Comparing condom use with different types of partners : evidence from national HIV surveys in Africa

Based on nationally representative samples from 13 Sub-Saharan African countries, this paper reinforces and expands previous findings that condom use in general is low in this region, men report using condoms more frequently than women, and unmarried individuals report they use condoms more frequently than married individuals with their spouse. Based on descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses, the authors also demonstrate to a degree not previously shown in the current literature that married men from most countries report using condoms with extramarital partners about as frequently as unmarried men. However, married women from most countries included use condoms with extramarital partners less frequently than unmarried women. This result is especially troubling because marriage usually ensures regular sexual intercourse, providing more opportunities to pass HIV from extramarital partner to spouse than an unmarried person who may also have multiple partners but not as regular sexual intercourse.Population Policies,Gender and Health,Adolescent Health,HIV AIDS,Gender and Law

The association between remarriage and HIV infection : evidence from national HIV surveys in Africa

The literature shows that divorced, separated, and widowed individuals in Africa are at significantly increased risk for HIV. Using nationally representative data from 13 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, this paper confirms that formerly married individuals are at significantly higher risk for HIV. The study goes further by examining individuals who have remarried. The results show that remarried individuals form a large portion of the population - usually larger than the divorced, separated, or widowed - and that they also have higher than average HIV prevalence. This large number of high-risk remarried individuals is an important source of vulnerability and further infection that needs to be acknowledged and taken into account in prevention strategies.Disease Control&Prevention,Population Policies,Gender and Health,HIV AIDS,HIV AIDS and Business

“We Feminine Foresters”: Women, Conservation, and the USDA Forest Service, 1850-1970

The traditional narrative of the Forest Service places the mythic “two-fisted” male ranger as the focus of its history. The reality is that without women he would not have gotten the job done. Women’s work as advocates, foresters, rangers’ wives, clerks, information and education specialists, scientific researchers, and lookouts reveals that although women were excluded from the male domain of forestry, they created a distinct female tradition within the Forest Service—what one called a “feminine forestry” that proved without women, the Forest Service would not have achieved its accomplishments or growth throughout the twentieth century. Throughout their work, women spread their version of the “greatest good” by promoting the conservation cause, a civic and moral responsibility to conserve nature and people’s relationship with the land for the future benefit of American life and values. From the beginning, they played a critical role in pioneering, building, maintaining, and supporting the agency’s forest management infrastructure, information base, conservation education, scientific research, and fixed-point fire detection system, helping to shape the Forest Service’s mission and management of caring for the land and its people into the twenty-first century

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING: SELF-EFFICACY OF STUDENTS—INSTRUCTORS IN AN ADAPTED DANCE PROGRAM

poster abstractObjective: Experiential learning (EL) within an adapted dance program may produce increased self-efficacy in instructing or working with different populations such as disabled or culturally diverse individuals. The purpose of this study was to examine responses in participation with an adapted physi-cal activity (PA) dance program for young individuals with Down syndrome. Methods: To explore the experience of the student-volunteers, self-efficacy surveys were conducted before and after the six-week dance pro-gram. Using a Likert scale, students scored their perceived self-efficacy in individual and team instruction of PA in a variety of populations such as ur-ban settings, cardiac rehabilitation, children, and individuals with disabilities. Additionally, journal reflections were used to explore the question, “What did/does this experience mean to you?” Journal reflections were analyzed for themes and patterns using the guidelines for interpretative phenomenologi-cal analysis. Results: Results indicated that self-efficacy increased in instructing PA to the population involved in the dance program. Significant increases (P<.005) were also noted in one’s perceived ability to team instruct cardiac rehabilita-tion, high school students, general population, and children; as well as one’s perceived ability to individually instruct high-risk individuals, cardiac rehabili-tation, and children. Qualitative data from journal reflections suggest the fol-lowing themes: dancers taught student-volunteers life lessons, student-volunteers gained experience with different populations, student-volunteers gained teaching experience. Conclusion: Students involved in an EL program working with adapted populations, self-efficacy may increase not only in working with individuals with disabilities but may also increase self-efficacy in working with other populations. Students’ perception of the experience suggests that the EL ex-perience within the dance program through structured activities is impactful to personal and professional growth. Findings suggest that further studies may be needed to indicate the minimal duration of an EL experience needed to improve self-efficacy. Overall, students’ feelings toward the population suggest growth toward more civic-mindedness

Evaluating Implementation of Recognition-Based Incentive program (RBIP) During Service Learning Curriculum

Background Common Threads (CT), a student organization, produces crocheted sleeping mats for people experiencing homelessness. Due to the extensive labor of the initiative, CT was motivated to encourage engagement of medical student volunteers beyond the curriculum-required minimum hours through a recognition-based incentive program (RBIP). Methods Students were presented with the opportunity by CT to receive the recognition title of “Community Change Partner”. In the Service Learning curriculum at WSUSOM, students are required to complete clinical and outreach service hours. CT offers students the opportunity to complete outreach hours by making sleeping mats out of recycled material. To receive the title, students had to obtain 375 points. Points were awarded based on relative time commitment and value. The RBIP was evaluated by comparing the number of completed mats, monthly volunteer hours, number of recognition certificates awarded, and volunteers engaging in work outside of events in the three months before and after implementation. Results Prior to the RBIP, CT supported 30.3 monthly volunteer hours, completed 2 mats, and had no engagement outside of events in three months. After the initiation of the RBIP, CT supported 43.6 monthly volunteer hours, completed 10 mats, had 11 people engage in work outside of events, and awarded 7 recognition certificates in three months. Conclusion After RBIP implementation, there was an increase in all evaluated areas, suggesting that the program successfully improved student engagement. Implementing recognition-based incentives is a powerful tool that organizations should use to improve impact and reach of initiatives serving Detroit’s vulnerable populations

Cellular and molecular mechanisms of motor neuron vulnerability in degenerative disease and injury

The distal compartments of the motor neuron represent early and significant targets across situations of both neurodegenerative disease and traumatic injury. In this thesis, we address two distinct scenarios of axonal and synaptic degeneration. First, we explore neuromuscular junction pathology in a mouse model of the heritable motor neuron disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and address the capacity for neuronal regeneration following restoration of the pathologically depleted Survival Motor Neuron (SMN) protein. We demonstrate that motor neurons exhibit a robust and phenotypically translatable recovery from considerable levels of cellular and molecular dysfunction. In the second chapter, we explore the phenomenon of delayed Wallerian degeneration in neonatal mice. We employ a quantitative mass spectrometry approach to profile proteins exhibiting a temporal expression pattern in line with previously observed postnatal changes in axonal and synaptic vulnerability to injury. We then utilise a variety of proteomics tools to identify pathways which may mechanistically contribute to age-dependent resistance to degeneration. Together, these results provide a preliminary insight into the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying motor neuron vulnerability in two independent models of degenerative disease and injury

Applying modern Omic technologies to the Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinoses

The Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinoses are a group of severe and progressive neurodegenerative disorders, which generally present during childhood. With new treatments emerging on the horizon, there is a growing need to understand the specific disease mechanisms as well as identify prospective biomarkers for use to stratify patients and monitor treatment. The use of Omics technologies to NCLs has the potential to address this need. We discuss the recent use and outcomes of Omics to various forms of NCL including identification of interactomes, affected biological pathways and potential biomarker candidates. We also identify common pathways affected in NCL across the reviewed studies

Recruitment Patterns of Juvenile Fish at an Artificial Reef Area in the Gulf of Mexico

In 2011 the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Coastal Conservation Association of Texas deployed over 4,000 concrete culverts in a designated artificial reef area off Port Mansfield, Texas, to enhance habitat for sport fish species in the Gulf of Mexico. A study was conducted to assess juvenile fish recruitment at varying culvert densities within the artificial reef area. Standard monitoring units for the recruitment of reef fish (SMURFs) were used to sample juvenile fish, and these collections were compared with visual scuba surveys. The 0.027-m3 SMURFs were placed at four different culvert densities (0, 1–50, 51–100, and 101+ culverts in a 30-m radius) and sampled during 2013 to 2014. Measurements of rugosity, vertical relief, and percent cover were collected to elucidate factors that drive juvenile recruitment. Average species richness was highest at sites with no culverts and lowest at dense culvert sites. Species compositions were significantly different between sampling locations with no culverts and all locations with culverts; average similarity was 33.8%. Belted Sandfish Serranus subligarius was the most ubiquitous species among all sampling locations. Visual scuba surveys at the same locations showed lower diversity indices of the juvenile fish community than observed by SMURFs and were only 14% similar to the community sampled by the SMURFs. These findings suggest SMURFs are a more effective tool for examining juvenile fish at an artificial reef due to the cryptic nature of juveniles and the low visibility around shallow reefs. Additionally, commercially important Yellowedge Grouper Hyporthodus flavolimbatus, Warsaw Grouper H. nigritus, and Red Snapper Lutjanus campechanus juveniles were only found at SMURFs at sampling locations with no culverts. The presence of juveniles of these key species suggest that fisheries management may benefit from creating low-relief reef patches away from the main reef where juvenile fish can recruit and grow

Nutrition in Medical Education: Where do we stand and what needs to be explored?

Introduction: Dietary interventions and nutrition care improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs. Despite status as a necessary topic in medical school education, many U.S. medical schools do not adequately prepare future physicians for everyday nutritional challenges in clinical practice. There is immense research behind the necessity of nutrition education but little concerning the methods of implementing this change. The purpose of this work was to review the current innovations of nutrition curriculum in the literature and discuss future directions for our medical school. Method: A systematic search of scientific literature databases was performed to examine existing literature about the current state of nutrition curriculum and identify current methods of improving nutrition curriculum. A database search of the undergraduate GW SMHS curricula helped us map where nutrition is currently taught and look into ways to expand and integrate it. Results: Shortcomings in sufficient nutrition education result from lack of proficient faculty, low funding, and lack of established core curricula with guidelines and protocols. Additionally, international medical schools have recognized their deficiency in nutrition education compared to U.S. standards. U.S. institutions making headway in new nutrition education programs include The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Boston University School of Medicine, Southern Illinois School of Medicine, University of Nevada School of Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Mercer University School of Medicine, and various institutions introducing “culinary medicine”. Successful nutrition integration should be spread longitudinally across all years with an emphasis on active-learning techniques over rote memorization. Creativity, chief support, an established taskforce, trained faculty, and evaluation methods are essential tools to enhance medical curriculum. Looking at GW SMHS curricula, nutrition is concentrated in the Pre-Clinical years with very little emphasis in the Clinical years, a common trend across most medical schools. Medical students may be more confident incorporating nutrition into patient care if nutrition were spread proportionally across all years to combine basic foundations with clinical application. Conclusion: Expanding nutrition curriculum at The George Washington University School of Medicine could involve utilizing the Nutrition in Medicine project developed by The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill or bringing in internationally renowned chef José Andrés to expand on his previous culinary courses and incorporate nutrition fundamentals into the medical curriculum. Future directions need to evaluate existing programs, current initiatives, and their effectiveness in order to be able to improve programs across the continuum