Doyle Creek Land and Cattle Company

Doyle Creek Land & Cattle Company is dedicated to improvement of the beef industry and is continually striving to achieve excellence in their commercial cow-calf operation. Located in the Flint Hills of Kansas, Doyle Creek consists of three ranches owned and operated by Randy and Judy (Strait) Mills and their two daughters. Mary and Fran

“I believe…” - graduating midwifery students’ midwifery philosophies and intentions for their graduate year: A longitudinal descriptive study

Objective: Midwifery graduates may experience transition shock that makes them question their fit for their workplace and the profession and in extreme cases, may lead to them leaving. Understanding graduate midwives’ worldviews, job intentions and work experiences is important to inform retention strategies. Factors such as having a strong professional identity and experiencing strong job satisfaction are important for midwife retention. Conversely, stress, trauma and work-life imbalances are examples of factors that lead to attrition from midwifery. Transition shock experienced by some graduates can exacerbate these factors if not managed effectively. This study aimed to identify causes and impact of any changes in graduate and early career midwives’ philosophy, practice, and intention to stay in the profession. Design, setting and participants: We invited the 2021 and 2022 cohorts of graduating midwifery students from all educational pathways in Victoria, Australia to participate in a longitudinal descriptive study using a questionnaire with both closed and open -ended questions. This paper reports the findings from 16 participants that completed the first survey of a five-year longitudinal descriptive study. Findings: The sixteen participants predominantly held a woman centred philosophy and ideally wanted to work in a midwife-led model of care. Although excited about moving into practice, they also disclosed a sense of needing to ‘survive’ in a maternity care system that their beliefs were not fully in alignment with. Key conclusions: The hopes, expectations and concerns of midwifery students who are anticipating moving into practice in this study resonate with those previously reported and demonstrate the need to consider personality-job fit in supporting this vulnerable group to transition. Implications for practice: This study provides insights into graduating midwives’ hopes for, expectations of, and concerns about transitioning into practice that may inform the design of transition programs and support expansion of midwifery led models of care

Exploring the theory, barriers and enablers for patient and public involvement across health, social care and patient safety:a systematic review of reviews

BACKGROUND: The emergence of patient and public involvement (PPI) in healthcare in the UK can be traced as far back as the 1970s. More recently, campaigns by harmed patients have led to a renewed focus on strengthening PPI. There is a growing awareness of the benefits of PPI in research as well as a need to address power inequities and a lack of diversity and inclusion. This review was undertaken to look at evidence for theories, barriers and enablers in PPI across health, social care and patient safety that could be used to strengthen PPI and address a perceived knowledge and theory gap with PPI in patient safety. METHODS: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE and PsycINFO from inception to August 2018, using both MeSH and free-text terms to identify published empirical literature. Protocols in PROSPERO were also searched to identify any systematic reviews in progress. The extracted information was analysed using a narrative approach, which synthesises data using a descriptive method. RESULTS: Forty-two reviews were identified and grouped by key outcomes. Twenty-two papers mentioned theory in some form, 31 mentioned equality and diversity (although with no theory mentioned in this area), and only 19 cited equality and diversity as a barrier or enabler. Thirty-four reviews identified barriers and enablers at different organisational levels: personal/individual; attitudes; health professional; roles and expectations; knowledge, information and communication; financing and resourcing; training; general support; recruitment and representation, PPI methods and working with communities and addressing power dynamics. CONCLUSIONS: The review findings suggest that a commitment to PPI and partnership working is dependent on taking a whole system approach. This needs to consider the complex individual and organisational enablers and constraints to this process and address imbalances of power experienced by different groups. Addressing equality and diversity and use of a theory-driven approach to guide PPI are neglected areas. The long tradition of involvement across health and social care can provide considerable expertise in thinking about ways to strengthen approaches to PPI. This is especially important in patient safety, with a much newer tradition of developing PPI than other areas of healthcare

Impact of Emergency Remote Teaching on University Students at a Public Institution in the United States

The educational experiences of university students participating in Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) during the COVID-19 pandemic were evaluated using a survey instrument. Students found ERT stressful (89%) and indicated challenges from inadequate internet (91%), lack of privacy (45%), and increased amount of studying (3 hours more per week). Academic rank correlated with stress level during ERT, with freshmen (42%) reporting the highest stress level and seniors (48%) reporting minimal stress. Lack of faceto-face instruction, missing peer interaction and having to teach the course material to themselves were the top issues that students disliked with ERT. Respondents recognized the need for organization, selfmotivation, and increased interaction with other students and instructors as key factors for effectiveness and satisfaction of ERT instruction

Faculty Stress Factors at a Public University During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) during the COVID-19 pandemic brought many challenges to education systems across the world. Faculty at a public university participated in a survey to aid in defining challenges and stress factors experienced with ERT. Eighty-three percent of faculty participating in the survey indicated they were stressed during the pandemic ERT. Linked stress factors included course organization satisfaction, capturing student learning, energy to move to an online format, translating lessons to online, and online teaching experience. Open-ended survey questions additionally identified faculty frustrations from the lack of student engagement, the amount of time to move to the ERT format, and the desire to decrease student enrollment numbers in courses when teaching in the online format. Clemson University gave faculty the option of utilizing a hybrid model of ERT course delivery during the pandemic, rotating students enrolled in a course for in-person class attendance during a portion of the semester, and this model appeared to elevate some of the issues related to student engagement

Disengagement of visual attention in infancy is associated with emerging autism in toddlerhood

Background: Early emerging characteristics of visual orienting have been associated with a wide range of typical and atypical developmental outcomes. In the current study, we examined the development of visual disengagement in infants at risk for autism. Methods: We measured the efficiency of disengaging from a central visual stimulus to orient to a peripheral one in a cohort of 104 infants with and without familial risk for autism by virtue of having an older sibling with autism. Results: At 7 months of age, disengagement was not robustly associated with later diagnostic outcomes. However, by 14 months, longer latencies to disengage in the subset of the risk group later diagnosed with autism was observed relative to other infants at risk and the low-risk control group. Moreover, between 7 months and 14 months, infants who were later diagnosed with autism at 36 months showed no consistent increases in the speed and flexibility of visual orienting. However, the latter developmental effect also characterized those infants who exhibited some form of developmental concerns (but not meeting criteria for autism) at 36 months. Conclusions: Infants who develop autism or other developmental concerns show atypicality in the development of visual attention skills from the first year of life

Green tea increases anti-inflammatory tristetraprolin and decreases pro-inflammatory tumor necrosis factor mRNA levels in rats

BACKGROUND: Tristetraprolin (TTP/ZFP36) family proteins have anti-inflammatory activity by binding to and destabilizing pro-inflammatory mRNAs such as Tnf mRNA, and represent a potential therapeutic target for inflammation-related diseases. Tea has anti-inflammatory properties but the molecular mechanisms have not been completely elucidated. We hypothesized that TTP and/or its homologues might contribute to the beneficial effects of tea as an anti-inflammatory product. METHODS: Quantitative real-time PCR was used to investigate the effects of green tea (0, 1, and 2 g solid extract/kg diet) on the expression of Ttp family genes (Ttp/Tis11/Zfp36, Zfp36l1/Tis11b, Zfp36l2/Tis11d, Zfp36l3), pro-inflammatory genes (Tnf, Csf2/Gm-csf, Ptgs2/Cox2), and Elavl1/Hua/Hur and Vegf genes in liver and muscle of rats fed a high-fructose diet known to induce insulin resistance, oxidative stress, inflammation, and TNF-alpha levels. RESULTS: Ttp and Zfp36l1 mRNAs were the major forms in both liver and skeletal muscle. Ttp, Zfp36l1, and Zfp36l2 mRNA levels were more abundant in the liver than those in the muscle. Csf2/Gm-csf and Zfp36l3 mRNAs were undetectable in both tissues. Tea (1 g solid extract/kg diet) increased Ttp mRNA levels by 50–140% but Tnf mRNA levels decreased by 30% in both tissues, and Ptgs2/Cox2 mRNA levels decreased by 40% in the muscle. Tea (2 g solid extract/kg diet) increased Elavl1/Hua/Hur mRNA levels by 40% in the liver but did not affect any of the other mRNA levels in liver or muscle. CONCLUSION: These results show that tea can modulate Ttp mRNA levels in animals and suggest that a post-transcriptional mechanism through TTP could partially account for tea's anti-inflammatory properties. The results also suggest that drinking adequate amounts of green tea may play a role in the prevention of inflammation-related diseases

Patterns of Visual Attention to Faces and Objects in Autism Spectrum Disorder

This study used eye-tracking to examine visual attention to faces and objects in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typical peers. Point of gaze was recorded during passive viewing of images of human faces, inverted human faces, monkey faces, three-dimensional curvilinear objects, and two-dimensional geometric patterns. Individuals with ASD obtained lower scores on measures of face recognition and social-emotional functioning but exhibited similar patterns of visual attention. In individuals with ASD, face recognition performance was associated with social adaptive function. Results highlight heterogeneity in manifestation of social deficits in ASD and suggest that naturalistic assessments are important for quantifying atypicalities in visual attention

Modifications to student quarantine policies in K-12 schools implementing multiple COVID-19 prevention strategies restores in-person education without increasing SARS-CoV-2 transmission risk, January-March 2021

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether modified K-12 student quarantine policies that allow some students to continue in-person education during their quarantine period increase schoolwide SARS-CoV-2 transmission risk following the increase in cases in winter 2020-2021. METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort study of COVID-19 cases and close contacts among students and staff (n = 65,621) in 103 Missouri public schools. Participants were offered free, saliva-based RT-PCR testing. The projected number of school-based transmission events among untested close contacts was extrapolated from the percentage of events detected among tested asymptomatic close contacts and summed with the number of detected events for a projected total. An adjusted Cox regression model compared hazard rates of school-based SARS-CoV-2 infections between schools with a modified versus standard quarantine policy. RESULTS: From January-March 2021, a projected 23 (1%) school-based transmission events occurred among 1,636 school close contacts. There was no difference in the adjusted hazard rates of school-based SARS-CoV-2 infections between schools with a modified versus standard quarantine policy (hazard ratio = 1.00; 95% confidence interval: 0.97-1.03). DISCUSSION: School-based SARS-CoV-2 transmission was rare in 103 K-12 schools implementing multiple COVID-19 prevention strategies. Modified student quarantine policies were not associated with increased school incidence of COVID-19. Modifications to student quarantine policies may be a useful strategy for K-12 schools to safely reduce disruptions to in-person education during times of increased COVID-19 community incidence