A Statement on Charlottesville from the Students of Color Interest Group

This article was originally published in The Prophet -- a journal created by and for the students at the Boston University School of Theology (BUSTH) to amplify the voices of STH students by promoting and sharing a range of perspectives on matters of concern including, but not limited to, spiritual practices, faith communities and society, the nature of theology, and current affairs. It serves as a platform for STH students to share their academic work, theological reflections, and life experiences with one another and the wider community."Many of us watched from afar with fear, anxiety, disgust, and anger this past weekend as white nationalists rallied in ... " [EXCERPT

Informatics Education 2020

PIT-UN writes about Good Systems and the Conference on Undergraduate Informatics Education on March 3-4, 2020.Office of the VP for Researc

Beyond the prison gates: the experiences of people recently released from prison into homelessness and housing crisis

This paper outlines the key findings and themes from a consultation project exploring the experiences and difficulties faced by people who have recently exited the prison system into situations of housing crisis or homelessness. Introduction In 2012 the Homeless Persons’ Legal Service (HPLS) and StreetCare (the HPLS Homeless Consumer Advisory Committee) undertook a consultation project exploring the experiences and difficulties faced by people who have recently exited the prison system into situations of housing crisis or homelessness. The close relationship between recent prison experience, housing crisis, homelessness, and socio-economic disadvantage has been confirmed in several Australian studies over the last ten years. This project involved consultation interviews with 26 people who exited prison in the previous two years into situations of housing crisis or homelessness. These interviews were undertaken by members of StreetCare with support from HPLS. The project also involved six interviews with community workers who have direct professional engagement with people who have recently exited the prison system. The aims of the project were to identify: 1. The experiences of people experiencing homelessness who had recently been released from prison; 2. The perceived difficulties faced by generalist homeless services and agencies in relation to the provision of services to homeless people recently released from prison. This briefing paper outlines the key findings and themes that were identified from these consultations. In addition, it lists eleven recommendations to address the key problems that were identified during the consultation. Following the conduct of consultation interviews, HPLS was actively involved in key consultation roundtables with Corrective Services NSW and Housing NSW focusing on issues relating to the accommodation and support needs of people exiting prison in NSW. HPLS had strong input into the recommendations arising from those roundtables based on the information derived from these consultations. Several of the recommendations contained in this briefing paper are therefore the same or similar to the recommendations arising from the roundtables

Undergraduate Neurosurgical Learning Opportunities at Jefferson

On the evening of November 29, 2011, Jefferson’s Neurosurgery Interest Group (NSIG) hosted fourteen Jefferson Medical College students for a technical course entitled “Foundations in Neurosurgery” taught by Dr. Ashwini Sharan, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery and Director of the Division of Functional Neurosurgery, and Dr. Joshua Heller, Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Additional instructors included Jefferson neurosurgery residents Rohan Chitale (PGY5), Chengyuan Wu (PGY4), and Karl Balsara (PGY2). Stryker MedED provided equipment, models, and instructors Ryan Dugan and Devin Opdendyk (Figure 1)

Assessment of the benefits of user involvement in health research from the Warwick Diabetes Care Research User Group : a qualitative case study

Objective  To assess the benefits of involving health-care users in diabetes research. Design and participants  For this qualitative case study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with researchers who had worked extensively with the group. During regular meetings of the Research User Group, members discussed their views of the group's effectiveness as part of the meeting's agenda. Interviews and discussions were transcribed, coded using N-Vivo software and analysed using constant comparative methods. Results  Involvement of users in research was generally seen as contributing to effective and meaningful research. However, the group should not be considered to be representative of the patient population or participants of future trials. An important contributor to the group's success was its longstanding nature, enabling users to gain more insight into research and form constructive working relationships with researchers. The user-led nature of the group asserted itself, especially, in the language used during group meetings. A partial shift of power from researchers to users was generally acknowledged. Users' main contribution was their practical expertise in living with diabetes, but their involvement also helped researchers to remain connected to the `real world' in which research would be applied. While the group's work fulfilled established principles of consumer involvement in research, important contributions relying on personal interaction between users and researchers were hard to evaluate by process measures alone. Conclusions  We demonstrated the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of this longstanding, experienced, lay-led research advisory group. Its impact on research stems from the continuing interaction between researchers and users, and the general ethos of learning from each other in an on-going process. Both process measures and qualitative interviews with stakeholders are needed to evaluate the contributions of service users to health research

Employment 12 months after kidney transplantation: an in-depth bio-psycho-social analysis of the Swiss Transplant Cohort

Return to work with or after a chronic disease is a dynamic process influenced by a variety of interactions between personal, work, societal and medical resources or constraints. The aim of this study was to identify predictors for employment 12 months after transplantation in kidney patients, applying a bio-psycho-social model. All kidney patients followed in the Swiss Transplant Cohort between May 2008 and December 2012, aged 18 to 65 were assessed before, 6 and 12 months after transplantation. Of the 689 included patients, 56.2% worked 12 months post- transplantation compared to 58.9% pre-transplantation. Age, education, self-perceived health (6 months post- transplantation), pre- transplantation employment and receiving an organ from a living donor are significant predictors of employment post- transplantation. Moreover, while self-perceived health increased post- transplantation, depression score decreased only among those employed 12 months post- transplantation. Pre- transplantation employment status was the main predictor for post- transplantation employment (OR = 18.6) and was associated with sex, age, education, depression and duration of dialysis. An organ from a living donor (42.1%) was more frequent in younger patients, with higher education, no diabetes and shorter waiting time to surgery. Transplantation did not increase employment in end-stage kidney disease patients but helped maintaining employment. Pre-transplantation employment has been confirmed to be the most important predictor of post-transplantation employment. Furthermore, socio-demographic and individual factors predicted directly and indirectly the post-transplantation employment status. With living donor, an additional predictor linked to social factors and the medical procedure has been identified