''It sounded a lot simpler on the job description'': A qualitative study exploring the role of social prescribing link workers and their training and support needs (2020)

Jenna Rhodes - ORCID: 0000-0002-9973-4383 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9973-4383Social prescribing is an increasingly popular approach to promoting health and well‐being, by addressing the wider determinants of health such as physical inactivity, social isolation and financial insecurity. Social prescribing link workers (SPs) connect people to local, non‐clinical services. As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England aims to recruit 1,000 SPs across England by 2021. Understanding the role of SPs, including challenging aspects of the role and the types of training and support needed by SPs is crucial to optimising the effectiveness of social prescribing. Semi‐structured qualitative interviews were conducted with nine SPs from five NHS and voluntary sector organisations in London to explore the role of SPs and identify SP training and support needs. Interviews were analysed thematically and three key themes emerged for which SPs needed particular support: defining and promoting their role; supporting clients with complex needs and coping with the emotional demands of their role. SP perceptions of training and future training needs is presented as a fourth theme. Most SPs felt that the initial training received for their role did not prepare them for the most demanding aspects of their roles. The findings of this study support the assertion that the social prescribing link worker role is complex and challenging. SPs are required to have in‐depth knowledge of local services, which is built over time and makes retention in the role of high importance. Steps have been taken to develop online resources to support SPs, however, there may be a need for more comprehensive training, especially in mental health. SPs benefit from access to peer or one‐to‐one support to help them manage the emotional demands of the role and could benefit from the formation of local networks, especially for SPs working in isolation.https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.1335829pubpub

Short-term Exposure to Particulate Matter Constituents and Mortality in a National Study of U.S. Urban Communities

Background: Although the association between PM2.5 mass and mortality has been extensively studied, few national-level analyses have estimated mortality effects of PM2.5 chemical constituents. Epidemiologic studies have reported that estimated effects of PM2.5 on mortality vary spatially and seasonally. We hypothesized that associations between PM2.5 constituents and mortality would not vary spatially or seasonally if variation in chemical composition contributes to variation in estimated PM2.5 mortality effects. Objectives: We aimed to provide the first national, season-specific, and region-specific associations between mortality and PM2.5 constituents. Methods: We estimated short-term associations between nonaccidental mortality and PM2.5 constituents across 72 urban U.S. communities from 2000 to 2005. Using U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Chemical Speciation Network data, we analyzed seven constituents that together compose 79–85% of PM2.5 mass: organic carbon matter (OCM), elemental carbon (EC), silicon, sodium ion, nitrate, ammonium, and sulfate. We applied Poisson time-series regression models, controlling for time and weather, to estimate mortality effects. Results: Interquartile range increases in OCM, EC, silicon, and sodium ion were associated with estimated increases in mortality of 0.39% [95% posterior interval (PI): 0.08, 0.70%], 0.22% (95% PI: 0.00, 0.44), 0.17% (95% PI: 0.03, 0.30), and 0.16% (95% PI: 0.00, 0.32), respectively, based on single-pollutant models. We did not find evidence that associations between mortality and PM2.5 or PM2.5 constituents differed by season or region. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that some constituents of PM2.5 may be more toxic than others and, therefore, regulating PM total mass alone may not be sufficient to protect human health. Citation: Krall JR, Anderson GB, Dominici F, Bell ML, Peng RD. 2013. Short-term exposure to particulate matter constituents and mortality in a national study of U.S. urban communities. Environ Health Perspect 121:1148–1153; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.120618

Building Inclusive Libraries: Kindness, Equity, and Candidate Experiences in Hiring & Onboarding Toolkit

Grounded in an understanding of leading recruitment practices as well as an understanding of the profession’s opportunities and challenges, the toolkit offers pragmatic approaches to move from the theory of inclusive hiring and onboarding to implementation. At each stage of the hiring lifecycle, tips and questions to consider are provided, from language bias in position announcements to methods for developing interview questions to onboarding approaches. The toolkit is designed to be used by supervisors, employees, and any key decision makers involved in the job description writing process. The first half of the toolkit focuses on inclusive hiring processes. First, the section outlines best practices in inclusive hiring from both process and equity perspectives. The toolkit then dives deeper into various components of the hiring process and associated equity lenses. Lastly, the toolkit focuses on articulating responsibilities and duties in position descriptions. The appendices contain sample documents and templates for each stage of the hiring process. The second half of the toolkit focuses on inclusive onboarding, subdivided into four main parts. First, it outlines best practices in inclusive onboarding from both process and equity perspectives. The second part offers an equity lens to use to review the process. The third part outlines components of the onboarding process over a full year in checklist form. The fourth part focuses on responsibilities and duties related to onboarding

Multiple factors interact to produce responses resembling spectrum of human disease in Campylobacter jejuni infected C57BL/6 IL-10-/- mice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Campylobacter jejuni </it>infection produces a spectrum of clinical presentations in humans – including asymptomatic carriage, watery diarrhea, and bloody diarrhea – and has been epidemiologically associated with subsequent autoimmune neuropathies. This microorganism is genetically variable and possesses genetic mechanisms that may contribute to variability in nature. However, relationships between genetic variation in the pathogen and variation in disease manifestation in the host are not understood. We took a comparative experimental approach to explore differences among different <it>C. jejuni </it>strains and studied the effect of diet on disease manifestation in an interleukin-10 deficient mouse model.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the comparative study, C57BL/6 interleukin-10^-/-mice were infected with seven genetically distinct <it>C. jejuni </it>strains. Four strains colonized the mice and caused disease; one colonized with no disease; two did not colonize. A DNA:DNA microarray comparison of the strain that colonized mice without disease to <it>C. jejuni </it>11168 that caused disease revealed that putative virulence determinants, including loci encoding surface structures known to be involved in <it>C. jejuni </it>pathogenesis, differed from or were absent in the strain that did not cause disease. In the experimental study, the five colonizing strains were passaged four times in mice. For three strains, serial passage produced increased incidence and degree of pathology and decreased time to develop pathology; disease shifted from watery to bloody diarrhea. Mice kept on an ~6% fat diet or switched from an ~12% fat diet to an ~6% fat diet just before infection with a non-adapted strain also exhibited increased incidence and severity of disease and decreased time to develop disease, although the effects of diet were only statistically significant in one experiment.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p><it>C. jejuni </it>strain genetic background and adaptation of the strain to the host by serial passage contribute to differences in disease manifestations of <it>C. jejuni </it>infection in C57BL/6 IL-10^-/-mice; differences in environmental factors such as diet may also affect disease manifestation. These results in mice reflect the spectrum of clinical presentations of <it>C. jejuni </it>gastroenteritis in humans and contribute to usefulness of the model in studying human disease.</p

Mixed Chamber Ensembles, Spring 2018

This Mixed Chamber Ensembles performance features students performing a variety of chamber works for various groupings of instruments.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/2047/thumbnail.jp

The GALEX Arecibo SDSS Survey. I. Gas Fraction Scaling Relations of Massive Galaxies and First Data Release

We introduce the GALEX Arecibo SDSS Survey (GASS), an on-going large program that is gathering high quality HI-line spectra using the Arecibo radio telescope for an unbiased sample of ~1000 galaxies with stellar masses greater than 10^10 Msun and redshifts 0.025<z<0.05, selected from the SDSS spectroscopic and GALEX imaging surveys. The galaxies are observed until detected or until a low gas mass fraction limit (1.5-5%) is reached. This paper presents the first Data Release, consisting of ~20% of the final GASS sample. We use this data set to explore the main scaling relations of HI gas fraction with galaxy structure and NUV-r colour. A large fraction (~60%) of the galaxies in our sample are detected in HI. We find that the atomic gas fraction decreases strongly with stellar mass, stellar surface mass density and NUV-r colour, but is only weakly correlated with galaxy bulge-to-disk ratio (as measured by the concentration index of the r-band light). We also find that the fraction of galaxies with significant (more than a few percent) HI decreases sharply above a characteristic stellar surface mass density of 10^8.5 Msun kpc^-2. The fraction of gas-rich galaxies decreases much more smoothly with stellar mass. One of the key goals of GASS is to identify and quantify the incidence of galaxies that are transitioning between the blue, star-forming cloud and the red sequence of passively-evolving galaxies. Likely transition candidates can be identified as outliers from the mean scaling relations between gas fraction and other galaxy properties. [abridged]Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Version with high resolution figures available at http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/GASS/pubs.ph

The GALEX Arecibo SDSS Survey II: The Star Formation Efficiency of Massive Galaxies

We use measurements of the HI content, stellar mass and star formation rates in ~190 massive galaxies with stellar masses greater than 10^10 Msun, obtained from the Galex Arecibo SDSS Survey (GASS) described in Paper I (Catinella et al. 2010) to explore the global scaling relations associated with the bin-averaged ratio of the star formation rate over the HI mass, which we call the HI-based star formation efficiency (SFE). Unlike the mean specific star formation rate, which decreases with stellar mass and stellar mass surface density, the star formation efficiency remains relatively constant across the sample with a value close to SFE = 10^-9.5 yr^-1 (or an equivalent gas consumption timescale of ~3 Gyr). Specifically, we find little variation in SFE with stellar mass, stellar mass surface density, NUV-r color and concentration. We interpret these results as an indication that external processes or feedback mechanisms that control the gas supply are important for regulating star formation in massive galaxies. An investigation into the detailed distribution of SFEs reveals that approximately 5% of the sample shows high efficiencies with SFE > 10^-9 yr^-1, and we suggest that this is very likely due to a deficiency of cold gas rather than an excess star formation rate. Conversely, we also find a similar fraction of galaxies that appear to be gas-rich for their given specific star-formation rate, although these galaxies show both a higher than average gas fraction and lower than average specific star formation rate. Both of these populations are plausible candidates for "transition" galaxies, showing potential for a change (either decrease or increase) in their specific star formation rate in the near future. We also find that 36+/-5% of the total HI mass density and 47+/-5% of the total SFR density is found in galaxies with stellar mass greater than 10^10 Msun. [abridged]Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. GASS publications and released data can be found at http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/GASS/index.ph

Awareness and Knowledge of Aging and HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorder: Service User and Provider Perspectives and Experiences in Southern Nevada

This community report presents the findings and analysis of a survey that was part of the quantitative stage of a mixed-method Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) project dedicated to examine the awareness and knowledge of racially and ethnically diverse, middle-aged and older people living with HIV/AIDS, and their healthcare and service providers from Southern Nevada, on aging, brain health, HIV/AIDS, and the condition known as HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorder. The CBPR project was conducted in collaboration with community partners such as the LGBTQIA+ Community Center of Southern Nevada, Southern Nevada Health District’s Ryan White Program, Community Counseling Center of Southern Nevada, and numerous other agencies from Clark County and surrounding areas. The findings and analysis of the survey were meant not only to inform and influence the subsequent qualitative stage of the CBPR project, but also services and programs in Southern Nevada that have a focus on supporting the brain health and cognitive needs of aging people living with HIV/AIDS

The Resilience of Middle-Aged and Older Men Who Have Sex with Men to HIV/AIDS: Southern Nevada Stakeholder Perspectives in the 21st Century

This community report presents the findings and analysis of a survey that was part of the quantitative stage of a mixed-method Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) project dedicated to examine the perspectives and lived experiences of racially and ethnically diverse, middle-aged and older men who have sex with men in Southern Nevada on factors that build and promote their resilience to HIV/AIDS. The CBPR project was conducted in collaboration with community partners such as the LGBTQIA+ Community Center of Southern Nevada, Southern Nevada Health District’s Ryan White Program, Community Counseling Center of Southern Nevada, and numerous other agencies from Clark County and surrounding areas. The findings and analysis of the survey were meant not only to inform and influence the subsequent qualitative stage of the CBPR project, but also services and programs in Southern Nevada that have a focus on promoting the resilience of men who have sex with men to HIV/AIDS

Oil disturbance reduces infaunal family richness but does not affect phylogenetic diversity

Infaunal organisms are susceptible to disturbances such as hypoxia and sediment contamination; changes in infaunal community structure are therefore often used as indicators of anthropogenic disturbance. Susceptibility to disturbance varies across taxa, either due to physiological factors or to behaviors or functional roles that increase exposure. Both sources of variability are likely to be heritable and shared among related taxa. Thus, we would expect oil disturbance to disproportionately affect related taxa and therefore decrease phylogenetic diversity (PD). We test this hypothesis for a shallow water marine infaunal community using a simulation approach that iteratively removes clades with shared vulnerability to oil exposure. Infauna were sampled at two sites in the Chandeleur Islands, LA, that reflect different exposures to crude oil after the Deepwater Horizon event. Seagrass and adjacent bare sediment habitats were sampled in 2015, 5 years after initial oil exposure, and again in 2016 after an acute re-oiling event. We found that strong correlation between PD and family richness masked any detectable PD patterns with oil exposure. For our full community tree, sensitivity analysis indicated that the removal of larger clades did not disproportionately reduce PD, against our prediction. For this pair of sites, PD did not provide a better metric for assessing the impacts of oil exposure than family richness alone. It is possible, however, that finer-scale taxonomic resolution of infaunal communities may better decouple PD from taxonomic richness. More work is needed to fully evaluate the impacts of disturbance on PD