A holistic examination of the impact of child maltreatment on child behavioral outcomes : a longitudinal multilevel analysis.

Child maltreatment touches almost 700,000 children annually. The effects of child maltreatment range from micro-level consequences, such as behavior problems and mental health issues, to mezzo-level consequences, such as increased child welfare worker caseloads and overcrowding residential facilities, to macro-level consequences, such as increased costs and policy implications. Data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) were analyzed to examine the factors that impact child behavior in children who have been reported to child protective services (CPS) as a result of child maltreatment. The model investigated the influence of child, caregiver, and environmental factors on child behavior problems over six years among a nationally representative sample of children age 2-18. Methods: A longitudinal multivariate multilevel model was estimated utilizing MLwiN with a three-level nested structure. The model examined individual differences in 4,997 child behavior problems over six years, testing both time-variant and time-invariant predictors measured during four time periods. Results: Following the estimation of six multivariate multilevel models, results indicated several statistically significant predictors at the child level (i.e., gender, race, age, social skills, maltreatment type, exposure to violence, physical and cognitive health), caregiver level (i.e., age, education, marital status, number of children in the home, number of changes in caregivers, permanent caregiver, physical health, domestic violence, social support, and perception of neighborhood), and environmental-level (i.e., percentage of single parents, access to social services, percentage of white population) on at least one of the dependent variables. Additionally, interaction effects were tested and a few proved to be statistically significant predictors of child behavior problems as well. Conclusions: Children differ in terms of how they respond to maltreatment and other life events or situations. It is imperative that interventions be individualized to target specific issues and reduce specific behavior problems. Results indicated that improving child social skills and increasing caregiver social support may be key in reducing child behavior problems. Both practice and policy implications are discussed as well as recommendations for future research

Comparative Serological and Molecular Analysis of Group VIII \u3cem\u3eSpiroplasma\u3c/em\u3e from Australia and North America

Spiroplasma bacteria (Mollicutes: Spiroplasmataceae) are characterized by motility, helical morphology and are most frequently found in insect guts and phloem tubes of plants. Traditionally, Spiroplasma have been classified by serology. Recent work has generated 16S rDNA sequences that generally correlate with the serological findings. Although the serology and the 16S rDNA sequence analysis clearly classifies strains to the group level, they do not distinguish between strains within the same group. The goal of this project was to investigate the utility of the 16S-23S rDNA intergenic spacer region sequence as a means to distinguish these closely related strains. We chose Group VIII strains for this analysis because they were not separated by 16S rDNA analysis. We generated 16S-23S rDNA intergenic sequence and detailed serological profiles for eight Group VIII spiroplasmas isolated from North American and Australian horse flies. Within 293 nucleotides of 16S-23S rDNA intergenic spacer region, there was 96% identity among the eight strains. The sequence analysis grouped the strains into 3 main clusters, with the type strains Spiroplasma chrysopicola, S. syrphidicola, and TAAS-1 and BARC2649 each falling in to a different cluster. The phylogenetic analysis did not correlate precisely with the detailed serology. In addition, the phylogenetic groups did not correspond with geographic or host diversity

Child Sexual Abuse and the Impact of Rurality on Foster Care Outcomes: An Exploratory Analysis

Given the cost of long-term foster care placement in both human and economic terms, few studies have specifically explored if any factors help to predict why this vulnerable population spends significantly more time in foster care. The overarching goal of this exploratory study was to use binary logistic regression to investigate whether any child demographic or environmental characteristics predicted the discharge of a child placed in Kentucky\u27s foster care system for child sexual abuse. Results indicated that children in the most rural areas of the state were over 10 times more likely to be discharged from foster care during the federal fiscal year than those residing in the most urban areas. Given this stark reality, a focus must be allocated in understanding this phenomenon. Future research must examine whether the results speak to the necessity of systematic improvement in urban areas or if they are illustrating a unique strength found in rural areas

Athy College and the Garda station plaque 1922 A TY art installation for Kildare Decade of Commemorations

This article describes an art installation in Athy, Co. Kildare created by transition year students of Athy College to commemorate their school’s connection with the centenary of the casting of the first Garda station plaques in 1922 in the Duthie. Large Foundry, Chapel Street Athy. The installation was unveiled on 14 May 2022 on the original foundry site supported by a grant from Kildare County Council’s Decade of Commemorations and mentored by staff of Technological University Dublin. It is included here in Level3 to celebrate fruitful and sustainable collaboration among academia, schools, local knowledge-holders, local public representatives, Gardaí and heritage enthusiasts

Controlling a spillover pathway with the molecular cork effect

Spillover of reactants from one active site to another is important in heterogeneous catalysis and has recently been shown to enhance hydrogen storage in a variety of materials. The spillover of hydrogen is notoriously hard to detect or control. We report herein that the hydrogen spillover pathway on a Pd/Cu alloy can be controlled by reversible adsorption of a spectator molecule. Pd atoms in the Cu surface serve as hydrogen dissociation sites from which H atoms can spillover onto surrounding Cu regions. Selective adsorption of CO at these atomic Pd sites is shown to either prevent the uptake of hydrogen on, or inhibit its desorption from, the surface. In this way, the hydrogen coverage on the whole surface can be controlled by molecular adsorption at a minority site, which we term a ‘molecular cork’ effect. We show that the molecular cork effect is present during a surface catalysed hydrogenation reaction and illustrate how it can be used as a method for controlling uptake and release of hydrogen in a model storage syste

Dashboards for visual display of patient safety data: A systematic review

Background Methods to visualise patient safety data can support effective monitoring of safety events and discovery of trends. While quality dashboards are common, use and impact of dashboards to visualise patient safety event data remains poorly understood. Objectives To understand development, use and direct or indirect impacts of patient safety dashboards. Methods We conducted a systematic review in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. We searched PubMed, EMBASE and CINAHL for publications between 1 January 1950 and 30 August 2018 involving use of dashboards to display data related to safety targets defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Patient Safety Net. Two reviewers independently reviewed search results for inclusion in analysis and resolved disagreements by consensus. We collected data on development, use and impact via standardised data collection forms and analysed data using descriptive statistics. Results Literature search identified 4624 results which were narrowed to 33 publications after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria and consensus across reviewers. Publications included only time series and case study designs and were inpatient focused and emergency department focused. Information on direct impact of dashboards was limited, and only four studies included informatics or human factors principles in development or postimplementation evaluation. Discussion Use of patient-safety dashboards has grown over the past 15 years, but impact remains poorly understood. Dashboard design processes rarely use informatics or human factors principles to ensure that the available content and navigation assists task completion, communication or decision making. Conclusion Design and usability evaluation of patient safety dashboards should incorporate informatics and human factors principles. Future assessments should also rigorously explore their potential to support patient safety monitoring including direct or indirect impact on patient safety

Revisiting Soil C and N Sampling: Quantitative Pits vs. Rotary Cores

Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide and its feedbacks with global climate have sparked renewed interest in quantifying ecosystem carbon (C) budgets, including quantifying belowground pools. Belowground nutrient budgets require accurate estimates of soil mass, coarse fragment content, and nutrient concentrations. It has long been thought that the most accurate measurement of soil mass and coarse fragment content has come from excavating quantitative soil pits. However, this methodology is labor intensive and time consuming. We propose that diamond-tipped rotary cores are an acceptable if not superior alternative to quantitative soil pits for the measurement of soil mass, coarse fragment content, C and total nitrogen (N) concentrations. We tested the rotary core methodology against traditional quantitative pits at research sites in California, Nevada, and New York. We found that soil cores had 16% higher estimates of less than 2-mm soil mass than estimates obtained from quantitative pits. Conversely, soil cores had 8% lower estimates of coarse fragment mass compared with quantitative pits. There were no statistical differences in measured C or N concentrations between the two methods. At the individual site level, differences in estimates for the two methods were more pronounced, but there was no consistent tendency for cores to overestimate or underestimate a soil parameter when compared with quantitative pits

Machine learning outperforms clinical experts in classification of hip fractures

Hip fractures are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the elderly, and incur high health and social care costs. Given projected population ageing, the number of incident hip fractures is predicted to increase globally. As fracture classification strongly determines the chosen surgical treatment, differences in fracture classification influence patient outcomes and treatment costs. We aimed to create a machine learning method for identifying and classifying hip fractures, and to compare its performance to experienced human observers. We used 3659 hip radiographs, classified by at least two expert clinicians. The machine learning method was able to classify hip fractures with 19% greater accuracy than humans, achieving overall accuracy of 92%