<p> Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death among all major racial and ethnic groups in the United States (US) and worldwide. Filipinos are the second largest Asian immigrant group in the US. Healthful lifestyle behaviors are cardioprotective factors, but have been under-, overestimated, or not studied among Asian American subgroups. </p><p> Objective: The purpose of this dissertation was to describe the cardiovascular health, cardiovascular mortality, cardiometabolic and lifestyle health behaviors, acculturation, and predictors associated with CVD in the Filipino American population. </p><p> Methods: A systematic review of the literature was conducted which focused on the cardiovascular mortality, disease and clinical and behavioral risks of Filipinos in the US. Two secondary analyses of the 2011-2012 California Health Interview Survey dataset were conducted which focused on the cardiovascular health, CVD, acculturation, metabolic and lifestyle health behavior of Filipino Americans (n = 555). </p><p> Results: The systematic review suggested that Filipino Americans are at high risk for developing cardiovascular disease, for having CVD-related clinical health risks, for engaging in unhealthy CVD lifestyle behaviors, and dying from CVD, as compared to White, non-Hispanic and other Asian Americans in general and by gender. The prevalence of CVD was 7.4% among Filipinos in California. Hypertension, diabetes, physical inactivity, being overweight/obese, and inadequate consumption of fruits and vegetables were prevalent among Filipinos. Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that only hypertension was a significant predictor of CVD, controlling for the effects of age, gender, being born in the US, and diabetes. When taking into consideration acculturation factors in chronic diseases and health behaviors, US-born Filipinos had a significantly lower proportion of chronic diseases as compared to Filipinos not born in the US. Filipinos who lacked English proficiency reported more hypertension as compared to Filipinos who reported proficiency in English. A higher proportion of several positive health behaviors were reported among Filipinos not born in the US and those who did not speak English at home ate the recommended 35 or more servings per week of fruits and vegetables compared to their counterparts. </p><p> Conclusions: Further research is needed for culturally-appropriate interventions, education, and prevention programs which focus on health behaviors and chronic diseases, such as CVD, for Filipino Americans.</p>

<p> This paper examines the association between race blame attitudes with support for policies aimed at improving the nation&rsquo;s large cities among White and Black Americans. Although legislative safeguards protect the constitutional rights of all Americans, Blacks trail Whites on nearly all quality of life indicators. By extension, the quality of life within cities with disproportionate and segregated Black populations is decidedly worse than in other cities. That said, the current study largely finds that black and white Americans maintain different motivations for supporting increased or decreased funding for large urban American cities, which often serves as a code word for Black cities. According to the General Social Survey (2014), among whites, individuals that believe that racial inequality result from a lack of Black effort are more likely than others to believe that that the government does not need to offer any additional help to large American cities. This relationship, however, does not hold up for Blacks, suggesting perhaps that the word &ldquo;city&rdquo; operates as a code word for Whites that spurs racial resentment.</p>

<p> The United States is one of the top destination countries for human trafficking, and Florida has the third highest number of reported cases of human trafficking. Despite the severity of this issue, Florida anti-trafficking legislation, reintegration programs, and awareness campaigns tend to contribute to the invisibility of the victims and undermine their recovery and reintegration into society, especially when the victims are immigrants. This project uses a multi-method approach including content analysis of anti-human trafficking campaigns to argue that portrayals of a &ldquo;perfect victim&rdquo; only amplify stigmatization and discrimination against immigrant victims. Through in-depth interviews and ethnographic observation highlighting the voices of immigrant survivors, law enforcement and service providers, I analyze the individual and structural challenges to reintegration. Using these insights, I offer several recommendations about the type of services and training necessary to help trafficking victims recover from their trauma and rebuild their lives. </p>

<p> This study examines the national criminal justice system&rsquo;s and the state of Tennessee criminal justice system&rsquo;s policies in terms of how they influence citizens&rsquo; need for prisons with the private sector's desire for profits and their effects on the incarceration rate of African American males in the state of Tennessee. There is an important, often neglected correlation among prison sentencing, felony disenfranchisement, voting and the continuing problematic issues of race in America, particularly in Tennessee. Tennessee serves as a representative case study for which to examine local, state, and national criminal justice system, disparate outcomes and social inequality. The research therefore investigates ethically questionable public-private business relationships and arrangements that contribute to socially-constructed economic policy instruments used to fulfill Conservatives and Whites supremacists&rsquo; objectives for White domination in the State. Through mass incarceration and felony disenfranchisement, African Americans&mdash;in particular, African American males, have been discriminated against and systematically excluded from political participation, employment, housing, education and other social programs. This dissertation utilizes the Racial Contract Theory and Racial Group Threat Theory (Racial Threat Theory or Group Threat Theory) to investigate the issue. The Racial Contract Theory suggests that racism itself is an intentionally devised institutionalized political arrangement, of official and unofficial rule, of official and unofficial policy, socioeconomic benefit, and norms for the preferential distribution of material wealth and opportunities. The Racial Group Threat Theory suggests that growth in the comparative size of a subordinate group increases that group&rsquo;s capacity to use democratic political and economic institutions for its benefit at the expense of the dominant group.</p><p> This dissertation therefore first hypothesizes that race, mass incarceration and felony disenfranchisement are employed to influence election outcomes in Tennessee. The second hypothesis that profit-seeking motive or other forms of economic incentives contribute to racist policy in the criminal justice system of Tennessee. The secondary data for this study were collected from books, scholarly articles, and online sources using the document analysis technique. The primary data were collected using national, state, local government reports and expert testimonials already conducted.</p>

<p> "Our war is not against Islam.....Our war is a war against evil&hellip;" -President George W. Bush. </p><p> Despite President Bush's rhetoric attempting to separate Muslims in general from terrorists who adhere to the Islamic faith, the policies of the War on Terror have generally focused on Muslims domestically and abroad, often for no greater reason than a shared religious identity with the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack (see for example, National Special Entry-Exit Registration). While foreign-born Muslims were the primary subjects of earlier policies in the War on Terror, several cases involving Muslim Americans suggest that despite holding U.S. citizenship, they may be subject to differential standards of justice (i.e. Hamdi v. Rumsfeld or the targeted killing of Anwar Al-Awlaki). Building on previous scholarship that has examined the Muslim American experience post 9/11, this dissertation focuses on the relationship between the substance and implementation of laws and policies and Muslim American attitudes towards political efficacy and orientations towards the U.S. government. In addition, this dissertation examines the relationship between policy design and implementation and Muslim American political participation, alienation, and withdrawal. </p><p> This study was approached through the lens of social construction in policy design, a theoretical framework that was pioneered by Anne Schneider and Helen Ingram. Schneider and Ingram (1993, 1997) focus on the role of public policy in fostering and maintaining democracy. With the goal of understanding public policy as a vehicle to promoting or inhibiting democracy, their analysis focuses on how the use of social constructions of different policy group targets can affect their attitudes towards government and citizenship, in addition to behaviors such as political participation. </p><p> According to Schneider and Ingram (1993, 1997, 20005), groups with favorable constructions can expect to receive positive treatment and exhibit positive attitudes towards government and participate at higher levels than groups with negative social constructions, who will develop negative orientations towards government, a decrease in feelings of political efficacy, and lower levels of political participation. Within this conceptualization of the impact of policy on target groups is the element of political power, which Schneider and Ingram (1993, 1997, 2005) examine as a measure of the degree to which different target groups can challenge their social construction and, subsequently, the policy benefits or burdens directed at them. </p><p> Research studying the impact of policies on differently constructed groups (welfare recipients, veterans, etc.) has empirically verified Schneider and Ingram's (1993, 1997, 2005) social construction in policy design theory. However, none of the existing research has yet to apply this framework to Muslim Americans as a group and in the context of counter-terrorism policies. </p><p> In order to situate the Muslim American responses according to the theories' main propositions, this study provides a background on many of the post 9/11 counter-terrorism policies, highlighting those policies that have disproportionately impacted members of this group. This research also examines how the War on Terror has been framed, and the actors involved in the construction of the Muslim image, with a focus on discerning the ways in which members of this population have been demonized and positioned as collectively responsible for acts of terrorism perpetrated by other Muslims. </p><p> This study utilized a mixed methods approach and included a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews. Purposive sampling was used in order to obtain a sample of Muslim Americans from different racial and ethnic backgrounds proportionate to the demographics of this community in the United States. The study findings are based on surveys from 75 individuals and interviews with 61 individuals. </p><p> The findings in this study reveal that Muslim Americans overwhelmingly perceive themselves to be the target of the War on Terror policies. Further, the data in this study shows that Muslim Americans across a range of backgrounds question the degree to which they are entitled to equity in both cultural and legal citizenship, including procedural justice. Despite exhibiting these views towards citizenship and procedural justice, a majority of Muslim Americans nonetheless reported increased levels of political participation as a response to policies that targeted them. </p><p> These findings provide additional empirical support for the social construction in policy design framework. Specifically, this data demonstrates that Muslim Americans in large part believe themselves to be the policy targets and have internalized many of the social constructions that have emerged vis-&agrave;-vis policy design and implementation. Consequently, Muslim Americans have developed subsequently negative orientations towards government and a sense of diminished citizenship. While the study results in terms of increased political participation may appear to be at odds with what the framework suggests, these increased levels of political participation are more properly couched as being a function of fear or threat, and in this sense a symptom of being targeted. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)</p>

<p> The Waite-Gallagher Marriage Benefit Theory (2000) articulates the premise of greater financial advantage, health benefits, and social well-being for married couples, not shared by cohabitating or singles. This benefit was not generalizable to same-sex couples or African-American. The significance of the current study is the use of a large dataset (The U. S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey) to explore if there is an association between type of legal status of marital relationship and financial advantage and health benefits for same-sex couples. Minority stress explains the systematic exclusion of same-sex couples from the entitlements of citizenship. The wage disadvantage theory of minority groups counters Waite and Gallagher and sheds light on a problem of comparison related to a heterosexual, Caucasian sample. Combining insights from a historical, political, economic, and social perspective, with a large secondary dataset from the 2010 American Community Survey 1-year tabulation, this quantitative dissertation seeks to extend the Waite-Gallagher theory. The findings suggest support for the Waite-Gallagher marriage benefit theory i.e. marriage does matter for lesbian and gay males. The principal conclusion is the existence of a statistically significant relationship between the state context (legal recognition of marriage vs. non-recognition) and financial advantage and health benefits when using a large secondary data set.</p>

In Massachusetts and around the country, public secondary schools have designed support groups and other programs to improve gay, lesbian, bisexual, and questioning (GLBQ) students' sense of safety at school. There is a tacit understanding that public middle and high schools are homophobic, unsafe places for students based on a belief that the majority is homophobic or un-accepting of their GLBQ peers. This study investigated the criteria GLBQ high school students use to define their sense of safety at school, surveyed five student bodies about their attitudes toward GLBQ students and explored correlations between students' personal feelings of comfort and their perceptions of others' comfort. Generally speaking, students were, "Sort of comfortable" to "Very comfortable" with sexual minorities and would support a friend who came out as GLB. All students, regardless of self-identified sexual orientation, underestimated peer support for gays, lesbians and bisexuals. The most supportive students tended to be older, female, have higher grade point averages, value education beyond high school and experience support from an adult in their school, community or both.

<p> Centers for Disease Control (2011a) Surveillance report revealed African American women comprised 63% of new HIV cases among women; 65% of African American women were infected with HIV transmitted by heterosexual sex; yet represent 13% of the female population in the United States. An existing data set was examined from a sample of 761 African American women with a history of drug use at high risk to acquire or transmit HIV and/or STDs to determine 751 women&rsquo;s knowledge and attitudes about risky sexual behaviors, factors influencing a decision to HIV test, and the influence of sex trading on the decision to HIV test. Binary logistic regression predicted a small percentage of women&rsquo;s decision to HIV test was influenced by knowledge of risky sexual behaviors (Naegelkerke R2, = .100). There were significant difference in the number HIV tests for women who reported cheating on a steady sex partner (M = 4.25, SD =7.49) versus women who did not cheat (M = 3.28, SD = 4.67), t(747) = - 2.19, p = .03. Binary logistic regression predicted a minor percentage of women&rsquo;s decision to HIV test was influenced by women&rsquo;s attitudes about risky sexual behavior (Nagelkerke R2 = .043). Women who agreed with the statement, I have risky drug behaviors that need changing were predicted twice as likely to be HIV tested Exp [B] = 1.829, 95% CI [1.018, 3.288]. Binary logistic regression predicted an increased 15.3% variation in the decision to HIV test is influenced by women&rsquo;s knowledge to prevent HIV and attitudes about risky sexual behavior (Nagelkerke R2 = .153). Women who agreed with the knowledge item, asked their partner if they were HIV positive, were 1.3 times more likely, and women who agree with the knowledge statement, I have risky drug behaviors that need changing, increased to 1.9 times more likely to HIV test. There were significant differences in number of HIV tests for women who engaged in sex-trading versus women who do not engage in sex-trading. Tailored strategies that determine unique needs of African American women to reduce risky sex an increase HIV testing are recommended.</p>

Context: Despite a long history of reforms, Pakistan‘s public sector (PS) is still considered cumbersome, corrupt, and inefficient by its citizens, government and international development community. Recent reforms were operationalised in 2001 under a new economic policy called the Poverty Reduction Programme (PRP) designed to facilitate the New Public Management (NPM) influenced transformation. The overarching objectives of these reforms were to strengthen the market and public sector simultaneously and so that they complemented each other. The PS reform actions taken under this strategy were mainly based on the World Bank‘s (WB) experience of developing countries which identified the state‘s weak institutional capacity as bottleneck to this transformation. Therefore, with the view to removing these impediments, actions to train the public servants, improve their salaries, and enhanced the use of information technology (IT) were included. However, many recent reports and indicators confirm the situation in Pakistan has remained unchanged. Various generic explanations of these compromised results have been provided; however, the concrete reasons in a Pakistani setting are still unknown. Research Questions: This study aims to investigate the reasons why Pakistan‘s PS organisations appear to be resistant to reform and why the repeated attempts at reform appear to have had so little impact. It addresses the following questions: What effects, if any, have NPM-inspired reform attempts had on the way that public sector organisations function? What have been the intended and unintended consequences of reform attempts? Research approach: This case study aims to bridge this gap through analysing the effects of administrative reforms in the federal tax agency where these actions have been revived as a part of the comprehensive reform programme. This study is qualitative and adopts a social constructionist approach. This case study is ethnographically oriented and works within pragmatist criteria of truth and validity; the case study organisation has been conceptualised as negotiated order (Strauss, 1978); and the initiatives of training, salaries and information technology are understood as managerial attempts to reshape organisational structures, processes, and the employment relationship with employees in line with the requirements of NPM. This research mainly depends on the interpretation and analysis of data gathered through 22 semi-structured interviews, participant observation and documentary sources of information including public and classified reports from donors and government repositories as well as published scholarly articles. The data were analysed in two stages: 1. abstract analysis took place during data collection, arranging, cleaning, and extraction of themes and patterns; and 2. firm analysis happened through an iterative process of comparing these themes, patterns, and field notes to make the sense of data. Findings: The findings suggest that the desired results of efficiency, transparency, fairness, and controlling corruption could not be achieved due to the takeover of prevalent contextual corrupt practices of nepotism, favouritism and recommendation at the time of its implementation. Moreover, this content-focused approach has also ignored the context and processes that led to compromised results. I have supported these findings through the identification of these contextual problems at the organisational and national levels. Contribution: This research contributed to a greater understanding of the initiation and implementation processes of the NPM-inspired PSR in Pakistan through the identification of factors limiting its results at organisational and national levels. In turn, it helped to highlight the problems behind reformer‘s taken for granted assumptions of quick-fixing the institutions through rapid dosage of reform. The results will also be valuable to reformers as they will not only help reformers to understand the reasons affecting its intended results but also help them to include these in the list of safeguard.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: B, page: 3830. Adviser: Nicole E. Allen. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-92) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.