Molto+Media: Digital Culture Funding

This report profiles nine organizations identified by grantmakers and independent research as adventurous in their use of digital media. They represent a mix of arts disciplines, geographies, organizational sizes and media purposes. Some are using digital tools to extend organizational capacities in new ways while others are creating, documenting and disseminating the art itself.Conversations with these nine organizations revealed common themes:Organizations describe the work as building capabilities, not "doingprojects." Digital tools and platforms are now essential building blocksin an organization's work and need to be created accordingly.Leading digital culture entrepreneurs want grantmakers to makebigger bets on organizations with strong track records. Building newcapabilities is expensive, particularly at the scale of large culturalinstitutions.There is a sense that, globally, U.S. organizations lag. The E.U. hassupported open culture, digital initiatives aggressively, making Europe,in particular, a hotbed of digital cultureOrganizations are looking for much greater risk-taking from thefunding community. "Grantmakers still expect only home runs," saidmore than one organization, and they point out that in for-profitindustry many tech projects failDigital culture projects are helping organizations reach massaudiences as well as niches. Both are important.Several of the organizations in our profiles had received no dedicatedfunding for their work. "Our funders are not ready to do this, so wehave to do it ourselves," said interviewees.The most important theme of this report, though, is the incredible creativity and energy of these digital culture entrepreneurs. Cultural organizations and artists are using digital media to invent new ways to create and distribute art and to reach and engage audiences

Capacity Building and Resilience

This report from Arts Midwest, investigates how small and mid-sized arts organizations learn, adapt, and grow. Examining the experiences of eight organizations participating in this leadership and strategy development program, this report identifies four capacities that have helped organizations in Minnesota and North Dakota thrive in the face of operational challenges, staffing and leadership changes, and shifts in funding. Key takeaways offer insights for similar organizations seeking to build their resiliency and for grantmakers supporting the arts and culture sector

Transport of critically ill children to paediatric intensive care units in the UK and Ireland: 2013–2022

Objective: To explore the trends and changes in the transport of children to paediatric intensive care units (PICUs) between 2013 and 2022. Design: Retrospective analysis of routinely collected data. Patients: Children transported for care in a PICU in the UK and Ireland aged<16 years. Interventions: None. Measurements and main results: There were 43 058 transports to a PICU involving 36 438 children from 2013 to 2022 with the majority of children requiring only one transport. The number of transports increased from 4131 (2013) to 4792 (2022). Over the study period the percentage of children aged under 1 year who were transported decreased from 50.2% to 45.2% and similarly, the percentage who were invasively ventilated also decreased from 81.1% to 70.2%. Conversely, the use of non-invasive ventilation during transports increased slightly from 4.0% to 7.0%. The percentage of transports where a parent was able to accompany the child increased over time (2013: 66.2% to 2019: 74.9%), although there were reductions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and requirements for social distancing (2020: 52.4%). Conclusions: We have demonstrated an increased use of specialist paediatric transport services and changes in the PICU population over time. Routine data collection from the transport services provide a means to measure improvements and changes over time in the service provided to critically ill children and young people who need transport to the PICU

Journalism and Media Grantmaking: Five Things You Need to Know and Five Ways to Get Started

This booklet is a starter guide for foundations interested in exploring how to make impactful journalism and community-information grants. Foundations do not need to have a formal journalism program to make grants that support healthy news and information flows. Nor does a foundation need large dollar investments to get started. Even a small grant may help citizens in a given community or demographic gain access to credible information that will help them participate in civic life

Consequences Associated with the Recent Range Expansion of Nonnative Feral Swine

Feral swine (Sus scrofa) have been repeatedly introduced to locations around the world. Aided by both an adaptable biology and deliberate introductions by people, the range of invasive feral swine in the United States has expanded from 17 to 38 states over the past 30 years. The swine’s generalist diet combined with high population densities can complicate efforts to conserve threatened and endangered species, and losses from crop damage and livestock predation in the United States alone are estimated to be more than $1 billion. In addition, feral swine can be a reservoir for multiple pathogens, some of which are zoonotic. Management responses to mitigate these threats by reducing population numbers face resistance from groups that value feral swine for subsistence or sport hunting, which results in complicated policy actions that are extremely divisive and difficult to implement

Measuring real-ear signal-to-noise ratio: application to directional hearing aids

Due to individual characteristics such as head size, earmould type, and earmould venting, the directional benefit that an individual will obtain from a hearing aid cannot be predicted from average data. It is therefore desirable to measure real ear directional benefit. This paper demonstrates a method to measure real ear hearing aid directivity based on a general approach to measure the broadband output signal-to-noise ratio of a hearing aid. Errors arising from non-linearity were tested in simulation and found to be low for typical hearing aid compression ratios. Next, the efficacy of the method to estimate directional benefit was demonstrated on KEMAR. Finally the variability of directional benefit was explored in real-ears. Significant differences in signal-to-noise ratio between directional and omnidirectional microphone settings were demonstrated at most azimuths. Articulation-Index-weighted directional benefit varied by more than 7 dB across ears at some azimuths. Such individual variation in directional benefit has implications when fitting hearing aids: it should not be assumed that all users will receive similar directional benefit from the same hearing aid

The impact of Covid-19 on recovery after sexual violence and abuse: voices of help-seeking survivors and those individuals working within specialist support services in England.

We examined the impact of Covid-19 on service delivery within specialist sexual violence services and on the healing journeys of survivors of sexual violence and abuse through the experiences of 22 professionals and 221 service-users in England. The pandemic posed challenges across all sectors and economies across the globe, but practices and innovations that emerged at that time could enhance future services and user experiences. Thematic analysis was used to identify key themes within the data. Overall, the negative impacts of Covid-19 outweighed positive changes: survivors reported increased feelings of depression, anxiety and worry, exacerbated by isolation and lost connections with friends and family, and access to strategies for managing their mental health. Difficulties/delays in accessing support, service provision and disruptions to rapport, trust and safety were widespread in participants’ reports. Conversely, for some, requirements to remain at home provided safety from the world, space for healing, and even prompted survivors of non-recent abuse to seek help. Remote service delivery was beneficial where clients could be ‘at a distance’ in discussing sensitive issues. Together with insights from professionals about their own isolation, blurred boundaries, and concerns regarding client confidentiality and engagement, this research highlights an agile sector responding to an unprecedented situation. Moving forward, survivors’ preferences for flexible/remote support must be integrated into everyday delivery

Apparent prevalence of swine brucellosis in feral swine in the United States

Samples were collected in 35 states as part of a national monitoring system to detect multiple diseases in feral swine (Sus scrofa). During March 2009 through December 2010, we collected serum samples from 4,479 feral swine from 13 states, and 159 animals tested were seropositive for brucellosis. No difference in likelihood of infection was found between males and females, but adults were more likely than sub-adults or juveniles to be exposed to brucellosis. Feral swine sampled during winter months also were more likely to be seropositive than animals sampled during other seasons. Apparent prevalence varied among states, and seropositive animals often were clustered in specific counties within a state. We recommend improved diagnostics and stricter regulations on movement of feral swine both intra- and inter-state to minimize further spread of the disease and to decrease the risk of reintroduction of brucellosis into livestock

Large-Scale Avian Influenza Surveillance in Wild Birds throughout the United States

Avian influenza is a viral disease that primarily infects wild and domestic birds, but it also can be transmitted to a variety of mammals. In 2006, the United States of America Departments of Agriculture and Interior designed a large-scale, interagency surveillance effort that sought to determine if highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses were present in wild bird populations within the United States of America. This program, combined with the Canadian and Mexican surveillance programs, represented the largest, coordinated wildlife disease surveillance program ever implemented. Here we analyze data from 197,885 samples that were collected from over 200 wild bird species. While the initial motivation for surveillance focused on highly pathogenic avian influenza, the scale of the data provided unprecedented information on the ecology of avian influenza viruses in the United States, avian influenza virus host associations, and avian influenza prevalence in wild birds over time. Ultimately, significant advances in our knowledge of avian influenza will depend on both large-scale surveillance efforts and on focused research studies

The impact of Covid-19 on recovery after sexual violence and abuse: voices of help-seeking survivors and those individuals working within specialist support services in England.

We examined the impact of Covid-19 on service delivery within specialist sexual violence services and on the healing journeys of survivors of sexual violence and abuse through the experiences of 22 professionals and 221 service-users in England. The pandemic posed challenges across all sectors and economies across the globe, but practices and innovations that emerged at that time could enhance future services and user experiences. Thematic analysis was used to identify key themes within the data. Overall, the negative impacts of Covid-19 outweighed positive changes: survivors reported increased feelings of depression, anxiety and worry, exacerbated by isolation and lost connections with friends and family, and access to strategies for managing their mental health. Difficulties/delays in accessing support, service provision and disruptions to rapport, trust and safety were widespread in participants’ reports. Conversely, for some, requirements to remain at home provided safety from the world, space for healing, and even prompted survivors of non-recent abuse to seek help. Remote service delivery was beneficial where clients could be ‘at a distance’ in discussing sensitive issues. Together with insights from professionals about their own isolation, blurred boundaries, and concerns regarding client confidentiality and engagement, this research highlights an agile sector responding to an unprecedented situation. Moving forward, survivors’ preferences for flexible/remote support must be integrated into everyday delivery.</p