Optimizing Learner Accessibility: Adding American Sign Language (ASL) and Text-to-Speech to Online Trainings

The Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) Training Program is located at the Eunice K. Shriver Center at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, MA. The CANS Training Program provides training and certification services for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS), MassHealth, Children\u27s Behavioral Health Initiative (CBHI). Massachusetts behavioral health providers are required to be CANS certified in order to see Medicaid insured children and youth under the age of 21. The CANS Training Program has trained and certified over 26,000 behavioral health providers throughout Massachusetts in the use of the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) tool. The Mass CANS on-line training and certification program is designed for clinicians who provide behavioral health services to Massachusetts children and youth under the age of 21. The abilities, learning styles, and primary language spoken among providers is quite diverse. The CANS Training program, committed to providing content accessible to people of all abilities, and has added American Sign Language (ASL) and Text-to-Speech capabilities throughout the online training. These additions to the CANS accessibility toolbox help clinicians of all abilities get the most out of their online training and certification experience. Users may use American Sign Language (ASL) insets or closed captions while using the training videos. We will discuss the recent addition of ASL interpretation and Text-To-Speech functionality to the web-based training; discuss important considerations when improving accessibility; demonstrate the features and discuss our results

Adversity in childhood – outcomes, risk and resilience.

Few topics can provoke as strong and emotive a response as the unfortunate, negative experiences that can happen to a child. The issue of adversity features regularly in literature, sociology, political discourse and in the media. The impact of adverse events on children and the understanding of how adversity happens has been a very influential area of work in psychology and health, and has generated a major body of research and theory. This report reviews the evidence and research on adversity in childhood, and considers some implications for front line practitioners who work with children and young people. This report begins with an overview of what is meant by adversity, and describes different types of adversity. It then looks at how single and multiple adverse experiences affect children differently; it examines the consequences of adversity and it considers how adverse events affect children throughout their lives. Some key facts and figures on different types of adversity are included. The report discusses the concept of resilience and considers how it can be promoted among children. While adversity may be caused by external structural factors that pose considerable challenges from a policy perspective (e.g. poverty), practitioners have a key role to play in promoting resilience. As it is challenging to make generalisations about different forms of adversity, the report focuses on three different examples in some detail. These examples are featured in this report as ‘Spotlights’. A short glossary of terms is included at the end of the report. This report contains a rapid review of the literature in the area of childhood adversity and how it affects children during their lives. It does not claim to be a systematic review or an exhaustive account, or indeed a review that covers all of the types of adversities that children, young people and families may experience. As this is an area of the literature that is both incredibly expansive and diverse, the report focuses on existing summaries, large-scale longitudinal studies and a smaller number of individual studies, where relevant. The appendices to the report include helpful frameworks, assessments, online resources and evidence-based and evidence-informed programmes which may be of interest to practitioners working with families, children and young people facing some form of adversity

Selecting phthalocyanine polymorphs using local chemical termination variations in copper iodide

Copper(I) iodide (CuI) thin films are employed as a structural templating layer for the growth of metal-free phthalocyanine (H2Pc) thin films. Structural polymorphs are observed in X-ray diffraction patterns when microcrystalline CuI films exhibiting copper and iodine terminated grains are used. Each polymorph is nucleated from a single termination, and distinctive crystallite morphologies are observed for each

Near infra-red luminescent osmium labelled gold nanoparticles for cellular imaging and singlet oxygen generation

Osmium(ii) complexes have attractive properties for potential theranostic agents given their anticancer activitiy, their redox potentials favourable for biological transformations within cancer cells and their luminescence in the near infrared (NIR) region. To achieve localised detection and delivery, gold nanoparticles (AuNP) provide an attractive scaffold to attach multiple luminescent agents on a single particle and provide a multimodal platform for detection and loaclaised delivery. We have developed 13 nm and 25 nm AuNP decorated with an osmium complex based on 1,10-phenantholine and surface active bipyridine ligands, OsPhenSS for live cell imaging and singlet oxygen generation, notated as OsPhenSS·AuNP13 and OsPhenSS·AuNP25. The AuNP designs not only allow versatile modalities for localisation of the probe but also water solubility for the osmium metal complex. The osmium decorated nanoparticles OsPhenSS·AuNP13 and OsPhenSS·AuNP25 display characteristic NIR luminescence from the osmium(ii) 3MLCT at 785 nm in aqueous solutions with visible excitation. Upon incubation of the nanoparticles in lung cancer and breast carcinoma the luminescence signature of osmium and the gold reflectance reveal localisation in the cytoplasmic and perinuclear compartments. Excitation of the nanoparticles at 552 nm in the presence of a ROS indicator revealed a marked increase in the green fluorescence from the indicator, consistent with photo-induced ROS generation. The detection of singlet oxygen by time-resolved luminescence studies of the osmium and the nanoparticle probes further demonstrates the dual activity of the osmium-based nanoprobes for imaging and therapy. The introduction of gold nanoparticles for carrying osmium imaging probes allows a novel versatile strategy combining detection and localised therapies at the nanoscale

Predicting risk along the suicidality continuum: A longitudinal, nationally representative study of the Irish population during the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction: Little is known about the lifetime prevalence of different indicators of suicidality in the Irish general population; whether suicidality has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic; and what factors associated with belonging to different points on a continuum of suicidality risk. Methods: A nationally representative sample of Irish adults (N = 1,032) completed self-report measures in May 2020 and a follow-up in August 2020 (n = 715).Results: Lifetime prevalence rates were 29.5% for suicidal ideation, 12.9% for non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), and 11.2% for attempted suicide. There were no changes in past two-week rates of NSSI and attempted suicide during the pandemic. Correlations between the indicators of suicidality supported a progression from ideation to NSSI to attempted suicide. Suicidal ideation alone was associated with being male, unemployed, higher loneliness, and lower religiosity. NSSI (with no co-occurring attempted suicide) was associated with a history of mental health treatment. Attempted suicide was associated with ethnic minority status, lower education, lower income, PTSD, depression, and history of mental health treatment.Conclusion: Suicidal ideation, NSSI, and attempted suicide are relatively common phenomena in the general adult Irish population, and each has unique psychosocial correlates. These findings highlight important targets for prevention and intervention efforts

Adult Safeguarding and People Living with Dementia in Nursing Homes

While there has been an increased focus on ageing in place in the Irish context, for some people, including people living with dementia (PLWD), nursing home care may be required to adequately meet their care needs as their dementia progresses and care needs increase. Nursing homes are the homes of many PLWD who, despite their frailty and health problems (including dementia), should be supported to enjoy a good quality of life, maintain, and develop relationships, and contribute to society (ADI, 2013).University College DublinIrish Dementia Working Group/AS

Early Virological and Immunological Events in Asymptomatic Epstein-Barr Virus Infection in African Children

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection often occurs in early childhood and is asymptomatic. However, if delayed until adolescence, primary infection may manifest as acute infectious mononucleosis (AIM), a febrile illness characterised by global CD8+ T-cell lymphocytosis, much of it reflecting a huge expansion of activated EBV-specific CD8+ T-cells. While the events of AIM have been intensely studied, little is known about how these relate to asymptomatic primary infection. Here Gambian children (14–18 months old, an age at which many acquire the virus) were followed for the ensuing six months, monitoring circulating EBV loads, antibody status against virus capsid antigen (VCA) and both total and virus-specific CD8+ T-cell numbers. Many children were IgG anti-VCA-positive and, though no longer IgM-positive, still retained high virus loads comparable to AIM patients and had detectable EBV-specific T-cells, some still expressing activation markers. Virus loads and the frequency/activation status of specific T-cells decreased over time, consistent with resolution of a relatively recent primary infection. Six children with similarly high EBV loads were IgM anti-VCA-positive, indicating very recent infection. In three of these donors with HLA types allowing MHC-tetramer analysis, highly activated EBV-specific T-cells were detectable in the blood with one individual epitope response reaching 15% of all CD8+ T-cells. That response was culled and the cells lost activation markers over time, just as seen in AIM. However, unlike AIM, these events occurred without marked expansion of total CD8+ numbers. Thus asymptomatic EBV infection in children elicits a virus-specific CD8+ T-cell response that can control the infection without over-expansion; conversely, in AIM it appears the CD8 over-expansion, rather than virus load per se, is the cause of disease symptoms

"It's not safe for me and what would it achieve?" Acceptability of patient-referral partner notification for sexually transmitted infections to young people, a mixed methods study from Zimbabwe.

Partner notification (PN) is considered integral to the management of sexually transmitted infections (STI). Patient-referral is a common PN strategy and relies on index cases notifying and encouraging their partners to access treatment; however, it has shown limited efficacy. We conducted a mixed methods study to understand young people's experiences of PN, particularly the risks and challenges encountered during patient-referral. All young people (16-24 years) attending a community-based sexual and reproductive health service in Zimbabwe who were diagnosed with an STI were counselled and offered PN slips, which enabled their partners to access free treatment at the service. PN slip uptake and partner treatment were recorded. Among 1807 young people (85.0% female) offered PN slips, 745 (41.2%) took up ≥1 PN slip and 103 partners (5.7%) returned for treatment. Most participants described feeling ill-equipped to counsel and persuade their partners to seek treatment. Between June and August 2021, youth researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 41 purposively selected young people diagnosed with an STI to explore their experiences of PN. PN posed considerable social risks, threatening their emotional and physical safety. Except for a minority in long-term, publicly acknowledged relationships, participants did not expect PN would achieve successful outcomes. Public health discourse, which constructs PN as "the right thing to do", influenced participants to adopt narratives that concealed the difficulties of PN and their unmet needs. Urgent interrogation is needed of whether PN is a suitable or constructive strategy to continue pursuing with young people. To improve the outcomes of preventing reinfection and onward transmission of STIs, we must consider developing alternative strategies that better align with young people's lived experiences.Plain language summary Partner notification is a public health strategy used to trace the sexual partners of people who have received a sexually transmitted infection (STI) diagnosis. It aims to interrupt the chains of STI transmission and prevent reinfection by treating both the person diagnosed and their sexual partners. The least effective but most common partner notification strategy used in many resource-limited settings is called "patient referral". This involves a sexual healthcare provider encouraging the person diagnosed to give a "partner notification slip" to their potentially exposed sexual partner/s and persuading them to access treatment. This research sought to better understand young people's experiences of partner notification, particularly the risks and challenges they faced during patient-referral.All young people (16-24 years) attending a community-based sexual and reproductive health service in Zimbabwe who were diagnosed with an STI were counselled and offered PN slips, which enabled their partners to access free treatment at the service. Young people trained as researchers interviewed 41 young people who had received a STI diagnosis to explore their experiences of partner notification.Only a small number (5.7%) of the partners of those who took a slip attended the service for treatment. Most participants felt they did not have the preparation, skills, or resources to persuade their partners to seek treatment. Many described negative experiences during and after partner notification, including relationship breakdown, reputation damage, and physical violence.These findings suggest that we should reconsider if partner notification is suitable or effective for use with young people. We should explore alternative approaches that do not present risks to young people's social, emotional, and physical safety and well-being