Effective Preventative Interventions of Substance Use

Substance use among adolescents remains a serious problem in most rural communities in part due to the well-documented failure of most prevention programs. Despite these challenges some prevention programs have been deemed both reliable and valid. Three such programs include the: Adolescent Transitions Program, Strengthening Families Program: For Parents and Youth 10-14, and Guiding Good Choices. This paper provides a systemic review of these three programs and offers suggestions to community leaders for successful program implementation

Desperate vs. Deadbeat: Can We Quantify the Effect of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005?

For decades, personal bankruptcies increased in the U.S., either reflecting growing economic distress of families or a declining stigma associated with filing for bankruptcy. In a nod to the latter argument, the U.S. Congress passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Prevention Act of 2005 (BAPCPA), after bankruptcies had grown to record high rates. The assumption was that with the new law many if not most bankruptcies would eventually disappear since they supposedly were the result of a “bankruptcy of convenience”. �The U.S. bankruptcy rate fell indeed sharply after the law went into effect, but increased quickly again afterwards. By the end of 2007, the U.S. bankruptcy rate exceeded all levels recorded during the 1980s, and approached the levels prevalent during the early 1990s. But it remains unclear how much of these changes resulted from BAPCPA and what was attributable to other factors. � In this Working Paper, the authors establish a benchmark level of the U.S. bankruptcy rates after 2005 that likely would have been observed if the law had not changed. They then compare the actual U.S. bankruptcy rate to the benchmark for 2007 to provide a sense of the effectiveness of BAPCPA.

The Scarcity Slot

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. The Scarcity Slot is the first book to critically examine food security in Africa's deep past. Amanda L. Logan argues that African foodways have been viewed through the lens of "the scarcity slot," a kind of Othering based on presumed differences in resources. Weaving together archaeological, historical, and environmental data with food ethnography, she advances a new approach to building long-term histories of food security on the continent in order to combat these stereotypes. Focusing on a case study in Banda, Ghana that spans the past six centuries, The Scarcity Slot reveals that people thrived during a severe, centuries-long drought just as Europeans arrived on the coast, with a major decline in food security emerging only recently. This narrative radically challenges how we think about African foodways in the past with major implications for the future

The Scarcity Slot

The Scarcity Slot is the first book to critically examine food security in Africa’s deep past. Amanda L. Logan argues that African foodways have been viewed through the lens of “the scarcity slot,” a kind of othering based on presumed differences in resources. Weaving together archaeological, historical, and environmental data with food ethnography, she advances a new approach to building long-term histories of food security on the continent in order to combat these stereotypes. Focusing on a case study in Banda, Ghana that spans the past six centuries, The Scarcity Slot reveals that people thrived during a severe, centuries-long drought just as Europeans arrived on the coast, with a major decline in food security emerging only recently. This narrative radically challenges how we think about African foodways in the past, with major implications for the future. “This book offers a pathbreaking archaeological ethnography of food in a region of West Africa that has experienced some of the most cataclysmic sociopolitical upheavals the world has ever seen. Amanda Logan dismantles the dominant narrative that Columbian Exchange crop introductions rescued a continent long shaped by hunger. This brilliant study elevates archaeology’s contributions to African food history and food insecurity studies.” JUDITH CARNEY, author of In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa’s Botanical Legacy in the Atlantic World “The Scarcity Slot is an accessible, empirically grounded history demonstrating for students of Africa’s futures the urgent need to understand her pasts.” KATHRYN M. DE LUNA, Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor, Georgetown University “A radical shift from the old ways of doing the archaeology of diet, this book breaks ground for a new food archaeology. A truly innovative and exciting work and a convincing antidote to the popular image of Africa as a continent of famine.” RICHARD WILK, Distinguished Professor and Provost’s Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Indiana Universit

The introduction of the TMPG fails charge for U.S. Treasury securities

The TMPG fails charge for U.S. Treasury securities provides that a buyer of Treasury securities can claim monetary compensation from the seller if the seller fails to deliver the securities on a timely basis. The charge was introduced in May 2009 and replaced an existing market convention of simply postponing—without any explicit penalty and at an unchanged invoice price—a seller’s obligation to deliver Treasury securities if the seller fails to deliver the securities on a scheduled settlement date. This article explains how a proliferation of settlement fails following the insolvency of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008 led the Treasury Market Practices Group (TMPG)—a group of market professionals committed to supporting the integrity and efficiency of the U.S. Treasury market—to promote a change in the existing market convention. The change—the introduction of the fails charge—was significant because it mitigated an important dysfunctionality in the secondary market for U.S. Treasury securities and because it stands as an example of the value of cooperation between the public and private sectors in responding to altered market conditions in a flexible, timely, and innovative fashion.Treasury bonds ; Government securities ; Clearing of securities ; Secondary markets

Rapid Response of an Academic Surgical Department to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications for Patients, Surgeons, and the Community.

BackgroundAs the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to spread, swift actions and preparation are critical for ensuring the best outcomes for patients and providers. We aim to describe our hospital and Department of Surgery's experience in preparing for the COVID-19 pandemic and caring for surgical patients during this unprecedented time.Study designThis is a descriptive study outlining the strategy of a single academic health system for addressing the following 4 critical issues facing surgical departments during the COVID-19 pandemic: developing a cohesive leadership team and system for frequent communication throughout the department; ensuring adequate hospital capacity to care for an anticipated influx of COVID-19 patients; safeguarding supplies of blood products and personal protective equipment to protect patients and providers; and preparing for an unstable workforce due to illness and competing personal priorities, such as childcare.ResultsThrough collaborative efforts within the Department of Surgery and hospital, we provided concise and regular communication, reduced operating room volume by 80%, secured a 4-week supply of personal protective equipment, and created reduced staffing protocols with back-up staffing plans.ConclusionsBy developing an enabling infrastructure, a department can nimbly respond to crises like COVID-19 by promoting trust among colleagues and emphasizing an unwavering commitment to excellent patient care. Sharing principles and practical applications of these changes is important to optimize responses across the country and the world

Amanda Toney-Logan and Myrtis Sullivan

The primary subject of this joint interview is the founding of the Iota Zeta Chapter of the national service fraternity Delta Sigma Theta. Logan served as first Vice President and Dean of Pledges. Logan and Sullivan also discuss the group\u27s activities on campus and their thoughts on the reason the IWU chapter closed. The two friends also recount their recent efforts in getting the chapter restarted and tell stories about the connections they made in life because of their Iota Zeta friendships.Other topics include dorm and social life, short term and the cost of tuition. They discuss IWU\u27s small town setting, the curriculum and the effect both had on nurturing their friendships and influencing their world views. Toney-Logan and Sullivan express their hope for future students finding out about their work through this interview and the Iota Zeta records and scrapbook donated by soror Cheryl Portwood (RG 11-5/1/4 and 18-8/5) as a means for encouraging interest in DST today

Stakeholder Engagement through Participatory Action Research at iSPARC

The Implementation Science & Practice-based Advances Research Center (iSPARC) is a new DMH-funded collaborative effort between the former Systems and Psychosocial Advances Research Center, Quantitative Health Sciences and Boston University\u27s Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation. With 52 core and affiliate investigators, iSPARC features five interacting programs: Stakeholder Engagement, Public Mental Health and Implementation Research, Technical Assistance and Consultation, Workforce Development, and External Funding. The mission of the Stakeholder Engagement Program is to lead the mental health research community and beyond in working in partnership with individuals with lived mental health experience, their families, and the agencies that serve them. This program intersects with several of iSPARC\u27s activities. It includes three active advisory groups with more than 20 members representing youth, individuals with lived mental health experience, and family members. These advisory groups adopt a participatory action research (PAR) approach and seek to engage community stakeholders at every stage of research, from development through enrollment and dissemination. Starting in 2018, the Stakeholder Program will seek to increase engagement and diversity through several additional initiatives. A new community provider advisory group is currently being developed and the Program is working to assess and assure diversity across all advisory groups. The Program will use a structured assessment tool and continuous quality improvement approach to measure and facilitate participatory action research across all iSPARC\u27s projects. The Program will develop and disseminate products to assist other organizations in initiating and maintaining stakeholder engagement. The proposed poster will summarize these activities and include examples of products created

Improving Admission Medication Reconciliation Completion at GW Hospital

Background: Medication errors represent a major cause of adverse events in hospitalized inpatients. 27-83% of hospitalized patients will have at least one discrepancy in their medication history at admission, with 11%–59% of errors having clinical importance. Current processes for completing admission medication reconciliations are ill-defined, further increasing the risk of errors. Implementation of a standardized medication reconciliation process has led to a reduction in medication errors. Aim Statement: To increase the number of admission medication reconciliations completed within 48 hours of admission to GW Hospital by 25% over three months. Methods: From September 2017 until December 2017, an educational intervention was delivered to internal medicine residents rotating on the wards at GW Hospital and refined over three PDSA cycles. The intervention included an educational presentation on proper completion of an admission medication reconciliation, given at resident noon conference and to the night float team, a video by hospitalists reinforcing principles of proper medication reconciliation, and creation of a signoff checklist to assess interns for proper completion of medication reconciliations. The number of properly completed admission medication reconciliations within 48 hours of admission for patients admitted to one general medicine day team and to the night float team was assessed. Completion was denoted by green checkmarks next to “Document Medications by History” and “Medication Admission Reconciliation” in Cerner. Data was collected for all new admissions every post-call day and was expanded to an additional daytime team with PDSA Cycle 3. Results: Baseline data revealed that admission medication reconciliations were completed on 20% and 77% of new admissions to the daytime and night float teams, respectively. Completion rates by the day team varied from 16% to 100%, but with a clear trend towards improvement with over 50% completed on the days reviewed. Little change was observed on the night admission team. Expanded data from the additional daytime team showed improved completion rate. Discussion: Our study demonstrated that early provider education, adherence to a standardized process, and reinforced education are ways of improving admission medication reconciliation completion. There was an overall increase in admission medication reconciliation completion in the daytime medicine team, but not in the night float team, likely owing to the more frequent turnover of night float residents. Data collection was expanded to a second daytime medicine team and is ongoing with possible extension to all medicine wards teams. Limitations include provider turnover throughout our interventions, the inability to assess accuracy of completed medication reconciliations, and the varying experience with admission medication reconciliation completion among providers. Future interventions include education at intern orientation, reinforced with successful completion of a signoff checklist, and involvement of pharmacists

Analyzing the Effects of Climate Change on Sea Surface Temperature in Monitoring Coral Reef Health in the Florida Keys Using Sea Surface Temperature Data

This presentation discusses use of 4 kilometer satellite-based sea surface temperature (SST) data to monitor and assess coral reef areas of the Florida Keys. There are growing concerns about the impacts of climate change on coral reef systems throughout the world. Satellite remote sensing technology is being used for monitoring coral reef areas with the goal of understanding the climatic and oceanic changes that can lead to coral bleaching events. Elevated SST is a well-documented cause of coral bleaching events. Some coral monitoring studies have used 50 km data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) to study the relationships of sea surface temperature anomalies to bleaching events. In partnership with NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries and the University of South Florida's Institute for Marine Remote Sensing, this project utilized higher resolution SST data from the Terra's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and AVHRR. SST data for 2000-2010 was employed to compute sea surface temperature anomalies within the study area. The 4 km SST anomaly products enabled visualization of SST levels for known coral bleaching events from 2000-2010