Exploring a Model-Driven Approach to Social Work Theory Education

Accredited social work programs must use practice experience and theory to inform research and practice, policy, engagement, assessment, intervention, and evaluation with varied constituents. Models to teach theory have been all but non-existent. This manuscript presents the S.A.L.T. model for theory assessment and shares findings when the model is applied to assess students’ knowledge

Computational projection of virion transmission rates to the lower airway from the initial sars-cov-2 infection at the nasopharynx

https://www.rhinologyonline.org/Rhinology_online_issues/manuscript_240.pdfAccepted manuscrip

“Life within the person comes to the fore”: Pastoral workers’ practice wisdom on using arts in palliative care

Background: Pastoral care (also chaplaincy, spiritual care) assists people to find meaning, personal resources, and connection with self, others, and/or a higher power. Although essential in palliative care, there remains limited examination of what pastoral workers do. This study examined how pastoral workers use and consider the usefulness of art-based modalities. Methods: Qualitative research was used to examine the practice wisdom (tacit practice knowledge) of pastoral workers experienced in using visual arts and music in palliative care. Two focus groups were conducted. Thematic analysis was informed by grounded theory. Results: Six pastoral workers shared information. Three themes emerged. First, pastoral workers use arts as “another tool” to extend scope of practice by assisting patients and families to symbolically and more deeply contemplate what they find “sacred.” Second, pastoral workers’ art affinities inform their aims, assessments, and interactions. Third, pastoral workers perceive that art-based modalities can validate, enlighten, and transform patients and families through enabling them to “multisensorially” (through many senses) feel recognized, accepted, empowered, and/or close to God. Key elements involved in the work’s transformative effects include enabling beauty, ritual, and the sense of “home” being heard, and legacy creation. Discussion and Conclusion: Pastoral workers interpret that offering art-based modalities in palliative care can help patients and families to symbolically deal with painful memories and experiences, creatively engage with that deemed significant, and/or encounter a sense of transcendence. Training in generalist art-based care needs to be offered in pastoral education

Master Social Work Students’ Explicit and Implicit Articulation of Theory

Theories that explain Human Behavior and the Social Environment are integral to social workers' conceptualization of their role and practice. Scaffolding the capacity to recognize, apply, and evaluate theory, however, is not easy. Learning how to comprehend and accurately apply theory can be a real struggle for graduate students enrolled in a Masters of Social Work (MSW) program. The purpose of this study was to identify and categorize patterns of how MSW students think about theory in the learning process. This qualitative analysis of 120 anonymous student responses to a case by students in an online MSW program explores the variety of theories students are explicitly identifying. The qualitative analysis offers insights into online Masters level social work students' ways of thinking and learning about theory. Bloom's taxonomy was applied to differentiate MSW students' use of theory. This study also demonstrates that students are not only applying theory explicitly, but often do so implicitly, perhaps without realizing so. By exploring how students construct their understanding of theory and how they vary between implicit theory usage and explicit theory articulation, HBSE educators can identify how to best prepare these students for their future careers

What Is Justice? Perspectives of Victims-Survivors of Gender-Based Violence

This article explores “how do victims-survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) experience and perceive justice?” based on interviews with 251 victims-survivors with experience of different types of GBV and criminal, civil, and family justice systems. Victims-survivors were found to have multiple perceptions of justice, related to different points in their journey following abuse and regarding individual, community, and societal responses. Perceptions relate to accountability; fairness in outcome and process; protection from future harm; recognition; agency; empowerment; affective justice; reparation; and social transformation. Current understandings of justice in legislative and policy approaches reproduce the “justice gap” by failing to take account of how survivors themselves understand and demand justice

Sunyaev-Zel'dovich observations of galaxy clusters out to the virial radius with the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager

We present observations using the Small Array of the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager (AMI; 14-18 GHz) of four Abell and three MACS clusters spanning 0.171-0.686 in redshift. We detect Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) signals in five of these without any attempt at source subtraction, although strong source contamination is present. With radio-source measurements from high-resolution observations, and under the assumptions of spherical $\beta$-model, isothermality and hydrostatic equilibrium, a Bayesian analysis of the data in the visibility plane detects extended SZ decrements in all seven clusters over and above receiver noise, radio sources and primary CMB imprints. Bayesian evidence ratios range from 10^{11}:1 to 10^{43}:1 for six of the clusters and 3000:1 for one with substantially less data than the others. We present posterior probability distributions for, e.g., total mass and gas fraction averaged over radii internal to which the mean overdensity is 1000, 500 and 200, r_200 being the virial radius. Reaching r_200 involves some extrapolation for the nearer clusters but not for the more-distant ones. We find that our estimates of gas fraction are low (compared with most in the literature) and decrease with increasing radius. These results appear to be consistent with the notion that gas temperature in fact falls with distance (away from near the cluster centre) out to the virial radius.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, submitted to MNRAS (updated authors and fixed Figure 1

Endemicity is not a victory: the unmitigated downside risks of widespread SARS-CoV-2 transmission

The strategy of relying solely on current SARS-CoV-2 vaccines to halt SARS-CoV-2 transmission has proven infeasible. In response, many public-health authorities have advocated for using vaccines to limit mortality while permitting unchecked SARS-CoV-2 spread (“learning to live with the disease”). The feasibility of this strategy critically depends on the infection fatality rate (IFR) of SARS-CoV-2. An expectation exists that the IFR will decrease due to selection against virulence. In this work, we perform a viral fitness estimation to examine the basis for this expectation. Our findings suggest large increases in virulence for SARS-CoV-2 would result in minimal loss of transmissibility, implying that the IFR may vary freely under neutral evolutionary drift. We use an SEIRS model framework to examine the effect of hypothetical changes in the IFR on steady-state death tolls under COVID-19 endemicity. Our modeling suggests that endemic SARS-CoV-2 implies vast transmission resulting in yearly US COVID-19 death tolls numbering in the hundreds of thousands under many plausible scenarios, with even modest increases in the IFR leading to unsustainable mortality burdens. Our findings highlight the importance of enacting a concerted strategy and continued development of biomedical interventions to suppress SARS-CoV-2 transmission and slow its evolution.https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8112/2/12/121Published versio

Identifying the science and technology dimensions of emerging public policy issues through horizon scanning

Public policy requires public support, which in turn implies a need to enable the public not just to understand policy but also to be engaged in its development. Where complex science and technology issues are involved in policy making, this takes time, so it is important to identify emerging issues of this type and prepare engagement plans. In our horizon scanning exercise, we used a modified Delphi technique [1]. A wide group of people with interests in the science and policy interface (drawn from policy makers, policy adviser, practitioners, the private sector and academics) elicited a long list of emergent policy issues in which science and technology would feature strongly and which would also necessitate public engagement as policies are developed. This was then refined to a short list of top priorities for policy makers. Thirty issues were identified within broad areas of business and technology; energy and environment; government, politics and education; health, healthcare, population and aging; information, communication, infrastructure and transport; and public safety and national security.Public policy requires public support, which in turn implies a need to enable the public not just to understand policy but also to be engaged in its development. Where complex science and technology issues are involved in policy making, this takes time, so it is important to identify emerging issues of this type and prepare engagement plans. In our horizon scanning exercise, we used a modified Delphi technique [1]. A wide group of people with interests in the science and policy interface (drawn from policy makers, policy adviser, practitioners, the private sector and academics) elicited a long list of emergent policy issues in which science and technology would feature strongly and which would also necessitate public engagement as policies are developed. This was then refined to a short list of top priorities for policy makers. Thirty issues were identified within broad areas of business and technology; energy and environment; government, politics and education; health, healthcare, population and aging; information, communication, infrastructure and transport; and public safety and national security

Comparison of Xpert MTB/RIF with Other Nucleic Acid Technologies for Diagnosing Pulmonary Tuberculosis in a High HIV Prevalence Setting: A Prospective Study

In this prospective, real-world cohort study nested within a national screening program for tuberculosis, Lesley Scott and colleagues compare the performance of Xpert MTB/RIF on a single sputum sample with different TB sputum detection technologies