The racial composition of road users, traffic citations, and police stops.

This paper exploits the potential of Global Positioning System datasets sourced from mobile phones to estimate the racial composition of road users, leveraging data from their respective Census block group. The racial composition data encompasses approximately 46 million trips in the Chicago metropolitan region. The research focuses on the relationship between camera tickets and racial composition of drivers vs. police stops for traffic citations and the racial composition in these locations. Black drivers exhibit a higher likelihood of being ticketed by automated speed cameras and of being stopped for moving violations on roads, irrespective of the proportion of White drivers present. The research observes that this correlation attenuates as the proportion of White drivers on the road increases. The citation rate measured by cameras better matches the racial composition of road users on the links with cameras than do stops by police officers. This study therefore presents an important contribution to understanding racial disparities in moving violation stops, with implications for policy interventions and social justice reforms.

Q-Methodology and Psychological Phenotyping to Design Patient-Centered Diabetes Education for Persons With Type 2 Diabetes on Insulin Therapy.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the psychological phenotypes of persons with type 2 diabetes (T2D) on insulin therapy to better inform personalized diabetes education strategies to improve self-management behaviors. METHODS: Q-methodology, a research approach combining the quantitative rigor of statistical analysis with qualitative data on perception of diabetes self-management by persons with T2D on insulin therapy, was used. The Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activity measure and A1C in the past 6 months were used to further describe self-management behaviors of each P-sample, Q-sorter. Of 160 statements, 33 Q-sample statements were selected as Q-set. Then, 37 P-samples (24 men; 13 women) were recruited from a university-affiliated diabetes clinic in South Korea. Data obtained from each P-sample with a Q-set and a Q-sorting table, a forced-choice normal distribution table, were analyzed using varimax rotation. RESULTS: Forty-one percent of the variance was explained with 5 factors represented by 27 Q-sorters, explaining variance ranging from 5% to 17% for each factor: Factor A (n = 6): those showing self-management education need but possessing inadequate health literacy; Factor B (n = 4): those valuing lifestyle modification to control diabetes; Factor C (n = 5): those valuing antidiabetic medication to control diabetes; Factor D (n = 6): carpe diem, accepting diabetes as destiny; and Factor E (n = 6): those overestimating their competencies to control diabetes. Ten Q-sorters fell into either confounded or nonsignificant. CONCLUSIONS: Tailoring messages and educational approaches based on patients' psychological phenotypes are necessary to promote optimal self-management behaviors.

Sleep quality and heart rate variability in adolescents with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.

INTRODUCTION: Decreased sleep quality and lower heart rate variability (HRV) have both independently been associated with diabetes and may contribute to risks for cardiovascular disease. Although poor sleep quality has been associated with lower HRV in adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D), studies of sleep quality in adolescents with (T2D) or studies examining the possible association of poor sleep quality with lower HRV in adolescents with T2D or T1D are not available. AIM: Thus, we conducted a secondary analysis of data from an existing study to determine if there were associations between sleep quality and HRV in adolescents with T1D or T2D. METHODS: Adolescents with T1D (n = 101) or T2D (n = 37) completed 24-h HRV Holter monitoring and analysis and a self-reported global measure of sleep quality. RESULTS: Poor sleep quality was significantly associated with lower HRV, a known predictor for CV risk. Those with T2D had lower measures of HRV. CONCLUSIONS: The evaluation of sleep quality and early signs of cardiovascular autonomic changes should be considered in routine assessments of adolescents with diabetes. Future research is warranted to examine more robust measures of sleep and HRV in adolescents with diabetes.

Preconception Care to Reduce the Risks of Overweight and Obesity in Women of Reproductive Age: An Integrative Review.

Despite adverse pregnancy outcomes for women with overweight or obesity, preconception guidelines for achieving optimal wellness for women contemplating pregnancy regarding the risks of overweight or obesity are varied based upon national affiliation. The aim of this study was to synthesize the best evidence related to preconception counseling and care focused on overweight or obesity provided to women of reproductive age. An integrative review of original studies was conducted. PubMed, Cumulative Index in Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Ovid, Scopus, Web of Science, and Embase were included. Full-text, data-based articles were searched from 2009 to 2018, with reviews and synthesis completed in 2019 and 2020. Of 8703 initial articles, 31 articles remained in the review. Quality assessment and level of evidence were evaluated based upon criteria from the Joanna Briggs Institute and the Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice Quality Guide. The level of evidence for the majority of studies was non-experimental but they were of good quality with appropriate methods, samples and relevant results. Limited attention and interest in preconception counseling regarding risks of overweight or obesity by health care professionals were noted, which may contribute to women's unawareness of these risks on preconception health.

Working at home and elsewhere: daily work location, telework, and travel among United States knowledge workers.

The mediation of work practices by information and communication technologies enables knowledge workers to telework from remote non-office locations such as their homes, or to work nomadically from multiple locations in a day. This paper uses data from the American Time Use Survey to explore the relationship between daily work locations and travel in the United States from 2003 to 2017. Outcome variables include travel duration and travel during peak periods. Home is by far the most common non-office work location, but working from other people's homes, cafés/libraries, vehicles, and combinations of multiple locations are also measured. Findings show that working from home only on a day (full-day telework) decreases daily travel duration and increases the likelihood of avoiding peak hour travel for both work and non-work related travel. However, for homeworkers who also conduct work from their workplace on the same day (part-day telework), there is no reduction in daily travel time, and avoiding peak hour travel is limited to work-related travel. Working from other locations such as cafés/libraries or vehicles increases the likelihood of not traveling at peak hours. Findings also indicate that morning peak periods are more affected by work location decisions than evening peak periods. A survival analysis of daily departure times for both full-day and part-day homeworkers provides insight into this mechanism. We conclude on the basis of these findings that demand management policies and peak avoidance incentives would be more effective if they encourage both temporal and spatial flexibility for employees when partnering with regional employers.

Spatial associations of dockless shared e-scooter usage.

In this study, we explore the usage of e-scooter sharing services in Austin, Texas over about a six-month period. The study is based on trip records of all the shared e-scooter operators in Austin and includes trip start and end locations. We use both analysis of trip patterns and spatial regression techniques to examine how the built environment, land use, and demographics affect e-scooter trip generation. Our findings show that people use e-scooters almost exclusively in central Austin. Commuting does not seem to be the main trip purpose, and usage of e-scooters is associated with areas with high employment rates, and in areas with bicycle infrastructure. People use e-scooter sharing regardless of the affluence of the neighborhood, although less affluent areas with high usage rates have large student populations, suggesting that students use this mode of travel. Implications for planners suggest that better bicycle infrastructure will facilitate e-scooter usage, college towns are a ready market for e-scooter sharing services, and e-scooters may be a substitute for some short non-work trips, reducing car usage, and benefiting the environment.

The role of science in international trade law.

While the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade addressed overt barriers to international trade, the current focus of international trade rules has shifted to less obvious, but in many cases no less restrictive, barriers to trade, such as protectionist measures adopted under the guise of health and safety standards. The new agreements established under the World Trade Organization ("WTO"), including the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures ("SPS Agreement"), the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade ("TBT Agreement"), provide important tools that can be invoked by governments and used by stakeholders to address regulatory barriers that were once thought outside the purview of international trade rules. Non-science based regulations can be and have been successfully challenged under the SPS and TBT Agreements, which prohibit WTO Members from maintaining laws or regulations that adversely affect trade unless such measures are scientifically justified. Stakeholders should use to the fullest extent possible international trade rules to eliminate non-science based regulations that adversely affect trade in the goods that they produce.

Personal finances of residents at three Canadian universities.

OBJECTIVES: To address 3 research questions (What financial choices do residents make? Are the financial choices of residents similar to those of the general public? Are the financial choices of surgical residents reasonable?), we examined financial data from Canadian residents. METHODS: A written survey was administered to 338 residents (103 of them surgical residents) at 3 Canadian training institutions (University of Toronto, Queen's University and University of Manitoba). Resident household cash flows, assets and liabilities were characterized. Finances for residents were compared with those of the general public, by means of the Survey of Household Spending and Survey of Financial Security. RESULTS: Median resident income was 45,000 dollars annually (Can dollars throughout). With a working spouse, median household income was 87,500 dollars. Among residents, 62% had educational debt (median 37,500 dollars), 39% maintained unpaid credit-card balances (median 1750 dollars), 36% did not budget expenses, 25% maintained cash reserves <275 dollars, and 22% contributed neither to retirement nor nonretirement investments. Residents spent more on vehicles compared with members of the general public (median 17,500 dollars v. 10,720 dollars, p = 0.002) and on monthly housing (median 875 dollars v. 729 dollars, p < 0.001), respectively. Residents were more likely to carry student loans than people in the general population (61% v. 21%), more likely to carry vehicle loans (74% v. 29%) and less likely to carry credit-card debts (39% v. 50%, respectively). Surgical residents had income expectations after graduation higher than current billings justified. Fewer surgical (69%) than anesthesiology residents (88%, p < 0.05) contributed to Registered Retirement Savings Plans. CONCLUSIONS: From this limited sample, residents spend more than age- and income-matched members of the general public. Many residents save too little, fail to budget, and carry high educational and credit-card debts. Surgical residents' expectations of future income may be unrealistic. Further study is warranted.