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Associations between greater perceived racial discrimination and both higher levels of depressive symptomology and higher blood pressure have been established in the literature. Research has found that depression is often comorbid with diabetes and individuals with type 2 diabetes are at an increased risk for depression as the prevalence of depression is 2 to 3 times higher in people with diabetes when compared to the general population. Additionally, individuals with type 2 diabetes are also at an increased risk for high blood pressure. Although these associations are present in the literature, no studies have been found that examine all of these variables in conjunction. The current study used data from the 2014 Health and Retirement Study to examine the associations among perceived racial/ethnic discrimination, depression symptoms, and blood pressure for older Latinx adults (ages 50+) with type 2 diabetes (n = 303) and without type 2 diabetes (n = 521), while controlling for sex, age, partner status, and education. Findings indicated diabetes status was positively associated with both depression symptoms (t(790) = 5.32, p < .001) and systolic blood pressure (t(703) = 2.74, p = .006). Racial/ethnic discrimination was positively associated with depression (r(206) = .14, p = .045); however, it was not associated with blood pressure. No statistically significant interactions were found. Discussion focuses on possible explanations for the research findings, future directions, and clinical implications.

This dissertation contains a qualitative case study of how Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate, and her staff, created communication systems to contact Latinos during the 2016 presidential campaign and how these systems operated in Northeast Philadelphia. Three research questions guided these observations: How was political communication produced, disseminated, and decoded through interpersonal, mass, and digital communication by the Democratic candidate, her Latino communication staff, and Northeast Philadelphia Latino residents during the 2016 presidential campaign? What were the functions, norms, and values that structured the political communication systems among the Democratic candidate, her Latino communication staff, and Northeast Philadelphia Latino residents? What were the power relations that informed the interactions between the Democratic candidate, her Latino communication staff, and Northeast Philadelphia Latino residents in the political communication system? For this dissertation, I devised the Political Communication Systems Model, a toolkit to observe and theorize on political communication. Under the grounded theory umbrella, two methods were used to collect data. First, Clinton’s mediated campaign communication was monitored. Second, I worked as a volunteer in a field operations office that Clinton opened in Philadelphia and performed a participant observation. Clinton built a political communication machine to produce a campaign that used a hybrid media system. She hired a large staff to design and execute an "air war" (i.e., radio and TV ads and journalistic coverage), a digital campaign (i.e., distribution of information through websites, blogs, social media, newsletters and text messages), and a "ground game" (i.e., canvassing, phone banking, and online messaging). The Latino campaign was designed to promote liberal values such as globalism, cosmopolitanism, multiculturalism, and diversity, values that shaped her economic and political proposals. The ground game had three main objectives in Northeast Philadelphia: register new voters, create strategies to persuade undecided voters to support Hillary Clinton, and organize the "Get Out the Vote" (GOTV), which consists of convincing people to get out their houses, go to the polling station, and vote. A substantial part of the dissertation focuses on describing and analyzing the ground game in Northeast Philadelphia and offers two significant findings. First, political communication systems need material infrastructures operate. Clinton built a material infrastructure to communicate with residents. This infrastructure was made, primarily, of human bodies that were able to move around the territory and use other communicative technologies smartphones, tablets, and computers. Second, human bodies were also used as symbolic devices. Clinton recruited staffers and volunteers whose bodies embodied values such as diversity, multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism, and globalism. The biographies and trajectories of these individuals projected these values, because they were persons from different parts of Latin America, with diverse cultural and educational backgrounds, and with different experiences of being a U.S. citizen or resident. Finally, the dissertation offers two main contributions. On the one hand, the dissertation expands the Political Communication Systems Model and suggests that the human body is the primary material unit in political communication infrastructures. On the other, this work illustrates how qualitative research can be employed for researching political communication in general, and presidential campaigns in particular. / Media & Communication

In the U.S., diabetes mellitus cases have been increasing, from 25 million in 2010 to 29 million in 2012. Healthy People 2020, the U.S. National Health Agenda, has established specific goals and objectives for diabetes. In the U.S., prevalence of pre-diabetes and diabetes for adult Hispanics was 38% and 12%, respectively, in 2012. The total estimated diabetes cost in the U.S. has been increasing, from $176 billion in 2007 to $245 billion in 2012. The current study had two research hypotheses; the formative phase was expected to demonstrate a need for a community-based Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) self-management intervention for Spanish-speaking Hispanics. Random Control Trial (RTC) was expected to demonstrate the potential impact in preventing and managing T2DM. Methods. A community-based lifestyle education curriculum was translated into Spanish, and adapted to Hispanic culture. This study includes three phases: 1) a formative phase; 2) a two-group pilot RCT with Hispanic Living with Diabetes (HBLD) and a delayed treatment condition; and 3) post-HBLD focus groups held with three participating groups of HBLD. Results. Of 60 participants screened in the formative phase, 62% had A1c > 5.7%, and 75% did not have medical insurance. Of 6 participants who completed the pilot, A1c decreased for all six participants. Of 67 participants screened in phase 2, 61% had A1c > 5.7%. Of 30 HBLD participants in the RCT, baseline versus 3-month mean A1c increased 0.2 for the delayed control group (n = 10) and did not experience any change for the intervention group (n = 11). The difference in A1c change from baseline to follow up between treatment groups was not statistically significant (Kruskal Wallis, p < 0.05). Diabetes knowledge and SCT variables change from baseline to follow-up between groups were not statistically significant. Major themes identified in focus group discussions included barriers to access to health and nutrition services, the value of having a Spanish-speaking Hispanic as a health educator, and barriers to recruiting community members as promotoras. Implications. HBLD has potential to reduce complications of diabetes among Hispanic participants by providing education to those who may not otherwise have access to it. / Ph. D.

The Hispanic population in central Texas tends to have low levels of civic engagement as compared to other groups in the same area, which leads to disproportionate political marginalization. Prior research has focused on characteristics of voters and nonvoters, but has failed to explore the lack of political mobilization among Hispanic voters. The purpose of this study was twofold; first to better understand the nature of Hispanic voters' political marginalization, and second, explore why participation levels are so low among this group. This general qualitative study applied critical race theory to explore the barriers perceived by Hispanic voters related to political marginalization that may contribute to low voter participation. Data were collected through interviews with 20 randomly selected Hispanic people residing in central Texas. Interview data were transcribed, inductively coded, and then organized into themes. The key research findings identified 3 themes that potentially explain low civic engagement; a general distrust in government, a deficiency of civics education in the public school system, and specific cultural preferences that may contribute to low levels of participation in voting and politics. Findings also revealed that there is little understanding of the voting process, and few public initiatives to encourage the Hispanic voter community to vote or otherwise engage in participatory democracy. Recommendations to policy makers to promote positive social change include increasing funding for civic education, and creating voter outreach programs. Policy makers and politicians should also seek out ways to build trust in the political process throughout the Hispanic community.

As many American metropolitan areas spread outward, urban sociologists are interested in the effects of sprawl and in efforts to limit suburban expansion. To rein in urban sprawl, land use measures known as “smart growth initiatives” are gaining popularity. Urban growth boundaries are the particular type of initiative examined in this research. An urban growth boundary delineates where development is encouraged and where it is discouraged or prohibited. My first research question is whether urban growth boundaries contribute to the exclusion of racial minorities. I also explore whether urban growth boundaries affect residential segregation. I study 86 places throughout the U.S.: 43 matched pairs of places (with each pair comprised of a place with an urban growth boundary and a place without a boundary but otherwise similar to its partner). I also consider Atlanta, with no constraints on growth, and Portland, Oregon, a smart growth leader. Census data and residential segregation indexes from 1990 and 2000 for whites, blacks, and Hispanics are analyzed. The analysis consists of comparing change in the number of blacks and Hispanics due to in-migration and population growth in places with and without urban growth boundaries, and examining levels of segregation in them. I find that urban growth boundaries do not reduce blacks’ or Hispanics’ in-migration or population size. Also, the preponderance of the results supports the view that urban growth boundaries are not a cause of racial residential segregation.

The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of vitamin D supplementation (4000 IU or 6000 IU of cholecalciferol daily for 6 months) on fasting plasma glucose, fasting insulin, glycated hemoglobin, and lipid profile in a sample of African-Americans and Hispanics with T2D and vitamin D insufficiency. Seventy five participants were recruited by community outreach. Plasma glucose concentration was measured by hexokinase enzymatic method. Glycated hemoglobin was measured by the DCA2000+ system. Insulin in fasting blood was determined by radioimmunoassay. Plasma total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol were assayed by enzymatic methods. Serum vitamin D concentrations were measured with an enzyme-immunoassay kit. Mixed model was used to compare treatment effects and Bonferroni multiple comparison tests was used to detect significant changes from baseline, 3 months, and 6 months on the outcome variables. Significant improvements in serum 25(OH)D levels were seen from baseline to 3 month and 6 months respectively in both treatments (from 22.25 ± 7.19 to 37.34 ± 12.31 and 37.99 ± 13.22, PPP=0.040) was observed. Similarly, a significant change in serum triglycerides was observed at 6 months in the 6000 IU group (from 201.44 ± 91.35 to 172.92 ± 76.87 mg/dl, P=0.037). However, when the model was adjusted for confounders, significance was lost. Vitamin D supplementation did not improve glucose homeostasis in this sample. The positive effect of vitamin D supplementation on lipid profile may be mediated by other cofactors related to vitamin D metabolism.

Les situations de contact de populations impliquent des dynamiques sociales, culturelles et linguistiques, dont les protagonistes ne sortent pas indemnes. C’est le cas des Hispaniques aux États-Unis, dont le contact avec la culture états-unienne a favorisé l'apparition d’une culture mixte et d’un phénomène linguistique connu sous le nom de spanglish. Le spanglish évoque tour à tour des questions linguistiques, culturelles, sociales et politiques, et l’objectif de ce travail est d’élucider ses implications dans le domaine de la linguistique. Ainsi, cette étude s’intéresse aux transferts de l’anglais dans l’espagnol états-unien et à la manière dont ces variations répondent aux paramètres du système. L’analyse menée dans ce travail s’inscrit dans la suite des études linguistiques qui se sont intéressés à l’unicité du signe. Elle part ainsi du principe que les variations survenues dans l’espagnol états-unien sont signifiantes ; leur apparition dévoile des dynamiques inhérentes au système et remet en question le caractère immuable des facteurs culturels et linguistiques qui définissent la civilisation hispanique. / Situations of population contact imply social, cultural and linguistic dynamics from which the protagonists never remain unscathed. This is the case of Hispanics in the United States, whose contact with the US culture favored the development of a mixed culture and a linguistic phenomenon known as Spanglish. Spanglish evokes concurrently linguistic, social, cultural and political questions and the purpose of the present work is to elucidate its implications in linguistics. This study focuses on transfers from English into United States Spanish, and on how these variations obey the system’s parameters. The present analysis is the latest in a series of linguistic studies focused on the oneness of the sign. It is based on the principle that variations that appeared in United States Spanish are significant ; their emergence reveals the system’s inherent dynamics and challenges the immutable nature of the cultural and linguistic factors that define the Hispanic civilization.

In Texas, Hispanic populations (people of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race) have increased from 6.7 million in 2000 to 7.4 million in 2005, or by approximately 10.5%. This growth trend is expected to continue with estimates that Hispanics will represent approximately 37% of the state's population by 2015. The problem this research addressed is that participation in higher education by Texas Hispanics is not keeping pace with the growth in the Texas Hispanic population. If allowed to continue, the state could be in danger of realizing devastating economic and societal consequences. The present study utilized regression analysis to determine how well four institutional characteristics explained the variance in Hispanic enrollment and graduation percentages of students attending public 4-year institutions in states with prevalent Hispanic populations. Findings indicate that while local Hispanic population is a strong, positive predictor of Hispanic enrollments, it has a negative impact on Hispanic graduation rates. The independent variables of average cost of attendance and average financial aid package are the strongest predictors of Hispanic graduation percentages. Implications for the state of Texas include stress on public 4-year institutions in coping with Hispanic population increases, possible enrollment overflows at the community college level, and need for additional allocations to state and institutional financial aid programs.