Trauma Center-Community Partnerships to Address Firearm Injury: It can be Done

Firearm violence is often framed as a problem of the inner cities and of the criminal justice system. However, this focus may direct attention away from smaller communities that also face firearm violence, including suicide. Ten years ago, the Firearm and Injury Center at Penn (FICAP) developed and implemented a model program in three smaller cities, using trauma centers to spearhead community partnerships. This Issue Brief describes the development and implementation of these partnerships, and highlights one community’s ongoing activities to reduce firearm injury

Firearm Injury in America

In 2000, nearly 29,000 people in the U.S. died from firearm injury. The vast majority of these people died from suicide (58%) or homicide (38%). And for every person who died, at least two others were shot and survived, often with permanent disability. The Firearm Injury Center at Penn (FICAP), founded in 1997, is a unique collaboration among health professionals, researchers and communities to address the magnitude and impact of firearm injury and violence. In this Issue Brief, FICAP presents an overview of firearm violence, and discusses public health approaches to reducing the toll of violent injury

The Case for Enhanced Data Collection of Gun Type

Background: National surveillance systems have differentiated long guns into rifles and shotguns but fail to do so for handgun type. We sought to determine whether specific gun type data could be collected and whether knowledge of specific gun types (rifle, shotgun, pistol, revolver) could be used to distinguish gun homicide victims with respect to important injury parameters such as number of wounds. Methods: Data on gun fatalities over a 5-year period in three communities were abstracted from medical examiner/coroner, police, and crime laboratory records. Results: Gun type was obtained for 92% of 490 guns linked to 405 gun homicides. Handguns were associated with more wounds per gun than long guns (p = 0.001) and more entry wounds per gun than long guns (p = 0.002). Among handguns, pistols were associated with more wounds per gun (p \u3c 0.001) and entry wounds per gun (p = 0.001) than revolvers. These same associations were not found among specific long gun types (i.e., rifles and shotguns). Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that information about gun type can be obtained and that significant differences exist in wounds per gun between long guns and handguns and between pistols and revolvers. Classification of long guns into rifles and shotguns and handguns into pistols and revolvers should be included in local, regional, and national data collection systems

Missouri 2011 Soft Red Winter Wheat Performance Tests

This report is published by the MU Variety Testing Program, Division of Plant Sciences, University of Missouri. The work was supported by fees from companies and organizations submitting varieties for evaluation. The large number of varieties available makes selection of a superior variety difficult. To select intelligently, producers need a reliable, unbiased, up-to-date source of information that will permit valid comparisons among available varieties. The objective of the MU Variety Testing Program is to provide this information. Tests are conducted under as close to uniform conditions as possible. Small plots are used to reduce the chance of soil and other variations occurring among variety plots. Results obtained should aid individual growers in judging the relative merits of many of the commercial wheat varieties available in Missouri

Missouri 2011 Corn Performance Tests

This report is published by the MU Variety Testing Program, Division of Plant Sciences, University of Missouri. The work was supported by fees provided by companies submitting hybrids for evaluation. The University of Missouri's hybrid performance testing program began in the mid-1930s, with results first published in 1937. The number of entries in the program has grown from fewer than 50 in the early years to more than 250 today. The large number of commercial hybrids available makes selection of a superior hybrid difficult. To select intelligently, producers need a reliable, unbiased, up-to-date source of information that will permit valid comparisons among available hybrids. The objective of the MU Variety Testing Program is to provide this information

Inner-shelf ocean dynamics and seafloor morphologic changes during Hurricane Sandy

This paper is not subject to U.S. copyright. The definitive version was published in Continental Shelf Research 138 (2017): 1-18, doi:10.1016/j.csr.2017.02.003.Hurricane Sandy was one of the most destructive hurricanes in US history, making landfall on the New Jersey coast on October 30, 2012. Storm impacts included several barrier island breaches, massive coastal erosion, and flooding. While changes to the subaerial landscape are relatively easily observed, storm-induced changes to the adjacent shoreface and inner continental shelf are more difficult to evaluate. These regions provide a framework for the coastal zone, are important for navigation, aggregate resources, marine ecosystems, and coastal evolution. Here we provide unprecedented perspective regarding regional inner continental shelf sediment dynamics based on both observations and numerical modeling over time scales associated with these types of large storm events. Oceanographic conditions and seafloor morphologic changes are evaluated using both a coupled atmospheric-ocean-wave-sediment numerical modeling system that covered spatial scales ranging from the entire US east coast (1000 s of km) to local domains (10 s of km). Additionally, the modeled response for the region offshore of Fire Island, NY was compared to observational analysis from a series of geologic surveys from that location. The geologic investigations conducted in 2011 and 2014 revealed lateral movement of sedimentary structures of distances up to 450 m and in water depths up to 30 m, and vertical changes in sediment thickness greater than 1 m in some locations. The modeling investigations utilize a system with grid refinement designed to simulate oceanographic conditions with progressively increasing resolutions for the entire US East Coast (5-km grid), the New York Bight (700-m grid), and offshore of Fire Island, NY (100-m grid), allowing larger scale dynamics to drive smaller scale coastal changes. Model results in the New York Bight identify maximum storm surge of up to 3 m, surface currents on the order of 2 ms−1 along the New Jersey coast, waves up to 8 m in height, and bottom stresses exceeding 10 Pa. Flow down the Hudson Shelf Valley is shown to result in convergent sediment transport and deposition along its axis. Modeled sediment redistribution along Fire Island showed erosion across the crests of inner shelf sand ridges and sedimentation in adjacent troughs, consistent with the geologic observations.This research was funded by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Coastal and Marine Geology Program, and conducted by the Coastal Change Processes Project. This research was supported in part by the Department of the Interior Hurricane Sandy Recovery program

Effective Trauma Center Partnerships to Address Firearm Injury: A New Paradigm

Background: Firearm violence is the second leading cause of injury-related death. This study examined the use of local trauma centers as lead organizations in their communities to address firearm injury. Methods: Three trauma centers in cities with populations less than 100,000 were linked with a university-based firearm injury research center. A trauma surgeon director and coordinator partnered with communities, recruited and directed advisory boards, established a local firearm injury surveillance system, and informed communities using community-specific profiles. Primary process and outcome measures included completeness of data, development of community-specific profiles, number of data-driven consumer media pieces, number of meetings to inform policy makers, and an analysis of problems encountered. Results: Local trauma centers in smaller communities implemented a firearm injury surveillance system, produced community-specific injury profiles, and engaged community leaders and policy makers to address firearm injury. Community-specific profiles demonstrated consistent firearm suicide rates (6.58–6.82 per 100,000) but variation in firearm homicide rates (1.08–12.5 per 100,000) across sites. There were 63 data-driven media pieces and 18 forums to inform community leaders and policy makers. Completeness of data elements ranged from 57.1% to 100%. Problems experienced were disconnected data sources, multiple data owners, potential for political fallout, limited trauma center data, skills sets of medical professionals, and sustainability. Conclusion: Trauma centers, when provided resources and support, with the model described, can function as lead organizations in partnering with the community to acquire and use community-specific data for local firearm injury prevention

Persistent shoreline shape induced from offshore geologic framework : effects of shoreface connected ridges

This paper is not subject to U.S. copyright. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 122 (2017): 8721–8738, doi:10.1002/2017JC012808.Mechanisms relating offshore geologic framework to shoreline evolution are determined through geologic investigations, oceanographic deployments, and numerical modeling. Analysis of shoreline positions from the past 50 years along Fire Island, New York, a 50 km long barrier island, demonstrates a persistent undulating shape along the western half of the island. The shelf offshore of these persistent undulations is characterized with shoreface-connected sand ridges (SFCR) of a similar alongshore length scale, leading to a hypothesis that the ridges control the shoreline shape through the modification of flow. To evaluate this, a hydrodynamic model was configured to start with the US East Coast and scale down to resolve the Fire Island nearshore. The model was validated using observations along western Fire Island and buoy data, and used to compute waves, currents and sediment fluxes. To isolate the influence of the SFCR on the generation of the persistent shoreline shape, simulations were performed with a linearized nearshore bathymetry to remove alongshore transport gradients associated with shoreline shape. The model accurately predicts the scale and variation of the alongshore transport that would generate the persistent shoreline undulations. In one location, however, the ridge crest connects to the nearshore and leads to an offshore-directed transport that produces a difference in the shoreline shape. This qualitatively supports the hypothesized effect of cross-shore fluxes on coastal evolution. Alongshore flows in the nearshore during a representative storm are driven by wave breaking, vortex force, advection and pressure gradient, all of which are affected by the SFCR.United States Geological Survey Coastal Change Processes Project; United States Geological Survey Mendenhall Research Fellowshi