Igniting Passion for Science Across a Vast Ocean: Nurturing a New Generation of Pacific Island Scientists

This article introduces the work that was done through the Coordinating Center at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii

Screening for Park Access during a Primary Care Social Determinants Screen.

While there is evidence that access to nature and parks benefits pediatric health, it is unclear how low-income families living in an urban center acknowledge or prioritize access to parks.MethodsWe conducted a study about access to parks by pediatric patients in a health system serving low-income families. Adult caregivers of pediatric patients completed a survey to identify and prioritize unmet social and economic needs, including access to parks. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to explore associations between lack of access to parks and sociodemographic variables. We also explored the extent to which access to parks competed with other needs.ResultsThe survey was completed by 890 caregivers; 151 (17%) identified "access to green spaces/parks/playgrounds" as an unmet need, compared to 397 (45%) who endorsed "running out of food before you had money or food stamps to buy more". Being at or below the poverty line doubled the odds ( Odds ratio 1.96, 95% CI 1.16-3.31) of lacking access to a park (reference group: above the poverty line), and lacking a high school degree nearly doubled the odds. Thirty-three of the 151 (22%) caregivers who identified access to parks as an unmet need prioritized it as one of three top unmet needs. Families who faced competing needs of housing, food, and employment insecurity were less likely to prioritize park access (p < 0.001).ConclusionClinical interventions to increase park access would benefit from an understanding of the social and economic adversity faced by patients

2018 Positive Youth Outcomes in Maine’s Juvenile Justice System

The Maine Department of Corrections (MDOC) Juvenile Division works toward the result that all Maine youth successfully transition into adulthood by ensuring that all justice-involved youth experience a fair, equitable, responsive system that contributes to positive outcomes. To measure the extent to which youth are achieving positive outcomes during their time in Maine’s juvenile justice system, MDOC adapts the positive youth development (PYD) framework to juvenile justice system programming. PYD emerged on the premise that all youth possess assets, both internal and external, that can buffer the risk factors present in their environments and the risk-taking behaviors that are a natural part of adolescent development. With its roots in ecological systems theory, PYD considers the contexts in which youth act, and maintains that all youth can develop positively when they are connected to the right supports and opportunities. Youth who become involved in the justice system are often contending with greater environmental challenges than their non-justice involved peers, but a justice system intervention grounded in the PYD framework aims to provide necessary supports and build upon youths’ inherent assets and resiliency to help them navigate their adolescence and transition into thriving adults. Five dimensions commonly used PYD assessment are competence, connection, confidence, caring/compassion, and character. Positive development in these areas, combined with the development of goal-directed skills (also known as intentional self-regulation), generally result in youth demonstrating contribution to themselves, their families, and the community. In adapting PYD for youth in Maine’s justice system, MDOC tracks outcomes in five areas: education/vocation, employment, home/community, prosocial activities, and positive identity. Within a month of a youth’s supervision ending, their juvenile community correctional officer (JCCOs) administers a client exit review, which tracks activities and achievements that indicate a young person is on a positive trajectory, such as school engagement and advancement, employment, family involvement and positive connections with adults and peers, community service and restorative justice, self-advocacy and positive use of personal time. Tracking positive youth outcomes for youth who pass through Maine’s justice system creates a more complete profile, beyond recidivism measures, of the resiliency and potential of this population. It also serves to highlight areas of strength where the system intervention is helping youth succeed, and point to areas where the system could offer youth more or different supports to facilitate their development in positive tracks

School-Based Policing in Maine: A study on School Resource Officers in Maine’s public schools

Purpose Evaluation of the impacts of SROs is necessary to facilitate dialogue about whether school-based policing is a strategy that communities want to continue employing to achieve the results they are seeking. The purpose of this study is to begin examining how SRO programs are functioning in Maine public schools by offering: • A summary of national research on documented impacts of SROs and best practices for SRO programs; • A review of the training and policies that guide SROs’ and schools’ responses to students; and • A snapshot of school-based policing in Maine from the perspectives of stakeholders who participate in the model, including SROs and police chiefs, district and school administrators, special educators, school counselors and social workers, school- and community-based diversion programs, and juvenile community corrections officers. This study was commissioned by the Juvenile Justice Advisory Group (JJAG) to learn more about how SROs are deployed in Maine, and to understand if they are creating a culture of safety in Maine schools. This study collects existing national research on SROs, including deployment, effectiveness, impacts, and points of concern. A mixed method research design provides an overview of the program’s scope and various modes of deployment in Maine’s public schools. The methodology of this report was limited in time and scope to exploring how persons directly benefitting from the involvement of SROs (primarily SROs and school administrators, along with school social workers and guidance counselors, special educators, juvenile community corrections officers, police chiefs, and diversion program coordinators) describe the functioning of their SRO program and how they perceive its effectiveness. This report does not assess the impacts of SROs on students. To truly gauge the impacts of SROs, further research needs to focus on those most impacted: students, parents, and school personnel. Only with the inclusion of these voices, as well as empirical data from law enforcement, schools, and the juvenile justice system, can a fully informed public conversation begin to address the key questions regarding deployment of SROs

125 - 211 GHz low noise MMIC amplifier design for radio astronomy

To achieve the low noise and wide bandwidth required for millimeter wavelength astronomy applications, superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixer based receiver systems have typically been used. This paper investigates the performance of high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) based low noise amplifiers (LNAs) as an alternative approach for systems operating in the 125 — 211 GHz frequency range. A four-stage, common-source, unconditionally stable monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) design is presented using the state-of-the-art 35 nm indium phosphide HEMT process from Northrop Grumman Corporation. The simulated MMIC achieves noise temperature (T_e) lower than 58 K across the operational bandwidth, with average T_e of 38.8 K (corresponding to less than 5 times the quantum limit (hf/k) at 170 GHz) and forward transmission of 20.5 ± 0.85 dB. Input and output reflection coefficients are better than -6 and -12 dB, respectively, across the desired bandwidth. To the authors knowledge, no LNA currently operates across the entirety of this frequency range. Successful fabrication and implementation of this LNA would challenge the dominance SIS mixers have on sub-THz receivers

Hydration of the Sulfuric Acid−Methylamine Complex and Implications for Aerosol Formation

The binary H2SO4−H2O nucleation is one of the most important pathways by which aerosols form in the atmosphere, and the presence of ternary species like amines increases aerosol formation rates. In this study, we focus on the hydration of a ternary system of sulfuric acid (H2SO4), methylamine (NH2CH3), and up to six waters to evaluate its implications for aerosol formation. By combining molecular dynamics (MD) sampling with high-level ab initio calculations, we determine the thermodynamics of forming H2SO4(NH2CH3)(H2O)n, where n = 0−6. Because it is a strong acid−base system, H2SO4−NH2CH3 quickly forms a tightly bound HSO4−−NH3CH3+ complex that condenses water more readily than H2SO4 alone. The electronic binding energy of H2SO4−NH2CH3 is −21.8 kcal mol−1 compared with −16.8 kcal mol−1 for H2SO4−NH3 and −12.8 kcal mol−1 for H2SO4−H2O. Adding one to two water molecules to the H2SO4−NH2CH3 complex is more favorable than adding to H2SO4 alone, yet there is no systematic difference for n ≥ 3. However, the average number of water molecules around H2SO4−NH2CH3 is consistently higher than that of H2SO4, and it is fairly independent of temperature and relative humidity

Cardioprotective and anti-hypertensive effects of Prosopis glandulosa in rat models of pre-diabetes

AIM: Obesity and type 2 diabetes present with two debilitating complications, namely, hypertension and heart disease. The dried and ground pods of Prosopis glandulosa (commonly known as the Honey mesquite tree) which is part of the Fabaceae (or legume) family are currently marketed in South Africa as a food supplement with blood glucose-stabilising and anti-hypertensive properties. We previously determined its hypoglycaemic effects, and in the current study we determined the efficacy of P glandulosa as anti-hypertensive agent and its myocardial protective ability. METHODS: Male Wistar rats were rendered either pre-diabetic (diet-induced obesity: DIO) or hypertensive (high-fat diet: HFD). DIO animals were treated with P glandulosa (100 mg/kg/day for the last eight weeks of a 16-week period) and compared to age-matched controls. Hearts were perfused ex vivo to determine infarct size. Biometric parameters were determined at the time of sacrifice. Cardiac-specific insulin receptor knock-out (CIRKO) mice were similarly treated with P glandulosa and infarct size was determined. HFD animals were treated with P glandulosa from the onset of the diet or from weeks 12–16, using captopril (50 mg/kg/day) as the positive control. Blood pressure was monitored weekly. RESULTS: DIO rats and CIRKO mice: P glandulosa ingestion significantly reduced infarct size after ischaemia–reperfusion. Proteins of the PI-3-kinase/PKB/Akt survival pathway were affected in a manner supporting cardioprotection. HFD model: P glandulosa treatment both prevented and corrected the development of hypertension, which was also reflected in alleviation of water retention. CONCLUSION: P glandulosa was cardioprotective and infarct sparing as well as anti-hypertensive without affecting the body weight or the intra-peritoneal fat depots of the animals. Changes in the PI-3-kinase/PKB/Akt pathway may be causal to protection. Results indicated water retention, possibly coupled to vasoconstriction in the HFD animals, while ingestion of P glandulosa alleviated both. We concluded that treatment of pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes or hypertension with P glandulosa poses possible beneficial health effects.Department of HE and Training approved lis

Spectral mapping of brain functional connectivity from diffusion imaging.

Understanding the relationship between the dynamics of neural processes and the anatomical substrate of the brain is a central question in neuroscience. On the one hand, modern neuroimaging technologies, such as diffusion tensor imaging, can be used to construct structural graphs representing the architecture of white matter streamlines linking cortical and subcortical structures. On the other hand, temporal patterns of neural activity can be used to construct functional graphs representing temporal correlations between brain regions. Although some studies provide evidence that whole-brain functional connectivity is shaped by the underlying anatomy, the observed relationship between function and structure is weak, and the rules by which anatomy constrains brain dynamics remain elusive. In this article, we introduce a methodology to map the functional connectivity of a subject at rest from his or her structural graph. Using our methodology, we are able to systematically account for the role of structural walks in the formation of functional correlations. Furthermore, in our empirical evaluations, we observe that the eigenmodes of the mapped functional connectivity are associated with activity patterns associated with different cognitive systems