Temporal variability and the relationship between benthic meiofaunal and microbial populations of a natural coastal petroleum seep

Previous studies of the Isla Vista petroleum seep in the Santa Barbara Channel found much higher abundances of macrofauna and concentrations of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in sediments near petroleum seepage compared to those from nonseep areas. To further assess the possible effect of petroleum on organisms at the base of benthic food webs, population abundances of meiobenthos and their suspected microbial food (bacteria and diatoms) were measured biweekly for one year at three stations with differing petroleum exposure. Determinations of suspended particulate matter and the abundance and gut contents of juvenile fishes were also made at seep and nonseep stations. Nematodes and bacteria had higher abundances in areas of active petroleum seepage than in areas of moderate seepage (within 20 m) or no seepage (1.4 km away). Bacterial productivity (based on the frequency of dividing cells) was 340% greater in sediments from areas of active seepage compared to those from a nonseep station. Sediments within the seep, but away from active seepage, had rates of bacterial productivity 15 times greater than a nonseep comparison site. Densities of harpacticoid copepods and their probable principal food, diatoms, were not affected by petroleum seepage. Suspended organic matter caught in settling traps was not different between seep and nonseep stations. In addition, there was no evidence that predation pressure by juvenile fish on meiofauna was different between stations. The higher bacterial biomass and productivity in areas of petroleum seepage are consistent with the hypothesis that petroleum carbon is available for assimilation by sediment bacteria. The enhanced level of microbial carbon associated with the petroleum seep is available for consumption by benthic invertebrates and could explain the higher abundances of macrofauna and meiofauna found there

The State of Accreditation Readiness in Georgia: A Case Study

Background: Georgia’s public health districts first began exploring the idea of national public health accreditation in 2008 when Cobb & Douglas Public Health included accreditation in their strategic plan. In May 2015, Cobb & Douglas Public Health was the first Georgia public health district to achieve national accreditation status. This article discusses the current state of accreditation readiness in Georgia and explores strengths and barriers to accreditation. Methods: This study utilized a case study approach in order to examine PHAB accreditation efforts in Georgia within a reallife context. Data came from three sources: nine Accreditation Readiness Assessments, a PHAB Pre-Application Technical Assistance Survey, and state-wide Accreditation Readiness Survey. Results: The Accreditation Readiness Assessments resulted in several lessons learned about common strengths and barriers to accreditation. Strengths included a dedicated staff and supportive Boards of Health. Barriers included accreditation fees and a lack of personnel time. The PHAB Pre-application TA Survey revealed that the majority of those surveyed would recommend TA to other agencies pursuing PHAB accreditation (91%). The Accreditation Readiness Survey revealed that 14 of 18 GA public health districts are either PHAB accredited (1 district), actively pursuing PHAB accreditation (2 districts), or planning to apply (11 districts). This includes 116 of the 159 Georgia counties (73%). Conclusions: The results of this case study show that 72% of Georgia’s public health districts are engaged in accreditationrelated activities. This includes activities such as accreditation readiness assessment, community health assessment, QI council and plan development, strategic planning, and policy review

Health Districts as Quality Improvement Collaboratives and Multi-Jurisdictional Entities

Research Objective: The Georgia Public Health PBRN assessed the utility of the Multi-county Health District as a structured Quality Improvement Collaborative (QIC), and as multi jurisdictional entities for purposes of meeting standards for accreditation by the Public Health Accreditation Board. Data Sets and Sources: Data were collected from online surveys followed up with phone interviews or paper surveys to maximize participation. A newly developed clinical care QIC instrument (Schouten et al, 2010) was modified to collect data with a revised focus on QICs for public health. We retained QI culture constructs in the instrument while shifting the focus from healthcare to public health essential services related to accreditation standards. Study Design: Data was collected from a purposeful sample of local public health key informants in Georgia who were identified by the District Directors’ office as local key informants. Invitations Key informants included county and district staff and county board of health members. Analysis: Psychometric testing of the QIC assessment instrument included tests for validity and reliability. Census-based and self-reported demographic characteristics were used to compare responses. Principal Findings: Strong consensus emerged across various constituencies that Districts were critical for local public health to provide essential services. Key opinion leaders from both the rural and non-rural counties agreed that the Districts were important. Conclusion: Regionalization using Georgia Districts has major potential for supporting QI and meeting quality assurance standards associated with accreditation. Implications for Field of PHSSR: Accreditation has the potential to substantially clarify and enhance the role of public health in the 21st century. But local public health agencies, based on small municipality or county populations, are unlikely to possess and sustain capacity to meet the challenges of comprehensive essential services. Regionalization of local public health capacity is a critical emerging issue with the launching of public health accreditation

Clarifying and Expanding Concepts of Cross-Jurisdictional Sharing: Early Lessons Learned from Conducting QI with Georgia’s Health Districts

Research Objective: Assess the legal and organization cultural foundations for Cross-Jurisdictional Sharing (CJS) in support of local public health accreditation and QI in Georgia. Data Sets and Sources: Archival data (primarily state statutes), secondary data from previous qualitative comparative research on Deep South public health organization, secondary data from previous surveys, and oral interviews and written communication. Study Design: Primarily Qualitative design combining ethnographic and participatory research methods. Analysis: Qualitative Content analysis based on predetermined and emergent themes. Principal Findings: Georgia’s Health Districts have emerged as major CJS entities that support delivery of essential services and local public health (LPH) QI and LPH accreditation readiness, driven primarily by local organizational leadership and culture that is facilitated through enabling statutes in contrast to more top-down state-mandating statutes, regulations and directives. Conclusion: Georgia’s use of districts as multi-county public health entities serves as a primary structure for providing local public health services and has become a critical structure to address the looming demands for QI and accreditation, even though the statutes clearly establish the county as the primary local public health entity. Implications for the Field of PHSSR: This CJS structure to facilitate public health QI and accreditation in Georgia illustrates how agency cultures can emerge from local demands for economies of scale, more than formal policies generated at state level. This is a model that could be very important for advancing CJS in other regions of the country

Laser Chemosensor with Rapid Responsivity and Inherent Memory Based on a Polymer of Intrinsic Microporosity

This work explores the use of a polymer of intrinsic microporosity (PIM-1) as the active layer within a laser sensor to detect nitroaromatic-based explosive vapors. We show successful detection of dinitrobenzene (DNB) by monitoring the real-time photoluminescence. We also show that PIM-1 has an inherent memory, so that it accumulates the analyte during exposure. In addition, the optical gain and refractive index of the polymer were studied by amplified spontaneous emission and variable-angle ellipsometry, respectively. A second-order distributed feedback PIM-1 laser sensor was fabricated and found to show an increase in laser threshold of 2.5 times and a reduction of the laser slope efficiency by 4.4 times after a 5-min exposure to the DNB vapor. For pumping at 2 times threshold, the lasing action was stopped within 30 s indicating that PIM-1 has a very fast responsivity and as such has a potential sensing ability for ultra-low-concentration explosives

Disorder-specific functional abnormalities during sustained attention in youth with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and with Autism

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are often comorbid and share behavioural-cognitive abnormalities in sustained attention. A key question is whether this shared cognitive phenotype is based on common or different underlying pathophysiologies. To elucidate this question, we compared 20 boys with ADHD to 20 age and IQ matched ASD and 20 healthy boys using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a parametrically modulated vigilance task with a progressively increasing load of sustained attention. ADHD and ASD boys had significantly reduced activation relative to controls in bilateral striato–thalamic regions, left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and superior parietal cortex. Both groups also displayed significantly increased precuneus activation relative to controls. Precuneus was negatively correlated with the DLPFC activation, and progressively more deactivated with increasing attention load in controls, but not patients, suggesting problems with deactivation of a task-related default mode network in both disorders. However, left DLPFC underactivation was significantly more pronounced in ADHD relative to ASD boys, which furthermore was associated with sustained performance measures that were only impaired in ADHD patients. ASD boys, on the other hand, had disorder-specific enhanced cerebellar activation relative to both ADHD and control boys, presumably reflecting compensation. The findings show that ADHD and ASD boys have both shared and disorder-specific abnormalities in brain function during sustained attention. Shared deficits were in fronto–striato–parietal activation and default mode suppression. Differences were a more severe DLPFC dysfunction in ADHD and a disorder-specific fronto–striato–cerebellar dysregulation in ASD

Thalidomide, dexamethasone and lovastatin with autologous stem cell transplantation as a salvage immunomodulatory therapy in patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma

The treatment of patients with multiple myeloma usually includes many drugs including thalidomide, lenalidomide and bortezomib. Lovastatin and other inhibitors of HMG-CoA reductase demonstrated to exhibit antineoplasmatic and proapoptotic properties in numerous in vitro studies involving myeloma cell lines. We treated 91 patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma with thalidomide, dexamethasone and lovastatin (TDL group, 49 patients) or thalidomide and dexamethasone (TD group, 42 patients). A clinical response defined of at least 50% reduction of monoclonal band has been observed in 32% of TD patients and 44% of TDL patients. Prolongation of overall survival and progression-free survival in the TDL group as compared with the TD group has been documented. The TDL regimen was safe and well tolerated. The incidence of side effects was comparable in both groups. Plasma cells have been cultured in vitro with thalidomide and lovastatin to assess the impact of both drugs on the apoptosis rate of plasma cells. In vitro experiments revealed that the combination of thalidomide and lovastatin induced higher apoptosis rate than apoptosis induced by each drug alone. Our results suggest that the addition of lovastatin to the TD regimen may improve the response rate in patients with relapsed or refractory myeloma

Comparison of practice based research network based quality improvement technical assistance and evaluation to other ongoing quality improvement efforts for changes in agency culture

Abstract Background Public health agencies in the USA are increasingly challenged to adopt Quality Improvement (QI) strategies to enhance performance. Many of the functional and structural barriers to effective use of QI can be found in the organizational culture of public health agencies. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of public health practice based research network (PBRN) evaluation and technical assistance for QI interventions on the organizational culture of public health agencies in Georgia, USA. Methods An online survey of key informants in Georgia’s districts and county health departments was used to compare perceptions of characteristics of organizational QI culture between PBRN supported QI districts and non-PBRN supported districts before and after the QI interventions. The primary outcomes of concern were number and percentage of reported increases in characteristics of QI culture as measured by key informant responses to items assessing organizational QI practices from a validated instrument on QI Collaboratives. Survey results were analyzed using Multi-level Mixed Effects Logistic Model, which accounts for clustering/nesting. Results Increases in QI organizational culture were consistent for all 10- items on a QI organizational culture survey related to: leadership support, use of data, on-going QI, and team collaboration. Statistically significant odds ratios were calculated for differences in increased QI organizational culture between PBRN-QI supported districts compared to Non-PBRN supported districts for 5 of the 10 items, after adjusting for District clustering of county health departments. Conclusions Agency culture, considered by many QI experts as the main goal of QI, is different than use of specific QI methods, such as Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles or root-cause analyses. The specific use of a QI method does not necessarily reflect culture change. Attempts to measure QI culture are newly emerging. This study documented significant improvements in characteristics of organizational culture and demonstrated the potential of PBRNs to support agency QI activities