Stockyard Road, Siler City, North Carolina, Chatham County : a community assessment including secondary and qualitative data collection and analysis

Stockyard Road , a small, rural community in Southwestern Chatham County, North Carolina, is located three miles west of Siler City. We first met the residents of this community in August of 1997 when, as five first-year master’s students at the School of Public Health, we were assigned to Stockyard Road to conduct a “community diagnosis:” A community diagnosis... aims to understand many facets of a community including culture, values and norms, leadership and power structure, means of communication, helping patterns, important community institutions and history. A good diagnosis suggests what it is like to live in a community, what the important health problems in a community are, what interventions are most likely to be efficacious, and how the program would be best evaluated (Steuart, GW and Kark, SL, 1962). As we researched secondary data and talked with residents of Stockyard Road, we frequently struggled with the question of how to define the geographic and social boundaries of this community. None of the service providers that we spoke with actually described Stockyard Road as a "community." The residents themselves rarely used the term community to refer to Stockyard Road unless they were responding to one of our questions about it. Nonetheless, it is apparent that the residents who live here have a unified sense of where their community begins and ends, both in terms of physical and psychological boundaries. As one community member said, "I would say it's this area from highway 64 up to, ya know that intersection I told ya about [Bish Road]. It's not the whole Stockyard Road to me. Further up, that's a different community to me." Said another resident in regard to community boundaries "It's like the White and Black are separated and the people around the curve are separated." Although the primary concern of a community diagnosis is the health of the community, the process recognizes other aspects of a community that impact its wellness. Our team assessed the Stockyard Road community over the course of two semesters, collecting secondary data and interviewing 25 community members and service providers. In the fall, the major focus was on collecting quantitative data from a number of county, state and national sources. However, the conclusions we can draw from this data are limited. This limitation is partly due to the fact that most of the data were only available at the county level, and the demographics of Stockyard Road differ from other parts of Chatham County; namely, it is a small, predominantly African-American neighborhood. Thus, we have placed greater emphasis on the primary data collected during the spring semester through interviews with community members. During the course of interviewing, Stockyard Road residents graciously shared their thoughts and experiences with our team. The following summarizes several important findings that have emerged through observations and conversations with community members and service providers. Stockyard Road is comprised of primarily African American residents. Estimates suggest that there are approximately 60-70 individuals living within this community. Many of the community members have lived in the community all their lives and have extended family in the area. Two churches are located in the Stockyard Road community, the Unity Powerhouse Holiness Church and the Mt. Cavalry Holiness Church. Together these two churches offer a variety of activities and programs to residents. These include adult choirs, children’s choirs, women’s groups and weekly worship services. Stockyard Road residents have many individual talents and skills to offer the community. Residents play musical instruments, sing in the church choir, stake out vegetable gardens and run small businesses. Others find time to volunteer at local civic organizations and schools. The Stockyard Road community is located in an Extra Territorial Jurisdiction and is therefore not within the Siler City limits. This has both political implications and implications in terms of residents’ access to services (mail delivery, trash, sewage and water hook-up, etc.) In recent years, housing conditions in Stockyard Road have deteriorated. On March 10, 1998, ten homes in the area were officially condemned and occupants were issued eviction notices. Many residents in Stockyard Road lack indoor plumbing. As a result, some residents are forced to use neighbors’ facilities or one of two functioning outhouses. Crime and safety are also a major concern to residents of Stockyard Road. Some residents blame rising crime on a recent influx of inexpensive rental housing. Transportation is an issue for the many residents that do not own cars because there is no public transportation system in Chatham County. Many depend on neighbors to drive them to work, to buy groceries, or to receive medical care. Compared to nearby Siler City, there are few economic opportunities available to residents of Stockyard Road. Most of the employees who work at the Carolina Stockyards, located within the community, are from neighboring towns. Residents of Stockyard Road face many barriers to receiving adequate health care. These include lack of insurance, dissatisfaction with the quality of service and inaccessibility to services located in Pittsboro, Greensboro and Chapel Hill. Historically, Stockyard Road is a community that has garnered very little attention within Chatham County. Nonetheless, the complex social, economic and political issues facing this community pose serious challenges for Stockyard Road residents. By utilizing some of the existing resources and developing new ones, Stockyard Road can continue to strengthen community ties and move towards increased community cohesion.Master of Public Healt

A novel research definition of bladder health in women and girls: Implications for research and public health promotion

BACKGROUND:Bladder health in women and girls is poorly understood, in part, due to absence of a definition for clinical or research purposes. This article describes the process used by a National Institutes of Health funded transdisciplinary research team (The Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms [PLUS] Consortium) to develop a definition of bladder health. METHODS:The PLUS Consortium identified currently accepted lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and outlined elements of storage and emptying functions of the bladder. Consistent with the World Health Organization's definition of health, PLUS concluded that absence of LUTS was insufficient and emphasizes the bladder's ability to adapt to short-term physical, psychosocial, and environmental challenges for the final definition. Definitions for subjective experiences and objective measures of bladder dysfunction and health were drafted. An additional bioregulatory function to protect against infection, neoplasia, chemical, or biologic threats was proposed. RESULTS:PLUS proposes that bladder health be defined as: "A complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being related to bladder function and not merely the absence of LUTS. Healthy bladder function permits daily activities, adapts to short-term physical or environmental stressors, and allows optimal well-being (e.g., travel, exercise, social, occupational, or other activities)." Definitions for each element of bladder function are reported with suggested subjective and objective measures. CONCLUSIONS:PLUS used a comprehensive transdisciplinary process to develop a bladder health definition. This will inform instrument development for evaluation of bladder health promotion and prevention of LUTS in research and public health initiatives

The Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (PLUS) in girls and women: Developing a conceptual framework for a prevention research agenda

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146323/1/nau23787_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146323/2/nau23787.pd

SseK1 and SseK2 Are Novel Translocated Proteins of Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium

Salmonella enterica is a gram-negative, facultative intracellular pathogen that causes disease symptoms ranging from gastroenteritis to typhoid fever. A key virulence strategy is the translocation of bacterial effector proteins into the host cell, mediated by the type III secretion systems (TTSSs) encoded in Salmonella pathogenicity island 1 (SPI-1) and SPI-2. In S. enterica serovar Typhimurium LT2, we identified the protein products of STM4157 and STM2137 as novel candidate secreted proteins by comparison to known secreted proteins from enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli and Citrobacter rodentium. The STM4157 and STM2137 proteins, which we have designated SseK1 and SseK2, respectively, are 61% identical at the amino acid level and differ mainly in their N termini. Western analysis showed that in vitro accumulation and secretion of these proteins in serovar Typhimurium were affected by mutations in the two-component systems SsrA/B and PhoP/Q, which are key mediators of intracellular growth and survival. SPI-2 TTSS-dependent translocation of recombinant SseK1::Cya was evident at 9 h postinfection of epithelial cells, while translocation of SseK2::Cya was not detected until 21 h. Remarkably, the translocation signal for SseK1 was contained within the N-terminal 32 amino acids. Fractionation of infected epithelial cells revealed that following translocation SseK1 localizes to the host cytosol, which is unusual among the currently known Salmonella effectors. Phenotypic analysis of ΔsseK1, ΔsseK2, and ΔsseK1/ΔsseK2 mutants provided evidence for a role that was not critical during systemic infection. In summary, this work demonstrates that SseK1 and SseK2 are novel translocated proteins of serovar Typhimurium

Terminology for bladder health research in women and girls: Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms transdisciplinary consortium definitions.

AimTo report research terminology and definitions for describing healthy bladder function among women and girls.MethodsThe Prevention of Lower Urinary tract Symptoms (PLUS) Consortium developed research terminology and definitions for elements of healthy bladder function based on existing understanding of storage and emptying functions of the bladder and accepted definitions of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). The novel concept of a bladder "bioregulatory" function was also proposed. Elements of bladder function corresponding to bladder health (BH) and LUTS were developed and refined using an iterative process. A comprehensive reference table structured by bladder function (Storage, Emptying, and Bioregulatory) and elements of each function was created to document proposed research terminology and definitions.ResultsThe BH research definitions for each bladder function are: (1) Storage: the ability to hold urine for a reasonable duration of time and sense bladder fullness without fear of or concern about urgency, discomfort or leakage; (2) Emptying: the ability to empty the bladder completely in a timely, efficient, effortless, comfortable manner; and (3) Bioregulatory: the bladder barrier protects the individual/host from pathogens, chemicals, and malignancy. Research definitions for seven Storage, seven Emptying, and three Bioregulatory elements of function are presented. Novel LUTS research definitions were developed when gaps in existing definitions were identified or nonclinical language was desired.ConclusionsPLUS BH definitions reflect a transdisciplinary approach to standardizing research definitions for elements of bladder function from a perspective of health rather than dysfunction and provide a framework for studying BH in clinical practice, public health promotion, and LUTS prevention

Terminology for bladder health research in women and girls: Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms transdisciplinary consortium definitions.

AimTo report research terminology and definitions for describing healthy bladder function among women and girls.MethodsThe Prevention of Lower Urinary tract Symptoms (PLUS) Consortium developed research terminology and definitions for elements of healthy bladder function based on existing understanding of storage and emptying functions of the bladder and accepted definitions of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). The novel concept of a bladder "bioregulatory" function was also proposed. Elements of bladder function corresponding to bladder health (BH) and LUTS were developed and refined using an iterative process. A comprehensive reference table structured by bladder function (Storage, Emptying, and Bioregulatory) and elements of each function was created to document proposed research terminology and definitions.ResultsThe BH research definitions for each bladder function are: (1) Storage: the ability to hold urine for a reasonable duration of time and sense bladder fullness without fear of or concern about urgency, discomfort or leakage; (2) Emptying: the ability to empty the bladder completely in a timely, efficient, effortless, comfortable manner; and (3) Bioregulatory: the bladder barrier protects the individual/host from pathogens, chemicals, and malignancy. Research definitions for seven Storage, seven Emptying, and three Bioregulatory elements of function are presented. Novel LUTS research definitions were developed when gaps in existing definitions were identified or nonclinical language was desired.ConclusionsPLUS BH definitions reflect a transdisciplinary approach to standardizing research definitions for elements of bladder function from a perspective of health rather than dysfunction and provide a framework for studying BH in clinical practice, public health promotion, and LUTS prevention