First steps towards minimizing lead exposure in an at-risk community in Mitrovica, Kosovo

The city of Mitrovica, in northern Kosovo, has historically been a heavily contaminated city due to its lead mining industry. The long history of heavy metal mining and processing, combined with the violent break-up of Former Yugoslavia, has created a slew of human health, environmental, and social impacts. High levels of lead exposure in the minority communities (Roma, Ashkali, Egyptian) of Mitrovica has arisen as one of the greatest health issues in the area. There have been a number of studies conducted by governmental and non-governmental organizations, many international, to assess the severity of the issue. There have also been projects, including relocation and blood sample analysis, conducted with the objectives of reducing dangerous levels of lead exposure and increasing public knowledge of the risks associated with lead exposure. Although great progress has been made in addressing this issue, not all at-risk communities in the area have been visited and trained in strategies to minimize their risk of lead exposure. The 2-Korriku neighborhood is a known at-risk population that is directly adjacent to the Industrial Park, one of the main sources of lead contamination, and downwind of the lead tailings and slag heaps. This particular community is of mixed ethnicities (Ashkali and Albanian) and had not yet been visited by trained officials before this project. In order to determine the community\u27s lead exposure risk, household lead dust samples were taken and semi-structured surveys with open-ended questions were conducted in 57 households in the community. Twelve of the sampled households exceeded the hazard standards for lead dust on floors and/or windowsills, while thirty-five were identified as having red flags for increased risk of lead exposure. 91% of respondents showed a willingness to participate in an educational program and 98% would be use better cleaning supplies if they were available. Suggestions for removing high household lead concentrations, along with strategies to minimize lead exposure both inside and outside of the household, are provided. The study was done with the goal of providing a starting point for future research projects to be done by students from the Rochester Institute of Technology and the American University in Kosovo. Therefore, suggestions for continuing on with this study were also provided

It's all about football: The lived academic experiences of undergaraduate African-American football players.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Indiana University, School of Education, 2011Media focus on intercollegiate athletics has reached an all time high. To many, the entire institution is now defined by this tiny part of campus life and the credibility of higher education as a whole can be jeopardized by the actions of a few. Most of the literature published on academic issues in intercollegiate athletics has focused on identity development, graduation rates, and financial issues. This study examines the lived academic experiences of a group of six African-American undergraduate football players at a Division1 university. The participants in the study were all students on the campus for at least one academic year before taking part in this work. The academic performance and motivation of African-American male student-athletes have received considerable attention in the higher education literature over the past two decades. This qualitative, phenomenological study will explore the perceptions and experiences of football players who are struggling academically. The purpose of this study is to attempt to understand the lived experiences of a group of football player student-athletes who are struggling with academic requirements. The study describes how for these participants athletics is the be-all and end-all of their existence. Close relationships with family members and team mates are key to academic success and the role of coaches is pivotal. The positive and negative consequences of interactions with faculty, staff and non-athlete students are presented with positives and negatives for each being presented and behaviors contributing to success and failure are explored. Implications for the findings are offered for parents, high schools, Division 1 football coaching staffs, postsecondary administrators and faculty, athletic department administrators and staff, and administrators within the NCAA. ___________________________________

Relationships between cognitive status, speech impairment and communicative participation in Parkinson’s disease

Aim: To assess the relationships between cognitive status, speech impairment and communicative participation in Parkinson’s disease. Introduction: Speech and communication difficulties, as well as cognitive impairment, are prevalent in Parkinson’s. The contributions of cognitive impairment and acoustic speech characteristics remain equivocal. Relationships between Impairment and Participation levels of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) have not been thoroughly investigated. Methods: 45 people with Parkinson’s and 29 familiar controls performed read, mood and conversational speech tasks as part of a multimethod investigation. Data analysis formed three main parts. Depression, cognition and communication were assessed using questionnaires. Phonetic analysis was used to produce an acoustic characterisation of speech. Listener assessment was used to assess conveyance of emotion and intelligibility. Qualitative Content Analysis was used to provide a participant’s insight into speech and communicative difficulties associated with Parkinson’s disease. Results: Cognitive status was significantly associated with certain read speech acoustic characteristics, emotional conveyance and communicative participation. No association was found with intelligibility or conversational speech acoustic characteristics. The only acoustic speech characteristics that predicted intelligibility were intensity and pause in the read speech condition. The contribution of intelligibility to communicative participation was modest. People with Parkinson’s disease reported a range of psychosocial, cognitive and physical factors affecting their speech and communication. Conclusions: I provide evidence for a role for cognitive status in emotional conveyance and communicative participation, but not necessarily general speech production, in Parkinson’s disease. I demonstrate that there may not be a strong relationship between ICF Impairment level speech measures and functional measures of communication. I also highlight the distinction between measures of communication at the ICF Activity and Participation levels. This study demonstrates that reduced participation in everyday communication in Parkinson’s disease appears to result from a complex interplay of physical, cognitive and psychosocial factors. Further research is required to apply these findings to contribute to future advances in speech and language therapy for Parkinson’s disease

Pseudodeterminants and perfect square spanning tree counts

The pseudodeterminant $\textrm{pdet}(M)$ of a square matrix is the last nonzero coefficient in its characteristic polynomial; for a nonsingular matrix, this is just the determinant. If $\partial$ is a symmetric or skew-symmetric matrix then $\textrm{pdet}(\partial\partial^t)=\textrm{pdet}(\partial)^2$. Whenever $\partial$ is the $k^{th}$ boundary map of a self-dual CW-complex $X$, this linear-algebraic identity implies that the torsion-weighted generating function for cellular $k$-trees in $X$ is a perfect square. In the case that $X$ is an \emph{antipodally} self-dual CW-sphere of odd dimension, the pseudodeterminant of its $k$th cellular boundary map can be interpreted directly as a torsion-weighted generating function both for $k$-trees and for $(k-1)$-trees, complementing the analogous result for even-dimensional spheres given by the second author. The argument relies on the topological fact that any self-dual even-dimensional CW-ball can be oriented so that its middle boundary map is skew-symmetric.Comment: Final version; minor revisions. To appear in Journal of Combinatoric

Scaling Programs With Research Evidence and Effectiveness (SPREE)

Foundations can serve more people by identifying and supporting effective interventions that are ready to be scaled. This article describes a process called SPREE — Scaling Programs with Research Evidence and Effectiveness — that can help funders and their grantees scale successfully. Implementing this process can assist foundations in using evaluation research as a tool to determine which interventions are likely to produce desired outcomes, and to identify which organizations are ready to scale them. The SPREE process is grounded in evaluation and implementation science frameworks and has been applied since 2016 by the Corporation for National and Community Service. This article explores how the agency\u27s application of the process helps it ensure that the interventions it funds are likely to improve outcomes and extend its reach through successful scaling. In addition, the process generated discussions about using evidence and readiness to scale to guide funding decisions. While the SPREE process might work best when foundations and the grantees they fund have a culture of measurement, learning and evaluation, the process itself can be used to help them build or strengthen that culture. It can also help funders identify and provide the kind of support grantees need in demonstrating that an intervention is effective and in building the conditions needed to scale it successfully

The non-dosage compensated Lsp1α gene of Drosophila melanogaster escapes acetylation by MOF in larval fat body nuclei, but is flanked by two dosage compensated genes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In <it>Drosophila melanogaster </it>dosage compensation of most X-linked genes is mediated by the male-specific lethal (MSL) complex, which includes MOF. MOF acetylates histone H4 at lysine 16 (H4K16ac). The X-linked <it>Larval serum protein one </it>α (<it>Lsp1</it>α) gene has long been known to be not dosage compensated. Here we have examined possible explanations for why the <it>Lsp1</it>α gene is not dosage compensated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Quantitative RNase protection analysis showed that the genes flanking <it>Lsp1</it>α are expressed equally in males and females and confirmed that <it>Lsp1</it>α is not dosage compensated. Unlike control X-linked genes, <it>Lsp1</it>α was not enriched for H4K16ac in the third instar larval fat body, the tissue in which the gene is actively expressed. X-linked <it>Lsp1α promoter-lacZ </it>reporter transgenes are enriched for H4K16ac in third instar larval fat body. An X-linked reporter gene bracketed by <it>Lsp1</it>α flanking regions was dosage compensated. One of the genes flanking <it>Lsp1</it>α is expressed in the same tissue. This gene shows a modest enrichment for H4K16ac but only at the part of the gene most distant from <it>Lsp1</it>α. Phylogenetic analyses of the sequences of the genomes of 12 <it>Drosophila </it>species shows that <it>Lsp1</it>α is only present within the <it>melanogaster </it>subgroup of species.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p><it>Lsp1</it>α is not modified by the MSL complex but is in a region of the X chromosome that is regulated by the MSL complex. The high activity or tissue-specificity of the <it>Lsp1</it>α promoter does not prevent regulation by the MSL complex. The regions flanking <it>Lsp1</it>α do not appear to block access by the MSL complex. <it>Lsp1</it>α appears to have recently evolved within the <it>melanogaster </it>subgroup of <it>Drosophila </it>species. The most likely explanation for why <it>Lsp1</it>α is not dosage compensated is that the gene has not evolved a mechanism to independently recruit the MSL complex, possibly because of its recent evolutionary origin, and because there appears to be a low level of bound MSL complex in a nearby gene that is active in the same tissue.</p

A Formative Evaluation with Extension Educators: Exploring Implementation Approaches Using Web-based Methods

The article describes the formative evaluation of a bullying prevention program called Be SAFE from the perspective of Extension educators. Twelve regional and county educators from Family and Child Development and 4-H Youth Development participated in our study. We used a web-based, mixed methods approach, utilizing both Qualtrics, an online survey software platform, and Scopia, a video conferencing application, to collect survey data and do a focus group. The results of the survey show that three activities, Clear Mind, Mud Mind, Take a Stand, and The Relationship Continuum, were perceived as garnering the most participation from students. However, focus group data indicated that while there was often a high level of participation, the subject matter of the curriculum was too advanced for students in the fifth grade and that classroom size affected how well educators could teach lessons. Furthermore, school access was not an implementation challenge, but the amount of days available to implement the full curriculum was sometimes limited. The data collected through this formative evaluation were used to improve implementation efforts. The process outlined in this article can be used as a model to help program leaders who are interested in using web-based tools to evaluate implementation processes

Public Performance Metrics: Driving Physician Motivation and Performance

Introduction: As providers transition from “fee-for-service” to “pay-for-performance” models, focus has shifted to improving performance. This trend extends to the emergency department (ED) where visits continue to increase across the United States. Our objective was to determine whether displaying public performance metrics of physician triage data could drive intangible motivators and improve triage performance in the ED.Methods: This is a single institution, time-series performance study on a physician-in-triage system. Individual physician baseline metrics—number of patients triaged and dispositioned per shift—were obtained and prominently displayed with identifiable labels during each quarterly physician group meeting. Physicians were informed that metrics would be collected and displayed quarterly and that there would be no bonuses, punishments, or required training; physicians were essentially free to do as they wished. It was made explicit that the goal was to increase the number triaged, and while the number dispositioned would also be displayed, it would not be a focus, thereby acting as this study’s control. At the end of one year, we analyzed metrics.Results: The group’s average number of patients triaged per shift were as follows: Q1-29.2; Q2-31.9; Q3-34.4; Q4-36.5 (Q1 vs Q4, p &lt; 0.00001). The average numbers of patients dispositioned per shift were Q1-16.4; Q2-17.8; Q3-16.9; Q4-15.3 (Q1 vs Q4, p = 0.14). The top 25% of Q1 performers increased their average numbers triaged from Q1-36.5 to Q4-40.3 (ie, a statistically insignificant increase of 3.8 patients per shift [p = 0.07]). The bottom 25% of Q1 performers, on the other hand, increased their averages from Q1-22.4 to Q4-34.5 (ie, a statistically significant increase of 12.2 patients per shift [p = 0.0013]).Conclusion: Public performance metrics can drive intangible motivators (eg, purpose, mastery, and peer pressure), which can be an effective, low-cost strategy to improve individual performance, achieve institutional goals, and thrive in the pay-for-performance era