Moving from Inaction to Action: Challenging Homo- and Transphobia in Middle School English Language Arts

What happens when teachers have opportunities to engage in LGBTQ-affirming practices but choose not to? In the following paper, the authors present a vignette from a middle school context and consider ways to challenge silences to support LGBTQ students in middle school English classrooms. The authors provide discussion and resources to help teachers engage in LGBTQ affirming practices with middle school students

Injustice perceptions about pain: parent–child discordance is associated with worse functional outcomes

Pain is experienced within and influenced by social environments. For children with chronic pain, the child–parent relationship and parental beliefs about pain are particularly important and may influence pain outcomes. Pain-related injustice perceptions have recently been identified as an important cognitive–emotional factor for children with pain. The current study aimed to better understand the pain-related injustice perceptions of children with chronic pain and their parents. The sample consisted of 253 pediatric chronic pain patients (mean age = 14.1 years, 74% female) presenting to a tertiary pain clinic. Patients completed measures of pain intensity, pain-related injustice perceptions, stress, functional disability, and quality of life. Parents completed a measure of pain-related injustice perceptions about their child's pain. Child–parent dyads were categorized into 1 of 4 categories based on the degree of concordance or discordance between their scores on the injustice measures. One-way analysis of variances examined differences in pain intensity, stress, functional disability, and quality of life across the 4 dyad categories. Our findings indicated that both the degree (concordant vs discordant) and direction (discordant low child–high parent vs discordant high child–low parent) of similarity between child and parent injustice perceptions were associated with child-reported pain intensity, stress, functional disability, and quality of life. The poorest outcomes were reported when children considered their pain as highly unjust, but their parents did not. These findings highlight the important role of parents in the context of pain-related injustice perceptions in pediatric chronic pain

Evidence for a strong 19.5 Hz flux oscillation in Swift BAT and Fermi GBM gamma-ray data from GRB 211211A

The gamma-ray burst (GRB) GRB~211211A is believed to have occurred due to the merger of two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole, despite its duration of more than a minute. Subsequent analysis has revealed numerous interesting properties including the possible presence of a $\sim 22$~Hz quasiperiodic oscillation (QPO) during precursor emission. Here we perform timing analysis of Fermi and Swift gamma-ray data on GRB~211211A and, although we do not find a strong QPO during the precursor, we do find an extremely significant 19.5~Hz flux oscillation, which has higher fractional amplitude at higher energies, in a $\sim 0.2$~second segment beginning $\sim 1.6$~seconds after the start of the burst. After presenting our analysis we discuss possible mechanisms for the oscillation.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, 2 table

Development and testing of a multidimensional parent reported outcome measure for common presenting complaints of infancy: the UK infant questionnaire.

Objectives: Patient reported outcome measures are recognized as important and valuable tools to monitor patient progress in healthcare. It is fundamental to clinical practice to understand whether the treated patient has improved or not. Despite the highest use of outpatient healthcare among all pediatric age groups, no age-appropriate outcome measures are available for the infant. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop and test a new infant outcomes instrument for the most common presenting complaints of infancy. Methods: This was a multi-phase study designed to develop a questionnaire using maternal interviews and to test it for reliability and validity for use in well child clinical practice. After collecting the mother’s views, grounded theory and content analysis were used to derive themes and domains for the questionnaire. After achieving face validity, the instrument was evaluated for test-retest reliability, homogeneity and concurrent criterion validity. Subjects comprised a convenience sample of mothers who presented their infants to a university-affiliated chiropractic teaching clinic on the south coast of England. Results: Maternal interviews revealed mothers’ concerns about feeding, sleeping, crying and other aspects of infant activities of daily living resulting in construction of a 12 question instrument. The questionnaire showed excellent test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.96) and good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.8). In validity testing, ten questions showed positive correlation to a statistically significant degree against their established gold standard references. In all, 294 mother/infant dyads were involved in the research project. Conclusion: The UK Infant Questionnaire is the first parent reported outcome measure for use with the most common complaints of the infant patient based on maternal views. As such, this instrument meets the standard set by the UK National Health Service to involve the parent’s voice in their child’s care, and is therefore innovative in its field. Although further testing is indicated, and we make no claims that this instrument is comprehensive in all aspects of infant well-child care, it may be used by individual clinicians in routine daily practice to gain understanding of clinical progress of individual patients

Sentinel Case of Candida auris in the Western United States Following Prolonged Occult Colonization in a Returned Traveler from India.

Candida auris is an emerging multidrug-resistant yeast with high mortality. We report the sentinel C. auris case on the United States West Coast in a patient who relocated from India. We identified close phylogenetic relatedness to the South Asia clade and ERG11 Y132F and FKS1 S639Y mutations potentially explaining antifungal resistance

An Unconventional Collaboration at the College Level To Improve STEM Student Success

The purpose of this article is to illustrate the work that has resulted from a collaboration between a biology professor, a school psychology professor, a researcher in higher education access, and the writing programs director. The essential school psychologist role, as classroom observer and data analyzer, is discussed through an example of work done as part of a larger project focusing on student success and retention for at-risk populations in introductory college biology courses. Best practices for consulting at the college level are discussed and include: collaborate to cultivate the willing, collect and analyze data to sustain instructor involvement, and communicate and advocate. We hope that the model exemplified here might inspire future interdisciplinary collaborations that draw on school psychology expertise to design and conduct research

Simulated Winter Incubation of Soil With Swine Manure Differentially Affects Multiple Antimicrobial Resistance Elements

Gastrointestinal bacteria that harbor antibiotic resistance genes (ARG) become enriched with antibiotic use. Livestock manure application to cropland for soil fertility presents a concern that ARG and bacteria may proliferate and be transported in the environment. In the United States, manure applications typically occur during autumn with slow mineralization until spring planting season. A laboratory soil incubation study was conducted mimicking autumn swine manure application to soils with concentrations of selected ARG monitored during simulated 120-day winter incubation with multiple freeze-thaw events. Additionally, the effects of two soil moistures [10 and 30% water holding capacity (WHC)] and two manure treatments [raw versus hydrated lime alkaline stabilization (HLAS)] were assessed. Fourteen tetracycline resistance genes were evaluated; tet(D), tet(G), and tet(L) were detected in background soil while swine manure contained tet(A), tet(B), tet(C), tet(G), tet(M), tet(O), tet(Q), and tet(X). By day 120, the manure-borne tet(M) and tet(O) were still detected while tet(C), tet(D), tet(L), and tet(X) genes were detected less frequently. Other tet resistance genes were detected rarely, if at all. The sum of unique tet resistance genes among all treatments decreased during the incubation from an average of 8.9 to 3.8 unique tet resistance genes. Four resistance elements, intI1, blactx−m−32, sul(I), erm(B), and 16s rRNA genes were measured using quantitative PCR. ARG abundances relative to 16S abundance were initially greater in the raw manure compared to background soil (−1.53 to −3.92 log abundance in manure; −4.02 to \u3c−6.7 log abundance in soil). In the mixed manure/soil, relative abundance of the four resistance elements decreased (0.87 to 1.94 log abundance) during the incubation largely because 16S rRNA genes increased by 1.21 log abundance. Throughout the incubation, the abundance of intI1, blactx−m−32, sul(I), and erm(B) per gram in soil amended with HLAS-treated manure was lower than in soil amended with raw manure. Under low initial soil moisture conditions, HLAS treatment reduced the abundance of intI1 and resulted in loss of blactx−m−32, sul(I), and erm(B)] compared to other treatment-moisture combinations. Although one might expect antibiotic resistance to be relatively unchanged after simulated winter manure application to soil, a variety of changes in diversity and relative abundance can be expected