Chicopee and Springfield School Collaboration with UMass Amherst (UMA): Alcohol and Opioid Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment

The UMA nursing undergraduate training program, SBIRT: The Power of Nursing to Change Health, builds on a SAMHSA curriculum that is integrated into existing psychiatric/mental health, pediatric/young adult and community nursing courses that incorporate alcohol and substance abuse disorders. Student nurses will apply these new skills in their community and medical/surgical rotations in partnership with the Chicopee and Springfield Public Schools. High School survey data indicate that on average 67.5% of high school students have consumed alcohol with 40.1% indicating one drink in the last 30 days, and another 22.2% having five or more drinks in the last 30 days. Use typically begins during early adolescence and the first alcohol exposure peaking during grades 7 to 9. The SBIRT project has the potential to significantly impact early intervention and treatment for youth in Massachusetts by increasing the number of nurses trained in SBIRT and practicing in the public school. The UMA SBIRT Team completed the first training session October 2016 incorporating EBP into training and evaluation. Subsequent to the first training efforts, the team invited state and regional SAMHSA officials, the MA School Nurses organization and the MA Office of Elder Affairs to participate in SBIRT trainings. Community collaboration is critical to the success of the Power of Nursing to Change Health

Bi-allelic Loss-of-Function CACNA1B Mutations in Progressive Epilepsy-Dyskinesia.

The occurrence of non-epileptic hyperkinetic movements in the context of developmental epileptic encephalopathies is an increasingly recognized phenomenon. Identification of causative mutations provides an important insight into common pathogenic mechanisms that cause both seizures and abnormal motor control. We report bi-allelic loss-of-function CACNA1B variants in six children from three unrelated families whose affected members present with a complex and progressive neurological syndrome. All affected individuals presented with epileptic encephalopathy, severe neurodevelopmental delay (often with regression), and a hyperkinetic movement disorder. Additional neurological features included postnatal microcephaly and hypotonia. Five children died in childhood or adolescence (mean age of death: 9 years), mainly as a result of secondary respiratory complications. CACNA1B encodes the pore-forming subunit of the pre-synaptic neuronal voltage-gated calcium channel Cav2.2/N-type, crucial for SNARE-mediated neurotransmission, particularly in the early postnatal period. Bi-allelic loss-of-function variants in CACNA1B are predicted to cause disruption of Ca2+ influx, leading to impaired synaptic neurotransmission. The resultant effect on neuronal function is likely to be important in the development of involuntary movements and epilepsy. Overall, our findings provide further evidence for the key role of Cav2.2 in normal human neurodevelopment.MAK is funded by an NIHR Research Professorship and receives funding from the Wellcome Trust, Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital Charity, and Rosetrees Trust. E.M. received funding from the Rosetrees Trust (CD-A53) and Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity. K.G. received funding from Temple Street Foundation. A.M. is funded by Great Ormond Street Hospital, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), and Biomedical Research Centre. F.L.R. and D.G. are funded by Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. K.C. and A.S.J. are funded by NIHR Bioresource for Rare Diseases. The DDD Study presents independent research commissioned by the Health Innovation Challenge Fund (grant number HICF-1009-003), a parallel funding partnership between the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Health, and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (grant number WT098051). We acknowledge support from the UK Department of Health via the NIHR comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre award to Guy's and St. Thomas' National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust in partnership with King's College London. This research was also supported by the NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre. J.H.C. is in receipt of an NIHR Senior Investigator Award. The research team acknowledges the support of the NIHR through the Comprehensive Clinical Research Network. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, Department of Health, or Wellcome Trust. E.R.M. acknowledges support from NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, an NIHR Senior Investigator Award, and the University of Cambridge has received salary support in respect of E.R.M. from the NHS in the East of England through the Clinical Academic Reserve. I.E.S. is supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (Program Grant and Practitioner Fellowship)

The ultimate guide to getting into nursing school

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The Master\u27s Portfolio: Validating a Career in Advanced Practice Nursing

Purpose To describe the process of portfolio development and faculty review that offers graduate credit within a framework of structural empowerment and mentoring for documented educational and clinical accomplishments for family nurse practitioners (FNPs). Data Sources Selected literature and examples from one student\u27s portfolio to illustrate the process. Conclusions The degree granting process assists certified FNPs to fulfill career aspirations through achieving graduate level education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, School of Nursing

The use of a writing group to enhance voice and connection among staff nurses

The aim of this study was to pilot test a group-writing intervention to decrease negative workplace behaviors. The pilot test demonstrated that cohesive and supportive relationships developed and allowed nurses to talk about important topics. The participants suggested that a writing group would be a forum that could be used by staff development educators to encourage nurses to support each other and develop their voices

AusTraits, a curated plant trait database for the Australian flora

We introduce the AusTraits database - a compilation of values of plant traits for taxa in the Australian flora (hereafter AusTraits). AusTraits synthesises data on 448 traits across 28,640 taxa from field campaigns, published literature, taxonomic monographs, and individual taxon descriptions. Traits vary in scope from physiological measures of performance (e.g. photosynthetic gas exchange, water-use efficiency) to morphological attributes (e.g. leaf area, seed mass, plant height) which link to aspects of ecological variation. AusTraits contains curated and harmonised individual- and species-level measurements coupled to, where available, contextual information on site properties and experimental conditions. This article provides information on version 3.0.2 of AusTraits which contains data for 997,808 trait-by-taxon combinations. We envision AusTraits as an ongoing collaborative initiative for easily archiving and sharing trait data, which also provides a template for other national or regional initiatives globally to fill persistent gaps in trait knowledge

AusTraits: a curated plant trait database for the Australian flora

INTRODUCTION AusTraits is a transformative database, containing measurements on the traits of Australia’s plant taxa, standardised from hundreds of disconnected primary sources. So far, data have been assembled from > 250 distinct sources, describing > 400 plant traits and > 26,000 taxa. To handle the harmonising of diverse data sources, we use a reproducible workflow to implement the various changes required for each source to reformat it suitable for incorporation in AusTraits. Such changes include restructuring datasets, renaming variables, changing variable units, changing taxon names. While this repository contains the harmonised data, the raw data and code used to build the resource are also available on the project’s GitHub repository, http://traitecoevo.github.io/austraits.build/. Further information on the project is available in the associated publication and at the project website austraits.org. Falster, Gallagher et al (2021) AusTraits, a curated plant trait database for the Australian flora. Scientific Data 8: 254, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-021-01006-6 CONTRIBUTORS The project is jointly led by Dr Daniel Falster (UNSW Sydney), Dr Rachael Gallagher (Western Sydney University), Dr Elizabeth Wenk (UNSW Sydney), and Dr Hervé Sauquet (Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Sydney), with input from > 300 contributors from over > 100 institutions (see full list above). The project was initiated by Dr Rachael Gallagher and Prof Ian Wright while at Macquarie University. We are grateful to the following institutions for contributing data Australian National Botanic Garden, Brisbane Rainforest Action and Information Network, Kew Botanic Gardens, National Herbarium of NSW, Northern Territory Herbarium, Queensland Herbarium, Western Australian Herbarium, South Australian Herbarium, State Herbarium of South Australia, Tasmanian Herbarium, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria. AusTraits has been supported by investment from the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC), via their “Transformative data collections” (https://doi.org/10.47486/TD044) and “Data Partnerships” (https://doi.org/10.47486/DP720) programs; fellowship grants from Australian Research Council to Falster (FT160100113), Gallagher (DE170100208) and Wright (FT100100910), a grant from Macquarie University to Gallagher. The ARDC is enabled by National Collaborative Research Investment Strategy (NCRIS). ACCESSING AND USE OF DATA The compiled AusTraits database is released under an open source licence (CC-BY), enabling re-use by the community. A requirement of use is that users cite the AusTraits resource paper, which includes all contributors as co-authors: Falster, Gallagher et al (2021) AusTraits, a curated plant trait database for the Australian flora. Scientific Data 8: 254, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-021-01006-6 In addition, we encourage users you to cite the original data sources, wherever possible. Note that under the license data may be redistributed, provided the attribution is maintained. The downloads below provide the data in two formats: austraits-3.0.2.zip: data in plain text format (.csv, .bib, .yml files). Suitable for anyone, including those using Python. austraits-3.0.2.rds: data as compressed R object. Suitable for users of R (see below). Both objects contain all the data and relevant meta-data. AUSTRAITS R PACKAGE For R users, access and manipulation of data is assisted with the austraits R package. The package can both download data and provides examples and functions for running queries. STRUCTURE OF AUSTRAITS The compiled AusTraits database has the following main components: austraits ├── traits ├── sites ├── contexts ├── methods ├── excluded_data ├── taxanomic_updates ├── taxa ├── definitions ├── contributors ├── sources └── build_info These elements include all the data and contextual information submitted with each contributed datasets. A schema and definitions for the database are given in the file/component definitions, available within the download. The file dictionary.html provides the same information in textual format. Full details on each of these components and columns are contained within the definition. Similar information is available at http://traitecoevo.github.io/austraits.build/articles/Trait_definitions.html and http://traitecoevo.github.io/austraits.build/articles/austraits_database_structure.html. CONTRIBUTING We envision AusTraits as an on-going collaborative community resource that: Increases our collective understanding the Australian flora; and Facilitates accumulation and sharing of trait data; Builds a sense of community among contributors and users; and Aspires to fully transparent and reproducible research of the highest standard. As a community resource, we are very keen for people to contribute. Assembly of the database is managed on GitHub at traitecoevo/austraits.build. Here are some of the ways you can contribute: Reporting Errors: If you notice a possible error in AusTraits, please post an issue on GitHub. Refining documentation: We welcome additions and edits that make using the existing data or adding new data easier for the community. Contributing new data: We gladly accept new data contributions to AusTraits. See full instructions on how to contribute at http://traitecoevo.github.io/austraits.build/articles/contributing_data.html