Tl’azt’en Learning Circle: Information Technology, Health and Cultural Preservation

A Community Learning Centre (CLC) is an innovative model of delivering health care and health information based firmly on the idea of community engagement. It has two interrelated components: 1) a community-based facility with Internet-linked computers accessible to all community members; and 2) community developed web-based resources relevant to community defined needs and priorities. This article describes a pilot CLC implementation in a remote British Columbia First Nations community. A CLC supports the acquisition of health information as well as research and technology skills by facilitating access to, and uptake of, relevant resources developed by and for community members

Social media in health science education: an international survey

Background: Social media is an asset that higher education students can use for an array of purposes. Studies have shown the merits of social media use in educational settings; however, its adoption in health science education has been slow, and the contributing reasons remain unclear. Objective: This multidisciplinary study aimed to examine health science students’ opinions on the use of social media in health science education and identify factors that may discourage its use. Methods: Data were collected from the Universitas 21 “Use of social media in health education” survey, distributed electronically among the health science staff and students from 8 universities in 7 countries. The 1640 student respondents were grouped as users or nonusers based on their reported frequency of social media use in their education. Results: Of the 1640 respondents, 1343 (81.89%) use social media in their education. Only 462 of the 1320 (35.00%) respondents have received specific social media training, and of those who have not, the majority (64.9%, 608/936) would like the opportunity. Users and nonusers reported the same 3 factors as the top barriers to their use of social media: uncertainty on policies, concerns about professionalism, and lack of support from the department. Nonusers reported all the barriers more frequently and almost half of nonusers reported not knowing how to incorporate social media into their learning. Among users, more than one fifth (20.5%, 50/243) of students who use social media “almost always” reported sharing clinical images without explicit permission. Conclusions: Our global, interdisciplinary study demonstrates that a significant number of students across all health science disciplines self-reported sharing clinical images inappropriately, and thus request the need for policies and training specific to social media use in health science education

Intraventricular Hemorrhage Caused by Lateral Ventricular Meningioma: A Case Report

Meningiomas causing intracranial hemorrhage are rare, and hemorrhage from a lateral ventricular meningioma seems to be even rarer. We report a case of trigonal meningioma in a 43-year-old woman who presented with intraventricular hemorrhage, and describe the CT, MRI and angiographic findings

Preferred Features of E-Mental Health Programs for Prevention of Major Depression in Male Workers: Results From a Canadian National Survey

Background: Major depression is a prevalent mental disorder and imposes considerable burden on health and productivity. Men are not immune to major depression, yet they often delay seeking help because of perceived stigma and gender norms. E-mental health programs hold potential for early prevention of major depression. However, we have little knowledge about men\u27s preferences for design features of e-mental health programs. Objectives: The objective of this study was to (1) estimate and compare the proportions of Internet use for medical information, preferred design features, and likely use of e-mental health programs; (2) examine factors associated with the likely use of e-mental health programs; and (3) understand potential barriers to the use of e-mental health programs among Canadian working men, who were at high risk of a major depressive episode (MDE). Methods: A cross-sectional survey in 10 Canadian provinces was conducted between March and December 2015. Random digit dialing method was used through household landlines and cell phones to collect data from 511 working men who were at high risk of having an MDE and 330 working men who were at low risk of having an MDE. Results: High-risk men were more likely to endorse the importance of accessing health resources on the Internet than low-risk men (83.4% vs 75.0%, respectively; P=.01). Of the 17 different features assessed, the top three features most likely to be used by high-risk men were: information about improving sleep hygiene (61.3%), practice and exercise to help reduce symptoms of stress and depression (59.5%), and having access to quality information and resources about work stress issues (57.8%). Compared with men at low risk for MDE, men at high risk for MDE were much more likely to consider using almost every one of the different design features. Differences in preferences for the design features by age among men at high risk of MDE were found only for 3 of 17 features. Differences in preferences for design features between English- and French-speaking participants were found only for 4 out of the 17 features. Analysis of qualitative data revealed that privacy issues, perceived stigma, ease of navigation, personal relevance, and lack of personal interaction, time, and knowledge were identified as barriers to the use of e-mental health programs in working men who were at high risk of MDE. Conclusion: E-mental health programs may be a promising strategy for prevention of depression in working men. Development of e-mental health programs should consider men\u27s preferences and perceived barriers to enhance the acceptability of this approach

Long-term trends in tropical cyclone tracks around Korea and Japan in late summer and early fall

This study investigates long-term trends in tropical cyclones (TCs) over the extratropical western North Pacific (WNP) over a period of 35 years (1982-2016). The area analyzed extended across 30-45 degrees N and 120-150 degrees E, including the regions of Korea and Japan that were seriously affected by TCs. The northward migration of TCs over the WNP to the mid-latitudes showed a sharp increase in early fall. In addition, the duration of TCs over the WNP that migrated northwards showed an increase, specifically in early to mid-September. Therefore, more recently, TC tracks have been observed to significantly extend into the mid-latitudes. The recent northward extension of TC tracks over the WNP in early fall was observed to be associated with changes in environmental conditions that were favorable for TC activities, including an increase in sea surface temperature (SST), decrease in vertical wind shear, expansion of subtropical highs, strong easterly steering winds, and an increase in relative vorticity. In contrast, northward migrations of TCs to Korea and Japan showed a decline in late August, because of the presence of unfavorable environmental conditions for TC activities. These changes in environmental conditions, such as SST and vertical wind shear, can be partially associated with the Pacific decadal oscillation

The Disc-Jet Relation in Strong-Lined Blazars

The relation between accretion disc (thermal emission) and jet (non-thermal emission) in blazars is still a mystery as, typically, the beamed jet emission swamps the disc even in the ultraviolet band where disc emission peaks. In this paper we estimate the accretion disc component for 136 flat-spectrum radio quasars selected from the Deep X-ray Radio Blazar Survey. We do this by deriving the accretion disc spectrum from the mass and accretion rate onto the central black hole for each object, estimated using the emission line widths and the power emitted from the broad line region. We find that non-thermal emission dominates the optical/UV band of our sources. The thermal component, in fact, is, on average, ~ 15 per cent of the total and > 90 per cent of the objects in the sample have a thermal component < 0.5 of the total luminosity. We then estimate the integrated disc and kinetic jet powers and find that, on average, the disc luminosity is ~ 1 to 20 times the jet power (depending on the uncertainties in the estimation of the latter quantity). A comparison with previous, independent results favours a scenario in which jet and disk powers are of the same order of magnitude. Extraction of energy from a rotating black hole via the ``Blandford-Znajek'' mechanism fails to explain the estimated jet power in the majority of our sources. Finally, we find that the typical masses for our sources are ~ 5 10^8 solar masses and that, contrary to previous claims, about one quarter of our radio quasars have relatively small (< 3 10^8 solar masses) black hole mass.Comment: 15 Pages, 8 ps figures, accepted for pubblication in MNRA

Some Properties of R\'{e}nyi Entropy over Countably Infinite Alphabets

In this paper we study certain properties of R\'{e}nyi entropy functionals $H_\alpha(\mathcal{P})$ on the space of probability distributions over $\mathbb{Z}_+$. Primarily, continuity and convergence issues are addressed. Some properties shown parallel those known in the finite alphabet case, while others illustrate a quite different behaviour of R\'enyi entropy in the infinite case. In particular, it is shown that, for any distribution $\mathcal P$ and any $r\in[0,\infty]$, there exists a sequence of distributions $\mathcal{P}_n$ converging to $\mathcal{P}$ with respect to the total variation distance, such that $\lim_{n\to\infty}\lim_{\alpha\to{1+}} H_\alpha(\mathcal{P}_n) = \lim_{\alpha\to{1+}}\lim_{n\to\infty} H_\alpha(\mathcal{P}_n) + r$.Comment: 13 pages (single-column

U.S. Foreign Assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa: The FY2012 Request

Sub-Saharan Africa, the world's poorest region, receives over a quarter of all U.S. bilateral foreign assistance. Aid to Africa more than quadrupled over the past decade, primarily due to sizable increases in global health spending during the Bush Administration and more measured increases in development, economic, and security assistance. The Obama Administration's FY2012 bilateral Africa aid budget request, at $7.8 billion, represents an increase of roughly 10% compared to FY2010, albeit at a more restrained growth rate than in previous years (see "The FY2012 Request by the Numbers"). FY2011 enacted levels are not yet available by region. The proposed increases are concentrated in the areas of health, governance, and agriculture

Disentangling participatory ICT design in socioeconomic development

Participatory design in socioeconomic development is an invariably political activity fraught with both political as well as ethical entanglements. ICT for development (ICTD) - often involved in contexts of great inequality and heteogeneity - places these in especially sharp relief. This paper draws attention to these entanglements as well as what they mean for the role and practice of designer-researchers practicing PD. We then draw upon our experiences in an active PD project to highlight approaches that serve as a partial response to these entanglements. These presents both limitations as well as orientations for our role as designer-researchers in engaging with and organising PD work in ICTD - providing a starting point for answering the question “who participates with whom in what and why?