Recruitment, Retention, and Future Direction for a Heart Health Education and Risk Reduction Intervention Led by Community Health Workers in an African American Majority City

Heart disease is a leading cause of death for African Americans. A community-academic partnership cross-trained community health workers to engage African American adults in a 6-month heart health education and risk reduction intervention. We conducted a one-group feasibility study using a one group (pre-posttest) design. A total of 100 adults were recruited from 27 zip codes in an African American majority city through community-based organizations (46%), churches (36%), and home visits (12%). Ninety-six percent were African American; 55% were female, 39% were male, and 6% were transgender. Their mean age was 44.6 years (SD=15.9). Ninety-two percent had health insurance. Seventy-six percent of participants averaged blood pressure (BP) readings\u3e130/80 mmHg. Eleven percent of participants had a 30% or higher probability of developing cardiovascular disease in the next 10 years. Six-month follow-up was completed with 96% of participants. There were statistically significant increases in knowledge and in perception of personal risk for heart disease. However, slightly more participants (n=77, 80.2%) had BP\u3e130/80 mmHg. The Community Advisory Group recommended expanding the intervention to 12 months and incorporating telehealth with home BP monitoring. Limited intervention duration did not meet longer term objectives such as better control of high BP and sharing risk reduction planning with primary care providers

WinMS: Wireless Sensor Network-Management System, An Adaptive Policy-Based Management for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks are highly dynamic, prone to faults, and typically deployed in remote and harsh conditions. We propose WinMS, an adaptive policy-based sensor network management system that provides self-management for maintaining the performance of the network and achieving effective networked node operations without human intervention. WinMS adapts to changing network conditions by allowing the network to reconfigure itself according to current events as well as predicting future events. WinMS architecture consists of a schedule-driven MAC protocol that collects and disseminates management data, to and from sensor nodes in a data gathering tree, a local network management scheme that provides autonomy for individual sensor nodes to perform management functions according to their neighborhood network states, and a central network management scheme that uses the central manager with a global knowledge of the network to reliably execute corrective and preventive management maintenance. WinMS proposes a novel management function, called systematic resource transfer, that allows time slots (resources) from one part of the network to be transferred to another part. This paper presents analysis and simulation results of the proposed function, showing that it supports non-uniform and reactive sensing in different parts of a network

LTB4 increases nasal neutrophil activity and conditions neutrophils to exert antiviral effects.

BACKGROUND: Leukotriene B4 (LTB4) recruits and activates neutrophils. Accordingly, this leukotriene is involved in innate defense actions. OBJECTIVE: To examine if nasal LTB4 can produce neutrophil activity and to explore whether or not LTB4 can condition neutrophils to exert virucidal effects in vitro and in vivo. METHODS: 1. Twenty-three healthy subjects received nasal LTB4 in a randomized and sham-controlled design. Symptoms were scored and nasal lavages carried out. Myeloperoxidase (MPO) and α-defensins were monitored as indices of neutrophil activity. IL-8, eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) and α(2)-macroglobulin were measured as indices of pro-inflammatory cytokine production, eosinophil activity, and plasma exudation. 2. Supernatants from neutrophils activated by LTB4 in vitro were assayed for virucidal activity against respiratory viruses. 3. In 38 healthy individuals, nasal inoculation with human rhinovirus-16 (HRV-16) was performed. In a preliminary study, intervention with LTB4 was given in a randomized and controlled design. Symptoms, virus replication, and antibody-titres were monitored. RESULTS: 1. LTB4 produced statistically significant increases in MPO and α-defensins, whereas IL-8, ECP, and α(2)-macroglobulin were unaffected. 2. The supernatants efficiently killed human coronavirus, respiratory syncytial virus, and influenza B virus. 3. HRV-16 replication was lower in subjects receiving LTB4, but this difference failed to reach statistical significance. Common cold symptoms and incidence of seroconversion were unaffected. CONCLUSION: Nasal LTB4 induces a selective recruitment/activation of neutrophils. LTB4 can condition neutrophils to exert virucidal effects in vitro and may reduce virus replication in vivo. We suggest that the condition induced by LTB4 reflects an enhanced state of innate defense