Toward Ambidexterity

A poem

Question

Poe

Hanging In, Solo (So What\u27s It Like To Be the Only Female on the Job?)

A poem

Intangible Takings

The Constitution protects us from our own best intentions. \u27 During times of grave emergency, the powers granted and reserved by the federal government remain unaltered in order to avoid shortsighted solutions that would, in the long run, be worse than the current crisis. Even a simple cure for appreciable suffering may have larger implications, and the rule of law does not know whether it is constraining good or aiding evil. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the most costly natural disaster in U.S. history, the Federal Communications Commission ( FCC ) imposed a shortsighted resolution that tested the boundaries of its authority. Under previously unused powers to prevent the warehousing, hoarding, and brokering of toll-free numbers, the FCC unilaterally transferred one private party\u27s phone number to another private party, without offering any form of compensation. An entrepreneur had originally registered the number, 1-800-RED- ARMS, for his company of the same name. When the number\u27s use increased during earthquakes, tornadoes, and floods, he realized his fateful overlap: 1-800-RED-ARMS has the same underlying keypad sequence as 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767). During emergencies, the entrepreneur voluntarily routed calls to local American Red Cross chapters, charging only reimbursement costs. Failed negotiations to transfer the number permanently (the charity had steadfastly refused to pay six figures) led the Red Cross to make an emergency request to the FCC. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which propelled the Red Cross into its largest U.S. relief effort in history, the FCC intervened and ordered that the number be reassigned to the Red Cross

Randomized controlled trial to evaluate screening and brief intervention for drug-using multiethnic emergency and trauma department patients

BACKGROUND: Screening and brief intervention (SBI) is a comprehensive, integrated public health approach to identify and deliver a spectrum of early detection and intervention services for substance use in general medical care settings. Although the SBI approach has shown promise for alcohol use, relatively little is known about its effectiveness for illicit drug use. We are evaluating the SBI approach for drug use using a rigorous randomized controlled trial. The purpose of the report is to describe the overall trial and its programmatic and methodological strengths with a focus on health educator (HE) selection and training. In addition, the baseline characteristics of the recently enrolled multiethnic cohort are described. METHODS/DESIGN: A randomized two-group repeated measures design is being used in which drug-related outcomes of an intervention group will be compared with those of an attention-placebo control group. Selection of bicultural paraprofessional HEs—their training in research concepts, comorbid mental health issues, special treatment of marijuana use, and nonscripted enhanced motivational interviewing as well as their ongoing monitoring and evaluation—are among the features described. The HEs enrolled, consented, and conducted an intervention among 700 illicit drug users in two large hospital emergency departments/trauma units. To be eligible, a participant needed to be an adult (age ≥18 years), an English or Spanish speaker, awake and able to give consent, and reachable by telephone to schedule a six-month follow-up interview. DISCUSSION: A comprehensive HE training protocol combined with rigorous, ongoing process measurement resulted in skill mastery in many areas and a successful participant recruitment period. Strengths and limitations of the study protocol are discussed as well as the characteristics of those recruited. This trial will be among the first to provide information about the effectiveness of SBI for illicit drug use. Outcome analysis has not yet been completed, but demonstrated programming and design successes have implications for future research and service delivery. TRIAL REGISTRATION: http://NCT0168322

Exclusion of SARS-CoV-2 from Two Maine Overnight Camps July-August 2020

OBJECTIVE: Summer camp can positively affect self-esteem and social skills. Most United States summer camps did not open during 2020 because of concerns about SARS-CoV-2. Our objective is to describe exclusion strategies successfully used by two summer camps in Maine. METHODS: Prior to camp arrival, all attendees were asked to quarantine at home for fourteen days and perform a daily symptom checklist. Salivary specimens were submitted by mail for SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing four days prior to arrival, and again four days after arrival. At camp, multiple layers of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) were employed. RESULTS: 717 (96.7%) prospective attendees underwent remotely supervised saliva collection; four were positive and did not come to camp. Among the 20 who did not submit a sample, three did not come to camp; the other 17 underwent screening and a rapid antigen test for SARS-CoV-2 immediately upon arrival and before reporting to communal living spaces; all were negative. All campers and staff were re-tested by salivary PCR four days after arrival, and all were negative. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate that it is possible to safely operate overnight camps during a pandemic, thus supporting the continued physical and socioemotional growth of children, using multiple layers of NPIs

Community College Librarians and the ACRL Framework: Findings from a National Study

This study explored community college librarians’ engagement with the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. A national online survey with 1,201 community college librarian respondents reveals limited familiarity with and integration of the Framework into community college instruction to date. Findings indicate an openness to future adoption, as well as substantial interest in targeted professional development and a version of the Framework adapted for community college campuses. These results contribute benchmark instructional data on an understudied section of academic librarianship and add to the growing body of research on how librarians have updated teaching practices in response to the Framework

Randomized clinical trial of the effects of screening and brief intervention for illicit drug use: the Life Shift/Shift Gears study.

BackgroundAlthough screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) has shown promise for alcohol use, relatively little is known about its effectiveness for adult illicit drug use. This randomized controlled trial assessed the effectiveness of the SBIRT approach for outcomes related to drug use among patients visiting trauma and emergency departments (EDs) at two large, urban hospitals.MethodsA total of 700 ED patients who admitted using illegal drugs in the past 30 days were recruited, consented, provided baseline measures of substance use and related problems measured with the Addiction Severity Index-Lite (ASI-Lite), and then randomized to the Life Shift SBIRT intervention or to an attention-placebo control group focusing on driving and traffic safety (Shift Gears). Both groups received a level of motivational intervention matched to their condition and risk level by trained paraprofessional health educators. Separate measurement technicians conducted face-to-face follow-ups at 6 months post-intervention and collected hair samples to confirm reports of abstinence from drug use. The primary outcome measure of the study was past 30-day drug abstinence at 6 months post-intervention, as self-reported on the ASI-Lite.ResultsOf 700 participants, 292 (42%) completed follow-up. There were no significant differences in self-reported abstinence (12.5% vs. 12.0% , p = 0.88) for Life Shift and Shift Gears groups, respectively. When results of hair analyses were applied, the abstinence rate was 7 percent for Life Shift and 2 percent for Shift Gears (p = .074). In an analysis in which results were imputed (n = 694), there was no significant difference in the ASI-Lite drug use composite scores (Life Shift +0.005 vs. Shift Gears +0.017, p = 0.12).ConclusionsIn this randomized controlled trial, there was no evidence of effectiveness of SBIRT on the primary drug use outcome.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT01683227

CDC Grand Rounds: National Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Registry Impact, Challenges, and Future Directions

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a rapidly progressive fatal neurologic disease. Currently, there is no cure for ALS and the available treatments only extend life by an average of a few months. The majority of ALS patients die within 2–5 years of diagnosis, though survival time varies depending on disease progression (1,2). For approximately 10% of patients, ALS is familial, meaning it and has a genetic component; the remaining 90% have sporadic ALS, where etiology is unknown, but might be linked to environmental factors such as chemical exposures (e.g., heavy metals, pesticides) and occupational history (3). Like many other noncommunicable conditions, ALS is a nonnotifiable disease in the United States; therefore, the federal government lacks reliable incidence and prevalence estimates for the United States. During October 2008, Congress passed the ALS Registry Act (4), directing CDC and its sister agency, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, to create a population-based ALS registry for the United States. The main objectives of the National ALS Registry, which was launched in October 2010, are to describe the national incidence and prevalence of ALS; describe the demographics of persons living with ALS; and examine risk factors for the disease (4,5). During January 2017, the Registry launched the National ALS Biorepository, which aims to promote research in areas including biomarkers, genetics, and environmental exposures to heavy metals or organophosphates (6,7)

Human's Cognitive Ability to Assess Facial Cues from Photographs: A Study of Sexual Selection in the Bolivian Amazon

Background: Evolutionary theory suggests that natural selection favors the evolution of cognitive abilities which allow humans to use facial cues to assess traits of others. The use of facial and somatic cues by humans has been studied mainly in western industrialized countries, leaving unanswered whether results are valid across cultures. Methodology/Principal Findings: Our objectives were to test (i) if previous finding about raters' ability to get accurate information about an individual by looking at his facial photograph held in low-income non western rural societies and (ii) whether women and men differ in this ability. To answer the questions we did a study during July-August 2007 among the Tsimane', a native Amazonian society of foragers-farmers in Bolivia. We asked 40 females and 40 males 16-25 years of age to rate four traits in 93 facial photographs of other Tsimane' males. The four traits were based on sexual selection theory, and included health, dominance, knowledge, and sociability. The rating scale for each trait ranged from one (least) to four (most). The average rating for each trait was calculated for each individual in the photograph and regressed against objective measures of the trait from the person in the photograph. We found that (i) female Tsimane' raters were able to assess facial cues related to health, dominance, and knowledge and (ii) male Tsimane' raters were able to assess facial cues related to dominance, knowledge, and sociability. Conclusions/Significance: Our results support the existence of a human ability to identify objective traits from facial cues, as suggested by evolutionary theory