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This volume assumes no prior knowledge of the subject. For students who have never studied Communication Studies before, it will give an idea of what to expect. For students already studying Media or Communication Studies at school or college, it will provide a concise but comprehensive learning aid.Part One includes an overview of Communication Studies, a survey of the current approaches to and theories about Communication that are taught in the majority of UK universities, and the Communication Studies Toolkit - a roundup of the different approaches used to make sense of their objects of study, including semiotics, discourse analysis, social constructionism, visual rhetorics, historical materialism, psychoanalysis, gender criticism (including feminism, postfeminism, and queer theory), structuralism and poststructuralism, postmodernism and postcolonialism.Part Two covers study skills for undergraduate communication - the level of reading required, types of assignments and assessment, time management, how to use a tutorial, recording notes in lectures, writing skills and revising for and passing examinations (including 'model' exam questions and answers)

2014 Spring. ; Includes illustrations (some color), color map. ; Includes bibliographical references (pages 86-95). ; Urbanization's effects on the hydrologic cycle have been widely documented. In addition, anthropogenic activities associated with urbanization have impacted water quality in receiving water bodies, with more exaggerated effects in urban, arid climates. The EPA and other governmental agencies have advocated the use of Best Management Practices (BMPs) to mitigate urbanization's impact on the hydrologic cycle and water quality. The City of Los Angeles is completing implementation plans for mitigating pollutants in each of its watersheds in order to identify the best locations for potential BMP projects. However, the ability of distributed and regional BMPs to adequately address water quality objectives has not been rigorously studied at the watershed scale. The current research utilizes EPA's SUSTAIN model to quantify the impacts of BMP implementation in a highly urbanized watershed in Los Angeles. The model is calibrated and validated to measured flow and water quality storm events as well as annual runoff volumes and pollutant loads. The model outputs rendered a correlation coefficient of 0.99 for annual discharge volumes for the 5-year validation period. In addition, storms larger than 0.2" of precipitation modeled well rendering a Nash-Sutcliffe error of 0.95 for runoff volumes while peak discharges had an NSE of 0.89. Seven BMP types are physically modeled with five BMP types being optimized based on a 30-40% average annual metal load reduction. The number of BMPs are optimized using SUSTAIN's non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) to generate cost effectiveness curves for varying management and implementation scenarios. Results indicate that dry weather TMDL exceedances can be reduced by 80% to 99% while also accomplishing a 10% to 50% reduction in wet weather TMDL exceedances. Secondary benefits, such as flood protection and groundwater recharge are also quantified indicating a reduction in peak runoff of 20-50% with potential groundwater recharge of 12,000-30,000 ac-ft annually.

This book brings together a huge range of material including academic articles, film scripts and interplanetary messages adrift on space probes with supporting commentary to clarify their imporatance to the field. Communication Studies: The Essential Resource is a collection of essays and texts for all those studying communication at university and pre-university level. Individual sections address:* texts and meanings in communication* themes in personal communication* communication practice* culture, communication and context* debates and controversie

Disparities across racial and ethnic groups are present for a range of health outcomes. In this opinion piece, we consider the origin of racial and ethnic groupings, a history that highlights the sociopolitical nature of these terms. Indeed, the terms race and ethnicity exist purely as social constructs and must not be used interchangeably with genetic ancestry. There is no scientific evidence that the groups we traditionally call "races/ethnicities" have distinct, unifying biological or genetic basis. Such a focus runs the risk of compounding equity gaps and perpetuating erroneous conclusions. That said, we suggest that the terms race and ethnicity continue to have purpose as lenses through which to quantify and then close racial and ethnic disparities. Understanding the root cause of such health disparities—namely, longstanding racism and ethnocentrism—could promote interventions and policies poised to equitably improve population health.

This salient resource offers clinicians a comprehensive multi-tiered framework for identifying, addressing, and reducing food insecurity among children and their families. Reinforcing the importance of food insecurity as a key social determinant of health, this monograph reviews the epidemiology and presents in-depth guidelines for screening for food insecurity and hunger. Recommendations for screening in a busy clinical setting as well as the strengths and limitations of widely-used instruments are discussed. The monograph also outlines a variety of clinic-level interventions, potential community-based resources, and opportunities for clinical-community partnerships to improve families' food access and security. Further, contributors provide workable plans for large-scale advocacy through greater engagement with professional and community resources as well as policymakers. The monograph concludes with an outline of the critical steps to implement a food insecurity screening process and the key components to train the next generation of provider-advocates. Included in the coverage: Epidemiology and pathophysiology of food insecurity Screening tools and training Scope of interventions to address food insecurity Creation and evaluation of the impact of food insecurity-focused clinical-community partnerships on patients and populations Development of an action plan to fight food insecurity Identifying and Addressing Childhood Food Insecurity in Healthcare and Community Settings will find an engaged audience among physicians and other clinicians who want to address food insecurity in their healthcare and/or community setting. Institutions that are starting to address social determinants of health, including food insecurity, will find guidance on screening tools, processes and evaluation of impact.

Literacy development is a complex process. It is well established that the Home Literacy Environment influences literacy development. To better understand the influence of the Neighborhood Literacy Environment, we examined the distribution of public library branches across neighborhoods in an American midwestern city and associations between book circulation rates and childhood poverty rates. This study used children's book circulation data provided by the Hamilton County Public Library in the state of Ohio (U.S.). The primary outcome variable was the branch-specific, five-year mean circulation rate of books-per-child living within the branch neighborhood. The predictor variable was the childhood poverty rate of the neighborhood. There was a significant, moderate negative correlation between book circulation and childhood poverty rates (Spearman's r= -0.52, p<0.001). Using data from a public library system in a large midwestern American city, this study found significant disparities in branch access and children's book circulation in high-poverty neighborhoods.

Purpose To identify associations between age of onset of overweight/obesity, a child's sociodemographic characteristics, and characteristics of a child's home census tract. Design Retrospective electronic health record review of children with overweight/obesity. Setting Three primary care centers associated with a free-standing, tertiary-care pediatric institution in Cincinnati. Subjects Patients born between August 1, 2013 and July 31, 2014, who had a body mass index (BMI) ≥85th percentile before 5 years of age (n = 794). Measures Primary outcome was the patient's age at the first encounter when BMI was ≥85th percentile. Patient-level predictors were sex, age, race/ethnicity, health insurance, and number of moves captured in the health record. Census tract-level predictors were density of bus stops, presence of grocery stores, and a Socioeconomic Deprivation Index. Analysis Multivariable linear regression models assessed for independent associations between age of onset of overweight/obesity and predictors. Results Patients were 55.8% female, 73.6% black, and 79.1% publicly insured. Each additional move per year was associated with onset of overweight/obesity occurring 4.05 months earlier ( P < .0001). No significant associations between age of onset of overweight/obesity and census tract-level density of bus stops ( P = .82), presence of grocery stores ( P = .39), and socioeconomic deprivation ( P = .53) were demonstrated. Conclusion Public policy efforts toward improving access to grocery stores or public transportation may not be sufficient to prevent childhood obesity. Population-level interventions related to improving housing may also reduce obesity.