCA). Four strategic clusters were evident in these best practices: board of directors expertise and focus, organizational infrastructure, empowerment of community residents, and tactical strategies. The best practices were identified through a process benchmarking exercise which compared the frequency of various civic engagement strategies between organizations having high levels of positive civic engagement outcomes with the frequency among organizations in a comparison group. Groups were identified using the Civic Engagement Measurement System, a set of interrelated tools developed by the Alliance and UNCA to help organizations measure concrete outcomes.

Localized FCM Clustering with Spatial Information for Medical Image Segmentation and Bias Field Estimation

This paper presents a novel fuzzy energy minimization method for simultaneous segmentation and bias field estimation of medical images. We first define an objective function based on a localized fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering for the image intensities in a neighborhood around each point. Then, this objective function is integrated with respect to the neighborhood center over the entire image domain to formulate a global fuzzy energy, which depends on membership functions, a bias field that accounts for the intensity inhomogeneity, and the constants that approximate the true intensities of the corresponding tissues. Therefore, segmentation and bias field estimation are simultaneously achieved by minimizing the global fuzzy energy. Besides, to reduce the impact of noise, the proposed algorithm incorporates spatial information into the membership function using the spatial function which is the summation of the membership functions in the neighborhood of each pixel under consideration. Experimental results on synthetic and real images are given to demonstrate the desirable performance of the proposed algorithm.

Level set segmentation of medical images based on local region statistics and maximum a posteriori probability.

This paper presents a variational level set method for simultaneous segmentation and bias field estimation of medical images with intensity inhomogeneity. In our model, the statistics of image intensities belonging to each different tissue in local regions are characterized by Gaussian distributions with different means and variances. According to maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) and Bayes' rule, we first derive a local objective function for image intensities in a neighborhood around each pixel. Then this local objective function is integrated with respect to the neighborhood center over the entire image domain to give a global criterion. In level set framework, this global criterion defines an energy in terms of the level set functions that represent a partition of the image domain and a bias field that accounts for the intensity inhomogeneity of the image. Therefore, image segmentation and bias field estimation are simultaneously achieved via a level set evolution process. Experimental results for synthetic and real images show desirable performances of our method.