MS Early Childhood System Asset Map Part II - Strengths and Opportunities

The Asset Map includes information about program funding, children served, and providers through data requests to state agency leaders and review of state and federal reports. We also gathered data about the well-being of children and families in Mississippi. Along the way, we shared the data and drafts of the Asset Map with the SECAC, relevant state agency leaders, and the public, ensuring their suggested revisions were included

MS Early Childhood System Asset Map Part I - Program Profiles

The Asset Map includes information about program funding, children served, and providers through data requests to state agency leaders and review of state and federal reports. We also gathered data about the well-being of children and families in Mississippi. Along the way, we shared the data and drafts of the Asset Map with the SECAC, relevant state agency leaders, and the public, ensuring their suggested revisions were included

The Use of Tele-health Rehabilitation in Chronic Disease: A Benchmark Project

Chronic health issues such as heart disease or COPD are very common in the demographic of patients of an older age. Management often requires multiple medications and specific diets. However, an aspect of care that can often be neglected is that of exercise rehabilitation. Either due to distance, time-constraints, or simply just not wanting to do it, patients can easily neglect an aspect of their care that can have physical and mental benefits. One potential solution is that of tele-health rehabilitation which uses personalized exercise plans, a health watch, and communication through phone or video chat in order to bring the benefits of exercise directly to the patient. Research over the past five years clearly shows a need and benefit for tele-rehabilitation. Since the idea of tele-health rehab is relatively new, up-to-date research is frequently being published, and the large majority of it also supports the use of rehabilitation for improvement of quality of life in chronic health problems. If this benchmark project was implemented, a tele-rehabilitation program has great potential for both physical improvement as well as increasing chronically ill patients’ perceived quality of lif

The Digital Age: Reminder and Confirmation Preference in Blood Donation

Introduction: It is widely accepted that individuals are more likely to comply and follow through with responsibilities when reminded and asked to confirm their commitments. With the American Red Cross’ access to fast and affordable communication and this notion in mind, there is potential to develop new recruitment strategies and better methods of ensuring blood donation commitments. In particular, understanding modes of communication with the donor population can have significant implications: avoiding loss of follow up, improving donor experience, and ensuring appropriate use of resources and staff; therefore, the American Red Cross is interested in understanding demographic differences among those who prefer different modes of communication for blood donor appointment reminders and confirmations.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1223/thumbnail.jp

Developmental Exposure to PCBs, MeHg, or Both: Long-Term Effects on Auditory Function

Background: Developmental exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) or methylmercury (MeHg) can result in a variety of neurotoxic effects, including long-term auditory deficits. However, little is known about the effects of combined exposure to PCBs and MeHg on auditory function. Objective: We developmentally exposed rats to PCBs and/or MeHg and assessed auditory function in adulthood to determine the effects of exposure to these contaminants individually and in combination. Methods: We exposed female Long-Evans rats to 1 or 3 mg/kg PCB in corn oil, 1.5 or 4.5 ppm MeHg in drinking water, or combined exposure to 1 mg/ kg PCB + 1.5 ppm MeHg or 3 mg/kg PCB + 4.5 ppm MeHg. Controls received corn oil vehicle and unadulterated water. Dosing began 28 days before breeding and continued until weaning at postnatal day (PND) 21. Auditory function of the offspring was assessed at approximately PND 200 by measuring distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) and auditory brainstem responses (ABRs). Results: Groups exposed to PCBs alone had attenuated DPOAEs amplitudes, elevated DPOAE thresholds, and elevated ABR thresholds compared with controls. Groups exposed to MeHg alone did not differ from controls. Unexpectedly, the effects of PCB exposure appeared to be attenuated by coexposure to MeHg. Conclusions: Developmental exposure to PCBs can result in permanent hearing deficits, and the change in DPOAE amplitudes and threshold suggest a cochlear site of action. Coexposure to MeHg appeared to attenuate the PCB-related deficits, but the mechanism for this unexpected interaction remains to be determined

Leveraging Sanofi intensified ICB platform to enable early process development for a labile and hard-to-express molecule

Within the biopharmaceutics industry, tremendous progress has been made in the implementation of early development antibody platforms to achieve high volumetric productivity and consistent product quality for novel therapies. More recently, development of new modalities provide opportunities for advancing exciting new therapeutic possibilities. However, many of these modalities present new upstream and downstream development challenges, e.g., low expression, labile molecules, low recovery, and unreliable product quality. The resulting additional development requirements increase the timelines for demonstrating Proof of Concept and may even prohibit certain therapeutic candidates from reaching the clinic at all. The Sanofi ICB platform provides opportunities to increase productivity and improve product quality, enabling manufacture of new entities previously inaccessible. Here, we present a case study of such a situation, in which the ICB platform is applied to an early-stage, labile, hard to express molecule produced from non-CHO mammalian cells. A combination of upstream and downstream high-throughput technologies have been incorporated to rapidly define a process sufficient for first-in-human studies. Process intensification enables adequate material generation within an acceptable number of batches for both development and clinical manufacturing. This case study demonstrates the strategy of using intensified perfusion platform for non-antibody modalities to support a diverse portfolio for our evolving industry

Chlamydia Prevalence Trends among Women and Men Entering the National Job Training Program from 1990 Through 2012

Background Evaluating chlamydia prevalence trends from sentinel surveillance is important for understanding population disease burden over time. However, prevalence trend estimates from surveillance data may be misleading if they do not account for changes in risk profiles of individuals who are screened (case mix) and changing performance of the screening tests used. Methods We analyzed chlamydia screening data from a sentinel surveillance population of 389,555 young women (1990-2012) and 303,699 young men (2003-2012) entering the US National Job Training Program. This period follows the introduction of national chlamydia screening programs designed to prevent transmission and reduce population disease burden. After ruling out bias due to case mix, we used an expectation-maximization-based maximum likelihood approach to account for measurement error from changing screening tests, and generated minimally biased long-term chlamydia prevalence trend estimates among youth and young adults in this sentinel surveillance population. Results Adjusted chlamydia prevalence among women was high throughout the study period, but fell from 20% in 1990 to 12% in 2003, and remained between 12% and 14% through 2012. Adjusted prevalence among men was steady throughout the study period at approximately 7%. For both women and men, adjusted prevalence was highest among Black and American Indian youth and young adults, and in the Southern and Midwestern regions of the United States throughout the study period. Conclusions Our minimally biased trend estimates provide support for an initial decrease in chlamydia prevalence among women soon after the introduction of national chlamydia screening programs. Constant chlamydia prevalence in more recent years suggests that screening may not be sufficient to further reduce chlamydia prevalence among high-risk youth and young adults