THE EFFECT ON DIETARY QUALITY OF PARTICIPATION IN THE FOOD STAMP AND WIC PROGRAMS

Participants in the Food Stamp Program consume more meats, added sugars, and total fats than they would in the absence of the program, while their consumption of fruits, vegetables, grains, and dairy products stays about the same. Participants in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) consume significantly less added sugars, which may reflect the substitution of WIC-supplied juices and cereals in place of higher sugar soft drinks and cereals. These findings come from a study of low-income Americans using the Continuing Survey of Food Intake by Individuals.Nutrition assistance programs, food intake, dietary quality, Continuing Survey of Food Intake by Individuals (CSFII), Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty,

The Development of the Numeracy Apprehension Scale for Children Aged 4-7 Years: Qualitative Exploration of Associated Factors and Quantitative Testing

Previous psychological literature has shown mathematics anxiety in older populations to have an association with many factors, including an adverse effect on task performance. However, the origins of mathematics anxiety have, until recently, received limited attention. It is now accepted that this anxiety is rooted within the early educational years, but research has not explored the associated factors in the first formal years of schooling. Based on previous focus groups with children aged 4-7 years, ‘numeracy apprehension’ is suggested in this body of work, as the foundation phase of negative emotions and experiences, in which mathematics anxiety can develop. Building on this research, the first piece of research utilized 2 interviews and 5 focus groups to obtain insight from parents (n=7), teachers (n=9) and mathematics experts (n=2), to explore how children experience numeracy and their observations of children’s attitudes and responses. Thematic and content analysis uncovered a range of factors that characterised children’s numeracy experiences. These included: stigma and peer comparisons; the difficulty of numeracy and persistent failure; a low sense of ability; feelings of inadequacy; peer evaluation; transference of teacher anxieties; the right or wrong nature of numeracy; parental influences; dependence on peers; avoidance and children being aware of a hierarchy based on numeracy performance. Key themes reflected the focus group findings of children aged 4-7 years. This contributed to an item pool for study 2, to produce a first iteration of the Numeracy Apprehension Scale (NAS) that described day-to-day numeracy lesson situations. This 44-item measure was implemented with 307 children aged 4-7 years, across 4 schools in the U.K. Exploratory factor analysis led to a 26-item iteration of the NAS, with a 2-factor structure of Prospective Numeracy Task Apprehension and On-line Number Apprehension, which related to, for example, observation and evaluation anxiety, worry and teacher anxiety. The results suggested that mathematics anxiety may stem from the initial development of numeracy apprehension and is based on consistent negative experiences throughout an educational career. The 26-item iteration of the NAS was further validated in study 3 with 163 children aged 4-7 years, across 2 schools in the U.K. The construct validity of the scale was tested by comparing scale scores against numeracy performance on a numeracy task to determine whether a relationship between scale and numeracy task scores was evident. Exploratory factor analysis was again conducted and resulted in the current 19-item iteration of the NAS that related to a single factor of On-line Number Apprehension. This related to the experience of an entire numeracy lesson, from first walking in to completing a task and was associated with, for example, explaining an answer to the teacher, making mistakes and getting work wrong. A significant negative correlation was observed between the NAS and numeracy performance scores, suggesting that apprehensive children demonstrate a performance deficit early in education and that the NAS has the potential to be a reliable assessment of children’s numeracy apprehension. This empirical reinforces that the early years of education are the origins of mathematics anxiety, in the form of numeracy apprehension

Concomitant invasive pneumococcal disease in a patient with COVID-19 – A case report from the Louisville Epidemiology Study

A 60-year-old male presented to the Emergency Department (ED) with a one-two day history of confusion, headache, and subjective fever. Because he had met with a contact two days prior to admission who had recently traveled from the Bahamas, a COVID-19 nasopharyngeal (NP) and oropharyngeal (OP) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test was ordered. He was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis based on presenting neurologic symptoms and the identification of Streptococcus pneumoniae from blood cultures. The COVID-19 NP and OP test returned positive, although he never developed shortness of breath, cough, other respiratory symptoms, diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, or any change in sense of smell or taste. On day three of admission, the patient had improved clinically on intravenous (IV) antibiotics and was discharged home with instructions to self-quarantine. This case demonstrates the possibility of co-infections with COVID-19 and raises the possibility of an association between COVID-19 and patient susceptibility to invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD)

False-negative SARS-CoV-2 Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) is an Important Consideration for Patient Management and Infection Prevention: A Case Report from The Louisville COVID-19 Epidemiology Study

We report a case of false negative SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR on nasopharyngeal swab. Treating clinicians and infection preventionists should maintain a high suspicion for COVID-19 in the appropriate clinical setting despite negative test results. Utilization of chest CT should be strongly considered in the diagnostic work-up for suspected COVID-19, particularly in areas with limited RT-PCR availability

Why Every Hospital Needs a COVID-19 Clinical Case Review Team

A hospital’s response to a global pandemic requires a coordinated effort to provide consistent guidance as information rapidly changes. In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, diagnosis and subsequent containment was challenging due to unfamiliarity with disease presentation, unknown reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction sensitivity and inconsistent access to testing supplies. A centralized COVID-19 clinical case review team can provide guidance on test interpretation, isolation, resource coordination and more

UK surface NO2 levels dropped by 42 % during the COVID-19 lockdown : Impact on surface O3

We report changes in surface nitrogen dioxide (NO2) across the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic when large and rapid emission reductions accompanied a nationwide lockdown (23 March-31 May 2020, inclusively), and compare them with values from an equivalent period over the previous 5 years. Data are from the Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN), which forms the basis of checking nationwide compliance with ambient air quality directives. We calculate that NO2 reduced by 42 %±9.8 % on average across all 126 urban AURN sites, with a slightly larger (48 %±9.5 %) reduction at sites close to the roadside (urban traffic). We also find that ozone (O3) increased by 11 % on average across the urban background network during the lockdown period. Total oxidant levels (OxCombining double low lineNO2+O3) increased only slightly on average (3.2 %±0.2 %), suggesting the majority of this change can be attributed to photochemical repartitioning due to the reduction in NOx. Generally, we find larger, positive Ox changes in southern UK cities, which we attribute to increased UV radiation and temperature in 2020 compared to previous years. The net effect of the NO2 and O3 changes is a sharp decrease in exceedances of the NO2 air quality objective limit for the UK, with only one exceedance in London in 2020 up until the end of May. Concurrent increases in O3 exceedances in London emphasize the potential for O3 to become an air pollutant of concern as NOx emissions are reduced in the next 10-20 years.

Distinct pressure evolution of coupled nematic and magnetic orders in FeSe

We present a microscopic study of nematicity and magnetism in FeSe over a wide temperature and pressure range using high-energy x-ray diffraction and time-domain Mössbauer spectroscopy. The low-temperature magnetic hyperfine field increases monotonically up to ∼ 6 GPa. The orthorhombic distortion initially decreases under increasing pressure but is stabilized at intermediate pressures by cooperative coupling to the pressure-induced magnetic order. Close to the reported maximum of the superconducting critical temperature at p = 6.8 GPa , the orthorhombic distortion suddenly disappears and a new tetragonal magnetic phase occurs. The pressure and temperature evolution of the structural and magnetic order parameters suggests that they have distinct origins

A Patient with Escherichia coli Bacteremia and COVID-19 Co-Infection: A Case Report for the Louisville COVID-19 Epidemiology Study

Patients with COVID-19 may have co-infections with other microorganisms. Here we report a case of a patient with an E. coli bacteremia secondary to a urinary tract infection, who experienced fevers while on active antimicrobial therapy. The patient was eventually tested for COVID-19 and found to be positive. This case emphasizes the need to suspect COVID-19 even in patients with documented bacterial infection

Equilibrium basal-plane magnetization of superconductive YNi(2)B(2)C - the influence of non-local electrodynamics

For a single crystal of YNi(2)B(2)C superconductor, the equilibrium magnetization M in the square basal plane has been studied experimentally as a function of temperature and magnetic field. While the magnetization M(H) deviates from conventional London predictions, a recent extension of London theory (to include effects of non-local electrodynamics) describes the experiments accurately. The resulting superconductive parameters are well behaved. These results are compared with corresponding findings for the case with M perpendicular to the basal plane.Comment: 7 pages, 5 Postscript Figures, 2 table