Boys Are Victims, Too: The Influence of Perpetrators’ Age and Gender in Sexual Coercion Against Boys

Sexual coercion among adolescent boys in South Africa is an underresearched topic despite the frequency of such events. Although quantitative research has illuminated the prevalence of sexual coercion toward boys, it has provided little understanding of the context of sexual coercion for adolescent boys. Given the often severe consequences of sexual coercion, it is important to further understand these experiences to inform prevention efforts. The current study aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of the context of sexual coercion. Data come from the baseline assessment for a translational research evaluation of a school-based intervention. The current study focuses on a subset of early and middle adolescent boys who reporte

Disparities in Injury Mortality Between Uganda and the United States: Comparative Analysis of a Neglected Disease

The Author(s) 2010. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Background The burden of global injury-related deaths predominantly affects developing countries, which have little infrastructure to evaluate these disparities. We describe injury-related mortality patterns in Kampala, Uganda and compare them with data from the United States and San Francisco (SF), California. Methods We created a database in Kampala of deaths recorded by the City Mortuary, the Mulago Hospital Mortuary, and the Uganda Ministry of Health from July to December 2007. We analyzed the rate and odds ratios and compared them to data from the U.S. Centers for Diseas

Use of text-mining methods to improve efficiency in the calculation of drug exposure to support pharmacoepidemiology studies

Background: Efficient generation of structured dose instructions that enable researchers to calculate drug exposure is central to pharmacoepidemiology studies. The aim was to design and test an algorithm to codify dose instructions, applied to the NHS Scotland Prescribing Information System (PIS) that records approximately 100 million prescriptions per annum. Methods: a natural language processing (NLP) algorithm was developed enabling free-text dose instructions to be represented by three attributes: quantity; frequency; and qualifier, each specified by a set of variables. This was tested on a sample of 15 593 distinct dose instructions and manually validated. The final algorithm was then applied to the full dataset. Results: the dataset comprised 458 227 687 prescriptions, of which 99.67% had dose instructions represented by 4 964 083 distinct free-text dose instructions; 13 593 (0.27%) of these occurred ≥1000 times accounting for 88.85% of all prescriptions. Reviewers identified 767 (5.83%) instances where the structured output (n=13 152) was incorrect, an accuracy of 94.2%. Application of the final NLP algorithm to the dataset generated an overall structured output of 92.3% which varied by therapeutic area (86.7% central nervous system to 96.8% cardiovascular). Conclusion: We adopted a zero assumption approach to create an NLP algorithm, operational at scale, to produce structured output which enables data users maximum flexibility to formulate, test and apply their own assumptions according to the medicines under investigation. Text mining approaches can provide a solution to the safe and efficient management and provisioning of large volumes of data generated through our health systems

Pesquisa nas fronteiras da comunidade-universidade: Uso da ciência pública para estudar vigilância policial no South Bronx

This article is a case study of the Morris Justice Project (MJP), a participatory action research (PAR) study in a South Bronx neighborhood of New York City (NYC) designed to understand residents’ experiences with and attitudes towards the New York Police Department (NYPD). An illustration of public science, the research was conducted in solidarity with an emerging police reform movement and in response to an ongoing and particularly aggressive set of policing policies that most heavily impacts poor communities and communities of color.  The case study describes a set of ongoing participatory, research-action, “sidewalk science” strategies, developed in 42 square blocks of the South Bronx, designed to better understand and challenge the ongoing structural violence of the carceral state. Collaboratively written with members of the Morris Justice collective, we tell our story across three sections that outline the genesis of the project, describe our major commitments, and offers PAR and public science as a possible “intervention” in traditional university practice.Este artículo es un estudio de caso del Proyecto de Morris Justice (MJP), un estudio de investigación de acción participativa (PAR) en un vecindario del South Bronx de la Ciudad de Nueva York (NYC) diseñado para comprender las experiencias y las actitudes de los residentes hacia Departamento de Policía de Nueva York (NYPD). Una ilustración de la ciencia pública, la investigación se llevó a cabo en solidaridad con un movimiento de reforma policial emergente y en respuesta a un conjunto de políticas policiales en curso y particularmente agresivo que afecta más a las comunidades pobres y las comunidades de color. El estudio de caso describe un conjunto de estrategias participativas en curso, de investigación-acción, “ciencia de acera”, desarrolladas en 42 bloques cuadrados del South Bronx, diseñadas para comprender mejor y desafiar la violencia estructural en curso del estado carceral. Escrito en colaboración con miembros del colectivo Morris Justice, contamos nuestra historia en tres secciones que resumen la génesis del proyecto, describimos nuestros principales compromisos y ofrecemos PAR y ciencia pública como una posible “intervención” en la práctica universitaria tradicional.Este artigo é um estudo de caso do Morris Justice Project (MJP), um estudo de pesquisa de ação participativa (PAR) em um bairro no South Bronx, em Nova York, projetado para entender as experiências e atitudes dos moradores em relação ao Departamento de Polícia de Nova York (NYPD). Uma ilustração da ciência pública, a pesquisa foi conduzida em solidariedade com um movimento emergente de reforma da polícia e em resposta a um conjunto de políticas policiais em andamento e particularmente agressivas que mais afetam comunidades pobres e comunidades de cor. O estudo de caso descreve um conjunto de estratégias participativas de pesquisa-ação, “ciência da calçada”, desenvolvidas em 42 quarteirões do South Bronx, destinadas a melhor compreender e desafiar a violência estrutural em curso no Estado carcerário. Escrito em colaboração com membros do coletivo Morris Justice, contamos nossa história em três seções que resumem a gênese do projeto, descrevem nossos principais compromissos e oferecem a PAR e a ciência pública como uma possível “intervenção” na prática universitária tradicional.

Closing the compliance gap in marine protected areas with human behavioural sciences

Advocates, practitioners and policy-makers continue to use and advocate for marine protected areas (MPAs) to meet global ocean protection targets. Yet many of the worlds MPAs, and especially no-take MPAs, are plagued by poaching and ineffective governance. Using a global dataset on coral reefs as an example, we quantify the potential ecological gains of governing MPAs to increase compliance, which we call the ‘compliance gap’. Using ecological simulations based on model posteriors of joint Bayesian hierarchical models, we demonstrate how increased compliance in no-take MPAs could nearly double target fish biomass (91% increases in median fish biomass), and result in a 292% higher likelihood of encountering top predators. Achieving these gains and closing the compliance gap necessitates a substantial shift in approach and practice to go beyond optimizing enforcement, and towards governing for compliance. This will require engaging and integrating a broad suite of actors, principles, and practices across three key domains: (i)) harnessing social influence, (ii) integrating equity principles, and (iii) aligning incentives through market-based instruments. Empowering and shaping communication between actor groups (e.g., between fishers, practitioners, and policy-makers) using theoretically underpinned approaches from the behavioural sciences is one of the most essential, but often underserved aspects of governing MPAs. We therefore close by highlighting how this cross-cutting tool could be further integrated in governance to bolster high levels of compliance in MPAs

Optimal spatiotemporal scales to aggregate satellite ocean color data for nearshore reefs and tropical coastal waters: two case studies

Remotely sensed ocean color data are useful for monitoring water quality in coastal environments. However, moderate resolution (hundreds of meters to a few kilometers) satellite data are underutilized in these environments because of frequent data gaps from cloud cover and algorithm complexities in shallow waters. Aggregating satellite data over larger space and time scales is a common method to reduce data gaps and generate a more complete time series, but potentially smooths out the small-scale, episodic changes in water quality that can have ecological influences. By comparing aggregated satellite estimates of Kd(490) with related in-water measurements, we can understand the extent to which aggregation methods are viable for filling gaps while being able to characterize ecologically relevant water quality conditions. In this study, we tested a combination of six spatial and seven temporal scales for aggregating data from the VIIRS instrument at several coral reef locations in Maui, Hawai‘i and Puerto Rico and compared these with in situ measurements of Kd(490) and turbidity. In Maui, we found that the median value of a 5-pixels, 7-days spatiotemporal cube of satellite data yielded a robust result capable of differentiating observations across small space and time domains and had the best correlation among spatiotemporal cubes when compared with in situ Kd(490) across 11 nearshore sites (R2 = 0.84). We also found long-term averages (i.e., chronic condition) of VIIRS data using this aggregation method follow a similar spatial pattern to onshore turbidity measurements along the Maui coast over a three-year period. In Puerto Rico, we found that the median of a 13-pixels, 13-days spatiotemporal cube of satellite data yielded the best overall result with an R2 = 0.54 when compared with in situ Kd(490) measurements for one nearshore site with measurement dates spanning 2016–2019. As spatiotemporal cubes of different dimensions yielded optimum results in the two locations, we recommend local analysis of spatial and temporal optima when applying this technique elsewhere. The use of satellite data and in situ water quality measurements provide complementary information, each enhancing understanding of the issues affecting coastal ecosystems, including coral reefs, and the success of management efforts

Mitochondrial oxidative stress causes insulin resistance without disrupting oxidative phosphorylation.

Mitochondrial oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, or both have been implicated in insulin resistance. However, disentangling the individual roles of these processes in insulin resistance has been difficult because they often occur in tandem, and tools that selectively increase oxidant production without impairing mitochondrial respiration have been lacking. Using the dimer/monomer status of peroxiredoxin isoforms as an indicator of compartmental hydrogen peroxide burden, we provide evidence that oxidative stress is localized to mitochondria in insulin-resistant 3T3-L1 adipocytes and adipose tissue from mice. To dissociate oxidative stress from impaired oxidative phosphorylation and study whether mitochondrial oxidative stress per se can cause insulin resistance, we used mitochondria-targeted paraquat (MitoPQ) to generate superoxide within mitochondria without directly disrupting the respiratory chain. At ≤10 μm, MitoPQ specifically increased mitochondrial superoxide and hydrogen peroxide without altering mitochondrial respiration in intact cells. Under these conditions, MitoPQ impaired insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) translocation to the plasma membrane in both adipocytes and myotubes. MitoPQ recapitulated many features of insulin resistance found in other experimental models, including increased oxidants in mitochondria but not cytosol; a more profound effect on glucose transport than on other insulin-regulated processes, such as protein synthesis and lipolysis; an absence of overt defects in insulin signaling; and defective insulin- but not AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)-regulated GLUT4 translocation. We conclude that elevated mitochondrial oxidants rapidly impair insulin-regulated GLUT4 translocation and significantly contribute to insulin resistance and that MitoPQ is an ideal tool for studying the link between mitochondrial oxidative stress and regulated GLUT4 trafficking

A National Network of Safe Havens:A Scottish Perspective

For over a decade, Scotland has implemented and operationalized a system of Safe Havens, which provides secure analytics platforms for researchers to access linked, deidentified electronic health records (EHRs) while managing the risk of unauthorized reidentification. In this paper, a perspective is provided on the state-of-the-art Scottish Safe Haven network, including its evolution, to define the key activities required to scale the Scottish Safe Haven network’s capability to facilitate research and health care improvement initiatives. A set of processes related to EHR data and their delivery in Scotland have been discussed. An interview with each Safe Haven was conducted to understand their services in detail, as well as their commonalities. The results show how Safe Havens in Scotland have protected privacy while facilitating the reuse of the EHR data. This study provides a common definition of a Safe Haven and promotes a consistent understanding among the Scottish Safe Haven network and the clinical and academic research community. We conclude by identifying areas where efficiencies across the network can be made to meet the needs of population-level studies at scale