Fit for Population Health Service: Assessing the Change in Public Health Competencies of Interprofessional Undergraduate Health Sciences Students

Background. A 2012 IOM report is just one of an increasing number of recommendations to incorporate a population health approach into training of all health professionals. In light of the emphasis on and necessity for all future health professionals to possess core public health competences, a medium sized public University incorporated Introduction to Public Health as a required course in their undergraduate, interprofessional Health Sciences curriculum. Purpose. The purpose of this study was to assess the change in core public health competencies of undergraduate Health Sciences students who completed an Introduction to Public Health course. Methods. The Tier 1 Public Health Professionals Competency Assessment was administered in the online Introduction to Public Health courses for undergraduate Health Sciences students; the pretest was administered during the first week and the posttest during the final week of the 15 week course. Purposive sampling was used to assess how the course increased the student’s acquisition of core public health competencies within the designated eight domains. Results. Results of this study showed an increase in the competency scores of the participants from pre to posttest across all of the eight domains. Conclusions. This study demonstrates that an Introduction to Public Health course can increase the core public health competencies of undergraduate Health Sciences students, and the Public Health Professionals Competency Assessment can be used to assess the acquisition of these competencies with and guide curriculum for future health care providers

Phase behaviour of self-assembled monolayers controlled by tuning physisorbed and chemisorbed states : a lattice-model view

The self-assembly of molecules on surfaces into 2D structures is important for the bottom-up fabrication of functional nanomaterials, and the self-assembled structure depends on the interplay between molecule-molecule interactions and molecule-surface interactions. Halogenated benzene derivatives on platinum have been shown to have two distinct adsorption states: a physisorbed state and a chemisorbed state, and the interplay between the two can be expected to have a profound effect on the self-assembly and phase behaviour of these systems. We developed a lattice model that explicitly includes both adsorption states, with representative interactions parameterised using density functional theory calculations. This model was used in Monte Carlo simulations to inves- tigate pattern formation of hexahalogenated benzenes on the platinum surface. Molecules that prefer the physisorbed state were found to self-assemble with ease, depending on the interactions between physisorbed molecules. On the other hand, molecules that preferentially chemisorb, tend to get arrested in disordered phases. However, changing the interactions between chemisorbed and physisorbed molecules affects the phase behaviour. We propose functionalising molecules in order to tune their adsorption states, as an innovative way to control monolayer structure, leading to a promising avenue for directed assembly of novel 2D structures

Recovery from disability after stroke as a target for a behavioural intervention: Results of a randomised controlled trial

Purpose: Disability following stroke is highly prevalent and is predicted by psychological variables such as control cognitions and emotions, in addition to clinical variables. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a workbook-based intervention, designed to change cognitions about control, in improving outcomes for patients and their carers. Method: At discharge, stroke patients were randomly allocated (with their carers) to a 5-week intervention (n = 103) or control (normal care: n = 100). The main outcome (at 6 months) was recovery from disability using a performance measure, with distress and satisfaction as additional outcomes. Results: The intervention group showed significantly better disability recovery, allowing for initial levels of disability, than those in the control group, F(1,201) = 5.61, p = 0.019. Groups did not differ in distress or satisfaction with care for patients or carers. The only psychological process variable improved by the intervention was Confidence in Recovery but this did not mediate the effects on recovery. Conclusions: A large proportion of intervention participants did not complete the workbook tasks. This was perhaps associated with the fairly low level of personal contact with workbook providers. The modest success of this intervention suggests that it may be possible to develop effective behavioural interventions to enhance recovery from disability in stroke patients

Urban food security in the context of inequality and dietary change: A study of schoolchildren in Accra

Diets are changing globally, as agricultural and food systems have become globalised and created new forms of food production, distribution, and trade. Understanding how patterns of globalisation affect the welfare of populations is a key development question, but we know little about the way that the globalisation of food and agriculture systems affect different individuals or groups. By looking at schoolchildren in Accra, this study explores food security in the context of inequality and dietary change. We use a novel approach based on triangulation of primary data on food consumption and a synthesis of secondary literature on food trade, food policy and urban food environment. Thus, we bridge a divide between micro-level analyses of food consumption and macro-level studies of food systems, and seek to contextualise children’s food consumption patterns in the broad picture of global dietary change. We find that socio-economic status is a critical dimension of food security and food consumption, with poorer children more vulnerable to food insecurity and narrow dietary diversity. However, consumption of packaged and processed foods, often sugar-rich and nutrient-poor, cuts across wealth groups. In the 1990s, the question of urban food security was seen as embedded in that of urban poverty. We argue that the urban food security question today is defined by two intersecting phenomena: intra-urban inequality and global dietary change. The urban poor continue to face the fundamental challenge of adequate food access. In addition, urban food security is endangered by a food environment that provides consumers with unhealthy food options that are widely available, cheap and enticing. Therefore urban food security can no longer be addressed only through agricultural policies that ensure availability of affordable staples for a growing urban population, but it strongly needs agricultural and trade policies that regulate imports of cheap, processed, unhealthy foods

Intracellular energy variability modulates cellular decision-making capacity

Cells are able to generate phenotypic diversity both during development and in response to stressful and changing environments, aiding survival. The biologically and medically vital process of a cell assuming a functionally important fate from a range of phenotypic possibilities can be thought of as a cell decision. To make these decisions, a cell relies on energy dependent pathways of signalling and expression. However, energy availability is often overlooked as a modulator of cellular decision-making. As cells can vary dramatically in energy availability, this limits our knowledge of how this key biological axis affects cell behaviour. Here, we consider the energy dependence of a highly generalisable decision-making regulatory network, and show that energy variability changes the sets of decisions a cell can make and the ease with which they can be made. Increasing intracellular energy levels can increase the number of stable phenotypes it can generate, corresponding to increased decision-making capacity. For this decision-making architecture, a cell with intracellular energy below a threshold is limited to a singular phenotype, potentially forcing the adoption of a specific cell fate. We suggest that common energetic differences between cells may explain some of the observed variability in cellular decision-making, and demonstrate the importance of considering energy levels in several diverse biological decision-making phenomena

Employers’ responses to the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa: revisiting the evidence

Do employers have a role to play to support people living with HIV? The literature on sub-Saharan Africa points to the existence of a positive business case that sees firms as incentivised to provide HIV-related services to HIV positive workers . However, the evidence is narrow and incomplete, with the business case holding for a limited number of formal sector skilled workers, leaving out the majority of people living with HIV. If employers are to play a role, policy makers need to create conducive conditions for positive responses, in addition to – not in replacement of – strengthening public health care systems

Harmonic Functions on Four Dimensions

This paper develops theory for a newly-defined bicomplex hyperbolic harmonic function with four real-dimensional inputs, in a way that generalizes the connection between real harmonic functions with two real-dimensional inputs and complex analytic functions. For example, every bicomplex hyperbolic harmonic function appears as this paper's newly-defined hyperbolic real part of a bicomplex analytic function, just as every real harmonic function with two real-dimensional inputs is the real part of a complex analytic function. In addition, this connection produces a unique (up to additive constant) and newly-defined hyperbolic harmonic conjugate function, just as every real harmonic function has a unique (up to additive constant) real harmonic conjugate. Finally, the paper determines a bicomplex Poisson kernel function that produces a corresponding integral representation for bicomplex harmonic functions, one that generalizes the complex harmonic function Poisson integral representation.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur