Substandard Conditions Research Articles

P3.428 Familial and Social Factors Influencing HIV/AIDS Interventions in Rawalpindi, Pakistan

BackgroundThere are significant numbers of MSM in different parts of Islamic Republic of Pakistan including Rawalpindi. Religion and social norms do not promote/encourage acceptance of MSM at individual, familial and...

URBAN POOR CHILDREN: THE PRIORITY

One-half of the world's population lives in cities and towns; this is expected to increase to 70% by 2050. One in three urban dwellers lives in slums. As the urban population grows, so does the number of urban poor. Out of a billion children living in urban areas, approximately 300 million are suffering from exclusion or are at risk of exclusion. Urban poor children are devoid of basic rights of survival, development and protection and are marginalised in challenging conditions in overcrowded settlements. Rapid urbanisation and the consequent increase in urban population is one of the biggest challenges that developing countries, including India are facing. Thirty per cent (that is, 367.5 million) of India's population of 1.23 billion live in urban areas. Moreover, this figure is increasing rapidly and is expected to reach 432 million (40%) by 2021. Rapid urbanisation has unfortunately outpaced development, and a large proportion (43 million) live in substandard conditions in slums. Now is the time to pay attention to the basic rights of the urban poor, especially the urban poor children, the most vulnerable group at the launching of 12(th) Five-Year Plan & National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) in India.

Adherence of Community Pharmacies in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to Optimal Conditions for Keeping and Selling Good-Quality Medicines

Exposure to excessive temperature during distribution or storage has unfavorable consequences on the quality of medicines, particularly in hot climates. This could be one of the possible reasons behind the existence of substandard amoxicillin in community pharmacies in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This study explored the conditions under which medicines were kept in a random sample of 181 community pharmacies in Riyadh. The pharmacist in charge in each pharmacy was interviewed and our observations about the quality of storage were recorded. The inspection revealed that in 9% of the sample the readings of the existing room thermometers were >25℃, and that 13% of the sample lacked thermometers. Also in 33% of the sample the readings of the refrigerator thermometers were outside the accepted range, and 7% of the sample lacked refrigerator thermometers. About 15% of pharmacists were not informed about the local regulations of community pharmacy practice, neither before nor after taking up their current positions. Surprisingly, incorrect answers to simple questions about the system were frequently given by the informed pharmacists. Certain aspects of substandard storage conditions existed, in varying degrees, in significant percentages of pharmacies regardless of the pharmacists’ qualifications, experience, or awareness about the local regulations of community pharmacy practice. Stricter monitoring by the authorities regarding the adherence of community pharmacies to optimal conditions of storing medicines is recommended. Continuing education of community pharmacists must also be improved.

Coffee: A Cultural and Media Focussed Approach

Coffee: A Cultural and Media Focussed Approach

The Black Box - Obscurity and Transparency in the Dutch Coal Supply Chain

Every year more than 50 million tonnes of coal flow into the Netherlands, destined either for combustion in coal-fired power plants in this country or for re-export to other European countries for electricity generation there. The capacity to generate electricity from coal in the Netherlands will more than double if the four new coal-fired power plants currently being planned in the Netherlands go forward as envisioned. Much of that coal comes from countries like Colombia, Russia, and South Africa, where sub-standard social and environmental conditions often prevail. A lack of transparency about the origin of coal used in the Netherlands has allowed the electricity companies responsible for importing irresponsibly mined coal to avoid public and political pressure for improving conditions in their supply chain. Increasing transparency in the coal supply chain is an important first step toward improving the sub-standard conditions at coal mines around the world.This report details the functioning of the coal supply chain and provides a thorough overview of all publicly available information on the origin of coal used in Dutch power plants. The report identifies critical gaps in public knowledge resulting from the lack of transparency provided by electricity companies operating in the Netherlands and analyses whether the degree of transparency provided by electricity companies is in line with international standards.

Book Review: Revolt! The Next Great Transformation from Kleptocracy Capitalism to Libertarian Socialism through Counter Ideology, Societal Education, & Direct Action by John Asimakopoulos

Revolt! The Next Great Transformation from Kleptocracy Capitalism to Libertarian Socialism through Counter Ideology, Societal Education, & Direct Action by John Asimakopoulos Transformative Studies Institute Press, 2011. Pp. 159. $14.95 (Paperback). ISBN: 9780983298205[Article copies available for a fee from The Transformative Studies Institute. E-mail address: journal@transformativestudies.org Website: http://www.transformativestudies.org ©2012 by The Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.]I highly recommend this book to anyone who works for a living, and even mature teenagers about to enter the workforce, as they are our future and are exposed to more and more capitalist propaganda as they go through high school which, depending on various factors, including adult guidance, could either teach them to learn and think critically or prepare them to be cogs in a defective capitalist system. In Revolt!, Asimakopoulos early defines working class essentially to mean anyone who must work in order to live, which would encompass a major percentage of people from all lines of work. And to be sure, he cites some of Karl Marx's concepts, such as capitalism being the problem and that band-aiding the problem with bailouts is merely part of its vicious cycle and not a solution to social injustices and inequalities on a national and global scale.In addition to outlining the problem, the author talks about the historical buildup of the capitalist powers that be, dating back to Breton Woods in the 19l century and bolstered by laws created over the years by corrupt politicians loyal to corporations. The insidiousness and tenacity of the problem is due to the fact that corporate greed and exploitation of whole groups of people (including most of us) and our resources are being disguised by corporate-owned media as the American way. Those who challenge it are met with force by government that has been hijacked by large multinational corporations through lobbying. What the author terms a revolving door between politics and big business, is exemplified by former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, previously of Sachs Goldman. Not only are the laws and practices and many institutions, such as Wall Street and credit card companies, corrupt and self-serving, but they actually produce a negative effect on America's productivity and consumption by shifting jobs to other countries and giving its own citizens fewer and fewer social guarantees such as health benefits. Further, jobs are cut, and people forced to work more for less pay and under substandard conditions. This naturally affects our ability to spend on the things we would like, leading to a corporation's own decline. However, the government comes in and bails out the corporation, resetting the cycle but not solving the problem, and potentially making the next downturn even worse than the previous one.Asimakopoulos also lays out a groundwork for fighting back against this nightmare, producing three basic tools to anyone wishing to make social change: societal education (to increase awareness of the rich getting richer and poor getting poorer phenomenon, for instance), counter ideology (to offer an alternative to the hegemony), and direct action (the most important, grassroots tool). Direct action can and has taken many forms, and the author specifically cites how this and the other tools had major positive influence on the well-being of labor unions in past uprisings, as well as the civil rights/black power movement, two that he details extensively in the book. As members of the community, we are called upon by the author to help change the system; mere votes for one flavor of capitalist mouthpiece over another, as between a Republican and a Democratic candidate, has often shown to be inadequate because greed does not respect party lines. A sympathetic yet ineffective candidate only gives the public the illusion of change. What is needed is independent media (through radio, television, print, and Internet) to spread and delegitimize the system held dear to the corporate-owned mass media. …

Assessment of public health issues of migrants at the Greek-Turkish border, April 2011

A joint mission to assess the public health situation of migrants in Greek detention centres was undertaken in April 2011 by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe. The assessment visit follows the increased migration to the Evros prefecture, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace region, at the Greek-Turkish border where large numbers of migrants are entering Greece via the Evros River, a natural border. Migrants are housed in local detention centres. The main problem in detention centres are the substandard hygiene conditions, especially overcrowding and lack of personal hygiene facilities, lack of basic supplies and lack of access to fresh air and physical exercise. As the migration route via the Evros region is increasingly used since 2009, and due to the unstable political situation in North Africa and the Middle East, an increased influx of migrants was to be expected with the falling water levels of the Evros River in summer, resulting in further deterioration of the already critical situation in the Thrace region’s detention centres.

Health impact assessment of Roma housing policies in Central and Eastern Europe: A comparative analysis

Marginalised Roma communities in European countries live in substandard housing conditions the improvement of which has been one of the major issues of the Decade of Roma Inclusion, the ongoing intergovernmental European Roma programme. The paper presents EU-funded health impact assessments of national Roma housing policies and programmes in 3 Central and Eastern European countries in light of the evaluation of a completed local project in a fourth CEE country so as to compare predicted effects to observed ones. Housing was predicted to have beneficial health effects by improving indoor and outdoor conditions, access to services, and socioeconomic conditions. Negative impacts were predicted only in terms of maintenance expenses and housing tenure. However, observed impacts of the completed local project did not fully support predictions especially in terms of social networks, satisfaction with housing and neighbourhood, and inhabitant safety. In order to improve the predictive value of HIA, more evidence should be produced by the careful evaluation of locally implemented housing projects. In addition, current evidence is in favour of planning Roma housing projects at the local rather than at the national level in alignment with the principle of subsidiarity.

Migrant farmworkers' housing conditions across an agricultural season in North Carolina

Several studies have documented poor housing conditions for farmworkers but none has focused on migrant farmworker housing, which is often provided as a condition of employment. Farmworker housing quality is regulated, but little documentation exists of compliance with regulations. A 2007 survey of 43 randomly selected farmworker camps and a 2008 survey of 27 camps randomly selected from the 2007 sample documented housing conditions via interviewer administered questionnaire and housing checklist. Substandard conditions are common in migrant housing. All camps had at least one exterior housing problem; 93% had at least one interior problem. Housing conditions worsen across the agricultural season. Characteristics including no residents with H2A visa and 11 or more residents are associated with poorer conditions. Housing standards are not adequately enforced. An increase in post-occupancy inspections and targeting camps with characteristics that place them at increased risk for substandard conditions are recommended.

Tent Cities: An Interim Solution to Homelessness and Affordable Housing Shortages in the United States

Tents cities have reemerged in the public view as a result of economic depression and the housing crisis in recent years. Despite the growing number of tent cities and their homeless residents, these encampments have received almost no academic attention or analysis. This Comment seeks to open the dialogue on tent cities in the context of informal housing law and policy in the United States. In doing so, it provides background on homelessness, informal housing, and tent cities, explores the benefits derived from tent cities both for encampment residents and for local government actors, and also considers the ethical and legal constraints associated with homeless encampments. The Comment then explores innovative government responses that have allowed tent cities to survive and sometimes thrive. Finally, the Comment proposes several ways in which tent cities can be acknowledged, addressed and improved. The complicated social and political context in which tent cities exist, and the substandard conditions that many tent city residents endure, underscore the immediacy of the issue, and the importance of addressing encampments in a coherent, cohesive, and compassionate

We Are the World: AMIA Comes of Age and Discovers International Relations

We Are the WorldAMIA Comes of Age and Discovers International Relations Sam Kula (bio) One can easily overhype the “we are the world” bit because there are large parts of the globe in which activity in audiovisual archives is either marginal or nonexistent, and there are many countries in which there are archives with which the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) only has contact through other federations or associations of archives. However, AMIA has come a long way in the last five years in reaching out beyond North America to anyone, anywhere, with a sincere desire to collect and protect a piece of the world’s audiovisual heritage. In a sense, AMIA has always been international. Once the Film Archives Advisory and Television Archives Advisory Committees (F/TAAC), from which AMIA emerged in 1991, had outgrown their original function of coordinating the activity on a national level and of advising the American Film Institute (AFI) on how to distribute the National Endowment for the Arts funding then available, they became effectively the body linking moving image archives in North America. Canadian members were welcome. Certainly, when I shifted from managing the AFI’s archives program and began directing the audiovisual program at the Public Archives of Canada (now Library and Archives Canada) in 1973, I assumed I could continue sharing knowledge and experience with my American friends. There may have been one or two other Canadians attending FAAC in those early days (the records are nonexistent—we used to signify agreement with a nodding of heads!), but in due course of time, more than forty other Canadian archivists joined. It should be clear from the history statement on the organization’s Web site that AMIA has always been an association open to moving image archivists from anywhere in the world.1 They can work in national institutions with substantial budgets or in the equivalent of mom-and-pop storefront operations hanging on from day to day, hoping that some funding source will recognize the value of their work. Terminology tends to be imprecise in our field: you can’t restore or preserve unless you first protect, and if all you can do is protect, even in substandard storage conditions, you are still carrying out a vital archival function. Public access is not an essential characteristic in defining moving image archives. AMIA is unique in that the membership includes archivists from production companies in film and television to distributors, footage libraries, and laboratories—anyone involved with protecting, restoring, and disseminating the heritage. In AMIA’s first ten years, the membership grew steadily, until it leveled off at about seven hundred. While foreign membership (defined as residents outside North America) grew as well, developments in the moving image archives world elsewhere held the increase to modest numbers. One was the establishment of the Southeast Asia-Pacific Audiovisual Archive Association (SEAPAVAA) in 1996, which grouped moving image archives and individual archivists from the ten nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Australia and New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands into an association with a mandate very similar to that of AMIA. Another was the impact of digitization with converging recording technologies in sound and images, leading organizations such as the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA; originally the International Association of Sound Archives) to expand their mandates. A third factor was the significant increase in resources available for audiovisual archives throughout the European Union. Numerous collaborative and well-funded projects in preservation and data management in the past ten years have linked archives and archivists in Europe in ways that the rest of the world can only envy. While all this activity was taking place, AMIA faced a dilemma. With the vast majority of its members located in the United States, there was resistance to holding the annual conference outside the United States because of cost and travel restrictions. This denied AMIA [End Page 127] the opportunity to use conferences in other regions of the globe as a means of developing the field and of attracting new members. This has been the practice of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) and the International Federation of Television Archives...

Peerless Pier Caps

The $102-million upgrade of the Trenton–Morrisville Toll Bridge, which spans the Delaware River to link Trenton, New Jersey, and Morrisville, Pennsylvania, featured the innovative use of cantilevered pier caps to facilitate the widening of the aging structure. Through this innovative design, the bridge was widened without having to carry out additional foundation work in the river. Replacing the deck and upgrading the approach structures helped to eliminate substandard conditions and improve traffic safety on a critical regional transportation link.

Exploding Cities: Housing the Masses in Paris, Chicago, and Mexico City, 1850—2000

In The Mystery of Capitalism , the darling of neoliberalism, Hernando de Soto posits that secure property titles explain “why capitalism triumphs in the West and fails everywhere else.” While social scientists have taken him to task for an oversimplification of the causes and remedies of poverty, historians have contributed little to this important policy debate. Applying comparative methods across time and space, such a retrospective analysis exposes serious flaws in de Soto’s thesis. Case studies of Paris, Chicago, and Mexico City covering successive, fifty-year periods support his contention that property law was the single most important factor in determining the fate of rural migrants trying to find a place to live in these exploding cities. But in each case, residential property played a far more complex role in creating the social and physical geography of the city than its simple exchange value. This article illuminates some of these alternative economic uses and embedded cultural meanings of identities of place. It also shows how urban growth machines create capital value in property for some by creating environmental injustice of substandard conditions of everyday life for others.

Mental Health Care Reforms in Latin America: Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Mexico

Mental Health Care Reforms in Latin America: Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Mexico

Ancient DNA Methodology: Thoughts from Brian M. Kemp and David Glenn Smith on "Mitochondrial DNA of Protohistoric Remains of an Arikara Population from South Dakota"

Ancient DNA Methodology:Thoughts from Brian M. Kemp and David Glenn Smith on "Mitochondrial DNA of Protohistoric Remains of an Arikara Population from South Dakota" Brian M. Kemp and David Glenn Smith Our paper "Mitochondrial DNA of Protohistoric Remains of an Arikara Population from South Dakota: Implications for the Macro-Siouan Language Hypothesis" [Lawrence et al. 2010 (this issue)] has been reviewed by two scholars, and although we agree with the comments of the second reviewer, we object to the first reviewer's statement that the Authors do not use currently accepted methods in ancient DNA studies. the Authors have not followed the now classical stringent standards for the authentications of ancient DNA. Unfortunately, Authors did not do [the following]: (i) test to quantify the preservations of macromolecules (amino acid or collagen), (ii) quantifications of macromolecules, (iii) detections of long amplificates, (iv) amplifications of associated remains (if any), (v) cloning, (vi) independent replications. Further, in this study there is another fundamental question: the impossibility to track down modern DNA human contaminations (see Sampietro et al. 2006) so the results, even though interesting, are not supported by a strong scientific methodology. We believe that the review was unfair and reflects viewpoints that are potentially stifling to future discoveries and progression of the ancient DNA (aDNA) field as a whole. Reviewer 1 refers to six "classical stringent standards" to which we did not adhere. Our rebuttal is not to argue that, in fact, we did adhere to any fixed set of "standards" but rather to argue that (1) following these standards cannot alone authenticate aDNA results. Conversely, (2) failing to follow all these standards does not necessarily lead to aberrant and/or unreliable results, and (3) site-specific and/or sample-specific circumstances are suitable for dictating the analytical standards to be followed. We recognize that the "classical stringent standards" to which the reviewer refers originated from an opinion piece published in Science: Cooper and Poinar's (2000) "Ancient DNA: Do It Right or Not at All." [This was not the first or only list of recommendations; however, according to Google Scholar, this opinion piece has been cited 305 times, making it a classic for the aDNA field (website accessed December 22, 2009). A few years later, Pääbo et al. (2004) expanded on these recommendations and explored them in more detail. Pääbo's review paper was co-authored by Hendrik Poinar, but did not include Alan Cooper. In this letter, we will contrast, where appropriate, the recommendations of Cooper and Poinar (2000) with those put forth by Pääbo et al. (2004).] [End Page 227] The intention of Cooper and Poinar's (2000) paper was to provide some guidelines for the field of aDNA, which had taken a major detour in the early 1990s into what now appears to be a realm of impossibility. During this period, for example, attempts were made to extract and analyze DNA from dinosaurs (Woodward et al. 1994), Miocene chloroplasts (Golenberg et al. 1990; Soltis et al. 1992), and 25-135-million-year-old amber-embedded insects and their gut flora (Cano et al. 1992a, 1992b, 1993, 1994), reports of which were published in leading scientific journals. (Hendrik Poinar was part of the research team that reported on the DNA retrieved from the amber-embedded insects specimens.) Upon reanalysis, the dinosaur DNA was found to closely resemble that of mammals, especially humans (Allard et al. 1995; Hedges and Schweitzer 1995; Henikoff 1995; Zischler et al. 1995) and the chloroplast and insect DNA sequences, collected and analyzed in many cases under substandard conditions, failed to meet evolutionary expectations (Hebsgaard et al. 2005) and/or were not reproducible (Austin et al. 1997). Although it was clearly an opportune time to make some recommendations to ground those practicing in the aDNA field, we object to anyone dictating any methodology that needs to be followed in all circumstances. We dispute that the foremost experts in the study of aDNA, a group in which several of us, in addition to Cooper and Poinar and presumably Reviewer 1, also hold membership, regard these "classical standards" as unequivocally valid requirements or broadly accept them as standards. Although stringent standards are always desirable...

Landlords, fear, and children's respiratory health: an untold story of environmental injustice in the central city

Recent research has explored the role of environmental inequalities in explaining health disparities, especially in urban environments. This paper investigates the role of the landlord in shaping indoor environmental injustices. Specifically, we rely on interview data from low-income parents in South Phoenix, AZ, with elementary-aged children with asthma. We found families living in poor quality rental housing that impacted children's breathing. Landlords were directly involved in keeping the homes in poor condition, even when asked by the tenant to fix the property, and immigrants were especially at risk. In general, relationships between landlords and tenants were unequal and coloured by the tenant's poverty and fears of eviction. Among the immigrant tenants, many had accompanying fears of authorities and deportation. The cycle of fear, poverty, and a lack of power compounded as tenants were hesitant to report problems, which reinforced the power of the landlord over the tenant and did nothing to improve living conditions. Recognising the role of landlords in creating substandard housing conditions is important as they represent a group that can be targeted for interventions.

From formal- to informal-sector employment: examining the Chinese presence in Zambia

This paper analyses China's recent engagement with Zambia, examining especially Chinese hiring practices, methods of business organisation and the labour conditions maintained by Chinese-operated construction and mining firms. Moving beyond existing analyses which remain focused solely on Chinese trade, aid and investment, this study begins to explore the micro-level of Chinese ventures, arguing that the continued employment of co-nationals as well as the generally substandard labour conditions maintained by Chinese firms lead to the offloading of Zambian workers into the country's burgeoning informal economy. There, newly emerged Chinese businesses stand to threaten local entrepreneurs who lack the resources necessary to parry Chinese competition. The result is a rapidly growing national unemployment rate and an increasing number of Zambians left struggling to sustain their livelihoods. This paper further argues that the characteristics defining China's engagement with Zambia are not particular to the Zambian context alone, but are rather abiding characteristics of overseas Chinese businesses in general. The paper ultimately calls for a policy framework regulating Chinese business activities in Zambia, lest the negative consequences of the Sino-Zambian partnership prevail.

Causation and complications

hese are the facts that the authors presented: 1. The patient developed his infection eight weeks after his injections. 2. Despite having an infection that required drainage, the patient had normal range of motion in his metacarpophalangeal joints. 3. The patient refused to be admitted to hospital for “surgical drainage under general anesthesia”, hence, “less thorough surgical debridement under Bier’s block, in the emergency room, was performed.” 4. The extensor tendons were found to be intact at that time. 5. Two days later the patient was revaluated and claimed a one-day history of loss of full extension. On examination his active metacarpophalangeal joint motion was only -30˚ / 90˚.6. Additional surgery was performed that confirmed the rupture of the extensors to the index, long, and ring digits. 7. One week later tendon grafting was performed. 8. One year later the patient’s metacarpophalangeal joint motion was -25˚ / 90˚.The authors claim that this is a “case of rapidly progressive suppurative extensor tenosynovitis, with tendon rupture, following improper administration of local steroids”. By the authors’ own admission, the infection occurred eight weeks after the steroid injections. Eight weeks is a rather long time from alleged bacterial inoculation to clinical infection. Furthermore, when the patient was first examined by the authors he had no tendon ruptures and had normal extension. Using a Bier block for anesthesia, they operated under substandard conditions. The patient lost extension within a day. One week later they attempted to reconstruct his extensors, but the final measurements of digital motion were practically the same as immediately after the rupture. Is the authors’ claim valid? Were the tendon ruptures caused by “improper administration of local steroids” or were they caused by something else? More importantly, is there any sound scientific evidence that the steroid injections resulted in the patient’s final result? Stating that a treatment is ‘improper’ implies that the authors are giving a legal opinion that a malpractice has occurred. Hence, it is worthwhile to consider legal approaches to the causation. The concept of ‘proximate cause’ is used in the United States and is similar to causation under English Law.

Effects of Living in Sub-Standard Housing Conditions on School Achievement

Effects of Living in Sub-Standard Housing Conditions on School Achievement

Beyond Supermax Administrative Segregation

Litigation in Mississippi required the Department of Corrections to ameliorate substandard conditions at the supermaximum Unit 32 of Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, remove prisoners with serious mental illness from administrative segregation and provide them with adequate treatment, and reexamine the entire classification system. Pursuant to two federal consent decrees, the Department of Corrections greatly reduced the population in administrative segregation and established a step-down mental health treatment unit for the prisoners excluded from administrative segregation. This article describes and discusses not only the process of enacting the changes but also the outcomes, including the large reductions in rates of misconduct, violence, and use of force.