Health and Quality of Life among People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Direct Support Professionals during the early United States COVID-19 Pandemic

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and the direct support professionals (DSPs) who support them have faced unique risks to their health and quality of life (QoL) throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We sought to understand how COVID-19 has influenced QoL and overall well-being among these populations. We conducted a Rapid Qualitative Inquiry study with a sample of people with IDD and DSPs (n = 18) to gain deeper perspectives about QoL and well-being during the pandemic. Participants described that changes in QoL were typically negative and influenced primarily by reduced socialization and impacts on health and independence; however, participants also described the ways their interactions and mutual support for each other helped to preserve some aspects of QoL. Participants described how racism and publicized acts of racial violence contributed to their COVID-19 experiences, and offered descriptions of resources they benefited from, and those they lacked, during this time. Study findings have the potential to inform the development of policies and best practices that support people with IDD and DSPs during and following similar infectious disease emergencies

Prospective One Year follow up of HIV infected women screened for cervical cancer using visual inspection with acetic acid, cytology and human papillomavirus testing in Johannesburg, South Africa

BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is the most common cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa. There are little of HIV-infected women one-year after screening using visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA), HPV or cytology in sub-Saharan Africa. METHODS: HIV-infected women in Johannesburg South Africa were screened one year later by Pap smear, VIA and human papillomavirus (HPV) testing. Women qualified for the 12 month follow-up visit if they had a negative or cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN) 1 results at the baseline visit. Modified Poisson regression was used to analyse associations between patient baseline characteristics and progression. RESULTS: A total of 688 of 1,202 enrolled at baseline study who were CIN-2+ negative and qualified for a 12 month follow-up visit. Progression to CIN-2+ was higher in women with positive VIA results (12.6%; 24/191) than those VIA-negative (4.4%; 19/432). HPV-positive women at baseline were more likely to progress to CIN-2+ (12.3%; 36/293) than those HPV-negative (2.1%; 7/329). Cytology-positive women at baseline were more likely to progress to CIN-2+ (9.6%; 37/384) than cytology-negative women (2.5%; 6/237). Approximately 10% (10.4%; 39/376) of women with CIN 1 at baseline progressed to CIN 2+. Women who were VIA or HPV positive at baseline were more likely to progress aIRR 1.85, CI 95% (1.46 to 2.36), aIRR 1.41 CI 95% (1.14 to 1.75) respectively. CONCLUSION: Progression to CIN-2+ in HIV-infected women is significant when measured by baseline positive VIA, HPV or Pap and yearly screening by any method should be considered in this population if possible

Evaluation of a Cervicography-Based Program to Ensure Quality of Visual Inspection of the Cervix in HIV-Infected Women in Johannesburg, South Africa

Quality assurance with cervicography and specialist review significantly improved the sensitivity of visual inspection with acetic acid to detect cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or worse.AbstractObjectiveTo determine whether a quality assurance (QA) program using digital cervicography improved the performance of a visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) to detect cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or worse (CIN 2+) in HIV-infected women in Johannesburg, South Africa.Materials and MethodsVisual inspection with acetic acid was performed among HIV-infected women, aged 18 to 65 years, in Johannesburg, South Africa. Nurses received 2 weeks of training on the VIA procedure. The VIA interpretation was performed in real time. The VIA results were then photographed using a retail available digital camera. A gynecologist and medical officer reviewed the VIA digital images within 2 weeks of the procedure. Colposcopic biopsy was performed on all women with positive VIA and 25% negative VIA results. Sensitivity and specificity of VIA for the detection of CIN 2+ were compared between the nurses and physicians at the beginning and at the end of the study.ResultsPositive VIA results were found in 541 (45%) of the 1,202 participating women. The sensitivity of VIA to predict CIN 2+ was improved from 65% to 75% (p = .001) with the addition of digital cervicography and specialist review. There was no statistical difference in the sensitivity of the VIA readings when comparing the first 600 participants to the final 593 participants between the nurses (p = .613) and physicians (p = .624).ConclusionsQuality assurance performed by specialists using digital cervicography improved the sensitivity of VIA. There was no difference in sensitivity in interpreting VIA between the beginning and the end of the study. Quality assurance should form a cornerstone of any VIA program to improve sensitivity in detecting CIN 2+ lesions

Normative misperceptions of tobacco use among university students in seven European countries: Baseline findings of the 'Social Norms Intervention for the prevention of Polydrug usE' study.

Research conducted in North America suggests that students tend to overestimate tobacco use among their peers. This perceived norm may impact personal tobacco use. It remains unclear how these perceptions influence tobacco use among European students. The two aims were to investigate possible self-other discrepancies regarding personal use and attitudes towards use and to evaluate if perceptions of peer use and peer approval of use are associated with personal use and approval of tobacco use

High-throughput gene discovery in the rat

The rat is an important animal model for human diseases and is widely used in physiology. In this article we present a new strategy for gene discovery based on the production of ESTs from serially subtracted and normalized cDNA libraries, and we describe its application for the development of a comprehensive nonredundant collection of rat ESTs. Our new strategy appears to yield substantially more EST clusters per ESTs sequenced than do previous approaches that did not use serial subtraction. However, multiple rounds of library subtraction resulted in high frequencies of otherwise rare internally primed cDNAs, defining the limits of this powerful approach. To date, we have generated >200,000 3′ ESTs from >100 cDNA libraries representing a wide range of tissues and developmental stages of the laboratory rat. Most importantly, we have contributed to ∼50,000 rat UniGene clusters. We have identified, arrayed, and derived 5′ ESTs from >30,000 unique rat cDNA clones. Complete information, including radiation hybrid mapping data, is also maintained locally at http://genome.uiowa.edu/clcg.html. All of the sequences described in this article have been submitted to the dbEST division of the NCBI

City of Ivanhoe Comprehensive Plan 2018-2038

the City of Ivanhoe is located in Tyler County, which is in southeastern Texas near the Louisiana border. The land is gently rolling, with an elevation ranging from 100 to 400 feet above sea level. Texas Target Communities developed this document in partnership with the City of Ivanhoe. In the summer of 2016, Tyler County and the City of Ivanhoe collaborated with Texas Target Communities to assess current community conditions and explore future development strategies. The project aimed to enhance community-wide discussion through a public participatory process, resulting in developing a comprehensive plan to help guide the future growth of the County and City. A representative task force of community members engaged in a participatory planning process, including visioning, goal setting, alternative scenario exploration, and strategies for implementation. Using courses on campus, TAMU urban planning students were exposed to the planning process and explored innovative ideas. The result of this collaboration is this document, which provides strategies for the community’s growth utilizing the natural resource and the assets of the City.The Ivanhoe Comprehensive Plan 2017-2037 provides guidance for the future development of the city. In the summer of 2016, Tyler County and the City of Ivanhoe collaborated with Texas Target Communities to assess current community conditions and explore future development strategies., which resulted in this comprehensive plan document.Texas Target Communitie

Instructional Models for Course-Based Research Experience (CRE) Teaching

The course-based research experience (CRE) with its documented educational benefits is increasingly being implemented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. This article reports on a study that was done over a period of 3 years to explicate the instructional processes involved in teaching an undergraduate CRE. One hundred and two instructors from the established and large multi-institutional SEA-PHAGES program were surveyed for their understanding of the aims and practices of CRE teaching. This was followed by large-scale feedback sessions with the cohort of instructors at the annual SEA Faculty Meeting and subsequently with a small focus group of expert CRE instructors. Using a qualitative content analysis approach, the survey data were analyzed for the aims of inquiry instruction and pedagogical practices used to achieve these goals. The results characterize CRE inquiry teaching as involving three instructional models: 1) being a scientist and generating data; 2) teaching procedural knowledge; and 3) fostering project ownership. Each of these models is explicated and visualized in terms of the specific pedagogical practices and their relationships. The models present a complex picture of the ways in which CRE instruction is conducted on a daily basis and can inform instructors and institutions new to CRE teaching

Models of classroom assessment for course-based research experiences

Course-based research pedagogy involves positioning students as contributors to authentic research projects as part of an engaging educational experience that promotes their learning and persistence in science. To develop a model for assessing and grading students engaged in this type of learning experience, the assessment aims and practices of a community of experienced course-based research instructors were collected and analyzed. This approach defines four aims of course-based research assessment—(1) Assessing Laboratory Work and Scientific Thinking; (2) Evaluating Mastery of Concepts, Quantitative Thinking and Skills; (3) Appraising Forms of Scientific Communication; and (4) Metacognition of Learning—along with a set of practices for each aim. These aims and practices of assessment were then integrated with previously developed models of course-based research instruction to reveal an assessment program in which instructors provide extensive feedback to support productive student engagement in research while grading those aspects of research that are necessary for the student to succeed. Assessment conducted in this way delicately balances the need to facilitate students’ ongoing research with the requirement of a final grade without undercutting the important aims of a CRE education

Socializing One Health: an innovative strategy to investigate social and behavioral risks of emerging viral threats

In an effort to strengthen global capacity to prevent, detect, and control infectious diseases in animals and people, the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) PREDICT project funded development of regional, national, and local One Health capacities for early disease detection, rapid response, disease control, and risk reduction. From the outset, the EPT approach was inclusive of social science research methods designed to understand the contexts and behaviors of communities living and working at human-animal-environment interfaces considered high-risk for virus emergence. Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, PREDICT behavioral research aimed to identify and assess a range of socio-cultural behaviors that could be influential in zoonotic disease emergence, amplification, and transmission. This broad approach to behavioral risk characterization enabled us to identify and characterize human activities that could be linked to the transmission dynamics of new and emerging viruses. This paper provides a discussion of implementation of a social science approach within a zoonotic surveillance framework. We conducted in-depth ethnographic interviews and focus groups to better understand the individual- and community-level knowledge, attitudes, and practices that potentially put participants at risk for zoonotic disease transmission from the animals they live and work with, across 6 interface domains. When we asked highly-exposed individuals (ie. bushmeat hunters, wildlife or guano farmers) about the risk they perceived in their occupational activities, most did not perceive it to be risky, whether because it was normalized by years (or generations) of doing such an activity, or due to lack of information about potential risks. Integrating the social sciences allows investigations of the specific human activities that are hypothesized to drive disease emergence, amplification, and transmission, in order to better substantiate behavioral disease drivers, along with the social dimensions of infection and transmission dynamics. Understanding these dynamics is critical to achieving health security--the protection from threats to health-- which requires investments in both collective and individual health security. Involving behavioral sciences into zoonotic disease surveillance allowed us to push toward fuller community integration and engagement and toward dialogue and implementation of recommendations for disease prevention and improved health security