Preschool growth and nutrition service - addressing common nutritional problems: a community based primary care led intervention

Childhood obesity has been prioritised by the World Health Organization in a recent report, which calls for a holistic multiagency approach to tackling and reducing future risks of obesity and its associated co-morbidities. This article examines a health service approach to improving recognition and management of pre-school nutritional problems as part of training health care professionals. It explores the practicalities of setting up a local pathway for managing cases in the community with appropriate specialist support. This model, developed for the management of weight faltering, has now been adapted to tackle childhood obesity

“Sorry,” But I Didn’t Release It: How the Court’s Analysis of the Fair Use Doctrine in Chapman v. Maraj Protects Innovation and Creativity in the Music Industry

The fair use doctrine is an important affirmative defense to copyright infringement when a particular use does not interfere with copyright law’s primary goal of promoting creativity for the public good. Artists and songwriters frequently experiment with copyrighted music without permission before seeking licensing approval from the original rights holders to “sample” or “replay” the work. In Chapman v. Maraj—a copyright infringement suit brought by Tracy Chapman against Nicki Minaj—the United States District Court for the Central District of California held that experimenting with a copyrighted musical composition for the purpose of creating a new work with an intent to seek licensing approval constitutes fair use and thus does not infringe the original copyright holder’s exclusive right to prepare derivative works. This Note explores why the holding in Chapman v. Maraj is vital for the protection of songwriting and the music business as well as the continuation of innovation and creativity in music, analyzing this importance in light of the established goals of copyright law

A Foundation for Health Reform: Findings of a 50 State Survey 2009

Surveys state actions on Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Plans and analyzes advances and setbacks in expanding coverage for low-income children and parents as well as disparities between the two groups. Discusses legislative and economic factors

Measuring Teacher Self-Efficacy In Addressing Pupil Mental Health Post Assembly Bill 2246

Assembly Bill 2246, known as the pupil suicide prevention policies, was implemented into law at the start of the 2017-2018 academic school year. This legislation mandates that all secondary schools in the state of California implement a suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention policy for at-risk students. Assembly Bill 2246 specifically recognizes the role of teachers in addressing pupil mental health and aims to provide support through policy. The purpose of this study is to measure teacher self-efficacy in addressing pupil mental health post Assembly Bill 2246. This study’s research design is comprised of a quantitative, pretest/posttest model using an independent samples t-test. The results of this study were collected either before or after gatekeeper training on suicide prevention facilitated by a mental health professional. The participants were asked to rate themselves in six measures based on pupil mental health and Assembly Bill 2246. The findings of this study showed a significant improvement in overall teacher self-efficacy but varied between the measures. This study has many implications for social work practice. The findings can help to streamline trainings that target teachers’ specific needs regarding their understanding of pupil mental health. In addition, these findings can assist in developing an effective collaboration between educators and mental health professionals in the pursuit of assisting at-risk students

Laboratory-Assessed Markers of Cardiometabolic Health and Associations with GIS-Based Measures of Active-Living Environments.

Active-living-friendly environments have been linked to physical activity, but their relationships with specific markers of cardiometabolic health remain unclear. We estimated the associations between active-living environments and markers of cardiometabolic health, and explored the potential mediating role of physical activity in these associations. We used data collected on 2809 middle-aged adults who participated in the Canadian Health Measures Survey (2007⁻2009; 41.5 years, SD = 15.1). Environments were assessed using an index that combined GIS-derived measures of street connectivity, land use mix, and population density. Body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), hemoglobin A1c, and cholesterol were assessed in a laboratory setting. Daily step counts and moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) were assessed for seven days using accelerometers. Associations were estimated using robust multivariable linear regressions adjusted for sociodemographic factors that were assessed via questionnaire. BMI was 0.79 kg/m² lower (95% confidence interval (CI) -1.31, -0.27) and SBP was 1.65 mmHg lower (95% CI -3.10, -0.20) in participants living in the most active-living-friendly environments compared to the least, independent of daily step counts or MVPA. A 35.4 min/week difference in MPVA (95% CI 24.2, 46.6) was observed between residents of neighborhoods in the highest compared to the lowest active-living-environment quartiles. Cycling to work rates were also the highest in participants living in the highest living-environment quartiles (e.g., Q4 vs. Q1: 10.4% vs. 4.9%). Although active-living environments are associated with lower BMI and SBP, and higher MVPA and cycling rates, neither daily step counts nor MVPA appear to account for environment⁻BMI/SBP relationships. This suggests that other factors not assessed in this study (e.g., food environment or unmeasured features of the social environment) may explain this relationship

Stories of following and leading : identities and followership journeys during succession in UK universities

Succession, leadership and identity scholars have frequently attended to ‘leader’ experiences in their research. This is despite the impact of succession on everyday processes and staff working lives; the recognition that leadership is a joint process which unfolds among many individuals and relationships within an organisation; and the centrality of identity to staff as well as successors. Underpinned by followership theory, this thesis aims to rebalance the understanding of succession by soliciting staff and successor stories of and leading identities and behaviours during the change journey. Grounded in constructionism, this research used 121 semi-structured interviews with 104 research participants who were professional services staff in 41 UK universities. A narrative approach to interviewing and analysis was employed to capture staff and successor experiences of succession. Thematic analysis was used across the large qualitative data set to identify findings related to the succession, identity and followership literatures. The findings highlighted the shortcomings of succession planning within universities, advocating instead for an approach to succession which recognises the identity and behavioural transitions which staff and successors navigate during the change. A diversity of succession stakeholders, some in the form of ghosts, are identified. The findings contribute to the growing support for constructionist perspectives of leadership by showing how individuals in organisations lead, follow, and engage in different versions of their identities, regardless of their formal hierarchical role. This thesis also demonstrates a connection between following and the vision and pursuit of aspirational selves, evidencing how staff and successors contribute to the development of these selves in one another

Problem Analysis in Community Violence Assessments: Reavealing Early Childhood Trauma as a Driver of Youth and Gang Violence

Problem analysis conducted by a university-based research partner can provide communities with data-driven options to address the local drivers of serious youth and gang violence. Situated in Worcester, Massachusetts, this article describes how after early childhood trauma was identified as a potential driver of adolescent and young adult violence, problem analysis using local data confirmed that being the victim or witness of a traumatic incident before the age of 12 was significantly correlated with involvement in violence in adolescence or young adulthood. While there is a robust literature on the relationship between early childhood trauma and later delinquency, local decision-makers did not consider this knowledge actionable until the research partner used the city’s own police records to demonstrate the extent of the problem in the city. Rigorous problem analysis, conducted collaboratively between practitioners and an academic research partner, helped to compel local change and ensured that strategies addressed the right risk factors and directed service to the appropriate target population

Novel strategies to prevent and treat experimental pneumococcal disease

With over 90 different serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae unevenly distributed around the world, current vaccine formulations vary significantly in their ability to protect against invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). The adult pneumococcal vaccine is composed of capsular polysaccharide from 23 of the most prevalent disease causing serotypes. Purely polysaccharide vaccines are unable to protect those most at risk; infants under the age of two. This has led to the development of a paediatric conjugate vaccine, composed of capsular polysaccharide from seven of the most common disease causing serotypes, each chemically conjugated to a carrier protein. Although efficacious at protecting the target age group from disease caused by homologous serotypes, it fails to protect against the non-vaccine serotypes. Serotype specific vaccination is a short-term solution to pneumococcal disease. As the most common serotypes are eradicated by vaccination, previously less common serotypes fill the vacant niche and cause serotype replacement disease. A solution to this problem would be the development of pneumococcal vaccines containing antigens that elicit non-serotype specific protection. Pneumolysin, the pore-forming toxin produced by S. pneumoniae, may play a role in future pneumococcal vaccine. It is a major virulence factor produced by all invasive isolates and has previously been demonstrated to confer non- serotype specific protection. In this thesis, pneumolysin retained the ability to bind to cell membranes and form pores even when other antigens were fused genetically to the N terminus. Pneumolysin performed as a highly immunogenic mucosal adjuvant, with substantial mucosal and systemic immune responses to the fused antigen, when nanograms quantities when applied to the mucosal surface of the nasopharynx. A fusion between pneumococcal surface adhesin A (PsaA) and pneumolysin (PLY) was created to investigate potential protection conferred by the antigen specific response. Vaccination of Balb/c and MF1 mice with PsaAPLY conferred no protection against challenge with virulent S. pneumoniae TIGR4. The toxicity of pneumolysin is problematic and existing pneumolysin mutants possess residual cytotoxicity. By ablating the toxicity of pneumolysin with formalin it permits its use in parental vaccines. The pneumococcal histidinetriad proteins (Pht) are a recently identified family of surface exposed proteins that have homologues in other Streptococcus species and are therefore novel potential vaccine candidates. In vivo models of disease require the sacrifice of a large number of animals at time points to investigate the impact of vaccine or pharmaceuticals on disease progression. Real-time photonic imaging of bioluminescent bacteria offers significant advantages over conventional methods for monitoring and combating bacterial disease in animals. Not only does this approach reduce the time and costs associated with such experiments, but also it considerably reduces the number of animals used. Furthermore, because bioluminescent imaging allows the same group of animals to be monitored over time, animal-to-animal variations are overcome by including the zero time point as an internal control. Models of pneumococcal pneumonia were established in MF1 mice. Newly established bioluminescent models were then used to investigate the impact of vaccination with the paediatric pneumococcal conjugate vaccine as proof of principle

AUTOMATIC CALCULATION OF PERSONAL BODY SEGMENT PARAMETERS WITH A MICROSOFT KINECT DEVICE

The purpose of this study was to introduce an automatic method for calculating personal body segment parameters (BSPs). In this automatic method, a Microsoft Kinect device was used to capture depth frames for measuring joint locations. The open source software, MakeHuman, was used for generating 3D human models by referring using the joint location data captured from the depth frames. Segmental meshes were obtained from the generated 3D human models and personal BSPs could be calculated automatically. The tests showed that the developed method can complete all of the processes without manual digitizing, anatomical landmark detection and medical scanner operation. Further research should be conducted to establish the accuracy of the segmental masses, centres of mass and moments of inertia acquired from the developed methods