Milk Matters 4.0: Challenges in deploying university-led mobile application development for small NGOs

Milk Matters is a small Cape Town based non-profit milk bank. Their primary role is to collect expressed breastmilk from donor mothers, pasteurize it and distribute it to recipient infants in need. Previous postgraduate projects from the University of Cape Town (UCT) have co-designed a donor facing mobile application with Milk Matters, however no mobile application is currently deployed or promoted by the non-governmental organization (NGO). This project will build upon the work already done with Milk Matters and aims to update the full system for deployment. While post-deployment evaluation will also analyse the uptake and usage of the application, this poster will focus on discussing the challenges in the deployment of university-led mobile application development for small NGOs

Opioid-Related Visits to Rural Emergency Departments

Increased rates of acute opioid poisoning and related emergency department (ED) visits in the United States have occurred at the same time as rural EDs face a number of resource constraints. Researchers at the Maine Rural Health Research Center conducted this study to gain insight about rural ED visits for acute opioid poisoning and how they compare with urban ED visits. The authors used data from the 2006 and 2013 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample to examine rural and urban opioid-related visits (ORVs) to EDs, including rate change over time, and the outcomes of these ED visits (treatment and release, inpatient admission, transfer, and death). Study findings showed that ORVs as a proportion of total visits increased in rural and urban EDs between 2006 and 2013; rural ORV rates were lower than urban rates in both time periods, however this difference narrowed because of somewhat higher rural increases. Additionally, rural ORVs were more likely than those in urban areas to be by patients 65 and older and to involve concurrent use of benzodiazepines. One fifth of ORVs by rural residents occurred in urban EDs and rural EDs were more likely to transfer patients to another hospital. More research is needed to understand the impact of rural residents’ treatment in urban EDs or other facilities on short- and long-term outcomes for patients who experience an ORV. For more information on this study, please contact Dr. Erika ZIller, [email protected]

Conferring legal personality on the world\u27s rivers: A brief intellectual assessment

The following compilation is substantially reproduced and adapted from a series of essays that appeared in the blog of the International Water Law Project (www.inter nationalwaterlaw.org). The series was solicited in response to the unique recent phenomenon in which a number of courts and legislatures around the world have conferred legal personality on particular rivers. What resulted is a fantastic, thoughtprovoking and timely compilation. In effect, various water bodies around the world have been accorded legal rights – some though legislative actions and others via judicial decisions – that in some jurisdictions, equate with those recognized in human beings. Although there may be interesting parallels in rights accorded to corporations, children and the intellectually challenged, the practical implications of these particular actions are still not well recognized or understood. Harkening back to Christopher Stone’s remarkable 1972 article ‘Should Trees Have Standing? Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects’, the series pursued some of the most fascinating and perplexing issues surrounding legal personality in rivers. What actual rights might such legal personality provide? How does a river represent itself in court and before other societal institutions? If a river can suffer harm and sue alleged perpetrators of that harm, might it be subject to lawsuits for damages it might inflict as a result of flooding? What resources might a river have at its disposal to protect its rights? Does the recognition of such rights comport with the rights, interests and perspective of indigenous peoples? These are just some of the unique issues considered in these provocative essays. The legislative and judicial actions discussed in this series are a novel legal approach to the management of critical freshwater resources. These mechanisms, however, have yet to be fully evaluated, scrutinized and tested. The essays that follow constitute a thought-provoking effort to contribute to that assessment. Moreover, they were written with the sincere objective of ensuring the sustainability of unique freshwater resources around the world. The International Water Law Project is itself a unique institution. Existing solely on the Internet, the website is one of the premier resources and clearinghouses for information on international water law and policy. Its purpose is to educate and provide relevant resources to researchers and the public and to facilitate cooperation over the world’s freshwater resources

Residential Settings and Healthcare Use of the Rural Oldest-Old Medicare Population

The aging of the baby boom generation is projected to dramatically increase the population aged 65 and older in the coming decades. In particular, those aged 85 and older (the ‘oldest old’) are expanding at a faster rate than any other age group and by 2050 are expected to make up 4.5 percent of the population, compared to 1.9 percent in 2012. Faster growth in the percentage of older people (65+) in rural than in urban areas is likely to challenge the healthcare and long term services and supports (LTSS) capacity in many rural communities. This study used Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey data to profile rural and urban Medicare beneficiaries aged 85+ with respect to their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, the residential settings in which they live, their health and functional status, and their healthcare use. In addition to some demographic and socio-economic differences, rural beneficiaries aged 85+ had greater functional limitations, were more likely to live alone in the community or in nursing homes, and less likely to reside in assisted living facilities. The greater proportion of rural individuals relying on nursing homes to meet their LTSS needs has financial implications for consumers and for state Medicaid programs that are the primary source of public financing for LTSS. The reliance on nursing homes in rural areas may partly be due to a scarcity of home and community based services (HCBS) options. The growing evidence of increased cost-effectiveness of HCBS suggests the importance of federal and state policies that support expanded access to and use of these services in rural communities. For more information on this study, please contact Jean Talbot, PhD at [email protected]

The use of live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) in healthcare personnel (HCP): Guidance from the society for healthcare epidemiology of America (SHEA)

Because of the live viral backbone of live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV), questions have arisen regarding infection control precautions and restrictions surrounding its use in healthcare personnel (HCP). This document provides guidance from the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America regarding use of LAIV in HCP and the infection control precautions that are recommended with its use in this population. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2012;33(10):981-98

Transforming CyberSecurity R&D within the Department of Energy: Getting Ahead of The Threat

This report outlines a preliminary response from DOE researchers to the following three questions: a) what are the key priorities w.r.t. cybersecurity R&D over the next decade? b) what would we recommend, in terms of a program, to address those priorities c) how would a DOE Office of Science program in this area complement other cybersecurity R&D initiatives such as NSF's or other agency programs