Making Collaboration Count: A Tool for Tracking and Building Participation in Community Collaboratives and Coalitions

Evaluation is necessary not only for assessing the impact of programs and interventions, but also for gathering actionable feedback on the ways in which organizations work together. Continuous evaluation of collaboratives themselves can help to address common issues, such as getting the right people at the table, balancing multiple stakeholder priorities, avoiding tokenism, and perhaps most importantly, encouraging participation and maintaining it over time. With the growing interest in collaborative processes over the past several years—and with collaboration and coalition development as a key practice competency identified by the Society for Community Research and Action (2012)—it is necessary to identify new tools that can be used to evaluate coalition processes, promote participation, and to ensure that these groups function in a way that promotes working toward collective goals. This article presents a tool and supporting strategies for tracking and encouraging participation in  collaborative processes, as well as a case example illustrating how this tool has been utilized within the North Jersey Health Collaborative

Making Collaboration Count: A Tool for Tracking and Building Participation in Community Collaboratives and Coalitions

Evaluation is necessary not only for assessing the impact of programs and interventions, but also for gathering actionable feedback on the ways in which organizations work together. Continuous evaluation of collaboratives themselves can help to address common issues, such as getting the right people at the table, balancing multiple stakeholder priorities, avoiding tokenism, and perhaps most importantly, encouraging participation and maintaining it over time. With the growing interest in collaborative processes over the past several years—and with collaboration and coalition development as a key practice competency identified by the Society for Community Research and Action (2012)—it is necessary to identify new tools that can be used to evaluate coalition processes, promote participation, and to ensure that these groups function in a way that promotes working toward collective goals. This article presents a tool and supporting strategies for tracking and encouraging participation in  collaborative processes, as well as a case example illustrating how this tool has been utilized within the North Jersey Health Collaborative

Relationships Between Injury-Related Fear, Balance Self-Efficacy, and Dynamic Balance Performance in Those With Chronic Ankle Instability

Interactions between sensory-perceptual and motor-behavioral impairments in individuals with chronic ankle instability (CAI) are important for successful assessment and treatment of CAI. One of the most consistently reported motor-behavioral impairments is poor reach performance in a dynamic balance task. Injury-related fear is recognized as an important sensory-perceptual impairment, and those with injury-related fears may engage in protective movement strategies found to be associated with reach deficits. Injury-related fear may also impact one’s perception of ability, or self-efficacy, which has demonstrated positive associations with balance performance in other populations, but these relationships have yet to be investigated in the CAI population. Objective: To examine the relationships between injury-related fear, self-efficacy, and dynamic balance performance in those with CAI. Methods: 33 individuals with CAI (F:18, M:15, 22.8±3.3yrs, 170.2±8.5cm, 78.0±13.6kg) reported their level of injury-related fear via the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK-11). The Self-Efficacy of Balance Scale (SEBS) was utilized to capture participants’ level of balance self-efficacy. Dynamic balance performance was assessed on the involved limb with the Star-Excursion Balance Test in the anterior, posteromedial (SEBT-PM), and posterolateral (SEBT-PL) directions and a composite (SEBT-COMP) score was calculated for overall performance. Pearson correlations were used to analyze associations between these outcomes with significance set at P PResults: Significant negative correlations were identified between TSK-11 and SEBS scores (r=-0.34, P=0.050), indicating those with higher levels of kinesiophobia demonstrated lower levels of balance self-efficacy. Significant positive correlations were identified between SEBS scores and SEBT-COMP (r=0.48, P=0.005), SEBT-PM (r=0.42, P=0.016), and SEBT-PL (r=0.48, P=0.005), indicating that individuals who perceived themselves as more confident in their balance ability demonstrated better balance performance. Conclusions: Injury-related fear did not have a direct relationship with dynamic reach performance in individuals with CAI, but may have an indirect relationship with dynamic balance performance by impacting one’s balance self-efficacy.https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/gradposters2020_healthsciences/1004/thumbnail.jp

Low Molecular Weight Fluorescent Probes (LMFPs) to Detect the Group 12 Metal Triad

Fluorescence sensing, of d-block elements such as Cu2+, Fe3+, Fe2+, Cd2+, Hg2+, and Zn2+ has significantly increased since the beginning of the 21st century. These particular metal ions play essential roles in biological, industrial, and environmental applications, therefore, there has been a drive to measure, detect, and remediate these metal ions. We have chosen to highlight the low molecular weight fluorescent probes (LMFPs) that undergo an optical response upon coordination with the group 12 triad (Zn2+, Cd2+, and Hg2+), as these metals have similar chemical characteristics but behave differently in the environment

Noise Impacts from Professional Dog Grooming Forced-Air Dryers

This study was designed to measure the sound output of four commonly used brands of forced-air dryers used by dog groomers in the United States. Many dog groomers have questions about the effect of this exposure on their hearing, as well as on the hearing of the dogs that are being groomed. Readings taken from each dryer at 1 meter (the likely distance of the dryer from the groomer and the dog) showed average levels ranging from 105.5 to 108.3 dB SPL or 94.8 to 108.0 dBA. Using the 90 dBA criterion required by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, dog groomers/bathers are at risk if exposure to the lowest intensity dryer (94.8 dBA) exceeds 4 hours per day. If the more stringent 85 dBA criterion and 3 dB tradeoff is applied, less than one hour of exposure is permissible in an 8 hour day. Cautions are recommended for any persons exposed to noise from forced-air dryers

\u3cem\u3eTetrahymena thermophila\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3eCandida albicans\u3c/em\u3e Group I Intron-Derived Ribozymes Can Catalyze the Trans-Excision-Splicing Reaction

Group I intron-derived ribozymes can catalyze a variety of non-native reactions. For the trans-excision-splicing (TES) reaction, an intron-derived ribozyme from the opportunistic pathogen Pneumocystis carinii catalyzes the excision of a predefined region from within an RNA substrate with subsequent ligation of the flanking regions. To establish TES as a general ribozyme-mediated reaction, intron-derived ribozymes from Tetrahymena thermophila and Candida albicans, which are similar to but not the same as that from Pneumocystis, were investigated for their propensity to catalyze the TES reaction. We now report that the Tetrahymena and Candida ribozymes can catalyze the excision of a single nucleotide from within their ribozyme-specific substrates. Under the conditions studied, the Tetrahymena and Candida ribozymes, however, catalyze the TES reaction with lower yields and rates [Tetrahymena (kobs) = 0.14/min and Candida (kobs) = 0.34/min] than the Pneumocystis ribozyme (kobs = 3.2/min). The lower yields are likely partially due to the fact that the Tetrahymena and Candida catalyze additional reactions, separate from TES. The differences in rates are likely partially due to the individual ribozymes ability to effectively bind their 3′ terminal guanosines as intramolecular nucleophiles. Nevertheless, our results demonstrate that group I intron-derived ribozymes are inherently able to catalyze the TES reaction

How to Conduct Store Observations of Tobacco Marketing and Products

As tobacco companies continue to heavily market their products at the point of sale, tobacco control groups seek strategies to combat the negative effects of this marketing. Store observations, which have been widely used by researchers and practitioners alike, are an excellent surveillance tool. This article provides a guide for public health practitioners interested in working in the tobacco retail environment by detailing the steps involved in conducting store observations of tobacco marketing and products including 1) obtaining tobacco product retailer lists, 2) creating measures, 3) selecting a mode of data collection, 4) training data collectors, and 5) analyzing data. We also highlight issues that may arise while in the field and provide information on disseminating results of store observations, including the potential policy implications

Metacarpophalangeal pattern profile analysis of a sample drawn from a North Wales population

This is tha author's PDF version of an article published in Annals of human biology© 2001. The definitive version is available at http://www.tandf.co.uk/journalsSexual dimorphism and population differences were investigated using metacarpophalangeal pattern profile (MCPP) analysis. Although it is an anthropmetric technique, MCPP analysis is more frequently used in genetic syndrome analysis and has been under-used in the study of human groups. The present analysis used a series of hand radiographics from Gwynedd, North Wales, to make comparisons, first, between the sexes within the sample and then with previously reported data from Japan. The Welsh sexes showed MCPP analyses that indicated size and shape differences but certain similarities in shape were also evident. Differences with the Japanese data were more marked. MCPP anlysis is a potentially useful anthropmetric technique but requires further statistical development

NSFB 101: Getting Started with the National Survey of Fertility Barriers

The NSFB research team presented the National Survey of Fertility Barriers (NSFB) Data Users’ Workshop at the Population Association of America (PAA) annual meeting in Dallas, Texas, on April 17, 2010. This workshop provided an opportunity to explore wave 1 of the nationally representative NSFB public-use dataset and to learn how the data can be used to answer various research questions related to (sub, in)fecundity, fecundity intentions and pathways, fertility outcomes, and the psychosocial dynamics that operate between fecundity and fertility. Why did we do a population based, longitudinal, telephone study of fertility/infertility that includes partners? It was the most efficient way to answer compelling questions Greil’s (1997) critical review of past research on the social psychological impact of infertility showed the need for new data