Building an Information Management System for Emergency Preparedness and Response to Promote Assurance: A Case Study of the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness

The Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) is a program that provides medical countermeasures during a public health emergency. A public health emergency can be a natural or man-made disaster, an act of terrorism, or a pandemic. The Cities Readiness Initiative (CRI) was created to help the nation’s largest metropolitan regions develop the ability to provide SNS life-saving medications in the event of a large-scale bioterrorist attack or naturally occurring disease outbreak. To address the risks associated with a public health emergency the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) requires a comprehensive emergency response plan for distributing SNS/CRI materials quickly and efficiently. The Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness (FCDHW) is tasked with responsibility for distributing and dispensing of SNS/CRI medical assets delivered during a public health emergency. FCDHW is also tasked with the development of a comprehensive response plan. Past TAR scores revealed that passing SNS/CRI audits has been a challenge for FCDHW. A case study was conducted to note if the development of an information management system could facilitate successful future SNS/CRI audits. A needs assessment revealed that an information management system for emergency preparedness and response compliance was needed. Microsoft SharePoint 2007 was used to develop the information management system. SharePoint contains a secure document repository that linked the work products of all relevant internal and external stakeholders and revealed compliance deficiencies early enough to allow for corrective actions. The result was a passing TAR score that was a 59 point increase from the last published score

Depairing critical current achieved in superconducting thin films with through-thickness arrays of artificial pinning centers

Large area arrays of through-thickness nanoscale pores have been milled into superconducting Nb thin films via a process utilizing anodized aluminum oxide thin film templates. These pores act as artificial flux pinning centers, increasing the superconducting critical current, Jc, of the Nb films. By optimizing the process conditions including anodization time, pore size and milling time, Jc values approaching and in some cases matching the Ginzburg-Landau depairing current of 30 MA/cm^2 at 5 K have been achieved - a Jc enhancement over as-deposited films of more than 50 times. In the field dependence of Jc, a matching field corresponding to the areal pore density has also been clearly observed. The effect of back-filling the pores with magnetic material has then been investigated. While back-filling with Co has been successfully achieved, the effect of the magnetic material on Jc has been found to be largely detrimental compared to voids, although a distinct influence of the magnetic material in producing a hysteretic Jc versus applied field behavior has been observed. This behavior has been tested for compatibility with currently proposed models of magnetic pinning and found to be most closely explained by a model describing the magnetic attraction between the flux vortices and the magnetic inclusions.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure

Caltech Faint Galaxy Redshift Survey X: A Redshift Survey in the Region of the Hubble Deep Field North

A redshift survey has been carried out in the region of the Hubble Deep Field North using the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrograph at the Keck Observatory. The resulting redshift catalog, which contains 671 entries, is a compendium of our own data together with published LRIS/Keck data. It is more than 92% complete for objects, irrespective of morphology, to $R = 24$ mag in the HDF itself and to $R = 23$ mag in the Flanking Fields within a diameter of 8 arcmin centered on the HDF, an unusually high completion for a magnitude limited survey performed with a large telescope. A median redshift $z = 1.0$ is reached at $R \sim 23.8$. Strong peaks in the redshift distribution, which arise when a group or poor cluster of galaxies intersect the area surveyed, can be identified to $z \sim 1.2$ in this dataset. More than 68% of the galaxies are members of these redshift peaks. In a few cases, closely spaced peaks in $z$ can be resolved into separate groups of galaxies that can be distinguished in both velocity and location on the sky. The radial separation of these peaks in the pencil-beam survey is consistent with a characteristic length scale for the their separation of $\approx$70 Mpc in our adopted cosmology ($h = 0.6, \Omega_M = 0.3$, $\Lambda = 0$). Strong galaxy clustering is in evidence at all epochs back to $z \le 1.1$. (abstract abridged)Comment: Accepted to the ApJ. This version contains all the figures and tables. 2 minor typos in table 2b correcte

The President\u27s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR): A Social Work Ethical Analysis and Recommendations

The President\u27s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is the most recent international social program instituted by the U.S. Government to combat HIV/AIDS. Since its inception in 2003, this foreign policy initiative has dedicated $63 billion for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment in foreign countries. Despite PEPFAR\u27s many accomplishments, it continues to promote controversial prevention strategies. This paper analyzes these prevention strategies, utilizing social work values as described in the NASW Code of Ethics. Policy, practice, and research implications are discussed

Development, psychometric testing, and revision of the atlanta heart failure knowledge test

BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: Several heart failure (HF) knowledge tools have been developed and tested over the past decade; however, they vary in content, format, psychometric properties, and availability. This article details the development, psychometric testing, and revision of the Atlanta Heart Failure Knowledge Test (A-HFKT) as a standardized instrument for both the research and clinical settings. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: Development and psychometric testing of the A-HFKT were undertaken with 116 New York Heart Association (NYHA) class II and III community-dwelling HF patients and their family members (FMs) participating in a family intervention study. Internal consistency, reliability, and content validity were examined. Construct validity was assessed by correlating education level, literacy, dietary sodium ingestion, medication adherence, and healthcare utilization with knowledge. RESULTS: Content validity ratings on relevance and clarity ranged from 0.55 to 1.0, with 81% of the items rated from 0.88 to 1.0. Cronbach α values were .84 for patients, .75 for FMs, and .73 for combined results. Construct validity testing revealed a small but significant correlation between higher patient and FM knowledge on sodium restriction questions and lower ingested sodium, r = −0.17, P = .05 and r = −0.19, P = .04, respectively, and between patient knowledge and number of days that medications were taken correctly (diuretics: r = 0.173, P < .05, and angiotensin-converting enzyme: r = 0.223, P = .01). Finally, patients seeking emergency care or requiring hospitalization in the 4 months before study entry were found to have significantly lower FM knowledge using both t test and logistic regression modeling. CONCLUSIONS: The A-HFKT was revised using the content and construct validity data and is available for use with HF patients and FMs. The construct validity testing indicates that patient knowledge has a significant relationship to aspects of self-care. Furthermore, family knowledge may influence patient adherence with sodium restriction and healthcare utilization behavior

Resting heart rate as a low tech predictor of coronary events in women: prospective cohort study

Objective To evaluate resting heart rate as an independent predictor of cardiovascular risk in women

Salmonella Typhimurium impairs glycolysismediated acidification of phagosomes to evade macrophage defense

Regulation of cellular metabolism is now recognized as a crucial mechanism for the activation of innate and adaptive immune cells upon diverse extracellular stimuli. Macrophages, for instance, increase glycolysis upon stimulation with pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). Conceivably, pathogens also counteract these metabolic changes for their own survival in the host. Despite this dynamic interplay in host-pathogen interactions, the role of immunometabolism in the context of intracellular bacterial infections is still unclear. Here, employing unbiased metabolomic and transcriptomic approaches, we investigated the role of metabolic adaptations of macrophages upon Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) infections. Importantly, our results suggest that S. Typhimurium abrogates glycolysis and its modulators such as insulin-signaling to impair macrophage defense. Mechanistically, glycolysis facilitates glycolytic enzyme aldolase A mediated v- ATPase assembly and the acidification of phagosomes which is critical for lysosomal degradation. Thus, impairment in the glycolytic machinery eventually leads to decreased bacterial clearance and antigen presentation in murine macrophages (BMDM). Collectively, our results highlight a vital molecular link between metabolic adaptation and phagosome maturation in macrophages, which is targeted by S. Typhimurium to evade cell-autonomous defense. Copyright

Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project Transmission Studies Environmental Impact Statement: Appendix J: Historical-Archeological Impact Study

The report assessing cultural resources for the Dickey/Lincoln School Transmission Project consists of five narrative chapters, a topical bibliography, and five appendices. The scope of work, together with the USDI guidelines for cultural resource survey (included in Appendix E), comprise an attitude and approach toward prehistory which is in accord with the current state of the art, not simply in terms of cultural resource management but also in terms of contemporary standards generally recognized by practitioners of anthropological archaeology

Improving the validity and translation of preclinical research

The Oct 2021 edition of J. Psychopharmacology focussed on the contemporary topic of translational psychopharmacology. Translational research is critical for the development of early interventions and improved therapeutics for mental health conditions. In this respect, the continual updating of information gained from reciprocal forward (preclinical) and reverse (clinical) translational approaches is necessary. Despite the enthusiasm for translational psychopharmacology in the preclinical research community, there are many challenges if we are to achieve the crucial goal of developing therapies with superior efficacy and tolerability over current drugs for neuropsychiatric conditions. At a recent meeting of a preclinical subpanel of the J. Psychopharmacology editorial board, members debated opportunities to improve the validity and translation of preclinical research models. A particular focus being the importance of understanding the clinical relevance of a model and its readouts and how well the mechanisms associated with those readouts and arising novel drug targets translate to the clinic. Importantly, consideration was given to moving away from pharmacological models towards the development of approaches which recapitulate more clinically relevant readouts. Some key points are summarised below