Structural Racism and Youth Development

Youth of color have experienced poor outcomes relative to their white counterparts historically, and these disparities persist today. Researchers have offered a number of explanations for these disparities, some of the more popular of which have focused on individual deficiencies. If one elucidates the underlying theories of change of dominant practices and public policies in the youth field, it appears that, despite variation in approach and emphasis, they too have focused on individual behavior. While behavior is clearly an important contributor to the outcomes that individuals experience, it is not the sole determinant. Rather, we contend that there are larger, structural factors that contribute to the racial disparities between youth of color and their white counterparts that deserve systematic and sustained attention

Modified Early Warning Scores (MEWS) to support ambulance clinicians’ decisions to transport or treat at home

Introduction Modified Early Warning Scores (MEWS), calculated from patients’ vital signs, are used in hospital to identify patients who may benefit from admission or intensive care: higher MEWS indicates greater clinical risk. We aimed to evaluate MEWS to support paramedics’ decisions to transport patients to hospital or treat and leave them at home. Methods We used an interrupted time series design. We trained 19 volunteer paramedics to use MEWS to support decisions to transport or treat and leave at home. We used linear regression to evaluate differences in weekly transportation rates (percentage of patients attended and transported to hospital) and revisit rates (percentage of patients attended, treated at home and subsequently revisited within 7 days), comparing trends in rates 17 weeks prior (pre-MEWS) and 17 weeks post implementation of MEWS. Auto-calculated scores retrospectively applied to all data provided pre-MEWS and were compared with paramedic calculated scores post-MEWS. Results Of the 4140 patients attended, 2208 were excluded owing to missing values (n=1897), recording errors (n=21) or excluded clinical complaints (n=290). From the remaining data (n=1932) there were no significant differences in transportation rates (pre=55±6%; post=63±11%) by catering for the existing increasing trends where the confidence intervals of the regression slopes overlap (pre=0.15; 95%CI -0.51 to 0.80 vs. post=0.54; -0.58 to 1.65). Similarly, there were no significant difference in revisit rates (pre=4±4%; post=2±4%) catering for the similar trends (pre=-0.13; -0.53 to 0.27 vs. post=0.08; -0.33 to 0.49). Paramedic scores were incorrect 39% of the time (n=622). Conclusion MEWS had a minimal effect on transportation or revisit rates. Scores were frequently not calculated or recorded, or incorrectly calculated. Opportunities for ongoing training, clinical support and feedback were limited. A larger study, ensuring adequate ongoing support, is recommended before implementing MEWS on a wider scale

Multiplex in vitro detection using SERS

The ability to detect multiple disease-related targets from a single biological sample in a quick and reliable manner is of high importance in diagnosing and monitoring disease. The technique known as surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has been developed for the simultaneous detection of multiple targets present in biological samples. Advances in the SERS method have allowed for the sensitive and specific detection of biologically relevant targets, such as DNA and proteins, which could be useful for the detection and control of disease. This review focuses on the strengths of SERS for the detection of target molecules from complex mixtures and the clinical relevance of recent work combining SERS with multiplexed detection of biological targets

Interactive television in schools : an Australian study of the tensions of educational technology and change

This paper outlines some key issues that arose from several projects that investigated the use of interactive television in schooling. In this paper we draw on these projects, to illustrate and discuss how a (then) new form of distance education -- satellite-based, narrowcast ITV -- was designated for use in primary (elementary) and secondary (high school) classroom settings, how it was implemented, and how it collapsed as an endeavour. Issues raised by students, teachers and administrators are related to each to illustrate how ITV slowly declined over several years, despite its usefulness for some and strong support from those involved.<br /

Teaching presence in computer conferencing : lessons from the United States and Australia

This paper uses the category of teaching presence as a framework to analyze and compare teaching presence in two computer conference contexts. Teaching presence is defined as the design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes. This paper is based on an interview designed to capture reflections about teaching practices of two instructors, one from the United States and the other from Australia. We first present individual case studies of the two computer conference contexts, followed by conclusions and implications for research and practice.<br /

Brew Fest: Communication Agility in Rural America

Business communication is vital to solving any business problem. Yet, the uncertainty of the future makes business communication complex and requires organizations to be strategic and have communication agility. This pedagogical case study is used in the collegiate business communication classroom to help frame a business problem. Students reading the case will gain an understanding of a real-life business scenario involving the importance of communication agility and cultural events in a rural community. Students are then challenged to use best practices in business communication to help ensure the future of the community event, Brew Fest

Federated Search Falls Short

After adopting a federated search product and featuring it prominently on the library\u27s Web site in 2006, Booth Library greatly reduced the visibility of the product in 2008 due to poor performance and lower than expected use. This session provides evidence from actual practice on the use of federated searching

Syndromic surveillance for influenza in two hospital emergency departments. Relationships between ICD-10 codes and notified cases, before and during a pandemic

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Interest in the use of emergency department (ED) data by syndromic surveillance systems to detect influenza outbreaks has been growing. Evaluations of these systems generally focus on events during influenza seasons. The aims of this study were to identify which emergency department disease codes best correlated with confirmed influenza cases and to determine if these same codes would be useful in the non-influenza season. The 2009 influenza pandemic in Victoria, Australia, provided further opportunity to examine the performance of the syndromic surveillance system during this event.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We undertook a retrospective analysis of data from the Victorian Department of Health's pilot syndromic surveillance programme, 'SynSurv'. SynSurv automatically captures patient information as it is entered by ED staff. This information includes patient demographics, their presenting symptoms and a preliminary diagnosis using ICD-10 coding. To determine which codes were best correlated with influenza notifications, weekly counts for each of the ICD-10 diagnosis codes ever used in the dataset were calculated and compared with the corresponding weekly count of confirmed influenza cases. Correlations between these codes and confirmed influenza cases in the non-influenza season were then undertaken. The data covered the period from July 2001 until August 2009 and included the 2009 influenza pandemic.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There was a marked increase in weekly counts of both laboratory-confirmed influenza cases and relevant ICD-10 codes during the influenza pandemic period. The increase in laboratory confirmed cases was more than four times greater than the previous highest number reported, in 2007, even though the influenza-like-illness activity in the community was considered comparable to 2003 and 2007. We found five ICD-10 codes to be moderately and significantly correlated with influenza cases. None of these codes was correlated with laboratory confirmed influenza notifications outside the influenza season, at least in part because of the small number of influenza cases notified during that period.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study suggests that the choice of codes made by ED staff to record a case of influenza-like illness is influenced by their perceptions of how much influenza is circulating at the time. The ability of syndromic surveillance to detect outbreaks early may be impeded because case diagnosis is influenced by what ED staff believes to be occurring in the community.</p

Supporting play exploration and early developmental intervention versus usual care to enhance development outcomes during the transition from the neonatal intensive care unit to home: a pilot randomized controlled trial

Background While therapy services may start in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) there is often a gap in therapy after discharge. Supporting Play Exploration and Early Development Intervention (SPEEDI) supports parents, helping them build capacity to provide developmentally supportive opportunities starting in the NICU and continuing at home. The purpose of this single blinded randomized pilot clinical trial was to evaluate the initial efficacy of SPEEDI to improve early reaching and exploratory problem solving behaviors. Methods Fourteen infants born very preterm or with neonatal brain injury were randomly assigned to SPEEDI or Usual Care. The SPEEDI group participated in 5 collaborative parent, therapist, and infant interventions sessions in the NICU (Phase 1) and 5 at home (Phase 2). Parents provided daily opportunities designed to support the infants emerging motor control and exploratory behaviors. Primary outcome measures were assessed at the end of the intervention, 1 and 3 months after the intervention ended. Reaching was assessed with the infant supported in an infant chair using four 30 s trials. The Early Problem Solving Indicator was used to evaluate the frequency of behaviors during standardized play based assessment. Effect sizes are including for secondary outcomes including the Test of Infant Motor Performance and Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development. Results No group differences were found in the duration of toy contact. There was a significant group effect on (F1,8 = 4.04, p = 0.08) early exploratory problem-solving behaviors with infants in the SPEEDI group demonstrating greater exploration with effect sizes of 1.3, 0.6, and 0.9 at the end of the intervention, 1 and 3 months post-intervention. Conclusions While further research is needed, this initial efficacy study showed promising results for the ability of SPEEDI to impact early problem solving behaviors at the end of intervention and at least 3 months after the intervention is over. While reaching did not show group differences, a ceiling effect may have contributed to this finding. This single blinded pilot RCT was registered prior to subject enrollment on 5/27/14 at ClinicalTrials.Gov with number NCT02153736

PDXScholar Annual Report 2019

This report details the ninth year of operation for PDXScholar, Portland State University\u27s institutional repository, as well as the growth of Portland State University Library\u27s publishing services. The report covers the period between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019