An Exploratory Study of Client Culture, Meat Perceptions, Social Climate, and Information Preferences in Northwest Indiana Food Pantries

Food insecurity has been an increasingly important, and troubling, issue across the nation and world in the last 20 years. Definitions of food insecurity vary, but the core idea is that food insecure people are unable to acquire enough food to have a healthy life. Lack of dependable access to healthy food can lead to additional concerns. Visiting hunger-relief organizations is one of the primary coping strategies used by the food insecure. In the U.S., approximately 46.5 million individuals, or 17.5 million households – more than 14 percent of the population – used the hunger-relief network Feeding America in 2013. This network includes food banks and food pantries, and individuals using these organizations are referred to as food pantry clients. Few studies have focused on food insecurity at the individual client and individual pantry level. The current exploratory research was designed to explore client culture, client perceptions of meat quality and packaging, social climate of pantries, and information preferences in a selected community of northwest Indiana food pantries. Specifically, the research objectives were to: 1) describe the culture of food pantry clients, especially clients’ values and perceptions towards meat in the diet and meat donated to pantries; 2) describe the social climate of selected food pantries; and 3) investigate food pantry client preferences for receiving information about food and learning food preparation techniques. The study used two theoretical perspectives, social cognitive theory and means-end chain theory, to investigate how and why clients make decisions about food. Three sources of qualitative data, client interviews, pantry director interviews, and pantry observations, were collected and analyzed. Findings revealed that, when planning a meal, clients valued good health, children’s futures, and feeding themselves and their family. Most clients perceived meat to be important in their diets, and preferred chicken or beef to other meats. On average, they perceived the meat and meat packaging received through pantries to be adequate to good. Clients communicated a preference for more information on foods available at pantries. They also expressed a reliance on pantries, but the reliance involved a number of complex nuances. Recommendations for the selected food bank, food pantries, and future research include: 1) the need to define protein in the context of agency, 2) the need to examine context-dependent agency in the realm of pantries and available food choices, and 3) the need to critically examine avenues for information sharing

Salary History and Employer Demand: Evidence from a Two-Sided Audit

We study how salary history disclosures affect employer demand, and how salary history bans shape hiring and wages. We show how these effects depend on the properties of the labor market, and we measure the key properties using a novel, two-sided field experiment. Our field experiment features hundreds of recruiters reviewing more than 2, 000 job applications. We randomize the presence of salary history questions as well as job candidates’ disclosures. We find that employers make negative inferences about nondisclosing candidates, and that they anticipate positive selection into disclosure. Recruiters view salary history as a stronger signal about competing options than about worker quality. Disclosures by men (and other highly paid candidates) yield higher salary offers; however, they are negative signals of the value (net of salary) that a worker brings to the firm, and thus they yield fewer callbacks. While disclosures (especially of high amounts) generally increase recruiter beliefs about quality and competing offers, male wage premiums are regarded as a weaker signal of quality than other sources (such as the premiums from working at higher-paying firms or being well paid compared to peers). Recruiters correctly anticipate that women are less likely to disclose salary history at any level, and thus they punish women less than men for silence. When we simulate the effect of salary history bans using our results, we find muted effects on callbacks. Gender inequality in salary offers is reduced; however, equality comes at the expense of lower salaries overall (and especially for men)

Teaching Convergence in 21st Century Undergraduate Agricultural Communication: A Pilot Study of Backpack Multimedia Kits in a Blended, Project-Based Learning Course

Twenty-first century agricultural communication students are expected to have an increasingly diverse set of skills when they graduate.Expertise is expected in: writing, editing, design, marketing, media relations, event planning, interpersonal communication, digital development, e-publications, online video, mobile applications, podcasting, and social media.This expansion of needed skills is due in no small part to the proliferation of communication channels and convergence of media platforms today. In order to continue preparing students for professions in agricultural communication, it is imperative that the curricula reflect current industry needs and available technology. In this article, one approach for expanding curricula to incorporate these newer technologies by implementing backpack multimedia journalism kits for science communication is discussed. The kits were developed to address these criteria: 1) students needed opportunities to gain a variety of broad technological skills, 2) the technology had to be mobile and cost effective, and 3) the technology needed to be able to produce a variety of content across a variety of platforms. The mobile multimedia kits included iPad-minis and video accessories. Through an agricultural communication blended-learning, project-based undergraduate course, the authors tested the effectiveness of the kits, as well as researched students’ perceptions and experiences with the course design and mobile communication technologies. The results of the study showed students valued the selected technology and gained targeted video production skills. Although students’ liked the course design, they experienced challenges with course requirements, time management, and using the technological audio recording components

A Multidisciplinary Childrens Airway Center: Impact on the Care of Patients With Tracheostomy

BACKGROUND: Children with complex airway problems see multiple specialists. To improve outcomes and coordinate care, we developed a multidisciplinary Children's Airway Center. For children with tracheostomies, aspects of care targeted for improvement included optimizing initial hospital discharge, promoting effective communication between providers and caregivers, and avoiding tracheostomy complications. METHODS: The population includes children up to 21 years old with tracheostomies. The airway center team includes providers from pediatric pulmonology, pediatric otolaryngology/head and neck surgery, and pediatric gastroenterology. Improvement initiatives included enhanced educational strategies, weekly care conferences, institutional consensus guidelines and care plans, personalized clinic schedules, and standardized intervals between airway examinations. A patient database allowed for tracking outcomes over time. RESULTS: We initially identified 173 airway center patients including 123 with tracheostomies. The median number of new patients evaluated by the center team each year was 172. Median hospitalization after tracheostomy decreased from 37 days to 26 days for new tracheostomy patients <1 year old discharged from the hospital. A median of 24 care plans was evaluated at weekly conferences. Consensus protocol adherence increased likelihood of successful decannulation from 68% to 86% of attempts. The median interval of 8 months between airway examinations aligned with published recommendations. CONCLUSIONS: For children with tracheostomies, our Children's Airway Center met and sustained goals of optimizing hospitalization, promoting communication, and avoiding tracheostomy complications by initiating targeted improvements in a multidisciplinary team setting. A multidisciplinary approach to management of these patients can yield measurable improvements in important outcomes

Lessons Learned from the First 10 Years of the Oaks and Prairies Joint Venture’s Grassland Restoration Incentive Program (GRIP)

The Oaks and Prairies Joint Venture (OPJV) was formed in 2008 as a public-private partnership of agencies and organizations working across jurisdictional boundaries in portions of Texas and Oklahoma, USA. The OPJV’s major focus is reversing declines of bird populations by supporting strategic habitat conservation (biological planning, conservation design, conservation delivery, mission-based monitoring, and assumption-driven research) for northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus), grasslandobligate species, and their respective habitats. Our objective for this paper is to document and share a decade of lessons learned in developing a partnership-based native grassland conservation program to meet grassland bird conservation targets. We share lessons learned about how to manage partnership-based, large-scale habitat incentive programs to better target project locations and habitat practice types. To establish initial shared purpose, OPJV partners drew from population and habitat objectives in various state, national, and international bird conservation plans, stepped down to ecoregion levels, to establish the OPJV Grassland Bird Conservation Business Plan. The plan has 4 strategies directly contributing to the achievement of OPJV grassland bird biological objectives that are directly supported by OPJV staff or resources (or both). The overall objective for 2015–2025 was 619,978 ha (1,532,000 acres) improved within 40 focal counties, representing 1/3 of all counties in the OPJV. Our main strategy was to provide financial incentives through the OPJV Grassland Restoration Incentive Program (GRIP) to private landowners for conducting beneficial grassland bird habitat management practices. Since inception in 2013, GRIP has treated over 44,515 ha (110,000 acres) on private lands in Texas and Oklahoma, with the goal of maintaining highquality grassland bird habitat on treated hectares for ≥5 years. In 2017, OPJV partners working with USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, began a 5-year, $6.1 million partnership to provide additional technical and financial assistance to private landowners interested in grassland conservation through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). A project scoring system was designed to strategically encourage individual projects to include prescribed fire—one of the lowest cost practices per hectare—as a recurring practice to maintain program-achieved grassland improvements. Post-inception of the RCPP, the area treated with prescribed fire increased from approximately 809 ha (2,000 acres)/year to 3,237 ha (8,000 acres)/ year, while maintaining average annual hectares of all other beneficial practices. Beginning in 2013, bird point count surveys were conducted annually to monitor northern bobwhite and grassland bird populations, including a subset of points under the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI) Coordinated Implementation Plan. To date, nearly 25,000 individual point counts have been performed in Texas (n = 20,111) and Oklahoma (n = 4,558). Working together, OPJV partners have made significant progress toward meeting grassland bird habitat and population objectives, while tracking progress and improving methods. However, there is still considerable work ahead

HER2-Specific Chimeric Antigen Receptor–Modified Virus-Specific T Cells for Progressive Glioblastoma: A Phase 1 Dose-Escalation Trial

Glioblastoma is an incurable tumor, and the therapeutic options for patients are limited. To determine whether the systemic administration of HER2-specific chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-modified virus-specific T cells (VSTs) is safe and whether these cells have antiglioblastoma activity. In this open-label phase 1 dose-escalation study conducted at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital, and Texas Children's Hospital, patients with progressive HER2-positive glioblastoma were enrolled between July 25, 2011, and April 21, 2014. The duration of follow-up was 10 weeks to 29 months (median, 8 months). Monotherapy with autologous VSTs specific for cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, or adenovirus and genetically modified to express HER2-CARs with a CD28.ζ-signaling endodomain (HER2-CAR VSTs). Primary end points were feasibility and safety. The key secondary end points were T-cell persistence and their antiglioblastoma activity. A total of 17 patients (8 females and 9 males; 10 patients ≥18 years [median age, 60 years; range, 30-69 years] and 7 patients <18 years [median age, 14 years; range, 10-17 years]) with progressive HER2-positive glioblastoma received 1 or more infusions of autologous HER2-CAR VSTs (1 × 106/m2 to 1 × 108/m2) without prior lymphodepletion. Infusions were well tolerated, with no dose-limiting toxic effects. HER2-CAR VSTs were detected in the peripheral blood for up to 12 months after the infusion by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Of 16 evaluable patients (9 adults and 7 children), 1 had a partial response for more than 9 months, 7 had stable disease for 8 weeks to 29 months, and 8 progressed after T-cell infusion. Three patients with stable disease are alive without any evidence of progression during 24 to 29 months of follow-up. For the entire study cohort, median overall survival was 11.1 months (95% CI, 4.1-27.2 months) from the first T-cell infusion and 24.5 months (95% CI, 17.2-34.6 months) from diagnosis. Infusion of autologous HER2-CAR VSTs is safe and can be associated with clinical benefit for patients with progressive glioblastoma. Further evaluation of HER2-CAR VSTs in a phase 2b study is warranted as a single agent or in combination with other immunomodulatory approaches for glioblastoma

Mobilizing monocytes to cross-present circulating viral antigen in chronic infection

Selection of antigens for therapeutic vaccination against chronic viral infections is complicated by pathogen genetic variations. We tested whether antigens present during persistent viral infections could provide a personalized antigenic reservoir for therapeutic T cell expansion in humans. We focused our study on the HBV surface antigen (HBsAg), which is present in microgram quantities in the serum of chronic HBV patients. We demonstrated by quantitative fluorescent microscopy that, out of 6 professional APC populations in the circulation, only CD14 monocytes (MNs) retained an HBsAg depot. Using TCR-redirected CD8+ T cells specific for MHC-I–restricted HBV epitopes, we showed that, despite being constantly exposed to antigen, ex vivo– isolated APCs did not constitutively activate HBV-specific CD8+ T cells. However, differentiation of HBsAg+ CD14 MNs from chronic patients to MN-derived DCs (moDCs) induced cross-presentation of the intracellular reservoir of viral antigen. We exploited this mechanism to cross-present circulating viral antigen and showed that moDCs from chronically infected patients stimulated expansion of autologous HBV-specific T cells. Thus, these data demonstrate that circulating viral antigen produced during chronic infection can serve as a personalized antigenic reservoir to activate virus-specific T cells.Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*Star

LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products

(Abridged) We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). A vast array of science will be enabled by a single wide-deep-fast sky survey, and LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a wide-field ground-based system sited at Cerro Pach\'{o}n in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg$^2$ field of view, and a 3.2 Gigapixel camera. The standard observing sequence will consist of pairs of 15-second exposures in a given field, with two such visits in each pointing in a given night. With these repeats, the LSST system is capable of imaging about 10,000 square degrees of sky in a single filter in three nights. The typical 5$\sigma$ point-source depth in a single visit in $r$ will be $\sim 24.5$ (AB). The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. The survey area will be contained within 30,000 deg$^2$ with $\delta<+34.5^\circ$, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, $ugrizy$, covering the wavelength range 320--1050 nm. About 90\% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg$^2$ region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, and yield a coadded map to $r\sim27.5$. The remaining 10\% of the observing time will be allocated to projects such as a Very Deep and Fast time domain survey. The goal is to make LSST data products, including a relational database of about 32 trillion observations of 40 billion objects, available to the public and scientists around the world.Comment: 57 pages, 32 color figures, version with high-resolution figures available from https://www.lsst.org/overvie