Supported housing programs for persons with serious mental illness in rural northern communities: A mixed method evaluation

Background: During the past two decades, consumers, providers and policy makers have recognized the role of supported housing intervention for persons diagnosed with serious mental illness (SMI) to be able to live independently in the community. Much of supported housing research to date, however, has been conducted in large urban centers rather than northern and rural communities. Northern conditional and contextual issues such as rural poverty, lack of accessible mental health services, small or non-existing housing markets, lack of a continuum of support or housing services, and in some communities, a poor quality of housing challenge the viability of effective supported housing services. The current research proposal aims to describe and evaluate the processes and outcomes of supported housing programs for persons living with SMI in northern and rural communities from the perspective of clients, their families, and community providers. Methods: This research will use a mixed method design guided by participatory action research. The study will be conducted over two years, in four stages. Stage I will involve setting up the research in each of the four northern sites. In Stage II a descriptive cross-sectional survey will be used to obtain information about the three client outcomes: housing history, quality of life and housing preference. In Stage III two participatory action strategies, focus groups and photo-voice, will be used to explore perceptions of supported housing services. In the last stage findings from the study will be re-presented to the participants, as well as other key community individuals in order to translate them into policy. Conclusion: Supported housing intervention is a core feature of mental health care, and it requires evaluation. The lack of research in northern and rural SMI populations heightens the relevance of research findings for health service planning. The inclusion of multiple stakeholder groups, using a variety of data collection approaches, contributes to a comprehensive, systems-level examination of supported housing in smaller communities. It is anticipated that the study\u27s findings will not only have utility across Ontario, but also Canada

Experiments with radioactive samples at the Advanced Photon Source.

The Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory is a national synchrotron-radiation light source research facility. The 7 GeV electron Storage Ring is currently delivering intense high brilliance x-ray beams to a total of 34 beamlines with over 120 experiment stations to members of the international scientific community to carry out forefront basic and applied research in several scientific disciplines. Researchers come to the APS either as members of Collaborative Access Teams (CATs) or as Independent Investigators (IIs). Collaborative Access Teams comprise large number of investigators from universities, industry, and research laboratories with common research objectives. These teams are responsible for the design, construction, finding, and operation of beamlines. They are the owners of their experimental enclosures (''hutches'') designed and built to meet their specific research needs. Fig. 1 gives a plan view of the location of the Collaborative Access Teams by Sector and Discipline. In the past two years, over 2000 individual experiments were conducted at the APS facility. Of these, about 60 experiments involved the use of radioactive samples, which is less than 3% of the total. However, there is an increase in demand for experiment stations to accommodate the use of radioactive samples in different physical forms embedded in various matrices with activity levels ranging from trace amounts of naturally occurring radionuclides to MBq (mCi) quantities including transuranics. This paper discusses in some detail the steps in the safety review process for experiments involving radioactive samples and how ALARA philosophy is invoked at each step and implemented

Treatment of Dentinal Hypersensitivity with Diode Laser of Two Different Wavelengths- A Randomised Clinical Trial

Introduction: Dentinal Hypersensitivity (DH) is one of the most prevalent dental issues that is treated by both periodontists and endodontists. Hypersensitive dentin is a sensitive or painful response that is one of the most prevalent and poorly treated chronic dental disorders. Due to the difficulty in treating cervical DH, a great range of approaches and therapeutic procedures for pain relief in have developed. Treatments with desensitising drugs have been combined with laser treatment in recent decades. The most often utilised lasers in the treatment of DH are Diode Lasers (DL). DL act on DH provoking a melting effect with crystallisation of dentine inorganic component and the coagulation of fluids contained into the dentinal tubules. Aim: To compare the effectiveness of DL of two different wavelengths in managing DH. Materials and Methods: This split-mouth randomised clinical trial conducted in the Department of Periodontology at Vishnu Dental College, Bhimavaram, Andhra Pradesh, India. The duration of the study was, from October 2021 to December 2021. A total of 12 patients with DH were selected and assigned to two groups. All the patients were subjected to desensitisation using DL of two different wavelengths 475 nm Bluelase system and 810 nm. Denlase system and parameters were evaluated 15 minutes after treatment, 7 days, 15 days and 30 days after treatment. Data were entered in Microsoft Excel and analysed using Statitical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 10.5 software. Results: The mean age of the study participants was 45±3 years. There was a significant difference (p-value <0.001) in tooth sensitivity values measured at baseline, and at different time intervals in both groups. Among the two groups, Denlase group showed the greatest reduction in Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) scores from baseline to one month recall compared to Bluelase laser group. Highly significant difference was found when mean VAS scores were compared between baseline and all the other time points (p-value <0.001). Conclusion: The present study concluded that, based on the results obtained, DL of 810 nm Denlase system was effective than DL of 475 nm Bluelase system in reducing the DH. Desensitisation treatment with laser irradiation has shown to be effective in the present study