HOSPITALIZED ADOLESCENTS MISSING OUT ON SEX ED

Human sexuality encompasses the sexual knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors of individuals. Its various dimensions involve the anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry of the sexual response system; identity, orientation, roles, and personality; and thoughts, feelings, and relationships. Sexuality is influenced by ethical, spiritual cultural, and moral concerns (Esses, Small, Rodemann, Hartman, 2019). That being said less than one-half of sexually active adolescents have received counseling regarding contraception and sexually transmitted disease (STD) from their health care provider. We hypothesized that hospitalized adolescents would be interested in receiving reproductive health education and/or STD testing. In addition, we assessed the opinion of female adolescents on initiation of contraception during hospitalization (Guss, Wunsch, McCulloh, Donaldson, Alverson, 2014)

Exploring Agriculturalists\u27 Use of Social Media for Agricultural Marketing

The Internet has had a significant impact in how agriculturists get their information and how they communicate with consumers. The use of user-generated media, especially social media, now provides agriculturalists free and practically instantaneous channels through which to engage with their audience members. The purpose of this study was to explore agriculturalists’ use of social media for agri-marketing. This study used a qualitative research approach consisting of in-depth interviews with four agriculturalists who met certain criteria: an individual (1) working in agriculture, (2) using several social media platforms, and (3) using social media to market his/her own agricultural operation. Analysis of the interview transcripts identif ied seven emergent themes to address the three research objectives. Findings indicated participants became active using social media to combat dominant negative messages about production agriculture. Participants also discussed how they manage their social media presence and balance responsibilities. Overall, they were positive about the use of social media for their own operations and for the broader agricultural community. Additional analysis indicated some gender differences in regard to social media use. Recommendations for both practitioners and researchers are provided to further explore social media use in agriculture

An Educational Workshop to Improve Neurology Resident Knowledge and Understanding of Burnout, Substance Abuse, and Mood Disorders

Problem: Many medical residents are at risk for burnout, mood disorders, and substance abuse. We created an educational activity composed of an online module (OM), an interactive role-playing session (AL), and a video practicum (VP) to inform neurology residents on the aforementioned risks and available support resources. This project evaluates the efficacy of these tools. Methods: PGY2 and PGY3 neurology residents were given OM. In addition, the PGY2 residents participated in AL. Three surveys were given to assess their knowledge about burnout before completing the module (Sur1), after AL session (Sur2), and after watching VP(Sur3). Outcomes: More PGY2 residents scored “confident” (agree or strongly agree) about resources at Jefferson for those struggling with burnout, substance abuse, or mood disorders in Sur2 (n=4/4) vs Sur1(n=0/4). More PGY2 residents scored “confident” in recognizing symptoms in Sur2 (n=4/4) vs Sur1(n=3/4). On knowledge-based questions regarding burnout, average test score increased from 46% to 70%. In Sur3, the PGY2 residents (n=8) outperformed PGY3 residents (n=3) when identifying symptoms of burnout, mood disorders, and substance abuse found in VP (Mean 84% (PGY2) vs. 72% (PGY3), t-test p=0.009). The PGY2 cohort also tended to agree that the video resident was a risk to patient safety when compared with the PGY3 cohort (2, p=0.01). Discussion: Our analysis shows that our educational tools (OM, AL) can improve resident knowledge and skills in handling burnout, substance abuse, and mood disorders

Brain Trust: Students for Students: VCU to RPS Mentorship Program

As a public, urban research institution, Virginia Commonwealth University embraces the importance of developing university-community partnerships that generate innovative solutions to societal challenges and prepare engaged citizens of tomorrow. The Students for Students: VCU to RPS Mentorship Program provides a model that will connect current VCU students to current Richmond Public Schools (RPS) students through a formal, multi-year mentorship. The ultimate goal of this program is to support and positively influence RPS students, while providing current VCU students with an opportunity to give back to the community while developing their mentorship skills. The mentoring relationship will seek to motivate RPS sophomores, juniors and seniors to improve school performance, graduate on time, and craft a post-high school path

Non-Simplicial Decompositions of Betti Diagrams of Complete Intersections

We investigate decompositions of Betti diagrams over a polynomial ring within the framework of Boij-Soederberg theory. That is, given a Betti diagram, we decompose it into pure diagrams. Relaxing the requirement that the degree sequences in such pure diagrams be totally ordered, we are able to define a multiplication law for Betti diagrams that respects the decomposition and allows us to write a simple expression of the decomposition of the Betti diagram of any complete intersection in terms of the degrees of its minimal generators. In the more traditional sense, the decomposition of complete intersections of codimension at most 3 are also computed as given by the totally ordered decomposition algorithm obtained from [3]. In higher codimension, obstructions arise that inspire our work on an alternative algorithm

Assessment of urinary deoxynivalenol biomarkers in UK children and adolescents

© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Deoxynivalenol (DON), the mycotoxin produced mainly by Fusarium graminearum and found in contaminated cereal-based foodstuff, has been consistently detected in body fluids in adults. Available data in children and adolescents are scarce. This study assessed urinary DON concentrations in children aged 3–9 years (n = 40) and adolescents aged 10–17 years (n = 39) in the UK. Morning urine samples were collected over two consecutive days and analysed for free DON (un-metabolised form), DON-glucuronides (DON-GlcA), deepoxy deoxynivalenol (DOM-1), and total DON (sum of free DON, DON-GlcA, and DOM-1). Total DON was detected in the urine of > 95% of children and adolescents on both days. Mean total DON concentrations (ng/mg creatinine) were 41.6 and 21.0 for children and adolescents, respectively. The greatest total DON levels were obtained in female children on both days (214 and 219 ng/mg creatinine on days 1 and 2, respectively). Free DON and DON-GlcA were detected in most urine specimens, whereas DOM-1 was not present in any sample. Estimation of dietary DON exposure suggested that 33–63% of children and 5–46% of adolescents exceeded current guidance regarding the maximum provisional tolerable daily intake (PMTDI) for DON. Although moderate mean urinary DON concentrations were shown, the high detection frequency of urinary DON, the maximum biomarker concentrations, and estimated dietary DON exposure are concerning

Why Boundaries Matter: A Study of Five Separate and Unequal Long Island School Districts

If ever there were any doubt that Long Island, New York, is home to some of the most fragmented, segregated and unequal school districts in the United States, the January 2009 Long Island Index Report, provides ample evidence that this is indeed the case. The quantifiable inequities across the 125 school districts on Long Island in terms of funding, demographics, and student outcomes highlighted in that report portray how important district boundary lines are, even within relatively small geographic spaces. Building on the Index’s presentation of quantitative data, this report offers a more in‐depth examination of district‐level disparities and what they mean in the lives of students, educators and parents across these boundary lines. Although the spatial separation of students across district boundaries has not been the central ‐‐ or even peripheral –focusof education policymakers for the last three decades, we argue that the social science evidence on the consequences of such separation warrants a renewed consideration of these issues. Indeed, in the current era of education reform, with its strong emphasis on standards, accountabilityandmarket‐based policies, little attention has been paid to the relationship between place and opportunity or the way in which “place” is circumscribed by race/ethnicity and poverty to profoundly affect students’ educational experiences. Furthermore, even as the policy gaze has drifted away from these issues, research evidence is mounting that separate can never be equal in public education because of the tight connection between public schools and their larger contexts. This is particularly the case when those larger contexts are restricted by boundaries that demarcate different property values, tax rates, public revenues, private resources, working conditions, family income and wealth, parental educational levels and political clout. All of these factors, which are both internal and external to the schools themselves, profoundly affect the day‐to‐day experiences of children. As a result, we cannot lose sight of why we care about issues of segregation by race/ethnicity or socio‐economic status, particularly as the school‐age population in this country becomes increasingly diverse and as more African American, Latino and immigrant families migrate from cities to the suburbs. Arguments for turning our backs on the problems of segregation and the inequality it perpetuates and focusing instead on how to educate children to high standards “where they are” – be that in all‐black and Latino schools with high levels of poverty or in predominantly white and/or Asian schools with high concentrations of wealth – resonate with current conceptions of what is “wrong” with public education and how we can fix it. This report attempts to build a bridge between the plethora of data documenting the high degree of segregation and inequality in places like Long Island and our nation’s collective understanding of the “problems” facing public education today. We do this by bringing the voices of more than 75 Long Islanders into the discussion and dialogue about public education and what it looks and feels like across school district dividing lines of race, ethnicity, and class. What we hear in these voices – whether they are privileged, affluent white students in a low‐needs district or educators struggling to provide an “adequate” education for the poorest students of color in a high‐needs district – is how the separateness defines them and their educational opportunities. We have learned that school district boundaries in places like Long Island matter a great deal to the students and educators who toil within them each day and to the parents and other property owners who purchase homes in a housing market that is partly defined by their existence. The strong relationship between the disparate educational experiences of children whose schools and opportunities are divided by these boundaries and the unequal values of the property their parents purchase is perhaps the single most important challenge to the so‐called American Dream that we can document. The fact that these disparities are so starkly defined by race/ethnicity and social class should give us pause in a country that likes to think of itself as “post‐racial” and “colorblind.” This report documents the multiple ways in which place and race/ethnicity matter in terms of students’ educational opportunities, and how the two combined and intertwined as they are today in districts, schools and classrooms, define students’ and educators’ sense of possibility and self‐worth in a manner unlikely to ever be undone. These deep‐seated messages become ingrained in the students’ identities and in the reputations of their schools, districts and communities – allowing a self‐fulfilling prophecy to play itself out as students matriculate through the educational system with starkly different opportunities, outcomes and connections to higher education. These ingrained differences in identities and reputations, then, become part of the everyday common sense that legitimizes the current fragmented and segregated system. In a vicious cycle, the resulting inequality becomes, for those on the more affluent and privileged side of the divide, the ammunition for their resistance to change the boundaries or even to allow students to cross them. These complex issues are only understood through the kind of qualitative data that this research brings to bear on the subject of school district fragmentation and segregation. Through the eyes of Long Islanders in five disparate school districts we can see these connections and relationships. This analysis, therefore, helps us understand why ‐‐ despite survey data from Long Island showing members of all racial/ethnic groups state that something should be done to break down the barriers across district boundaries ‐‐ those with the most power and privilege preserve the boundaries around their school districts and thus around other districts as well (The Long Island Index, 2009). This form of double consciousness ‐‐ bemoaning inequality while perpetuating the insidious system that maintains it – represents the 21st Century’s version of the American Dilemma (see DuBois, 2003; Myrdal, 1946)