Prescriptions for Produce: An intervention with nutrition education, cooking instruction and produce vouchers to increase fruit and vegetable consumption.

In this pilot study, we evaluated the feasibility of nutrition education, cooking instruction and produce vouchers for pregnant low income mothers to increase fruit and vegetable consumption. Participants were first trimester pregnant mothers receiving prenatal care at a local Federally Qualified Health Clinic (FQHC) in San Antonio. They attended a grocery shopping tour and cooking class conducted by a registered dietitian, focusing incorporating fruit and vegetables into meals, and a monthly $40 voucher, redeemable for fruit and vegetables. Mothers with high menu planning and grocery shopping skills and more fruit at home reported higher fruit intakes. Mothers with high grocery shopping skills reported higher vegetable intakes. Compared to baseline, the reported home availability of fruit, and fruit and vegetable intakes were significantly improved at post 1; fruit and vegetable home availability, menu planning and grocery shopping skills, and fruit and vegetable intakes were significantly higher at post 2

Discrimination against Mixed-Status Families and its Health Impact on Latino Children

Background and Objective: Restrictive immigration policies and discrimination are associated with negative health outcomes for immigrant and Latino families. Mixed-status families represent a unique subpopulation of Latinos affected by restrictive immigration policies. This qualitative study explored discrimination against mixed-status families and its potential health impact on Latino children from the perspective of Latina mothers. Methods: In 2017, twenty in-depth interviews with Latina mothers of mixed-status families living in northwestern North Carolina were conducted, transcribed, and analyzed. Constant comparison, an approach to grounded theory development, was used. Results: Nine themes emerged that reflected experiences with discrimination and its negative impact on children. Themes included more frequent and severe discrimination during and after the 2016 US presidential election, determination to stay together and remain in the US, experiences of discrimination in multiple settings, the impact of discrimination on child health and well-being, the impact of fear and stress on meeting the needs of children, the burden on children serving as liaisons between families and services, the inability of citizenship to protect against the effects of discrimination, positive and hopeful responses to discrimination, and the potential role of education in building a foundation for reducing discrimination (and thus promoting the health and well-being of Latino children) in the future. Conclusions: Discrimination against mixed-status Latino families constitutes a critical threat to the health and well-being of Latino children. Further research should inform immigration policies that support (rather than threaten) the health, well-being, and health care practices that mitigate the stresses experienced by Latino children

Lessons learned in practice-based research: Studying language interventions for young children in the real world

© The Author(s) 2020. Background and aims: Practice-based research holds potential as a promising solution to closing the research-practice gap, because it addresses research questions based on problems that arise in clinical practice and tests whether systems and interventions are effective and sustainable in a clinical setting. One type of practice-based research involves capturing practice by collecting evidence within clinical settings to evaluate the effectiveness of current practices. Here, we describe our collaboration between researchers and clinicians that sought to answer clinician-driven questions about community-based language interventions for young children (Are our interventions effective? What predicts response to our interventions?) and to address questions about the characteristics, strengths, and challenges of engaging in practice-based research. Methods: We performed a retrospective chart review of 59 young children who had participated in three group language interventions at one publicly funded community clinic between 2012 and 2017. Change on the Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six (FOCUS), a government mandated communicative participation measure, was extracted as the main outcome measure. Potential predictors of growth during intervention were also extracted from the charts, including type of intervention received, attendance, age at the start of intervention, functional communication ability pre-intervention, and time between pre- and post-intervention FOCUS scores. Results: Overall, 49% of children demonstrated meaningful clinical change on the FOCUS after their participation in the language groups. Only 3% of participants showed possibly meaningful clinical change, while the remaining 46% of participants demonstrated not likely meaningful clinical change. There were no significant predictors of communicative participation growth during intervention. Conclusions: Using a practice-based research approach aimed at capturing current practice, we were able to answer questions about the effectiveness of interventions delivered in real-world settings and learn about factors that do not appear to influence growth during these interventions. We also learned about benefits associated with engaging in practice-based research, including high clinical motivation, high external validity, and minimal time/cost investment. Challenges identified were helpful in informing our future efforts to examine other possible predictors through development of a new, clinically feasible checklist, and to pursue methods for improving collection of outcome data in the clinical setting. Implications: Clinicians and researchers can successfully collaborate to answer clinically informed research questions while considering realistic clinical practice and using research-informed methods and principles. Practice-based research partnerships between researchers and clinicians are both valuable and feasible

Facial recognition from DNA using face-to-DNA classifiers

Facial recognition from DNA refers to the identification or verification of unidentified biological material against facial images with known identity. One approach to establish the identity of unidentified biological material is to predict the face from DNA, and subsequently to match against facial images. However, DNA phenotyping of the human face remains challenging. Here, another proof of concept to biometric authentication is established by using multiple face-to-DNA classifiers, each classifying given faces by a DNA-encoded aspect (sex, genomic background, individual genetic l

Violence perpetration and childhood abuse among men and women in substance abuse treatment

Abstract Despite an association between violence perpetration and substance use, the characteristics associated with violence among patients in treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs) are not well documented. Data were gathered from a national sample of men (n = 4,459) and women (n = 1,774) entering SUD treatment on history of violence perpetration, exposure to childhood physical abuse (CPA) and childhood sexual abuse (CSA), and reasons for entering treatment. Rates of violence perpetration were high (72% of men, 50% of women), and violence was associated with being referred by family members, prior SUD treatment, CPA, and CSA. In multivariate analyses, CPA was a significant correlate of violence perpetration across gender; however, CSA was only significant among women. Findings highlight the need for increased screening and treatment of violence perpetration among patients with SUD and suggest that CSA may be an important correlate of violence perpetration among women. Published by Elsevier Inc

Deforestation projections imply range-wide population decline for critically endangered Bornean orangutan

Assessing where wildlife populations are at risk from future habitat loss is particularly important for land-use planning and avoiding biodiversity declines. Combining projections of future deforestation with species density information provides an improved way to anticipate such declines. Using the critically endangered Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) as a case study we applied a spatio-temporally explicit deforestation model to forest loss data from 2001-2017 and projected future impacts on orangutans to the 2030s. Our projections point to continued deforestation across the island, amounting to a potential loss of forest habitat for 26,200 orangutans. Populations currently persisting in forests gazetted for industrial timber and oil palm concessions, or unprotected forests outside of concessions, were projected to experience the worst losses within the next 15 years, amounting to 15,400 individuals. Our analysis indicates the importance of protecting orangutan habitat in plantation landscapes, maintaining protected areas and efforts to prevent the conversion of logged forests for the survival of highly vulnerable wildlife. The modeling framework could be expanded to other species with available density or occurrence data. Our findings highlight that species conservation should not only act on the current information, but also anticipate future changes to be effective