Development and Interim Evaluation of WeCare Indiana: a Community-tailored Text Messaging Intervention to Reduce Infant Mortality in East Central Indiana

poster abstractBackground: Text messaging is an effective way to distribute health information and reduce risky health behaviors.1,2 In 2014, the East Central Indiana Fetal and Infant Mortality Program of the Delaware County Health Department developed a community-based text messaging intervention program called “WeCare Indiana” as an innovative approach to promote positive pregnancy outcomes. This abstract reports the interim evaluation of health promotional text messages for prenatal clients. Methods: The program was developed using a community-collaborative model. Over 200 prenatal and infant health text messages were reviewed and evaluated by community representatives. Messages included information regarding fetal and infant development, health promotion, and risk prevention strategies with links to local resources. Prenatal messages were then reviewed by prenatal clients for their relevance, clarity, and likelihood to change healthrelated behavior during pregnancy. The program was promoted locally and currently has 98 enrollees. A 4-month interim program evaluation was developed to assess program awareness, reasons for enrolling or not enrolling, and overall satisfaction with text message content. A convenience sample of prenatal clients at a Federally Qualified Health Center participated in the evaluation process. Results: Of the 43 prenatal clients that participated, 10 (23%) clients had heard about the health messaging service. Of those participants, 6 (60%) had chosen to enroll in the program. Enrollees reported hearing about the program through word of mouth, posters, fliers, health care providers, and social media. Reasons given for not enrolling included lack of awareness or interest, technical difficulties, and procrastination. All enrollees reported that the messages were helpful. Conclusions: An effort to reduce fetal and infant mortality in East Central Indiana led to the development and evaluation of community-tailored health messages. The evaluation results will be used to encourage client awareness and enrollment in the program

The European flagship of marine sciences for a sustainable future

Marine Genomics Europe brings genomics into marine biology. It will strengthen and integrate the community of marine biologists forstructuring the European Research Area (ERA). Marine scientists in Europe summarize their successes with genome technologies in the marine sciences and make a plea for a concerted international effort to raise greater public education for support

Understanding Schools and Schooling. (Book Review)

A review of a book written by Clive Chitty (2002 with a useful focus on issues of equity and social justice, including prejudice, discrimination and bullying in secondary schools. Education policy makers need to explore the extent to which it is important to produce interested, motivated and socially balanced young adults. It is well researched and documented

Initiator Types and the Causal Question of the Prevalent New-User Design: A Simulation Study

New-user designs restricting to treatment initiators have become the preferred design for studying drug comparative safety and effectiveness using nonexperimental data. This design reduces confounding by indication and healthy-adherer bias at the cost of smaller study sizes and reduced external validity, particularly when assessing a newly approved treatment compared with standard treatment. The prevalent new-user design includes adopters of a new treatment who switched from or previously used standard treatment (i.e., the comparator), expanding study sample size and potentially broadening the study population for inference. Previous work has suggested the use of time-conditional propensity-score matching to mitigate prevalent user bias. In this study, we describe 3 "types"of initiators of a treatment: new users, direct switchers, and delayed switchers. Using these initiator types, we articulate the causal questions answered by the prevalent new-user design and compare them with those answered by the new-user design. We then show, using simulation, how conditioning on time since initiating the comparator (rather than full treatment history) can still result in a biased estimate of the treatment effect. When implemented properly, the prevalent new-user design estimates new and important causal effects distinct from the new-user design

A Detailed Monte-Carlo Simulation for the Belle TOF System

We have developed a detailed Monte Carlo simulation program for the Belle TOF system. Based on GEANT simulation, it takes account of all physics processes in the TOF scintillation counters and readout electronics. The simulation reproduces very well the performance of the Belle TOF system, including the dE/dx response, the time walk effect, the time resolution, and the hit efficiency due to beam background. In this report, we will describe the Belle TOF simulation program in detail.Comment: To be submitted to NI

When Does Eddy Viscosity Damp Subfilter Scales Sufficiently?

Large eddy simulation (LES) seeks to predict the dynamics of spatially filtered turbulent flows. The very essence is that the LES-solution contains only scales of size ≥Δ, where Δ denotes some user-chosen length scale. This property enables us to perform a LES when it is not feasible to compute the full, turbulent solution of the Navier-Stokes equations. Therefore, in case the large eddy simulation is based on an eddy viscosity model we determine the eddy viscosity such that any scales of size <Δ are dynamically insignificant. In this paper, we address the following two questions: how much eddy diffusion is needed to (a) balance the production of scales of size smaller than Δ; and (b) damp any disturbances having a scale of size smaller than Δ initially. From this we deduce that the eddy viscosity νe has to depend on the invariants q = ½tr(S^2) and r =−⅓tr(S^3) of the (filtered) strain rate tensor S. The simplest model is then given by νe = 3/2(Δ/π)^2|r|/q. This model is successfully tested for a turbulent channel flow (Reτ = 590).

High Magnetic Field NMR Studies of LiVGe2_2O6_6, a quasi 1-D Spin S=1S = 1 System

We report $^{7}$Li pulsed NMR measurements in polycrystalline and single crystal samples of the quasi one-dimensional S=1 antiferromagnet LiVGe$_2$O$_6$, whose AF transition temperature is $T_{\text{N}}\simeq 24.5$ K. The field ($B_0$) and temperature ($T$) ranges covered were 9-44.5 T and 1.7-300 K respectively. The measurements included NMR spectra, the spin-lattice relaxation rate ($T_1^{-1}$), and the spin-phase relaxation rate ($T_2^{-1}$), often as a function of the orientation of the field relative to the crystal axes. The spectra indicate an AF magnetic structure consistent with that obtained from neutron diffraction measurements, but with the moments aligned parallel to the c-axis. The spectra also provide the $T$-dependence of the AF order parameter and show that the transition is either second order or weakly first order. Both the spectra and the $T_1^{-1}$ data show that $B_0$ has at most a small effect on the alignment of the AF moment. There is no spin-flop transition up to 44.5 T. These features indicate a very large magnetic anisotropy energy in LiVGe$_2$O$_6$ with orbital degrees of freedom playing an important role. Below 8 K, $T_1^{-1}$ varies substantially with the orientation of $B_0$ in the plane perpendicular to the c-axis, suggesting a small energy gap for magnetic fluctuations that is very anisotropic.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev.

Real-Time Data Driven Wildland Fire Modeling

We are developing a wildland fire model based on semi-empirical relations that estimate the rate of spread of a surface fire and post-frontal heat release, coupled with WRF, the Weather Research and Forecasting atmospheric model. A level set method identifies the fire front. Data are assimilated using both amplitude and position corrections using a morphing ensemble Kalman filter. We will use thermal images of a fire for observations that will be compared to synthetic image based on the model state.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures. ICCS 0

Sediment removal by prairie filter strips in row-cropped ephemeral watersheds

Twelve small watersheds in central Iowa were used to evaluate the effectiveness of prairie filter strips (PFS) in trapping sediment from agricultural runoff. Four treatments with PFS of different size and location (100% rowcrop, 10% PFS of total watershed area at footslope, 10% PFS at footslope and in contour strips, 20% PFS at footslope and in contour strips) arranged in a balanced incomplete block design were seeded in July 2007. All watersheds were in bromegrass ( L.) for at least 10 yr before treatment establishment. Cropped areas were managed under a no-till, 2-yr corn ( L.)-soybean [ (L.) Merr.] rotation beginning in 2007. About 38 to 85% of the total sediment export from cropland occurred during the early growth stage of rowcrop due to wet field conditions and poor ground cover. The greatest sediment load was observed in 2008 due to the initial soil disturbance and gradually decreased thereafter. The mean annual sediment yield through 2010 was 0.36 and 8.30 Mg ha for the watersheds with and without PFS, respectively, a 96% sediment trapping efficiency for the 4-yr study period. The amount and distribution of PFS had no significant impact on runoff and sediment yield, probably due to the relatively large width (37-78 m) of footslope PFS. The findings suggest that incorporation of PFS at the footslope position of annual rowcrop systems provides an effective approach to reducing sediment loss in runoff from agricultural watersheds under a no-till system