Myths of Ethnicity and Nation: Immigration, Work, and Identity in the Belize Banana Industry

Myths of Ethnicity and Nation: Immigration, Work, and Identity in the Belize Banana Industry. Mark Moberg. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1997. 218 pp.     

A Prospective Study of LINE-1DNA Methylation and Development of Adiposity in School-Age Children

Background

Repetitive element DNA methylation is related to prominent obesity-related chronic diseases including cancer and cardiovascular disease; yet, little is known of its relation with weight status. We examined associations of LINE-1 DNA methylation with changes in adiposity and linear growth in a longitudinal study of school-age children from Bogotá, Colombia.

Methods

We quantified methylation of LINE-1 elements from peripheral leukocytes of 553 children aged 5–12 years at baseline using pyrosequencing technology. Anthropometric characteristics were measured periodically for a median of 30 months. We estimated mean change in three age-and sex-standardized indicators of adiposity: body mass index (BMI)-for-age Z-score, waist circumference Z-score, and subscapular-to-triceps skinfold thickness ratio Z-score according to quartiles of LINE-1 methylation using mixed effects regression models. We also examined associations with height-for-age Z-score.

Results

There were non-linear, inverse relations of LINE-1 methylation with BMI-for-age Z-score and the skinfold thickness ratio Z-score. After adjustment for baseline age and socioeconomic status, boys in the lowest quartile of LINE-1 methylation experienced annual gains in BMI-for-age Z-score and skinfold thickness ratio Z-score that were 0.06 Z/year (P = 0.04) and 0.07 Z/year (P = 0.03), respectively, higher than those in the upper three quartiles. The relation of LINE-1 methylation and annual change in waist circumference followed a decreasing monotonic trend across the four quartiles (P trend = 0.02). DNA methylation was not related to any of the adiposity indicators in girls. There were no associations between LINE-1 methylation and linear growth in either sex.

Conclusions

Lower LINE-1 DNA methylation is related to development of adiposity in boys.     

The Processing of Symbolic and Nonsymbolic Ratios in School-Age Children

This study tested the processing of ratios of natural numbers in school-age children. Nine- and eleven-year-olds were presented collections made up of orange and grey dots (i.e., nonsymbolic format) and fractions (i.e., symbolic format). They were asked to estimate ratios between the number of orange dots and the total number of dots and fractions by producing an equivalent ratio of surface areas (filling up a virtual glass). First, we tested whether symbolic notation of ratios affects their processing by directly comparing performance on fractions with that on dot sets. Second, we investigated whether children’s estimates of nonsymbolic ratios of natural numbers relied at least in part on ratios of surface areas by contrasting a condition in which the ratio of surface areas occupied by dots covaried with the ratio of natural numbers and a condition in which this ratio of surface areas was kept constant across ratios of natural numbers. The results showed that symbolic notation did not really have a negative impact on performance among 9-year-olds, while it led to more accurate estimates in 11-year-olds. Furthermore, in dot conditions, children’s estimates increased consistently with ratios between the number of orange dots and the total number of dots even when the ratio of surface areas was kept constant but were less accurate in that condition than when the ratio of surface areas covaried with the ratio of natural numbers. In summary, these results indicate that mental magnitude representation is more accurate when it is activated from symbolic ratios in children as young as 11 years old and that school-age children rely at least in part on ratios of surface areas to process nonsymbolic ratios of natural numbers when given the opportunity to do so.     

Ethnicity and Shared Meanings: A Case Study of the "Orphaned Bones" Ritual in Mainland China and Overseas

ABSTRACT   Several theories of ethnicity emphasize the analysis of intergroup relations. They neglect, however, the conflation of ideas and values structuring these relations—notably the cross-cultural aggregates of shared cultural meanings that underlie forms of cooperation and competition between interacting groups. In this article, I explore this kind of process through a multisite ethnography of the Xiu gugu ("refining of orphaned bones"), a ritual that the Chaozhou people of northeast Guangdong province, an ethnic subgroup of the Han, perform periodically. The celebration of this rite in Chaozhou is compared to versions resulting of the ritual in Malay Muslim and Thai Buddhist contexts. In the latter case, close conceptions of malevolent death underlie a fascinating interethnic cooperation, with most of the unfortunate dead whose bones are "refined" during the Chaozhou ritual being Thai.     

Believing Identity: Pentecostalism and the Mediation of Jamaican Ethnicity and Gender in England

Believing Identity: Pentecostalism and the Mediation of Jamaican Ethnicity and Gender in England. Nicole Rodriguez Toulis. New York: New York University Press, 1997.304 pp.     

Urine Bisphenol-A Level in Relation to Obesity and Overweight in School-Age Children

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a potential endocrine disruptor impacting metabolic processes and increasing the risk of obesity. To determine whether urine BPA level is associated with overweight/obesity in school-age children, we examined 1,326 students in grades 4–12 from three schools (one elementary, one middle, and one high school) in Shanghai. More than 98% of eligible students participated. Total urine BPA concentration was measured and anthropometric measures were taken by trained research staff. Information on risk factors for childhood obesity was collected for potential confounders. Age- and gender-specific weight greater than 90^th percentile of the underlying population was the outcome measure. After adjustment for potential confounders, a higher urine BPA level (≥2 µg/L), at the level corresponding to the median urine BPA level in the U.S. population, was associated with more than two-fold increased risk of having weight >90^th percentile among girls aged 9–12 (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 2.32, 95% confidence interval: 1.15–4.65). The association showed a dose-response relationship with increasing urine BPA level associated with further increased risk of overweight (p = 0.006 for trend test). Other anthropometric measures of obesity showed similar results. The same association was not observed among boys. This gender difference of BPA effect was consistent with findings from experimental studies and previous epidemiological studies. Our study suggests that BPA could be a potential new environmental obesogen. Widespread exposure to BPA in the human population may also be contributing to the worldwide obesity epidemic.     

Medicalizing Ethnicity: The Construction of Latino Identity in a Psychiatric Setting.

Medicalizing Ethnicity: The Construction of Latino Identity in. Psychiatric Setting. Vilma Santiago-Irizarry. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001.178 pp.     

Correlation between Corpus Callosum Sub-Segmental Area and Cognitive Processes in School-Age Children

We assessed the relationship between structural characteristics (area) and microstructure (apparent diffusion coefficient; ADC) of the corpus callosum (CC) in 57 healthy children aged 7.0 to 9.1 years, with diverse cognitive and academic abilities as well as executive functions evaluated with a neuropsychological battery for children. The CC was manually delineated and sub-segmented into six regions, and their ADC and area were measured. There were no significant differences between genders in the callosal region area or in ADC. The CC area and ADC, mainly of anterior regions, correlated with different cognitive abilities for each gender. Our results suggest that the relationship between cognitive abilities and CC characteristics is different between girls and boys and between the anterior and posterior regions of the CC. Furthermore, these findings strenghten the idea that regardless of the different interhemispheric connectivity schemes per gender, the results of cognitive tasks are very similar for girls and boys throughout childhood.     

Rituals of Gender Identity: Markers of Siberian Khanty Ethnicity, Status, and Belief

Siberian Khanty (Ostiak) menstrual taboos and related rituals of birth, naming, and marriage are analyzed, in order to explore cross-cultural theories of menstrual restriction, gender stratification, and female conservatism. Emphasis is placed on Mary Douglas's idea that conflicting norms of male dominance and female independence can encourage pollution beliefs. The importance of ancestresses, female shamans, and postmenopausal women in Khanty ritual indicates that there is no male monopoly on concepts of culture, power, the sacred and the "public." Khanty ideas about women, changing with Russian influence, are discussed in terms of slowly shifting definitions of "self and ethnicity. Data result from 13 months in the Soviet Union, including a summer ethnographic expedition to the Northern Ob River . [symbolic anthropology, pollution beliefs, gender stratification, ethnicity, Siberian Khanty (Ostiak)]     

Barriers to Provider-Initiated Testing and Counselling for Children in a High HIV Prevalence Setting: A Mixed Methods Study

Background

There is a substantial burden of HIV infection among older children in sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of whom are diagnosed after presentation with advanced disease. We investigated the provision and uptake of provider-initiated HIV testing and counselling (PITC) among children in primary health care facilities, and explored health care worker (HCW) perspectives on providing HIV testing to children.

Methods and Findings

Children aged 6 to 15 y attending six primary care clinics in Harare, Zimbabwe, were offered PITC, with guardian consent and child assent. The reasons why testing did not occur in eligible children were recorded, and factors associated with HCWs offering and children/guardians refusing HIV testing were investigated using multivariable logistic regression. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with clinic nurses and counsellors to explore these factors. Among 2,831 eligible children, 2,151 (76%) were offered PITC, of whom 1,534 (54.2%) consented to HIV testing. The main reasons HCWs gave for not offering PITC were the perceived unsuitability of the accompanying guardian to provide consent for HIV testing on behalf of the child and lack of availability of staff or HIV testing kits. Children who were asymptomatic, older, or attending with a male or a younger guardian had significantly lower odds of being offered HIV testing. Male guardians were less likely to consent to their child being tested. 82 (5.3%) children tested HIV-positive, with 95% linking to care. Of the 940 guardians who tested with the child, 186 (19.8%) were HIV-positive.

Conclusions

The HIV prevalence among children tested was high, highlighting the need for PITC. For PITC to be successfully implemented, clear legislation about consent and guardianship needs to be developed, and structural issues addressed. HCWs require training on counselling children and guardians, particularly male guardians, who are less likely to engage with health care services. Increased awareness of the risk of HIV infection in asymptomatic older children is needed. Please see later in the article for the Editors'' Summary     

Association between Traffic-Related Air Pollution in Schools and Cognitive Development in Primary School Children: A Prospective Cohort Study

Background

Air pollution is a suspected developmental neurotoxicant. Many schools are located in close proximity to busy roads, and traffic air pollution peaks when children are at school. We aimed to assess whether exposure of children in primary school to traffic-related air pollutants is associated with impaired cognitive development.

Methods and Findings

We conducted a prospective study of children (n = 2,715, aged 7 to 10 y) from 39 schools in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) exposed to high and low traffic-related air pollution, paired by school socioeconomic index; children were tested four times (i.e., to assess the 12-mo developmental trajectories) via computerized tests (n = 10,112). Chronic traffic air pollution (elemental carbon [EC], nitrogen dioxide [NO2], and ultrafine particle number [UFP; 10–700 nm]) was measured twice during 1-wk campaigns both in the courtyard (outdoor) and inside the classroom (indoor) simultaneously in each school pair. Cognitive development was assessed with the n-back and the attentional network tests, in particular, working memory (two-back detectability), superior working memory (three-back detectability), and inattentiveness (hit reaction time standard error). Linear mixed effects models were adjusted for age, sex, maternal education, socioeconomic status, and air pollution exposure at home.Children from highly polluted schools had a smaller growth in cognitive development than children from the paired lowly polluted schools, both in crude and adjusted models (e.g., 7.4% [95% CI 5.6%–8.8%] versus 11.5% [95% CI 8.9%–12.5%] improvement in working memory, p = 0.0024). Cogently, children attending schools with higher levels of EC, NO2, and UFP both indoors and outdoors experienced substantially smaller growth in all the cognitive measurements; for example, a change from the first to the fourth quartile in indoor EC reduced the gain in working memory by 13.0% (95% CI 4.2%–23.1%). Residual confounding for social class could not be discarded completely; however, the associations remained in stratified analyses (e.g., for type of school or high-/low-polluted area) and after additional adjustments (e.g., for commuting, educational quality, or smoking at home), contradicting a potential residual confounding explanation.

Conclusions

Children attending schools with higher traffic-related air pollution had a smaller improvement in cognitive development.     

Prevalence of Schistosoma haematobium Infection among School-Age Children in Afar Area,Northeastern Ethiopia

In this study, the prevalence and intensity of Schistosoma haematobium infection was determined among school-age children living in the Middle and Lower Awash Valley, Afar Regional State of Ethiopia. Between February and May 2014, urine samples were collected from 885 school-age children (5–16 years of age) from the Middle (n = 632; 4 villages) and Lower (n = 253; 3 villages) Awash Valley. All samples were processed using urine filtration to detect and quantify S. haematobium eggs. In addition, a subset of the urine samples was tested for hematuria using a urine dipstick (n = 556). The overall prevalence was 20.8% (95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 18.1%, 23.5%), based on urine filtration but the prevalence considerably varied across villages both in the Middle (from 12.5% to 37.0%) and Lower Awash Valley (from 0 to 5.3%). The overall mean urine egg count (UEC) among the infected children was 4.0 eggs/10 ml of urine (95% CI = 2.43, 5.52). The infection intensity varied from 0.4 eggs/10 ml of urine to 7.7 eggs/10 ml of urine in the Middle Awash Valley, and from 0 to 1.1 eggs/10 ml of urine in Lower Awash Valley. Age and sex were not associated with S. haematobium infection based on the multivariable logistic regression model. The prevalence of hematuria was 56.3% (95% CI = 52.2%, 60.4%) among a subset of the study participants (556) examined using the urine dipstick. The prevalence of hematuria also varies with villages from 8.3% to 93.2%. In conclusion, the prevalence of S. haematobium infection in the Middle Awash Valley was high and it varies across villages. Hence, children living in the present study villages of the Middle Awash Valley need to be treated with praziquantel to reduce morbidity and disrupt transmission.     

Epidemiology of Schistosomiasis and Usefulness of Indirect Diagnostic Tests in School-Age Children in Cubal,Central Angola

Introduction

Schistosomiasis remains a public health major problem and little is known in many areas, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa

Objectives

To assess the burden and risk factors of schistosomiasis and intestinal parasitic helminthes in the children of Cubal, Angola, and to compare different diagnostic approaches for urinary schistosomiasis under field conditions.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted. Urine and faeces samples of school children were microscopically studied. A random sample of children was obtained from an alphabetically arranged list of children, taking one of two children. Urine dipstick, colorimetric test and macrohaematuria were considered as indirect diagnostic methods and compared to direct urine examination. Possible risk factors for the infection were sex, age, distance to the river and previous treatment with praziquantel; the assessment was performed using Chi-square test.

Results

A total of 785 (61.18%) children showed S. haematobium eggs in urine; children living within 500 meters from the river had a higher odds for infection: Odds ratio 1.97 (1.45–2.7 CI 95%); urine dipstick showed sensitivity of 96% and specificity of 61.3%, with a positive predictive value; colorimetric test showed sensitivity of 52.5%, specificity of 74.6% and a positive predictive value of 77%. Proteinuria was present in 653 (51.1%) children, being more frequent in children with S. haematobium in urine (75.2%); 32 of 191 stool samples (16%) showed the presence of other intestinal parasites and 8 (4%) for S. haematobium.

Conclusions

Prevalence of urinary schistosomiasis in our study area is much higher than the national average, considering it as a high-risk community. Proximity to a source of water was a risk factor for the infection. Indirect tests, as urine dipstick and colorimetric test, were useful tools for diagnosis, due to ease of use and low cost. Proteinuria was a common finding, probably showing an early structural damage due to schistosomiasis in this group of children.     

A Mixed Model of Mutation for Electrophoretic Identity of Proteins within and between Populations

A model which is a mixture of the model of infinite alleles and the Ohta-Kimura model of stepwise mutation has been proposed for the study of eletcrophoretic variants in natural populations. Mutations which alter the mobility of a protein are divided into two classes: stepwise mutations and nonstepwise mutations. It is assumed that stepwise mutations follow the Ohta-Kimura model while nonstepwise mutations follow the infinite allele model. It is then shown that even if the proportion of nonstepwise mutations is only 5%, with the other 95% stepwise mutations, the effective number of alleles given by the present model is considerably larger than that given by the Ohta-Kimura model of stepwise mutation. The result has also been applied to study Nei's genetic distance.     

Jewish Hearts: A Study of Dynamic Ethnicity in the United States and the Soviet Union

Jewish Hearts:. Study of Dynamic Ethnicity in the United States and the Soviet Union. Betty N. Hoffman. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. 282 pp.     

Gastrointestinal Symptoms and Helicobacter pylori Infection in School-Age Children Residing in Porto Torres, Sardinia, Italy

Background: Helicobacter pylori infection is typically acquired in childhood, and following the acute event, it is thought that most infections remain asymptomatic. H. pylori has been suggested to protect against diarrhea in childhood. Aim: To examine the role of H. pylori in gastrointestinal symptoms in children. Materials and Methods: A cross‐sectional sero‐epidemiologic study was conducted in Porto Torres, Sardinia, Italy. Demographic information, socioeconomic factors, and the frequency of upper gastrointestinal symptoms during the previous 3 months (e.g., abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, heartburn, halitosis, slow digestion, belching, and weight loss) were evaluated by a questionnaire. H. pylori status was determined by ELISA. Results: Approximately 95% (N = 1741) of school children between the age of 6 and 15 years from Porto Torres participated. The sero‐prevalence of H. pylori infection was 13.3% (229/1727) and similar in boys (13%) and girls (14%) (p = .57). Nausea/vomiting (odds ratio (OR) = 2.2 (95% CI = 1.2–5.1)) and diarrhea (OR = 2.1 (95% CI = 1.3–2.8)) were each significantly associated with H. pylori infection, and these associations remained significant after controlling for other study variables. There was no significant association between H. pylori and abdominal pain or heartburn (p > .25). Conclusions: The study does not support either a role of H. pylori infection in abdominal pain in children or a protective role against diarrheal illnesses or nausea/vomiting.