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The aim of this paper is twofold: to delineate the results of the focus groups regarding volunteers and their needs; and to compare the results with pertinent literature regarding volunteerism to determine whether the motivating factors and needs of volunteers still need to be addressed by public health and other professional practitioners.

Focus groups were conducted with public health volunteers and content analysis was conducted to identity central themes.

Several important themes related to motivation and training emerged from the focus groups. These findings are supported by the sociological, psychological, management and administrative literature on volunteerism.

While qualitative, these findings emphasize factors of which public health and emergency management officials need to be cognizant as they prepare, plan and work with volunteers.

In order to retain volunteers' public health and emergency management, volunteer programs need to address the social, interpersonal, and educational desires of volunteers.

The perceptions, values, interests and motivation of public health volunteers were directly elicited in order to identify factors that facilitate volunteer participation in public health and emergency responses.

This article delves into the new rules concerning insider trading and protection for prearranged trades, which were adopted at the same time Regulation FD was adopted. This starts with the basics of 10 b‐5 insider trading and then it moves into the specifics and the application of the new rules. This is also a discussion of affirmative defenses available for trading plan.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the prevailing widespread and popular access to mobile phones among Jamaica's poor may be used to support the public policy goal of transitioning these users from mainly voice to more advanced applications, including m‐government, personal educational growth and teleworking, via increased connectivity to mobile internet and other forms of broadband access.

The article analytically reports the findings of two national usage studies of low‐income mobile respondents in Jamaica.

There is a prevailing positive disposition among Jamaicans of all social classes for the use of higher levels of work‐related communications technologies, once these are priced in a manner that make them accessible. This is a strong foundation upon which to build crucial technology links to key business and economic opportunities. Mobiles are potential bridges for low‐income users from their present voice‐dominated usage to higher end applications such as further education, better access to public services and other more intensive work‐related uses.

If made more accessible, mobile internet could help bridge information and education gaps experienced by the financially impoverished majority. More low‐income people could be connected through such simplified protocol platforms as .Mobi and into wider use of M‐services.

The empirical studies indicate for the first time that low income users of mobile phones are not just engaged in idle chatter but have a higher order economic and survival motivation in their patterns and uses of the mobile phone.

After a brief introduction to statistical decision theory, the paper describes the approximation of the probability p(x, 0 of a measurement vector x and a diagnostic category i by a linear function in x using multiple multivariate regression techniques. The classification algorithm thus obtained is evaluated for increasing number of predictive measurements in terms of the percentage of correct classification for each diagnostic category, the overall percentage of correct classification and the sensitivity and specificity. For a fixed number of 16 ECG—VCG measurements the classification method is characterized by its misclassification matrix and its diagnostic operating curve. Based on a large test set of cases containing single and mixed diagnoses it could be shown that the algorithm gives very good results not only for single diagnostic cases but also in those situations where patients have several pathological conditions at a time.

This chapter is concerned with exploring the lived experience of welfare-to-work policy in rural Wales through the lens of participant observation with young people undertaking the initial course that represents their first encounter with the New Deal for Young People (NDYP).¹ I wish to respond to calls for qualitative explorations into marginalised rural life through discussing policy delivery personnel's² views of unemployed young people, and how some young people respond to the experience of being a rural welfare-to-work participant. The terms with which welfare practitioners speak about their clients and the client experience itself are both useful ways to look closely at the operation of the UK welfare programme, drawing out particular issues arising in the countryside. The chapter begins with a brief outline of the NDYP as an early mandatory welfare-to-work programme in the United Kingdom, before summarising some of the characteristics of youth unemployment. Drawing on empirical research undertaken in central Wales, I then outline some ways in which frontline practitioners characterise the 18–24-year olds with whom they work, before a detailed look at some individual stories from fieldwork with the young people themselves.

Background: the increased incidence of psychosis in African‐Caribbeans in the UK compared to the white British population has been frequently reported. The cause for this is unclear; social factors are said to account for this increase and one factor that is often cited is discrimination.Aims and method: we have looked at two groups of psychotic patients, blacks of Caribbean origin and white British, and present a qualitative comparison of the individual's experience of unfair treatment and its perceived cause.Results: the African‐Caribbean patients did not describe more perceived discrimination than their white counterparts but were more likely to claim that their distress was due to racial discrimination perpetrated by the psychiatric services and society in general. The white patients were more likely to attribute perceived discrimination to their mental illness.Conclusion: this mismatch of explanatory models between black patients and their doctors may account for some inequalities in their treatment, their relative non‐engagement and adverse outcome.Declaration of interest: none.

Millions of children face food insecurity in the United States. Schools play a major role in addressing the problem of food insecurity through the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program which provide meals to children at little to no cost. During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools abruptly closed leaving students without their primary source of nutrition. This chapter highlights responses from federal, state, and local agencies. Additionally, responses from local organizations and school districts are discussed. The researchers review a partnership built to address emergency food relief after the school closures. Data from an impact and need study conducted by the South Texas community partnership demonstrate gaps in programs which left the most vulnerable populations in severe need of assistance. This study reinforces the need for and importance of community partnerships to identify and address gaps in the current programs.

Discusses the effectiveness of different training approaches in other cultures. Highlights differing learning preferences in different societies. Proposes that traineers in nations which contain a lack of individuality or confucianism prefer more teacher centred methods to those with an emphasis on individualism who require a more hands on approach.

This chapter examines the everyday experiences of short women, focusing on the problems they face and the coping strategies used to navigate being short in a heightist society. Further, this chapter views height as a stigmatized identity, which both negatively and positively impacts short women.

Sixteen qualitative interviews were conducted with women 5′2″ and under.

Using the literature on stress, and coping models laid out by social psychologists, this chapter elucidates the unique place of short women in American society.

While there has been a wealth of literature on how short stature impacts men, research on how short stature impacts women has been scant.