Children\u27s attitudes toward persons with disabilities: A comparison of rural and urban schools.

Several individuals need to be acknowledged for their help with this project_ First and foremost, I would like to sincerely thank Melissa Hall and Kelly Branecki. Without their help in data collection, this project would not have been completed. The 5:00 a.m. trip and five-hour drive demonstrated their enthusiasm and dedication to this project. I would also like to thank the administrators who allowed their schools to participate in my study. Additional thanks goes to my committee members, Dr. Robert Woody, Dr. John Hill, and Dr. Hans Langner for their help and feedback. In addition, my advisor, Dr. Lisa Kelly-Vance provided me with excellent feedback and support from beginning to end. On a personal note, I would like to thank all my friends and family for their support of my entire graduate school experience. A big thanks goes to my friend and colleague, Holly Zumpfe, who made my graduate school experience a rewarding time. I think we have read enough of one another\u27s work to last a lifetime. Dr. Mark Shriver and Dr. Judy Mathews were vital resources throughout this endeavor. Their professionalism and drive left a lasting impression that I will forever carry. I am eternally grateful to my parents, Tim and Gay, who have always supported and guided me in reaching my goals. Additional gratitude goes to my brothers, Joe and Jeff, who were willing participants for many school projects. Finally, a special thanks goes to my wonderful husband, Jim, who was supportive of every aspect of my graduate school experience. His help with studying, proofreading papers, listening to my stories, and patience made graduate school less stressful. Completion of this project and graduate school would not have been as enjoyable without the contributions and support of these individuals

Fulfilling Community Health Assessment Requirements: Lessons Learned From Facilitating State-wide Community Health Forums

Background: A prerequisite for National Public Health Accreditation is completion of a Community Health Assessment (CHA) that presents an exhaustive profile of the population served by a particular public health agency. Methods: The Georgia Department of Public Health (GA DPH) contracted with the Center for Public Health Practice and Research at Georgia Southern University to facilitate five state-wide community health forums. Results: Evaluation of the forums yielded qualitative data illustrating current challenges faced by Georgians, as well as assets that could be leveraged to improve health status. Conclusion: Lessons learned from these state-wide community health forums can be applied to improve the overall process of gathering data for a comprehensive CHA throughout Georgia or other areas interested in pursuing public health agency accreditation

Pseudotemporal invitations: 6- to 9-year-old maltreated children’s tendency to misinterpret invitations referencing “time” as solely requesting conventional temporal information

Forensic interviewers ask children broad input-free recall questions about individual episodes in order to elicit complete narratives, often asking about “the first time,” “the last time,” and “one time.” An overlooked problem is that the word “time” is potentially ambiguous, referring both to a particular episode and to conventional temporal information. We examined 191 6-9-year-old maltreated children’s responses to questions about recent events varying the wording of the invitations, either asking children to “tell me about” or “tell me what happened” one time/the first time/the last time the child experienced recent recurrent events. Additionally, half of the children were asked a series of “when” questions about recurrent events before the invitations. Children were several times more likely to provide exclusively conventional temporal information to “tell me about” invitations compared to “tell me what happened” invitations, and asking “when” questions before the invitations increased children’s tendency to give exclusively conventional temporal information. Children who answered a higher proportion of “when” questions with conventional temporal information were also more likely to do so in response to the invitations. The results suggest that children may often fail to provide narrative information because they misinterpret invitations using the word “time.

Health Impact Assessment in New South Wales & Health in All Policies in South Australia: differences, similarities and connections

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background: Policy decisions made within all sectors have the potential to influence population health and equity. Recognition of this provides impetus for the health sector to engage with other sectors to facilitate the development of policies that recognise, and aim to improve, population outcomes. This paper compares the approaches implemented to facilitate such engagement in two Australian jurisdictions. These are Health Impact Assessment (HIA) in New South Wales (NSW) and Health in All Policies (HiAP) in South Australia (SA). Methods: The comparisons presented in this paper emerged through collaborative activities between stakeholders in both jurisdictions, including critical reflection on HIA and HiAP practice, joint participation in a workshop, and the preparation of a discussion paper written to inform a conference plenary session. The plenary provided an opportunity for the incorporation of additional insights from policy practitioners and academics. Results: Comparison of the approaches indicates that their overall intent is similar. Differences exist, however, in the underpinning principles, technical processes and tactical strategies applied. These differences appear to stem mainly from the organisational positioning of the work in each state and the extent to which each approach is linked to government systems. Conclusions: The alignment of the HiAP approach with the systems of the SA Government increases the likelihood of influence within the policy cycle. However, the political priorities and sensitivities of the SA Government limit the scope of HiAP work. The implementation of the HIA approach from outside government in NSW means greater freedom to collaborate with a range of partners and to assess policy issues in any area, regardless of government priorities. However, the comparative distance of HIA from NSW Government systems may reduce the potential for impact on government policy. The diversity in the technical and tactical strategies that are applied within each approach provides insight into how the approaches have been tailored to suit the particular contexts in which they have been implemented. Keywords: Health in all policies, Health impact assessment, Healthy public polic

Anticytomegalovirus Peptides Point to New Insights for CMV Entry Mechanisms and the Limitations of In Vitro Screenings

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a ubiquitous betaherpesvirus that can cause severe disease following in utero exposure, during primary infection, or la- tent virus reactivation in immunocompromised populations. These complications lead to a 1- to 2-billion-dollar economic burden, making vaccine development and/or alternative treatments a high priority. Current treatments for HCMV include nucleoside analogues such as ganciclovir (GCV), foscarnet, and cidofovir. Recently, letermovir, a terminase complex inhibitor, was approved for prophylaxis after stem cell transplantation. These treatments have unwanted side effects, and HCMV is be- coming resistant to them. Therefore, we sought to develop an alternative treatment that targets a different stage in viral infection. Currently, small antiviral peptides are being investigated as anti-influenza and anti-HIV treatments. We have developed heparan sulfate-binding peptides as tools for preventing CMV infections. These pep- tides are highly effective at stopping infection of fibroblasts with in vitro-derived HCMV and murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV). However, they do not prevent MCMV infection in vivo. Interestingly, these peptides inhibit infectivity of in vivo-derived CMVs, albeit not as well as tissue culture-grown CMVs. We further demonstrate that this class of heparan sulfate-binding peptides is incapable of inhibiting MCMV cell- to-cell spread, which is independent of heparan sulfate usage. These data indicate that inhibition of CMV infection can be achieved using synthetic polybasic peptides, but cell-to-cell spread and in vivo-grown CMVs require further investigation to de- sign appropriate anti-CMV peptides