CULTURAL HUMILITY: RACIAL DISPARITY AND DISPROPORTIONALITY HOW IT RELATES TO CHILD WELFARE AND MANDATED REPORTER TRAINING AND PREPAREDNESS

The research problem was mandated reporters’ in a public assistance setting and child welfare social workers’ perception of cultural humility and cultural training. The research proposed that the lack of cultural humility training for both mandated reporters in public social service sectors and child welfare social workers has an impact of on the disparity and disproportionality in child welfare cases. A critical theory approach was adopted, and qualitative data was collected via face-to-face interviews. A snowball sampling strategy was used to select study participants. Study findings suggested that there is a cultural humility training provided to child welfare social workers, but it may lack substance and frequency, leaving the social workers feeling disengaged with their clients and community networks. The study also found that there is no training available to mandated reporters in public social services on cultural preparedness and awareness. This raises issues and implications for services to the clients. It is also suggested there may be a connection between the mandated reporter’s hesitation when igniting their responsibility as a mandated reporter to report suspected abuse and their level of preparedness and understanding of cultural humility. All information found through the interviews and the common themes have been shared with both mandated reporters in a public social service setting and child welfare social workers encouraging them to act and advocate for additional training to improve practice and service. Copies of the research data will be made available to all Southern California inland counties to raise awareness of the current concerns. Suggestions are to be given to these inland counties regarding additional trainings and cultural humility and cultural awareness practices

Impact of Social Capital on Employment and Marriage among Low Income Single Mothers

The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA, P. L. 104-93) called primarily on women to achieve two goals: work and/or marriage. For low income single mothers with limited access to capital, the PRWORA presents a quagmire in that the public safety nets previously guaranteed by the policies of the New Deal were abruptly supplanted by policies with obligations that require various forms of capital. Using longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing dataset, we examine the impact of social capital on the chances of marriage and employment among single, unemployed mothers. We find that social capital increases a woman\u27s chances of both marriage and stable employment, but the social capital must be expansive in order to challenge significant social disadvantage. We conclude with a discussion of the importance of social capital as a precursor to upward social mobility for low income mothers as opposed to simply getting \u27off of welfare.\u2

Cdc25 and Wee1: analogous opposites?

Movement through the cell cycle is controlled by the temporally and spatially ordered activation of cyclin-dependent kinases paired with their respective cyclin binding partners. Cell cycle events occur in a stepwise fashion and are monitored by molecular surveillance systems to ensure that each cell cycle process is appropriately completed before subsequent events are initiated. Cells prevent entry into mitosis while DNA replication is ongoing, or if DNA is damaged, via checkpoint mechanisms that inhibit the activators and activate the inhibitors of mitosis, Cdc25 and Wee1, respectively. Once DNA replication has been faithfully completed, Cdc2/Cyclin B is swiftly activated for a timely transition from interphase into mitosis. This sharp transition is propagated through both positive and negative feedback loops that impinge upon Cdc25 and Wee1 to ensure that Cdc2/Cyclin B is fully activated. Recent reports from a number of laboratories have revealed a remarkably complex network of kinases and phosphatases that coordinately control Cdc25 and Wee1, thereby precisely regulating the transition into mitosis. Although not all factors that inhibit Cdc25 have been shown to activate Wee1 and vice versa, a number of regulatory modules are clearly shared in common. Thus, studies on either the Cdc25 or Wee1-regulatory arm of the mitotic control pathway should continue to shed light on how both arms are coordinated to smoothly regulate mitotic entry

Intraorbital neuromuscular choristoma adjacent to the optic nerve

AbstractNeuromuscular choristoma is a rare tumor that incorporates mature skeletal muscle within fascicles of peripheral nerve. The etiology is poorly understood, yet most present in large nerves of children, with a tight link to post-operative fibromatosis recently appreciated. Herein, we report an exceptional intra-orbital example in a 53-year-old man with optic nerve compression

Evaluation of Rapid Syphilis Testing Using the Syphilis Health Check in Florida, 2015–2016

The Syphilis Health Check (SHC) had low estimated specificity (91.5%) in one Florida county. We investigated use of SHC by a range of Florida publicly-funded programs between 2015 and 2016 to estimate specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), field staff acceptance, and impacts on programmatic outcomes. All reported SHC results were extracted from routinely collected program data. Field staff were surveyed about SHC’s utility. Analyses investigated differences between SHC and traditional syphilis testing outcomes. Of 3,630 SHC results reported, 442 were reactive; 92 (20.8%) had prior diagnoses of syphilis; 7 (1.6%) had no further testing. Of the remaining 343; 158 (46.0%) were confirmed cases, 168 (49.0%) were considered false-positive, and 17 (5.0%) were not cases but not clearly false-positive. Estimated specificity of SHC was 95.0%. Overall, 48.5% of positives became confirmed cases (PPV). PPV varied according to prevalence of syphilis in populations tested. Staff (90%) thought SHC helped identify new cases but expressed concern regarding discordance between reactive SHC and lab-based testing. Programmatic outcomes assessment showed shorter time to treatment and increased numbers of partners tested for the SHC group; these enhanced outcomes may better mitigate the spread of syphilis compared to traditional syphilis testing alone, but more research is needed

Primary Care Provider Perceptions of Colorectal Cancer Screening Barriers: Implications for Designing Quality Improvement Interventions

Aims. Colorectal cancer (CRC) screening is underutilized. Increasing CRC screening rates requires interventions targeting multiple barriers at each level of the healthcare organization (patient, provider, and system). We examined groups of primary care providers (PCPs) based on perceptions of screening barriers and the relationship to CRC screening rates to inform approaches for conducting barrier assessments prior to designing and implementing quality improvement interventions. Methods. We conducted a retrospective cohort study linking EHR and survey data. PCPs with complete survey responses for questions addressing CRC screening barriers were included (N=166 PCPs; 39,430 patients eligible for CRC screening). Cluster analysis identified groups of PCPs. Multivariate logistic regression estimated odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for predictors of membership in one of the PCP groups. Results. We found two distinct groups: (1) PCPs identifying multiple barriers to CRC screening at patient, provider, and system levels (N=75) and (2) PCPs identifying no major barriers to screening (N=91). PCPs in the top half of CRC screening performance were more likely to identify multiple barriers than the bottom performers (OR, 4.14; 95% CI, 2.43–7.08). Conclusions. High-performing PCPs can more effectively identify CRC screening barriers. Targeting high-performers when conducting a barrier assessment is a novel approach to assist in designing quality improvement interventions for CRC screening

Vertical structure use by the Stout Iguana (Cyclura pinguis) on Guana Island, BVI

The Stout Iguana (Cyclura pinguis) is a critically endangered species endemic to the Puerto Rico Bank and currently restricted to the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Our study on Guana Island, BVI, focused on vertical structure use by adult (n = 4) and juvenile (n = 11) iguanas with tracking bobbins. We recorded structure types used, heights attained on structures, distances between structures, and structure sizes. We found that Stout Iguanas used vertical structure more than previously documented. Trees comprised a significantly greater (P <  0.001) proportion of structures used by juveniles than by adults, whereas rocks comprised the greatest proportion of structures used by adults. In addition to differential structure use, juveniles climbed significantly higher (2.4 vs. 0.9 m on average; P < 0.001) than adults. We found no difference in the diameter or distance between structures used by adults and juveniles. Our results suggest that vertical structure use may be an important habitat element for free-ranging juvenile Stout Iguanas. Habitat management that provides vertical structure may be advantageous for the conservation of this species

Mid-to-Late M Dwarfs Lack Jupiter Analogs

Cold Jovian planets play an important role in sculpting the dynamical environment in which inner terrestrial planets form. The core accretion model predicts that giant planets cannot form around low-mass M dwarfs, although this idea has been challenged by recent planet discoveries. Here, we investigate the occurrence rate of giant planets around low-mass (0.1-0.3M$_\odot$) M dwarfs. We monitor a volume-complete, inactive sample of 200 such stars located within 15 parsecs, collecting four high-resolution spectra of each M dwarf over six years and performing intensive follow-up monitoring of two candidate radial-velocity variables. We use TRES on the 1.5 m telescope at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory and CHIRON on the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory 1.5 m telescope for our primary campaign, and MAROON-X on Gemini North for high-precision follow-up. We place a 95%-confidence upper limit of 1.5% (68%-confidence limit of 0.57%) on the occurrence of $M_{\rm P}$sin$i >$1M$_{\rm J}$ giant planets out to the water snow line and provide additional constraints on the giant planet population as a function of $M_{\rm P}$sin$i$ and period. Beyond the snow line ($100$ K $< T_{\rm eq} < 150$ K), we place 95%-confidence upper limits of 1.5%, 1.7%, and 4.4% (68%-confidence limits of 0.58%, 0.66%, and 1.7%) for 3M$_{\rm J} < M_{\rm P}$sin$i < 10$M$_{\rm J}$, 0.8M$_{\rm J} < M_{\rm P}$sin$i < 3$M$_{\rm J}$, and 0.3M$_{\rm J} < M_{\rm P}$sin$i < 0.8$M$_{\rm J}$ giant planets; i.e., Jupiter analogs are rare around low-mass M dwarfs. In contrast, surveys of Sun-like stars have found that their giant planets are most common at these Jupiter-like instellations.Comment: Accepted for publication in AJ; 19 pages, 5 figures, 2 table

KELT-1b: A Strongly Irradiated, Highly Inflated, Short Period, 27 Jupiter-mass Companion Transiting a mid-F Star

We present the discovery of KELT-1b, the first transiting low-mass companion from the wide-field Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope-North (KELT-North) survey. The V=10.7 primary is a mildly evolved, solar-metallicity, mid-F star. The companion is a low-mass brown dwarf or super-massive planet with mass of 27.23+/-0.50 MJ and radius of 1.110+0.037-0.024 RJ, on a very short period (P=1.21750007) circular orbit. KELT-1b receives a large amount of stellar insolation, with an equilibrium temperature assuming zero albedo and perfect redistribution of 2422 K. Upper limits on the secondary eclipse depth indicate that either the companion must have a non-zero albedo, or it must experience some energy redistribution. Comparison with standard evolutionary models for brown dwarfs suggests that the radius of KELT-1b is significantly inflated. Adaptive optics imaging reveals a candidate stellar companion to KELT-1, which is consistent with an M dwarf if bound. The projected spin-orbit alignment angle is consistent with zero stellar obliquity, and the vsini of the primary is consistent with tidal synchronization. Given the extreme parameters of the KELT-1 system, we expect it to provide an important testbed for theories of the emplacement and evolution of short-period companions, and theories of tidal dissipation and irradiated brown dwarf atmospheres.Comment: 30 pages, 19 figures. Submitted to Ap