Administering Successful Conferences in Health Education

Administering conferences remains a common health education strategy especially for those functioning in leadership and administrative positions. To date, very little has been written about these events which have the potential to impact large intended audiences when successfully implemented. This paper addresses several important administrative practices that can help ensure a successful conference. These practices include but are not limited to using a health education planning model, organizing and holding committee planning meetings, preparing a budget, visiting potential conference sites, negotiating contracts for hotel and meeting facilities, corresponding with conference participants, and preparing conference materials

Investigation of a Thin Straight Wing of Aspect Ratio 4 by the NACA Wing-flow Method : Lift and Pitching-moment Characteristics of the Wing Alone

This report presents measurements of the lift and pitching-moment characteristics of a straight wing of aspect ratio 4, taper ratio 0.5, having a symmetrical double-wedge airfoil section with a maximum thickness of 4.4-percent chord. The tests were conducted in the Mach number range 0.51 to 1.20, Reynolds numbers 380,000 to 660,000, by the NACA wing-flow method. The results are compared with theory and with wind-tunnel tests of a similar model. It is indicated that in the Mach number range 0.82 to 1.00 the model surface, profile, and test Reynolds number all would be very important considerations in any attempt to study or predict full-scale characteristics from small-model tests

Drug Poisoning Deaths according to Ethnicity in Utah

This study characterizes drug-related deaths according to ethnicity in Utah during [2005][2006][2007][2008][2009][2010], based on data from the Utah Violent Death Reporting System (UTVDRS). Hispanics made up 12.1% (12.5% male and 11.7% female) of deaths. The most frequently identified drugs among decedents were opiates, then illicit drugs, benzodiazepines, over-the-counter medication, and antidepressants. Death rates for each drug were significantly greater in non-Hispanics than Hispanics. Most decedents used a combination of drugs. For each combination, rates were significantly greater for non-Hispanics than Hispanics, with an exception for opiates and illicit drugs combined, where there was no significant difference. Approximately 79% of non-Hispanics and 65% of Hispanics had one or more of the selected problems (e.g., mental, physical, or crisis related). Rates for each combination of problems were significantly greater in non-Hispanics, with the exception of crisis. Hispanics were less affected by the rise in prescription drug abuse. Hispanic decedents had a greater proportion of illegal drugs, consistent with it being more difficult to obtain prescription drugs. Hispanic decedents were less likely to have physical and mental health problems, which may be related to a smaller chance of diagnosis of such problems through the healthcare system

Family-Focused Public Health: Supporting Homes and Families in Policy and Practice

Life expectancy in the US is on the decline. Mental health issues associated with opioid abuse and suicide have been implicated for this decline necessitating new approaches and procedures. While Public Health 3.0 provides a call to action for stakeholders to work closely together to address such complex problems as these, less attention has been given to engaging and supporting the most important stakeholders and primary producers of health within the US: families and households. The idea that health begins at home is discussed from the perspective of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention levels. Primary prevention where research provides evidence for the role of the family in healthy child development. Secondary and tertiary prevention where research offers evidence for the role of the family in caregiving. Despite this evidence, greater focus and attention must be placed on the family at all prevention levels as an often overlooked setting of public health practice and level of influence. Prevention across all levels is enhanced as public health practitioners think family when designing and implementing public health policy. Four family impact principles are presented to help guide planning and implementation decisions to nourish family engagement

Effects of fluid and drinking on pneumonia mortality in older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Advice to drink plenty of fluid is common in respiratory infections. We assessed whether low fluid intake (dehydration) altered outcomes in adults with pneumonia. METHODS: We systematically reviewed trials increasing fluid intake and well-adjusted, well-powered observational studies assessing associations between markers of low-intake dehydration (fluid intake, serum osmolality, urea or blood urea nitrogen, urinary output, signs of dehydration) and mortality in adult pneumonia patients (with any type of pneumonia, including community acquired, health-care acquired, aspiration, COVID-19 and mixed types). Medline, Embase, CENTRAL, references of reviews and included studies were searched to 30/10/2020. Studies were assessed for inclusion, risk of bias and data extracted independently in duplicate. We employed random-effects meta-analysis, sensitivity analyses, subgrouping and GRADE assessment. Prospero registration: CRD42020182599. RESULTS: We identified one trial, 20 well-adjusted cohort studies and one case-control study. None suggested that more fluid (hydration) was associated with harm. Ten of 13 well-powered observational studies found statistically significant positive associations in adjusted analyses between dehydration and medium-term mortality. The other three studies found no significant effect. Meta-analysis suggested doubled odds of medium-term mortality in dehydrated (compared to hydrated) pneumonia patients (GRADE moderate-quality evidence, OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.8 to 2.8, 8619 deaths in 128,319 participants). Heterogeneity was explained by a dose effect (greater dehydration increased risk of mortality further), and the effect was consistent across types of pneumonia (including community-acquired, hospital-acquired, aspiration, nursing and health-care associated, and mixed pneumonia), age and setting (community or hospital). The single trial found that educating pneumonia patients to drink ≥1.5 L fluid/d alongside lifestyle advice increased fluid intake and reduced subsequent healthcare use. No studies in COVID-19 pneumonia met the inclusion criteria, but 70% of those hospitalised with COVID-19 have pneumonia. Smaller COVID-19 studies suggested that hydration is as important in COVID-19 pneumonia mortality as in other pneumonias. CONCLUSIONS: We found consistent moderate-quality evidence mainly from observational studies that improving hydration reduces the risk of medium-term mortality in all types of pneumonia. It is remarkable that while many studies included dehydration as a potential confounder, and major pneumonia risk scores include measures of hydration, optimal fluid volume and the effect of supporting hydration have not been assessed in randomised controlled trials of people with pneumonia. Such trials, are needed as potential benefits may be large, rapid and implemented at low cost. Supporting hydration and reversing dehydration has the potential to have rapid positive impacts on pneumonia outcomes, and perhaps also COVID-19 pneumonia outcomes, in older adults

Can understanding reward help illuminate anhedonia?

Purpose of review: The goal of this paper is to examine how reward processing might help us understand the symptom of anhedonia. Recent findings: There are extensive reviews exploring the relationship between responses to rewarding stimuli and depression. These often include a discussion on anhedonia and how this might be underpinned in particular by dysfunctional reward processing. However, there is no specific consensus on whether studies to date have adequately examined the various sub-components of reward processing or how these might relate in turn to various aspects of anhedonia symptoms. Summary: The approach to understanding the symptom of anhedonia should be to examine all the sub-components of reward processing at the subjective and objective behavioural and neural level, with well validated tasks that can be replicated. Investigating real life experiences of anhedonia and how theses might be predicted by objective lab measures is also needed in future research

HIV-1 Neutralization Profile and Plant-Based Recombinant Expression of Actinohivin, an Env Glycan-Specific Lectin Devoid of T-Cell Mitogenic Activity

The development of a topical microbicide blocking the sexual transmission of HIV-1 is urgently needed to control the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. The actinomycete-derived lectin actinohivin (AH) is highly specific to a cluster of high-mannose-type glycans uniquely found on the viral envelope (Env). Here, we evaluated AH's candidacy toward a microbicide in terms of in vitro anti-HIV-1 activity, potential side effects, and recombinant producibility. Two validated assay systems based on human peripheral blood mononuclear cell (hPBMC) infection with primary isolates and TZM-bl cell infection with Env-pseudotyped viruses were employed to characterize AH's anti-HIV-1 activity. In hPMBCs, AH exhibited nanomolar neutralizing activity against primary viruses with diverse cellular tropisms, but did not cause mitogenicity or cytotoxicity that are often associated with other anti-HIV lectins. In the TZM-bl-based assay, AH showed broad anti-HIV-1 activity against clinically-relevant, mucosally transmitting strains of clades B and C. By contrast, clade A viruses showed strong resistance to AH. Correlation analysis suggested that HIV-1′s AH susceptibility is significantly linked to the N-glycans at the Env C2 and V4 regions. For recombinant (r)AH expression, we evaluated a tobacco mosaic virus-based system in Nicotiana benthamiana plants as a means to facilitate molecular engineering and cost-effective mass production. Biochemical analysis and an Env-mediated syncytium formation assay demonstrated high-level expression of functional rAH within six days. Taken together, our study revealed AH's cross-clade anti-HIV-1 activity, apparent lack of side effects common to lectins, and robust producibility using plant biotechnology. These findings justify further efforts to develop rAH toward a candidate HIV-1 microbicide

Genome-Wide Association and Trans-ethnic Meta-Analysis for Advanced Diabetic Kidney Disease: Family Investigation of Nephropathy and Diabetes (FIND)

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is the most common etiology of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the industrialized world and accounts for much of the excess mortality in patients with diabetes mellitus. Approximately 45% of U.S. patients with incident end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) have DKD. Independent of glycemic control, DKD aggregates in families and has higher incidence rates in African, Mexican, and American Indian ancestral groups relative to European populations. The Family Investigation of Nephropathy and Diabetes (FIND) performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) contrasting 6,197 unrelated individuals with advanced DKD with healthy and diabetic individuals lacking nephropathy of European American, African American, Mexican American, or American Indian ancestry. A large-scale replication and trans-ethnic meta-analysis included 7,539 additional European American, African American and American Indian DKD cases and non-nephropathy controls. Within ethnic group meta-analysis of discovery GWAS and replication set results identified genome-wide significant evidence for association between DKD and rs12523822 on chromosome 6q25.2 in American Indians (P = 5.74x10-9). The strongest signal of association in the trans-ethnic meta-analysis was with a SNP in strong linkage disequilibrium with rs12523822 (rs955333; P = 1.31x10-8), with directionally consistent results across ethnic groups. These 6q25.2 SNPs are located between the SCAF8 and CNKSR3 genes, a region with DKD relevant changes in gene expression and an eQTL with IPCEF1, a gene co-translated with CNKSR3. Several other SNPs demonstrated suggestive evidence of association with DKD, within and across populations. These data identify a novel DKD susceptibility locus with consistent directions of effect across diverse ancestral groups and provide insight into the genetic architecture of DKD