Building research infrastructure in community health centers: a Community Health Applied Research Network (CHARN) report.

PubMed

Likumahuwa, Sonja; Song, Hui; Singal, Robbie; Weir, Rosy Chang; Crane, Heidi; Muench, John; Sim, Shao-Chee; DeVoe, Jennifer E

2013-01-01

This article introduces the Community Health Applied Research Network (CHARN), a practice-based research network of community health centers (CHCs). Established by the Health Resources and Services Administration in 2010, CHARN is a network of 4 community research nodes, each with multiple affiliated CHCs and an academic center. The four nodes (18 individual CHCs and 4 academic partners in 9 states) are supported by a data coordinating center. Here we provide case studies detailing how CHARN is building research infrastructure and capacity in CHCs, with a particular focus on how community practice-academic partnerships were facilitated by the CHARN structure. The examples provided by the CHARN nodes include many of the building blocks of research capacity: communication capacity and "matchmaking" between providers and researchers; technology transfer; research methods tailored to community practice settings; and community institutional review board infrastructure to enable community oversight. We draw lessons learned from these case studies that we hope will serve as examples for other networks, with special relevance for community-based networks seeking to build research infrastructure in primary care settings.

Building Research Infrastructure in Community Health Centers: A Community Health Applied Research Network (CHARN) Report

PubMed Central

Likumahuwa, Sonja; Song, Hui; Singal, Robbie; Weir, Rosy Chang; Crane, Heidi; Muench, John; Sim, Shao-Chee; DeVoe, Jennifer E.

2015-01-01

This article introduces the Community Health Applied Research Network (CHARN), a practice-based research network of community health centers (CHCs). Established by the Health Resources and Services Administration in 2010, CHARN is a network of 4 community research nodes, each with multiple affiliated CHCs and an academic center. The four nodes (18 individual CHCs and 4 academic partners in 9 states) are supported by a data coordinating center. Here we provide case studies detailing how CHARN is building research infrastructure and capacity in CHCs, with a particular focus on how community practice-academic partnerships were facilitated by the CHARN structure. The examples provided by the CHARN nodes include many of the building blocks of research capacity: communication capacity and “matchmaking” between providers and researchers; technology transfer; research methods tailored to community practice settings; and community institutional review board infrastructure to enable community oversight. We draw lessons learned from these case studies that we hope will serve as examples for other networks, with special relevance for community-based networks seeking to build research infrastructure in primary care settings. PMID:24004710

The Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education at Case Western Reserve University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flannery, Daniel J.; Singer, Mark I.

2015-01-01

Established in the year 2000, the Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education is a multidisciplinary center located at a school of social work that engages in collaborative, community-based research and evaluation that spans multiple systems and disciplines. The Center currently occupies 4,200 sq. ft. with multiple offices and…

"It's the Way That You Do It": Developing an Ethical Framework for Community Psychology Research and Action.

PubMed

Campbell, Rebecca

2016-12-01

In the 50 years since the 1965 Swampscott conference, the field of community psychology has not yet developed a well-articulated ethical framework to guide research and practice. This paper reviews what constitutes an "ethical framework"; considers where the field of community psychology is at in its development of a comprehensive ethical framework; examines sources for ethical guidance (i.e., ethical principles and standards) across multiple disciplines, including psychology, evaluation, sociology, and anthropology; and recommends strategies for developing a rich written discourse on how community psychology researchers and practitioners can address ethical conflicts in our work. © Society for Community Research and Action 2016.

Creating a Community of Practice to Prevent Suicide Through Multiple Channels: Describing the Theoretical Foundations and Structured Learning of PC CARES.

PubMed

Wexler, Lisa; McEachern, Diane; DiFulvio, Gloria; Smith, Cristine; Graham, Louis F; Dombrowski, Kirk

2016-01-01

It is critical to develop practical, effective, ecological, and decolonizing approaches to indigenous suicide prevention and health promotion for the North American communities. The youth suicide rates in predominantly indigenous small, rural, and remote Northern communities are unacceptably high. This health disparity, however, is fairly recent, occurring over the last 50 to 100 years as communities experienced forced social, economic, and political change and intergenerational trauma. These conditions increase suicide risk and can reduce people's access to shared protective factors and processes. In this context, it is imperative that suicide prevention includes--at its heart--decolonization, while also utilizing the "best practices" from research to effectively address the issue from multiple levels. This article describes such an approach: Promoting Community Conversations About Research to End Suicide (PC CARES). PC CARES uses popular education strategies to build a "community of practice" among local and regional service providers, friends, and families that fosters personal and collective learning about suicide prevention in order to spur practical action on multiple levels to prevent suicide and promote health. This article will discuss the theoretical underpinnings of the community intervention and describe the form that PC CARES takes to structure ongoing dialogue, learning, solidarity, and multilevel mobilization for suicide prevention. © The Author(s) 2016.

Creating a Community of Practice to Prevent Suicide Through Multiple Channels: Describing the Theoretical Foundations and Structured Learning of PC CARES

PubMed Central

Wexler, Lisa; McEachern, Diane; DiFulvio, Gloria; Smith, Cristine; Graham, Louis F.; Dombrowski, Kirk

2016-01-01

It is critical to develop practical, effective, ecological, and decolonizing approaches to indigenous suicide prevention and health promotion for the North American communities. The youth suicide rates in predominantly indigenous small, rural, and remote Northern communities are unacceptably high. This health disparity, however, is fairly recent, occurring over the last 50 to 100 years as communities experienced forced social, economic, and political change and intergenerational trauma. These conditions increase suicide risk and can reduce people’s access to shared protective factors and processes. In this context, it is imperative that suicide prevention includes—at its heart—decolonization, while also utilizing the “best practices” from research to effectively address the issue from multiple levels. This article describes such an approach: Promoting Community Conversations About Research to End Suicide (PC CARES). PC CARES uses popular education strategies to build a “community of practice” among local and regional service providers, friends, and families that fosters personal and collective learning about suicide prevention in order to spur practical action on multiple levels to prevent suicide and promote health. This article will discuss the theoretical underpinnings of the community intervention and describe the form that PC CARES takes to structure ongoing dialogue, learning, solidarity, and multilevel mobilization for suicide prevention. PMID:26880738

Multiple Methodologies: Using Community-Based Participatory Research and Decolonizing Methodologies in Kenya

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elder, Brent C.; Odoyo, Kenneth O.

2018-01-01

In this project, we examined the development of a sustainable inclusive education system in western Kenya by combining community-based participatory research (CBPR) and decolonizing methodologies. Through three cycles of qualitative interviews with stakeholders in inclusive education, participants explained what they saw as foundational components…

On measuring community participation in research.

PubMed

Khodyakov, Dmitry; Stockdale, Susan; Jones, Andrea; Mango, Joseph; Jones, Felica; Lizaola, Elizabeth

2013-06-01

Active participation of community partners in research aspects of community-academic partnered projects is often assumed to have a positive impact on the outcomes of such projects. The value of community engagement in research, however, cannot be empirically determined without good measures of the level of community participation in research activities. Based on our recent evaluation of community-academic partnered projects centered around behavioral health issues, this article uses semistructured interview and survey data to outline two complementary approaches to measuring the level of community participation in research-a "three-model" approach that differentiates between the levels of community participation and a Community Engagement in Research Index (CERI) that offers a multidimensional view of community engagement in the research process. The primary goal of this article is to present and compare these approaches, discuss their strengths and limitations, summarize the lessons learned, and offer directions for future research. We find that whereas the three-model approach is a simple measure of the perception of community participation in research activities, CERI allows for a more nuanced understanding by capturing multiple aspects of such participation. Although additional research is needed to validate these measures, our study makes a significant contribution by illustrating the complexity of measuring community participation in research and the lack of reliability in simple scores offered by the three-model approach.

Multiple Household Water Sources and Their Use in Remote Communities With Evidence From Pacific Island Countries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Elliott, Mark; MacDonald, Morgan C.; Chan, Terence; Kearton, Annika; Shields, Katherine F.; Bartram, Jamie K.; Hadwen, Wade L.

2017-11-01

Global water research and monitoring typically focus on the household's "main source of drinking-water." Use of multiple water sources to meet daily household needs has been noted in many developing countries but rarely quantified or reported in detail. We gathered self-reported data using a cross-sectional survey of 405 households in eight communities of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) and five Solomon Islands (SI) communities. Over 90% of households used multiple sources, with differences in sources and uses between wet and dry seasons. Most RMI households had large rainwater tanks and rationed stored rainwater for drinking throughout the dry season, whereas most SI households collected rainwater in small pots, precluding storage across seasons. Use of a source for cooking was strongly positively correlated with use for drinking, whereas use for cooking was negatively correlated or uncorrelated with nonconsumptive uses (e.g., bathing). Dry season water uses implied greater risk of water-borne disease, with fewer (frequently zero) handwashing sources reported and more unimproved sources consumed. Use of multiple sources is fundamental to household water management and feasible to monitor using electronic survey tools. We contend that recognizing multiple water sources can greatly improve understanding of household-level and community-level climate change resilience, that use of multiple sources confounds health impact studies of water interventions, and that incorporating multiple sources into water supply interventions can yield heretofore-unrealized benefits. We propose that failure to consider multiple sources undermines the design and effectiveness of global water monitoring, data interpretation, implementation, policy, and research.

Research for Improved Health: Variability and Impact of Structural Characteristics in Federally Funded Community Engaged Research

PubMed Central

Pearson, Cythina R.; Duran, Bonnie; Oetzel, John; Margarati, Maya; Villegas, Malia; Lucero, Julie; Wallerstein, Nina

2016-01-01

Background Although there is strong scientific, policy, and community support for community-engaged research (CEnR)—including community-based participatory research (CBPR)—the science of CEnR is still developing. Objective To describe structural differences in federally funded CEnR projects by type of research (i.e., descriptive, intervention, or dissemination/policy change) and race/ethnicity of the population served. Methods We identified 333 federally funded projects in 2009 that potentially involved CEnR, 294 principal investigators/project directors (PI/PD) were eligible to participate in a key informant (KI) survey from late 2011 to early 2012 that asked about partnership structure (68% response rate). Results The National Institute on Minority Health & Health Disparities (19.1%), National Cancer Institute (NCI; 13.3%), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; 12.6%) funded the most CEnR projects. Most were intervention projects (66.0%). Projects serving American Indian or Alaskan Native (AIAN) populations (compared with other community of color or multiple-race/unspecified) were likely to be descriptive projects (p < .01), receive less funding (p < .05), and have higher rates of written partnership agreements (p < .05), research integrity training (p < .05), approval of publications (p < .01), and data ownership (p < .01). AIAN-serving projects also reported similar rates of research productivity and greater levels of resource sharing compared with those serving multiple-race/unspecified groups. Conclusions There is clear variability in the structure of CEnR projects with future research needed to determine the impact of this variability on partnering processes and outcomes. In addition, projects in AIAN communities receive lower levels of funding yet still have comparable research productivity to those projects in other racial/ethnic communities. PMID:25981421

The Mobile story: data-driven community efforts to raise graduation rates.

PubMed

Newell, Jeremiah; Akers, Carolyn

2010-01-01

Through sustained community organizing and strategic partnerships, the Mobile (Alabama) County Public School System is improving achievement and creating beat-the-odds schools that set and achieve high academic expectations despite the challenges of poverty and racial disparity. The authors chart how Mobile's Research Alliance for Multiple Pathways, funded through the U.S. Department of Labor's Multiple Pathways Blueprint Initiative, is identifying gaps in services throughout the community, analyzing the data about dropouts, benchmarking other communities, studying best practices, and mobilizing the community to expect and demand higher graduation rates. These activities are resulting in early identification of off-track students and coordination of school- and community-based reforms.

Proposal for coordinated health research in PFAS-contaminated communities in the United States.

PubMed

Bruton, Thomas A; Blum, Arlene

2017-11-14

The drinking water of more than six million Americans in numerous communities has been found to contain highly fluorinated chemicals at concentrations of concern. Certain of these chemicals, including perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, are known to be persistent, bioaccumulative, and associated with adverse health outcomes in humans and animal models. The possible health impacts of exposure to highly fluorinated chemicals are of great concern to communities whose water has been impacted. Community members want information, and are asking for biomonitoring, exposure pathway analysis, and health studies. Governmental agencies are striving to deal with these multiple concerns in the face of information and resource constraints. We propose the development of a high-level research strategy to maximize what can be learned about health effects of highly fluorinated chemicals and methods to reduce or eliminate exposure. We suggest coordinating the research across multiple communities for greater statistical power. If implemented, such a strategy could help to generate information and evidence integration to enable regulatory decision making and contribute to reducing future exposures.

Parent, Family, and Community Involvement in the Middle Grades. ERIC Digest.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rutherford, Barry; Billig, Shelley H.

From a synthesis of findings culled from a study that examined partnerships of families and communities with middle schools at multiple sites, researchers derived eight "lessons" that can help foster understanding of the nature of family-school partnerships in the middle grades. Researchers also elaborated implications of these lessons,…

The role of stabilizing and communicating symptoms given overlapping communities in psychopathology networks.

PubMed

Blanken, Tessa F; Deserno, Marie K; Dalege, Jonas; Borsboom, Denny; Blanken, Peter; Kerkhof, Gerard A; Cramer, Angélique O J

2018-04-11

Network theory, as a theoretical and methodological framework, is energizing many research fields, among which clinical psychology and psychiatry. Fundamental to the network theory of psychopathology is the role of specific symptoms and their interactions. Current statistical tools, however, fail to fully capture this constitutional property. We propose community detection tools as a means to evaluate the complex network structure of psychopathology, free from its original boundaries of distinct disorders. Unique to this approach is that symptoms can belong to multiple communities. Using a large community sample and spanning a broad range of symptoms (Symptom Checklist-90-Revised), we identified 18 communities of interconnected symptoms. The differential role of symptoms within and between communities offers a framework to study the clinical concepts of comorbidity, heterogeneity and hallmark symptoms. Symptoms with many and strong connections within a community, defined as stabilizing symptoms, could be thought of as the core of a community, whereas symptoms that belong to multiple communities, defined as communicating symptoms, facilitate the communication between problem areas. We propose that defining symptoms on their stabilizing and/or communicating role within and across communities accelerates our understanding of these clinical phenomena, central to research and treatment of psychopathology.

Research design issues for evaluating complex multicomponent interventions in neighborhoods and communities.

PubMed

Komro, Kelli A; Flay, Brian R; Biglan, Anthony; Wagenaar, Alexander C

2016-03-01

Major advances in population health will not occur unless we translate existing knowledge into effective multicomponent interventions, implement and maintain these in communities, and develop rigorous translational research and evaluation methods to ensure continual improvement and sustainability. We discuss challenges and offer approaches to evaluation that are key for translational research stages 3 to 5 to advance optimized adoption, implementation, and maintenance of effective and replicable multicomponent strategies. The major challenges we discuss concern (a) multiple contexts of evaluation/research, (b) complexity of packages of interventions, and (c) phases of evaluation/research questions. We suggest multiple alternative research designs that maintain rigor but accommodate these challenges and highlight the need for measurement systems. Longitudinal data collection and a standardized continuous measurement system are fundamental to the evaluation and refinement of complex multicomponent interventions. To be useful to T3-T5 translational research efforts in neighborhoods and communities, such a system would include assessments of the reach, implementation, effects on immediate outcomes, and effects of the comprehensive intervention package on more distal health outcomes.

Research challenges and lessons learned from conducting community-based research with the Hmong community.

PubMed

Kue, Jennifer; Thorburn, Sheryl; Keon, Karen Levy

2015-05-01

Conducting research with underserved communities with little exposure to research presents a number of challenges and opportunities. Our study used a community-based approach to better understand factors that influence breast and cervical cancer screening among Hmong women. This article shares lessons learned during the process of developing and conducting qualitative research with a Hmong community with limited experience with research. We conducted 17 key informant and 84 in-depth interviews with Hmong women and men. Research team discussions, insights from Hmong research team members, input from our Community Advisory Committee, and project documents were sources of information about the process of conducting research in this community. Lessons learned concern including a cultural insider as an investigator; building community partnerships and support; establishing and working with a community advisory committee; hiring and training bilingual, bicultural staff; and using culturally appropriate materials and methods in a small, kinship-based community. We used multiple strategies to ensure that this study was conducted in a culturally appropriate manner. The lessons learned from our experiences can provide guidance to researchers on methodological and practical issues in conducting research with the Hmong and can inform future research with the Hmong and other similar underserved populations. © 2014 Society for Public Health Education.

Building Community Capacity: Sustaining the Effects of Multiple, Two-Year Community-based Participatory Research Projects

PubMed Central

Rosenthal, Marjorie S.; Barash, Jed; Blackstock, Oni; Ellis-West, Shirley; Filice, Clara; Furie, Gregg; Greysen, S. Ryan; Malone, Sherman; Tinney, Barbara; Yun, Katherine; Lucas, Georgina I.

2015-01-01

Background The time-limited nature of health and public health research fellowships poses a challenge to trainees’ and community partners’ efforts to sustain effective, collaborative, community-based participatory research (CBPR) relationships. Objectives This paper presents CBPR case studies of partnerships between health services research trainees and community organization leaders in a medium-sized city to describe how participation in the partnership altered community partners’ understanding and willingness to conduct research and to engage with research-derived data. Methods Trainees and faculty used participatory methods with community leaders to identify research questions, and conduct and disseminate research. Throughout the process, trainees and faculty included research capacity building of community partners as a targeted outcome. Community partners were asked to reflect retrospectively on community research capacity building in the context of CBPR projects. Reflections were discussed and categorized by the authorship team, who grouped observations into topics that may serve as a foundation for development of future prospective analyses. Results Important ideas shared include that trainee participation in CBPR may have an enduring impact on the community by increasing the capacity of community partners and agencies to engage in research beyond that which they are conducting with the current trainee. Conclusion We posit that CBPR with research trainees may have an additive effect on community research capacity when it is conducted in collaboration with community leaders and focuses on a single region. More research is needed to characterize this potential outcome. PMID:25435563

Building community capacity: sustaining the effects of multiple, two-year community-based participatory research projects.

PubMed

Rosenthal, Marjorie S; Barash, Jed; Blackstock, Oni; Ellis-West, Shirley; Filice, Clara; Furie, Gregg; Greysen, S Ryan; Malone, Sherman; Tinney, Barbara; Yun, Katherine; Lucas, Georgina I

2014-01-01

The time-limited nature of health and public health research fellowships poses a challenge to trainees' and community partners' efforts to sustain effective, collaborative, community-based participatory research (CBPR) relationships. This paper presents CBPR case studies of partnerships between health services research trainees and community organization leaders in a medium-sized city to describe how participation in the partnership altered community partners' understanding and willingness to conduct research and to engage with research-derived data. Trainees and faculty used participatory methods with community leaders to identify research questions, and conduct and disseminate research. Throughout the process, trainees and faculty included research capacity building of community partners as a targeted outcome. Community partners were asked to reflect retrospectively on community research capacity building in the context of CBPR projects. Reflections were discussed and categorized by the authorship team, who grouped observations into topics that may serve as a foundation for development of future prospective analyses. Important ideas shared include that trainee participation in CBPR may have an enduring impact on the community by increasing the capacity of community partners and agencies to engage in research beyond that which they are conducting with the current trainee. We posit that CBPR with research trainees may have an additive effect on community research capacity when it is conducted in collaboration with community leaders and focuses on a single region. More research is needed to characterize this potential outcome.

The Community Research Scholars Initiative: A Mid‐Project Assessment

PubMed Central

Pike, Earl; Sehgal, Ashwini R.; Fischer, Robert L.; Collins, Cyleste

2015-01-01

Abstract Community organizations addressing health and human service needs generally have minimal capacity for research and evaluation. As a result, they are often inadequately equipped to independently carry out activities that can be critical for their own success, such as conducting needs assessments, identifying best practices, and evaluating outcomes. Moreover, they are unable to develop equitable partnerships with academic researchers to conduct community‐based research. This paper reports on the progress of the Community Research Scholar Initiative (CRSI), a program that aims to enhance community research and evaluation capacity through training of selected employees from Greater Cleveland community organizations. The intensive 2‐year CRSI program includes didactic instruction, fieldwork, multiple levels of community and academic engagement, leadership training, and a mentored research project. The first cohort of CRSI Scholars, their community organizations, and other community stakeholders have incorporated program lessons into their practices and operations. The CRSI program evaluation indicates: the importance of careful Scholar selection; the need to engage executive leadership from Scholar organizations; the value of a curriculum integrating classwork, fieldwork, and community engagement; and the need for continual scholar skill and knowledge assessment. These findings and lessons learned guide other efforts to enhance community organization research and evaluation capacity. PMID:26073663

Trust Discovery in Online Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Piorkowski, John

2014-01-01

This research aims to discover interpersonal trust in online communities. Two novel trust models are built to explain interpersonal trust in online communities drawing theories and models from multiple relevant areas, including organizational trust models, trust in virtual settings, speech act theory, identity theory, and common bond theory. In…

Community-Supported Data Repositories in Paleobiology: A 'Middle Tail' Between the Geoscientific and Informatics Communities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, J. W.; Ashworth, A. C.; Betancourt, J. L.; Bills, B.; Blois, J.; Booth, R.; Buckland, P.; Charles, D.; Curry, B. B.; Goring, S. J.; Davis, E.; Grimm, E. C.; Graham, R. W.; Smith, A. J.

2015-12-01

Community-supported data repositories (CSDRs) in paleoecology and paleoclimatology have a decades-long tradition and serve multiple critical scientific needs. CSDRs facilitate synthetic large-scale scientific research by providing open-access and curated data that employ community-supported metadata and data standards. CSDRs serve as a 'middle tail' or boundary organization between information scientists and the long-tail community of individual geoscientists collecting and analyzing paleoecological data. Over the past decades, a distributed network of CSDRs has emerged, each serving a particular suite of data and research communities, e.g. Neotoma Paleoecology Database, Paleobiology Database, International Tree Ring Database, NOAA NCEI for Paleoclimatology, Morphobank, iDigPaleo, and Integrated Earth Data Alliance. Recently, these groups have organized into a common Paleobiology Data Consortium dedicated to improving interoperability and sharing best practices and protocols. The Neotoma Paleoecology Database offers one example of an active and growing CSDR, designed to facilitate research into ecological and evolutionary dynamics during recent past global change. Neotoma combines a centralized database structure with distributed scientific governance via multiple virtual constituent data working groups. The Neotoma data model is flexible and can accommodate a variety of paleoecological proxies from many depositional contests. Data input into Neotoma is done by trained Data Stewards, drawn from their communities. Neotoma data can be searched, viewed, and returned to users through multiple interfaces, including the interactive Neotoma Explorer map interface, REST-ful Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), the neotoma R package, and the Tilia stratigraphic software. Neotoma is governed by geoscientists and provides community engagement through training workshops for data contributors, stewards, and users. Neotoma is engaged in the Paleobiological Data Consortium and other efforts to improve interoperability among cyberinfrastructure in the paleogeosciences.

Community males show multiple-perpetrator rape proclivity: development and preliminary validation of an interest scale.

PubMed

Alleyne, Emma; Gannon, Theresa A; Ó Ciardha, Caoilte; Wood, Jane L

2014-02-01

The literature on Multiple Perpetrator Rape (MPR) is scant; however, a significant proportion of sexual offending involves multiple perpetrators. In addition to the need for research with apprehended offenders of MPR, there is also a need to conduct research with members of the general public. Recent advances in the forensic literature have led to the development of self-report proclivity scales. These scales have enabled researchers to conduct evaluative studies sampling from members of the general public who may be perpetrators of sexual offenses and have remained undetected, or at highest risk of engaging in sexual offending. The current study describes the development and preliminary validation of the Multiple-Perpetrator Rape Interest Scale (M-PRIS), a vignette-based measure assessing community males' sexual arousal to MPR, behavioral propensity toward MPR and enjoyment of MPR. The findings show that the M-PRIS is a reliable measure of community males' sexual interest in MPR with high internal reliability and temporal stability. In a sample of university males we found that a large proportion (66%) did not emphatically reject an interest in MPR. We also found that rape-supportive cognitive distortions, antisocial attitudes, and high-risk sexual fantasies were predictors of sexual interest in MPR. We discuss these findings and the implications for further research employing proclivity measures referencing theory development and clinical practice.

Ethical Considerations for Conducting Health Disparities Research in Community Health Centers: A Social-Ecological Perspective

PubMed Central

Scott, Ebony; Melendez, Jennifer; Rodriguez, Anna; Ramos, Rosio; Kanna, Balavenkatesh; Michelen, Walid

2013-01-01

Community health centers (CHCs) provide optimal research settings. They serve a high-risk, medically underserved population in the greatest need of intervention. Low socioeconomic status renders this population particularly vulnerable to research misconduct. Traditional principles of research ethics are often applied to participants only. The social-ecological model offers a comprehensive framework for applying these principles across multiple levels (participants, providers, organizations, communities, and policy). Our experience with the Trial Using Motivational Interviewing, Positive Affect and Self-Affirmation in African-Americans with Hypertension, a randomized trial conducted in CHCs, led us to propose a new platform for discussing research ethics; examine the social, community, and political factors surrounding research conducted in CHCs; and recommend how future research should be conducted in such settings. PMID:24134347

Ethical considerations for conducting health disparities research in community health centers: a social-ecological perspective.

PubMed

Boutin-Foster, Carla; Scott, Ebony; Melendez, Jennifer; Rodriguez, Anna; Ramos, Rosio; Kanna, Balavenkatesh; Michelen, Walid

2013-12-01

Community health centers (CHCs) provide optimal research settings. They serve a high-risk, medically underserved population in the greatest need of intervention. Low socioeconomic status renders this population particularly vulnerable to research misconduct. Traditional principles of research ethics are often applied to participants only. The social-ecological model offers a comprehensive framework for applying these principles across multiple levels (participants, providers, organizations, communities, and policy). Our experience with the Trial Using Motivational Interviewing, Positive Affect and Self-Affirmation in African-Americans with Hypertension, a randomized trial conducted in CHCs, led us to propose a new platform for discussing research ethics; examine the social, community, and political factors surrounding research conducted in CHCs; and recommend how future research should be conducted in such settings.

Dual Language Graduates' Participation in Bilingual and Biliterate Communities of Practice across Time and Space

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Granados, Nadia Regina

2015-01-01

Through a Communities of Practice Network Analysis, this research illustrates the ways in which dual language graduates participate in multiple, varied, and overlapping communities of practice across time. Findings highlight that the dual language school as a shared community of practice represents a critical and formative part of participants'…

Student Research: Documentaries Made in the Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morris, Ronald V.

2018-01-01

Middle school students learned about their community when they created documentaries as part of a state bicentennial celebration. Students gathered multiple primary and secondary resources and worked with community members to interview them for their perspectives through video presentations as part of the inquiry process. Students work with local…

Reflexive Research Ethics for Environmental Health and Justice: Academics and Movement-Building

PubMed Central

Cordner, Alissa; Ciplet, David; Brown, Phil; Morello-Frosch, Rachel

2012-01-01

Community-engaged research on environmental problems has reshaped researcher-participant relationships, academic-community interaction, and the role of community partners in human subjects protection and ethical oversight. We draw on our own and others’ research collaborations with environmental health and justice social movement organizations to discuss the ethical concerns that emerge in community-engaged research. In this paper we introduce the concept of reflexive research ethics: ethical guidelines and decision-making principles that depend on continual reflexivity concerning the relationships between researchers and participants. Seeing ethics in this way can help scientists conduct research that simultaneously achieves a high level of professional conduct and protects the rights, well-being, and autonomy of both researchers and the multiple publics affected by research. We highlight our research with community-based organizations in Massachusetts, California, and Alaska, and discuss the potential impacts of the community or social movement on the research process and the potential impacts of research on community or social movement goals. We conclude by discussing ways in which the ethical concerns that surface in community-engaged research have led to advances in ethical research practices. This type of work raises ethical questions whose answers are broadly relevant for social movement, environmental, and public health scholars. PMID:22690133

Understanding the Context of Health for Persons With Multiple Chronic Conditions: Moving From What Is the Matter to What Matters

PubMed Central

Bayliss, Elizabeth A.; Bonds, Denise E.; Boyd, Cynthia M.; Davis, Melinda M.; Finke, Bruce; Fox, Michael H.; Glasgow, Russell E.; Goodman, Richard A.; Heurtin-Roberts, Suzanne; Lachenmayr, Sue; Lind, Cristin; Madigan, Elizabeth A.; Meyers, David S.; Mintz, Suzanne; Nilsen, Wendy J.; Okun, Sally; Ruiz, Sarah; Salive, Marcel E.; Stange, Kurt C.

2014-01-01

PURPOSE An isolated focus on 1 disease at a time is insufficient to generate the scientific evidence needed to improve the health of persons living with more than 1 chronic condition. This article explores how to bring context into research efforts to improve the health of persons living with multiple chronic conditions (MCC). METHODS Forty-five experts, including persons with MCC, family and friend caregivers, researchers, policy makers, funders, and clinicians met to critically consider 4 aspects of incorporating context into research on MCC: key contextual factors, needed research, essential research methods for understanding important contextual factors, and necessary partnerships for catalyzing collaborative action in conducting and applying research. RESULTS Key contextual factors involve complementary perspectives across multiple levels: public policy, community, health care systems, family, and person, as well as the cellular and molecular levels where most research currently is focused. Needed research involves moving from a disease focus toward a person-driven, goal-directed research agenda. Relevant research methods are participatory, flexible, multilevel, quantitative and qualitative, conducive to longitudinal dynamic measurement from diverse data sources, sufficiently detailed to consider what works for whom in which situation, and generative of ongoing communities of learning, living and practice. Important partnerships for collaborative action include cooperation among members of the research enterprise, health care providers, community-based support, persons with MCC and their family and friend caregivers, policy makers, and payers, including government, public health, philanthropic organizations, and the business community. CONCLUSION Consistent attention to contextual factors is needed to enhance health research for persons with MCC. Rigorous, integrated, participatory, multimethod approaches to generate new knowledge and diverse partnerships can be used to increase the relevance of research to make health care more sustainable, safe, equitable and effective, to reduce suffering, and to improve quality of life. PMID:24821898

Assessing the Impact of Twenty-First Century Rural School Consolidation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Surface, Jeanne

2011-01-01

The purpose of the study was to make a qualitative assessment of the impact of school consolidation on several rural Nebraska communities that have recently lost their schools. This research uses a multiple-case study design with interviews conducted in three Nebraska communities. The data from this research fell into four broad themes: social…

Establishing the infrastructure to conduct comparative effectiveness research toward the elimination of disparities: a community-based participatory research framework.

PubMed

Wilson, Danyell S; Dapic, Virna; Sultan, Dawood H; August, Euna M; Green, B Lee; Roetzheim, Richard; Rivers, Brian

2013-11-01

In Tampa, Florida, researchers have partnered with community- and faith-based organizations to create the Comparative Effectiveness Research for Eliminating Disparities (CERED) infrastructure. Grounded in community-based participatory research, CERED acts on multiple levels of society to enhance informed decision making (IDM) of prostate cancer screening among Black men. CERED investigators combined both comparative effectiveness research and community-based participatory research to design a trial examining the effectiveness of community health workers and a digitally enhanced patient decision aid to support IDM in community settings as compared with "usual care" for prostate cancer screening. In addition, CERED researchers synthesized evidence through the development of systematic literature reviews analyzing the effectiveness of community health workers in changing knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of African American adults toward cancer prevention and education. An additional systematic review analyzed chemoprevention agents for prostate cancer as an emerging technique. Both of these reviews, and the comparative effectiveness trial supporting the IDM process, add to CERED's goal of providing evidence to eliminate cancer health disparities.

Establishing the Infrastructure to Conduct Comparative Effectiveness Research Toward the Elimination of Disparities: A Community-Based Participatory Research Framework

PubMed Central

Wilson, Danyell S.; Dapic, Virna; Sultan, Dawood H.; August, Euna M.; Green, B. Lee; Roetzheim, Richard; Rivers, Brian

2014-01-01

In Tampa, Florida, researchers have partnered with community- and faith-based organizations to create the Comparative Effectiveness Research for Eliminating Disparities (CERED) infrastructure. Grounded in community-based participatory research, CERED acts on multiple levels of society to enhance informed decision making (IDM) of prostate cancer screening among Black men. CERED investigators combined both comparative effectiveness research and community-based participatory research to design a trial examining the effectiveness of community health workers and a digitally enhanced patient decision aid to support IDM in community settings as compared with “usual care” for prostate cancer screening. In addition, CERED researchers synthesized evidence through the development of systematic literature reviews analyzing the effectiveness of community health workers in changing knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of African American adults toward cancer prevention and education. An additional systematic review analyzed chemoprevention agents for prostate cancer as an emerging technique. Both of these reviews, and the comparative effectiveness trial supporting the IDM process, add to CERED’s goal of providing evidence to eliminate cancer health disparities. PMID:23431128

Community-based participatory research in complex settings: clean mind–dirty hands

PubMed Central

Makhoul, Jihad; Nakkash, Rima; Harpham, Trudy; Qutteina, Yara

2014-01-01

Despite the abundance of the literature which discusses factors supporting or inhibiting effective participation of community members in community-based research, there is a paucity of publications analysing challenges to participation in complex settings. This manuscript describes an intervention built on researcher–community partnership amid complex social conditions which challenged participation of community members at different stages of the research process. The research took place in a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon and 1 of 12 in Lebanon which suffer from deteriorating social, economic and physical conditions perpetuated by state-imposed restrictions. The research team developed a community coalition which was involved in all stages of planning, designing, implementation and dissemination. In all those stages the aim was to maintain rigorous research, to follow a ‘clean mind’ approach to research, but maintain principles of community participation which necessitate ‘a dirty hand’. Despite commitment to the principles of community-based participatory research, participation of community members (including youth, parents and teachers) was affected to a great extent by the social, physical and structural conditions of the community context. Characteristics of the context where research is conducted and how it affects community members should not be overlooked since multiple factors beyond the researchers' control could interfere with the rigour of scientific research. Researchers need to develop a plan for participation with the community from the beginning with an understanding of the community forces that affect meaningful participation and address possible deterrence. PMID:23872385

Using Data to Optimize Community College Marketing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clagett, Craig A.

2012-01-01

Marketing is an essential component of an effective enrollment management plan. The broad mission of a comprehensive community college requires multiple, targeted communications campaigns. Institutional research can contribute to marketing success at all phases of decision making.

A Healthy Harvest: Adolescents Grow Food and Well-Being with Policy Implications for Education, Health and Community Planning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pevec, Illene Susan

2011-01-01

The severe youth health crisis involving overweight and obesity requires a complex policy response involving multiple domains: education, agriculture, health services, and community planning. This research examines gardening's affective benefits for adolescents and the potential school and youth gardens have to support healthy communities.…

Disruptions in Emotion Regulation as a Mechanism Linking Community Violence Exposure to Adolescent Internalizing Problems

PubMed Central

Heleniak, Charlotte; King, Kevin M.; Monahan, Kathryn C.; McLaughlin, Katie A.

2017-01-01

Although community violence is an established risk factor for youth aggression, less research has examined its relation with internalizing psychopathology. This study examined associations of community violence exposure with internalizing symptoms, and state and trait emotion dysregulation as mechanisms underlying these associations, in 287 adolescents aged 16–17 (45.6% male; 40.8% White). Community violence exposure was associated with internalizing symptoms, negative affect during peer evaluation, trait emotional reactivity, and infrequent problem solving. Multiple emotion dysregulation indices were also associated with internalizing symptoms. In simultaneous multiple mediator models, indirect effects of community violence on internalizing problems were significantly explained by state and trait emotion dysregulation. Findings implicate emotion dysregulation as one mechanism linking community violence exposure to adolescent internalizing symptoms. PMID:28646545

Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care: lessons from the theory of communities of practice

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background The paper combines the analytical and instrumental perspectives on communities of practice (CoPs) to reflect on potential challenges that may arise in the process of interprofessional and inter-organisational joint working within the Collaborations for Leaderships in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRCs)--partnerships between the universities and National Health Service (NHS) Trusts aimed at conducting applied health research and translating its findings into day-to-day clinical practice. Discussion The paper discusses seminal theoretical literature on CoPs as well as previous empirical research on the role of these communities in healthcare collaboration, which is organised around the following three themes: knowledge sharing within and across CoPs, CoP formation and manageability, and identity building in CoPs. It argues that the multiprofessional and multi-agency nature of the CLAHRCs operating in the traditionally demarcated organisational landscape of the NHS may present formidable obstacles to knowledge sharing between various professional groupings, formation of a shared 'collaborative' identity, and the development of new communities within the CLAHRCs. To cross multiple boundaries between various professional and organisational communities and hence enable the flow of knowledge, the CLAHRCs will have to create an effective system of 'bridges' involving knowledge brokers, boundary objects, and cross-disciplinary interactions as well as address a number of issues related to professional and organisational identification. Summary The CoP approach can complement traditional 'stage-of-change' theories used in the field of implementation research and provide a basis for designing theory-informed interventions and evaluations. It can help to illuminate multiple boundaries that exist between professional and organisational groups within the CLAHRCs and suggest ways of crossing those boundaries to enable knowledge transfer and organisational learning. Achieving the aims of the CLAHRCs and producing a sustainable change in the ways applied health research is conducted and implemented may be influenced by how effectively these organisations can navigate through the multiple CoPs involved and promote the development of new multiprofessional and multi-organisational communities united by shared practice and a shared sense of belonging--an assumption that needs to be explored by further empirical research. PMID:21699712

Collaborations for leadership in applied health research and care: lessons from the theory of communities of practice.

PubMed

Kislov, Roman; Harvey, Gill; Walshe, Kieran

2011-06-23

The paper combines the analytical and instrumental perspectives on communities of practice (CoPs) to reflect on potential challenges that may arise in the process of interprofessional and inter-organisational joint working within the Collaborations for Leaderships in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRCs)--partnerships between the universities and National Health Service (NHS) Trusts aimed at conducting applied health research and translating its findings into day-to-day clinical practice. The paper discusses seminal theoretical literature on CoPs as well as previous empirical research on the role of these communities in healthcare collaboration, which is organised around the following three themes: knowledge sharing within and across CoPs, CoP formation and manageability, and identity building in CoPs. It argues that the multiprofessional and multi-agency nature of the CLAHRCs operating in the traditionally demarcated organisational landscape of the NHS may present formidable obstacles to knowledge sharing between various professional groupings, formation of a shared 'collaborative' identity, and the development of new communities within the CLAHRCs. To cross multiple boundaries between various professional and organisational communities and hence enable the flow of knowledge, the CLAHRCs will have to create an effective system of 'bridges' involving knowledge brokers, boundary objects, and cross-disciplinary interactions as well as address a number of issues related to professional and organisational identification. The CoP approach can complement traditional 'stage-of-change' theories used in the field of implementation research and provide a basis for designing theory-informed interventions and evaluations. It can help to illuminate multiple boundaries that exist between professional and organisational groups within the CLAHRCs and suggest ways of crossing those boundaries to enable knowledge transfer and organisational learning. Achieving the aims of the CLAHRCs and producing a sustainable change in the ways applied health research is conducted and implemented may be influenced by how effectively these organisations can navigate through the multiple CoPs involved and promote the development of new multiprofessional and multi-organisational communities united by shared practice and a shared sense of belonging--an assumption that needs to be explored by further empirical research.

Assessing Adult Exposure to Community Violence: A Review of Definitions and Measures.

PubMed

DeCou, Christopher R; Lynch, Shannon M

2017-01-01

Although experiences of community violence are linked with negative outcomes for adults and children, few standardized measures assessing community violence exist, and available measures lack consistency concerning the definition of community violence. Further, most measures currently utilized to assess adult exposure to community violence were designed for use with children and adolescents. To address these identified concerns and make recommendations for future research, this article reviews contemporary definitions of community violence, identifies the outcomes of exposure to community violence for adults, and evaluates measures of exposure to community violence with published psychometric data employing adult samples. A systematic review of the literature was conducted to identify studies that (1) included a self-report of community violence exposure, (2) included primarily adult respondents, and (3) reported psychometric data. Seventeen studies met the inclusion criteria. Measures employed in these studies were reviewed and basic psychometric properties discussed. Notably, the Survey of Exposure to Community Violence was the most commonly used measure among these studies. Although multiple measures demonstrated limited but acceptable psychometric performance in select studies, few in-depth psychometric analyses exist for measures of adult exposure to community violence. Also, it is difficult to compare studies due to variations in definitions of community violence and multiple versions of each measure. Recommendations for future research include provision of explicit definitions of community violence and reporting psychometric data for measures. © The Author(s) 2015.

The Readiness of English Communication Skills of Tourism Employees in Bangkok for Entering the ASEAN Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuosuwan, Bavornluck

2016-01-01

The objective of this research was to study the readiness of English communication skills of tourism employees in Bangkok for entering the ASEAN community. The scope of this research included the employees from 26 tourism companies. A sample group was determined by utilizing multiple-stage sampling. At least three samples were collected from each…

Risk and Representation in Research Ethics: The NunatuKavut Experience.

PubMed

Brunger, Fern; Russell, Todd

2015-10-01

This article examines Canadian policy governing the ethics of research involving Indigenous communities. Academics and community members collaborated in research to examine how best to apply the Tri-Council Policy Statement guidelines in a community with complex and multiple political and cultural jurisdictions. We examined issues of NunatuKavut (Southern Inuit) authority and representation in relation to governance of research in a context where community identity is complex and shifting, and new provincial legislation mandates centralized ethics review. We describe the politics of risk--the ways in which collective identity and research risks are co-constructed. Our case study illustrates that collective consent to research must emphasize shifting identity construction in relation to the particular risks and benefits invoked by the research question, to ascertain with which groups or individuals the negotiation of risk should take place in the first place. We conclude by describing a necessary re-imagining of policy governing research ethics involving Indigenous communities. © The Author(s) 2015.

Knowledge Discovery/A Collaborative Approach, an Innovative Solution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fitts, Mary A.

2009-01-01

Collaboration between Medical Informatics and Healthcare Systems (MIHCS) at NASA/Johnson Space Center (JSC) and the Texas Medical Center (TMC) Library was established to investigate technologies for facilitating knowledge discovery across multiple life sciences research disciplines in multiple repositories. After reviewing 14 potential Enterprise Search System (ESS) solutions, Collexis was determined to best meet the expressed needs. A three month pilot evaluation of Collexis produced positive reports from multiple scientists across 12 research disciplines. The joint venture and a pilot-phased approach achieved the desired results without the high cost of purchasing software, hardware or additional resources to conduct the task. Medical research is highly compartmentalized by discipline, e.g. cardiology, immunology, neurology. The medical research community at large, as well as at JSC, recognizes the need for cross-referencing relevant information to generate best evidence. Cross-discipline collaboration at JSC is specifically required to close knowledge gaps affecting space exploration. To facilitate knowledge discovery across these communities, MIHCS combined expertise with the TMC library and found Collexis to best fit the needs of our researchers including:

Elucidating the power in empowerment and the participation in participatory action research: a story about research team and elementary school change.

PubMed

Dworski-Riggs, Deanne; Langhout, Regina Day

2010-06-01

Community psychologists are increasingly using Participatory Action Research (PAR) as a way to promote social justice by creating conditions that foster empowerment. Yet, little attention has been paid to the differences between the power structure that PAR advocates and the local community power structures. This paper seeks to evaluate the level of participation in a PAR project for multiple stakeholder groups, determine how PAR was adjusted to better fit community norms, and whether our research team was able to facilitate the emergence of PAR by adopting an approach that was relevant to the existing power relations. We conclude that power differences should not be seen as roadblocks to participation, but rather as moments of opportunity for the researchers to refine their methods and for the community and the community psychologist to challenge existing power structures.

Elucidating the Power in Empowerment and the Participation in Participatory Action Research: A Story About Research Team and Elementary School Change

PubMed Central

Dworski-Riggs, Deanne

2010-01-01

Community psychologists are increasingly using Participatory Action Research (PAR) as a way to promote social justice by creating conditions that foster empowerment. Yet, little attention has been paid to the differences between the power structure that PAR advocates and the local community power structures. This paper seeks to evaluate the level of participation in a PAR project for multiple stakeholder groups, determine how PAR was adjusted to better fit community norms, and whether our research team was able to facilitate the emergence of PAR by adopting an approach that was relevant to the existing power relations. We conclude that power differences should not be seen as roadblocks to participation, but rather as moments of opportunity for the researchers to refine their methods and for the community and the community psychologist to challenge existing power structures. PMID:20232244

Elucidating empowerment in El Proyecto Bienestar (the Well-Being Project).

PubMed

Postma, Julie

2008-05-01

This paper describes differences in how socioculturally diverse participants in one community-based participatory research project negotiated 'empowerment', and the implications of those differences for nurses involved in farmworker health and safety efforts. Internationally, empowerment and community participation are increasingly being used as strategies to reduce health disparities. Theories of empowerment vary in the academic literature and their connotations vary across cultures. Study participants were part of El Proyecto Bienestar, a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project whose aim was to identify and respond to occupational and environmental health threats in one Mexican-American farmworker community in the United States of America. Participant observation was used to audiorecord 18 participants in the third year (2006) of this 4-year project discussing future project activities. Discourse analysis was used to analyse the transcripts. While participants agreed that 'empowerment' was central to the project, they had different perspectives on what the term meant and the role that the project should play in empowering the farmworker community. Empowerment discourses positioned the project in three ways: (1) as an instrument used to strengthen farmworkers' collective political voice, (2) as an instrument used to represent multiple community interests and (3) as an instrument used to advocate on behalf of farmworkers. Individuals used multiple discourses signifying the complexity in participants' roles and obligations. Balancing power and developing knowledge collaboratively requires understanding multiple approaches to empowerment. Community empowerment as an outcome should not come at the expense of individual empowerment as part of the CBPR process.

The Many Histories of Community Psychology: Analyses of Current Trends and Future Prospects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fowler, Patrick J.; Toro, Paul A.

2008-01-01

Forty years since the seminal Swampscott Conference, the principles of community psychology transcend multiple areas of action and research, as well as international boundaries. The extensive development of community psychology offers an opportunity to examine from where the field has come and where it is going. Yet, a systematic approach to…

Professional Learning Communities' Impact on Science Teacher Classroom Practice in a Midwestern Urban School District

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carpenter, Dan

2012-01-01

The purpose of this reputation-based, multiple-site case study was to explore professional learning communities' impact on teacher classroom practice. The goal of this research was to describe the administrator and teachers' perceptions with respect to professional learning communities as it related to teacher practice in their school. Educators…

Multiple Comorbidities and Interest in Research Participation Among Clients of a Nonprofit Food Distribution Site.

PubMed

Higashi, Robin T; Craddock Lee, Simon J; Leonard, Tammy; Cuate, Erica L; Cole, Jay; Pruitt, Sandi L

2015-10-01

Persons accessing food from nonprofit distribution sites face numerous challenges and typically have significant unmet health needs. However, given limited and intermittent healthcare system engagement, this vulnerable population is underrepresented in clinical research. We sought to better understand the health needs of a nonclinical population to inform future research and interventions. Focus groups were conducted in English (n = 4) and Spanish (n = 4) with clients of Crossroads Community Services (CCS), the largest distributor of North Texas Food Bank. Discussions probed participants' health status, healthcare utilization, understanding and utilization of mammography, and attitudes toward participation in research. Participants included 42 CCS clients, primarily Hispanic or African American women. Participants reported multiple comorbid conditions among household members, yet utilization of health services was often limited by cost. The majority expressed interest in participating in research to communicate their health concerns and obtain emotional support. CCS clients represent a high-need, under-reached population willing to engage in health-related research that affords them opportunity to connect with peers in group settings and obtain information to improve management of daily life challenges. The Community Assistance Research (CARe) Initiative, a community-academic collaboration, establishes a much-needed opportunity for ongoing clinical research and intervention among this underserved population. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Research Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Serig, Dan; Hinojosa, Tina

2010-01-01

The field of community art within higher education has made tremendous strides in the past two decades. The origins of community visual arts programming are ambiguous and traceable to multiple time periods and cultural contexts. However, in contemporary practices, higher education institutions are slowly adopting a greater priority for community…

Leveraging a Community Participatory Framework to Move Climate Survey Data into Action at a Small College

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peters, C. Ellen; Benitez, Michael, Jr.

2017-01-01

A participatory framework in conducting research and implementing decisions can engage multiple constituents throughout a college community. At a small college, it is especially relevant, because nonmajority groups are especially vulnerable because of a smaller critical mass.

Visual methodologies and participatory action research: Performing women's community-based health promotion in post-Katrina New Orleans.

PubMed

Lykes, M Brinton; Scheib, Holly

2016-01-01

Recovery from disaster and displacement involves multiple challenges including accompanying survivors, documenting effects, and rethreading community. This paper demonstrates how African-American and Latina community health promoters and white university-based researchers engaged visual methodologies and participatory action research (photoPAR) as resources in cross-community praxis in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans. Visual techniques, including but not limited to photonarratives, facilitated the health promoters': (1) care for themselves and each other as survivors of and responders to the post-disaster context; (2) critical interrogation of New Orleans' entrenched pre- and post-Katrina structural racism as contributing to the racialised effects of and responses to Katrina; and (3) meaning-making and performances of women's community-based, cross-community health promotion within this post-disaster context. This feminist antiracist participatory action research project demonstrates how visual methodologies contributed to the co-researchers' cross-community self- and other caring, critical bifocality, and collaborative construction of a contextually and culturally responsive model for women's community-based health promotion post 'unnatural disaster'. Selected limitations as well as the potential for future cross-community antiracist feminist photoPAR in post-disaster contexts are discussed.

Latino community-based participatory research studies: a model for conducting bilingual translations.

PubMed

Sánchez-Johnsen, Lisa; Escamilla, Julia; Rodriguez, Erin M; Vega, Susan; Bolaños, Liliana

2015-01-01

Many behavioral health materials have not been translated into Spanish. Of those that are available in Spanish, some of them have not been translated correctly, many are only appropriate for a subgroup of Latinos, and/or multiple versions of the same materials exist. This article describes an innovative model of conducting bilingual English-Spanish translations as part of community-based participatory research studies and provides recommendations based on this model. In this article, the traditional process of conducting bilingual translations is reviewed, and an innovative model for conducting translations in collaboration with community partners is described. Finally, recommendations for conducting future health research studies with community partners are provided. Researchers, health care providers, educators, and community partners will benefit from learning about this innovative model that helps produce materials that are more culturally appropriate than those that are produced with the most commonly used method of conducting translations.

A demonstration of mixed-methods research in the health sciences.

PubMed

Katz, Janet; Vandermause, Roxanne; McPherson, Sterling; Barbosa-Leiker, Celestina

2016-11-18

Background The growth of patient, community and population-centred nursing research is a rationale for the use of research methods that can examine complex healthcare issues, not only from a biophysical perspective, but also from cultural, psychosocial and political viewpoints. This need for multiple perspectives requires mixed-methods research. Philosophy and practicality are needed to plan, conduct, and make mixed-methods research more broadly accessible to the health sciences research community. The traditions and dichotomy between qualitative and quantitative research makes the application of mixed methods a challenge. Aim To propose an integrated model for a research project containing steps from start to finish, and to use the unique strengths brought by each approach to meet the health needs of patients and communities. Discussion Mixed-methods research is a practical approach to inquiry, that focuses on asking questions and how best to answer them to improve the health of individuals, communities and populations. An integrated model of research begins with the research question(s) and moves in a continuum. The lines dividing methods do not dissolve, but become permeable boundaries where two or more methods can be used to answer research questions more completely. Rigorous and expert methodologists work together to solve common problems. Conclusion Mixed-methods research enables discussion among researchers from varied traditions. There is a plethora of methodological approaches available. Combining expertise by communicating across disciplines and professions is one way to tackle large and complex healthcare issues. Implications for practice The model presented in this paper exemplifies the integration of multiple approaches in a unified focus on identified phenomena. The dynamic nature of the model signals a need to be open to the data generated and the methodological directions implied by findings.

Influences on the Commitment to and Focus of Community Engagement at Colleges and Universities: A Multiple-Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hawkins, Melissa McIlroy

2010-01-01

Colleges and universities have embraced the importance of community engagement, not only as a tool for student development but also, as a responsibility of the institution to address societal needs and problems. Research is lacking, however, on how institutions with varying missions, histories and cultures perceive their role in the community,…

Community-based health and schools of nursing: supporting health promotion and research.

PubMed

Shannon, Crystal

2014-01-01

This article examines the role of community-based schools of nursing in the promotion of public health and research in poverty-stricken areas. This was a three-phase study (questionnaire and key-informants' interviews) that surveyed representatives of prelicensure associate and baccalaureate nursing schools (n=17), nursing-school key informants (n=6) and community leaders (n=10). A 13-question web-based survey and semi-structured interview of key informants elicited data on demographics, nursing program design, exposure of faculty and students to various research and health promotion methods, and beliefs about student involvement. Nursing schools participated minimally in community-based health promotion (CBHP) and community-based participatory research saw reduced need for student involvement in such activities, cited multiple barriers to active community collaboration, and reported restricted community partnerships. CBHP was recognized to be a valuable element of health care and student education, but is obstructed by many barriers. This study suggests that nursing schools are not taking full advantage of relationships with community leaders. Recommendations for action are given. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Differential Abundance of Microbial Functional Groups along the Elevation Gradient from the Coast to the Luquillo Mountains

EPA Science Inventory

Microbial communities respond to multiple abiotic and biotic factors that change along elevation gradients. We compare changes in microbial community composition in soil and review previous research on differential abundance of microbial functional groups along an elevation gradi...

Surveillance versus Privacy: Considerations for the San Bernardino Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Price, Robert

2017-01-01

This privacy versus security doctoral research examines existing literature, policies, and perceptions to identify the effects of the 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attack on the San Bernardino community. This study contributes to identifying factors that influence perceptions of governmental surveillance. Multiple articles contribute to the…

Literacy in Indigenous Communities. Research Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Broekhuizen, L. David

In this research synthesis, notions of literacy from a variety of inclusive rather than exclusive perspectives are presented. Notions of national literacies, mother-tongue literacies, multiple literacies, and bi-literacies are explored. Information and research pertaining to threatened languages, language shift, and language loss is presented,…

Increasing Residency Research Output While Cultivating Community Research Collaborations.

PubMed

Weaver, Sally P

2018-06-01

Having a research curriculum in addition to hosting a resident research day stimulates research activity in residency programs. Research collaborations outside an individual residency program may also promote research in residency. This paper describes a community-wide health research forum that engages faculty and residents in research while bringing together potential research collaborators from the community. A yearly research forum has been held at a large community-based family medicine residency program for the past 10 years. This forum invites both residency faculty and residents to present scholarly works, and also invites researchers from the community to present health-related research. Presenters outside the residency come from hospital systems, the local university, other residency programs, and community private physicians. Peer-reviewed research publications have increased greatly since the advent of the research forum in 2006, with six publications from 1997-2006 and 26 from 2007-2016. Greater increases in numbers of peer reviewed presentations were also seen. Collaborative research has occurred between residency faculty and multiple departments at the local university including the business school, social work, public health, physiology, and statistics. There are now 28 collaborative projects completed or in progress. Development and implementation of a regional health research event has been a success in increasing faculty and resident research productivity. The even greater success however, is the progress made in advancing research collaborations between the local university and the residency program.

Strategies and Challenges in Recruiting Black Immigrant Mothers for a Community-Based Study on Child Nutritional Health in Ottawa, Canada.

PubMed

Blanchet, Rosanne; Sanou, Dia; Nana, Constance P; Pauzé, Elise; Batal, Malek; Giroux, Isabelle

2017-04-01

There is a need to identify barriers to participation as well as recruitment strategies to engage minority parents of young children in health-oriented research. This paper offers insights on strategies and challenges in recruiting black immigrant mothers living in Ottawa (Canada) for a community-based health-oriented research project among 6-to-12-year-old children. We recruited 259 mother-child dyads. Most participants were recruited by team members during community events, fairs, religious gatherings, etc. Other successful strategies included referral from participants, community partners, and through research team members' networks. Mass media strategies were mostly ineffective. Instant and meaningful incentives, developing community partnerships, building and ensuring study legitimacy and trust, placing convenience of participants ahead of that of research team members, doing community outreach, and taking contact information on the spot, as well as using word-of-mouth were essential to recruiting. This study clearly indicates the importance of adopting multiple recruitment strategies.

Multiple Time Series Node Synchronization Utilizing Ambient Reference

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-12-31

assessment, is the need for fine scale synchronization among communicating nodes and across multiple domains. The severe requirements that Special...processing targeted to performance assessment, is the need for fine scale synchronization among communicating nodes and across multiple domains. The...research community and it is well documented and characterized. The datasets considered from this project (listed below) were used to derive the

What qualitative research can contribute to a randomized controlled trial of a complex community intervention.

PubMed

Nelson, Geoffrey; Macnaughton, Eric; Goering, Paula

2015-11-01

Using the case of a large-scale, multi-site Canadian Housing First research demonstration project for homeless people with mental illness, At Home/Chez Soi, we illustrate the value of qualitative methods in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a complex community intervention. We argue that quantitative RCT research can neither capture the complexity nor tell the full story of a complex community intervention. We conceptualize complex community interventions as having multiple phases and dimensions that require both RCT and qualitative research components. Rather than assume that qualitative research and RCTs are incommensurate, a more pragmatic mixed methods approach was used, which included using both qualitative and quantitative methods to understand program implementation and outcomes. At the same time, qualitative research was used to examine aspects of the intervention that could not be understood through the RCT, such as its conception, planning, sustainability, and policy impacts. Through this example, we show how qualitative research can tell a more complete story about complex community interventions. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Creating Shared Value through Service-Learning in Management Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nikolova, Natalia; Andersen, Lisa

2017-01-01

Service-learning has gained strong interest among educators as a model of experiential education through community engagement. Its potential to contribute to multiple stakeholders, including students, community partners, faculty, and university, is well recognized. While research has focused on elements of this teaching model that contribute to…

Designs for Evaluating the Community-Level Impact of Comprehensive Prevention Programs: Examples from the CDC Centers of Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention.

PubMed

Farrell, Albert D; Henry, David; Bradshaw, Catherine; Reischl, Thomas

2016-04-01

This article discusses the opportunities and challenges of developing research designs to evaluate the impact of community-level prevention efforts. To illustrate examples of evaluation designs, we describe six projects funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to evaluate multifaceted approaches to reduce youth violence in high-risk communities. Each of these projects was designed to evaluate the community-level impact of multiple intervention strategies to address individual and contextual factors that place youth at risk for violent behavior. Communities differed across projects in their setting, size, and how their boundaries were defined. Each project is using multiple approaches to compare outcomes in one or more intervention communities to those in comparison communities. Five of the projects are using comparative interrupted time-series designs to compare outcomes in an intervention community to matched comparison communities. A sixth project is using a multiple baseline design in which the order and timing of intervention activities is randomized across three communities. All six projects are also using regression point displacement designs to compare outcomes within intervention communities to those within broader sets of similar communities. Projects are using a variety of approaches to assess outcomes including archival records, surveys, and direct observations. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the designs of these projects and illustrate the challenges of designing high-quality evaluations of comprehensive prevention approaches implemented at the community level.

Recognizing the Role of Community in Civic Education: Lessons from Hull House, Highlander Folk School, and the Neighborhood Learning Community. Circle Working Paper 30

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Longo, Nicholas V.

2005-01-01

This study unearths and examines rich models of learning in which multiple institutions collaboratively play a role in promoting civic education. Using historical and ethnographic case study analysis, this paper addresses the research question: What is the role of community in civic education? Specifically, the author examines Hull House and the…

Biotechnology: the language of multiple views in Māori communities.

PubMed

Te Momo, O H Fiona

2007-09-01

In Aotearoa (New Zealand), the government funded studies on communicating biotechnology to different sectors in the community from 2003 to 2006. Subsequently, a researcher covering the Māori sector performed a content analysis of data gathered in the community. Qualitative analysis methods included examining text from participant interviews, focus groups, government documents, newspapers, Internet sites, and current literature. Content was coded by identifying common themes in the English and the Māori language. Words like genetic modification (GM), genetic engineering (GE), and biotechnology were explained to provide a basic understanding between the communities and researcher. The terminology applied in the research was essential to achieve communication between the researcher and the community. The resultant themes represented seven views to interpret the communities association with biotechnology: purist Māori, religious Māori, anti Māori, pro Māori, no Māori, uncertain Māori, and middle Māori views. The themes are taken from the analysis of data compiled after 3 years of completing different stages of a research project. The views indicate that a common understanding can be achieved in the diverse range of Māori tribal communities providing those communicating biotechnology can identify the view and interpretations communities associate with biotechnology. This knowledge is essential for government agencies, researchers, community practitioners, scientist, and businesses that desire to dialogue with Māori communities in the language of biotechnology.

Can the democratic ideal of participatory research be achieved? An inside look at an academic-indigenous community partnership.

PubMed

Cargo, Margaret; Delormier, Treena; Lévesque, Lucie; Horn-Miller, Kahente; McComber, Alex; Macaulay, Ann C

2008-10-01

Democratic or equal participation in decision making is an ideal that community and academic stakeholders engaged in participatory research strive to achieve. This ideal, however, may compete with indigenous peoples' right to self-determination. Study objectives were to assess the perceived influence of multiple community (indigenous) and academic stakeholders engaged in the Kahnawake Schools Diabetes Prevention Project (KSDPP) across six domains of project decision making and to test the hypothesis that KSDPP would be directed by community stakeholders. Self-report surveys were completed by 51 stakeholders comprising the KSDPP Community Advisory Board (CAB), KSDPP staff, academic researchers and supervisory board members. KSDPP staff were perceived to share similar levels of influence with (i) CAB on maintaining partnership ethics and CAB activities and (ii) academic researchers on research and dissemination activities. KSDPP staff were perceived to carry significantly more influence than other stakeholders on decisions related to annual activities, program operations and intervention activities. CAB and staff were the perceived owners of KSDPP. The strong community leadership aligns KSDPP with a model of community-directed research and suggests that equitable participation-distinct from democratic or equal participation-is reflected by indigenous community partners exerting greater influence than academic partners in decision making.

Community Involvement among Behaviourally Bisexual Men in the Midwestern USA: Experiences and Perceptions across Communities

PubMed Central

Dodge, Brian; Schnarrs, Phillip W.; Reece, Michael; Goncalves, Gabriel; Martinez, Omar; Nix, Ryan; Malebranche, David; Van Der Pol, Barbara; Murray, Maresa; Fortenberry, J. Dennis

2012-01-01

Limited research exists regarding community involvement and social support among behaviourally bisexual men. Previous studies suggest that bisexual men experience high levels of social stigma in both heterosexual and homosexual community settings. Research focusing on social support has demonstrated that individuals with limited access to similar individuals experience greater risk for negative health outcomes. Using a community-based research design, participants were recruited using multiple methods in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Researchers conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 75 men who reported having engaged in bisexual behaviour within the past six months. Interviews elucidated the experiences of behaviourally bisexual men in heterosexual and homosexual settings, as well as their perceptions of the existence of a bisexual community or bisexual spaces. All participants perceived a lack of a visible bisexual community and expressed difficulty with being comfortable, or feeling belonging, within a variety of heterosexual and homosexual community spaces. Findings suggest the need for interventions focused on community building among, as well as creating spaces specifically designed for, bisexual men in order to increase perceived social support and decrease isolation and possible negative health outcomes. PMID:22978551

Why infectious disease research needs community ecology

PubMed Central

Johnson, Pieter T. J.; de Roode, Jacobus C.; Fenton, Andy

2016-01-01

Infectious diseases often emerge from interactions among multiple species and across nested levels of biological organization. Threats as diverse as Ebola virus, human malaria, and bat white-nose syndrome illustrate the need for a mechanistic understanding of the ecological interactions underlying emerging infections. We describe how recent advances in community ecology can be adopted to address contemporary challenges in disease research. These analytical tools can identify the factors governing complex assemblages of multiple hosts, parasites, and vectors, and reveal how processes link across scales from individual hosts to regions. They can also determine the drivers of heterogeneities among individuals, species, and regions to aid targeting of control strategies. We provide examples where these principles have enhanced disease management and illustrate how they can be further extended. PMID:26339035

"We make the path by walking it": building an academic community partnership with Boston Chinatown.

PubMed

Rubin, Carolyn Leung; Allukian, Nathan; Wang, Xingyue; Ghosh, Sujata; Huang, Chien-Chi; Wang, Jacy; Brugge, Doug; Wong, John B; Mark, Shirley; Dong, Sherry; Koch-Weser, Susan; Parsons, Susan K; Leslie, Laurel K; Freund, Karen M

2014-01-01

The potential for academic community partnerships are challenged in places where there is a history of conflict and mistrust. Addressing Disparities in Asian Populations through Translational Research (ADAPT) represents an academic community partnership between researchers and clinicians from Tufts Medical Center and Tufts University and community partners from Boston Chinatown. Based in principles of community-based participatory research and partnership research, this partnership is seeking to build a trusting relationship between Tufts and Boston Chinatown. This case study aims to provides a narrative story of the development and formation of ADAPT as well as discuss challenges to its future viability. Using case study research tools, this study draws upon a variety of data sources including interviews, program evaluation data and documents. Several contextual factors laid the foundation for ADAPT. Weaving these factors together helped to create synergy and led to ADAPT's formation. In its first year, ADAPT has conducted formative research, piloted an educational program for community partners and held stakeholder forums to build a broad base of support. ADAPT recognizes that long term sustainability requires bringing multiple stakeholders to the table even before a funding opportunity is released and attempting to build a diversified funding base.

Obesity and the community food environment: a systematic review.

PubMed

Holsten, Joanna E

2009-03-01

To examine the relationship between obesity and the community and/or consumer food environment. A comprehensive literature search of multiple databases was conducted and seven studies were identified for review. Studies were selected if they measured BMI and environmental variables related to food outlets. Environmental variables included the geographic arrangement of food stores or restaurants in communities and consumer conditions such as food price and availability within each outlet. The study designs, methods, limitations and results related to obesity and the food environment were reviewed, and implications for future research were synthesized. The reviewed studies used cross-sectional designs to examine the community food environment defined as the number per capita, proximity or density of food outlets. Most studies indirectly identified food outlets through large databases. The studies varied substantially in sample populations, outcome variables, units of measurement and data analysis. Two studies did not find any significant association between obesity rates and community food environment variables. Five studies found significant results. Many of the studies were subject to limitations that may have mitigated the validity of the results. Research examining obesity and the community or consumer food environment is at an early stage. The most pertinent gaps include primary data at the individual level, direct measures of the environment, studies examining the consumer environment and study designs involving a time sequence. Future research should directly measure multiple levels of the food environment and key confounders at the individual level.

Multiple Minority Stress and LGBT Community Resilience among Sexual Minority Men.

PubMed

McConnell, Elizabeth A; Janulis, Patrick; Phillips, Gregory; Truong, Roky; Birkett, Michelle

2018-03-01

Minority stress theory has widespread research support in explaining health disparities experienced by sexual and gender minorities. However, less is known about how minority stress impacts multiply marginalized groups, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people of color (LGBT POC). Also, although research has documented resilience in the face of minority stress at the individual level, research is needed that examines macro-level processes such as community resilience (Meyer, 2015). In the current study, we integrate minority stress theory and intersectionality theory to examine multiple minority stress (i.e., racial/ethnic stigma in LGBT spaces and LGBT stigma in one's neighborhood) and community resilience (i.e., connection to LGBT community) among sexual minority men of different racial/ethnic groups who use a geosocial networking application for meeting sexual partners. Results showed that Black sexual minority men reported the highest levels of racial/ethnic stigma in LGBT spaces and White sexual minority men reported the lowest levels, with Asian and Hispanic/Latino men falling in between. Consistent with minority stress theory, racial/ethnic stigma in LGBT spaces and LGBT stigma in one's neighborhood were associated with greater stress for sexual minority men of all racial/ethnic groups. However, connection to LGBT community played more central role in mediating the relationship between stigma and stress for White than POC sexual minority men. Results suggest that minority stress and community resilience processes may differ for White and POC sexual minority men. Potential processes driving these differences and implications for minority stress theory are discussed.

A Case Study Examination of Best Practices of Professional Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Akopoff, Tanya M.

2010-01-01

A current trend in education is that small teacher groups, called professional learning communities (PLC), are being advocated as a tool to help teachers reach struggling students. Educators planning to use PLC as an intervention strategy can benefit from research-based information about PLC best practices. This multiple case study addressed the…

Sustaining Online Teacher Professional Development through Community Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henderson, Michael

2007-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of community of practice in sustaining teachers' participation in a blended (face-to-face and online) professional development course. Design/methodology/approach: A longitudinal multiple-case study methodology was used in researching groups of five teachers in Australia and four teachers…

The Role of Community, Family, Peer, and School Factors in Group Bullying: Implications for School-Based Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mann, Michael J.; Kristjansson, Alfgeir L.; Sigfusdottir, Inga Dora; Smith, Megan L.

2015-01-01

Background: Although an ecological perspective suggests the importance of multiple levels of intervention, most bullying research has emphasized individual- and school-focused strategies. This study investigated community and family factors that influence school efforts to reduce odds of group bullying behavior and victimization. Methods: We used…

Knowledge Contribution in Virtual Communities: Accounting for Multiple Dimensions of Social Presence through Social Identity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shen, Kathy Ning; Yu, Angela Yan; Khalifa, Mohamed

2010-01-01

Integrating social presence theory and social identity theory, this study brings system design and social influence aspects together to explain their joint effects on knowledge contribution in virtual communities (VCs). Different from most prior information systems (IS) research that adopts a uni-dimensional approach and restricts social presence…

Exploring the barriers to and facilitators of implementing research into practice.

PubMed

Johnston, Bridget; Coole, Carol; Narayanasamy, Melanie; Feakes, Ruth; Whitworth, Gillian; Tyrell, Tracy; Hardy, Beth

2016-08-02

District and community nursing roles have changed rapidly in recent years. Community nurses are increasingly being tasked with carrying out multiple roles, which require them to put research into practice and use evidence-based tools and interventions. The implementation of interventions and tools needs to be developed from empirical research, requiring evidence, to be translated into practice. However, this process may be compromised or enhanced by a number of factors. This exploratory, descriptive qualitative study sought to identify barriers and facilitators to community nurses implementing research into practice. Four focus groups were conducted with registered community nurses and district nurses (n=22). Analysis identified four main themes: keeping up to date with evidence; using a clinical tool; education/training and implementation. Findings suggest that there are barriers at a personal, professional and organisational level. Strategies are suggested to overcome these obstacles.

Battle Mound: Exploring space, place, and history of a Red River Caddo community in southwest Arkansas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McKinnon, Duncan Paul

This research is a synthesis of archaeogeophysical and archaeohistorical data collected from the Battle Mound site (3LA1). Using these data, this research seeks to understand how the site is organized in terms of architectural variability and how differential use areas, such as domestic or community space, can be compared to ethnographic and archaeological data concerning Caddo community structure and landscape use. The research is formulated around three research questions related to spatial organization and settlement patterning, intrasite behavioral practices, and Caddo culture history. Results show that an examination at multiple scales of resolution can inform about the spatial organization and settlement patterning of Caddo communities and how these underlying principles that define space have endured or been modified over time. It also proposes a new intrasite model that can be productively tested with geophysical methods and the mapping of the distribution of features within large village areas.

Experiments in evaluation capacity building: Enhancing brain disorders research impact in Ontario.

PubMed

Nylen, Kirk; Sridharan, Sanjeev

2017-05-08

This paper is the introductory paper on a forum on evaluation capacity building for enhancing impacts of research on brain disorders. It describes challenges and opportunities of building evaluation capacity among community-based organizations in Ontario involved in enhancing brain health and supporting people living with a brain disorder. Using an example of a capacity building program called the "Evaluation Support Program", which is run by the Ontario Brain Institute, this forum discusses multiple themes including evaluation capacity building, evaluation culture and evaluation methodologies appropriate for evaluating complex community interventions. The goal of the Evaluation Support Program is to help community-based organizations build the capacity to demonstrate the value that they offer in order to improve, sustain, and spread their programs and activities. One of the features of this forum is that perspectives on the Evaluation Support Program are provided by multiple stakeholders, including the community-based organizations, evaluation team members involved in capacity building, thought leaders in the fields of evaluation capacity building and evaluation culture, and the funders. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Methods for Influencing Social Policy: The Role of Social Experiments.

PubMed

Shinn, Marybeth

2016-12-01

Research methods in community psychology have grown more diverse since the Swampscott conference, but rigorous social experiments maintain a place among the multiplicity of methods that can promote community psychology values. They are particularly influential in policy circles. Two examples of social experiments to end homelessness for different populations illustrate their role. Both studies show that offering extremely poor and disenfranchised people autonomy and the resources they seek works better than "helping" them to overcome deficits in ways designed by well-meaning service providers. Experiments are neither the first nor the last method community psychologists should employ, but are a critical part of the field's armamentarium for systems change. © Society for Community Research and Action 2016.

Reflections on Native Ethnography by a Nurse Researcher.

PubMed

Abdulrehman, Munib Said

2017-03-01

There are benefits and challenges associated with conducting research in a familiar setting, especially when the researcher is more an insider than an outsider. The aim of this article is to explore the author's experience as a native scholar conducting ethnographic research among the Swahili peoples of Lamu, Kenya. This article focuses on methodological issues related to conducting ethnographic research among the author's own people, including examining the issues of anthropological reflexivity as a native ethnographer and highlighting the author's experiences embodying multiple identities. Native ethnographers must consider the challenges associated with negotiating multiple roles in the research setting, especially in the presence of sociocultural factors such as gender stratification, complex kinship networks, socioeconomic hierarchies, illiteracy, and poverty. Embracing rather than being confused by the multiple levels of understanding native researchers bring to studies of their communities opens up new avenues of research and possibilities.

Harmful Algal Blooms and Drinking Water Treatment Research

EPA Science Inventory

EPA has been conducting algal bloom research at multiple facilities around Lake Erie over the past few years to help communities confront the challenge of keeping cyanobacterial toxins from reaching consumers’ taps, while minimizing the financial burden. The first goal of this re...

Integrating Environmental Sustainability into Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ralph, Meredith; Stubbs, Wendy

2014-01-01

Universities play a fundamental role in addressing global environmental challenges as their education, research and community involvement can produce long-lasting environmental effects and societal change. By demonstrating best practice in their operations, research and teaching, universities have both multiple and multiplier effects on society.…

Developing Critical Understanding by Teaching Action Research to Undergraduate Psychology Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobs, Gaby; Murray, Michael

2010-01-01

Action research assumes the active engagement of the stakeholders, such as the community, in the research, and a multiple-level process of reflection in order to evaluate and monitor the actions taken. This makes action research a suitable methodology to increase the critical understanding of the participants. In this paper we describe the…

Multiple Perspectives on the State-Mandated Implementation of a High-Stakes Performance Assessment for Preservice English Teacher Candidates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chandler-Olcott, Kelly; Fleming, Sarah

2017-01-01

Drawing on situated learning and communities of practice, this teacher-research study examined multiple stakeholders' perspectives about the purpose, design, and inaugural implementation of the edTPA, a teacher performance assessment mandated for state certification. Participants included teacher candidates, mentor teachers, a field placement…

From leaky pipeline to irrigation system: minority education through the lens of community-based participatory research.

PubMed

James, Rosalina; Starks, Helene; Segrest, Valerie Ann; Burke, Wylie

2012-01-01

Higher education has long made efforts to increase underrepresented minority participation in biomedical research and health fields. However, relatively few minority trainees complete advanced degrees or proceed to independent research careers, a loss referred to as the "leaky pipeline." Minority trainees may take alternate pathways to climbing the academic ladder, exiting to pursue multiple disciplinary or community-serving roles. The authors propose a model for understanding minority departures from the education pipeline as a basis for supporting careers that align with community goals for health. Concepts of the traditional pipeline training model are compared with a model that aligns with community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles and practices. The article describes an irrigation model that incorporates informal learning from academic and community knowledge bases to prepare trainees for CBPR and interdisciplinary research. Students serve as agents that foster individual, institutional, and social change needed to address health problems while attending to root causes of disparities. Viewing minority students as agents for community engagement allows institutions to reassess the role training can play in diversifying participation in higher education and research. An irrigation model supports development of an infrastructure that optimizes success at all post-secondary levels, and enhances CBPR capacity wherever trainees live, work, and learn. Linking formal education to informal learning in context of CBPR experiences can also reduce community mistrust of research while nurturing productive research partnerships with communities to address health disparities.

From Leaky Pipeline to Irrigation System: Minority Education through the Lens of Community-Based Participatory Research

PubMed Central

James, Rosalina; Starks, Helene; Segrest, Valerie; Burke, Wylie

2014-01-01

Background Higher education has long made efforts to increase underrepresented minority participation in biomedical research and health fields. However, relatively few minority trainees complete advanced degrees or proceed to independent research careers, a loss referred to as the “leaky pipeline.” Minority trainees may take alternate pathways to climbing the academic ladder, exiting to pursue multiple disciplinary or community-serving roles. Objective The authors propose a model for understanding minority departures from the education pipeline as a basis for nurturing careers that support community goals for health. Methods Concepts of the traditional pipeline training model are compared with a model that aligns with CBPR principles and practices. The article describes an irrigation model that incorporates informal learning from academic and community knowledge bases to prepare trainees for CBPR and interdisciplinary research. Students serve as agents that foster individual, institutional and social change needed to address health problems while attending to root causes of disparities. Conclusions Viewing minority students as agents for community engagement allows institutions to reassess the role training can play in diversifying participation in higher education and research. An irrigation model supports development of an infrastructure that optimizes success at all post-secondary levels, and enhances CBPR capacity wherever trainees live, work, and learn. Linking formal education to informal learning in context of community-based participatory research experiences can also reduce community mistrust of research while nurturing productive research partnerships with communities to address health disparities. PMID:23221293

Developing effective interuniversity partnerships and community-based research to address health disparities.

PubMed

Carey, Timothy S; Howard, Daniel L; Goldmon, Moses; Roberson, James T; Godley, Paul A; Ammerman, Alice

2005-11-01

Health disparities are an enormous challenge to American society. Addressing these disparities is a priority for U.S. society and especially for institutions of higher learning, with their threefold mission of education, service, and research. Collaboration across multiple intellectual disciplines will be critical as universities address health disparities. In addition, universities must collaborate with communities, with state partners, and with each other. Development of these collaborations must be sensitive to the history and unique characteristics of each academic institution and population. The authors describe the challenges of all three types of collaboration, but primarily focus on collaboration between research-intensive universities and historically black colleges and universities. The authors describe a four-year collaboration between Shaw University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). These universities strategically developed multiple research initiatives to address health disparities, building on modest early success and personal relationships. These activities included participation by Shaw faculty in faculty development activities, multiple collaborative pilot studies, and joint participation in securing grants from the Agency for Health care Research and Quality of the federal Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health, including a P-60 Project EXPORT center grant. These multiple activities were sometimes led by UNC-CH, sometimes by Shaw University. Open discussion of problems as they arose, realistic expectations, and mutual recognition of the strengths of each institution and its faculty have been critical in achieving successful collaboration to date.

Developing Effective Interuniversity Partnerships and Community-Based Research to Address Health Disparities

PubMed Central

Carey, Timothy S.; Howard, Daniel L.; Goldmon, Moses; Roberson, James T.; Godley, Paul A.; Ammerman, Alice

2009-01-01

Health disparities are an enormous challenge to American society. Addressing these disparities is a priority for U.S. society and especially for institutions of higher learning, with their threefold mission of education, service, and research. Collaboration across multiple intellectual disciplines will be critical as universities address health disparities. In addition, universities must collaborate with communities, with state partners, and with each other. Development of these collaborations must be sensitive to the history and unique characteristics of each academic institution and population. The authors describe the challenges of all three types of collaboration, but primarily focus on collaboration between research-intensive universities and historically black colleges and universities. The authors describe a four-year collaboration between Shaw University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). These universities strategically developed multiple research initiatives to address health disparities, building on modest early success and personal relationships. These activities included participation by Shaw faculty in faculty development activities, multiple collaborative pilot studies, and joint participation in securing grants from the Agency for Health care Research and Quality of the federal Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health, including a P-60 Project EXPORT center grant. These multiple activities were sometimes led by UNC-CH, sometimes by Shaw University. Open discussion of problems as they arose, realistic expectations, and mutual recognition of the strengths of each institution and its faculty have been critical in achieving successful collaboration to date. PMID:16249303

Using community-based participatory research to develop the PARTNERS youth violence prevention program.

PubMed

Leff, Stephen S; Thomas, Duane E; Vaughn, Nicole A; Thomas, Nicole A; MacEvoy, Julie Paquette; Freedman, Melanie A; Abdul-Kabir, Saburah; Woodlock, Joseph; Guerra, Terry; Bradshaw, Ayana S; Woodburn, Elizabeth M; Myers, Rachel K; Fein, Joel A

2010-01-01

School-based violence prevention programs have shown promise for reducing aggression and increasing children's prosocial behaviors. Prevention interventions within the context of urban after-school programs provide a unique opportunity for academic researchers and community stakeholders to collaborate in the creation of meaningful and sustainable violence prevention initiatives. This paper describes the development of a collaborative between academic researchers and community leaders to design a youth violence prevention/leadership promotion program (PARTNERS Program) for urban adolescents. Employing a community-based participatory research (CBPR) model, this project addresses the needs of urban youth, their families, and their community. Multiple strategies were used to engage community members in the development and implementation of the PARTNERS Program. These included focus groups, pilot testing the program in an after-school venue, and conducting organizational assessments of after-school sites as potential locations for the intervention. Community members and academic researchers successfully worked together in all stages of the project development. Community feedback helped the PARTNERS team redesign the proposed implementation and evaluation of the PARTNERS Program such that the revised study design allows for all sites to obtain the intervention over time and increases the possibility of building community capacity and sustainability of programs. Despite several challenges inherent to CBPR, the current study provides a number of lessons learned for the continued development of relationships and trust among researchers and community members, with particular attention to balancing the demand for systematic implementation of community-based interventions while being responsive to the immediate needs of the community.

Community Schools: a Public Health Opportunity to Reverse Urban Cycles of Disadvantage.

PubMed

Diamond, Catherine; Freudenberg, Nicholas

2016-12-01

Community schools link students, families, and communities to educate children and strengthen neighborhoods. They have become a popular model for education in many US cities in part because they build on community assets and address multiple determinants of educational disadvantage. Since community schools seek to have an impact on populations, not just the children enrolled, they provide an opportunity to improve community health. Community schools influence the health and education of neighborhood residents though three pathways: building trust, establishing norms, and linking people to networks and services. Through such services as school-based health centers, nutrition education, family mental health counseling, violence prevention, and sexuality education, these schools build on the multiple reciprocal relationships between health and education. By developing closer ties between community schools and neighborhood health programs, public health professionals can help to mobilize a powerful new resource for reducing the health and educational inequalities that now characterize US cities. We suggest an agenda for research, practice, and policy that can build the evidence needed to guide such a strategy.

The importance of the community context in the epidemiology of early adolescent substance use and delinquency in a rural sample.

PubMed

Chilenski, Sarah M; Greenberg, Mark T

2009-12-01

Considerable research has demonstrated that substance use and delinquency during early adolescence can have long-term negative health consequences. As the correlates of these behaviors cross levels and contexts, it is likely that a social ecological approach will provide insight to inform community prevention. This approach informs the present study, which focuses on developing a multiple-method measurement strategy to examine associations among community risks, resources, and rates of early adolescent substance use and delinquency in 28 rural and small town communities. Measures include five domains of community risk, four domains of community resources, and population rates of early adolescent substance use and delinquency. Results demonstrated that several measures of context were significantly associated with community rates of adolescent substance use and delinquency, and different risks and resources appear important for different outcomes. Multiple associations were curvilinear, and interactions may also be important. Findings suggest that it may be worthwhile to create and test new intervention strategies that target community factors in the pursuit of prevention.

Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration (CORD): Evaluation plan

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration (CORD) project evaluation will determine the extent to which the CORD model of linking primary care (PC) interventions to public health (PH) interventions in multiple community sectors affects BMI and behavior in children (2 to 12 years). The evaluation c...

Homelessness among older african-american women: interpreting a serious social issue through the arts in community-based participatory action research.

PubMed

Feen-Calligan, Holly; Washington, Olivia G M; Moxley, David P

2009-01-01

This article describes the incorporation of the arts into a community-based participatory action research (CBPAR) project formulated to develop and test practices for helping homeless older African-American women. Studying how older African-American women become homeless has evolved into developing and testing promising interventions by the Leaving Homelessness Intervention Research Project (LHIRP). The women's participation in creative group activities helped them to communicate their experience with homelessness, express their concerns, develop personal strengths, and obtained mutual understanding. The use of multiple art forms has revealed a number of creative strengths among the participants, which have in turn inspired innovative artistic strategies and methodologies as part of the multiple methods that LHIRP incorporates. These interventions have been useful in helping participants resolve their homelessness. The role and benefit of the arts in CBPAR is described to show how creative activities help researchers and the public to better understand the complexities of homelessness.

A Community-Based Participatory Planning Process and Multilevel Intervention Design: Toward Eliminating Cardiovascular Health Inequities

PubMed Central

Schulz, Amy J.; Israel, Barbara A.; Coombe, Chris M.; Gaines, Causandra; Reyes, Angela G.; Rowe, Zachary; Sand, Sharon; Strong, Larkin L.; Weir, Sheryl

2010-01-01

The elimination of persistent health inequities requires the engagement of multiple perspectives, resources and skills. Community-based participatory research is one approach to developing action strategies that promote health equity by addressing contextual as well as individual level factors, and that can contribute to addressing more fundamental factors linked to health inequity. Yet many questions remain about how to implement participatory processes that engage local insights and expertise, are informed by the existing public health knowledge base, and build support across multiple sectors to implement solutions. We describe a CBPR approach used to conduct a community assessment and action planning process, culminating in development of a multilevel intervention to address inequalities in cardiovascular disease in Detroit, Michigan. We consider implications for future efforts to engage communities in developing strategies toward eliminating health inequities. PMID:21873580

Information Commons for Rice (IC4R)

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Rice is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population and also a key model organism for plant research. Here, we present Information Commons for Rice (IC4R; http://ic4r.org), a rice knowledgebase featuring adoption of an extensible and sustainable architecture that integrates multiple omics data through community-contributed modules. Each module is developed and maintained by different committed groups, deals with data collection, processing and visualization, and delivers data on-demand via web services. In the current version, IC4R incorporates a variety of rice data through multiple committed modules, including genome-wide expression profiles derived entirely from RNA-Seq data, resequencing-based genomic variations obtained from re-sequencing data of thousands of rice varieties, plant homologous genes covering multiple diverse plant species, post-translational modifications, rice-related literatures and gene annotations contributed by the rice research community. Unlike extant related databases, IC4R is designed for scalability and sustainability and thus also features collaborative integration of rice data and low costs for database update and maintenance. Future directions of IC4R include incorporation of other omics data and association of multiple omics data with agronomically important traits, dedicating to build IC4R into a valuable knowledgebase for both basic and translational researches in rice. PMID:26519466

Differential abundance of microbial functional groups along the elevation gradient from the coast to the Luquillo Mountains

Treesearch

Sharon A. Cantrell; D. Jean Lodge; Carlos A. Cruz; Luis M. García; Jose R. Pérez-Jiménez; Marirosa Molina

2013-01-01

Microbial communities respond to multiple abiotic and biotic factors that change along elevation gradients. We compare changes in microbial community composition in soil and review previous research on differential abundance of microbial functional groups along an elevation gradient in eastern Puerto Rico. Previous studies within the Luquillo Mountains showed that...

School Dropout Prevention: What Arts-Based Community and Out-of-School-Time Programs Can Contribute

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Charmaraman, Linda; Hall, Georgia

2011-01-01

Out-of-school-time programs, especially arts-based programs, can be critical players in a community's efforts to prevent school dropout. This research review suggests the following approaches for arts-based programs: (1) recruitment and retention of target populations with multiple risk factors; (2) long-term skill development that engages youth…

To What Extent Do Teachers in European Countries Differ in Their Professional Community Practices?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lomos, Catalina

2017-01-01

Within comparative school effectiveness research facilitated by large-scale data across countries, this article presents the results of the testing for measurement invariance of the latent concept of Professional Community (PC) across 23 European countries and more than 35,000 teachers in secondary schools. The newly proposed Multiple-Group Factor…

Understanding Communities of Neglectful Parents: Child Caregiving Networks and Child Neglect

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roditti, Martha G.

2005-01-01

This article focuses on family social networks and the community of caregivers of neglected children. If neglect is part of family functioning, who watches over the children? Using a case study approach, this study researched 12 children and their parents. Several concepts, such as multiple caregiving and kin keepers, revealed that study children…

Perceptions of Personnel at Selected Texas Community Colleges Regarding the Impact of Technology on Their Libraries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kenan, Sharon K.

2012-01-01

Technological innovations have transformed all areas of community college libraries. Automated library systems, office software, and Internet access have altered work processes for library personnel and have changed research methodologies for students and faculty. The purpose of this bounded multiple case study was to explore how the adoption of…

A Census of Housing at United States Community Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hofman, Ryan P.

2014-01-01

This research has multiple purposes. The first purpose is to strengthen an original argument offered by Dr. Pat Moeck in 2005 that community colleges do in fact provide housing at a significant level, and the benefits are produced through the administration of on-campus and institutionally controlled housing. Using an exhaustive search of both the…

Community narratives about women and HIV risk in 21 high-burden communities in Zambia and South Africa.

PubMed

Viljoen, Lario; Ndubani, Rhoda; Bond, Virginia; Seeley, Janet; Reynolds, Lindsey; Hoddinott, Graeme

2017-01-01

Public health researchers repeatedly represent women as a group vulnerable to ill health. This has been particularly true in the field of HIV research, where women are disproportionately affected by HIV in terms of disease burden and the social effects of the epidemic. Although women have been the focus of many prevention and treatment programs, structural barriers to implementation of these targeted programs persist. In this article we explore how high HIV-burden communities in South Africa and Zambia engage with the concepts of "woman" and "HIV risk". The data are drawn from participatory storytelling activities completed with 604 participants across 78 group discussions between December 2012 and May 2013. During discussions we found that participants made use of the core archetypal caricatures of "goodness," "badness," and "vulnerability" when describing women's HIV risk. Community members shifted between these categories in their characterizations of women, as they acknowledged the multiple roles women play, internalized different stories about women, and sometimes shifted register in the same stories. Findings suggest that health implementers, in consultation with community members, should consider the multiple positions women occupy and how this impacts the wider community's understandings of women and "risk". This approach of taking on board community understandings of the complexity of HIV risk can inform the design and implementation of HIV prevention and care programs by rendering programs more focused and in-line with community needs.

Establishment of a Community Advisory Board (CAB) for tuberculosis control and research in the Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu (INK) area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

PubMed

Ntshanga, Sbongile P; Ngcobo, Paulos S; Mabaso, Musawenkosi L H

2010-05-01

To strengthen community mobilization, education, awareness and involvement in research to improve Tuberculosis (TB) control, by building partnership between communities and the health sector through the establishment of a Community Advisory Board (CAB) in the Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu (INK) area. Key stakeholders from multiple sectors of the target community were identified. Two workshops were held with the aim of communicating the need for CAB and selecting its members. A 22 member INK CAB with representatives from different sectors in the community was selected. CAB members were trained through a 2-day workshop on TB and research. Various activities were successfully initiated and spearheaded by the INK CAB, and these involved training of Traditional Healers, recruiting of more TB tracer teams, organizing awareness campaigns during TB World Day, establishing TB school peer educators and links with NGOs to support impoverished TB patients all with positive outcomes. The INK CAB is a successful example of providing a mechanism for community consultation and participation that contributes to promoting and facilitating relevant research and TB control activities. Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Community as classroom: teaching and learning public health in rural Appalachia.

PubMed

Florence, James; Behringer, Bruce

2011-01-01

Traditional models for public health professional education tend to be didactic, with brief, discrete practica appended. National reports of both practitioners and academicians have called for more competency-driven, interdisciplinary-focused, community-based, service-oriented, and experientially-guided learning for students across the curriculum. East Tennessee State University began its own curricular revisioning in health professions education nearly 2 decades ago with a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, emphasizing competencies development through community-based learning in community-academic partnerships. This article describes 3 examples that grew from that initiative. In the first example, students in multiple classes delivered a longitudinal community-based employee wellness intervention for a rural county school district. BS public health students conducted needs assessments and prepared health education materials; MPH students conducted health assessments and worked with school wellness councils to deliver client-centered interventions; DrPH students supervised the project and provided feedback to the schools using participatory methods. In the second example, MPH students in a social-behavioral foundations course used experiential learning to investigate the region's elevated cancer mortality ranking. Following meetings with multiple community groups, students employed theoretical constructs to frame regional beliefs about cancer and presented findings to community leaders. One outcome was a 5-year community-based participatory research study of cancer in rural Appalachia. In the third example, MPH students in a health-consulting course assessed local African Americans' awareness of the university's health and education programs and perceptions of their community health issues. Students learned consultation methods by assisting at multiple regional African American community meetings to discover issues and interest that resulted in the organization of a regional African American health coalition, multiple community health interventions, and the region's first health disparities summit. Lessons learned are presented which identify key elements of success and factors that influence adoption of community-based teaching and learning in public health.

Recruitment for health disparities preventive intervention trials: the early childhood caries collaborating centers.

PubMed

Tiwari, Tamanna; Casciello, Alana; Gansky, Stuart A; Henshaw, Michelle; Ramos-Gomez, Francisco; Rasmussen, Margaret; Garcia, Raul I; Albino, Judith; Batliner, Terrence S

2014-08-07

Four trials of interventions designed to prevent early childhood caries are using community-engagement strategies to improve recruitment of low-income, racial/ethnic minority participants. The trials are being implemented by 3 centers funded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research and known as the Early Childhood Caries Collaborating Centers (EC4): the Center for Native Oral Health Research at the University of Colorado, the Center to Address Disparities in Children's Oral Health at the University of California San Francisco, and the Center for Research to Evaluate and Eliminate Dental Disparities at Boston University. The community contexts for the EC4 trials include urban public housing developments, Hispanic communities near the US-Mexican border, and rural American Indian reservations. These communities have a high prevalence of early childhood caries, suggesting the need for effective, culturally acceptable interventions. Each center's intervention(s) used community-based participatory research approaches, identified community partners, engaged the community through various means, and developed communication strategies to enhance recruitment. All 3 centers have completed recruitment. Each center implemented several new strategies and approaches to enhance recruitment efforts, such as introducing new communication techniques, using media such as radio and newspapers to spread awareness about the studies, and hosting community gatherings. Using multiple strategies that build trust in the community, are sensitive to cultural norms, and are adaptable to the community environment can enhance recruitment in underserved communities.

Building effective working relationships across culturally and ethnically diverse communities.

PubMed

Hosley, Cheryl A; Gensheimer, Linda; Yang, Mai

2003-01-01

Amherst H. Wilder Foundation's Social Adjustment Program for Southeast Asians is implementing two collaborative, best practice, mental health and substance abuse prevention service models in Minnesota. It faced several issues in effectively bridging multiple cultural groups, including building a diverse collaborative team, involving families and youth, reconciling cultural variation in meeting styles, and making best practice models culturally appropriate. Researchers and program staff used multiple strategies to address these challenges and build successful partnerships. Through shared goals, flexibility, and a willingness to explore and address challenges, collaboratives can promote stronger relationships across cultural communities and improve their service delivery systems.

High-throughput amplicon sequencing and stream benthic bacteria: identifying the best taxonomic level for multiple-stressor research

PubMed Central

Salis, R. K.; Bruder, A.; Piggott, J. J.; Summerfield, T. C.; Matthaei, C. D.

2017-01-01

Disentangling the individual and interactive effects of multiple stressors on microbial communities is a key challenge to our understanding and management of ecosystems. Advances in molecular techniques allow studying microbial communities in situ and with high taxonomic resolution. However, the taxonomic level which provides the best trade-off between our ability to detect multiple-stressor effects versus the goal of studying entire communities remains unknown. We used outdoor mesocosms simulating small streams to investigate the effects of four agricultural stressors (nutrient enrichment, the nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide (DCD), fine sediment and flow velocity reduction) on stream bacteria (phyla, orders, genera, and species represented by Operational Taxonomic Units with 97% sequence similarity). Community composition was assessed using amplicon sequencing (16S rRNA gene, V3-V4 region). DCD was the most pervasive stressor, affecting evenness and most abundant taxa, followed by sediment and flow velocity. Stressor pervasiveness was similar across taxonomic levels and lower levels did not perform better in detecting stressor effects. Community coverage decreased from 96% of all sequences for abundant phyla to 28% for species. Order-level responses were generally representative of responses of corresponding genera and species, suggesting that this level may represent the best compromise between stressor sensitivity and coverage of bacterial communities. PMID:28327636

The Changing Role of Data Stewardship in Creating Trustworthy, Interdisciplinary High Performance Data Platforms for the Future.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Richards, C. J.; Evans, B. J. K.; Wyborn, L. A.; Wang, J.; Trenham, C. E.; Druken, K. A.

2016-12-01

The Australian National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) has ingested over 10PB of national and international environmental, Earth systems science and geophysics reference data onto a single platform to advance high performance data (HPD) techniques that enable interdisciplinary Data-intensive Science. Improved Data Stewardship is critical to evolve both data and data services that support the increasing need for programmatic usability and that prioritises interoperability rather than just traditional data download or portal access. A data platform designed for programmatic access requires quality checked collections that better utilise interoperable data formats and standards. Achieving this involves strategies to meet both the technical and `social' challenges. Aggregating datasets used by different communities and organisations requires satisfying multiple use cases for the broader research community, whilst addressing existing BAU requirements. For NCI, this requires working with data stewards to manage the process of replicating data to the common platform, community representatives and developers to confirm their requirements, and with international peers to better enable globally integrated data communities. It is particularly important to engage with representatives from each community who can work collaboratively to a common goal, as well as capture their community needs, apply quality assurance, determine any barriers to change and to understand priorities. This is critical when managing the aggregation of data collections from multiple producers with different levels of stewardship maturity, technologies and standards, and where organisational barriers can impact the transformation to interoperable and performant data access. To facilitate the management, development and operation of the HPD platform, NCI coordinates technical and domain committees made up of user representatives, data stewards and informatics experts to provide a forum to discuss, learn and advise NCI's management. This experience has been a useful collaboration and suggests that in the age of interdisciplinary HPD research, Data Stewardship is evolving from a focus on the needs of a single community to one which helps balance priorities and navigates change for multiple communities.

“We Make the Path by Walking It”: Building an Academic Community Partnership With Boston Chinatown

PubMed Central

Rubin, Carolyn Leung; Allukian, Nathan; Wang, Xingyue; Ghosh, Sujata; Huang, Chien-Chi; Wang, Jacy; Brugge, Doug; Wong, John B.; Mark, Shirley; Dong, Sherry; Koch-Weser, Susan; Parsons, Susan K.; Leslie, Laurel K.; Freund, Karen M.

2015-01-01

Background The potential for academic community partnerships are challenged in places where there is a history of conflict and mistrust. Addressing Disparities in Asian Populations through Translational Research (ADAPT) represents an academic community partnership between researchers and clinicians from Tufts Medical Center and Tufts University and community partners from Boston Chinatown. Based in principles of community-based participatory research and partnership research, this partnership is seeking to build a trusting relationship between Tufts and Boston Chinatown. Objectives This case study aims to provides a narrative story of the development and formation of ADAPT as well as discuss challenges to its future viability. Methods Using case study research tools, this study draws upon a variety of data sources including interviews, program evaluation data and documents. Results Several contextual factors laid the foundation for ADAPT. Weaving these factors together helped to create synergy and led to ADAPT’s formation. In its first year, ADAPT has conducted formative research, piloted an educational program for community partners and held stakeholder forums to build a broad base of support. Conclusions ADAPT recognizes that long term sustainability requires bringing multiple stakeholders to the table even before a funding opportunity is released and attempting to build a diversified funding base. PMID:25435562

Intimate partner violence prevention program in an Asian immigrant community: integrating theories, data, and community.

PubMed

Yoshihama, Mieko; Ramakrishnan, Aparna; Hammock, Amy C; Khaliq, Mahmooda

2012-07-01

To fill an existing gap in research and practice on intimate partner violence (IPV) in immigrant communities, the authors developed an IPV prevention program, called the Shanti Project, in an Asian Indian community in the Midwest. Building on the notion of shanti (harmony/peace), a cherished value and strength of the community, we created a communications campaign that combined social marketing and community-based participatory approaches. Recognizing the interactive influences of multiple levels of social ecology, campaign activities were designed to bring about changes at the individual, relationship/family, organization, and community levels. This article presents the development of this theoretically, empirically, and community-based IPV prevention program.

Developing Reflexive Identities through Collaborative, Interdisciplinary and Precarious Work: The Experience of Early Career Researchers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Enright, Bryony; Facer, Keri

2017-01-01

This paper explores the experiences of 24 Early Career Researchers working in interdisciplinary and precarious employment conditions in which they are managing collaborations with multiple partners beyond the university as part of the AHRC's "Connected Communities" Programme. These conditions emerge from conflicting sources--from…

Artificial Neural Networks in Policy Research: A Current Assessment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woelfel, Joseph

1993-01-01

Suggests that artificial neural networks (ANNs) exhibit properties that promise usefulness for policy researchers. Notes that ANNs have found extensive use in areas once reserved for multivariate statistical programs such as regression and multiple classification analysis and are developing an extensive community of advocates for processing text…

Magneto-Inertial Fusion

DOE PAGES

Wurden, G. A.; Hsu, S. C.; Intrator, T. P.; ...

2015-11-17

In this community white paper, we describe an approach to achieving fusion which employs a hybrid of elements from the traditional magnetic and inertial fusion concepts, called magneto-inertial fusion (MIF). Furthermore, the status of MIF research in North America at multiple institutions is summarized including recent progress, research opportunities, and future plans.

Ethnography in community psychology: promises and tensions.

PubMed

Case, Andrew D; Todd, Nathan R; Kral, Michael J

2014-09-01

Community psychology recognizes the need for research methods that illuminate context, culture, diversity, and process. One such method, ethnography, has crossed into multiple disciplines from anthropology, and indeed, community psychologists are becoming community ethnographers. Ethnographic work stands at the intersection of bridging universal questions with the particularities of people and groups bounded in time, geographic location, and social location. Ethnography is thus historical and deeply contextual, enabling a rich, in-depth understanding of communities that is aligned with the values and goals of community psychology. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the potential of ethnography for community psychology and to encourage its use within the field as a method to capture culture and context, to document process, and to reveal how social change and action occur within and through communities. We discuss the method of ethnography, draw connections to community psychology values and goals, and identify tensions from our experiences doing ethnography. Overall, we assert that ethnography is a method that resonates with community psychology and present this paper as a resource for those interested in using this method in their research or community activism.

Waiting for the Expert to Arrive: Using a Community of Practice to Develop the Scholarly Identity of Doctoral Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coffman, Karie; Putman, Paul; Adkisson, Anthony; Kriner, Bridget; Monaghan, Catherine

2016-01-01

This qualitative study examined the identity of doctoral students in their quest to become scholars. The research question asked: What impact did a Community of Practice have on the doctoral students? The findings illustrated that on the journey the participants struggled to integrate multiple identities and roles. They also refined their…

The CTSA mandate: are we there yet?

PubMed

Sampselle, Carolyn M; Pienta, Kenneth J; Markel, Dorene S

2010-01-01

The ultimate aim of the National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) initiative is to accelerate the movement of discoveries that can benefit human health into widespread public use. To accomplish this translational mandate, the contributions of multiple disciplines, such as dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, public health, biostatistics, epidemiology, and bioengineering, are required in addition to medicine. The research community is also mandated to establish new partnerships with organized patient communities and front line health care providers to assure the bidirectional flow of information in order that health priorities experienced by the community inform the research agenda. This article summarizes current clinical research directives, the experience of the University of Michigan faculty during the first 2 years of CTSA support, and recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of future CTSA as well as other interdisciplinary initiatives. While the manuscript focuses most closely on the CTSA Community Engagement mission, the challenges to interdisciplinarity and bidirectionality extend beyond the focus of community engagement.

A Community-Responsive Adaptation to Reach and Engage Latino Families Affected by Maternal Depression.

PubMed

Valdez, Carmen R; Ramirez Stege, Alyssa; Martinez, Elizabeth; D'Costa, Stephanie; Chavez, Thomas

2017-07-23

As family researchers and practitioners seek to improve the quality and accessibility of mental health services for immigrant families, they have turned to culturally adapted interventions. Although many advancements have been made in adapting interventions for such families, we have yet to understand how the adaptation can ensure that the intervention is reaching families identified to be in greatest need within a local system of care and community. We argue that reaching, engaging, and understanding the needs of families entails a collaborative approach with multiple community partners to ensure that adaptations to intervention content and delivery are responsive to the sociocultural trajectory of families within a community. We describe a cultural adaptation framework that is responsive to the unique opportunities and challenges of identifying and recruiting vulnerable families through community partnerships, and of addressing the needs of families by incorporating multiple community perspectives. Specifically, we apply these principles to the cultural adaptation of an intervention originally developed for low-income African American and White families facing maternal depression. The new intervention, Fortalezas Familiares (Family Strengths), was targeted to Latino immigrant families whose mothers were in treatment for depression in mental health and primary care clinics. We conclude with key recommendations and directions for how family researchers and practitioners can design the cultural adaptation of interventions to be responsive to the practices, preferences, and needs of underserved communities, including families and service providers. © 2017 Family Process Institute.

Community narratives about women and HIV risk in 21 high-burden communities in Zambia and South Africa

PubMed Central

Viljoen, Lario; Ndubani, Rhoda; Bond, Virginia; Seeley, Janet; Reynolds, Lindsey; Hoddinott, Graeme

2017-01-01

Public health researchers repeatedly represent women as a group vulnerable to ill health. This has been particularly true in the field of HIV research, where women are disproportionately affected by HIV in terms of disease burden and the social effects of the epidemic. Although women have been the focus of many prevention and treatment programs, structural barriers to implementation of these targeted programs persist. In this article we explore how high HIV-burden communities in South Africa and Zambia engage with the concepts of “woman” and “HIV risk”. The data are drawn from participatory storytelling activities completed with 604 participants across 78 group discussions between December 2012 and May 2013. During discussions we found that participants made use of the core archetypal caricatures of “goodness,” “badness,” and “vulnerability” when describing women’s HIV risk. Community members shifted between these categories in their characterizations of women, as they acknowledged the multiple roles women play, internalized different stories about women, and sometimes shifted register in the same stories. Findings suggest that health implementers, in consultation with community members, should consider the multiple positions women occupy and how this impacts the wider community’s understandings of women and “risk”. This approach of taking on board community understandings of the complexity of HIV risk can inform the design and implementation of HIV prevention and care programs by rendering programs more focused and in-line with community needs. PMID:29238230

Telemental Health Training, Team Building, and Workforce Development in Cultural Context: The Hawaii Experience.

PubMed

Alicata, Daniel; Schroepfer, Amanda; Unten, Tim; Agoha, Ruby; Helm, Susana; Fukuda, Michael; Ulrich, Daniel; Michels, Stanton

2016-04-01

The goal of the University of Hawaii (UH) child and adolescent psychiatry telemental health (TMH) program is to train child and adolescent psychiatry fellows to provide behavioral health services for the children of Hawaii and the Pacific Islands in the cultural context of their rural communities using interactive videoteleconferencing (IVTC). The training experience balances learning objectives with community service. Learning objectives include: Understanding mental health disparities in rural communities, leveraging community resources in ongoing treatment, providing culturally effective care, and improving health care access and delivery through TMH service research and evaluation. We describe the UH experience. Several UH faculty are experienced with IVTC technology. They are triple-board trained, are recognized for their research in program evaluation and mental health disparities, and are committed to serving Hawaii's rural communities. We demonstrate the role of TMH in linking children and their families living in rural communities with multiple mental health treatment providers. The service-learning curriculum and a unique collaboration with Mayo Clinic provide the opportunity to examine the role of TMH in global service, and training, education, and research. TMH provides direct services to patients and consultation on Hawaii Island and Maui County. The collaboration with the Mayo Clinic brings further consultation in complex diagnostics, pharmacogenomics, and cross-cultural psychiatry. A curriculum provides trainees experience with IVTC with the goal of potential recruitment to underserved rural communities. The TMH program at UH is unique in its team building and workforce development by joining multiple entities through IVTC and translating expertise from the Mayo Clinic to rural communities, and strengthening collaboration with local child and adolescent psychiatrists, and primary care and other mental health providers. The UH psychiatry program is a model program to develop an expert mental health workforce in cultural context for children living in rural communities.

Community‐Academic Partnerships: A Systematic Review of the State of the Literature and Recommendations for Future Research

PubMed Central

MEZA, ROSEMARY D.; BRIKHO, BRIGITTE; NAAF, MEGHAN; ESTABILLO, JASPER A.; GOMEZ, EMILY D.; VEJNOSKA, SARAH F.; DUFEK, SARAH; STAHMER, AUBYN C.; AARONS, GREGORY A.

2016-01-01

Policy Points: Communities, funding agencies, and institutions are increasingly involving community stakeholders as partners in research, to provide firsthand knowledge and insight.Based on our systematic review of major literature databases, we recommend using a single term, community‐academic partnership (CAP), and a conceptual definition to unite multiple research disciplines and strengthen the field.Interpersonal and operational factors that facilitate or hinder the collaborative process have been consistently identified, including “trust among partners” and “respect among partners” (facilitating interpersonal factors) and “excessive time commitment” (hindering operational factor).Once CAP processes and characteristics are better understood, the effectiveness of collaborative partner involvement can be tested. Context Communities, funding agencies, and institutions are increasingly involving community stakeholders as partners in research. Community stakeholders can provide firsthand knowledge and insight, thereby increasing research relevance and feasibility. Despite the greater emphasis and use of community‐academic partnerships (CAP) across multiple disciplines, definitions of partnerships and methodologies vary greatly, and no systematic reviews consolidating this literature have been published. The purpose of this article, then, is to facilitate the continued growth of this field by examining the characteristics of CAPs and the current state of the science, identifying the facilitating and hindering influences on the collaborative process, and developing a common term and conceptual definition for use across disciplines. Methods Our systematic search of 6 major literature databases generated 1,332 unique articles, 50 of which met our criteria for inclusion and provided data on 54 unique CAPs. We then analyzed studies to describe CAP characteristics and to identify the terms and methods used, as well as the common influences on the CAP process and distal outcomes. Findings CAP research spans disciplines, involves a variety of community stakeholders, and focuses on a large range of study topics. CAP research articles, however, rarely report characteristics such as membership numbers or duration. Most studies involved case studies using qualitative methods to collect data on the collaborative process. Although various terms were used to describe collaborative partnerships, few studies provided conceptual definitions. Twenty‐three facilitating and hindering factors influencing the CAP collaboration process emerged from the literature. Outcomes from the CAPs most often included developing or refining tangible products. Conclusions Based on our systematic review, we recommend using a single term, community‐academic partnership, as well as a conceptual definition to unite multiple research disciplines. In addition, CAP characteristics and methods should be reported more systematically to advance the field (eg, to develop CAP evaluation tools). We have identified the most common influences that facilitate and hinder CAPs, which in turn should guide their development and sustainment. PMID:26994713

Community engagement for paediatric MDR-TB clinical trials: principles to support ethical trial implementation.

PubMed

Hoddinott, G; Staples, S; Brown, R; Simwinga, M; Mubekapi-Musadaidzwa, C; Hesseling, A C; Hendricks, G; De Koker, P; McKenna, L

2018-05-01

The paediatric tuberculosis (TB) prevention and treatment landscape is moving into a new and exciting era, with knowledge from clinical trials offering real benefit to children. Community engagement is key to optimising the success of these trials. However, the clinical profile, epidemiology and social perceptions for paediatric multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) complicate the operationalisation of this community engagement. We reflect on a diversity of recent experiences attempting to implement this type of research and the community engagement around it. We describe four recommendations and argue that these should guide the implementation of the community engagement agenda in the new landscape of paediatric MDR-TB clinical trials. Specifically, we argue for 1) dynamic, long-term continuity in community engagement platforms; 2) tiers of TB and research literacy; 3) multiple separate and joint platforms for holding 'stakes'; and 4) addressing the social/structural implications of family participation. We conclude that community-level stakeholders, such as health workers, parents and children, are willing to collaborate in paediatric MDR-TB clinical trials. Using these recommendations, there is considerable opportunity for effective community engagement in this new era of paediatric MDR-TB research.

Meet EPA Scientist Betsy Smith, Ph.D.

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Dr. Betsy Smith is Associate National Program Director for Systems Analysis within the Sustainable and Healthy Communities Research Program. Her work has focused on new methods to analyze spatial data on multiple problems.

Unconventional natural gas development and public health: toward a community-informed research agenda

PubMed Central

Korfmacher, Katrina Smith; Elam, Sarah; Gray, Kathleen M.; Haynes, Erin; Hughes, Megan Hoert

2015-01-01

Unconventional natural gas development (UNGD) using high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) has vastly increased the potential for domestic natural gas production in recent years. However, the rapid expansion of UNGD has also raised concerns about its potential impacts on public health. Academics and government agencies are developing research programs to explore these concerns. Community involvement in activities such as planning, conducting, and communicating research is widely recognized as having an important role in promoting environmental health. Historically, however, communities most often engage in research after environmental health concerns have emerged. This community information needs assessment took a prospective approach to integrating community leaders' knowledge, perceptions, and concerns into the research agenda prior to initiation of local UNGD. We interviewed community leaders about their views on environmental health information needs in three states (New York, North Carolina, and Ohio) prior to widespread UNGD. Interviewees emphasized the cumulative, long-term, and indirect determinants of health, as opposed to specific disease outcomes. Responses focused not only on information needs, but also on communication and transparency with respect to research processes and funding. Interviewees also prioritized investigation of policy approaches to effectively protect human health over the long term. Although universities were most often cited as a credible source of information, interviewees emphasized the need for multiple strategies for disseminating information. By including community leaders' concerns, insights, and questions from the outset, the research agenda on UNGD is more likely to effectively inform decision making that ultimately protects public health. PMID:25204212

The EPA's human exposure research program for assessing cumulative risk in communities.

PubMed

Zartarian, Valerie G; Schultz, Bradley D

2010-06-01

Communities are faced with challenges in identifying and prioritizing environmental issues, taking actions to reduce their exposures, and determining their effectiveness for reducing human health risks. Additional challenges include determining what scientific tools are available and most relevant, and understanding how to use those tools; given these barriers, community groups tend to rely more on risk perception than science. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research and Development, National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) and collaborators are developing and applying tools (models, data, methods) for enhancing cumulative risk assessments. The NERL's "Cumulative Communities Research Program" focuses on key science questions: (1) How to systematically identify and prioritize key chemical stressors within a given community?; (2) How to develop estimates of exposure to multiple stressors for individuals in epidemiologic studies?; and (3) What tools can be used to assess community-level distributions of exposures for the development and evaluation of the effectiveness of risk reduction strategies? This paper provides community partners and scientific researchers with an understanding of the NERL research program and other efforts to address cumulative community risks; and key research needs and opportunities. Some initial findings include the following: (1) Many useful tools exist for components of risk assessment, but need to be developed collaboratively with end users and made more comprehensive and user-friendly for practical application; (2) Tools for quantifying cumulative risks and impact of community risk reduction activities are also needed; (3) More data are needed to assess community- and individual-level exposures, and to link exposure-related information with health effects; and (4) Additional research is needed to incorporate risk-modifying factors ("non-chemical stressors") into cumulative risk assessments. The products of this research program will advance the science for cumulative risk assessments and empower communities with information so that they can make informed, cost-effective decisions to improve public health.

Understanding the environmental issues in diabetes self-management education research: a reexamination of 8 studies in community-based settings.

PubMed

Jack, Leonard; Liburd, Leandris; Spencer, Tirzah; Airhihenbuwa, Collins O

2004-06-01

Eight studies included in a recent systematic review of the efficacy of diabetes self-management education were qualitatively reexamined to determine the presence of theoretical frameworks, methods used to ensure cultural appropriateness, and the quality of the instrument. Theoretical frameworks that help to explain complex pathways that produce health outcomes were lacking; culture indices were not incorporated into diabetes self-management education; and the instruments used to measure outcomes were inadequate. We provide recommendations to improve research on diabetes self-management education in community settings through use of a contextual framework that encourages targeting multiple levels of influence--individual, family, organizational, community, and policy.

Investigating student communities with network analysis of interactions in a physics learning center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brewe, Eric; Kramer, Laird; Sawtelle, Vashti

2012-06-01

Developing a sense of community among students is one of the three pillars of an overall reform effort to increase participation in physics, and the sciences more broadly, at Florida International University. The emergence of a research and learning community, embedded within a course reform effort, has contributed to increased recruitment and retention of physics majors. We utilize social network analysis to quantify interactions in Florida International University’s Physics Learning Center (PLC) that support the development of academic and social integration. The tools of social network analysis allow us to visualize and quantify student interactions and characterize the roles of students within a social network. After providing a brief introduction to social network analysis, we use sequential multiple regression modeling to evaluate factors that contribute to participation in the learning community. Results of the sequential multiple regression indicate that the PLC learning community is an equitable environment as we find that gender and ethnicity are not significant predictors of participation in the PLC. We find that providing students space for collaboration provides a vital element in the formation of a supportive learning community.

Community gardening: a parsimonious path to individual, community, and environmental resilience.

PubMed

Okvat, Heather A; Zautra, Alex J

2011-06-01

The goal of this paper is to introduce community gardening as a promising method of furthering well-being and resilience on multiple levels: individual, social group, and natural environment. We examine empirical evidence for the benefits of gardening, and we advocate the development and testing of social ecological models of community resilience through examination of the impact of community gardens, especially in urban areas. The definition of community is extended beyond human social ties to include connections with other species and the earth itself, what Berry (1988) has called an Earth community. We discuss the potential contribution of an extensive network of community gardens to easing the global climate change crisis and address the role of community psychologists in community gardening research and policy-oriented action.

Moving Virtual Research Environments from high maintenance Stovepipes to Multi-purpose Sustainable Service-oriented Science Platforms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klump, Jens; Fraser, Ryan; Wyborn, Lesley; Friedrich, Carsten; Squire, Geoffrey; Barker, Michelle; Moloney, Glenn

2017-04-01

The researcher of today is likely to be part of a team distributed over multiple sites that will access data from an external repository and then process the data on a public or private cloud or even on a large centralised supercomputer. They are increasingly likely to use a mixture of their own code, third party software and libraries, or even access global community codes. These components will be connected into a Virtual Research Environments (VREs) that will enable members of the research team who are not co-located to actively work together at various scales to share data, models, tools, software, workflows, best practices, infrastructures, etc. Many VRE's are built in isolation: designed to meet a specific research program with components tightly coupled and not capable of being repurposed for other use cases - they are becoming 'stovepipes'. The limited number of users of some VREs also means that the cost of maintenance per researcher can be unacceptably high. The alternative is to develop service-oriented Science Platforms that enable multiple communities to develop specialised solutions for specific research programs. The platforms can offer access to data, software tools and processing infrastructures (cloud, supercomputers) through globally distributed, interconnected modules. In Australia, the Virtual Geophysics Laboratory (VGL) was initially built to enable a specific set of researchers in government agencies access to specific data sets and a limited number of tools, that is now rapidly evolving into a multi-purpose Earth science platform with access to an increased variety of data, a broader range of tools, users from more sectors and a diversity of computational infrastructures. The expansion has been relatively easy, because of the architecture whereby data, tools and compute resources are loosely coupled via interfaces that are built on international standards and accessed as services wherever possible. In recent years, investments in discoverability and accessibility of data via online services in Australia mean that data resources can be easily added to the virtual environments as and when required. Another key to increasing to reusability and uptake of the VRE is the capability to capturing workflows so that they can be reused and repurposed both within and beyond the community that that defined the original use case. Unfortunately, Software-as-a-Service in the research sector is not yet mature. In response, we developed a Scientific Software solutions Center (SSSC) that enables researchers to discover, deploy and then share computational codes, code snippets or processes both in a human and machine-readable manner. Growth has come not only from within the Earth science community but from the Australian Virtual Laboratory community which is building VREs for a diversity of communities such as astronomy, genomics, environment, humanities, climate etc. Components such as access control, provenance, visualisation, accounting etc. are common to all scientific domains and sharing of these across multiple domains reduces costs, but more importantly increases the ability to undertake interdisciplinary science. These efforts are transitioning VREs to more sustainable Service-oriented Science Platforms that can be delivered in an agile, adaptable manner for broader community interests.

Research and Engagement Strategies for Young Adult Immigrants Without Documentation: Lessons Learned Through Community Partnership.

PubMed

Raymond-Flesch, Marissa; Siemons, Rachel; Brindis, Claire D

2016-01-01

Limited research has focused on undocumented immigrants' health and access to care. This paper describes participant engagement strategies used to investigate the health needs of immigrants eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Community-based strategies engaged advocates and undocumented Californians in study design and recruitment. Outreach in diverse settings, social media, and participant-driven sampling recruited 61 DACA-eligible focus group participants. Social media, community-based organizations (CBOs), family members, advocacy groups, and participant-driven sampling were the most successful recruitment strategies. Participants felt engaging in research was instrumental for sharing their concerns with health care providers and policymakers, noteworthy in light of their previously identified fears and mistrust of government officials. Using multiple culturally responsive strategies including participant-driven sampling, engagement with CBOs, and use of social media, those eligible for DACA eagerly engage as research participants. Educating researchers and institutional review boards (IRBs) about legal and safety concerns can improve research engagement.

An Interactive Online Database for Potato Varieties Evaluated in the Eastern U.S.

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Online databases are no longer a novelty. However, for the potato growing and research community little effort has been put into collecting data from multiple states and provinces, and presenting it in a web-based database format for researchers and end users to utilize. The NE1031 regional potato v...

Integrating Human Health and Environmental Health into the DPSIR Framework: A Tool to Identify Research Opportunities for Sustainable and Healthy Communities

EPA Science Inventory

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recently realigned its research enterprise around the concept of sustainability. Scientists from across multiple disciplines have a role to play in contributing the information, methods, and tools to more fully understand the long-term...

Household Size and Water Availability as Demographic Predictors of Maternal and Child Mortality in Delta State: Implications for Health Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ogbe, Joseph O.

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to stimulate action to address and identify maternal, child and community needs towards the improvement in health of pregnant women, children and communities. Four null hypotheses were generated from the research questions while multiple regression analysis was used to analyse the data. The study found that household…

Development of the Policy Indicator Checklist: A Tool to Identify and Measure Policies for Calorie-Dense Foods and Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Across Multiple Settings

PubMed Central

Hallett, Allen M.; Parker, Nathan; Kudia, Ousswa; Kao, Dennis; Modelska, Maria; Rifai, Hanadi; O’Connor, Daniel P.

2015-01-01

Objectives. We developed the policy indicator checklist (PIC) to identify and measure policies for calorie-dense foods and sugar-sweetened beverages to determine how policies are clustered across multiple settings. Methods. In 2012 and 2013 we used existing literature, policy documents, government recommendations, and instruments to identify key policies. We then developed the PIC to examine the policy environments across 3 settings (communities, schools, and early care and education centers) in 8 communities participating in the Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration Project. Results. Principal components analysis revealed 5 components related to calorie-dense food policies and 4 components related to sugar-sweetened beverage policies. Communities with higher youth and racial/ethnic minority populations tended to have fewer and weaker policy environments concerning calorie-dense foods and healthy foods and beverages. Conclusions. The PIC was a helpful tool to identify policies that promote healthy food environments across multiple settings and to measure and compare the overall policy environments across communities. There is need for improved coordination across settings, particularly in areas with greater concentration of youths and racial/ethnic minority populations. Policies to support healthy eating are not equally distributed across communities, and disparities continue to exist in nutrition policies. PMID:25790397

Development of the policy indicator checklist: a tool to identify and measure policies for calorie-dense foods and sugar-sweetened beverages across multiple settings.

PubMed

Lee, Rebecca E; Hallett, Allen M; Parker, Nathan; Kudia, Ousswa; Kao, Dennis; Modelska, Maria; Rifai, Hanadi; O'Connor, Daniel P

2015-05-01

We developed the policy indicator checklist (PIC) to identify and measure policies for calorie-dense foods and sugar-sweetened beverages to determine how policies are clustered across multiple settings. In 2012 and 2013 we used existing literature, policy documents, government recommendations, and instruments to identify key policies. We then developed the PIC to examine the policy environments across 3 settings (communities, schools, and early care and education centers) in 8 communities participating in the Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration Project. Principal components analysis revealed 5 components related to calorie-dense food policies and 4 components related to sugar-sweetened beverage policies. Communities with higher youth and racial/ethnic minority populations tended to have fewer and weaker policy environments concerning calorie-dense foods and healthy foods and beverages. The PIC was a helpful tool to identify policies that promote healthy food environments across multiple settings and to measure and compare the overall policy environments across communities. There is need for improved coordination across settings, particularly in areas with greater concentration of youths and racial/ethnic minority populations. Policies to support healthy eating are not equally distributed across communities, and disparities continue to exist in nutrition policies.

Multiple Comorbidities and Interest in Research Participation Among Clients of a Nonprofit Food Distribution Site

PubMed Central

Higashi, Robin T.; Craddock Lee, Simon J.; Leonard, Tammy; Cuate, Erica L.; Cole, Jay

2015-01-01

Abstract Background Persons accessing food from nonprofit distribution sites face numerous challenges and typically have significant unmet health needs. However, given limited and intermittent healthcare system engagement, this vulnerable population is underrepresented in clinical research. We sought to better understand the health needs of a nonclinical population to inform future research and interventions. Methods : Focus groups were conducted in English (n = 4) and Spanish (n = 4) with clients of Crossroads Community Services (CCS), the largest distributor of North Texas Food Bank. Discussions probed participants’ health status, healthcare utilization, understanding and utilization of mammography, and attitudes toward participation in research. Results Participants included 42 CCS clients, primarily Hispanic or African American women. Participants reported multiple comorbid conditions among household members, yet utilization of health services was often limited by cost. The majority expressed interest in participating in research to communicate their health concerns and obtain emotional support. Conclusion CCS clients represent a high‐need, under‐reached population willing to engage in health‐related research that affords them opportunity to connect with peers in group settings and obtain information to improve management of daily life challenges. The Community Assistance Research (CARe) Initiative, a community–academic collaboration, establishes a much‐needed opportunity for ongoing clinical research and intervention among this underserved population. PMID:26277918

Shared patients: multiple health and social care contact.

PubMed

Keene, J; Swift, L; Bailey, S; Janacek, G

2001-07-01

The paper describes results from the 'Tracking Project', a new method for examining agency overlap, repeat service use and shared clients/patients amongst social and health care agencies in the community. This is the first project in this country to combine total population databases from a range of social, health care and criminal justice agencies to give a multidisciplinary database for one county (n = 97,162 cases), through standardised anonymisation of agency databases, using SOUNDEX, a software programme. A range of 20 community social and health care agencies were shown to have a large overlap with each other in a two-year period, indicating high proportions of shared patients/clients. Accident and Emergency is used as an example of major overlap: 16.2% (n = 39,992) of persons who attended a community agency had attended Accident and Emergency as compared to 8.2% (n = 775,000) of the total population of the county. Of these, 96% who had attended seven or more different community agencies had also attended Accident and Emergency. Further statistical analysis of Accident and Emergency attendance as a characteristic of community agency populations (n = 39,992) revealed that increasing frequency of attendance at Accident and Emergency was very strongly associated with increasing use of other services. That is, the patients that repeatedly attend Accident and Emergency are much more likely to attend more other agencies, indicating the possibility that they share more problematic or difficult patients. Research questions arising from these data are discussed and future research methods suggested in order to derive predictors from the database and develop screening instruments to identify multiple agency attenders for targeting or multidisciplinary working. It is suggested that Accident and Emergency attendance might serve as an important predictor of multiple agency attendance.

The Role for Community-Based Participatory Research in Formulating Policy Initiatives: Promoting Safety and Health for In-Home Care Workers and Their Consumers

PubMed Central

Gong, Fang; Ayala, Linda; Stock, Laura; McDevitt, Susannah; Heaney, Cathy

2009-01-01

Although community-based participatory research (CBPR) can be effective in influencing policy, the process of formulating policy initiatives through CBPR is understudied. We describe a case study to illustrate how alliances among various community partners could be united to formulate policy directions. In collaboration with partners, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health initiated a project aimed at improving health and safety for low-income elderly and disabled persons and their in-home care workers. Community partners and stakeholders participated in focus groups, stakeholder interviews, and meetings; they played multiple roles including identifying organizational policy changes the partners could initiate immediately, as well as broader public policy goals. Results indicated that a strong community partnership, participation, and shared values contributed to successful formulation of policy initiatives. PMID:19890153

Community-Based Participatory Research: Lessons Learned from the Centers for Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research

PubMed Central

Israel, Barbara A.; Parker, Edith A.; Rowe, Zachary; Salvatore, Alicia; Minkler, Meredith; López, Jesús; Butz, Arlene; Mosley, Adrian; Coates, Lucretia; Lambert, George; Potito, Paul A.; Brenner, Barbara; Rivera, Maribel; Romero, Harry; Thompson, Beti; Coronado, Gloria; Halstead, Sandy

2005-01-01

Over the past several decades there has been growing evidence of the increase in incidence rates, morbidity, and mortality for a number of health problems experienced by children. The causation and aggravation of these problems are complex and multifactorial. The burden of these health problems and environmental exposures is borne disproportionately by children from low-income communities and communities of color. Researchers and funding institutions have called for increased attention to the complex issues that affect the health of children living in marginalized communities—and communities more broadly—and have suggested greater community involvement in processes that shape research and intervention approaches, for example, through community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships among academic, health services, public health, and community-based organizations. Centers for Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research (Children’s Centers) funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were required to include a CBPR project. The purpose of this article is to provide a definition and set of CBPR principles, to describe the rationale for and major benefits of using this approach, to draw on the experiences of six of the Children’s Centers in using CBPR, and to provide lessons learned and recommendations for how to successfully establish and maintain CBPR partnerships aimed at enhancing our understanding and addressing the multiple determinants of children’s health. PMID:16203263

“It will always continue unless we can change something”: consequences of intimate partner violence for indigenous women, children, and families

PubMed Central

Burnette, Catherine E.; Cannon, Clare

2014-01-01

Background Violence against indigenous women and girls is endemic, yet the absence of research on the consequences of this violence from the perspectives of women presents a profound barrier to the development of knowledge, along with violence prevention and mitigation. Although family is central to many indigenous communities, existing research typically examines the consequences of intimate partner violence (IPV) on women or children in isolation, rather than examining its consequences holistically. Objective The purpose of this article is to identify US indigenous women's perspectives about the impact of IPV on women, children, and families. Method Data were collected with 29 indigenous women affected by violence from a Southeastern tribe in the United States. As part of a larger critical ethnography, pragmatic horizon analysis of life history interviews revealed the consequences of IPV across multiple levels. Results Women reported profound psychological consequences resulting from IPV. The majority of women had witnessed IPV in their childhood, providing support for an intergenerational cycle of violence. Women reported psychological consequences on children, which paralleled those reported by women, leaving deep impressions on children across their life course. Consequences on children and whole families were extensive, indicating the negative ramifications of IPV transcended personal boundaries and affected children and families across multiple generations. Conclusions Given the tight-knit nature of indigenous families and communities, the consequences across individuals and families were noteworthy. However, a dearth in research examining consequences of IPV across levels fails to capture the interconnections of consequences for women, children, and families. Given the centrality of family in many indigenous communities, examining IPV from a holistic perspective that incorporates multiple levels is recommended for IPV research and intervention development. PMID:25279104

Engaging African American breast cancer survivors in an intervention trial: culture, responsiveness and community

PubMed Central

Mishel, Merle H.; Alexander, G. Rumay; Jenerette, Coretta; Blyler, Diane; Baker, Carol; Vines, Anissa I.; Green, Melissa; Long, Debra G.

2011-01-01

Introduction Younger breast cancer survivors often lead extremely busy lives with multiple demands and responsibilities, making them difficult to recruit into clinical trials. African American women are even more difficult to recruit because of additional historical and cultural barriers. In a randomized clinical trial of an intervention, we successfully used culturally informed, population-specific recruitment and retention strategies to engage younger African-American breast cancer survivors. Methods Caucasian and African American breast cancer survivors were recruited from multiple communities and sites. A variety of planned recruitment and retention strategies addressed cultural and population-specific barriers and were guided by three key principals: increasing familiarity with the study in the communities of interest; increasing the availability and accessibility of study information and study participation; and using cultural brokers. Results Accrual of younger African-American breast cancer survivors increased by 373% in 11 months. The steepest rise in the numbers of African-American women recruited came when all strategies were in place and operating simultaneously. Retention rates were 87% for both Caucasian and African American women. Discusssion/Conclusions To successfully recruit busy, younger African American cancer survivors, it is important to use a multifaceted approach, addressing cultural and racial/ethnic barriers to research participation; bridging gaps across cultures and communities; including the role of faith and beliefs in considering research participation; recognizing the demands of different life stages and economic situations and the place of research in the larger picture of peoples’ lives. Designs for recruitment and retention need to be broadly conceptualized and specifically applied. Implications for Cancer Survivors For busy cancer survivors, willingness to participate in and complete research participation is enhanced by strategies that address barriers but also acknowledge the many demands on their time by making research familiar, available, accessible and credible. PMID:20886374

Engaging African American breast cancer survivors in an intervention trial: culture, responsiveness and community.

PubMed

Germino, Barbara B; Mishel, Merle H; Alexander, G Rumay; Jenerette, Coretta; Blyler, Diane; Baker, Carol; Vines, Anissa I; Green, Melissa; Long, Debra G

2011-03-01

Younger breast cancer survivors often lead extremely busy lives with multiple demands and responsibilities, making them difficult to recruit into clinical trials. African American women are even more difficult to recruit because of additional historical and cultural barriers. In a randomized clinical trial of an intervention, we successfully used culturally informed, population-specific recruitment and retention strategies to engage younger African-American breast cancer survivors. Caucasian and African American breast cancer survivors were recruited from multiple communities and sites. A variety of planned recruitment and retention strategies addressed cultural and population-specific barriers and were guided by three key principals: increasing familiarity with the study in the communities of interest; increasing the availability and accessibility of study information and study participation; and using cultural brokers. Accrual of younger African-American breast cancer survivors increased by 373% in 11 months. The steepest rise in the numbers of African-American women recruited came when all strategies were in place and operating simultaneously. Retention rates were 87% for both Caucasian and African American women. DISCUSSSION/CONCLUSIONS: To successfully recruit busy, younger African American cancer survivors, it is important to use a multifaceted approach, addressing cultural and racial/ethnic barriers to research participation; bridging gaps across cultures and communities; including the role of faith and beliefs in considering research participation; recognizing the demands of different life stages and economic situations and the place of research in the larger picture of peoples' lives. Designs for recruitment and retention need to be broadly conceptualized and specifically applied. For busy cancer survivors, willingness to participate in and complete research participation is enhanced by strategies that address barriers but also acknowledge the many demands on their time by making research familiar, available, accessible and credible.

Creating and connecting recommended practices for reproducible research through collaborative culture and consensus in the Research Data Alliance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parsons, M. A.; Yarmey, L.; Dillo, I.

2017-12-01

Data are the foundation of a robust, efficient, and reproducible scientific enterprise. The Research Data Alliance (RDA) is a community-driven, action-oriented, virtual organization committed to enabling open sharing and reuse of data by building social and technical bridges. The international RDA community includes almost 6000 members bringing diverse perspectives, domain knowledge, and expertise to a common table for identification of common challenges and holistic solutions. RDA members work together to identify common interests and form exploratory Interest Groups and outcome-oriented Working Groups. Participants exchange knowledge, share discoveries, discuss barriers and potential solutions, articulate policies, and align standards to enhance and facilitate global data sharing within and across domains and communities. With activities defined and led by members, RDA groups have organically been addressing issues across the full research cycle with community-ratified Recommendations and other outputs that begin to create the components of a global, data-sharing infrastructure. This paper examines how multiple RDA Recommendations can be implemented together to improve data and information discoverability, accessibility, and interconnection by both people and machines. For instance, the Persistent Identifier Types can support moving data across platforms through the Data Description Registry Interoperability framework following the RDA/WDS Publishing Data Workflows model. The Scholix initiative connects scholarly literature and data across numerous stakeholders can draw on the Practical Policy best practices for machine-actionable data policies. Where appropriate, we use a case study approach built around several flagship data sets from the Deep Carbon Observatory to examine how multiple RDA Recommendations can be implemented in actual practice.

Online Social Support for Patients with Multiple Sclerosis: A Thematic Analysis of Messages Posted to a Virtual Support Community.

PubMed

Shavazi, Masoumeh Abbasi; Morowatisharifabad, Mohammad Ali; Shavazi, Mohammad Taghi Abbasi; Mirzaei, Masoud; Ardekani, Ali Mellat

2016-07-01

Currently with the emergence of the Internet, patients have an opportunity to exchange social support online. However, little attention has been devoted to different dimensions of online social support exchanged in virtual support communities for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). To provide a rich insight, the aim of this qualitative study was to explore and categorize different dimensions of online social support in messages exchanged in a virtual support community for patients with MS. A total of 548 posted messages created during one year period were selected using purposive sampling to consider the maximum variation sampling. Prior-research-driven thematic analysis was then conducted. In this regard, we used the Cutruna and Suhr's coding system. The messages that could not be categorized with the used coding system were thematically analyzed to explore new additional social support themes. The results showed that various forms of social support including informational, emotional, network, esteem and tangible support were exchanged. Moreover, new additional social support themes including sharing personal experiences, sharing coping strategies and spiritual support emerged in this virtual support community. The wide range of online social support exchanged in the virtual support community can be regarded as a supplementary source of social support for patients with MS. Future researches can examine online social support more comprehensively considering additional social support themes emerging in the present study.

Traditions of research into interruptions in healthcare: A conceptual review.

PubMed

McCurdie, Tara; Sanderson, Penelope; Aitken, Leanne M

2017-01-01

Researchers from diverse theoretical backgrounds have studied workplace interruptions in healthcare, leading to a complex and conflicting body of literature. Understanding pre-existing viewpoints may advance the field more effectively than attempts to remove bias from investigations. To identify research traditions that have motivated and guided interruptions research, and to note research questions posed, gaps in approach, and possible avenues for future research. A critical review was conducted of research on interruptions in healthcare. Two researchers identified core research communities based on the community's motivations, philosophical outlook, and methods. Among the characteristics used to categorise papers into research communities were the predominant motivation for studying interruptions, the research questions posed, and key contributions to the body of knowledge on interruptions in healthcare. In cases where a paper approached an equal number of characteristics from two traditions, it was placed in a blended research community. A total of 141 papers were identified and categorised; all papers identified were published from 1994 onwards. Four principal research communities emerged: epidemiology, quality improvement, cognitive systems engineering (CSE), and applied cognitive psychology. Blends and areas of mutual influence between the research communities were identified that combine the benefits of individual traditions, but there was a notable lack of blends incorporating quality improvement initiatives. The question most commonly posed by researchers across multiple communities was: what is the impact of interruptions? Impact was measured as a function of task time or risk in the epidemiology tradition, situation awareness in the CSE tradition, or resumption lag (time to resume an interrupted task) in the applied cognitive psychology tradition. No single question about interruptions in healthcare was shared by all four of the core communities. Much research on workplace interruptions in healthcare can be described in terms of fundamental values of four distinct research traditions and the communities that bring the values and methods: of those research traditions to their investigations. Blends between communities indicate that mutual influence has occurred as interruptions research has progressed. It is clear from this review that there is no single or privileged perspective to study interruptions. Instead, these findings suggest that researchers investigating interruptions in healthcare would benefit from being more aware of different perspectives from their own, especially when they consider workplace interventions to reduce interruptions. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Community perceptions of genomic research: implications for addressing health disparities.

PubMed

Isler, Malika Roman; Sutton, Karey; Cadigan, R Jean; Corbie-Smith, Giselle

2013-01-01

Increasing the engagement of racial and ethnic minorities in genomic research may help alleviate health disparities. This paper examines community perceptions of the relationships between race, genes, environment, and health disparities, and it discusses how such perceptions may influence participation in genomic research. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 91 African American, Latino, and white lay community members and community leaders in North Carolina. Using constant comparison methods, we identified, compared, and developed linkages between conceptual categories and respondent groups. Participants described gene-environment interactions as contributing to group differences in health outcomes, expressed the belief that genetic predisposition to disease differs across groups, and said that social conditions trigger group-level genetic differences and create poorer health outcomes among African Americans. Given the regional presence of major research institutions and the relatively high education level of many participants, this sample may not reflect the perspectives of those most disparately affected by health disparities. Members from multiple community sectors share perceptions and may respond to similar approaches when attempts are made to increase participation in genomic research. Researchers may inadvertently fuel the perception that health disparities experienced by minorities are rooted in the shared genomes of a particular group as distinct from those of other groups. The way researchers use race and ethnicity in recruitment, analysis, and communication of research findings inaccurately implies that there are genetic differences between races, when categories of social experience or ancestry may more accurately characterize health differences. Understanding these issues is crucial to designing effective community engagement strategies, recruitment plans, and messages about genomic research, which could ultimately help to lessen health disparities.

Multilevel perspectives on community intervention: an example from an Indo-US HIV prevention project in Mumbai, India.

PubMed

Schensul, Stephen L; Saggurti, Niranjan; Singh, Rajendra; Verma, Ravi K; Nastasi, Bonnie K; Mazumder, Papiya Guha

2009-06-01

This paper explores the meaning and applicability of multilevel interventions and the role of ethnography in identifying intervention opportunities and accounting for research design limitations. It utilizes as a case example the data and experiences from a 6-year, NIMH-funded, intervention to prevent HIV/STI among married men in urban poor communities in Mumbai, India. The experiences generated by this project illustrate the need for multilevel interventions to include: (1) ethnographically driven formative research to delineate appropriate levels, stakeholders and collaborators; (2) identification of ways to link interventions to the local culture and community context; (3) the development of a model of intervention that is sufficiently flexible to be consistently applied to different intervention levels using comparable culturally congruent concepts and approaches; (4) mechanisms to involve community residents, community based organizations and community-based institutions; and (5) approaches to data collection that can evaluate the impact of the project on multiple intersecting levels.

Promoting Physical Activity Among Native American Youth: a Systematic Review of the Methodology and Current Evidence of Physical Activity Interventions and Community-wide Initiatives.

PubMed

Fleischhacker, Sheila; Roberts, Erica; Camplain, Ricky; Evenson, Kelly R; Gittelsohn, Joel

2016-12-01

Promoting physical activity using environmental, policy, and systems approaches could potentially address persistent health disparities faced by American Indian and Alaska Native children and adolescents. To address research gaps and help inform tribally led community changes that promote physical activity, this review examined the methodology and current evidence of physical activity interventions and community-wide initiatives among Native youth. A keyword-guided search was conducted in multiple databases to identify peer-reviewed research articles that reported on physical activity among Native youth. Ultimately, 20 unique interventions (described in 76 articles) and 13 unique community-wide initiatives (described in 16 articles) met the study criteria. Four interventions noted positive changes in knowledge and attitude relating to physical activity but none of the interventions examined reported statistically significant improvements on weight-related outcomes. Only six interventions reported implementing environmental, policy, and system approaches relating to promoting physical activity and generally only shared anecdotal information about the approaches tried. Using community-based participatory research or tribally driven research models strengthened the tribal-research partnerships and improved the cultural and contextual sensitivity of the intervention or community-wide initiative. Few interventions or community-wide initiatives examined multi-level, multi-sector interventions to promote physical activity among Native youth, families, and communities. More research is needed to measure and monitor physical activity within this understudied, high risk group. Future research could also focus on the unique authority and opportunity of tribal leaders and other key stakeholders to use environmental, policy, and systems approaches to raise a healthier generation of Native youth.

Promoting physical activity among Native American youth: A systematic review of the methodology and current evidence of physical activity interventions and community-wide initiatives

PubMed Central

Roberts, Erica; Camplain, Ricky; Evenson, Kelly R.; Gittelsohn, Joel

2015-01-01

Promoting physical activity using environmental, policy, and systems approaches could potentially address persistent health disparities faced by American Indian and Alaska Native children and adolescents. To address research gaps and help inform tribally-led community changes that promote physical activity, this review examined the methodology and current evidence of physical activity interventions and community-wide initiatives among Native youth. A keyword guided search was conducted in multiple databases to identify peer-reviewed research articles that reported on physical activity among Native youth. Ultimately, 20 unique interventions (described in 76 articles) and 13 unique community-wide initiatives (described in 16 articles) met the study criteria. Four interventions noted positive changes in knowledge and attitude relating to physical activity but none of the interventions examined reported statistically significant improvements on weight-related outcomes. Only six interventions reported implementing environmental, policy, and system approaches relating to promoting physical activity and generally only shared anecdotal information about the approaches tried. Using community-based participatory research or tribally-driven research models strengthened the tribal-research partnerships and improved the cultural and contextual sensitivity of the intervention or community-wide initiative. Few interventions or community-wide initiatives examined multi-level, multi-sector interventions to promote physical activity among Native youth, families and communities. More research is needed to measure and monitor physical activity within this understudied, high risk group. Future research could also focus on the unique authority and opportunity of tribal leaders and other key stakeholders to use environmental, policy, and systems approaches to raise a healthier generation of Native youth. PMID:27294756

Diversifying the Geosciences: Examples from the Arctic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holmes, R. M.

2017-12-01

Like other realms of the geosciences, the scientists who comprise the Arctic research community tends to be white and male. For example, a survey of grants awarded over a 5-year period beginning in 2010 by NSF's Arctic System Science and Arctic Natural Sciences programs showed that over 90% of PIs were white whereas African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans together accounted for only about 1% of PIs. Over 70% of the PIs were male. I will suggest that involving diverse upper-level undergraduate students in authentic field research experiences may be one of the shortest and surest routes to diversifying the Arctic research community, and by extension, the geoscientific research community overall. Upper-level undergraduate students are still open to multiple possibilities, but an immersive field research experience often helps solidify graduate school and career trajectories. Though an all-of-the-above strategy is needed, focusing on engaging a diverse cohort of upper-level undergraduate students may provide one of the most efficient means of diversifying the geosciences over the coming years and decades.

Key principles of community-based natural resource management: a synthesis and interpretation of identified effective approaches for managing the commons.

PubMed

Gruber, James S

2010-01-01

This article examines recent research on approaches to community-based environmental and natural resource management and reviews the commonalities and differences between these interdisciplinary and multistakeholder initiatives. To identify the most effective characteristics of Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), I collected a multiplicity of perspectives from research teams and then grouped findings into a matrix of organizational principles and key characteristics. The matrix was initially vetted (or "field tested") by applying numerous case studies that were previously submitted to the World Bank International Workshop on CBNRM. These practitioner case studies were then compared and contrasted with the findings of the research teams. It is hoped that the developed matrix may be useful to researchers in further focusing research, understanding core characteristics of effective and sustainable CBNRM, providing practitioners with a framework for developing new CBNRM initiatives for managing the commons, and providing a potential resource for academic institutions during their evaluation of their practitioner-focused environmental management and leadership curriculum.

EUDAT: A New Cross-Disciplinary Data Infrastructure For Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lecarpentier, Damien; Michelini, Alberto; Wittenburg, Peter

2013-04-01

In recent years significant investments have been made by the European Commission and European member states to create a pan-European e-Infrastructure supporting multiple research communities. As a result, a European e-Infrastructure ecosystem is currently taking shape, with communication networks, distributed grids and HPC facilities providing European researchers from all fields with state-of-the-art instruments and services that support the deployment of new research facilities on a pan-European level. However, the accelerated proliferation of data - newly available from powerful new scientific instruments, simulations and the digitization of existing resources - has created a new impetus for increasing efforts and investments in order to tackle the specific challenges of data management, and to ensure a coherent approach to research data access and preservation. EUDAT is a pan-European initiative that started in October 2011 and which aims to help overcome these challenges by laying out the foundations of a Collaborative Data Infrastructure (CDI) in which centres offering community-specific support services to their users could rely on a set of common data services shared between different research communities. Although research communities from different disciplines have different ambitions and approaches - particularly with respect to data organization and content - they also share many basic service requirements. This commonality makes it possible for EUDAT to establish common data services, designed to support multiple research communities, as part of this CDI. During the first year, EUDAT has been reviewing the approaches and requirements of a first subset of communities from linguistics (CLARIN), solid earth sciences (EPOS), climate sciences (ENES), environmental sciences (LIFEWATCH), and biological and medical sciences (VPH), and shortlisted four generic services to be deployed as shared services on the EUDAT infrastructure. These services are data replication from site to site, data staging to compute facilities, metadata, and easy storage. A number of enabling services such as distributed authentication and authorization, persistent identifiers, hosting of services, workspaces and centre registry were also discussed. The services being designed in EUDAT will thus be of interest to a broad range of communities that lack their own robust data infrastructures, or that are simply looking for additional storage and/or computing capacities to better access, use, re-use, and preserve their data. The first pilots were completed in 2012 and a pre-production ready operational infrastructure, comprised of five sites (RZG, CINECA, SARA, CSC, FZJ), offering 480TB of online storage and 4PB of near-line (tape) storage, initially serving four user communities (ENES, EPOS, CLARIN, VPH) was established. These services shall be available to all communities in a production environment by 2014. Although EUDAT has initially focused on a subset of research communities, it aims to engage with other communities interested in adapting their solutions or contributing to the design of the infrastructure. Discussions with other research communities - belonging to the fields of environmental sciences, biomedical science, physics, social sciences and humanities - have already begun and are following a pattern similar to the one we adopted with the initial communities. The next step will consist of integrating representatives from these communities into the existing pilots and task forces so as to include them in the process of designing the services and, ultimately, shaping the future CDI.

Community governance of the Kahnawake Schools Diabetes Prevention Project, Kahnawake Territory, Mohawk Nation, Canada.

PubMed

Cargo, Margaret; Lévesque, Lucie; Macaulay, Ann C; McComber, Alex; Desrosiers, Serge; Delormier, Treena; Potvin, Louise

2003-09-01

Health promotion emphasizes the importance of community ownership in the governance of community-based programmes, yet little research has been conducted in this area. This study examined perceptions of community ownership among project partners taking responsibility for decision-making related to the Kahnawake Schools Diabetes Prevention Project (KSDPP). Project partners were surveyed cross-sectionally at 18 months (T1) and 60 months (T2) into the project. The perceived influence of each project partner was assessed at T1 and T2 for three domains: (i) KSDPP activities; (ii) KSDPP operations; and (iii) Community Advisory Board (CAB) activities. Project staff were perceived to have the greatest influence on KSDPP activities, KSDPP operations and CAB activities at both T1 and T2. High mean scores of perceived influence for CAB members and community researchers, however, suggests that project decision-making was a shared responsibility among multiple community partners. Although academic researcher influence was consistently low, they were satisfied with their level of influence. This was unlike community affiliates, who were less satisfied with their lower level of influence. In keeping with Kanien'kehaka (Mohawk) culture, the findings suggest a participatory democracy or shared decision-making as the primary mode of governance of KSDPP.

"Sitting in different chairs:" roles of the community health workers in the Poder es Salud/Power for Health Project.

PubMed

Farquhar, S A; Wiggins, N; Michael, Y L; Luhr, G; Jordan, J; Lopez, A

2008-07-01

Evaluations of Community Health Worker programs consistently document improvements in health, yet few articles clearly describe the roles of Community Health Workers (CHWs) from the CHWs' perspective. This article presents the CHWs' points of view regarding the various roles they played in a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project, Poder es Salud/Power for Health in Portland, Oregon, including their roles as community organizers and co-researchers. Authors draw from an analysis of transcript data from in-depth interviews conducted with CHWs to present a description of the strategies employed by the CHWs to build leadership skills and knowledge among community members. CHWs also discuss their own personal and professional development. The analysis of the interviews suggests that CHWs valued their multiple roles with Poder es Salud/Power for Health and their participation on the project's Steering Committee. Based on CHWs' descriptions of their work, this type of involvement appears to build the CHWs' leadership skills and sense of efficacy to create change in their communities. By serving as community organizers and participating as producers of research, rather than acting merely as a deliverer of the intervention activities, the CHWs were able to build skills that make them more successful as CHWs.

Improving Student Interest and Achievement in Social Studies Using a Multiple Intelligence Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanley, Chris; Hermiz, Carmen; Lagioia-Peddy, Jennifer; Levine-Albuck, Valerie

This action research paper describes a program initiated by teacher researchers to improve academic achievement and interest in social studies. The targeted group consisted of fifth graders in a lower middle class community in the Midwest. Analysis of the problem-causes data show three main factors: curriculum, attitude, and effect. In regard to…

How School Social Workers Integrate Service Opportunities into Multiple Elements of Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leyba, Erin

2010-01-01

This article reports the results from a research study regarding how school social workers extend opportunities for students to volunteer, serve others, or contribute to their communities and how social workers engaged students in service activities within their roles. The results are one part of the findings of a large research study on the role…

Using multiple research methods to understand family forest owners

Treesearch

John Schelhas

2012-01-01

Applied research on family forest owners ensures that we understand who they are, what they do, and why they do it. This information enables us to develop policy, management, and outreach approaches that can optimize the social, economic, cultural, and environmental benefits of private forests at the landowner, community, and national levels. The three principal...

Advancing system and policy changes for social and racial justice: comparing a Rural and Urban Community-Based Participatory Research Partnership in the U.S.

PubMed

Devia, Carlos; Baker, Elizabeth A; Sanchez-Youngman, Shannon; Barnidge, Ellen; Golub, Maxine; Motton, Freda; Muhammad, Michael; Ruddock, Charmaine; Vicuña, Belinda; Wallerstein, Nina

2017-02-21

The paper examines the role of community-based participatory research (CBPR) within the context of social justice literature and practice. Two CBPR case studies addressing health inequities related to Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular disease were selected from a national cross-site study assessing effective academic-community research partnerships. One CBPR partnership works with African Americans in rural Pemiscot County, Missouri and the other CBPR partnership works with African American and Latinos in urban South Bronx, New York City. Data collection included semi-structured key informant interviews and focus groups. Analysis focused on partnerships' context/history and their use of multiple justice-oriented strategies to achieve systemic and policy changes in order to address social determinants of health in their communities. Community context and history shaped each partnership's strategies to address social determinants. Four social justice approaches (identity/recognition, procedural, distributive, and structural justice) used by both partnerships were identified. These social justice approaches were employed to address underlying causes of inequitable distribution of resources and power structures, while remaining within a scientific research framework. CBPR can bridge the role of science with civic engagement and political participation, empowering community members to become political agents who integrate evidence into their social justice organizing strategies.

METHODOLOGICAL PLURALISM AND MIXED METHODOLOGY TO STRENGTHEN COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH: AN EXAMPLE FROM OXFORD HOUSE

PubMed Central

May, Emily M.; Hunter, Bronwyn A.; Jason, Leonard A.

2017-01-01

This article evaluates how a plurality of research methods has served a research program that has functioned in a much-needed area of research: the role of housing and recovery residences in addiction recovery. The review focuses on one mutually supportive recovery residence model, called Oxford House, which represents more than 1,700 democratic, self-governing residences. To date, there has been no comprehensive evaluation of the research methods used with Oxford House or any other recovery residence. In this article, research methods, including study designs and data analyses, are summarized for 114 peer-reviewed empirical studies that included data on Oxford Houses or Oxford House residents. This review of a pluralistic research program can inform community researchers about the value of recovery residences, the many ways in which recovery residences may be assessed, and the benefits of using multiple methods. Implications for future recovery residence research are discussed. PMID:28839344

METHODOLOGICAL PLURALISM AND MIXED METHODOLOGY TO STRENGTHEN COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH: AN EXAMPLE FROM OXFORD HOUSE.

PubMed

May, Emily M; Hunter, Bronwyn A; Jason, Leonard A

2017-01-01

This article evaluates how a plurality of research methods has served a research program that has functioned in a much-needed area of research: the role of housing and recovery residences in addiction recovery. The review focuses on one mutually supportive recovery residence model, called Oxford House, which represents more than 1,700 democratic, self-governing residences. To date, there has been no comprehensive evaluation of the research methods used with Oxford House or any other recovery residence. In this article, research methods, including study designs and data analyses, are summarized for 114 peer-reviewed empirical studies that included data on Oxford Houses or Oxford House residents. This review of a pluralistic research program can inform community researchers about the value of recovery residences, the many ways in which recovery residences may be assessed, and the benefits of using multiple methods. Implications for future recovery residence research are discussed.

Recommended practices for computerized clinical decision support and knowledge management in community settings: a qualitative study

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background The purpose of this study was to identify recommended practices for computerized clinical decision support (CDS) development and implementation and for knowledge management (KM) processes in ambulatory clinics and community hospitals using commercial or locally developed systems in the U.S. Methods Guided by the Multiple Perspectives Framework, the authors conducted ethnographic field studies at two community hospitals and five ambulatory clinic organizations across the U.S. Using a Rapid Assessment Process, a multidisciplinary research team: gathered preliminary assessment data; conducted on-site interviews, observations, and field surveys; analyzed data using both template and grounded methods; and developed universal themes. A panel of experts produced recommended practices. Results The team identified ten themes related to CDS and KM. These include: 1) workflow; 2) knowledge management; 3) data as a foundation for CDS; 4) user computer interaction; 5) measurement and metrics; 6) governance; 7) translation for collaboration; 8) the meaning of CDS; 9) roles of special, essential people; and 10) communication, training, and support. Experts developed recommendations about each theme. The original Multiple Perspectives framework was modified to make explicit a new theoretical construct, that of Translational Interaction. Conclusions These ten themes represent areas that need attention if a clinic or community hospital plans to implement and successfully utilize CDS. In addition, they have implications for workforce education, research, and national-level policy development. The Translational Interaction construct could guide future applied informatics research endeavors. PMID:22333210

SMART (Student Media-based Asthma Research Team): Engaging Adolescents to Understand Asthma in Their Communities.

PubMed

Yarbrough, Marjorie; Blumenstock, Jesse; Warren, Christopher; Dyer, Ashley; Wilson, Jaidah; Smith, Bridget; Gupta, Ruchi

Asthma rates in Chicago exceed national averages and disproportionately affect minority adolescents. We collaborated with students in a neighborhood with high asthma prevalence to better understand community factors impacting asthma. To evaluate the impact of our Student Media-based Asthma Research Team (SMART) program on student, parent, and student-peer outcomes related to asthma. Students with asthma (n = 11), their parents (n = 9), and student-peers (n = 91) participated in a school-based asthma intervention grounded in community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles and completed multiple pre-/post-intervention questionnaires. After the program, participants significantly increased (p < 0.05) asthma-related quality of life (QOL), asthma control, emotional support, and empowerment. Parents significantly increased their QOL and student-peers showed significant improvements in asthma knowledge. This novel intervention-which used participatory media as a vehicle through which children learn about their own asthma and share their findings with parents and peers-was successful in engaging adolescents to improve asthma management and community support.

HIV-related stigma within communities of gay men: a literature review.

PubMed

Smit, Peter J; Brady, Michael; Carter, Michael; Fernandes, Ricardo; Lamore, Lance; Meulbroek, Michael; Ohayon, Michel; Platteau, Tom; Rehberg, Peter; Rockstroh, Jürgen K; Thompson, Marc

2012-01-01

While stigma associated with HIV infection is well recognised, there is limited information on the impact of HIV-related stigma between men who have sex with men and within communities of gay men. The consequences of HIV-related stigma can be personal and community-wide, including impacts on mood and emotional well-being, prevention, testing behaviour, and mental and general health. This review of the literature reports a growing division between HIV-positive and HIV-negative gay men, and a fragmentation of gay communities based along lines of perceived or actual HIV status. The literature includes multiple references to HIV stigma and discrimination between gay men, men who have sex with men, and among and between many gay communities. This HIV stigma takes diverse forms and can incorporate aspects of social exclusion, ageism, discrimination based on physical appearance and health status, rejection and violence. By compiling the available information on this understudied form of HIV-related discrimination, we hope to better understand and target research and countermeasures aimed at reducing its impact at multiple levels.

Stroke Investigative Research and Education Network: Community Engagement and Outreach Within Phenomics Core.

PubMed

Jenkins, Carolyn; Arulogun, Oyedunni Sola; Singh, Arti; Mande, Aliyu T; Ajayi, Eric; Calys-Tagoe, Benedict; Ovbiagele, Bruce; Lackland, Daniel T; Sarfo, Fred Stephen; Akinyemi, Rufus; Akpalu, Albert; Obiako, Reginald; Melikam, Enzinne Sylvia; Laryea, Ruth; Shidali, Vincent; Sagoe, Kwamena; Ibinaiye, Philip; Fakunle, Adekunie Gregory; Owolabi, Lukman F; Owolabi, Mayowa O

2016-04-01

Stroke is the leading cause of neurological hospital admissions in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and the second leading cause of death globally. The Stroke Investigative Research and Education Network seeks to comprehensively characterize the genomic, sociocultural, economic, and behavioral risk factors for stroke and to build effective teams for research to address and decrease the burden of stroke and other noncommunicable diseases in SSA. One of the first steps to address this goal is to effectively engage the communities that suffer the high burden of disease. The purpose of this article is to describe plans to elucidate information about knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices about stroke and genomics from patients, caregivers, and local leaders, to recruit participation in research activities and dissemination of ongoing results, as well as to facilitate research uptake and impact within the broader communities of scientists, health professionals, policy makers, and others. We describe the (a) study sites and their communities; (b) plans for community advisory boards, focus groups, and surveys; (c) methods for data management in REDCap database; (d) analyses of qualitative data; (e) evaluation of community and public engagement across multiple sites and research teams in SSA and the United States; (f) use of RE-AIM for presentation of evaluation data; and (g) community indicators of success. This is the first of its kind public outreach engagement initiative to evaluate stroke and genomics in SSA, and has implications as a model for assessment in other high-stroke risk populations. © 2016 Society for Public Health Education.

Community violence and youth: affect, behavior, substance use, and academics.

PubMed

Cooley-Strickland, Michele; Quille, Tanya J; Griffin, Robert S; Stuart, Elizabeth A; Bradshaw, Catherine P; Furr-Holden, Debra

2009-06-01

Community violence is recognized as a major public health problem (WHO, World Report on Violence and Health, 2002) that Americans increasingly understand has adverse implications beyond inner-cities. However, the majority of research on chronic community violence exposure focuses on ethnic minority, impoverished, and/or crime-ridden communities while treatment and prevention focuses on the perpetrators of the violence, not on the youth who are its direct or indirect victims. School-based treatment and preventive interventions are needed for children at elevated risk for exposure to community violence. In preparation, a longitudinal, community epidemiological study, The Multiple Opportunities to Reach Excellence (MORE) Project, is being fielded to address some of the methodological weaknesses presented in previous studies. This study was designed to better understand the impact of children's chronic exposure to community violence on their emotional, behavioral, substance use, and academic functioning with an overarching goal to identify malleable risk and protective factors which can be targeted in preventive and intervention programs. This paper describes the MORE Project, its conceptual underpinnings, goals, and methodology, as well as implications for treatment and preventive interventions and future research.

The micronutrient genomics project: a community-driven knowledge base for micronutrient research

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Micronutrients influence multiple metabolic pathways including oxidative and inflammatory processes. Optimum micronutrient supply is important for the maintenance of homeostasis in metabolism and, ultimately, for maintaining good health. With advances in systems biology and genomics technologies, it...

“The One Who Chases You Away Does Not Tell You Go”: Silent Refusals and Complex Power Relations in Research Consent Processes in Coastal Kenya

PubMed Central

Kamuya, Dorcas M.; Theobald, Sally J.; Marsh, Vicki; Parker, Michael; Geissler, Wenzel P.; Molyneux, Sassy C.

2015-01-01

Consent processes have attracted significant research attention over the last decade, including in the global south. Although relevant studies suggest consent is a complex negotiated process involving multiple actors, most guidelines assume consent is a one-off encounter with a clear ‘yes’ or ‘no’ decision. In this paper we explore the concept of ‘silent refusals’, a situation where it is not clear whether potential participants want to join studies or those in studies want to withdraw from research, as they were not actively saying no. We draw on participant observation, in-depth interviews and group discussions conducted with a range of stakeholders in two large community based studies conducted by the KEMRI Wellcome Trust programme in coastal Kenya. We identified three broad inter-related rationales for silent refusals: 1) a strategy to avoid conflicts and safeguard relations within households, - for young women in particular—to appear to conform to the wishes of elders; 2) an approach to maintain friendly, appreciative and reciprocal relationships with fieldworkers, and the broader research programme; and 3) an effort to retain study benefits, either for individuals, whole households or wider communities. That refusals and underlying rationales were silent posed multiple dilemmas for fieldworkers, who are increasingly recognised to play a key interface role between researchers and communities in many settings. Silent refusals reflect and reinforce complex power relations embedded in decisions about research participation, with important implications for consent processes and broader research ethics practice. Fieldworkers need support to reflect upon and respond to the ethically charged environment they work in. PMID:25978465

Transforming Training: A Perspective on the Need and Payoffs from Common Standards

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-12-01

position the training research community on the eve of a scientific breakthrough. In the near future, the scientific community will likely benefit from...is likely to benefit from this ability to routinely cross-compare training technologies and techniques from laboratory training study results...concluding with a logical end such as " Bingo " (nearly out of fuel), all threats killed, or multiple friendly losses. While these training sessions

Mentors Lead and Leaders Mentor: A Qualitative Study of the Impact of Mentoring on the Pathway to the Presidency of Ethnic Minority Female Illinois Community College Presidents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stutz, Melissa

2014-01-01

This study was a qualitative study of the effect of mentoring on the career path of women who are members of racial and ethnic minority groups and have become presidents of community colleges in the state of Illinois. It used a multiple case study method utilizing in-depth interviews, documentation review and observations. Research shows nearly…

Tool for simplifying the complex interactions within resilient communities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stwertka, C.; Albert, M. R.; White, K. D.

2016-12-01

In recent decades, scientists have observed and documented impacts from climate change that will impact multiple sectors, will be impacted by decisions from multiple sectors, and will change over time. This complex human-engineered system has a large number of moving, interacting parts, which are interdependent and evolve over time towards their purpose. Many of the existing resilience frameworks and vulnerability frameworks focus on interactions between the domains, but do not include the structure of the interactions. We present an engineering systems approach to investigate the structural elements that influence a community's ability to be resilient. In this presentation we will present and analyze four common methods for building community resilience, utilizing our common framework. For several existing case studies we examine the stress points in the system and identify the impacts on the outcomes from the case studies. In ongoing research we will apply our system tool to a new case in the field.

Collaboration across eight research centers: unanticipated benefits and outcomes for project managers.

PubMed

Perez, Norma A; Weathers, Benita; Willis, Marilyn; Mendez, Jacqueline

2013-02-01

Managers of transdisciplinary collaborative research lack suitable didactic material to support the implementation of research methodologies and to build ongoing partnerships with community representatives and peers, both between and within multiple academic centers. This article will provide insight on the collaborative efforts of project managers involved in multidisciplinary research and their subsequent development of a tool kit for research project managers and/or directors. Project managers from the 8 Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities across the nation participated in monthly teleconferences to share experiences and offer advice on how to achieve high participation rates and maintain community involvement in collaboration with researchers and community leaders to achieve the common goal of decreasing health inequities. In the process, managers recognized and seized the opportunity to produce a tool kit that was designed for future project managers and directors. Project managers in geographically distinct locations maintained a commitment to work together over 4 years and subsequently built upon an existing communications network to design a tool kit that could be disseminated easily to a diverse audience.

Engaging Adolescents Through Participatory and Qualitative Research Methods to Develop a Digital Communication Intervention to Reduce Adolescent Obesity.

PubMed

Livingood, William C; Monticalvo, David; Bernhardt, Jay M; Wells, Kelli T; Harris, Todd; Kee, Kadra; Hayes, Johnathan; George, Donald; Woodhouse, Lynn D

2017-08-01

The complexity of the childhood obesity epidemic requires the application of community-based participatory research (CBPR) in a manner that can transcend multiple communities of stakeholders, including youth, the broader community, and the community of health care providers. To (a) describe participatory processes for engaging youth within context of CBPR and broader community, (b) share youth-engaged research findings related to the use of digital communication and implications for adolescent obesity intervention research, and (c) describe and discuss lessons learned from participatory approaches. CBPR principles and qualitative methods were synergistically applied in a predominantly African American part of the city that experiences major obesity-related issues. A Youth Research Advisory Board was developed to deeply engage youth in research that was integrated with other community-based efforts, including an academic-community partnership, a city-wide obesity coalition, and a primary care practice research network. Volunteers from the youth board were trained to apply qualitative methods, including facilitating focus group interviews and analyzing and interpreting data with the goal of informing a primary care provider-based obesity reduction intervention. The primary results of these efforts were the development of critical insights about adolescent use of digital communication and the potential importance of messaging, mobile and computer apps, gaming, wearable technology, and rapid changes in youth communication and use of digital technology in developing adolescent nutrition and physical activity health promotion. The youth led work helped identify key elements for a digital communication intervention that was sensitive and responsive to urban youth. Many valuable lessons were also learned from 3 years of partnerships and collaborations, providing important insights on applying CBPR with minority youth populations.

Evolving prosocial and sustainable neighborhoods and communities.

PubMed

Biglan, Anthony; Hinds, Erika

2009-01-01

In this review, we examine randomized controlled trials of community interventions to affect health. The evidence supports the efficacy of community interventions for preventing tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use; several recent trials have shown the benefits of community interventions for preventing multiple problems of young people, including antisocial behavior. However, the next generation of community intervention research needs to reflect more fully the fact that most psychological and behavioral problems of humans are interrelated and result from the same environmental conditions. The evidence supports testing new comprehensive community interventions that focus on increasing nurturance in communities. Nurturing communities will be ones in which families, schools, neighborhoods, and workplaces (a) minimize biologically and socially toxic events, (b) richly reinforce prosocial behavior, and (c) foster psychological acceptance. Such interventions also have the potential to make neighborhoods more sustainable.

Evolving Prosocial and Sustainable Neighborhoods and Communities

PubMed Central

Biglan, Anthony; Hinds, Erika

2008-01-01

In this chapter, we review randomized controlled trials of community interventions to affect health. The evidence supports the efficacy of community interventions for preventing tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use; several recent trials have shown the benefits of community interventions for preventing multiple problems of young people, including antisocial behavior. However, the next generation of community intervention research needs to reflect more fully the fact that most psychological and behavioral problems of humans are inter-related and result from the same environmental conditions. The evidence supports testing a new set of comprehensive community interventions that focus on increasing nurturance in communities. Nurturing communities will be ones in which families, schools, neighborhoods, and workplaces (a) minimize biologically and socially toxic events, (b) richly reinforce prosocial behavior, and (c) foster psychological acceptance. Such interventions also have the potential to make neighborhoods more sustainable. PMID:19327029

Chemical Inventory Management at NASA Lewis Research Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kraft, Shirley S.; Homan, Joseph R.; Bajorek, Michael J.; Dominguez, Manuel B.; Smith, Vanessa L.

1997-01-01

The Chemical Management System (CMS) is a client/server application developed with Power Builder and Sybase for the Lewis Research Center (LeRC). Power Builder is a client-server application development tool, Sybase is a Relational Database Management System. The entire LeRC community can access the CMS from any desktop environment. The multiple functions and benefits of the CMS are addressed.

Learning to write like a scientist: Coauthoring as an enculturation task

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Florence, Marilyn K.; Yore, Larry D.

2004-08-01

This multiple case study examined the coauthorship process in research laboratories of different university departments. The study focused on two cases comprising five writing teams, one in biochemistry and microbiology and four in earth and ocean sciences. The role of the research supervisor, the role of the student (graduate and postgraduate), the interaction of the supervisor and the student, the activities and processes inherent in the coauthorship process, and the student's beliefs, expertise, scientific writing, and entry into an academic discourse community were documented utilizing multiple sources of data and methods. Several activities and processes were found to be common across all coauthorship teams, including aspects of planning, drafting, and revising. Elements of scientific and writing expertise, facets of enculturation into scientific research and discourse communities, academic civility, and the dynamics of collaborative groups also were apparent. There was healthy tension and mutual respect in the research groups as they attempted to make sense of science, report their results clearly and persuasively, and share the responsibilities of expertise. The novice scientists came to appreciate that the writing, editing, and revising process influenced the quality of the science as well as the writing.

Effects of parental monitoring and exposure to community violence on antisocial behavior and anxiety/depression among adolescents.

PubMed

Bacchini, Dario; Concetta Miranda, Maria; Affuso, Gaetana

2011-01-01

The aim of the research was to investigate the influence of gender, exposure to community violence, and parental monitoring upon antisocial behavior and anxiety/depression in adolescence. Involved in the study were 489 adolescents (290 males and 189 females) from 4 secondary schools in the city of Naples, Italy. The age of participants ranged from 16 to 19 (mean age = 17.53, standard deviation = 1.24). All were in the 3rd (11th grade) or 5th year (13th grade) of high school. Self-reported measures were used to assess antisocial behavior, symptoms of anxiety/depression, parental monitoring and exposure to community violence as a victim or as a witness. First of all we tested, through a hierarchical multiple regression, the independent contribution of gender, exposure to community violence and parental monitoring upon antisocial behavior and symptoms of anxiety/depression; then we tested the moderating role of gender and parental monitoring on the negative effects of exposure to violence. The results show that male gender, high level of exposure to community violence (both as a victim and a witness), and low level of parental monitoring predict a higher involvement in antisocial behavior. Female gender, being a victim and low level of parental monitoring predict symptoms of anxiety/depression. Furthermore, parental monitoring and gender play a moderating role, minimizing or amplifying the negative effects of exposure to community violence. The results of the research suggest that a similar pattern of risk and protective factors can give rise to multiple paths of adaptive or maladaptive development.

A randomized controlled trial of a community health worker intervention in a population of patients with multiple chronic diseases: Study design and protocol

PubMed Central

Kangovi, Shreya; Mitra, Nandita; Turr, Lindsey; Huo, Hairong; Grande, David; Long, Judith A.

2017-01-01

Upstream interventions – e.g. housing programs and community health worker interventions-address socioeconomic and behavioral factors that influence health outcomes across diseases. Studying these types of interventions in clinical trials raises a methodological challenge: how should researchers measure the effect of an upstream intervention in a sample of patients with different diseases? This paper addresses this question using an illustrative protocol of a randomized controlled trial of collaborative-goal setting versus goal-setting plus community health worker support among patients multiple chronic diseases: diabetes, obesity, hypertension and tobacco dependence. At study enrollment, patients met with their primary care providers to select one of their chronic diseases to focus on during the study, and to collaboratively set a goal for that disease. Patients randomly assigned to a community health worker also received six months of support to address socioeconomic and behavioral barriers to chronic disease control. The primary hypothesis was that there would be differences in patients’ selected chronic disease control as measured by HbA1c, body mass index, systolic blood pressure and cigarettes per day, between the goal-setting alone and community health worker support arms. To test this hypothesis, we will conduct a stratum specific multivariate analysis of variance which allows all patients (regardless of their selected chronic disease) to be included in a single model for the primary outcome. Population health researchers can use this approach to measure clinical outcomes across diseases. PMID:27965180

Online Social Support for Patients with Multiple Sclerosis: A Thematic Analysis of Messages Posted to a Virtual Support Community

PubMed Central

Shavazi, Masoumeh Abbasi; Morowatisharifabad, Mohammad Ali; Shavazi, Mohammad Taghi Abbasi; Mirzaei, Masoud; Ardekani, Ali Mellat

2016-01-01

Background: Currently with the emergence of the Internet, patients have an opportunity to exchange social support online. However, little attention has been devoted to different dimensions of online social support exchanged in virtual support communities for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods: To provide a rich insight, the aim of this qualitative study was to explore and categorize different dimensions of online social support in messages exchanged in a virtual support community for patients with MS. A total of 548 posted messages created during one year period were selected using purposive sampling to consider the maximum variation sampling. Prior-research-driven thematic analysis was then conducted. In this regard, we used the Cutruna and Suhr’s coding system. The messages that could not be categorized with the used coding system were thematically analyzed to explore new additional social support themes. Results: The results showed that various forms of social support including informational, emotional, network, esteem and tangible support were exchanged. Moreover, new additional social support themes including sharing personal experiences, sharing coping strategies and spiritual support emerged in this virtual support community. Conclusion: The wide range of online social support exchanged in the virtual support community can be regarded as a supplementary source of social support for patients with MS. Future researches can examine online social support more comprehensively considering additional social support themes emerging in the present study. PMID:27382585

Community-Engaged Modeling of Geographic and Demographic Patterns of Multiple Public Health Risk Factors

PubMed Central

Basra, Komal; Fabian, M. Patricia; Holberger, Raymond R.; French, Robert

2017-01-01

Many health risk factors are intervention targets within communities, but information regarding high-risk subpopulations is rarely available at a geographic resolution that is relevant for community-scale interventions. Researchers and community partners in New Bedford, Massachusetts (USA) collaboratively identified high-priority behaviors and health outcomes of interest available in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). We developed multivariable regression models from the BRFSS explaining variability in exercise, fruit and vegetable consumption, body mass index, and diabetes prevalence as a function of demographic and behavioral characteristics, and linked these models with population microdata developed using spatial microsimulation to characterize high-risk populations and locations. Individuals with lower income and educational attainment had lower rates of multiple health-promoting behaviors (e.g., fruit and vegetable consumption and exercise) and higher rates of self-reported diabetes. Our models in combination with the simulated population microdata identified census tracts with an elevated percentage of high-risk subpopulations, information community partners can use to prioritize funding and intervention programs. Multi-stressor modeling using data from public databases and microsimulation methods for characterizing high-resolution spatial patterns of population attributes, coupled with strong community partner engagement, can provide significant insight for intervention. Our methodology is transferrable to other communities. PMID:28684710

Integrating plant ecological responses to climate extremes from individual to ecosystem levels.

PubMed

Felton, Andrew J; Smith, Melinda D

2017-06-19

Climate extremes will elicit responses from the individual to the ecosystem level. However, only recently have ecologists begun to synthetically assess responses to climate extremes across multiple levels of ecological organization. We review the literature to examine how plant responses vary and interact across levels of organization, focusing on how individual, population and community responses may inform ecosystem-level responses in herbaceous and forest plant communities. We report a high degree of variability at the individual level, and a consequential inconsistency in the translation of individual or population responses to directional changes in community- or ecosystem-level processes. The scaling of individual or population responses to community or ecosystem responses is often predicated upon the functional identity of the species in the community, in particular, the dominant species. Furthermore, the reported stability in plant community composition and functioning with respect to extremes is often driven by processes that operate at the community level, such as species niche partitioning and compensatory responses during or after the event. Future research efforts would benefit from assessing ecological responses across multiple levels of organization, as this will provide both a holistic and mechanistic understanding of ecosystem responses to increasing climatic variability.This article is part of the themed issue 'Behavioural, ecological and evolutionary responses to extreme climatic events'. © 2017 The Author(s).

Exposure to Community Violence and Sexual Behaviors Among African American Youth: Testing Multiple Pathways.

PubMed

Voisin, Dexter R; Hotton, Anna; Neilands, Torsten

2018-01-01

African American youth bear a disproportionate burden of sexually transmitted infections. A growing number of studies document that youth exposure to community violence and sexual behaviors are highly correlated. Despite such growing evidence, only a few studies have empirically tested conceptually driven pathways that may account for such relationships. This study seeks to address that gap by exploring multiple pathways linking exposure to community violence and youth sexual behaviors. Using an existing sample of 563 African American youth attending high school, we examined whether possible links between exposure to community violence and sexual activity, sexual risk behaviors were mediated by aggression, low student-teacher connectedness, and negative peer norms. Major findings indicated indirect relationships between exposures to community violence and both sexual activity and risky sex, mediated by aggression and negative peer norms with no significant differences based on gender or socioeconomic status. Overall findings also indicated a significant indirect effect of aggression to risky sex via negative peer norms and from community violence to risky peer norms via aggression. By illuminating ways that community violence, aggression, peer norms, and sexual behaviors are dynamically interrelated, these findings have significant implications for future research and intervention initiatives aimed at addressing the different pathways.

Knowledge Acquisition for Application: Cognitive Flexibility and Transfer of Training in III-Structured Domains

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-04-01

Derivabl, from Concentrated Conceotual Analysis Obviously, there is a prima facie medical relevance to studying concepts judged by the medical community... consumers of research, e.g., students, see and are affected only by the partial products of the overall quest, without access to the "big picture...in a number of studies that the learning of complex content materia ! in ill-structured domains requires multiple representations -- multiple

Broadening participation in community problem solving: a multidisciplinary model to support collaborative practice and research.

PubMed

Lasker, Roz D; Weiss, Elisa S

2003-03-01

Over the last 40 years, thousands of communities-in the United States and internationally-have been working to broaden the involvement of people and organizations in addressing community-level problems related to health and other areas. Yet, in spite of this experience, many communities are having substantial difficulty achieving their collaborative objective, and many funders of community partnerships and participation initiatives are looking for ways to get more out of their investment. One of the reasons we are in this predicament is that the practitioners and researchers who are interested in community collaboration come from a variety of contexts, initiatives, and academic disciplines, and few of them have integrated their work with experiences or literatures beyond their own domain. In this article, we seek to overcome some of this fragmentation of effort by presenting a multidisciplinary model that lays out the pathways by which broadly participatory processes lead to more effective community problem solving and to improvements in community health. The model, which builds on a broad array of practical experience as well as conceptual and empirical work in multiple fields, is an outgrowth of a joint-learning work group that was organized to support nine communities in the Turning Point initiative. Following a detailed explication of the model, the article focuses on the implications of the model for research, practice, and policy. It describes how the model can help researchers answer the fundamental effectiveness and "how-to" questions related to community collaboration. In addition, the article explores differences between the model and current practice, suggesting strategies that can help the participants in, and funders of, community collaborations strengthen their efforts.

Experiences in conducting multiple community-based HIV prevention trials among women in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background South Africa, with its scientific capacity, good infrastructure and high HIV incidence rates, is ideally positioned to conduct large-scale HIV prevention trials. The HIV Prevention Research Unit of the South African Medical Research Council conducted four phase III and one phase IIb trials of women-initiated HIV prevention options in KwaZulu-Natal between 2003 and 2009. A total of 7046 women participated, with HIV prevalence between 25% and 45% and HIV incidence ranging from 4.5-9.1% per year. Unfortunately none of the interventions tested had any impact on reducing the risk of HIV acquisition; however, extremely valuable experience was gained, lessons learned and capacity built, while the communities gained associated benefits. Experience Our experience in conducting these trials ranged from setting up community partnerships to developing clinical research sites and dissemination of trial results. Community engagement included setting up community-based research sites with approval from both political and traditional leaders, and developing community advisory groups to assist with the research process. Community-wide education on HIV/sexually transmitted infection prevention, treatment and care was provided to over 90 000 individuals. Myths and misconceptions were addressed through methods such as anonymous suggestion boxes in clinic waiting areas and intensive education and counselling. Attempts were made to involve male partners to foster support and facilitate recruitment of women. Peer educator programmes were initiated to provide ongoing education and also to facilitate recruitment of women to the trials. Recruitment strategies such as door-to-door recruitment and community group meetings were initiated. Over 90% of women enrolled were retained. Community benefits from the trial included education on HIV prevention, treatment and care and provision of ancillary care (such as Pap smears, reproductive health care and referral for chronic illnesses). Social benefits included training of home-based caregivers and sustainable ongoing HIV prevention education through peer educator programmes. Challenges Several challenges were encountered, including manipulation by participants of their eligibility criteria in order to enroll in the trial. Women attempted to co-enroll in multiple trials to benefit from financial reimbursements and individualised care. The trials became ethically challenging when participants refused to take up referrals for care due to stigma, denial of their HIV status and inadequate health infrastructure. Lack of disclosure of HIV status to partners and family members was particularly challenging. Some of the ethical dilemmas put to the test our responsibility as researchers and our obligation to provide health care to research participants. Conclusion Conducting these five trials in a period of six years provided us with invaluable insights into trial implementation, community participation, recruitment and retention, provision of care and dissemination of trial results. The critical mass of scientists trained as clinical trialists will continue to address the relentless HIV epidemic in our setting and ensure our commitment to finding a biomedical HIV prevention option for women in the future. PMID:20416063

Development and Implementation of a School-based Obesity Prevention Intervention: Lessons Learned from Community-Based Participatory Research

PubMed Central

Uyeda, Kimberly; Bogart, Laura M.; Hawes-Dawson, Jennifer; Schuster, Mark A.

2010-01-01

Background National, state, and local policies aim to change school environments to prevent child obesity. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) can be effective in translating public health policy into practice. Objectives We describe lessons learned from developing and pilot testing a middle school-based obesity prevention intervention using CBPR in Los Angeles, California. Methods We formed a community–academic partnership between the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and the UCLA/RAND Center for Adolescent Health Promotion to identify community needs and priorities for addressing adolescent obesity and to develop and pilot test a school-based intervention. Lessons Learned Academic partners need to be well-versed in organizational structures and policies. Partnerships should be built on relationships of trust, shared vision, and mutual capacity building, with genuine community engagement at multiple levels. Conclusion These lessons are critical, not only for partnering with schools on obesity prevention, but also for working in other community settings and on other health issues. PMID:20208226

Single-site community consultation for emergency research in a community hospital setting.

PubMed

Galbraith, Kyle L; Keck, Anna-Sigrid; Little, Charletta

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate community member feedback from community consultation and public disclosure activities performed for a clinical investigation involving a device designed to treat traumatic brain injury in prehospital contexts. The clinical investigation of that device was to be performed under the federal regulations providing an exception from prospective informed consent requirements in emergency settings. Secondarily, we sought to assess the community consultation process by measuring the levels of outreach provided by the different communication methods used in these activities, with special attention to the effectiveness of social media for community outreach. The medical device investigation consists of a single-site pilot study based at a 345-bed community hospital in east central Illinois, which also serves as the area's only level I trauma center. Investigators, in collaboration with the local institutional review board, fulfilled community consultation and public disclosure requirements through four public town hall meetings, seven targeted focus groups, targeted mailings to 884 community leaders and researchers, a press conference and press release, internal and external websites, and multiple postings to the hospital's Facebook and Twitter accounts. Community members provided feedback by completing paper or electronic comment cards. A total of 428 community members attended the four town hall meetings and seven focus group sessions. Attendance at each meeting ranged from 4 to 20 attendees for the town hall meetings and 8 to 140 attendees for the focus groups. The investigation's external website received 626 unique visitors and the intranet website received 528 unique visits. Social media postings on Facebook and Twitter received six comments and eight "likes" to indicate that an individual read the posting. In total, attendees completed 175 comment cards to provide their feedback. Community member attitudes regarding the research were very positive, with 173 (98.8%) comment card respondents viewing the research as beneficial and 162 (92.6%) indicating that they would allow themselves or their family members to participate in the research. The internal and external websites provided the most effective means for sharing research-related information to community members. While cost-effective, social media outreach was very limited and did not foster communication with community members.

Network Access Control List Situation Awareness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reifers, Andrew

2010-01-01

Network security is a large and complex problem being addressed by multiple communities. Nevertheless, current theories in networking security appear to overestimate network administrators' ability to understand network access control lists (NACLs), providing few context specific user analyses. Consequently, the current research generally seems to…

"STL" Guiding the 21st Century Thinker

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelley, Todd R.

2014-01-01

Members of the technology and engineering education community have provided a clear message that (Standards for Technological Literacy) STL provides multiple opportunities to teach engineering concepts within K-12 education. This article will review recent research within technology education and the technological literacy standards…

Incidence and related clinical factors of falls among older Chinese veterans in military communities: a prospective study.

PubMed

Xu, Wei; Chen, Da-Wei; Jin, Yan-Bin; Dong, Zhen-Jun; Zhang, Wei-Jiang; Chen, Jin-Wen; Yang, Shu-Mei; Wang, Jian-Rong

2015-02-01

[Purpose] The aim of this study was to determine fall incidence and explore clinical factors of falls among older Chinese veterans in military communities. [Subjects and Methods] We carried out a 12-month prospective study among 13 military communities in Beijing, China. Fall events were obtained by self-report to military community liaisons and monthly telephone interviews by researchers. [Results] Among the final sample of 447 older veterans, 86 fell once, 25 fell twice or more, and 152 falls occurred altogether. The incidence of falls and fallers were 342/1,000 person-years and 249/1,000 person-years. In Cox regression models, independent clinical factors associated with falls were visual acuity (RR=0.47), stroke (RR=2.43), lumbar diseases (RR=1.73), sedatives (RR=1.80), fall history in the past 6 months (RR=2.77), multiple chronic diseases (RR=1.53), multiple medications (RR=1.34), and five-repetition sit-to-stand test score (RR=1.41). Hearing acuity was close to being statistically significant. [Conclusion] The incidences of falls and fallers among older Chinese veterans were lower than those of Hong Kong and western countries. The clinical risk factors of falls were poor senses, stroke, lumbar diseases, taking sedatives, fall history in the past 6 months, having multiple chronic diseases, taking multiple medications, and poor physical function. The preventive strategies targeting the above risk factors are very significant for reducing falls.

Incidence and related clinical factors of falls among older Chinese veterans in military communities: a prospective study

PubMed Central

Xu, Wei; Chen, Da-Wei; Jin, Yan-Bin; Dong, Zhen-Jun; Zhang, Wei-Jiang; Chen, Jin-Wen; Yang, Shu-Mei; Wang, Jian-Rong

2015-01-01

[Purpose] The aim of this study was to determine fall incidence and explore clinical factors of falls among older Chinese veterans in military communities. [Subjects and Methods] We carried out a 12-month prospective study among 13 military communities in Beijing, China. Fall events were obtained by self-report to military community liaisons and monthly telephone interviews by researchers. [Results] Among the final sample of 447 older veterans, 86 fell once, 25 fell twice or more, and 152 falls occurred altogether. The incidence of falls and fallers were 342/1,000 person-years and 249/1,000 person-years. In Cox regression models, independent clinical factors associated with falls were visual acuity (RR=0.47), stroke (RR=2.43), lumbar diseases (RR=1.73), sedatives (RR=1.80), fall history in the past 6 months (RR=2.77), multiple chronic diseases (RR=1.53), multiple medications (RR=1.34), and five-repetition sit-to-stand test score (RR=1.41). Hearing acuity was close to being statistically significant. [Conclusion] The incidences of falls and fallers among older Chinese veterans were lower than those of Hong Kong and western countries. The clinical risk factors of falls were poor senses, stroke, lumbar diseases, taking sedatives, fall history in the past 6 months, having multiple chronic diseases, taking multiple medications, and poor physical function. The preventive strategies targeting the above risk factors are very significant for reducing falls. PMID:25729162

Grandmother and health care professional breastfeeding perspectives provide opportunities for health promotion in an American Indian community.

PubMed

Houghtaling, Bailey; Byker Shanks, Carmen; Ahmed, Selena; Rink, Elizabeth

2018-05-08

While breastfeeding is well recognized as beneficial, rates of breastfeeding among American Indian women are below average and contribute to health inequities. Culturally specific approaches to breastfeeding research are called for to inform appropriate interventions in American Indian communities. Specifically, a grandmother's role in breastfeeding promotion is of great import particularly in American Indian (AI) groups, although is an understudied topic to date. This research seeks to fill a prominent literature gap by utilizing a grounded theory and community-based research approach to inform breastfeeding practices from the voices of grandmothers and health care professionals in a rural AI community in the United States. A community-based approach guided the research process. Convenience and snowball sampling was used to recruit for semi-structured and follow up member checking interviews with AI grandmothers (n = 27) and health care professionals (n = 7). Qualitative data were transcribed, characterized into meaning units, and coded by a review panel. Data were reconciled for discrepancies among reviewers, organized thematically, and used to generate community-specific breastfeeding constructs. Three major themes emerged, each with relevant subthemes: (1) importance of breastfeeding; (2) attachment, bonding, and passing on knowledge; and (3) overburdened health care system. Multiple subthemes represent stressors and impact breastfeeding knowledge, translation, and practice within this community including formula beliefs, historical traumas, societal pressures, mistrust, and substance abuse. Interventions designed to raise breastfeeding rates in the study site community would ideally be grounded in tribal resources and involve a collaborative approach that engages the greater community, grandmothers, health care professionals, and scientific partners with varying skills. More research is needed to determine stressors and any potential impact on infant feeding practices among other AI groups. Application of the research approach presented here to other AI communities may be beneficial for understanding opportunities and challenges to breastfeeding practices. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Microbial community dynamics in Inferno Crater Lake, a thermally fluctuating geothermal spring

PubMed Central

Ward, Laura; Taylor, Michael W; Power, Jean F; Scott, Bradley J; McDonald, Ian R; Stott, Matthew B

2017-01-01

Understanding how microbial communities respond and adjust to ecosystem perturbation is often difficult to interpret due to multiple and often simultaneous variations in observed conditions. In this research, we investigated the microbial community dynamics of Inferno Crater Lake, an acidic geothermal spring in New Zealand with a unique thermal cycle that varies between 30 and 80 °C over a period of 40–60 days. Using a combination of next-generation sequencing, geochemical analysis and quantitative PCR we found that the microbial community composition was predominantly chemolithotrophic and strongly associated with the thermal cycle. At temperatures >65 °C, the microbial community was dominated almost exclusively by sulphur-oxidising archaea (Sulfolobus-like spp.). By contrast, at mesophilic temperatures the community structure was more mixed, comprising both archaea and bacteria but dominated primarily by chemolithotrophic sulphur and hydrogen oxidisers. Multivariate analysis of physicochemical data confirmed that temperature was the only significant variable associated with community turnover. This research contributes to our understanding of microbial community dynamics in variable environments, using a naturally alternating system as a model and extends our limited knowledge of acidophile ecology in geothermal habitats. PMID:28072418

Microbial community dynamics in Inferno Crater Lake, a thermally fluctuating geothermal spring.

PubMed

Ward, Laura; Taylor, Michael W; Power, Jean F; Scott, Bradley J; McDonald, Ian R; Stott, Matthew B

2017-05-01

Understanding how microbial communities respond and adjust to ecosystem perturbation is often difficult to interpret due to multiple and often simultaneous variations in observed conditions. In this research, we investigated the microbial community dynamics of Inferno Crater Lake, an acidic geothermal spring in New Zealand with a unique thermal cycle that varies between 30 and 80 °C over a period of 40-60 days. Using a combination of next-generation sequencing, geochemical analysis and quantitative PCR we found that the microbial community composition was predominantly chemolithotrophic and strongly associated with the thermal cycle. At temperatures >65 °C, the microbial community was dominated almost exclusively by sulphur-oxidising archaea (Sulfolobus-like spp.). By contrast, at mesophilic temperatures the community structure was more mixed, comprising both archaea and bacteria but dominated primarily by chemolithotrophic sulphur and hydrogen oxidisers. Multivariate analysis of physicochemical data confirmed that temperature was the only significant variable associated with community turnover. This research contributes to our understanding of microbial community dynamics in variable environments, using a naturally alternating system as a model and extends our limited knowledge of acidophile ecology in geothermal habitats.

Capacity for Cancer Care Delivery Research in National Cancer Institute Community Oncology Research Program Community Practices: Availability of Radiology and Primary Care Research Partners.

PubMed

Carlos, Ruth C; Sicks, JoRean D; Chang, George J; Lyss, Alan P; Stewart, Teresa L; Sung, Lillian; Weaver, Kathryn E

2017-12-01

Cancer care spans the spectrum from screening and diagnosis through therapy and into survivorship. Delivering appropriate care requires patient transitions across multiple specialties, such as primary care, radiology, and oncology. From the program's inception, the National Cancer Institute Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) sites were tasked with conducting cancer care delivery research (CCDR) that evaluates structural, organizational, and social factors, including care transitions that determine patient outcomes. The aim of this study is to describe the capacity of the NCORP to conduct multidisciplinary CCDR that includes radiology and primary care practices. The NCORP includes 34 community and 12 minority and underserved community sites. The Landscape Capacity Assessment was conducted in 2015 across these 46 sites, composed of the 401 components and subcomponents designated to conduct CCDR. Each respondent had the opportunity to designate an operational practice group, defined as a group of components and subcomponents with common care practices and resources. The primary outcomes were the proportion of adult oncology practice groups with affiliated radiology and primary care practices. The secondary outcomes were the proportion of those affiliated radiology and primary care groups that participate in research. Eighty-seven percent of components and subcomponents responded to at least some portion of the assessment, representing 230 practice groups. Analyzing the 201 adult oncology practice groups, 85% had affiliated radiologists, 69% of whom participate in research. Seventy-nine percent had affiliated primary care practitioners, 31% of whom participate in research. Institutional size, multidisciplinary group practice, and ownership by large regional or multistate health systems was associated with research participation by affiliated radiology and primary care groups. Research participation by these affiliated specialists was not significantly different between the community and the minority and underserved community sites. Research relationships exist between the majority of community oncology sites and affiliated radiology practices. Research relationships with affiliated primary care practices lagged. NCORP as a whole has the opportunity to encourage continued and expanded engagement where relationships exist. Where no relationship exists, the NCORP can encourage recruitment, particularly of primary care practices as partners. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Health-promotion research over three decades: The social-ecological model and challenges in implementation of interventions.

PubMed

Wold, Bente; Mittelmark, Maurice B

2018-02-01

This debate paper traces the development of innovative methods for undertaking health promotion research with a socialecological orientation, with a few examples drawn from 30 years of research on adolescent health promotion research at the University of Bergen. We aim to show how the social-ecological model is becoming more evident as a guide to research, using three cases that illustrate progress and potential. The first case is the Norwegian part of the European Network of Health Promoting Schools. The second case is a project just underway, The COMPLETE study, which is a community-led effort to promote students' mental health and create a good psychosocial learning environment. The third case is a developing idea for the next generation of social-ecological research on adolescent well-being, using an asset approach to foster social inclusion and sense of community in multiple settings.

The impact of a prevention delivery system on perceived social capital: the PROSPER project.

PubMed

Chilenski, Sarah M; Ang, Patricia M; Greenberg, Mark T; Feinberg, Mark E; Spoth, Richard

2014-04-01

The current study examined the impact of the PROSPER delivery system for evidence-based prevention programs on multiple indicators of social capital in a rural and semi-rural community sample. Utilizing a randomized blocked design, 317 individuals in 28 communities across two states were interviewed at three time points over the course of 2.5 years. Bridging, linking, and the public life skills forms of social capital were assessed via community members' and leaders' reports on the perceptions of school functioning and the Cooperative Extension System, collaboration among organizations, communication and collaboration around youth problems, and other measures. Longitudinal mixed model results indicate significant improvements in some aspects of bridging and linking social capital in PROSPER intervention communities. Given the strength of the longitudinal and randomized research design, results advance prevention science by suggesting that community collaborative prevention initiatives can significantly impact community social capital in a rural and semi-rural sample. Future research should further investigate changes in social capital in different contexts and how changes in social capital relate to other intervention effects.

Effective prevention programs for tobacco use.

PubMed

Pentz, M A

1999-01-01

Several types of prevention programs have shown effects on delaying or reducing youth tobacco use for periods of 1-5 years or more. These are referred to as evidence-based programs. However, they are not widely used. At the same time, with few exceptions, adolescent tobacco use rates have been stable or have increased in the 1990s. The challenge for prevention is to identify critical components shared by effective prevention programs--that is, components most associated with effect, and then to evaluate factors that are most likely to promote adoption, implementation, and diffusion of effective programs across schools and communities in the United States. Effective tobacco prevention programs focus on counteracting social influences on tobacco use, include either direct training of youth in resistance and assertiveness skills or, for policy and community organization interventions, direct or indirect (through adults) training in community activism, and are mainly theory-based, with an emphasis on three levels of theory: (a) personal (attitudes, normative expectations, and beliefs); (b) social (social or group behavior); and/or (c) environmental (communications and diffusion). Program effects increase with the use of booster sessions, standardized implementor training and support, multiple program components, and multiple levels of theory. Overall, multi-component community programs that have a school program as a basis, with supportive parent, media, and community organization components, have shown the most sustained effects on tobacco use. Positive program adoption by the school or community, extent and quality of program implementation, and existence of credible networks of leaders to promote the program are critical for any effect. Research on predictors of adoption, implementation, and diffusion of evidence-based programs is scanty relative to outcome research. In addition, more research is needed on why multi-component programs appear to be most effective, whether effect is related to existing tobacco policies, whether prevention programs have differential effects on youth with different natural trajectories of tobacco use, and whether prevention programs can be used to recruit smokers into cessation programs.

Community, culture and sustainability in multilevel dynamic systems intervention science.

PubMed

Schensul, Jean J

2009-06-01

This paper addresses intertwined issues in the conceptualization, implementation and evaluation of multilevel dynamic systems intervention science (MDSIS). Interventions are systematically planned, conducted and evaluated social science-based cultural products intercepting the lives of people and institutions in the context of multiple additional events and processes (which also may be referred to as interventions) that may speed, slow or reduce change towards a desired outcome. Multilevel interventions address change efforts at multiple social levels in the hope that effects at each level will forge synergistic links, facilitating movement toward desired change. This paper utilizes an ecological framework that identifies macro (policy and regulatory institutions), meso (organizations and agencies with resources, and power) and micro (individuals, families and friends living in communities) interacting directly and indirectly. An MDSIS approach hypothesizes that change toward a goal will occur faster and more effectively when synchronized and supported across levels in a social system. MDSIS approaches by definition involve "whole" communities and cannot be implemented without the establishments of working community partnerships This paper takes a dynamic systems approach to science as conducted in communities, and discusses four concepts that are central to MDSIS--science, community, culture, and sustainability. These concepts are important in community based participatory research and to the targeting, refinement, and adaptation of enduring interventions. Consistency in their meaning and use can promote forward movement in the field of MDSIS, and in community-based prevention science.

Emotional insecurity about the community: A dynamic, within-person mediator of child adjustment in contexts of political violence.

PubMed

Cummings, E Mark; Merrilees, Christine; Taylor, Laura K; Goeke-Morey, Marcie; Shirlow, Peter

2017-02-01

Over 1 billion children worldwide are exposed to political violence and armed conflict. The current conclusions are qualified by limited longitudinal research testing sophisticated process-oriented explanatory models for child adjustment outcomes. In this study, consistent with a developmental psychopathology perspective emphasizing the value of process-oriented longitudinal study of child adjustment in developmental and social-ecological contexts, we tested emotional insecurity about the community as a dynamic, within-person mediating process for relations between sectarian community violence and child adjustment. Specifically, this study explored children's emotional insecurity at a person-oriented level of analysis assessed over 5 consecutive years, with child gender examined as a moderator of indirect effects between sectarian community violence and child adjustment. In the context of a five-wave longitudinal research design, participants included 928 mother-child dyads in Belfast (453 boys, 475 girls) drawn from socially deprived, ethnically homogenous areas that had experienced political violence. Youth ranged in age from 10 to 20 years and were 13.24 (SD = 1.83) years old on average at the initial time point. Greater insecurity about the community measured over multiple time points mediated relations between sectarian community violence and youth's total adjustment problems. The pathway from sectarian community violence to emotional insecurity about the community was moderated by child gender, with relations to emotional insecurity about the community stronger for girls than for boys. The results suggest that ameliorating children's insecurity about community in contexts of political violence is an important goal toward improving adolescents' well-being and adjustment. These results are discussed in terms of their translational research implications, consistent with a developmental psychopathology model for the interface between basic and intervention research.

Harry Smith — recipient of the 2008 Molecular Ecology Prize

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Harry Smith is a scholar, mentor, internationally renowned researcher, eloquent speaker and author, pioneering journal editor and highly valued colleague who has contributed greatly in multiple ways to plant science and the community. He richly deserves the honour of the Molecular Ecology Prize....

The College Transfer Student in America: The Forgotten Student

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobs, Bonita C., Ed.

2004-01-01

This guide translates research into practical advice on attracting, retaining, and guiding transfer students. Various chapters address multiple strategies for orientation and advising; curricular issues involving transfer students; how to maximize the effectiveness of articulation agreements; preparing community college students for transfer;…

Artifical Regeneration of Multiple Hardwood Species to Develop Specific Forest Communities

Treesearch

Paul P. Kormanik; Taryn L. Kormanik; Shi-Jean S. Sung; Stanley J. Zarnoch; Charles Possee

1999-01-01

A five-species mixed hardwood plantation consisting of Liqudembar styraciflua, Quercus mmichauxii, Q. pegoda, Frexinus pennsylvenica, and Carya aquatica has been estsbllshed at the National Environmental Research Park, New Ellenton, SC. All were grown under uniform conditions with the same nursery fertility...

EPA's Sustainable Port Communities: a Knowledge System Approach to Increasing Resiliency

EPA Science Inventory

Create a Sustainability Assessment Toolbox for US ports that: • Addresses multiple issues faced by ports • Builds on work from other EPA Research Programs • Complements other resiliency work from federal and NGO partners, e.g.: EPA’s Office of Transportat...

Contextualizing School Psychology Practice: Introducing Featured Research Commentaries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burns, Matthew K.

2013-01-01

Bronfenbrenner (1977) defined ecological-systems theory (EST) as the study of the multiple interconnected environmental systems that influence individual development. To understand the child, psychologists must fully examine the environment in which the child lives including the home, school, community, and culture (Bronfenbrenner, 1986). There…

Developing a Community-Wide Initiative to Address Childhood Adversity and Toxic Stress: A Case Study of The Philadelphia ACE Task Force.

PubMed

Pachter, Lee M; Lieberman, Leslie; Bloom, Sandra L; Fein, Joel A

The Philadelphia ACE Task Force is a community based collaborative of health care providers, researchers, community-based organizations, funders, and public sector representatives. The mission of the task force is to provide a venue to address childhood adversity and its consequences in the Philadelphia metropolitan region. In this article we describe the origins and metamorphosis of the Philadelphia ACE Task Force, which initially was narrowly focused on screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in health care settings but expanded its focus to better represent a true community-based approach to sharing experiences with addressing childhood adversity in multiple sectors of the city and region. The task force has been successful in developing a research agenda and conducting research on ACEs in the urban context, and has identified foci of local activity in the areas of professional training and workforce development, community education, and local practical interventions around adversity, trauma, and resiliency. In this article we also address the lessons learned over the first 5 years of the task force's existence and offers recommendations for future efforts to build a local community-based ACEs collaborative. Copyright © 2017 Academic Pediatric Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Asthma in the community: Designing instruction to help students explore scientific dilemmas that impact their lives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tate, Erika Dawn

School science instruction that connects to students' diverse home, cultural, or linguistic experiences can encourage lifelong participation in the scientific dilemmas that impact students' lives. This dissertation seeks effective ways to support high school students as they learn complex science topics and use their knowledge to transform their personal and community environments. Applying the knowledge integration perspective, I collaborated with education, science, and community partners to design a technology enhanced science module, Improving Your Community's Asthma Problem. This exemplar community science curriculum afforded students the opportunity to (a) investigate a local community health issue, (b) interact with relevant evidence related to physiology, clinical management, and environmental risks, and (c) construct an integrated understanding of the asthma problem in their community. To identify effective instructional scaffolds that engage students in the knowledge integration process and prepare them to participate in community science, I conducted 2 years of research that included 5 schools, 10 teachers, and over 500 students. This dissertation reports on four studies that analyzed student responses on pre-, post-, and embedded assessments. Researching across four design stages, the iterative design study investigated how to best embed the visualizations of the physiological processes breathing, asthma attack, and the allergic immune response in an inquiry activity and informed evidence-based revisions to the module. The evaluation study investigated the impact of this revised Asthma module across multiple classrooms and differences in students' prior knowledge. Combining evidence of student learning from the iterative and evaluation studies with classroom observations and teacher interviews, the longitudinal study explored the impact of teacher practices on student learning in years 1 and 2. In the final chapter, I studied how the Asthma module and students' local community influenced students as they integrated their ideas related to perspectives, evidence use, the consideration of tradeoffs, and localization to construct explanations and decision justifications regarding their community's asthma problem. In the end, this dissertation offers evidence that informs the future design of community science instruction that successfully engages students in the knowledge integration process and has implications for creating multiple opportunities for students to meaningfully participate in community science.

Introduction to Small Telescope Research Communities of Practice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Genet, Russell M.

2016-06-01

Communities of practice are natural, usually informal groups of people who work together. Experienced members teach new members the “ropes.” Social learning theorist Etienne Wenger’s book, Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity, defined the field. There are, in astronomy, many communities of practice. One set of communities uses relatively small telescopes to observe brighter objects such as eclipsing binaries, intrinsically variable stars, transiting exoplanets, tumbling asteroids, and the occultation of background stars by asteroids and the Moon. Advances in low cost but increasingly powerful instrumentation and automation have greatly increased the research capabilities of smaller telescopes. These often professional-amateur (pro-am) communities engage in research projects that require a large number of observers as exemplified by the American Association of Variable Star Observers. For high school and community college students with an interest in science, joining a student-centered, small telescope community of practice can be both educational and inspirational. An example is the now decade-long Astronomy Research Seminar offered by Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, California. Each student team is required to plan a project, obtain observations (either locally or via a remote robotic telescope), analyze their data, write a paper, and submit it for external review and publication. Well over 100 students, composed primarily of high school juniors and seniors, have been coauthors of several dozen published papers. Being published researchers has boosted these students’ educational careers with admissions to choice schools, often with scholarships. This seminar was recently expanded to serve multiple high schools with a volunteer assistant instructor at each school. The students meet regularly with their assistant instructor and also meet online with other teams and the seminar’s overall community college instructor. The seminar features a textbook, self-paced learning units, and a website sponsored by the Institute for Student Astronomical Research.

A role for communities in primary prevention of chronic illness? Case studies in regional Australia.

PubMed

Taylor, Judy; Braunack-Mayer, Annette; Cargo, Margaret; Larkins, Sarah; Preston, Robyn

2013-08-01

In regional Australia "communities of place," defined as bounded geographic locations with a local society, undertake community-wide primary prevention programs. In helping to prevent chronic illness, communities provide valuable resources to the health system. To understand the role of community-health sector partnerships for primary prevention and the community contextual factors that affect them, we studied eight partnerships. We used an embedded multiple case study design and collected data through interviews, nonparticipant observation, and document analysis. These data were analyzed using a typology of community-health sector partnerships and community interaction theory to frame the key community contextual factors that affected partnerships. The dominant factor affecting all partnerships was the presence of a collective commitment that communities brought to making the community a better place through developing health. We call this a communitarian approach. Additional research to investigate factors influencing a communitarian approach and the role it plays in partnerships is required.

Creating Qungasvik (A Yup’ik Intervention “Toolbox”): Case Examples from a Community-Developed and Culturally-Driven Intervention

PubMed Central

Rasmus, Stacy M.; Charles, Billy; Mohatt, Gerald V.

2014-01-01

This paper describes the development of a Yup’ik Alaska Native approach to suicide and alcohol abuse prevention that resulted in the creation of the Qungasvik, a toolbox promoting reasons for life and sobriety among youth. The Qungasvik is made up of thirty-six modules that function as cultural scripts for creating experiences in Yup’ik communities that build strengths and protection against suicide and alcohol abuse. The Qungasvik manual represents the results of a community based participatory research intervention development process grounded in culture and local process, and nurtured through a syncretic blending of Indigenous and Western theories and practices. This paper will provide a description of the collaborative steps taken at the community-level to develop the intervention modules. This process involved university researchers and community members coming together and drawing from multiple sources of data and knowledge to inform the development of prevention activities addressing youth suicide and alcohol abuse. We will present case examples describing the development of three keystone modules; Qasgiq (The Men’s House), Yup’ik Kinship Terms, and Surviving Your Feelings. These modules each are representative of the process that the community co-researcher team took to develop and implement protective experiences that: (1) create supportive community, (2) strengthen families, and (3) give individuals tools to be healthy and strong. PMID:24764018

Creating Qungasvik (a Yup'ik intervention "toolbox"): case examples from a community-developed and culturally-driven intervention.

PubMed

Rasmus, Stacy M; Charles, Billy; Mohatt, Gerald V

2014-09-01

This paper describes the development of a Yup'ik Alaska Native approach to suicide and alcohol abuse prevention that resulted in the creation of the Qungasvik, a toolbox promoting reasons for life and sobriety among youth. The Qungasvik is made up of thirty-six modules that function as cultural scripts for creating experiences in Yup'ik communities that build strengths and protection against suicide and alcohol abuse. The Qungasvik manual represents the results of a community based participatory research intervention development process grounded in culture and local process, and nurtured through a syncretic blending of Indigenous and Western theories and practices. This paper will provide a description of the collaborative steps taken at the community-level to develop the intervention modules. This process involved university researchers and community members coming together and drawing from multiple sources of data and knowledge to inform the development of prevention activities addressing youth suicide and alcohol abuse. We will present case examples describing the development of three keystone modules; Qasgiq (The Men's House), Yup'ik Kinship Terms, and Surviving Your Feelings. These modules each are representative of the process that the community co-researcher team took to develop and implement protective experiences that: (1) create supportive community, (2) strengthen families, and (3) give individuals tools to be healthy and strong.

Maintaining the balance: older adults with chronic health problems manage life in the community.

PubMed

Jacelon, Cynthia S

2010-01-01

The purpose of this research was to identify themes in the daily lives of community-dwelling older adults with chronic health problems. Qualitative descriptive methods based on symbolic interaction were used. Data were generated through unstructured interviews, participant diaries, and researcher logs. Participants were interviewed twice and kept diaries in between. Measures to enhance trustworthiness included bracketing, multiple data sources, repeated interviews, prolonged engagement, an audit trail, participant checking, and consultation with an expert qualitative researcher. Ten older adults 75-98 years of age living in their own homes with at least one self-reported chronic health problem participated in the research. Participants' health problems varied, and they developed strategies to maintain balance in activity, attitude, autonomy, health, and relationships. This research provides a new perspective on living with chronic illness, and the model may provide a framework for rehabilitation nurses who work with older adults.

Transdisciplinary Research and Evaluation for Community Health Initiatives

PubMed Central

Harper, Gary W.; Neubauer, Leah C.; Bangi, Audrey K.; Francisco, Vincent T.

2010-01-01

Transdisciplinary research and evaluation projects provide valuable opportunities to collaborate on interventions to improve the health and well-being of individuals and communities. Given team members’ diverse backgrounds and roles or responsibilities in such projects, members’ perspectives are significant in strengthening a project’s infrastructure and improving its organizational functioning. This article presents an evaluation mechanism that allows team members to express the successes and challenges incurred throughout their involvement in a multisite transdisciplinary research project. Furthermore, their feedback is used to promote future sustainability and growth. Guided by a framework known as organizational development, the evaluative process was conducted by a neutral entity, the Quality Assurance Team. A mixed-methods approach was utilized to garner feedback and clarify how the research project goals could be achieved more effectively and efficiently. The multiple benefits gained by those involved in this evaluation and implications for utilizing transdisciplinary research and evaluation teams for health initiatives are detailed. PMID:18936267

Iowa Flood Information System: Towards Integrated Data Management, Analysis and Visualization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Demir, I.; Krajewski, W. F.; Goska, R.; Mantilla, R.; Weber, L. J.; Young, N.

2012-04-01

The Iowa Flood Information System (IFIS) is a web-based platform developed by the Iowa Flood Center (IFC) to provide access to flood inundation maps, real-time flood conditions, flood forecasts both short-term and seasonal, flood-related data, information and interactive visualizations for communities in Iowa. The key element of the system's architecture is the notion of community. Locations of the communities, those near streams and rivers, define basin boundaries. The IFIS provides community-centric watershed and river characteristics, weather (rainfall) conditions, and streamflow data and visualization tools. Interactive interfaces allow access to inundation maps for different stage and return period values, and flooding scenarios with contributions from multiple rivers. Real-time and historical data of water levels, gauge heights, and rainfall conditions are available in the IFIS by streaming data from automated IFC bridge sensors, USGS stream gauges, NEXRAD radars, and NWS forecasts. Simple 2D and 3D interactive visualizations in the IFIS make the data more understandable to general public. Users are able to filter data sources for their communities and selected rivers. The data and information on IFIS is also accessible through web services and mobile applications. The IFIS is optimized for various browsers and screen sizes to provide access through multiple platforms including tablets and mobile devices. The IFIS includes a rainfall-runoff forecast model to provide a five-day flood risk estimate for around 500 communities in Iowa. Multiple view modes in the IFIS accommodate different user types from general public to researchers and decision makers by providing different level of tools and details. River view mode allows users to visualize data from multiple IFC bridge sensors and USGS stream gauges to follow flooding condition along a river. The IFIS will help communities make better-informed decisions on the occurrence of floods, and will alert communities in advance to help minimize damage of floods. This presentation provides an overview and live demonstration of the tools and interfaces in the IFIS developed to date to provide a platform for one-stop access to flood related data, visualizations, flood conditions, and forecast.

Iowa Flood Information System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Demir, I.; Krajewski, W. F.; Goska, R.; Mantilla, R.; Weber, L. J.; Young, N.

2011-12-01

The Iowa Flood Information System (IFIS) is a web-based platform developed by the Iowa Flood Center (IFC) to provide access to flood inundation maps, real-time flood conditions, flood forecasts both short-term and seasonal, flood-related data, information and interactive visualizations for communities in Iowa. The key element of the system's architecture is the notion of community. Locations of the communities, those near streams and rivers, define basin boundaries. The IFIS provides community-centric watershed and river characteristics, weather (rainfall) conditions, and streamflow data and visualization tools. Interactive interfaces allow access to inundation maps for different stage and return period values, and flooding scenarios with contributions from multiple rivers. Real-time and historical data of water levels, gauge heights, and rainfall conditions are available in the IFIS by streaming data from automated IFC bridge sensors, USGS stream gauges, NEXRAD radars, and NWS forecasts. Simple 2D and 3D interactive visualizations in the IFIS make the data more understandable to general public. Users are able to filter data sources for their communities and selected rivers. The data and information on IFIS is also accessible through web services and mobile applications. The IFIS is optimized for various browsers and screen sizes to provide access through multiple platforms including tablets and mobile devices. The IFIS includes a rainfall-runoff forecast model to provide a five-day flood risk estimate for around 500 communities in Iowa. Multiple view modes in the IFIS accommodate different user types from general public to researchers and decision makers by providing different level of tools and details. River view mode allows users to visualize data from multiple IFC bridge sensors and USGS stream gauges to follow flooding condition along a river. The IFIS will help communities make better-informed decisions on the occurrence of floods, and will alert communities in advance to help minimize damage of floods. This presentation provides an overview of the tools and interfaces in the IFIS developed to date to provide a platform for one-stop access to flood related data, visualizations, flood conditions, and forecast.

Flood Risk Management in Iowa through an Integrated Flood Information System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Demir, Ibrahim; Krajewski, Witold

2013-04-01

The Iowa Flood Information System (IFIS) is a web-based platform developed by the Iowa Flood Center (IFC) to provide access to flood inundation maps, real-time flood conditions, flood forecasts both short-term and seasonal, flood-related data, information and interactive visualizations for communities in Iowa. The key element of the system's architecture is the notion of community. Locations of the communities, those near streams and rivers, define basin boundaries. The IFIS provides community-centric watershed and river characteristics, weather (rainfall) conditions, and streamflow data and visualization tools. Interactive interfaces allow access to inundation maps for different stage and return period values, and flooding scenarios with contributions from multiple rivers. Real-time and historical data of water levels, gauge heights, and rainfall conditions are available in the IFIS by streaming data from automated IFC bridge sensors, USGS stream gauges, NEXRAD radars, and NWS forecasts. Simple 2D and 3D interactive visualizations in the IFIS make the data more understandable to general public. Users are able to filter data sources for their communities and selected rivers. The data and information on IFIS is also accessible through web services and mobile applications. The IFIS is optimized for various browsers and screen sizes to provide access through multiple platforms including tablets and mobile devices. The IFIS includes a rainfall-runoff forecast model to provide a five-day flood risk estimate for around 1100 communities in Iowa. Multiple view modes in the IFIS accommodate different user types from general public to researchers and decision makers by providing different level of tools and details. River view mode allows users to visualize data from multiple IFC bridge sensors and USGS stream gauges to follow flooding condition along a river. The IFIS will help communities make better-informed decisions on the occurrence of floods, and will alert communities in advance to help minimize damage of floods. This presentation provides an overview and live demonstration of the tools and interfaces in the IFIS developed to date to provide a platform for one-stop access to flood related data, visualizations, flood conditions, and forecast.

Cluster-Based Query Expansion Using Language Modeling for Biomedical Literature Retrieval

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Xuheng

2011-01-01

The tremendously huge volume of biomedical literature, scientists' specific information needs, long terms of multiples words, and fundamental problems of synonym and polysemy have been challenging issues facing the biomedical information retrieval community researchers. Search engines have significantly improved the efficiency and effectiveness of…

"Lower-Achieving" Deaf People: Overview and Case Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reiman, John; And Others

1991-01-01

This paper begins with an overview of lower-achieving and multiply disabled deaf people; provides a case study that highlights assessment, educational, and community adjustment issues for one lower-achieving deaf individual with multiple disabling conditions; and concludes by highlighting areas for further research and development. (JDD)

Manned-Unmanned Teaming: Expanding the Envelope of UAS Operational Employment (Reprint)

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-11-01

Orders will be expedited if placed through the librarian or other person designated to request documents from DTIC. Change of Address Organizations...within the domain of the aeromedical community. There are many lines of scientifi c inves- tigation among multiple consortia of research entities

Plant community mediation of ecosystem responses to global change factors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Churchill, A. C.

2017-12-01

Human alteration of the numerous environmental drivers affecting ecosystem processes is unprecedented in the last century, including changes in climate regimes and rapid increases in the availability of biologically active nitrogen (N). Plant communities may offer stabilizing or amplifying feedbacks mediating potential ecosystem responses to these alterations, and my research seeks to examine the conditions associated with when plant feedbacks are important for ecosystem change. My dissertation research focused on the unintended consequences of N deposition into natural landscapes, including alpine ecosystems which are particularly susceptible to adverse environmental impacts. In particular, I examined alpine plant and soil responses to N deposition 1) across multiple spatial scales throughout the Southern Rocky Mountains, 2) among diverse plant communities associated with unique environmental conditions common in the alpine of this region, and 3) among ecosystem pools of N contributing to stabilization of N inputs within those communities. I found that communities responded to inputs of N differently, often associated with traits of dominant plant species but these responses were intimately linked with the abiotic conditions of each independent community. Even so, statistical models predicting metrics of N processing in the alpine were improved by encompassing both abiotic and biotic components of the main community types.

The challenge of genuine power sharing in participatory research: the gap between theory and practice.

PubMed

Mason, R; Boutilier, M

1996-01-01

Participatory research is often suggested as a strategy to overcome power imbalances between researchers and research "subjects" because it values equally the knowledge of each individual who participates in the project. However, there is little documentation of the dilemmas that may arise when a complex community service organization attempts to engage in participatory research. In our experience of a participatory research project with multiple partners, power imbalances arose from organizationally based perspectives that were unaccounted for in the participatory research literature, demonstrating that power is a complex and elusive factor in establishing equal relations.

Patterns of adverse childhood experiences and substance use among young adults: A latent class analysis.

PubMed

Shin, Sunny H; McDonald, Shelby Elaine; Conley, David

2018-03-01

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been strongly linked with subsequent substance use. The aim of this study was to investigate how different patterns of ACEs influence substance use in young adulthood. Using a community sample of young individuals (N=336; ages 18-25), we performed latent class analyses (LCA) to identify homogenous groups of young people with similar patterns of ACEs. Exposure to ACEs incorporates 13 childhood adversities including childhood maltreatment, household dysfunction, and community violence. Multiple linear and logistic regression models were used in an effort to examine the associations between ACEs classes and four young adult outcomes such as alcohol-related problems, current tobacco use, drug dependence symptoms, and psychological distress. LCA identified four heterogeneous classes of young people distinguished by different patterns of ACEs exposure: Low ACEs (56%), Household Dysfunction/Community Violence (14%), Emotional ACEs (14%), and High/Multiple ACEs (16%). Multiple regression analyses found that compared to those in the Low ACEs class, young adults in the High/Multiple ACEs class reported more alcohol-related problems, current tobacco use, and psychological symptoms, controlling for sociodemographic characteristics and common risk factors for substance use such as peer substance use. Our findings confirm that for many young people, ACEs occur as multiple rather than single experiences. The results of this research suggest that exposure to poly-victimization during childhood is particularly related to substance use during young adulthood. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Lessons learned from community-based participatory research: establishing a partnership to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ageing in place.

PubMed

Wright, Leslie A; King, Diane K; Retrum, Jessica H; Helander, Kenneth; Wilkins, Shari; Boggs, Jennifer M; Portz, Jennifer Dickman; Nearing, Kathryn; Gozansky, Wendolyn S

2017-06-01

Due to a history of oppression and lack of culturally competent services, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) seniors experience barriers to accessing social services. Tailoring an evidence-based ageing in place intervention to address the unique needs of LGBT seniors may decrease the isolation often faced by this population. To describe practices used in the formation of a community-based participatory research (CBPR), partnership involving social workers, health services providers, researchers and community members who engaged to establish a LGBT ageing in place model called Seniors Using Supports To Age In Neighborhoods (SUSTAIN). A case study approach was employed to describe the partnership development process by reflecting on past meeting minutes, progress reports and interviews with SUSTAIN's partners. Key partnering practices utilized by SUSTAIN included (i) development of a shared commitment and vision; (ii) identifying partners with intersecting spheres of influence in multiple communities of identity (ageing services, LGBT, health research); (iii) attending to power dynamics (e.g. equitable sharing of funds); and (iv) building community capacity through reciprocal learning. Although the partnership dissolved after 4 years, it served as a successful catalyst to establish community programming to support ageing in place for LGBT seniors. Multi-sector stakeholder involvement with capacity to connect communities and use frameworks that formalize equity was key to establishing a high-trust CBPR partnership. However, lack of focus on external forces impacting each partner (e.g. individual organizational strategic planning, community funding agency perspectives) ultimately led to dissolution of the SUSTAIN partnership even though implementation of community programming was realized. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Grass buffers for playas in agricultural landscapes: A literature synthesis

USGS Publications Warehouse

Melcher, Cynthia P.; Skagen, Susan K.

2005-01-01

Future research should entail multiple-scale approaches at regional, wetland-complex, and individual watershed scales. Information needs include direct measures of buffer effectiveness in ‘real-world’ systems, refinement and field tests of buffer-effectiveness models, how buffers may affect floral and faunal communities of playas, and basic ecological information on playa function and playa wildlife ecology. Understanding how wildlife communities respond to patch size and habitat fragmentation is crucial for addressing questions regarding habitat quality of grass buffers in playa systems.

Engagement Between Decision Makers and the Research Community in Califonria'a Climate Assessments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bedsworth, L. W.; Franco, G.; Wilhelm, S.; DeLaRosa, J.

2016-12-01

The State of California has been supporting the development of regional climate change science for more than two decades. The engagement between the scientific community in California and State agencies has been strong, and supported by multiple formalized relationships. For example, research results have informed state climate policy formulation such as the passage of AB32, a law that requires the State to bring GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and three Bills on climate adaptation that became law late in 2015. Scientific research has also been used for long-term planning of state resources such as the Forestry Plan, the Water Plan, and the Integrated Energy Policy Report. The Climate Action Team Research Working Group meets monthly to coordinate climate-related research activities supported by more than 20 state agencies and is the steering committee for the next California Climate Assessment that will be released in 2018. The State is co-producing the research commissioned for the 2018 Assessment in various ways, including the identification of research projects, the integration of more than 50 research studies, and active participation during execution of the research. The presentation will discuss the State's successes in linking decision-makers and the scientific community as well as challenges and potential ways to enhance these linkages.

Evaluating the Real-World Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavior Therapy Efficacy Research on Eating Disorders: A Case Study from a Community-based Clinical Setting

PubMed Central

Lowe, Michael R.; Bunnell, Douglas W.; Neeren, Amy M.; Chernyak, Yelena; Greberman, Laurel

2009-01-01

Objective There is a growing consensus that there is a need to test the real-world effectiveness of eating disorder therapies that show promise in efficacy research. The current paper provides a narrative account of an NIMH-funded study that attempted to apply efficacy findings from CBT research to an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) at the largest community-based eating disorder program in the United States. Method We describe the study as originally envisioned as well as the various challenges that the researchers and the IOP staff encountered in implementing this study. Results The different training, assumptions, and “ways of knowing” of the research team and the treatment staff in regard to the nature of eating disorders and their treatment created multiple challenges for both groups during the study period. We describe valuable lessons learned about how to - and how not to -implement effectiveness designs in clinical settings that are relatively unfamiliar with empirically-based research findings. Discussion It is hoped that our experience in attempting to apply efficacy-based research findings on eating disorders treatment in a community-based clinical setting will prove helpful to other researchers and service providers engaging in such translational research. PMID:20063375

Double Star Research: A Student-Centered Community of Practice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johnson, Jolyon

2016-06-01

Project and team-based pedagogies are increasingly augmenting lecture-style science classrooms. Occasionally, university professors will invite students to tangentially partcipate in their research. Since 2006, Dr. Russ Genet has led an astronomy research seminar for community college and high school students that allows participants to work closely with a melange of professional and advanced amatuer researchers. The vast majority of topics have centered on measuring the position angles and searations of double stars which can be readily published in the Journal of Double Star Observations. In the intervening years, a collaborative community of practice (Wenger, 1998) formed with the students as lead researchers on their projects with the guidance of experienced astronomers and educators. The students who join the research seminar are often well prepared for further STEM education in college and career. Today, the research seminar involves multile schools in multiple states with a volunteer educator acting as an assistant instructor at each location. These assistant instructors interface with remote observatories, ensure progress is made, and recruit students. The key deliverables from each student team include a published research paper and a public presentation online or in-person. Citing a published paper on scholarship and college applications gives students' educational carreers a boost. Recently the Journal of Double Star Observations published its first special issue of exlusively student-centered research.

Hierarchical filters determine community assembly of urban species pools.

PubMed

Aronson, Myla F J; Nilon, Charles H; Lepczyk, Christopher A; Parker, Tommy S; Warren, Paige S; Cilliers, Sarel S; Goddard, Mark A; Hahs, Amy K; Herzog, Cecilia; Katti, Madhusudan; La Sorte, Frank A; Williams, Nicholas S G; Zipperer, Wayne

2016-11-01

The majority of humanity now lives in cities or towns, with this proportion expected to continue increasing for the foreseeable future. As novel ecosystems, urban areas offer an ideal opportunity to examine multi-scalar processes involved in community assembly as well as the role of human activities in modulating environmental drivers of biodiversity. Although ecologists have made great strides in recent decades at documenting ecological relationships in urban areas, much remains unknown, and we still need to identify the major ecological factors, aside from habitat loss, behind the persistence or extinction of species and guilds of species in cities. Given this paucity of knowledge, there is an immediate need to facilitate collaborative, interdisciplinary research on the patterns and drivers of biodiversity in cities at multiple spatial scales. In this review, we introduce a new conceptual framework for understanding the filtering processes that mold diversity of urban floras and faunas. We hypothesize that the following hierarchical series of filters influence species distributions in cities: (1) regional climatic and biogeographical factors; (2) human facilitation; (3) urban form and development history; (4) socioeconomic and cultural factors; and (5) species interactions. In addition to these filters, life history and functional traits of species are important in determining community assembly and act at multiple spatial scales. Using these filters as a conceptual framework can help frame future research needed to elucidate processes of community assembly in urban areas. Understanding how humans influence community structure and processes will aid in the management, design, and planning of our cities to best support biodiversity. © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America.

Rural outreach in Maine: A research-driven professional development teacher community

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wittmann, Michael

2016-03-01

In the Maine Physical Sciences Partnership (MainePSP), researchers at the University of Maine have joined together with the state's Department of Education, non-profits, and teachers in multiple school districts to create a dynamic and growing community dedicated to improving K12 education of the physical sciences. Through ongoing efforts to introduce and adapt instructional materials, guided by education research and research-guided professional development, we have built a community responsive to student and teacher needs. This work has fed back into the university setting, where teachers are playing a role in graduate courses taken by our Master of Science in Teaching students. In this talk, I will focus on the role of education research in the partnership, showing how we use research in professional development, the development of assessments, and the analysis of the resulting data. I will describe two projects, one to understand how teachers' content knowledge affects the development of items assessing knowledge of acceleration, the other to see how teachers use their content knowledge of systems and energy to make pedagogical choices based on students' incorrect ideas about conservation of energy. Sponsored in part by NSF Grants MSP-0962805, DRL-1222580, and DUE-1340033.

Forging a future of better cardiovascular health: addressing childhood obesity.

PubMed

Pratt, Charlotte A; Arteaga, Sonia; Loria, Catherine

2014-02-04

This paper describes ongoing National, Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)-initiated childhood obesity research. It calls on clinicians, researchers, and cardiologists to work with other healthcare providers, community agencies, schools and caregivers to foster better cardiovascular health in children by intervening on multiple levels of influence on childhood obesity. Copyright © 2014 American College of Cardiology Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Help-Seekers to Influential Users: A Systematic Review of Participation Styles in Online Health Communities

PubMed Central

Ali, Kathina; Cunningham, John Alastair; Griffiths, Kathleen Margaret

2015-01-01

Background Understanding how people participate in and contribute to online health communities (OHCs) is useful knowledge in multiple domains. It is helpful for community managers in developing strategies for building community, for organizations in disseminating information about health interventions, and for researchers in understanding the social dynamics of peer support. Objective We sought to determine if any patterns were apparent in the nature of user participation across online health communities. Methods The current study involved a systematic review of all studies that have investigated the nature of participation in an online health community and have provided a quantifiable method for categorizing a person based on their participation style. A systematic search yielded 20 papers. Results Participatory styles were classified as either multidimensional (based on multiple metrics) or unidimensional (based on one metric). With respect to the multidimensional category, a total of 41 different participation styles were identified ranging from Influential Users who were leaders on the board to Topic-Focused Responders who focused on a specific topic and tended to respond to rather than initiate posts. However, there was little overlap in participation styles identified both across OHCs for different health conditions and within OHCs for specific health conditions. Five of the 41 styles emerged in more than one study (Hubs, Authorities, Facilitators, Prime Givers, and Discussants), but the remainder were reported in only one study. The focus of the unidimensional studies was on level of engagement and particularly on high-engaged users. Eight different metrics were used to evaluate level of engagement with the greatest focus on frequency of posts. Conclusions With the exception of high-engaged users based on high post frequency, the current review found little evidence for consistent participatory styles across different health communities. However, this area of research is in its infancy, with most of the studies included in the review being published in the last 2 years. Nevertheless, the review delivers a nomenclature for OHC participation styles and metrics and discusses important methodological issues that will provide a basis for future comparative research in the area. Further studies are required to systematically investigate a range of participatory styles, to investigate their association with different types of online health communities and to determine the contribution of different participatory styles within and across online health communities. PMID:26627369

From Help-Seekers to Influential Users: A Systematic Review of Participation Styles in Online Health Communities.

PubMed

Carron-Arthur, Bradley; Ali, Kathina; Cunningham, John Alastair; Griffiths, Kathleen Margaret

2015-12-01

Understanding how people participate in and contribute to online health communities (OHCs) is useful knowledge in multiple domains. It is helpful for community managers in developing strategies for building community, for organizations in disseminating information about health interventions, and for researchers in understanding the social dynamics of peer support. We sought to determine if any patterns were apparent in the nature of user participation across online health communities. The current study involved a systematic review of all studies that have investigated the nature of participation in an online health community and have provided a quantifiable method for categorizing a person based on their participation style. A systematic search yielded 20 papers. Participatory styles were classified as either multidimensional (based on multiple metrics) or unidimensional (based on one metric). With respect to the multidimensional category, a total of 41 different participation styles were identified ranging from Influential Users who were leaders on the board to Topic-Focused Responders who focused on a specific topic and tended to respond to rather than initiate posts. However, there was little overlap in participation styles identified both across OHCs for different health conditions and within OHCs for specific health conditions. Five of the 41 styles emerged in more than one study (Hubs, Authorities, Facilitators, Prime Givers, and Discussants), but the remainder were reported in only one study. The focus of the unidimensional studies was on level of engagement and particularly on high-engaged users. Eight different metrics were used to evaluate level of engagement with the greatest focus on frequency of posts. With the exception of high-engaged users based on high post frequency, the current review found little evidence for consistent participatory styles across different health communities. However, this area of research is in its infancy, with most of the studies included in the review being published in the last 2 years. Nevertheless, the review delivers a nomenclature for OHC participation styles and metrics and discusses important methodological issues that will provide a basis for future comparative research in the area. Further studies are required to systematically investigate a range of participatory styles, to investigate their association with different types of online health communities and to determine the contribution of different participatory styles within and across online health communities.

The Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project - a community-level, public health initiative to build community disaster resilience.

PubMed

Eisenman, David; Chandra, Anita; Fogleman, Stella; Magana, Aizita; Hendricks, Astrid; Wells, Ken; Williams, Malcolm; Tang, Jennifer; Plough, Alonzo

2014-08-19

Public health officials need evidence-based methods for improving community disaster resilience and strategies for measuring results. This methods paper describes how one public health department is addressing this problem. This paper provides a detailed description of the theoretical rationale, intervention design and novel evaluation of the Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project (LACCDR), a public health program for increasing community disaster resilience. The LACCDR Project utilizes a pretest-posttest method with control group design. Sixteen communities in Los Angeles County were selected and randomly assigned to the experimental community resilience group or the comparison group. Community coalitions in the experimental group receive training from a public health nurse trained in community resilience in a toolkit developed for the project. The toolkit is grounded in theory and uses multiple components to address education, community engagement, community and individual self-sufficiency, and partnerships among community organizations and governmental agencies. The comparison communities receive training in traditional disaster preparedness topics of disaster supplies and emergency communication plans. Outcome indicators include longitudinal changes in inter-organizational linkages among community organizations, community member responses in table-top exercises, and changes in household level community resilience behaviors and attitudes. The LACCDR Project is a significant opportunity and effort to operationalize and meaningfully measure factors and strategies to increase community resilience. This paper is intended to provide public health and academic researchers with new tools to conduct their community resilience programs and evaluation research. Results are not yet available and will be presented in future reports.

The Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project — A Community-Level, Public Health Initiative to Build Community Disaster Resilience

PubMed Central

Eisenman, David; Chandra, Anita; Fogleman, Stella; Magana, Aizita; Hendricks, Astrid; Wells, Ken; Williams, Malcolm; Tang, Jennifer; Plough, Alonzo

2014-01-01

Public health officials need evidence-based methods for improving community disaster resilience and strategies for measuring results. This methods paper describes how one public health department is addressing this problem. This paper provides a detailed description of the theoretical rationale, intervention design and novel evaluation of the Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project (LACCDR), a public health program for increasing community disaster resilience. The LACCDR Project utilizes a pretest–posttest method with control group design. Sixteen communities in Los Angeles County were selected and randomly assigned to the experimental community resilience group or the comparison group. Community coalitions in the experimental group receive training from a public health nurse trained in community resilience in a toolkit developed for the project. The toolkit is grounded in theory and uses multiple components to address education, community engagement, community and individual self-sufficiency, and partnerships among community organizations and governmental agencies. The comparison communities receive training in traditional disaster preparedness topics of disaster supplies and emergency communication plans. Outcome indicators include longitudinal changes in inter-organizational linkages among community organizations, community member responses in table-top exercises, and changes in household level community resilience behaviors and attitudes. The LACCDR Project is a significant opportunity and effort to operationalize and meaningfully measure factors and strategies to increase community resilience. This paper is intended to provide public health and academic researchers with new tools to conduct their community resilience programs and evaluation research. Results are not yet available and will be presented in future reports. PMID:25153472

Ethical and effective ethnographic research methods: a case study with afghan refugees in California.

PubMed

Smith, Valerie J

2009-09-01

SCHOLARLY STUDIES OF REFUGEES and other vulnerable populations carry special ethical concerns. In this invited case study of Afghan refugees in Fremont, California, I provide illustrations and recommendations of ethical research methods with refugees. I also compare and contrast some ethical issues in the U.S. with issues in Thailand. The qualitative, ethnographic methods I report here demonstrate how to conduct culturally sensitive investigations by ethically approaching gatekeepers and other community members to preserve autonomy, ensure confidentiality, build trust, and improve the accuracy of interpretations and results. Six groups at risk for being marginalized in multiple ways within refugee populations are described. Ten best practices are recommended for ethically acquiring an in-depth understanding of the refugees, their community, and appropriate research methods.

Social Network and Content Analysis of the North American Carbon Program as a Scientific Community of Practice

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, Molly E.; Ihli, Monica; Hendrick, Oscar; Delgado-Arias, Sabrina; Escobar, Vanessa M.; Griffith, Peter

2015-01-01

The North American Carbon Program (NACP) was formed to further the scientific understanding of sources, sinks, and stocks of carbon in Earth's environment. Carbon cycle science integrates multidisciplinary research, providing decision-support information for managing climate and carbon-related change across multiple sectors of society. This investigation uses the conceptual framework of com-munities of practice (CoP) to explore the role that the NACP has played in connecting researchers into a carbon cycle knowledge network, and in enabling them to conduct physical science that includes ideas from social science. A CoP describes the communities formed when people consistently engage in shared communication and activities toward a common passion or learning goal. We apply the CoP model by using keyword analysis of abstracts from scientific publications to analyze the research outputs of the NACP in terms of its knowledge domain. We also construct a co-authorship network from the publications of core NACP members, describe the structure and social pathways within the community. Results of the content analysis indicate that the NACP community of practice has substantially expanded its research on human and social impacts on the carbon cycle, contributing to a better understanding of how human and physical processes interact with one another. Results of the co-authorship social network analysis demonstrate that the NACP has formed a tightly connected community with many social pathways through which knowledge may flow, and that it has also expanded its network of institutions involved in carbon cycle research over the past seven years.

Developing Multiple Literacies in Academic English through Service-Learning and Community Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Askildson, Lance R.; Kelly, Annie Cahill; Mick, Connie Snyder

2013-01-01

Research on service-learning offers compelling evidence of the advances student learners make in moral development, orientation to prosocial behavior, and curricular content retention. But who are those student learners? Most studies focus on native, dominant-culture, dominant-language students serving marginalized populations. Studies of the…

New technologies and approaches in toxicity testing and risk assessment (ESOT)

EPA Science Inventory

The release of the National Research Council’s Report “Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy” in 2007 initiated a broad-based movement in the toxicology community to re-think how toxicity testing and risk assessment are performed. Multiple efforts in the ...

Trauma-Related Predictors of Deontic Reasoning: A Pilot Study in a Community Sample of Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DePrince, Anne P.; Chu, Ann T.; Combs, Melody D.

2008-01-01

Objective: Deontic reasoning (i.e., reasoning about duties and obligations) is essential to navigating interpersonal relationships. Though previous research demonstrates links between deontic reasoning abilities and trauma-related factors (i.e., dissociation, exposure to multiple victimizations) in adults, studies have yet to examine deontic…

Life of Lambda

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Futhey, Tracy

2005-01-01

In this column, the author discusses the four key questions related to the National LambdaRail (NLR) networking technology. NLR uses Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) to enable multiple networks to coexist on a national fiber footprint, and is owned and operated not by carriers, but by the research and education community. The NLR Board…

Complexities of Racial Identity Development for Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) College Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chan, Jason

2017-01-01

Higher education research increasingly acknowledges the multiple identities and communities within the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) student population. This chapter explores the complex and multifaceted aspects of APIDA students and offers key considerations for student affairs practitioners working with today's APIDA student…

Annual Research Review: Improved Nutrition--A Pathway to Resilience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yousafzai, Aisha K.; Rasheed, Muneera A.; Bhutta, Zulfiqar A.

2013-01-01

Background: Early child nutritional deficiencies are prevalent in low- and middle-countries with consequences linked not only to poor survival and growth, but also to poor development outcomes. Children in disadvantaged communities face multiple risks for nutritional deficiencies, yet some children may be less susceptible or may recover more…

Large-scale atlas of microarray data reveals biological landscape of gene expression in Arabidopsis

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Transcriptome datasets from thousands of samples of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana have been collectively generated by multiple individual labs. Although integration and meta-analysis of these samples has become routine in the plant research community, it is often hampered by the lack of metad...

The Development of Two Self-Assessment Work Value Instruments.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boyle, John R.

In response to input from the employment and training community, the Department of Labor's Assessment and Research Development Program (ARDP) and its state partners have developed two self-assessment work value instruments to be incorporated into career exploration and counseling programs. Computerized multiple rank-order and paper-and-pencil…

Multicultural Curriculum and Critical Family History

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sleeter, Christine

2015-01-01

Family history research connects very well with multicultural curriculum because it opens up the multiple experiences of members and communities of a society, as well as helping to make visible the historic construction and ongoing legacy of unequal relationships. The author of this article began to play with what she later called "critical…

Gaming the System: Helping Students Level up Their Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hill, David; Brunvan, Stein

2018-01-01

The use of gamified learning has increased within the educational community over the last decade in an attempt to enhance student learning in multiple ways. In particular, researchers have started to examine gamified learning and its impact on student motivation and engagement within educational settings. However, few have examined the…

The New Literacies: Multiple Perspectives on Research and Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker, Elizabeth A., Ed.

2010-01-01

With contributions from leading scholars, this compelling volume offers fresh insights into literacy teaching and learning--and the changing nature of literacy itself--in today's K-12 classrooms. The focus is on varied technologies and literacies such as social networking sites, text messaging, and online communities. Cutting-edge approaches to…

Factors Associated with Student Academic Achievement at Community Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yu, Hongwei

2017-01-01

Student retention has garnered increased attentions in higher education. Drawing from various theoretical perspectives, researchers have developed multiple theoretical models to explain or predict student retention. Most models, however, were intended for traditional aged, full-time students at 4-year colleges or universities. The rapid growth of…

Reflections on the ethics of participatory visual methods to engage communities in global health research

PubMed Central

Black, Gillian F.; Davies, Alun; Iskander, Dalia; Chambers, Mary

2018-01-01

ABSTRACT There is a growing body of literature describing conceptual frameworks for working with participatory visual methods (PVM). Through a global health lens, this paper examines some key themes within these frameworks. We reflect on our experiences of working with with an array of PVM to engage community members in Vietnam, Kenya, the Philippines and South Africa in biomedical research and public health. The participants that we have engaged in these processes live in under-resourced areas with high prevalence of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Our paper describes some of the challenges that we have encountered while using PVM to foster knowledge exchange, build relationships and facilitate change among individuals and families, community members, health workers, biomedical scientists and researchers. We consider multiple ethical situations that have arisen through our work and discuss the ways in which we have navigated and negotiated them. We offer our reflections and learning from facilitating these processes and in doing so we add novel contributions to ethical framework concepts. PMID:29434532

Lost in translation: bridging gaps between design and evidence-based design.

PubMed

Watkins, Nicholas; Keller, Amy

2008-01-01

The healthcare design community is adopting evidence-based design (EBD) at a startling rate. However, the role of research within an architectural practice is unclear. Reasons for the lack of clarity include multiple connotations of EBD, the tension between a research-driven market and market-driven research, and the competing expectations and standards of design practitioners and researchers. Research as part of EBD should be integral with the design process so that research directly contributes to building projects. Characteristics of a comprehensive programming methodology to close the gap between design and EBD are suggested.

The Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration project: a team approach for supporting a multisite, multisector intervention.

PubMed

Williams, Nancy; Dooyema, Carrie A; Foltz, Jennifer L; Belay, Brook; Blanck, Heidi M

2015-02-01

Comprehensive multisector, multilevel approaches are needed to address childhood obesity. This article introduces the structure of a multidisciplinary team approach used to support and guide the multisite, multisector interventions implemented as part of the Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration (CORD) project. This article will describe the function, roles, and lessons learned from the CDC-CORD approach to project management. The CORD project works across multisectors and multilevels in three demonstration communities. Working with principal investigators and their research teams who are engaging multiple stakeholder groups, including community organizations, schools and child care centers, health departments, and healthcare providers, can be a complex endeavor. To best support the community-based research project, scientific and programmatic expertise in a wide range of areas was required. The team was configured based on the skill sets needed to interact with the various levels of staff working with the project. By thoughtful development of the team and processes, an efficient system for supporting the multisite, multisector intervention project sites was developed. The team approach will be formally evaluated at the end of the project period.

Pragmatic Applications of RE-AIM for Health Care Initiatives in Community and Clinical Settings

PubMed Central

Estabrooks, Paul E.

2018-01-01

The RE-AIM (Reach Effectiveness Adoption Implementation Maintenance) planning and evaluation framework has been applied broadly, but users often have difficulty in applying the model because of data collection needs across multiple domains and sources. Questions in the more common “who, what, where, how, when, and why” format may be an effective guide to ensure that individual participants, organization staff, and the perspectives of the setting are considered in planning and evaluation. Such a format can also help users in typical community and clinical settings to identify which outcomes are most valued and to focus limited measurement resources. Translations of RE-AIM that are easy to understand and apply are needed for application in real-world community and clinical settings where research and evaluation resources are limited. The purpose of this article is to provide simplified, pragmatic, user-centered and stakeholder-centered recommendations to increase the use of RE-AIM in community and clinical settings and in translational research. PMID:29300695

Selected methods for quantification of community exposure to aircraft noise

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Edge, P. M., Jr.; Cawthorn, J. M.

1976-01-01

A review of the state-of-the-art for the quantification of community exposure to aircraft noise is presented. Physical aspects, people response considerations, and practicalities of useful application of scales of measure are included. Historical background up through the current technology is briefly presented. The developments of both single-event and multiple-event scales are covered. Selective choice is made of scales currently in the forefront of interest and recommended methodology is presented for use in computer programing to translate aircraft noise data into predictions of community noise exposure. Brief consideration is given to future programing developments and to supportive research needs.

From Voice to Choice: African American Youth Examine Childhood Obesity in Rural North Carolina.

PubMed

Balvanz, Peter; Dodgen, Leilani; Quinn, Jeff; Holloway, Tameiya; Hudspeth, Sandra; Eng, Eugenia

2016-01-01

Childhood obesity continues to be a prominent health concern in the United States. Certain demographics of youth have a higher prevalence of obesity, including those living in rural settings, and African American females. Multiple determinants contribute to the childhood obesity epidemic, yet few studies have partnered with youth to investigate community-level determinants and solutions. This study involved youth to assess contextual determinants of childhood obesity in a community, create an action plan for the community, and report findings and actions pursued in partnership with a community-based organization (CBO) and a university. Seven African American female high school students were recruited to investigate factors that contribute to childhood obesity using photovoice, a methodology used in community-based participatory research (CBPR). Through photography and guided discussion, youth partners found a lack of access to healthy food and lack of safe recreation as primary contributors to obesity within their community. Social support from friends was believed to help prevent obesity. In response to findings, two projects were envisioned and implemented in the community, a walkability assessment and an intergenerational community garden. Throughout this study, youth proved to be reliable partners in research, provided unique perspectives while examining local factors perceived to contribute to childhood obesity, and offered thoughtful solutions.

African American Perspectives and Experiences of Domestic Violence in a Rural Community.

PubMed

Valandra; Murphy-Erby, Yvette; Higgins, Brandon M; Brown, Lucy M

2016-09-01

Relatively few studies have explored domestic violence from a multiplicity of African American perspectives, experiences, and socio-demographic backgrounds within rural African American communities. Community-based participatory action research methods were used to explore domestic violence perceptions of African Americans with heterogeneous backgrounds and experiences of violence. Ten focus groups were held throughout the community with 52 diverse women ( n = 33) and men ( n = 19) living in the northwest region of Arkansas. Demographic data were collected from 47 women ( n = 28) and men ( n = 19) participating in focus groups regarding their perceptions and experiences of domestic violence, media messages, help-seeking behaviors, and services. Data were analyzed using grounded theory methods. Three major themes emerged, including (a) a heightened awareness of race, gender, and class differences; (b) imbalanced and mixed messages from media; and (c) multi-systemic dynamics influencing abusive behavior and relationships. Results indicate that study participants' perspectives and experiences with domestic violence reflect a complex interrelated gamut of societal, community, familial, and individual dynamics. Participant recommendations related to interpersonal dynamics, media messages, and societal influences are reported with implications for practice, policy, and future research.

From neurocognition to community participation in serious mental illness: the intermediary role of dysfunctional attitudes and motivation.

PubMed

Thomas, E C; Luther, L; Zullo, L; Beck, A T; Grant, P M

2017-04-01

Evidence for a relationship between neurocognition and functional outcome in important areas of community living is robust in serious mental illness research. Dysfunctional attitudes (defeatist performance beliefs and asocial beliefs) have been identified as intervening variables in this causal chain. This study seeks to expand upon previous research by longitudinally testing the link between neurocognition and community participation (i.e. time in community-based activity) through dysfunctional attitudes and motivation. Adult outpatients with serious mental illness (N = 175) participated, completing follow-up assessments approximately 6 months after initial assessment. Path analysis tested relationships between baseline neurocognition, emotion perception, functional skills, dysfunctional attitudes, motivation, and outcome (i.e. community participation) at baseline and follow-up. Path models demonstrated two pathways to community participation. The first linked neurocognition and community participation through functional skills, defeatist performance beliefs, and motivation. A second pathway linked asocial beliefs and community participation, via a direct path passing through motivation. Model fit was excellent for models predicting overall community participation at baseline and, importantly, at follow-up. The existence of multiple pathways to community participation in a longitudinal model supports the utility of multi-modal interventions for serious mental illness (i.e. treatment packages that build upon individuals' strengths while addressing the array of obstacles to recovery) that feature dysfunctional attitudes and motivation as treatment targets.

A cooperative game framework for detecting overlapping communities in social networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jonnalagadda, Annapurna; Kuppusamy, Lakshmanan

2018-02-01

Community detection in social networks is a challenging and complex task, which received much attention from researchers of multiple domains in recent years. The evolution of communities in social networks happens merely due to the self-interest of the nodes. The interesting feature of community structure in social networks is the multi membership of the nodes resulting in overlapping communities. Assuming the nodes of the social network as self-interested players, the dynamics of community formation can be captured in the form of a game. In this paper, we propose a greedy algorithm, namely, Weighted Graph Community Game (WGCG), in order to model the interactions among the self-interested nodes of the social network. The proposed algorithm employs the Shapley value mechanism to discover the inherent communities of the underlying social network. The experimental evaluation on the real-world and synthetic benchmark networks demonstrates that the performance of the proposed algorithm is superior to the state-of-the-art overlapping community detection algorithms.

Lessons Learned in Evaluating a Multisite, Comprehensive Teen Dating Violence Prevention Strategy: Design and Challenges of the Evaluation of Dating Matters: Strategies to Promote Healthy Teen Relationships.

PubMed

Niolon, Phyllis Holditch; Taylor, Bruce G; Latzman, Natasha E; Vivolo-Kantor, Alana M; Valle, Linda Anne; Tharp, Andra T

2016-03-01

This paper describes the multisite, longitudinal cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) design of the evaluation of the Dating Matters: Strategies to Promote Healthy Relationships initiative, and discusses challenges faced in conducting this evaluation. Health departments in 4 communities are partnering with middle schools in high-risk, urban communities to implement 2 models of teen dating violence (TDV) prevention over 4 years. Schools were randomized to receive either the Dating Matters comprehensive strategy or the "standard of care" strategy (an existing, evidence-based TDV prevention curriculum). Our design permits comparison of the relative effectiveness of the comprehensive and standard of care strategies. Multiple cohorts of students from 46 middle schools are surveyed in middle school and high school, and parents and educators from participating schools are also surveyed. Challenges discussed in conducting a multisite RCT include site variability, separation of implementation and evaluation responsibilities, school retention, parent engagement in research activities, and working within the context of high-risk urban schools and communities. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of our approaches to these challenges in the hopes of informing future research. Despite multiple challenges, the design of the Dating Matters evaluation remains strong. We hope this paper provides researchers who are conducting complex evaluations of behavioral interventions with thoughtful discussion of the challenges we have faced and potential solutions to such challenges.

Lessons Learned in Evaluating a Multisite, Comprehensive Teen Dating Violence Prevention Strategy: Design and Challenges of the Evaluation of Dating Matters: Strategies to Promote Healthy Teen Relationships

PubMed Central

Niolon, Phyllis Holditch; Taylor, Bruce G.; Latzman, Natasha E.; Vivolo-Kantor, Alana M.; Valle, Linda Anne; Tharp, Andra T.

2018-01-01

Objective This paper describes the multisite, longitudinal cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) design of the evaluation of the Dating Matters: Strategies to Promote Healthy Relationships initiative, and discusses challenges faced in conducting this evaluation. Method Health departments in 4 communities are partnering with middle schools in high-risk, urban communities to implement 2 models of teen dating violence (TDV) prevention over 4 years. Schools were randomized to receive either the Dating Matters comprehensive strategy or the “standard of care” strategy (an existing, evidence-based TDV prevention curriculum). Our design permits comparison of the relative effectiveness of the comprehensive and standard of care strategies. Multiple cohorts of students from 46 middle schools are surveyed in middle school and high school, and parents and educators from participating schools are also surveyed. Results Challenges discussed in conducting a multisite RCT include site variability, separation of implementation and evaluation responsibilities, school retention, parent engagement in research activities, and working within the context of high-risk urban schools and communities. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of our approaches to these challenges in the hopes of informing future research. Conclusions Despite multiple challenges, the design of the Dating Matters evaluation remains strong. We hope this paper provides researchers who are conducting complex evaluations of behavioral interventions with thoughtful discussion of the challenges we have faced and potential solutions to such challenges. PMID:29607239

The Neotoma Paleoecology Database: An International Community-Curated Resource for Paleoecological and Paleoenvironmental Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, J. W.; Grimm, E. C.; Ashworth, A. C.; Blois, J.; Charles, D. F.; Crawford, S.; Davis, E.; Goring, S. J.; Graham, R. W.; Miller, D. A.; Smith, A. J.; Stryker, M.; Uhen, M. D.

2017-12-01

The Neotoma Paleoecology Database supports global change research at the intersection of geology and ecology by providing a high-quality, community-curated data repository for paleoecological data. These data are widely used to study biological responses and feedbacks to past environmental change at local to global scales. The Neotoma data model is flexible and can store multiple kinds of fossil, biogeochemical, or physical variables measured from sedimentary archives. Data additions to Neotoma are growing and include >3.5 million observations, >16,000 datasets, and >8,500 sites. Dataset types include fossil pollen, vertebrates, diatoms, ostracodes, macroinvertebrates, plant macrofossils, insects, testate amoebae, geochronological data, and the recently added organic biomarkers, stable isotopes, and specimen-level data. Neotoma data can be found and retrieved in multiple ways, including the Explorer map-based interface, a RESTful Application Programming Interface, the neotoma R package, and digital object identifiers. Neotoma has partnered with the Paleobiology Database to produce a common data portal for paleobiological data, called the Earth Life Consortium. A new embargo management is designed to allow investigators to put their data into Neotoma and then make use of Neotoma's value-added services. Neotoma's distributed scientific governance model is flexible and scalable, with many open pathways for welcoming new members, data contributors, stewards, and research communities. As the volume and variety of scientific data grow, community-curated data resources such as Neotoma have become foundational infrastructure for big data science.

Community-managed Data Sharing, Curation, and Publication: SEN on SEAD

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martin, R. L.; Myers, J.; Hsu, L.

2017-12-01

While data publication in support of reuse and scientific reproducibility is increasingly being recognized as a key aspect of modern research practice, best practices are still to be developed at the level of scientific communities. Often, such practices are discussed in the abstract - as community standards for data plans or as requirements for yet-to-be-built software - with no clear path to community adoption. In contrast, the Sediment Experimentalist Network, supported through the National Science Foundation's (NSF) EarthCube initiative, has encouraged an iterative, practice-based approach within its community that has resulted in the publication of dozens of datasets, comprised of millions of files totaling more than 4 TB in size, and the documentation of more than 100 experimental procedures, instruments, and facilities, by multiple research teams. A key element of SEN's approach has been to leverage cloud-based data services that provide robust core capabilities with community-based management and customization capabilities. These services - data sharing, curation, and publication services developed through the NSF-supported Sustainable Environment - Actionable Data (SEAD) project and the wiki-based SEN Knowledge Base (KB) - have allowed the SEN team to ground discussions in reality and leverage the practical questions arising as researchers publish data to drive discussion and evolve towards better practices. In this presentation we summarize how SEN interacts with researchers, the best practices that have been developed, and the capabilities of SEAD and the SEN KB that support them. We also describe issues that have arisen in the community - related, for example, to recommended and required metadata, individual, project and community branding, and data version and derivation relationships - and describe how SEN's outreach activities, collaboration with the SEAD team, and the flexible design of the data services themselves have, in combination, been able to provide rapid incremental solutions to support researchers needs while also helping the community align with broader semantic and data publication standards. We conclude with thoughts on how this approach could be applied in other communities as a way to drive progress towards data reuse and reproducible research.

The importance of community building for establishing data management and curation practices for physical samples

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramdeen, S.; Hangsterfer, A.; Stanley, V. L.

2017-12-01

There is growing enthusiasm for curation of physical samples in the Earth Science community (see sessions at AGU, GSA, ESIP). Multiple federally funded efforts aim to develop best practices for curation of physical samples; however, these efforts have not yet been consolidated. Harmonizing these concurrent efforts would enable the community as a whole to build the necessary tools and community standards to move forward together. Preliminary research indicate the various groups focused on this topic are working in isolation, and the development of standards needs to come from the broadest view of `community'. We will investigate the gaps between communities by collecting information about preservation policies and practices from curators, who can provide a diverse cross-section of the grand challenges to the overall community. We will look at existing reports and study results to identify example cases, then develop a survey to gather large scale data to reinforce or clarify the example cases. We will be targeting the various community groups which are working on similar issues, and use the survey to improve the visibility of developed best practices. Given that preservation and digital collection management for physical samples are both important and difficult at present (GMRWG, 2015; NRC, 2002), barriers to both need to be addressed in order to achieve open science goals for the entire community. To address these challenges, EarthCube's iSamples, a research coordination network established to advance discoverability, access, and curation of physical samples using cyberinfrastructure, has formed a working group to collect use cases to examine the breadth of earth scientists' work with physical samples. This research team includes curators of state survey and oceanographic geological collections, and a researcher from information science. In our presentation, we will share our research and the design of the proposed survey. Our goal is to engage the audience in a discussion on next steps towards building this community. References: The Geologic Materials Repository Working Group, 2015, USGS Circular 1410 National Research Council. 2002. Geoscience Data and Collections: National Resources in Peril.

Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to understand a community's primary care needs.

PubMed

Dulin, Michael F; Ludden, Thomas M; Tapp, Hazel; Blackwell, Joshua; de Hernandez, Brisa Urquieta; Smith, Heather A; Furuseth, Owen J

2010-01-01

A key element for reducing health care costs and improving community health is increased access to primary care and preventative health services. Geographic information systems (GIS) have the potential to assess patterns of health care utilization and community-level attributes to identify geographic regions most in need of primary care access. GIS, analytical hierarchy process, and multiattribute assessment and evaluation techniques were used to examine attributes describing primary care need and identify areas that would benefit from increased access to primary care services. Attributes were identified by a collaborative partnership working within a practice-based research network using tenets of community-based participatory research. Maps were created based on socioeconomic status, population density, insurance status, and emergency department and primary care safety-net utilization. Individual and composite maps identified areas in our community with the greatest need for increased access to primary care services. Applying GIS to commonly available community- and patient-level data can rapidly identify areas most in need of increased access to primary care services. We have termed this a Multiple Attribute Primary Care Targeting Strategy. This model can be used to plan health services delivery as well as to target and evaluate interventions designed to improve health care access.

Bringing Antarctic Weddell seals to the classroom through PolarTREC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eilers, A. A.

2017-12-01

PolarTREC (Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating) is an NSF funded professional development opportunity in which K-12 teachers and informal educators participated in hands-on field research experiences in the Polar Regions. The program goal is to invigorate polar science education and understanding by bringing together educators and polar researchers. This unique opportunity for educators has two main components: a 4-6 week field experience and a classroom/community connection piece. In preparation for these experiences, museum educator Alex Eilers and science team lead Dr. Jennifer Burns planned, developed and executed extensive outreach efforts for both students and the community to highlight the Weddell seal research project during the 2012, 2014 and 2016 seasons. The following outreach activities summarize the team's most successful attempts at engaging schoolchildren, teachers and the public, creating a broader impact of the Weddell seal scientific project. On-line Daily journal entries were uploaded to the PolarTREC website encouraging an active interaction between the science team and participants. A Polar Connect event offered participants a real-time, interactive internet presentation with the team. Schools A multitude of on-site presentations were made in classrooms, at teacher workshops and faculty meetings. Two 45 minute labs were developed for students visiting the museum, Animals of the Antarctic and Journey to the Poles, the latter is now included in our ongoing program repertoire. Two travelling kits, Extreme Cold Weather Gear and The Weddell Seal, were developed by museum staff and continue to circulate through schools. A multi-lesson educational module was developed by museum staff to bridge the gap between the scientific research conducted in the field and students in grades 3-8. It contains curriculum-based lessons, field data and strategic methods to assist students in analyzing the data. Community Community-wide interest generated through media outlets via multiple radio, television and newspaper interviews. Multiple presentations and lectures were offered to local groups. A mini exhibit and museum scavenger hunt highlighting the research project was developed and displayed at the Pink Palace Museum.

Mining and Environmental Health Disparities in Native American Communities.

PubMed

Lewis, Johnnye; Hoover, Joseph; MacKenzie, Debra

2017-06-01

More than a century of hard rock mining has left a legacy of >160,000 abandoned mines in the Western USA that are home to the majority of Native American lands. This article describes how abrogation of treaty rights, ineffective policies, lack of infrastructure, and a lack of research in Native communities converge to create chronic exposure, ill-defined risks, and tribal health concerns. Recent results show that Native Americans living near abandoned uranium mines have an increased likelihood for kidney disease and hypertension, and an increased likelihood of developing multiple chronic diseases linked to their proximity to the mine waste and activities bringing them in contact with the waste. Biomonitoring confirms higher than expected exposure to uranium and associated metals in the waste in adults, neonates, and children in these communities. These sites will not be cleaned up for many generations making it critical to understand and prioritize exposure-toxicity relationships in Native populations to appropriately allocate limited resources to protect health. Recent initiatives, in partnership with Native communities, recognize these needs and support development of tribal research capacity to ensure that research respectful of tribal culture and policies can address concerns in the future. In addition, recognition of the risks posed by these abandoned sites should inform policy change to protect community health in the future.

Recruiting African American Churches to Participate in Research: The Learning and Developing Individual Exercise Skills for a Better Life Study

PubMed Central

Whitt-Glover, Melicia C.; Borden, Shanice L.; Alexander, Dayna S.; Kennedy, Betty M.; Goldmon, Moses V.

2016-01-01

Physical activity among African Americans (AA) is low; effective intervention strategies are needed. Community-based settings are useful for delivering health-related interventions in racial/ethnic minority communities. This article describes strategies used to recruit churches for participation in a 22-month intervention designed to increase physical activity levels in AA women. Initial recruitment efforts, led by AA study staff, included direct mailers, phone calls, and in-person meetings with church representatives. After 10 months, only five churches were enrolled. Seven community members with existing partnerships/contacts in the faith community were subsequently hired and an additional 26 churches were enrolled within 6 months. Overall response rate was 45%, and churches required 3.5 ± 3.0 months of multiple contacts prior to enrollment. The main primary contacts within churches were individuals with personal interest in the program and pastors. Prior relationship between the research team and churches did not appear to influence church enrollment as much as community member recruiters. The current study identifies several potential strategies that may be useful for increasing success in efforts to recruit AA churches into studies. Additional research is warranted that tests and compares a variety of recruitment strategies to determine the most successful strategies for recruitment in different populations. PMID:26724311

agINFRA: a research data hub for agriculture, food and the environment

PubMed Central

Drakos, Andreas; Protonotarios, Vassilis; Manouselis, Nikos

2015-01-01

The agINFRA project (www.aginfra.eu) was a European Commission funded project under the 7th Framework Programme that aimed to introduce agricultural scientific communities to the vision of open and participatory data-intensive science. agINFRA has now evolved into the European hub for data-powered research on agriculture, food and the environment, serving the research community through multiple roles. Working on enhancing the interoperability between heterogeneous data sources, the agINFRA project has left a set of grid- and cloud- based services that can be reused by future initiatives and adopted by existing ones, in order to facilitate the dissemination of agricultural research, educational and other types of data. On top of that, agINFRA provided a set of domain-specific recommendations for the publication of agri-food research outcomes. This paper discusses the concept of the agINFRA project and presents its major outcomes, as adopted by existing initiatives activated in the context of agricultural research and education. PMID:26339472

Community cyberinfrastructure for Advanced Microbial Ecology Research and Analysis: the CAMERA resource

PubMed Central

Sun, Shulei; Chen, Jing; Li, Weizhong; Altintas, Ilkay; Lin, Abel; Peltier, Steve; Stocks, Karen; Allen, Eric E.; Ellisman, Mark; Grethe, Jeffrey; Wooley, John

2011-01-01

The Community Cyberinfrastructure for Advanced Microbial Ecology Research and Analysis (CAMERA, http://camera.calit2.net/) is a database and associated computational infrastructure that provides a single system for depositing, locating, analyzing, visualizing and sharing data about microbial biology through an advanced web-based analysis portal. CAMERA collects and links metadata relevant to environmental metagenome data sets with annotation in a semantically-aware environment allowing users to write expressive semantic queries against the database. To meet the needs of the research community, users are able to query metadata categories such as habitat, sample type, time, location and other environmental physicochemical parameters. CAMERA is compliant with the standards promulgated by the Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC), and sustains a role within the GSC in extending standards for content and format of the metagenomic data and metadata and its submission to the CAMERA repository. To ensure wide, ready access to data and annotation, CAMERA also provides data submission tools to allow researchers to share and forward data to other metagenomics sites and community data archives such as GenBank. It has multiple interfaces for easy submission of large or complex data sets, and supports pre-registration of samples for sequencing. CAMERA integrates a growing list of tools and viewers for querying, analyzing, annotating and comparing metagenome and genome data. PMID:21045053

Community cyberinfrastructure for Advanced Microbial Ecology Research and Analysis: the CAMERA resource.

PubMed

Sun, Shulei; Chen, Jing; Li, Weizhong; Altintas, Ilkay; Lin, Abel; Peltier, Steve; Stocks, Karen; Allen, Eric E; Ellisman, Mark; Grethe, Jeffrey; Wooley, John

2011-01-01

The Community Cyberinfrastructure for Advanced Microbial Ecology Research and Analysis (CAMERA, http://camera.calit2.net/) is a database and associated computational infrastructure that provides a single system for depositing, locating, analyzing, visualizing and sharing data about microbial biology through an advanced web-based analysis portal. CAMERA collects and links metadata relevant to environmental metagenome data sets with annotation in a semantically-aware environment allowing users to write expressive semantic queries against the database. To meet the needs of the research community, users are able to query metadata categories such as habitat, sample type, time, location and other environmental physicochemical parameters. CAMERA is compliant with the standards promulgated by the Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC), and sustains a role within the GSC in extending standards for content and format of the metagenomic data and metadata and its submission to the CAMERA repository. To ensure wide, ready access to data and annotation, CAMERA also provides data submission tools to allow researchers to share and forward data to other metagenomics sites and community data archives such as GenBank. It has multiple interfaces for easy submission of large or complex data sets, and supports pre-registration of samples for sequencing. CAMERA integrates a growing list of tools and viewers for querying, analyzing, annotating and comparing metagenome and genome data.

Multiple stressors in amphibian communities: Effects of chemical contamination, bullfrogs, and fish

USGS Publications Warehouse

Boone, M.D.; Semlitsch, R.D.; Little, E.E.; Doyle, M.C.

2007-01-01

A leading hypothesis of amphibian population declines is that combinations of multiple stressors contribute to declines. We examined the role that chemical contamination, competition, and predation play singly and in combination in aquatic amphibian communities. We exposed larvae of American toads (Bufo americanus), southern leopard frogs (Rana sphenocephala), and spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) to overwintered bullfrog tadpoles (R. catesbeiana), bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus), the insecticide carbaryl, and ammonium nitrate fertilizer in 1000-L mesocosms. Most significantly, our study demonstrated that the presence of multiple factors reduced survival of B. americanus and A. maculatum and lengthened larval periods of R. sphenocephala. The presence of bluegill had the largest impact on the community; it eliminated B. americanus and A. maculatum and reduced the abundance of R. sphenocephala. Chemical contaminants had the second strongest effect on the community with the insecticide, reducing A. maculatum abundance by 50% and increasing the mass of anurans (frogs and toads) at metamorphosis; the fertilizer positively influenced time and mass at metamorphosis for both anurans and A. maculatum. Presence of overwintered bullfrogs reduced mass and increased time to metamorphosis of anurans. While both bluegill and overwintered bullfrog tadpoles had negative effects on the amphibian community, they performed better in the presence of one another and in contaminated habitats. Our results indicate that predicting deleterious combinations from single-factor effects may not be straightforward. Our research supports the hypothesis that combinations of factors can negatively impact some amphibian species and could contribute to population declines. ?? 2007 by the Ecological Society of America.

Discontinuity in the responses of ecosystem processes and multifunctionality to altered soil community composition.

PubMed

Bradford, Mark A; Wood, Stephen A; Bardgett, Richard D; Black, Helaina I J; Bonkowski, Michael; Eggers, Till; Grayston, Susan J; Kandeler, Ellen; Manning, Peter; Setälä, Heikki; Jones, T Hefin

2014-10-07

Ecosystem management policies increasingly emphasize provision of multiple, as opposed to single, ecosystem services. Management for such "multifunctionality" has stimulated research into the role that biodiversity plays in providing desired rates of multiple ecosystem processes. Positive effects of biodiversity on indices of multifunctionality are consistently found, primarily because species that are redundant for one ecosystem process under a given set of environmental conditions play a distinct role under different conditions or in the provision of another ecosystem process. Here we show that the positive effects of diversity (specifically community composition) on multifunctionality indices can also arise from a statistical fallacy analogous to Simpson's paradox (where aggregating data obscures causal relationships). We manipulated soil faunal community composition in combination with nitrogen fertilization of model grassland ecosystems and repeatedly measured five ecosystem processes related to plant productivity, carbon storage, and nutrient turnover. We calculated three common multifunctionality indices based on these processes and found that the functional complexity of the soil communities had a consistent positive effect on the indices. However, only two of the five ecosystem processes also responded positively to increasing complexity, whereas the other three responded neutrally or negatively. Furthermore, none of the individual processes responded to both the complexity and the nitrogen manipulations in a manner consistent with the indices. Our data show that multifunctionality indices can obscure relationships that exist between communities and key ecosystem processes, leading us to question their use in advancing theoretical understanding--and in management decisions--about how biodiversity is related to the provision of multiple ecosystem services.

Discontinuity in the responses of ecosystem processes and multifunctionality to altered soil community composition

PubMed Central

Bradford, Mark A.; Wood, Stephen A.; Bardgett, Richard D.; Black, Helaina I. J.; Bonkowski, Michael; Eggers, Till; Grayston, Susan J.; Kandeler, Ellen; Manning, Peter; Setälä, Heikki; Jones, T. Hefin

2014-01-01

Ecosystem management policies increasingly emphasize provision of multiple, as opposed to single, ecosystem services. Management for such “multifunctionality” has stimulated research into the role that biodiversity plays in providing desired rates of multiple ecosystem processes. Positive effects of biodiversity on indices of multifunctionality are consistently found, primarily because species that are redundant for one ecosystem process under a given set of environmental conditions play a distinct role under different conditions or in the provision of another ecosystem process. Here we show that the positive effects of diversity (specifically community composition) on multifunctionality indices can also arise from a statistical fallacy analogous to Simpson’s paradox (where aggregating data obscures causal relationships). We manipulated soil faunal community composition in combination with nitrogen fertilization of model grassland ecosystems and repeatedly measured five ecosystem processes related to plant productivity, carbon storage, and nutrient turnover. We calculated three common multifunctionality indices based on these processes and found that the functional complexity of the soil communities had a consistent positive effect on the indices. However, only two of the five ecosystem processes also responded positively to increasing complexity, whereas the other three responded neutrally or negatively. Furthermore, none of the individual processes responded to both the complexity and the nitrogen manipulations in a manner consistent with the indices. Our data show that multifunctionality indices can obscure relationships that exist between communities and key ecosystem processes, leading us to question their use in advancing theoretical understanding—and in management decisions—about how biodiversity is related to the provision of multiple ecosystem services. PMID:25246582

Factors influencing community nursing roles and health service provision in rural areas: a review of literature.

PubMed

Barrett, Annette; Terry, Daniel R; Lê, Quynh; Hoang, Ha

2016-02-01

This review sought to better understand the issues and challenges experienced by community nurses working in rural areas and how these factors shape their role. Databases were searched to identify relevant studies, published between 1990 and 2015, that focussed on issues and challenges experienced by rural community nurses. Generic and grey literature relating to the subject was also searched. The search was systematically conducted multiple times to assure accuracy. A total of 14 articles met the inclusion criteria. This critical review identified common issues impacting community nursing and included role definition, organisational change, human resource, workplace and geographic challenges. Community nurses are flexible, autonomous, able to adapt care to the service delivery setting, and have a diversity of knowledge and skills. Considerably more research is essential to identify factors that impact rural community nursing practice. In addition, greater advocacy is required to develop the role.

Early childhood caries in indigenous communities.

PubMed

2011-06-01

The oral health of Indigenous children of Canada (First Nations, Inuit, and Métis) and the United States (American Indian, Alaska Native) is a major child health issue: there is a high prevalence of early childhood caries (ECC) and resulting adverse health effects in this community, as well as high rates and costs of restorative and surgical treatments under general anesthesia. ECC is an infectious disease that is influenced by multiple factors, including socioeconomic determinants, and requires a combination of approaches for improvement. This statement includes recommendations for preventive oral health and clinical care for young infants and pregnant women by primary health care providers, community-based health-promotion initiatives, oral health workforce and access issues, and advocacy for community water fluoridation and fluoride-varnish program access. Further community-based research on the epidemiology, prevention, management, and microbiology of ECC in Indigenous communities would be beneficial.

Defining social inclusion of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities: an ecological model of social networks and community participation.

PubMed

Simplican, Stacy Clifford; Leader, Geraldine; Kosciulek, John; Leahy, Michael

2015-03-01

Social inclusion is an important goal for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, families, service providers, and policymakers; however, the concept of social inclusion remains unclear, largely due to multiple and conflicting definitions in research and policy. We define social inclusion as the interaction between two major life domains: interpersonal relationships and community participation. We then propose an ecological model of social inclusion that includes individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and socio-political factors. We identify four areas of research that our ecological model of social inclusion can move forward: (1) organizational implementation of social inclusion; (2) social inclusion of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities living with their families, (3) social inclusion of people along a broader spectrum of disability, and (4) the potential role of self-advocacy organizations in promoting social inclusion. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Data Access, Interoperability and Sustainability: Key Challenges for the Evolution of Science Capabilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walton, A. L.

2015-12-01

In 2016, the National Science Foundation (NSF) will support a portfolio of activities and investments focused upon challenges in data access, interoperability, and sustainability. These topics are fundamental to science questions of increasing complexity that require multidisciplinary approaches and expertise. Progress has become tractable because of (and sometimes complicated by) unprecedented growth in data (both simulations and observations) and rapid advances in technology (such as instrumentation in all aspects of the discovery process, together with ubiquitous cyberinfrastructure to connect, compute, visualize, store, and discover). The goal is an evolution of capabilities for the research community based on these investments, scientific priorities, technology advances, and policies. Examples from multiple NSF directorates, including investments by the Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Division, are aimed at these challenges and can provide the geosciences research community with models and opportunities for participation. Implications for the future are highlighted, along with the importance of continued community engagement on key issues.

Service delivery under translation: multi-stakeholder accountability in the non-profit community sector in New Zealand.

PubMed

Boon, Bronwyn; Greatbanks, Richard; Munro, Jenny; Gaffney, Michael

2017-03-01

This paper addresses the challenge reported in the research literature of providing adequate accounts of service quality and value to multiple stakeholders. Rather than starting with a particular accountability practice, we examine the accounts of complex service delivery and results from the perspective of five key stakeholder groups. The case study at the empirical centre of this research is a small New Zealand non-profit organisation that provides community-based wraparound casework to young people, and their families, with multiple and complex needs. This paper reports on data collected during 2009-2012 through interviews with five key stakeholders of this service: the young people, the caseworkers, the co-providers, the managers and the funders. Drawing on translation theory, the different points of reference and the consequential shifts in focus, content and meaning within the multiple stakeholder accounts are traced. The findings show that while each stakeholder group brings a unique point of reference to the service delivery, there are degrees of overlap in the focus and content of the accounts. This is particularly evident in the 'relationship' dimension. While overlaps may exist, points of invisibility are also revealed. Accountability tensions can be traced directly to these points of invisibility. As a result of this analysis, it is argued that more explicit attention to the impact of multiple stakeholders at the level of epistemology provides a mechanism for addressing some of the tensions routinely raised. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

A Community Health Worker "logic model": towards a theory of enhanced performance in low- and middle-income countries.

PubMed

Naimoli, Joseph F; Frymus, Diana E; Wuliji, Tana; Franco, Lynne M; Newsome, Martha H

2014-10-02

There has been a resurgence of interest in national Community Health Worker (CHW) programs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). A lack of strong research evidence persists, however, about the most efficient and effective strategies to ensure optimal, sustained performance of CHWs at scale. To facilitate learning and research to address this knowledge gap, the authors developed a generic CHW logic model that proposes a theoretical causal pathway to improved performance. The logic model draws upon available research and expert knowledge on CHWs in LMICs. Construction of the model entailed a multi-stage, inductive, two-year process. It began with the planning and implementation of a structured review of the existing research on community and health system support for enhanced CHW performance. It continued with a facilitated discussion of review findings with experts during a two-day consultation. The process culminated with the authors' review of consultation-generated documentation, additional analysis, and production of multiple iterations of the model. The generic CHW logic model posits that optimal CHW performance is a function of high quality CHW programming, which is reinforced, sustained, and brought to scale by robust, high-performing health and community systems, both of which mobilize inputs and put in place processes needed to fully achieve performance objectives. Multiple contextual factors can influence CHW programming, system functioning, and CHW performance. The model is a novel contribution to current thinking about CHWs. It places CHW performance at the center of the discussion about CHW programming, recognizes the strengths and limitations of discrete, targeted programs, and is comprehensive, reflecting the current state of both scientific and tacit knowledge about support for improving CHW performance. The model is also a practical tool that offers guidance for continuous learning about what works. Despite the model's limitations and several challenges in translating the potential for learning into tangible learning, the CHW generic logic model provides a solid basis for exploring and testing a causal pathway to improved performance.

Assessing Health Promotion Interventions: Limitations of Traditional Research Methods in Community-Based Studies.

PubMed

Dressel, Anne; Schneider, Robert; DeNomie, Melissa; Kusch, Jennifer; Welch, Whitney; Sosa, Mirtha; Yeldell, Sally; Maida, Tatiana; Wineberg, Jessica; Holt, Keith; Bernstein, Rebecca

2017-09-01

Most low-income Americans fail to meet physical activity recommendations. Inactivity and poor diet contribute to obesity, a risk factor for multiple chronic diseases. Health promotion activities have the potential to improve health outcomes for low-income populations. Measuring the effectiveness of these activities, however, can be challenging in community settings. A "Biking for Health" study tested the impact of a bicycling intervention on overweight or obese low-income Latino and African American adults to reduce barriers to cycling and increase physical activity and fitness. A randomized controlled trial was conducted in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in summer 2015. A 12-week bicycling intervention was implemented at two sites with low-income, overweight, or obese Latino and African American adults. We found that randomized controlled trial methodology was suboptimal for use in this small pilot study and that it negatively affected participation. More discussion is needed about the effectiveness of using traditional research methods in community settings to assess the effectiveness of health promotion interventions. Modifications or alternative methods may yield better results. The aim of this article is to discuss the effectiveness and feasibility of using traditional research methods to assess health promotion interventions in community-based settings.

What community resources do older community-dwelling adults use to manage their osteoarthritis? A formative examination

PubMed Central

Martin, Kathryn Remmes; Schoster, Britta; Woodard, Janice

2011-01-01

Community resources can influence health outcomes, yet little research has examined how older individuals use community resources for osteoarthritis (OA) management. Six focus groups were conducted with 37 community-dwelling older adult African Americans and Caucasians who self-reported OA and resided in Johnston County, North Carolina. Descriptive analyses and qualitative constant comparison methodology revealed individuals use local recreational facilities, senior centers, shopping centers, religious organizations, medical providers, pharmacies and their social network for OA management. Participants also identified environmental characteristics (e.g., sidewalk conditions, curb-cuts, handicapped parking, automatic doors) that both facilitated and hindered use of community resources for OA management. Identified resources and environmental characteristics were organized around Corbin & Strauss framework tasks: medical/behavioral, role, and emotional management. As older Americans live with multiple chronic diseases, better understanding of what community resources are used for disease management may help improve the health of community-dwelling adults, both with and without OA. PMID:23049159

NASA'S Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute: An international approach toward bringing science and human exploration together for mutual benefit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmidt, Gregory

2016-07-01

The NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) is a virtual institute focused on research at the intersection of science and explora-tion, training the next generation of lunar scientists, and community development. The institute is a hub for opportunities that engage the larger scientific and exploration communities in order to form new interdis-ciplinary, research-focused collaborations. Its relative-ly large domestic teams work together along with in-ternational partners in both traditional and virtual set-tings to bring disparate approaches together for mutual benefit. This talk will describe the research efforts of the nine domestic teams that constitute the U.S. com-plement of the Institute and how it is engaging the in-ternational science and exploration communities through workshops, conferences, online seminars and classes, student exchange programs and internships. The Institute is centered on the scientific aspects of exploration as they pertain to the Moon, Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) and the moons of Mars. It focuses on interdisciplinary, exploration-related science cen-tered around all airless bodies targeted as potential human destinations. Areas of study reported here will represent the broad spectrum of lunar, NEA, and Mar-tian moon sciences encompassing investigations of the surface, interior, exosphere, and near-space environ-ments as well as science uniquely enabled from these bodies. The technical focus ranges from investigations of plasma physics, geology/geochemistry, technology integration, solar system origins/evolution, regolith geotechnical properties, analogues, volatiles, ISRU and exploration potential of the target bodies. SSERVI enhances the widening knowledgebase of planetary research by acting as a bridge between several differ-ent groups and bringing together researchers from the scientific and exploration communities, multiple disci-plines across the full range of planetary sciences, and domestic and international communities and partner-ships.

Meeting the Challenge: The Assimilation of Adjunct Faculty into the Teaching Mainstream

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ridley, D. Scott

2010-01-01

In the last thirty years, there has been a significant increase in the number of adjunct faculty delivering postsecondary education at community colleges (Jacoby, 2006). Multiple studies have evaluated the impact of part-time faculty on student learning outcomes, but findings have varied. This action research study utilized a phenomenological…

Why Rape Survivors Participate in the Criminal Justice System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Patterson, Debra; Campbell, Rebecca

2010-01-01

After a rape, survivors may seek help from multiple community organizations including the criminal justice system (CJS). Research has found that few survivors report their assaults to the police and of those who do report, many withdraw their participation during the investigation. However, relatively little is known about the factors that lead…

The Development of Digital Literacy and Inclusion Skills of Public Librarians

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martzoukou, Konstantina; Elliott, Joanneke

2016-01-01

This paper examines the extent to which public librarians are successfully prepared to engage the community in digital literacy and inclusion. A qualitative, multiple case study research design was chosen, using an analysis of policy documents and existing training programs offered by the libraries together with semi-structured interviews with…

Relationships between World Health Organization "International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health" Constructs and Participation in Adults with Severe Mental Illness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sánchez, Jennifer; Rosenthal, David A.; Chan, Fong; Brooks, Jessica; Bezyak, Jill L.

2016-01-01

Purpose: To examine the World Health Organization "International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health" (ICF) constructs as correlates of community participation of people with severe mental illnesses (SMI). Methods: Quantitative descriptive research design using multiple regression and correlational techniques was used to…

Free the Sheep: Improvised Song and Performance in and around a Minecraft Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bailey, Chris

2016-01-01

Recent work around the use of virtual world video games in educational contexts has conceptualised literacies as communal processes, whilst considering complex notions of collaboration through participants' multiplicity of presence in hybrid virtual/physical locations. However, further research is necessary in order to help us understand how the…

From Corrections to Community: The Juvenile Reentry Experience as Characterized by Multiple Systems Involvement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cusick, Gretchen Ruth; Goerge, Robert M.; Bell, Katie Claussen

2009-01-01

This Chapin Hall report describes findings on the extent of system involvement among Illinois youth released from correctional facilities, tracking a population of youth under age 18 in Illinois following their release. Using administrative records, researchers develop profiles of reentry experiences across the many systems that serve youth and…

Language and Ethnicity: Multiple Literacies in Context, Language Education in Guatemala

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Helmberger, Janet L.

2006-01-01

This study focuses on the research literature available in the United States on the evolution of language policy and planning issues involved in bilingual education programs in Mayan communities in Guatemala. I begin with general comments regarding language policy and planning for bilingual programs for ethnic groups within the borders of…

The Alabama Counseling Association: A Legacy of Community and Professional Service

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, Eddie, Jr.

2007-01-01

The Alabama Counseling Association (ALCA) has an ongoing plan for professional growth and development reflective of the multiple counseling professions and the diversity of its members. Based on the development and history of the organization, this research project was designed to assess ALCA's progress toward achieving its stated outcome goals. A…

Online Homework Effectiveness for Underprepared and Repeating College Algebra Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brewer, David Shane; Becker, Kurt

2010-01-01

This research compared the effectiveness, in terms of mathematical achievement, of online homework to textbook homework over an entire semester for 145 students enrolled in multiple sections of college algebra at a large community college. A quasi-experimental, posttest design was used to analyze the effect on mathematical achievement, as measured…

Stimulus Generalization of Parenting Skills during Parent-Child Interaction Therapy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Naik-Polan, Anjali T.; Budd, Karen S.

2008-01-01

This study investigated the generalization of parenting skills to the home from PCIT delivered in a community mental health setting with four urban, low-income, single mothers at risk for child maltreatment. Using a multiple baseline design and direct observation in the home, the research examined changes in positive attention skills (praise,…

“I can, therefore I must”: Fragility in the upper-middle classes

PubMed Central

LUTHAR, SUNIYA S.; BARKIN, SAMUEL H.; CROSSMAN, ELIZABETH J.

2014-01-01

We review evidence on a group recently identified as “at risk,” that is, youth in upwardly mobile, upper-middle class community contexts. These youngsters are statistically more likely than normative samples to show serious disturbance across several domains including drug and alcohol use, as well as internalizing and externalizing problems. Extant data on these problems are reviewed with attention to gender-specific patterns, presenting quantitative developmental research findings along with relevant evidence across other disciplines. In considering possible reasons for elevated maladjustment, we appraise multiple pathways, including aspects of family dynamics, peer norms, pressures at schools, and policies in higher education. All of these pathways are considered within the context of broad, exosystemic mores: the pervasive emphasis, in contemporary American culture, on maximizing personal status, and how this can threaten the well-being of individuals and of communities. We then discuss issues that warrant attention in future research. The paper concludes with suggestions for interventions at multiple levels, targeting youth, parents, educators, as well as policymakers, toward reducing pressures and maximizing positive adaptation among “privileged but pressured” youth and their families. PMID:24342854

Recruitment and baseline characteristics of the Community of Voices choir study to promote the health and well-being of diverse older adults.

PubMed

Johnson, Julene K; Gregorich, Steven E; Acree, Michael; Nápoles, Anna M; Flatt, Jason D; Pounds, Dana; Pabst, Alexandria; Stewart, Anita L

2017-12-01

To describe the recruitment and baseline results of the Community of Voices study that aims to examine the effect of a community choir intervention on the health and well-being of older adults from diverse racial/ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Using community-based participatory research methods, we recruited adults age 60 and over from 12 Administration on Aging-supported senior centers in San Francisco into a 2-arm cluster-randomized controlled trial of the community choir intervention. Multiple outreach methods were used. We tracked outreach, screening, and recruitment metrics and collected demographics and baseline outcomes via community-based, interviewer-administered surveys and performance measures of cognition, physical function, and psychosocial variables. The study contacted 819 individuals, screened 636, and enrolled 390 diverse older adults over a 42-month, phased recruitment period. The mean age was 71.2 (SD = 7.3), and the majority were women. Two-thirds of the sample are non-white, and 20% of participants reported having financial hardship. Outreach and recruitment methods used in the Community of Voices trial facilitated enrollment of a large proportion of minority and lower-SES older adults in the final sample. Similar recruitment approaches could serve as a model for recruiting diverse racial/ethnic and socioeconomic older adults into research.

Partnerships that Bridge the Gap Between Research and Impact

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pandya, R. E.; Udu-gama, N.

2015-12-01

Losses from natural hazards continue to grow, despite growing scientific understanding. Similarly, increasing scientific evidence of our vulnerability to human-induced environmental change has little impact on human behavior. From the perspective of community leaders and policy makers, useful research is hard to locate and difficult to translate from academic publications. Making local decisions is complicated by multiple scientific approaches and predictions and a scientific emphasis on the abstract and global over the concrete and local. Collaborative and respectful locally-focused partnerships, in which community leaders and decision makers co-design local solutions with Earth and space scientists, can overcome this research-to-impact gap. These partnerships work best when they use available scientific and community knowledge to make an immediate local impact while also designing research that addresses broadly relevent and emerging priorities. Framed this way, successful partnerships rest on reciprocal volunteerism: for scientists, making an immediate impact with current knowledge is pro-bono work, while the longer term research better aligns with their career advancement. For community leaders this is flipped: immediate actions tie to their professional responsibilities, and participating in research is often extracurricular. The Thriving Earth Exchange has launched several of these local partnerships and is assembling a set of tools and resources that scientists and community leaders can use to advance their work together. We will introduce the institutional partners who help us identify communities willing to enter these partnerships, and describe how we recruit and select willing and able scientists, many from AGU. We will highlight the human-centered skills and values that are important predictors of successful partnerships and show how we nurture them. We will also describe the progress of several existing efforts and the strategies they use to advance their co-design process. We will explore ideas for sharing co-designed solutions between communities, and explore how partnerships can make the inevitable local customization of borrowed solutions more efficient. Finally, we will share some of the solutions these partnerships have developed and describe their impact.

Embracing the Importance of FAIR Research Products - Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stall, S.

2017-12-01

Integrity and transparency within research is solidified by a complete set of research products that are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. In other words, they follow the FAIR Guidelines developed by FORCE11.org. Your datasets, images, video, software, scripts, models, physical samples, and other tools and technology are an integral part of the narrative you tell about your research. These research products increasingly are being captured through workflow tools and preserved and connected through persistent identifiers across multiple repositories that keep them safe. They help secure, with your publications, the supporting evidence and integrity of the scientific record. This is the direction that Earth and space science as well as other disciplines is moving. Within our community, some science domains are further along, and others are taking more measured steps. AGU as a publisher is working to support the full scientific record with peer reviewed publications. Working with our community and all the Earth and space science journals, AGU is developing new policies to encourage researchers to plan for proper data preservation and provide data citations along with their research submission and to encourage adoption of best practices throughout the research workflow and data life cycle. Providing incentives, community standards, and easy-to-use tools are some important factors for helping researchers embrace the FAIR Guidelines and support transparency and integrity.

Quantifying the metabolic activities of human-associated microbial communities across multiple ecological scales

PubMed Central

Maurice, Corinne Ferrier; Turnbaugh, Peter James

2013-01-01

Humans are home to complex microbial communities, whose aggregate genomes and their encoded metabolic activities are referred to as the human microbiome. Recently, researchers have begun to appreciate that different human body habitats and the activities of their resident microorganisms can be better understood in ecological terms, as a range of spatial scales encompassing single cells, guilds of microorganisms responsive to a similar substrate, microbial communities, body habitats, and host populations. However, the bulk of the work to date has focused on studies of culturable microorganisms in isolation or on DNA sequencing-based surveys of microbial diversity in small to moderately sized cohorts of individuals. Here, we discuss recent work that highlights the potential for assessing the human microbiome at a range of spatial scales, and for developing novel techniques that bridge multiple levels: for example, through the combination of single cell methods and metagenomic sequencing. These studies promise to not only provide a much-needed epidemiological and ecological context for mechanistic studies of culturable and genetically tractable microorganisms, but may also lead to the discovery of fundamental rules that govern the assembly and function of host-associated microbial communities. PMID:23550823

A trans-disciplinary approach to the evaluation of social determinants of health in a Hispanic population.

PubMed

Dulin, Michael F; Tapp, Hazel; Smith, Heather A; de Hernandez, Brisa Urquieta; Coffman, Maren J; Ludden, Tom; Sorensen, Janni; Furuseth, Owen J

2012-09-11

Individual and community health are adversely impacted by disparities in health outcomes among disadvantaged and vulnerable populations. Understanding the underlying causes for variations in health outcomes is an essential step towards developing effective interventions to ameliorate inequalities and subsequently improve overall community health. Working at the neighborhood scale, this study examines multiple social determinates that can cause health disparities including low neighborhood wealth, weak social networks, inadequate public infrastructure, the presence of hazardous materials in or near a neighborhood, and the lack of access to primary care services. The goal of this research is to develop innovative and replicable strategies to improve community health in disadvantaged communities such as newly arrived Hispanic immigrants. This project is taking place within a primary care practice-based research network (PBRN) using key principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR). Associations between social determinants and rates of hospitalizations, emergency department (ED) use, and ED use for primary care treatable or preventable conditions are being examined. Geospatial models are in development using both hospital and community level data to identify local areas where interventions to improve disparities would have the greatest impact. The developed associations between social determinants and health outcomes as well as the geospatial models will be validated using community surveys and qualitative methods. A rapidly growing and underserved Hispanic immigrant population will be the target of an intervention informed by the research process to impact utilization of primary care services and designed, deployed, and evaluated using the geospatial tools and qualitative research findings. The purpose of this intervention will be to reduce health disparities by improving access to, and utilization of, primary care and preventative services. The results of this study will demonstrate the importance of several novel approaches to ameliorating health disparities, including the use of CBPR, the effectiveness of community-based interventions to influence health outcomes by leveraging social networks, and the importance of primary care access in ameliorating health disparities.

ASGARD: an open-access database of annotated transcriptomes for emerging model arthropod species.

PubMed

Zeng, Victor; Extavour, Cassandra G

2012-01-01

The increased throughput and decreased cost of next-generation sequencing (NGS) have shifted the bottleneck genomic research from sequencing to annotation, analysis and accessibility. This is particularly challenging for research communities working on organisms that lack the basic infrastructure of a sequenced genome, or an efficient way to utilize whatever sequence data may be available. Here we present a new database, the Assembled Searchable Giant Arthropod Read Database (ASGARD). This database is a repository and search engine for transcriptomic data from arthropods that are of high interest to multiple research communities but currently lack sequenced genomes. We demonstrate the functionality and utility of ASGARD using de novo assembled transcriptomes from the milkweed bug Oncopeltus fasciatus, the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus and the amphipod crustacean Parhyale hawaiensis. We have annotated these transcriptomes to assign putative orthology, coding region determination, protein domain identification and Gene Ontology (GO) term annotation to all possible assembly products. ASGARD allows users to search all assemblies by orthology annotation, GO term annotation or Basic Local Alignment Search Tool. User-friendly features of ASGARD include search term auto-completion suggestions based on database content, the ability to download assembly product sequences in FASTA format, direct links to NCBI data for predicted orthologs and graphical representation of the location of protein domains and matches to similar sequences from the NCBI non-redundant database. ASGARD will be a useful repository for transcriptome data from future NGS studies on these and other emerging model arthropods, regardless of sequencing platform, assembly or annotation status. This database thus provides easy, one-stop access to multi-species annotated transcriptome information. We anticipate that this database will be useful for members of multiple research communities, including developmental biology, physiology, evolutionary biology, ecology, comparative genomics and phylogenomics. Database URL: asgard.rc.fas.harvard.edu.

Effectiveness of a multiple-strategy community intervention to reduce maternal and child health inequalities in Haryana, North India: a mixed-methods study protocol.

PubMed

Gupta, Madhu; Angeli, Federica; van Schayck, Onno C P; Bosma, Hans

2015-01-01

A multiple-strategy community intervention, known as National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), launched in India to improve the availability of and access to better-quality healthcare, especially for rural, poor mothers and children. The final goal of the intervention is to reduce maternal and child health inequalities across geographical areas, socioeconomic status groups, and sex of the child. Extensive, in-depth research is necessary to assess the effectiveness of NRHM, on multiple outcome dimensions. This paper presents the design of a new study, able to overcome the shortcomings of previous research. To propose a comprehensive, methodologically sound protocol to assess the extent of implementation and the effectiveness of NRHM measures to improve maternal and child health outcomes and reduce maternal and child health inequalities. A mixed-methods approach (quantitative and qualitative) is proposed for this study in Haryana, a state in North India. NRHM's health sector plans included health system strengthening, specific maternal and child healthcare strategies, and communitization. Mission documents and reports on progress, financial monitoring, and common and joint review will be reviewed in-depth to assess the extent of the implementation of plans. Data on maternal and child health indicators will be obtained from demographic health surveys held before, during, and after the implementation of the first phase of the NRHM (2005-2012) and compared over time. Differences in maternal and child health indicators will be used to measure maternal and child health inequalities; these will be compared pre- and post-NRHM. Focus group discussions (FGDs) with service providers and in-depth interviews with program managers, community representatives, and mothers will be conducted until data saturation is achieved, in two districts of Haryana. Using Nvivo software, an inductive qualitative content analysis will be performed to search for the broader themes across the interviews and FGDs. Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research.

ASPIRE: Active Societal Participation in Research and Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garza, C.; Parrish, J.; Harris, L.; Posselt, J.; Hatch, M.

2017-12-01

Active Societal Participation In Research and Education (ASPIRE) aims to cultivate a generation of geoscientists with the leadership knowledge and skills, scholarship, and material support to reframe and rebrand the geosciences as socially relevant and, thereby, to broaden participation in these fields. This generation of geoscientists will do so by bridging longstanding divides that impede access to and inclusion in the geosciences: between basic and applied science, between scholars in the academy and members of historically marginalized communities, and between the places where science is needed and the places where it is typically conducted. To bring about these types of change, we draw upon, refine, and institutionalize the working group model as the Mobile Working Group (MWG), directly referencing the need to move outside of the "ivory tower" and into the community. Led by a geoscientist with one foot in the academy and the other in the community - the Boundary Spanner - each MWG will focus on a single issue linked to a single community. ASPIRE supports multiple MWGs working across the geographic, ethnographic and "in practice" community space, as well as across the body of geoscience research and application. We hypothesize that in institutionalizing a new mode of geoscience research (MWG), learning from Boundary Spanners experiences with MWG, and refining a leadership development program from our findings, that we will have a scalable leadership tool and organizational structure that will rebrand the geosciences as socially relevant and inclusive of geoscientists from diverse backgrounds even as the "science space" of geoscience expands to incorporate in-community work.

Integrating human health and environmental health into the DPSIR framework: a tool to identify research opportunities for sustainable and healthy communities.

PubMed

Yee, Susan H; Bradley, Patricia; Fisher, William S; Perreault, Sally D; Quackenboss, James; Johnson, Eric D; Bousquin, Justin; Murphy, Patricia A

2012-12-01

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recently realigned its research enterprise around the concept of sustainability. Scientists from across multiple disciplines have a role to play in contributing the information, methods, and tools needed to more fully understand the long-term impacts of decisions on the social and economic sustainability of communities. Success will depend on a shift in thinking to integrate, organize, and prioritize research within a systems context. We used the Driving forces-Pressures-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework as a basis for integrating social, cultural, and economic aspects of environmental and human health into a single framework. To make the framework broadly applicable to sustainability research planning, we provide a hierarchical system of DPSIR keywords and guidelines for use as a communication tool. The applicability of the integrated framework was first tested on a public health issue (asthma disparities) for purposes of discussion. We then applied the framework at a science planning meeting to identify opportunities for sustainable and healthy communities research. We conclude that an integrated systems framework has many potential roles in science planning, including identifying key issues, visualizing interactions within the system, identifying research gaps, organizing information, developing computational models, and identifying indicators.

Linking Research, Education and Public Engagement in Geoscience: Leadership and Strategic Partnerships

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spellman, K.

2017-12-01

A changing climate has impacted Alaska communities at unprecedented rates, and the need for efficient and effective climate change learning in the Boreal and Arctic regions is urgent. Learning programs that can both increase personal understanding and connection to climate change science and also inform large scale scientific research about climate change are an attractive option for building community adaptive capacity at multiple scales. Citizen science has emerged as a powerful tool for facilitating learning across scales, and for building partnerships across natural sciences research, education, and outreach disciplines. As an early career scientist and interdisciplinary researcher, citizen science has become the centerpiece of my work and has provided some of the most rewarding moments of my career. I will discuss my early career journey building a research and leadership portfolio integrating climate change research, learning research, and public outreach through citizen science. I will share key experiences from graduate student to early career PI that cultivated my leadership skills and ability to build partnerships necessary to create citizen science programs that emphasize synergy between climate change research and education.

Science For Sendai - Bridging the gap between research and application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rees, J.

2015-12-01

Disasters have an enormous cost in lives and livelihoods, but the use of rigorous evidence-based scientific approaches to minimise their impact remains poor. Vast amounts of science which could be readily applied for disaster risk reduction (DRR) is under-utilised, if used at all. Previous international agreements have failed to change this picture, but there is a clear call from the international community that the 2015 Sendai framework should make a difference; it is thus re-appraising how to bridge the chasm that exists between DRR relevant scientists and potential users of their research. There is widespread recognition of the need for risk affected countries and communities to engage in science-based decision-making, but several barriers, such as a lack of infrastructure or necessary skills, institutions, and enforcement of science-based policies require significant attention. There are now incentives for governments to respond: the framework has science embedded throughout and it sets-out national targets against which science uptake can be monitored; similarly, widening access to insurance also demands sound science. Advances such as open-data and models, increasing computational capacity, expanding networks, evolving diverse mobile technologies and the other multiple facets of the big data agenda, also should drive change. So, how does the scientific community need to adapt? Whilst vast amounts of 'DRR-relevant' science has been produced, too little of it can be readily used in DRR science. Much remains highly disciplinary and focused on analysis of limited distributions or single processes with a small number of agents; by contrast real-world DRR problems are commonly complex, with multiple drivers and uncertainties. There is a major need for a trans-disciplinary DRR-focused risk research agenda to evolve. Not only do research funders need to develop and resource risk research, but researchers themselves need to identify that focussing on the bigger risk picture is commonly more important than addressing the traditional disciplinary topics that they have commonly engaged.

Future of Hydroinformatics: Towards Open, Integrated and Interactive Online Platforms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Demir, I.; Krajewski, W. F.

2012-12-01

Hydroinformatics is a domain of science and technology dealing with the management of information in the field of hydrology (IWA, 2011). There is the need for innovative solutions to the challenges towards open information, integration, and communication in the Internet. This presentation provides an overview of the trends and challenges in the future of hydroinformatics, and demonstrates an information system, Iowa Flood Information System (IFIS), developed within the light of these challenges. The IFIS is a web-based platform developed by the Iowa Flood Center (IFC) to provide access to flood inundation maps, real-time flood conditions, flood forecasts both short-term and seasonal, flood-related data, information and interactive visualizations for communities in Iowa. The key element of the system's architecture is the notion of community. Locations of the communities, those near streams and rivers, define basin boundaries. The IFIS provides community-centric watershed and river characteristics, weather (rainfall) conditions, and streamflow data and visualization tools. Interactive interfaces allow access to inundation maps for different stage and return period values, and flooding scenarios with contributions from multiple rivers. Real-time and historical data of water levels, gauge heights, and rainfall conditions are available in the IFIS by streaming data from automated IFC bridge sensors, USGS stream gauges, NEXRAD radars, and NWS forecasts. 2D and 3D interactive visualizations in the IFIS make the data more understandable to general public. Users are able to filter data sources for their communities and selected rivers. The data and information on IFIS is also accessible through web services and mobile applications. The IFIS is optimized for various browsers and screen sizes to provide access through multiple platforms including tablets and mobile devices. The IFIS includes a rainfall-runoff forecast model to provide a five-day flood risk estimate for more than 1000 communities in Iowa. Multiple view modes in the IFIS accommodate different user types from general public to researchers and decision makers by providing different level of tools and details. River view mode allows users to visualize data from multiple IFC bridge sensors and USGS stream gauges to follow flooding condition along a river. The IFIS will help communities make better-informed decisions on the occurrence of floods, and will alert communities in advance to help minimize damage of floods.

Conducting health survey research in a deep rural South African community: challenges and adaptive strategies.

PubMed

Casale, Marisa; Lane, Tyler; Sello, Lebo; Kuo, Caroline; Cluver, Lucie

2013-04-24

In many parts of the developing world, rural health requires focused policy attention, informed by reliable, representative health data. Yet there is surprisingly little published material to guide health researchers who face the unique set of hurdles associated with conducting field research in remote rural areas. In this paper we provide a detailed description of the key challenges encountered during health survey field research carried out in 2010 in a deep rural site in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The aim of the field research was to collect data on the health of children aged 10 to 17 years old, and their primary adult caregivers, as part of a larger national health survey; the research was a collaboration between several South African and foreign universities, South African national government departments, and various NGO partners. In presenting each of the four fieldwork challenges encountered on this site, we describe the initial planning decisions made, the difficulties faced when implementing these in the field, and the adaptive strategies we used to respond to these challenges. We reflect on learnings of potential relevance for the research community. Our four key fieldwork challenges were scarce research capacity, staff relocation tensions, logistical constraints, and difficulties related to community buy-in. Addressing each of these obstacles required timely assessment of the situation and adaptation of field plans, in collaboration with our local NGO partner. Adaptive strategies included a greater use of local knowledge; the adoption of tribal authority boundaries as the smallest geopolitical units for sampling; a creative developmental approach to capacity building; and planned, on-going engagement with multiple community representatives. We argue that in order to maintain high scientific standards of research and manage to 'get the job done' on the ground, it is necessary to respond to fieldwork challenges that arise as a cohesive team, with timely, locally-relevant, and often creative, solutions. Budgeting sufficient time and project resources for capacity building and community buy-in processes is also essential when working in remote communities unaccustomed to research. Documenting and sharing field experiences can provide valuable information for other researchers planning to conduct fieldwork in similar contexts.

Reducing Health Inequities in the United States: Insights and Recommendations from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Health Inequities Think Tank Meeting

PubMed Central

Sampson, Uchechukwu K.A.; Kaplan, Robert M.; Cooper, Richard S.; Diez Roux, Ana V.; Marks, James S.; Engelgau, Michael M.; Peprah, Emmanuel; Mishoe, Helena; Boulware, L. Ebony; Felix, Kaytura L.; Califf, Robert M.; Flack, John M.; Cooper, Lisa A.; Gracia, J. Nadine; Henderson, Jeffrey A.; Davidson, Karina W.; Krishnan, Jerry A.; Lewis, Tené T.; Sanchez, Eduardo; Luban, Naomi L.; Vaccarino, Viola; Wong, Winston F.; Wright, Jackson T.; Meyers, David; Ogedegbe, Olugbenga G.; Presley-Cantrell, Letitia; Chambers, David A.; Belis, Deshirée; Bennett, Glen C.; Boyington, Josephine E; Creazzo, Tony L.; de Jesus, Janet M.; Krishnamurti, Chitra; Lowden, Mia R.; Punturieri, Antonello; Shero, Susan T.; Young, Neal S.; Zou, Shimian; Mensah, George A.

2016-01-01

The National, Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute convened a Think Tank meeting to obtain insight and recommendations regarding the objectives and design of the next generation of research aimed at reducing health inequities in the United States. The panel recommended several specific actions, including: 1) Embrace broad and inclusive research themes; 2) Develop research platforms that optimize the ability to conduct informative and innovative research, and promote systems science approaches; 3) Develop networks of collaborators and stakeholders, and launch transformative studies that can serve as benchmarks; 4) Optimize the use of new data sources, platforms, and natural experiments; and 5) develop unique transdisciplinary training programs to build research capacity. Confronting health inequities will require engaging multiple disciplines and sectors (including communities), using systems science, and intervening through combinations of individual, family, provider, health system, and community-targeted approaches. Details of the panel’s remarks and recommendations are provided in this report. PMID:27470459

Summary of the International Conference on Arabidopsis Research 2011, June 22-25, 2011

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Meyers, Blake C

2012-07-15

This project provided participant support for the gathering of plant biologists at the International Conferences on Arabidopsis Research (ICAR) in 2011. Arabidopsis thaliana, the reference flowering plant, has been intensely studied over the last 20 years and has proven to be an ideal model for studying nearly all aspects of plant biology. The success of this research field has been greatly facilitated by the openness and collegiality of the community fostered through multiple international forums including the ICAR. Advances in basic and applied plant biology are featured at the meeting, which is the primary gathering point for this strongly integratedmore » international community. The ICAR convenes plant researchers, allows discussion and dissemination of the latest research in plant biology, and facilitates dialog among those that may be separated by geography, career stage, and culture. This project focused on facilitating access by early career scientists that have reduced access to attend major meetings.« less

Contingency Management Approaches for Adolescent Substance Use Disorders

PubMed Central

Stanger, Catherine; Budney, Alan J.

2010-01-01

The addition of contingency management (CM) to the menu of effective treatments for adolescent substance abuse has generated excitement in the research and treatment communities. CM interventions are based on extensive basic science and clinical research evidence demonstrating that drug use is sensitive to systematically applied consequences. This article provides (a) a review of basic CM principles, (b) implementation guidelines, (c) a review of the clinical CM research targeting adolescent substance abuse, and (d) a discussion of implementation successes and challenges. Although the research base for CM with adolescents is in its infancy, there are multiple reasons for high expectations. PMID:20682220

Pain Research Forum: application of scientific social media frameworks in neuroscience.

PubMed

Das, Sudeshna; McCaffrey, Patricia G; Talkington, Megan W T; Andrews, Neil A; Corlosquet, Stéphane; Ivinson, Adrian J; Clark, Tim

2014-01-01

Social media has the potential to accelerate the pace of biomedical research through online collaboration, discussions, and faster sharing of information. Focused web-based scientific social collaboratories such as the Alzheimer Research Forum have been successful in engaging scientists in open discussions of the latest research and identifying gaps in knowledge. However, until recently, tools to rapidly create such communities and provide high-bandwidth information exchange between collaboratories in related fields did not exist. We have addressed this need by constructing a reusable framework to build online biomedical communities, based on Drupal, an open-source content management system. The framework incorporates elements of Semantic Web technology combined with social media. Here we present, as an exemplar of a web community built on our framework, the Pain Research Forum (PRF) (http://painresearchforum.org). PRF is a community of chronic pain researchers, established with the goal of fostering collaboration and communication among pain researchers. Launched in 2011, PRF has over 1300 registered members with permission to submit content. It currently hosts over 150 topical news articles on research; more than 30 active or archived forum discussions and journal club features; a webinar series; an editor-curated weekly updated listing of relevant papers; and several other resources for the pain research community. All content is licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons license; the software is freely available. The framework was reused to develop other sites, notably the Multiple Sclerosis Discovery Forum (http://msdiscovery.org) and StemBook (http://stembook.org). Web-based collaboratories are a crucial integrative tool supporting rapid information transmission and translation in several important research areas. In this article, we discuss the success factors, lessons learned, and ongoing challenges in using PRF as a driving force to develop tools for online collaboration in neuroscience. We also indicate ways these tools can be applied to other areas and uses.

Enlisting User Community Perspectives to Inform Development of a Semantic Web Application for Discovery of Cross-Institutional Research Information and Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johns, E. M.; Mayernik, M. S.; Boler, F. M.; Corson-Rikert, J.; Daniels, M. D.; Gross, M. B.; Khan, H.; Maull, K. E.; Rowan, L. R.; Stott, D.; Williams, S.; Krafft, D. B.

2015-12-01

Researchers seek information and data through a variety of avenues: published literature, search engines, repositories, colleagues, etc. In order to build a web application that leverages linked open data to enable multiple paths for information discovery, the EarthCollab project has surveyed two geoscience user communities to consider how researchers find and share scholarly output. EarthCollab, a cross-institutional, EarthCube funded project partnering UCAR, Cornell University, and UNAVCO, is employing the open-source semantic web software, VIVO, as the underlying technology to connect the people and resources of virtual research communities. This study will present an analysis of survey responses from members of the two case study communities: (1) the Bering Sea Project, an interdisciplinary field program whose data archive is hosted by NCAR's Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL), and (2) UNAVCO, a geodetic facility and consortium that supports diverse research projects informed by geodesy. The survey results illustrate the types of research products that respondents indicate should be discoverable within a digital platform and the current methods used to find publications, data, personnel, tools, and instrumentation. The responses showed that scientists rely heavily on general purpose search engines, such as Google, to find information, but that data center websites and the published literature were also critical sources for finding collaborators, data, and research tools.The survey participants also identify additional features of interest for an information platform such as search engine indexing, connection to institutional web pages, generation of bibliographies and CVs, and outward linking to social media. Through the survey, the user communities prioritized the type of information that is most important to display and describe their work within a research profile. The analysis of this survey will inform our further development of a platform that will facilitate different types of information discovery strategies, and help researchers to find and use the associated resources of a research project.

Pain Research Forum: application of scientific social media frameworks in neuroscience

PubMed Central

Das, Sudeshna; McCaffrey, Patricia G.; Talkington, Megan W. T.; Andrews, Neil A.; Corlosquet, Stéphane; Ivinson, Adrian J.; Clark, Tim

2014-01-01

Background: Social media has the potential to accelerate the pace of biomedical research through online collaboration, discussions, and faster sharing of information. Focused web-based scientific social collaboratories such as the Alzheimer Research Forum have been successful in engaging scientists in open discussions of the latest research and identifying gaps in knowledge. However, until recently, tools to rapidly create such communities and provide high-bandwidth information exchange between collaboratories in related fields did not exist. Methods: We have addressed this need by constructing a reusable framework to build online biomedical communities, based on Drupal, an open-source content management system. The framework incorporates elements of Semantic Web technology combined with social media. Here we present, as an exemplar of a web community built on our framework, the Pain Research Forum (PRF) (http://painresearchforum.org). PRF is a community of chronic pain researchers, established with the goal of fostering collaboration and communication among pain researchers. Results: Launched in 2011, PRF has over 1300 registered members with permission to submit content. It currently hosts over 150 topical news articles on research; more than 30 active or archived forum discussions and journal club features; a webinar series; an editor-curated weekly updated listing of relevant papers; and several other resources for the pain research community. All content is licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons license; the software is freely available. The framework was reused to develop other sites, notably the Multiple Sclerosis Discovery Forum (http://msdiscovery.org) and StemBook (http://stembook.org). Discussion: Web-based collaboratories are a crucial integrative tool supporting rapid information transmission and translation in several important research areas. In this article, we discuss the success factors, lessons learned, and ongoing challenges in using PRF as a driving force to develop tools for online collaboration in neuroscience. We also indicate ways these tools can be applied to other areas and uses. PMID:24653693

Community stakeholders' perceptions of barriers to childhood obesity prevention in low-income families, Massachusetts 2012-2013.

PubMed

Ganter, Claudia; Chuang, Emmeline; Aftosmes-Tobio, Alyssa; Blaine, Rachel E; Giannetti, Mary; Land, Thomas; Davison, Kirsten K

2015-03-26

The etiology of childhood obesity is multidimensional and includes individual, familial, organizational, and societal factors. Policymakers and researchers are promoting social-ecological approaches to obesity prevention that encompass multiple community sectors. Programs that successfully engage low-income families in making healthy choices are greatly needed, yet little is known about the extent to which stakeholders understand the complexity of barriers encountered by families. The objective of this study was to contextually frame barriers faced by low-income families reported by community stakeholders by using the Family Ecological Model (FEM). From 2012 through 2013, we conducted semistructured interviews with 39 stakeholders from 2 communities in Massachusetts that were participating in a multisector intervention for childhood obesity prevention. Stakeholders represented schools; afterschool programs; health care; the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children; and early care and education. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, coded, and summarized. Stakeholder reports of the barriers experienced by low-income families had a strong degree of overlap with FEM and reflected awareness of the broader contextual factors (eg, availability of community resources, family culture, education) and social and emotional dynamics within families (eg, parent knowledge, social norms, distrust of health care providers, chronic life stressors) that could affect family adoption of healthy lifestyle behaviors. Furthermore, results illustrated a level of consistency in stakeholder awareness across multiple community sectors. The congruity of stakeholder perspectives with those of low-income parents as summarized in FEM and across community sectors illustrates potential for synergizing the efforts necessary for multisector, multilevel community interventions for the prevention of childhood obesity.

Evolutionary conceptual analysis: faith community nursing.

PubMed

Ziebarth, Deborah

2014-12-01

The aim of the study was to report an evolutionary concept analysis of faith community nursing (FCN). FCN is a source of healthcare delivery in the USA which has grown in comprehensiveness and complexity. With increasing healthcare cost and a focus on access and prevention, FCN has extended beyond the physical walls of the faith community building. Faith communities and healthcare organizations invest in FCN and standardized training programs exist. Using Rodgers' evolutionary analysis, the literature was examined for antecedents, attributes, and consequences of the concept. This design allows for understanding the historical and social nature of the concept and how it changes over time. A search of databases using the keywords FCN, faith community nurse, parish nursing, and parish nurse was done. The concept of FCN was explored using research and theoretical literature. A theoretical definition and model were developed with relevant implications. The search results netted a sample of 124 reports of research and theoretical articles from multiple disciplines: medicine, education, religion and philosophy, international health, and nursing. Theoretical definition: FCN is a method of healthcare delivery that is centered in a relationship between the nurse and client (client as person, family, group, or community). The relationship occurs in an iterative motion over time when the client seeks or is targeted for wholistic health care with the goal of optimal wholistic health functioning. Faith integrating is a continuous occurring attribute. Health promoting, disease managing, coordinating, empowering and accessing health care are other essential attributes. All essential attributes occur with intentionality in a faith community, home, health institution and other community settings with fluidity as part of a community, national, or global health initiative. A new theoretical definition and corresponding conceptual model of FCN provides a basis for future nursing knowledge and model-based applications for evidence-based practice and research.

Psychological well-being of adolescents with physical disabilities in Zimbabwean inclusive community settings: An exploratory study

PubMed Central

Maree, Jacobus G.

2017-01-01

Background The purpose of this study was to explore the psychological well-being of adolescents with physical disabilities living in inclusive community settings of Makonde Urban in Zimbabwe. An inclusive community is one that aims to remove exclusionary practices within the community and promote community systems that accept all people irrespective of their difference. Inclusive communities on their own are not uniquely designed for people with disabilities, but most developing countries have adopted them as a basic strategy to influence and enhance psychological well-being of people with disabilities. Methods A constructivist lived experience perspective underpinned this research, in which multiple case studies were used to interact with the participants on inclusion and psychological well-being of adolescents with physical disabilities. Purposive sampling was used to select 14 participants (9 males and 5 females). Data were collected through face-to-face interviews and transcribed verbatim. Four themes emerged from the thematic analysis of data sources. Results It was found that participants who were adolescents with physical disabilities living in inclusive community settings of Makonde Urban in Zimbabwe were having high levels of autonomy and choice, purpose in life, positive relations with others and good personal growth and self-acceptance. Conclusion The findings of this study should enable inclusive communities’ policy-makers and researchers to better understand the psychological well-being of adolescents with physical disabilities living in inclusive communities. PMID:29134179

Developing research and recruitment while fostering stakeholder engagement in a National Institutes of Mental Health-funded Interventions and Practice Research Infrastructure Programs grant for depression.

PubMed

Stirman, Shannon Wiltsey; Goldstein, Lizabeth A; Wrenn, Glenda; Barrett, Marna; Gibbons, Mary Beth Connolly; Casiano, Delane; Thompson, Donald; Green, Patricia P; Heintz, Laura; Barber, Jacques P; Crits-Christoph, Paul

2010-01-01

In the context of a National Institutes of Mental Health-funded Interventions and Practice Research Infrastructure Programs (IP-RISP) grant for the treatment of depression, a partnership was developed between a community mental health organization and a team of researchers. This paper describes the collaborative process, key challenges, and strategies employed to meet the goals of the first phase of the grant, which included development of a working and sustainable partnership and building capacity for recruitment and research. This paper was developed through the use of qualitative interviews and discussion with a variety of IP-RISP partners. Communication with multiple stakeholders through varied channels, feedback from stakeholders on research procedures, and employing a research liaison at the clinic have been key strategies in the first phase of the grant. The strategies we employed allowed multiple stakeholders to contribute to the larger mission of the IP-RISP and helped to establish an ongoing research program within the mental health organization.

National Built Environment Health Impact Assessment Model ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Behavioral (activity, diet, social interaction) and exposure (air pollution, traffic injury, and noise) related health impacts of land use and transportation investment decisions are becoming better understood and quantified. Research has shown relationships between density, mix, street connectivity, access to parks, shops, transit, presence of sidewalks and bikeways, and healthy food with physical activity, obesity, cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, and some mental health outcomes. This session demonstrates successful integration of health impact assessment into multiple scenario planning tool platforms. Detailed evidence on chronic disease and related costs associated with contrasting land use and transportation investments are built into a general-purpose module that can be accessed by multiple platforms. Funders, researchers, and end users of the tool will present a detailed description of the key elements of the approach, how it has been applied, and how will evolve. A critical focus will be placed on equity and social justice inherent within the assessment of health disparities that will be featured in the session. Health impacts of community design have significant cost benefit implications. Recent research is now extending relationships between community design features and chronic disease to health care costs. This session will demonstrate the recent application of this evidence on health impacts to the newly adopted Los Angeles Regional Transpo

Sedimentary Geology Context and Challenges for Cyberinfrastructure Data Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chan, M. A.; Budd, D. A.

2014-12-01

A cyberinfrastructure data management system for sedimentary geology is crucial to multiple facets of interdisciplinary Earth science research, as sedimentary systems form the deep-time framework for many geoscience communities. The breadth and depth of the sedimentary field spans research on the processes that form, shape and affect the Earth's sedimentary crust and distribute resources such as hydrocarbons, coal, and water. The sedimentary record is used by Earth scientists to explore questions such as the continental crust evolution, dynamics of Earth's past climates and oceans, evolution of the biosphere, and the human interface with Earth surface processes. Major challenges to a data management system for sedimentary geology are the volume and diversity of field, analytical, and experimental data, along with many types of physical objects. Objects include rock samples, biological specimens, cores, and photographs. Field data runs the gamut from discrete location and spatial orientation to vertical records of bed thickness, textures, color, sedimentary structures, and grain types. Ex situ information can include geochemistry, mineralogy, petrophysics, chronologic, and paleobiologic data. All data types cover multiple order-of-magnitude scales, often requiring correlation of the multiple scales with varying degrees of resolution. The stratigraphic framework needs dimensional context with locality, time, space, and depth relationships. A significant challenge is that physical objects represent discrete values at specific points, but measured stratigraphic sections are continuous. In many cases, field data is not easily quantified, and determining uncertainty can be difficult. Despite many possible hurdles, the sedimentary community is anxious to embrace geoinformatic resources that can provide better tools to integrate the many data types, create better search capabilities, and equip our communities to conduct high-impact science at unprecedented levels.

Transforming Epidemiology for 21st Century Medicine and Public Health

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Khoury, Muin J; Lam, Tram Kim; Ioannidis, John

2013-01-01

n 2012, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) engaged the scientific community to provide a vision for cancer epidemiology in the 21st century. Eight overarching thematic recommendations, with proposed corresponding actions for consideration by funding agencies, professional societies, and the research community emerged from the collective intellectual discourse. The themes are (i) extending the reach of epidemiology beyond discovery and etiologic research to include multilevel analysis, intervention evaluation, implementation, and outcomes research; (ii) transforming the practice of epidemiology by moving toward more access and sharing of protocols, data, metadata, and specimens to foster collaboration, to ensure reproducibility and replication, and acceleratemore » translation; (iii) expanding cohort studies to collect exposure, clinical, and other information across the life course and examining multiple health-related endpoints; (iv) developing and validating reliable methods and technologies to quantify exposures and outcomes on a massive scale, and to assess concomitantly the role of multiple factors in complex diseases; (v) integrating big data science into the practice of epidemiology; (vi) expanding knowledge integration to drive research, policy, and practice; (vii) transforming training of 21st century epidemiologists to address interdisciplinary and translational research; and (viii) optimizing the use of resources and infrastructure for epidemiologic studies. These recommendations can transform cancer epidemiology and the field of epidemiology, in general, by enhancing transparency, interdisciplinary collaboration, and strategic applications of new technologies. They should lay a strong scientific foundation for accelerated translation of scientific discoveries into individual and population health benefits.« less

Transforming Epidemiology for 21st Century Medicine and Public Health

PubMed Central

Khoury, Muin J.; Lam, Tram Kim; Ioannidis, John P.A.; Hartge, Patricia; Spitz, Margaret R.; Buring, Julie E.; Chanock, Stephen J.; Croyle, Robert T.; Goddard, Katrina A.; Ginsburg, Geoffrey S.; Herceg, Zdenko; Hiatt, Robert A.; Hoover, Robert N.; Hunter, David J.; Kramer, Barnet S.; Lauer, Michael S.; Meyerhardt, Jeffrey A.; Olopade, Olufunmilayo I.; Palmer, Julie R.; Sellers, Thomas A.; Seminara, Daniela; Ransohoff, David F.; Rebbeck, Timothy R.; Tourassi, Georgia; Winn, Deborah M.; Zauber, Ann; Schully, Sheri D.

2013-01-01

In 2012, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) engaged the scientific community to provide a vision for cancer epidemiology in the 21st century. Eight overarching thematic recommendations, with proposed corresponding actions for consideration by funding agencies, professional societies, and the research community emerged from the collective intellectual discourse. The themes are (i) extending the reach of epidemiology beyond discovery and etiologic research to include multilevel analysis, intervention evaluation, implementation, and outcomes research; (ii) transforming the practice of epidemiology by moving towards more access and sharing of protocols, data, metadata, and specimens to foster collaboration, to ensure reproducibility and replication, and accelerate translation; (iii) expanding cohort studies to collect exposure, clinical and other information across the life course and examining multiple health-related endpoints; (iv) developing and validating reliable methods and technologies to quantify exposures and outcomes on a massive scale, and to assess concomitantly the role of multiple factors in complex diseases; (v) integrating “big data” science into the practice of epidemiology; (vi) expanding knowledge integration to drive research, policy and practice; (vii) transforming training of 21st century epidemiologists to address interdisciplinary and translational research; and (viii) optimizing the use of resources and infrastructure for epidemiologic studies. These recommendations can transform cancer epidemiology and the field of epidemiology in general, by enhancing transparency, interdisciplinary collaboration, and strategic applications of new technologies. They should lay a strong scientific foundation for accelerated translation of scientific discoveries into individual and population health benefits. PMID:23462917

Multi-perpetrator domestic violence.

PubMed

Salter, Michael

2014-04-01

A significant proportion of reports of domestic violence against women involve multiple perpetrators. Although the number of perpetrators has been consistently identified as a measure of abuse severity, only a minority of studies of domestic violence examine the role of multiple offenders. Data on multi-perpetrator domestic violence (MDV) is frequently removed from analysis in domestic violence studies, or multi-perpetrator incidents are treated as single-perpetrator incidents. However, the available research links MDV to negative mental and physical health outcomes, intimate partner homicide, homelessness among women, and severe mental illness and suicidality. This article reviews the available prevalence data on MDV and draws together research on the contexts in which MDV takes place. It highlights two groups that are particularly vulnerable to MDV: (1) girls and women partnered to members of gangs and organized crime groups and (2) girls and women in some ethnic minority communities. While discussions of honor in relation to domestic violence are often racialized in Western media, this article highlights the cross-cultural role of masculine honor in collective violence against women in the working class and impoverished communities of majority cultures as well as in migrant and ethnic minority communities. It is clear that such complex forms of violence present a range of challenges for intervention and treatment and the article emphasizes the need for specialized and coordinated modes of investigation, support, and care.

Mapping training needs for dissemination and implementation research: lessons from a synthesis of existing D&I research training programs.

PubMed

Chambers, David A; Proctor, Enola K; Brownson, Ross C; Straus, Sharon E

2017-09-01

With recent growth in the field of dissemination and implementation (D&I) research, multiple training programs have been developed to build capacity, including summer training institutes, graduate courses, degree programs, workshops, and conferences. While opportunities for D&I research training have expanded, course organizers acknowledge that available slots are insufficient to meet demand within the scientific and practitioner community. In addition, individual programs have struggled to best fit various needs of trainees, sometimes splitting coursework between specific D&I content and more introductory grant writing material. This article, stemming from a 2013 NIH workshop, reviews experiences across multiple training programs to align training needs, career stage and role, and availability of programs. We briefly review D&I needs and opportunities by career stage and role, discuss variations among existing training programs in format, mentoring relationships, and other characteristics, identify challenges of mapping needs of trainees to programs, and present recommendations for future D&I research training.

Early childhood caries in Indigenous communities

PubMed Central

Irvine, JD; Holve, S; Krol, D; Schroth, R

2011-01-01

The oral health of Indigenous children of Canada (First Nations, Inuit and Métis) and the United States (American Indian and Alaska Native) is a major child health issue. This is exemplified by the high prevalence of early childhood caries (ECC) with resulting adverse health effects, as well as high rates and costs of restorative and surgical treatments under general anesthesia. ECC is an infectious disease that is influenced by multiple factors, including socioeconomic determinants, and requires a combination of approaches for improvement. The present statement includes recommendations for oral health preventive and clinical care for young infants and pregnant women by primary health care providers, community-based health promotion initiatives, oral health workforce and access issues, and advocacy for community water fluoridation and fluoride varnish program access. Further community-based research on the epidemiology, prevention, management and microbiology of ECC in Indigenous communities would be beneficial. PMID:22654547

Early childhood caries in Indigenous communities: A joint statement with the American Academy of Pediatrics.

PubMed

Irvine, Jd; Holve, S; Krol, D; Schroth, R

2011-06-01

The oral health of Indigenous children of Canada (First Nations, Inuit and Métis) and the United States (American Indian and Alaska Native) is a major child health issue. This is exemplified by the high prevalence of early childhood caries (ECC) with resulting adverse health effects, as well as high rates and costs of restorative and surgical treatments under general anesthesia. ECC is an infectious disease that is influenced by multiple factors, including socioeconomic determinants, and requires a combination of approaches for improvement. The present statement includes recommendations for oral health preventive and clinical care for young infants and pregnant women by primary health care providers, community-based health promotion initiatives, oral health workforce and access issues, and advocacy for community water fluoridation and fluoride varnish program access. Further community-based research on the epidemiology, prevention, management and microbiology of ECC in Indigenous communities would be beneficial.

Health-Promoting Changes with Children as Agents: Findings from a Multiple Case Study Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simovska, Venka; Carlsson, Monica

2012-01-01

Purpose: With the aim of contributing to the evidence base on school-based health promotion, the authors discuss the outcomes and processes of a European intervention project aiming to prevent obesity among children (4-16 years) and promote their health and well-being, titled "Shape Up: a school-community approach to influencing determinants…

Education for Sustainability in Career and Technical Education: A Multiple Case Study of Innovative Community College Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ruppel, Karen R.

2012-01-01

Research indicates we are faced with environmental, social, and economic challenges and higher education is being called upon to provide education for a sustainable future. The literature surrounding Education for Sustainability (EfS) in higher education points toward implementing EN into all levels of education. Very few Career and Technical…

Guiding Principles for a Research Schools Network: Successes and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwartz, Marc S.; Gerlach, Jeanne

2011-01-01

Building on J. Dewey's (1907) original work with the laboratory school, the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Texas-Arlington is expanding the original concept to include partners throughout a school system and the community in order to support and advance learning in multiple learning environments. The goal is to…

Increasing Student Motivation through the Use of Multiple Intelligences and Cooperative Learning Techniques.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Charbonneau, Nancy L.; Ribar, Linda L.

This action research project implemented and evaluated a program for increasing student motivation and interest in school to improve academic growth. The targeted population consisted of 37 high school students in a rural central Illinois community. Twenty-five students were in art classes and 12 were in child care classes. Anecdotal records,…

"Contra La Corriente" (Against the Current): The Role of Latino Fathers in Family-School Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quiñones, Sandra; Kiyama, Judy Marquez

2014-01-01

A community-based, multisite study using mixed methods examined the experiences and perspectives of Latino students and families in a low performing urban school district in New York State. This research project was spearheaded by a Latino Education Task Force which brought together multiple stakeholders in a collaborative effort to counteract…

Exploring the Impact of Undergraduate Intramural Sports on Undergraduate Students' Perceived Sense of Community: A Multiple Regression Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Penland, Nathan Paul

2017-01-01

Research has shown benefits to the student experience for college students when they participate in intramural sports on university campuses. These benefits include improved physical and social health as well as academic performance. This non-experimental, predictive correlational study sought to understand if a relationship exists between the…

The effects of precipitation and soil type on three invasive annual grasses in the western United States

Treesearch

Sheel Bansal; Jeremy J. James; Roger L. Sheley

2014-01-01

Multiple species of annual grasses are invading sagebrush-steppe communities throughout the western United States. Most research has focused on dominant species such as Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass), yet other, less studied annual grasses such as Taeniatherum caput-medusae (medusahead) and Ventenata dubia (ventenata) are spreading rapidly. Future precipitation regimes...

On Universals, Cultural Variations and Individual Uniqueness: Throwing down the Gauntlet in Giftedness Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garces-Bacsal, Rhoda Myra

2012-01-01

Roland S. Persson's (2012a) piece is extremely comprehensive, timely and very relevant especially in light of a growing appreciation of cultural diversity and the emergence of a global community--which is an inevitable offshoot of globalisation that goes beyond world economy and international markets. It covers multiple themes; ranging from…

Organizational Politics of Parental Engagement: The Intersections of School Reform, Anti-Immigration Policies, and Latinx Parent Organizing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scribner, Samantha M. Paredes; Fernández, Erica

2017-01-01

This article presents results from community-engaged research conducted with Latinx immigrant parents advocating for their students and themselves in and around an urban school engaged in multiple reforms, in a context affected by anti-immigrant policies and sentiments. The authors analyzed the intersection of organizing narratives related to…

Modelling marine community responses to climate-driven species redistribution to guide monitoring and adaptive ecosystem-based management.

PubMed

Marzloff, Martin Pierre; Melbourne-Thomas, Jessica; Hamon, Katell G; Hoshino, Eriko; Jennings, Sarah; van Putten, Ingrid E; Pecl, Gretta T

2016-07-01

As a consequence of global climate-driven changes, marine ecosystems are experiencing polewards redistributions of species - or range shifts - across taxa and throughout latitudes worldwide. Research on these range shifts largely focuses on understanding and predicting changes in the distribution of individual species. The ecological effects of marine range shifts on ecosystem structure and functioning, as well as human coastal communities, can be large, yet remain difficult to anticipate and manage. Here, we use qualitative modelling of system feedback to understand the cumulative impacts of multiple species shifts in south-eastern Australia, a global hotspot for ocean warming. We identify range-shifting species that can induce trophic cascades and affect ecosystem dynamics and productivity, and evaluate the potential effectiveness of alternative management interventions to mitigate these impacts. Our results suggest that the negative ecological impacts of multiple simultaneous range shifts generally add up. Thus, implementing whole-of-ecosystem management strategies and regular monitoring of range-shifting species of ecological concern are necessary to effectively intervene against undesirable consequences of marine range shifts at the regional scale. Our study illustrates how modelling system feedback with only limited qualitative information about ecosystem structure and range-shifting species can predict ecological consequences of multiple co-occurring range shifts, guide ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change and help prioritise future research and monitoring. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Survey of the effect of odour impact on communities.

PubMed

Hayes, J E; Stevenson, R J; Stuetz, R M

2017-12-15

In the context of environmental malodour, surveys are valuable as they allow for the relatively detailed analysis of multiple factors pertaining to odour perception and subsequent reaction. However, the causes for an individual to experience odour impact while a neighbour will not are still not understood. The goal of this current survey design was to consolidate varying research paths for surveys within the environmental odour research space. This survey investigated the area of effect for wastewater treatment plants by using stratified random sampling techniques that radiated from the industrial areas. Additionally, this survey provided a "non-alerted" response to environmental malodour that represents a step forward for ecological validity. We found a small number of items relating to odour annoyance and home ownership that can be used in order to predict odour impact for individual community members. However, we also did not find any relationship with odour impact and perceived control. This survey design and analysis reconciles the varied approaches towards community surveys administered in prior literature, as well as providing information to improve future community engagement policies. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Arctic BioMap: Building Participatory Technologies for Community-Specific Environmental Monitoring and Decision Making in the North

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murray, M. S.; Panikkar, B.; Liang, S.; Kutz, S.

2016-12-01

The Arctic continues to undergo unprecedented and accelerated system-wide environmental change. For people who live in the north this presents challenges to resource management, subsistence, health and well-being, and yet, there is very little community-specific data on wildlife (including wildlife health), local environmental conditions and emerging hazards in Northern Canada. A novel approach that integrates community expertise with developing technologies can simplify data collection and improve understanding of current and future conditions. It can also improve our ability to manage and adapt to the rapidly transforming Arctic. Arctic BioMap is a data platform for real-time monitoring and a geospatial informational database of wildlife and environmental information useful for assessment, research, management, and education. It enables monitoring of wildlife and environmental variables including hazards to inform decision-making at multiples scales. Using participatory technologies Arctic BioMap incorporates indigenous research needs and the ensuing data can be used to inform policy making. Arctic BioMap provides a forum for continuous exchange and communication among community members, scientists, resources managers, and other stakeholders.

A System Dynamics Model for Integrated Decision Making ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

EPA’s Sustainable and Healthy Communities Research Program (SHC) is conducting transdisciplinary research to inform and empower decision-makers. EPA tools and approaches are being developed to enable communities to effectively weigh and integrate human health, socioeconomic, environmental, and ecological factors into their decisions to promote community sustainability. To help achieve this goal, EPA researchers have developed systems approaches to account for the linkages among resources, assets, and outcomes managed by a community. System dynamics (SD) is a member of the family of systems approaches and provides a framework for dynamic modeling that can assist with assessing and understanding complex issues across multiple dimensions. To test the utility of such tools when applied to a real-world situation, the EPA has developed a prototype SD model for community sustainability using the proposed Durham-Orange Light Rail Project (D-O LRP) as a case study.The EPA D-O LRP SD modeling team chose the proposed D-O LRP to demonstrate that an integrated modeling approach could represent the multitude of related cross-sectoral decisions that would be made and the cascading impacts that could result from a light rail transit system connecting Durham and Chapel Hill, NC. In keeping with the SHC vision described above, the proposal for the light rail is a starting point solution for the more intractable problems of population growth, unsustainable land use, environmenta

Assessing ecological risks to the fish community from residual coal fly ash in Watts Bar Reservoir, Tennessee

DOE PAGES

Rigg, David K.; Wacksman, Mitch N.; Iannuzzi, Jacqueline; ...

2014-12-18

For this research, extensive site-specific biological and environmental data were collected to support an evaluation of risks to the fish community in Watts Bar Reservoir from residual ash from the December 2008 Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Kingston ash release. This paper describes the approach used and results of the risk assessment for the fish community, which consists of multiple measurement endpoints (measures of exposure and effects) for fish. The lines of evidence included 1) comparing postspill annual fish community assessments with nearby prespill data and data from other TVA reservoirs, 2) evaluating possible effects of exposures of fish eggs andmore » larval fish to ash in controlled laboratory toxicity tests, 3) evaluating reproductive competence of field-exposed fish, 4) assessing individual fish health through physical examination, histopathology, and blood chemistry, 5) comparing fish tissue concentrations with literature-based critical body residues, and 6) comparing concentrations of ash-related contaminants in surface waters with US Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) Ambient Water Quality Standards for Fish and Aquatic Life. These measurement endpoints were treated as independent lines of evidence that were integrated into an overall weight-of-evidence estimate of risk to the fish community. Collectively, the data and analysis presented here indicate that ash and ash-related constituents pose negligible risks to the fish communities in Watts Bar Reservoir. This conclusion contradicts the predictions by some researchers immediately following the ash release of devastating effects on the aquatic ecology of Watts Bar Reservoir. The information presented in this article reaffirms the wisdom of carefully evaluating the evidence before predicting probable ecological effects of a major event such as the TVA Kingston ash release. Lastly, this study demonstrates that a thorough and detailed investigation using multiple measurement endpoints is needed to properly evaluate ecological effects.« less

Assessing ecological risks to the fish community from residual coal fly ash in Watts Bar Reservoir, Tennessee

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rigg, David K.; Wacksman, Mitch N.; Iannuzzi, Jacqueline

For this research, extensive site-specific biological and environmental data were collected to support an evaluation of risks to the fish community in Watts Bar Reservoir from residual ash from the December 2008 Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Kingston ash release. This paper describes the approach used and results of the risk assessment for the fish community, which consists of multiple measurement endpoints (measures of exposure and effects) for fish. The lines of evidence included 1) comparing postspill annual fish community assessments with nearby prespill data and data from other TVA reservoirs, 2) evaluating possible effects of exposures of fish eggs andmore » larval fish to ash in controlled laboratory toxicity tests, 3) evaluating reproductive competence of field-exposed fish, 4) assessing individual fish health through physical examination, histopathology, and blood chemistry, 5) comparing fish tissue concentrations with literature-based critical body residues, and 6) comparing concentrations of ash-related contaminants in surface waters with US Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) Ambient Water Quality Standards for Fish and Aquatic Life. These measurement endpoints were treated as independent lines of evidence that were integrated into an overall weight-of-evidence estimate of risk to the fish community. Collectively, the data and analysis presented here indicate that ash and ash-related constituents pose negligible risks to the fish communities in Watts Bar Reservoir. This conclusion contradicts the predictions by some researchers immediately following the ash release of devastating effects on the aquatic ecology of Watts Bar Reservoir. The information presented in this article reaffirms the wisdom of carefully evaluating the evidence before predicting probable ecological effects of a major event such as the TVA Kingston ash release. Lastly, this study demonstrates that a thorough and detailed investigation using multiple measurement endpoints is needed to properly evaluate ecological effects.« less

Describing and understanding behavioral responses to multiple stressors and multiple stimuli.

PubMed

Hale, Robin; Piggott, Jeremy J; Swearer, Stephen E

2017-01-01

Understanding the effects of environmental change on natural ecosystems is a major challenge, particularly when multiple stressors interact to produce unexpected "ecological surprises" in the form of complex, nonadditive effects that can amplify or reduce their individual effects. Animals often respond behaviorally to environmental change, and multiple stressors can have both population-level and community-level effects. However, the individual, not combined, effects of stressors on animal behavior are commonly studied. There is a need to understand how animals respond to the more complex combinations of stressors that occur in nature, which requires a systematic and rigorous approach to quantify the various potential behavioral responses to the independent and interactive effects of stressors. We illustrate a robust, systematic approach for understanding behavioral responses to multiple stressors based on integrating schemes used to quantitatively classify interactions in multiple-stressor research and to qualitatively view interactions between multiple stimuli in behavioral experiments. We introduce and unify the two frameworks, highlighting their conceptual and methodological similarities, and use four case studies to demonstrate how this unification could improve our interpretation of interactions in behavioral experiments and guide efforts to manage the effects of multiple stressors. Our unified approach: (1) provides behavioral ecologists with a more rigorous and systematic way to quantify how animals respond to interactions between multiple stimuli, an important theoretical advance, (2) helps us better understand how animals behave when they encounter multiple, potentially interacting stressors, and (3) contributes more generally to the understanding of "ecological surprises" in multiple stressors research.

Diversity and Community Can Coexist.

PubMed

Stivala, Alex; Robins, Garry; Kashima, Yoshihisa; Kirley, Michael

2016-03-01

We examine the (in)compatibility of diversity and sense of community by means of agent-based models based on the well-known Schelling model of residential segregation and Axelrod model of cultural dissemination. We find that diversity and highly clustered social networks, on the assumptions of social tie formation based on spatial proximity and homophily, are incompatible when agent features are immutable, and this holds even for multiple independent features. We include both mutable and immutable features into a model that integrates Schelling and Axelrod models, and we find that even for multiple independent features, diversity and highly clustered social networks can be incompatible on the assumptions of social tie formation based on spatial proximity and homophily. However, this incompatibility breaks down when cultural diversity can be sufficiently large, at which point diversity and clustering need not be negatively correlated. This implies that segregation based on immutable characteristics such as race can possibly be overcome by sufficient similarity on mutable characteristics based on culture, which are subject to a process of social influence, provided a sufficiently large "scope of cultural possibilities" exists. © Society for Community Research and Action 2016.

The Hidden Costs of Community Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schneider, Mark.; Yin, Lu

2011-01-01

Community colleges are an essential component of America's higher education system. Last year, they enrolled well over 6 million students, a number that continues to grow. Community colleges have multiple missions, and their performance ultimately needs to be evaluated on multiple metrics. However, one key mission of community colleges is the…

The effect of consumer pressure and abiotic stress on positive plant interactions are mediated by extreme climatic events.

PubMed

Filazzola, Alessandro; Liczner, Amanda Rae; Westphal, Michael; Lortie, Christopher J

2018-01-01

Environmental extremes resulting from a changing climate can have profound implications for plant interactions in desert communities. Positive interactions can buffer plant communities from abiotic stress and consumer pressure caused by climatic extremes, but limited research has explored this empirically. We tested the hypothesis that the mechanism of shrub facilitation on an annual plant community can change with precipitation extremes in deserts. During years of extreme drought and above-average rainfall in a desert, we measured plant interactions and biomass while manipulating a soil moisture gradient and reducing consumer pressure. Shrubs facilitated the annual plant community at all levels of soil moisture through reductions in microclimatic stress in both years and herbivore protection in the wet year only. Shrub facilitation and the high rainfall year contributed to the dominance of a competitive annual species in the plant community. Precipitation patterns in deserts determine the magnitude and type of facilitation mechanisms. Moreover, shrub facilitation mediates the interspecific competition within the associated annual community between years with different rainfall amounts. Examining multiple drivers during extreme climate events is a challenging area of research, but it is a necessary consideration given forecasts predicting that these events will increase in frequency and magnitude. © 2017 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2017 New Phytologist Trust.

Traumatogenic Processes and Pathways to Mental Health Outcomes for Sexual Minorities Exposed to Bias Crime Information.

PubMed

Lannert, Brittany K

2015-07-01

Vicarious traumatization of nonvictim members of communities targeted by bias crimes has been suggested by previous qualitative studies and often dominates public discussion following bias events, but proximal and distal responses of community members have yet to be comprehensively modeled, and quantitative research on vicarious responses is scarce. This comprehensive review integrates theoretical and empirical literatures in social, clinical, and physiological psychology in the development of a model of affective, cognitive, and physiological responses of lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals upon exposure to information about bias crimes. Extant qualitative research in vicarious response to bias crimes is reviewed in light of theoretical implications and methodological limitations. Potential pathways to mental health outcomes are outlined, including accumulative effects of anticipatory defensive responding, multiplicative effects of minority stress, and putative traumatogenic physiological and cognitive processes of threat. Methodological considerations, future research directions, and clinical implications are also discussed. © The Author(s) 2014.

Refining the aggregate exposure pathway.

PubMed

Tan, Yu-Mei; Leonard, Jeremy A; Edwards, Stephen; Teeguarden, Justin; Egeghy, Peter

2018-03-01

Advancements in measurement technologies and modeling capabilities continue to result in an abundance of exposure information, adding to that currently in existence. However, fragmentation within the exposure science community acts as an obstacle for realizing the vision set forth in the National Research Council's report on Exposure Science in the 21 st century to consider exposures from source to dose, on multiple levels of integration, and to multiple stressors. The concept of an Aggregate Exposure Pathway (AEP) was proposed as a framework for organizing and integrating diverse exposure information that exists across numerous repositories and among multiple scientific fields. A workshop held in May 2016 followed introduction of the AEP concept, allowing members of the exposure science community to provide extensive evaluation and feedback regarding the framework's structure, key components, and applications. The current work briefly introduces topics discussed at the workshop and attempts to address key challenges involved in refining this framework. The resulting evolution in the AEP framework's features allows for facilitating acquisition, integration, organization, and transparent application and communication of exposure knowledge in a manner that is independent of its ultimate use, thereby enabling reuse of such information in many applications.

A qualitative evaluation of the 2005-2011 National Academic Centers of Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention Program.

PubMed

Holland, Kristin M; Vivolo-Kantor, Alana M; Dela Cruz, Jason; Massetti, Greta M; Mahendra, Reshma

2015-12-01

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Violence Prevention (DVP) funded eight National Academic Centers of Excellence (ACEs) in Youth Violence Prevention from 2005 to 2010 and two Urban Partnership Academic Centers of Excellence (UPACEs) in Youth Violence Prevention from 2006 to 2011. The ACEs and UPACEs constitute DVP's 2005-2011 ACE Program. ACE Program goals include partnering with communities to promote youth violence (YV) prevention and fostering connections between research and community practice. This article describes a qualitative evaluation of the 2005-2011 ACE Program using an innovative approach for collecting and analyzing data from multiple large research centers via a web-based Information System (ACE-IS). The ACE-IS was established as an efficient mechanism to collect and document ACE research and programmatic activities. Performance indicators for the ACE Program were established in an ACE Program logic model. Data on performance indicators were collected through the ACE-IS biannually. Data assessed Centers' ability to develop, implement, and evaluate YV prevention activities. Performance indicator data demonstrate substantial progress on Centers' research in YV risk and protective factors, community partnerships, and other accomplishments. Findings provide important lessons learned, illustrate progress made by the Centers, and point to new directions for YV prevention research and programmatic efforts. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The promotional role of school and community contexts for military students.

PubMed

Astor, Ron Avi; De Pedro, Kris Tunac; Gilreath, Tamika D; Esqueda, Monica C; Benbenishty, Rami

2013-09-01

This article examines how supportive public school environments can serve as a promotional context for the development of children and adolescents from military families. The authors integrate theory and research from multiple research strands (e.g., human development, studies of at-risk youth, educational reform, goodness of fit theory, and school climate) to outline how public schools can support the development of all children and adolescents. This article provides further support for the supposition that school climates and the social-ecological contexts surrounding a school (e.g., universities, communities, school districts) have the potential to protect at-risk children and adolescents from an array of negative social, emotional, and psychological outcomes. The authors draw linkages between these research domains and the development of military children and adolescents. Promotional civilian school environments embedded within supportive and inclusive contexts can create a social infrastructure that supports the development of military children and adolescents. The authors argue that this conceptual approach can create a foundation for interventions and research that focuses on schools as normative supportive developmental settings for military children and youth during challenging times of war (e.g., deployments and multiple school transitions). This article concludes with a discussion of future directions in research on the development of military children and adolescents. Based on a heuristic conceptual model that outlines areas needing further research, the authors call for a deeper theoretical and empirical integration of school climate and external contextual factors surrounding the school. Investigating the social and organizational dynamics within these contexts can result in a more comprehensive picture of the development of military children and adolescents.

Therapist, Parent, and Youth Perspectives of Treatment Barriers to Family-Focused Community Outpatient Mental Health Services

PubMed Central

Jenkins, Melissa M.; Haine-Schlagel, Rachel

2012-01-01

This exploratory qualitative study describes treatment barriers to receiving family-focused child mental health services for youths with disruptive behavior problems from multiple perspectives. Data were collected during a series of focus groups and interviews, including: 4 therapist focus groups, 3 parent focus groups, and 10 youth semi-structured interviews. Therapist, parent, and youth stakeholder participants discussed perceived barriers to effective treatment, the problems with current child outpatient therapy, and desired changes (i.e., policy, intervention, etc.) to improve mental health services. Results indicate similar themes around treatment barriers and dissatisfaction with services within and across multiple stakeholder groups, including inadequate support and lack of family involvement; however, parents and therapists, in particular, identified different contributing factors to these barriers. Overall, stakeholders reported much frustration and dissatisfaction with current community-based outpatient child therapy services. Study findings can inform service provision, intervention development, and future research. PMID:24019737

Long-term management of patients with multiple sclerosis.

PubMed

Weightman, Cherie

2006-07-01

This article explores the challenges of long-term case management for patients who have multiple sclerosis (MS). Currently there is scant research into district nursing input into long-term management of patients who have MS. Until now the role of the community nurses has been confined to palliation or terminal care, focusing on the more physical manifestations of MS. The contemporary role of district nurse is going to evolve to include proactive approaches. Governmental initiatives demand proactive services, and place emphasis on self-care for patients with MS. Themes that emerge from this article relate to the pre-existing skills--such as managing patients with complex needs and the advanced assessment skills--that will be required to achieve this. What is clear is that community nurses already possess many of the prerequisite skills needed for long-term management, and they should not be daunted by this prospect.

Multiple approaches to characterize the microbial community in a thermophilic anaerobic digester running on swine manure: a case study.

PubMed

Tuan, Nguyen Ngoc; Chang, Yi-Chia; Yu, Chang-Ping; Huang, Shir-Ly

2014-01-01

In this study, the first survey of microbial community in thermophilic anaerobic digester using swine manure as sole feedstock was performed by multiple approaches including denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), clone library and pyrosequencing techniques. The integrated analysis of 21 DGGE bands, 126 clones and 8506 pyrosequencing read sequences revealed that Clostridia from the phylum Firmicutes account for the most dominant Bacteria. In addition, our analysis also identified additional taxa that were missed by the previous researches, including members of the bacterial phyla Synergistetes, Planctomycetes, Armatimonadetes, Chloroflexi and Nitrospira which might also play a role in thermophilic anaerobic digester. Most archaeal 16S rRNA sequences could be assigned to the order Methanobacteriales instead of Methanomicrobiales comparing to previous studies. In addition, this study reported that the member of Methanothermobacter genus was firstly found in thermophilic anaerobic digester. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Community-led trials: Intervention co-design in a cluster randomised controlled trial.

PubMed

Andersson, Neil

2017-05-30

In conventional randomised controlled trials (RCTs), researchers design the interventions. In the Camino Verde trial, each intervention community designed its own programmes to prevent dengue. Instead of fixed actions or menus of activities to choose from, the trial randomised clusters to a participatory research protocol that began with sharing and discussing evidence from a local survey, going on to local authorship of the action plan for vector control.Adding equitable stakeholder engagement to RCT infrastructure anchors the research culturally, making it more meaningful to stakeholders. Replicability in other conditions is straightforward, since all intervention clusters used the same engagement protocol to discuss and to mobilize for dengue prevention. The ethical codes associated with RCTs play out differently in community-led pragmatic trials, where communities essentially choose what they want to do. Several discussion groups in each intervention community produced multiple plans for prevention, recognising different time lines. Some chose fast turnarounds, like elimination of breeding sites, and some chose longer term actions like garbage disposal and improving water supplies.A big part of the skill set for community-led trials is being able to stand back and simply support communities in what they want to do and how they want to do it, something that does not come naturally to many vector control programs or to RCT researchers. Unexpected negative outcomes can come from the turbulence implicit in participatory research. One example was the gender dynamic in the Mexican arm of the Camino Verde trial. Strong involvement of women in dengue control activities seems to have discouraged men in settings where activity in public spaces or outside of the home would ordinarily be considered a "male competence".Community-led trials address the tension between one-size-fits-all programme interventions and local needs. Whatever the conventional wisdom about how prevention works at a system level, programmes have to be perceived as locally relevant and they must engage stakeholders who make them work. Locally, each participating community has to know the intervention is relevant to them; they have to want to do it. That happens much more easily if they design the programme themselves.

Challenges in linking health research to policy: a commentary on developing a multi-stakeholder response to orphans and vulnerable children in Ghana.

PubMed

Gyapong, John Owusu; Selby, Richmond Ato; Anakwah, Kwadwo Antwi

2011-06-16

The Research and Development Division (RDD) of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has a remit to build research capacity and conduct policy relevant research. By being situated within the GHS, RDD has good access to directors and programme managers, within and beyond the Ministry of Health. This structure has been facilitating collaboration through research cycles for 20 years, from agenda setting to discussions on policy relevance.This approach has been applied to research activities within the Addressing the Balance of Burden in AIDS (ABBA) Research Programme Consortium to tackle the challenges facing HIV affected orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs). The government strategy on OVCs recommends they should be encouraged to live in their home communities rather than in institutions. We present lessons here on efforts to use research to build a response across different agencies to address the problems that communities and families face in caring for these children in their communities.This approach to building consensus on research priorities points to the value of collaboration and dialogue with multiple stakeholders as a means of fostering ownership of a research process and supporting the relevance of research to different groups. Our experience has shown that if the context within which researchers, policy makers and stakeholders work were better understood, the links between them were improved and research were communicated more effectively, then better policy making which links across different sectors may follow. At the same time, collaboration among these different stakeholders to ensure that research meets social needs, must also satisfy the requirements of scientific rigour.

Perceptions of cardiovascular health in underserved communities.

PubMed

Bryant, Lucinda L; Chin, Nancy P; Cottrell, Lesley A; Duckles, Joyce M; Fernandez, I Diana; Garces, D Marcela; Keyserling, Thomas C; McMilin, Colleen R; Peters, Karen E; Samuel-Hodge, Carmen D; Tu, Shin-Ping; Vu, Maihan B; Fitzpatrick, Annette L

2010-03-01

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of deaths and illnesses in US adults, and the prevalence is disproportionately high in underserved populations. In this study, we assessed respondents' understanding of context-specific differences in knowledge and perceptions of disease, risk, and prevention in 6 underserved communities, with the longer-term goal of developing appropriate interventions. Thirty-nine small-group sessions and 14 interviews yielded data from 318 adults. Each site's researchers coded, analyzed, and extracted key themes from local data. Investigators from all sites synthesized results and identified common themes and differences. Themes clustered in 3 areas (barriers to cardiovascular health, constraints related to multiple roles, and suggestions for effective communications and programs). Barriers spanned individual, social and cultural, and environmental levels; women in particular cited multiple roles (eg, competing demands, lack of self-care). Programmatic suggestions included the following: personal, interactive, social context; information in language that people use; activities built around cultural values and interests; and community orientation. In addition, respondents preferred health-related information from trusted groups (eg, AARP), health care providers (but with noticeable differences of opinion), family and friends, and printed materials. Interventions to decrease barriers to cardiovascular health are needed; these strategies should include family and community context, small groups, interactive methods, culturally sensitive materials, and trusted information sources. New-immigrant communities need culturally and linguistically tailored education before receiving more substantive interventions.

Laying the foundation for Connect to Protect: a multi-site community mobilization intervention to reduce HIV/AIDS incidence and prevalence among urban youth.

PubMed

Ziff, Mauri A; Harper, Gary W; Chutuape, Kate S; Deeds, Bethany Griffin; Futterman, Donna; Francisco, Vincent T; Muenz, Larry R; Ellen, Jonathan M

2006-05-01

Despite the considerable resources that have been dedicated to HIV prevention interventions and services over the past decade, HIV incidence among young people in the United States remains alarmingly high. One reason is that the majority of prevention efforts continue to focus solely on modifying individual behavior, even though public health research strongly suggests that changes to a community's structural elements, such as their programs, practices, and laws or policies, may result in more effective and sustainable outcomes. Connect to Protect is a multi-city community mobilization intervention that focuses on altering or creating community structural elements in ways that will ultimately reduce youth HIV incidence and prevalence. The project, which spans 6 years, is sponsored by the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions at multiple urban clinical research sites. This paper provides an overview of the study's three phases and describes key factors in setting a firm foundation for the initiation and execution of this type of undertaking. Connect to Protect's community mobilization approach to achieving structural change represents a relatively new and broad direction in HIV prevention research. To optimize opportunities for its success, time and resources must be initially placed into laying the groundwork. This includes activities such as building a strong overarching study infrastructure to ensure protocol tasks can be met across sites; tapping into local site and community expertise and knowledge; forming collaborative relationships between sites and community organizations and members; and fostering community input on and support for changes at a structural level. Failing to take steps such as these may lead to insurmountable implementation problems for an intervention of this kind.

State-Level Community Benefit Regulation and Nonprofit Hospitals' Provision of Community Benefits.

PubMed

Singh, Simone R; Young, Gary J; Loomer, Lacey; Madison, Kristin

2018-04-01

Do nonprofit hospitals provide enough community benefits to justify their tax exemptions? States have sought to enhance nonprofit hospitals' accountability and oversight through regulation, including requirements to report community benefits, conduct community health needs assessments, provide minimum levels of community benefits, and adhere to minimum income eligibility standards for charity care. However, little research has assessed these regulations' impact on community benefits. Using 2009-11 Internal Revenue Service data on community benefit spending for more than eighteen hundred hospitals and the Hilltop Institute's data on community benefit regulation, we investigated the relationship between these four types of regulation and the level and types of hospital-provided community benefits. Our multivariate regression analyses showed that only community health needs assessments were consistently associated with greater community benefit spending. The results for reporting and minimum spending requirements were mixed, while minimum income eligibility standards for charity care were unrelated to community benefit spending. State adoption of multiple types of regulation was consistently associated with higher levels of hospital-provided community benefits, possibly because regulatory intensity conveys a strong signal to the hospital community that more spending is expected. This study can inform efforts to design regulations that will encourage hospitals to provide community benefits consistent with policy makers' goals. Copyright © 2018 by Duke University Press.

Advancing Space Sciences through Undergraduate Research Experiences at UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory - a novel approach to undergraduate internships for first generation community college students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Raftery, C. L.; Davis, H. B.; Peticolas, L. M.; Paglierani, R.

2015-12-01

The Space Sciences Laboratory at UC Berkeley launched an NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program in the summer of 2015. The "Advancing Space Sciences through Undergraduate Research Experiences" (ASSURE) program recruited heavily from local community colleges and universities, and provided a multi-tiered mentorship program for students in the fields of space science and engineering. The program was focussed on providing a supportive environment for 2nd and 3rd year undergraduates, many of whom were first generation and underrepresented students. This model provides three levels of mentorship support for the participating interns: 1) the primary research advisor provides academic and professional support. 2) The program coordinator, who meets with the interns multiple times per week, provides personal support and helps the interns to assimilate into the highly competitive environment of the research laboratory. 3) Returning undergraduate interns provided peer support and guidance to the new cohort of students. The impacts of this program on the first generation students and the research mentors, as well as the lessons learned will be discussed.

“Why We Stay”: Immigrants’ motivations for remaining in communities impacted by anti-immigration policy

PubMed Central

Valdez, Carmen R.; Valentine, Jessa L.; Padilla, Brian

2013-01-01

Although restrictive immigration policy reduces incentives for unauthorized immigrants to remain in the United States, many immigrants remain in their U.S. community in spite of the anti-immigration climate surrounding them. This study explores motivations shaping immigrants’ intentions to stay in Arizona after passage of Senate Bill 1070 in 2010, one of the most restrictive immigration policies in recent decades. We conducted three focus groups in a large metropolitan city in Arizona with Mexican immigrant parents (N = 25). Themes emerging from the focus groups described multiple and interlocking personal, family and community, and contemporary sociopolitical motivations to stay in their community, and suggest that some important motivating factors have evolved as a result of immigrants’ changing environment. Implications for research and social policy reform are discussed. PMID:23875853

Religious networking organizations and social justice: an ethnographic case study.

PubMed

Todd, Nathan R

2012-09-01

The current study provides an innovative examination of how and why religious networking organizations work for social justice in their local community. Similar to a coalition or community coordinating council, religious networking organizations are formal organizations comprised of individuals from multiple religious congregations who consistently meet to organize around a common goal. Based on over a year and a half of ethnographic participation in two separate religious networking organizations focused on community betterment and social justice, this study reports on the purpose and structure of these organizations, how each used networking to create social capital, and how religion was integrated into the organizations' social justice work. Findings contribute to the growing literature on social capital, empowering community settings, and the unique role of religious settings in promoting social justice. Implications for future research and practice also are discussed.

Mental health research and evaluation in multicultural Australia: developing a culture of inclusion.

PubMed

Minas, Harry; Kakuma, Ritsuko; Too, Lay San; Vayani, Hamza; Orapeleng, Sharon; Prasad-Ildes, Rita; Turner, Greg; Procter, Nicholas; Oehm, Daryl

2013-10-07

Cultural and linguistic diversity is a core feature of the Australian population and a valued element of national identity. The proportion of the population that will be overseas-born is projected to be 32% by 2050. While a very active process of mental health system reform has been occurring for more than two decades - at national and state and territory levels - the challenges presented by cultural and linguistic diversity have not been effectively met. A key area in which this is particularly an issue is in the collection, analysis and reporting of mental health data that reflect the reality of population diversity. The purpose of this study was to examine: what is known about the mental health of immigrant and refugee communities in Australia; whether Australian mental health research pays adequate attention to the fact of cultural and linguistic diversity in the Australian population; and whether national mental health data collections support evidence-informed mental health policy and practice and mental health reform in multicultural Australia. The study consisted of three components - a brief review of what is known about mental health in, and mental health service use by, immigrant and refugee communities; an examination of national data collections to determine the extent to which relevant cultural variables are included in the collections; and an examination of Australian research to determine the extent to which immigrant and refugee communities are included as participants in such research. The review of Australian research on mental health of immigrant and refugee communities and their patterns of mental health service use generated findings that are highly variable. The work is fragmented and usually small-scale. There are multiple studies of some immigrant and refugee communities and there are no studies of others. Although there is a broadly consistent pattern of lower rates of utilisation of specialist public mental health services by immigrants and refugees the absence of adequate population epidemiological data prevents judgments about whether the observed patterns constitute under-utilisation. There are virtually no data on quality of service outcomes. The examination of national data collections revealed multiple gaps in these data collections. The review of papers published in four key Australian journals to determine whether immigrants and refugees are included in mental health research studies revealed a high rate (9.1%) of specific exclusion from studies (usually due to low English fluency) and a much higher rate of general neglect of the issue of population diversity in study design and reporting. While there are many positive statements of policy intent in relation to immigrant and refugee communities in national mental health policies and strategies there is virtually no reporting by Commonwealth or State and Territory governments of whether policies that are relevant to immigrant and refugee communities are effectively implemented. It is not possible, on the basis of the data collected, to determine whether immigrant and refugee communities are benefiting from the mental health system reforms that are being actively carried out. The majority of Australian mental health research does not adequately include immigrant and refugee samples. On the basis of the findings of this study eight strategies have been recommended that will contribute to the development of a culture of inclusion of all Australians in the national mental health research enterprise.

Mental health research and evaluation in multicultural Australia: developing a culture of inclusion

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Introduction Cultural and linguistic diversity is a core feature of the Australian population and a valued element of national identity. The proportion of the population that will be overseas-born is projected to be 32% by 2050. While a very active process of mental health system reform has been occurring for more than two decades - at national and state and territory levels - the challenges presented by cultural and linguistic diversity have not been effectively met. A key area in which this is particularly an issue is in the collection, analysis and reporting of mental health data that reflect the reality of population diversity. The purpose of this study was to examine: what is known about the mental health of immigrant and refugee communities in Australia; whether Australian mental health research pays adequate attention to the fact of cultural and linguistic diversity in the Australian population; and whether national mental health data collections support evidence-informed mental health policy and practice and mental health reform in multicultural Australia. Methods The study consisted of three components – a brief review of what is known about mental health in, and mental health service use by, immigrant and refugee communities; an examination of national data collections to determine the extent to which relevant cultural variables are included in the collections; and an examination of Australian research to determine the extent to which immigrant and refugee communities are included as participants in such research. Results The review of Australian research on mental health of immigrant and refugee communities and their patterns of mental health service use generated findings that are highly variable. The work is fragmented and usually small-scale. There are multiple studies of some immigrant and refugee communities and there are no studies of others. Although there is a broadly consistent pattern of lower rates of utilisation of specialist public mental health services by immigrants and refugees the absence of adequate population epidemiological data prevents judgments about whether the observed patterns constitute under-utilisation. There are virtually no data on quality of service outcomes. The examination of national data collections revealed multiple gaps in these data collections. The review of papers published in four key Australian journals to determine whether immigrants and refugees are included in mental health research studies revealed a high rate (9.1%) of specific exclusion from studies (usually due to low English fluency) and a much higher rate of general neglect of the issue of population diversity in study design and reporting. Conclusions While there are many positive statements of policy intent in relation to immigrant and refugee communities in national mental health policies and strategies there is virtually no reporting by Commonwealth or State and Territory governments of whether policies that are relevant to immigrant and refugee communities are effectively implemented. It is not possible, on the basis of the data collected, to determine whether immigrant and refugee communities are benefiting from the mental health system reforms that are being actively carried out. The majority of Australian mental health research does not adequately include immigrant and refugee samples. On the basis of the findings of this study eight strategies have been recommended that will contribute to the development of a culture of inclusion of all Australians in the national mental health research enterprise. PMID:24093216

Community health workers and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: an opportunity for a research, advocacy, and policy agenda.

PubMed

Shah, Megha K; Heisler, Michele; Davis, Matthew M

2014-02-01

Community health workers (CHWs), who have been shown to be effective in multiple roles in the provision of culturally appropriate health care in a variety of settings, have the potential to be important members of an interdisciplinary health care team. Recent efforts have started to explore how best to integrate CHWs into the health system. However, to date, there has been limited policy guidance, support, or evidence on how best to achieve this on a larger scale. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), through several provisions, provides a unique opportunity to create a unified framework for workforce integration and wider utilization of CHWs. This review identifies four major opportunities to further the research, advocacy, and policy agenda for CHWs.

Comparative Planetology - Atmospheres and Aeronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huestis, D. L.

2006-05-01

The Earth, planets, moons, comets, and other small bodies in the solar system are quite diverse, yet share a number of characteristics. Each has something to teach us about the others and about the extrasolar planets we are now discovering. Having multiple examples of similar phenomena under different local conditions provides the best means of identifying the underlying mechanisms and of quantitative testing of our understanding. This special session is one of a sequence of events attempting to define and document the comparative planetology vision and provide specific recommendations for actions by the research community and the funding agencies. This presentation will summarize the progress so far and solicit additional ideas and suggestions from the research community, with an emphasis on the atmosphere and aeronomy of the Earth, planets, moons, and comets in the solar system.

Prevalence of pediatric epilepsy in low-income rural Midwestern counties.

PubMed

Hawley, Suzanne R; Ablah, Elizabeth; Hesdorffer, Dale; Pellock, John M; Lindeman, David P; Paschal, Angelia M; Thurman, David J; Liu, Yi; Warren, Mary Beth; Schmitz, Terri; Rogers, Austin; St Romain, Theresa; Hauser, W Allen

2015-12-01

Epilepsy is one of the most common disabling neurological disorders, but significant gaps exist in our knowledge about childhood epilepsy in rural populations. The present study assessed the prevalence of pediatric epilepsy in nine low-income rural counties in the Midwestern United States overall and by gender, age, etiology, seizure type, and syndrome. Multiple sources of case identification were used, including medical records, schools, community agencies, and family interviews. The prevalence of active epilepsy was 5.0/1000. Prevalence was 5.1/1000 in males and 5.0/1000 in females. Differences by age group and gender were not statistically significant. Future research should focus on methods of increasing study participation in rural communities, particularly those in which research studies are rare. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

CATCH/IT: a data warehouse to support comprehensive assessment for tracking community health.

PubMed Central

Berndt, D. J.; Hevner, A. R.; Studnicki, J.

1998-01-01

A systematic methodology, Comprehensive Assessment for Tracking Community Health (CATCH), for analyzing the health status of communities has been under development at the University of South Florida since the early 1990s. CATCH draws 226 health status indicators from multiple data sources and uses an innovative comparative framework and weighted evaluation criteria to produce a rank-ordered list of community health problems. CATCH has been applied successfully in many Florida counties; focusing attention on high priority health issues and measuring the impact of health expenditures on community health status outcomes. Previously performed manually, we are using information technology (IT) to automate the CATCH methodology with a full-scale data warehouse, user-friendly forms and reports, and extended analysis and data mining capabilities. The automated system, CATCH/IT, will reduce the time to prepare community health status reports from months to days. In this paper, we present the current status of the project, along with the principal research and development issues and future directions of the project. PMID:9929220

CATCH/IT: a data warehouse to support comprehensive assessment for tracking community health.

PubMed

Berndt, D J; Hevner, A R; Studnicki, J

1998-01-01

A systematic methodology, Comprehensive Assessment for Tracking Community Health (CATCH), for analyzing the health status of communities has been under development at the University of South Florida since the early 1990s. CATCH draws 226 health status indicators from multiple data sources and uses an innovative comparative framework and weighted evaluation criteria to produce a rank-ordered list of community health problems. CATCH has been applied successfully in many Florida counties; focusing attention on high priority health issues and measuring the impact of health expenditures on community health status outcomes. Previously performed manually, we are using information technology (IT) to automate the CATCH methodology with a full-scale data warehouse, user-friendly forms and reports, and extended analysis and data mining capabilities. The automated system, CATCH/IT, will reduce the time to prepare community health status reports from months to days. In this paper, we present the current status of the project, along with the principal research and development issues and future directions of the project.

An efficient semi-supervised community detection framework in social networks.

PubMed

Li, Zhen; Gong, Yong; Pan, Zhisong; Hu, Guyu

2017-01-01

Community detection is an important tasks across a number of research fields including social science, biology, and physics. In the real world, topology information alone is often inadequate to accurately find out community structure due to its sparsity and noise. The potential useful prior information such as pairwise constraints which contain must-link and cannot-link constraints can be obtained from domain knowledge in many applications. Thus, combining network topology with prior information to improve the community detection accuracy is promising. Previous methods mainly utilize the must-link constraints while cannot make full use of cannot-link constraints. In this paper, we propose a semi-supervised community detection framework which can effectively incorporate two types of pairwise constraints into the detection process. Particularly, must-link and cannot-link constraints are represented as positive and negative links, and we encode them by adding different graph regularization terms to penalize closeness of the nodes. Experiments on multiple real-world datasets show that the proposed framework significantly improves the accuracy of community detection.

A community-based hip-hop dance program for youth in a disadvantaged community in Ottawa: implementation findings.

PubMed

Beaulac, Julie; Olavarria, Marcela; Kristjansson, Elizabeth

2010-05-01

Participation in physical activity is important for the positive development and well-being of youth. A community- academic partnership was formed to improve access to physical activity for youth in one disadvantaged community in Ottawa, Canada. After consulting this community, a new hip-hop dance intervention was implemented. Adolescents aged 11 to 16 years participated in one of two 3-month sessions. A girls-only and a boys-and-girls format were offered both sessions. This article investigates the implementation of the intervention from the perspective of the youth participants, parents, staff, and researchers. Multiple methods were used, including document review, observation, questionnaire, focus groups, and interviews. Overall, the consistency and quality of program implementation were moderately satisfactory; however, important concerns were noted and this program appeared to be only partially delivered as planned. These findings will be discussed in terms of suggestions for improving the implementation of this intervention and similar recreation programs prioritizing disadvantaged communities.

Collective credit allocation in science

PubMed Central

Shen, Hua-Wei; Barabási, Albert-László

2014-01-01

Collaboration among researchers is an essential component of the modern scientific enterprise, playing a particularly important role in multidisciplinary research. However, we continue to wrestle with allocating credit to the coauthors of publications with multiple authors, because the relative contribution of each author is difficult to determine. At the same time, the scientific community runs an informal field-dependent credit allocation process that assigns credit in a collective fashion to each work. Here we develop a credit allocation algorithm that captures the coauthors’ contribution to a publication as perceived by the scientific community, reproducing the informal collective credit allocation of science. We validate the method by identifying the authors of Nobel-winning papers that are credited for the discovery, independent of their positions in the author list. The method can also compare the relative impact of researchers working in the same field, even if they did not publish together. The ability to accurately measure the relative credit of researchers could affect many aspects of credit allocation in science, potentially impacting hiring, funding, and promotion decisions. PMID:25114238

Cultural relevance of a fruit and vegetable food frequency questionnaire.

PubMed

Paisley, Judy; Greenberg, Marlene; Haines, Jess

2005-01-01

Canada's multicultural population poses challenges for culturally competent nutrition research and practice. In this qualitative study, the cultural relevance of a widely used semi-quantitative fruit and vegetable food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was examined among convenience samples of adults from Toronto's Cantonese-, Mandarin-, Portuguese-, and Vietnamese-speaking communities. Eighty-nine participants were recruited through community-based organizations, programs, and advertisements to participate in semi-structured interviews moderated in their native language. Data from the interviews were translated into English and transcribed for analysis using the constant comparative approach. Four main themes emerged from the analysis: the cultural relevance of the foods listed on the FFQ, words with multiple meanings, the need for culturally appropriate portion-size prompts, and the telephone survey as a Western concept. This research highlights the importance of investing resources to develop culturally relevant dietary assessment tools that ensure dietary assessment accuracy and, more important, reduce ethnocentric biases in food and nutrition research and practice. The transferability of findings must be established through further research.

Intimate partner, familial and community violence among men who have sex with men in Namibia

PubMed Central

Stephenson, Rob; Hast, Marisa; Finneran, Catherine; Sineath, Craig R.

2015-01-01

Men who have sex with men in sub-Saharan Africa are known to experience high levels of violence, yet little research has focused on their perceptions of intimate partner violence (IPV). This study examines the perceived typologies and sources of multiple forms of violence, including IPV, family/community violence and discrimination from healthcare workers, among men who have sex with men in Namibia. Focus-group discussions and in-depth interviews were conducted with a 52 men residing in five cities across Namibia. Results indicate that violence, in varying forms, is commonplace in the lives of men who have sex with men in this community, and may be associated with HIV testing patterns. PMID:24735113

Research misconduct: a grand global challenge for the 21st Century.

PubMed

Farthing, Michael J G

2014-03-01

Research misconduct is now acknowledged to be an important global issue for both researchers and the wider community. Guidance on the responsible conduct of research is now widespread, but many are still concerned by the apparent rising tide of serious cases of research misconduct, and perhaps the more worrying widespread presence of questionable research practices. I would suggest that guidance and training, while essential, are not sufficient. Additional interventions, including enhanced monitoring of research outputs and random audit using the available technology should be considered, as should the desirability of having a register of "licensed researchers." In addition, I would support a culture change in the research community in which researchers are encouraged to admit their mistakes; this should be accompanied by a spirit of forgiveness and programmed rehabilitation for the individual concerned. For multiple "premier league" offenders who are reluctant to face their misdemeanors, it is difficult to see how they could continue in the role of a researcher, and their "registration" should be revoked. Research is increasingly undertaken by researchers who cross national boundaries. The globalization of research demands greater collaboration between organizations that are responsible for ensuring standards of research integrity; the need for international standards and guidance has never been greater. © 2013 Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Foundation and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Psychosocial stress and asthma morbidity.

PubMed

Yonas, Michael A; Lange, Nancy E; Celedón, Juan C

2012-04-01

The objective of this review is to provide an overview and discussion of recent epidemiologic and mechanistic studies of stress in relation to asthma incidence and morbidity. Recent findings suggest that stress, whether at the individual (i.e. epigenetics, perceived stress), family (i.e. prenatal maternal stress, early-life exposure, or intimate partner violence) or community (i.e. neighborhood violence; neighborhood disadvantage) level, influences asthma and asthma morbidity. Key recent findings regarding how psychosocial stress may influence asthma through Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, prenatal and postnatal maternal/caregiver stress, and community violence and deprivation are highlighted. New research illustrates the need to further examine, characterize, and address the influence of social and environmental factors (i.e. psychological stress) on asthma. Further, research and innovative methodologies are needed to characterize the relationship and pathways associated with stress at multiple levels to more fully understand and address asthma morbidity, and to design potential interventions, especially to address persistent disparities in asthma in ethnic minorities and economically disadvantaged communities.

Developing a community based service model for disability: Listening to the needs of all beneficiaries and providers.

PubMed

Collins, Katrina

2017-12-11

To inform the strategic and operational development of a community based service model at the Crann Centre, Cork, Ireland for SB children, adults, their families and providers. A needs assessment was conducted by gathering the views of multiple stakeholder perspectives within the SB community in the geographical region the Centre will serve. The intention is to create project deliverables that are responsive to the needs highlighted through this research. The study used a multi method design with a participatory research approach to explore the needs of SB individuals, families and providers. This involved in depth interviews, focus groups and online surveys. One hundred and fifty-nine respondents contributed to this qualitative needs assessment. The research established a range of psychosocial, clinical, vocational and educational issues causing ongoing difficulties for SB individuals and families. Providers highlighted supports that would benefit the social and clinical wellbeing of persons with SB. Collectively participants in the study reported that there was an absence of coordinated, continuous and comprehensive service delivery for the SB community in the region. This was amplified by geographical location of services and access to relevant supports. Consensus across stakeholders in this research pointed to the necessity for an innovative model of community based provision at the Crann Centre. This was described as offering a service with family at the core of an assets based model of practice. A key finding was the lack of importance placed on the social and emotional development of SB individuals. Traditionally participants described a singular focus on physical health through clinically defined treatment models. The desire for a social model of disability that informed health and wellbeing of SB individuals and families emerged as a prominent recommendation from the research.

Community Stakeholders’ Perceptions of Barriers to Childhood Obesity Prevention in Low-Income Families, Massachusetts 2012–2013

PubMed Central

Chuang, Emmeline; Aftosmes-Tobio, Alyssa; Blaine, Rachel E.; Giannetti, Mary; Land, Thomas; Davison, Kirsten K.

2015-01-01

Introduction The etiology of childhood obesity is multidimensional and includes individual, familial, organizational, and societal factors. Policymakers and researchers are promoting social–ecological approaches to obesity prevention that encompass multiple community sectors. Programs that successfully engage low-income families in making healthy choices are greatly needed, yet little is known about the extent to which stakeholders understand the complexity of barriers encountered by families. The objective of this study was to contextually frame barriers faced by low-income families reported by community stakeholders by using the Family Ecological Model (FEM). Methods From 2012 through 2013, we conducted semistructured interviews with 39 stakeholders from 2 communities in Massachusetts that were participating in a multisector intervention for childhood obesity prevention. Stakeholders represented schools; afterschool programs; health care; the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children; and early care and education. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, coded, and summarized. Results Stakeholder reports of the barriers experienced by low-income families had a strong degree of overlap with FEM and reflected awareness of the broader contextual factors (eg, availability of community resources, family culture, education) and social and emotional dynamics within families (eg, parent knowledge, social norms, distrust of health care providers, chronic life stressors) that could affect family adoption of healthy lifestyle behaviors. Furthermore, results illustrated a level of consistency in stakeholder awareness across multiple community sectors. Conclusion The congruity of stakeholder perspectives with those of low-income parents as summarized in FEM and across community sectors illustrates potential for synergizing the efforts necessary for multisector, multilevel community interventions for the prevention of childhood obesity. PMID:25811497

Examination of community and consumer nutrition, tobacco and physical activity environments at food and tobacco retail stores in three diverse North Carolina communities

PubMed Central

D'Angelo, Heather; Evenson, Kelly R.; Rose, Shyanika W.; Fleischhacker, Sheila; Myers, Allison E.; Ribisl, Kurt M.

2015-01-01

To advance our understanding of multiple health-related dimensions of the built environment, this study examined associations among nutrition, tobacco, and physical activity community and consumer environments. Community environment measures included supermarket access, tobacco outlet density, and physical activity resource density in store neighborhoods. Cross-sectional observations of the nutrition, tobacco and physical activity environments were conducted in 2011 at and around 303 food stores that sold tobacco products in three North Carolina counties. Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple linear regression were used to examine associations between community and consumer environments. Correlations between community nutrition, tobacco, and physical activity environments ranged from slight to fair (− 0.35 to 0.20) and from poor to fair (− 0.01 to − 0.38) between consumer environments. Significant relationships between consumer tobacco and nutrition environments were found after controlling for store and neighborhood characteristics. For example, stores with higher amounts of interior tobacco marketing had higher healthy food availability (p = 0.001), while stores with higher amounts of exterior tobacco marketing had lower healthy food availability (p = 0.02). Community and consumer environments for nutrition, tobacco, and physical activity were interrelated. Measures that assess single aspects of community or consumer environments could miss characteristics that may influence customer purchasing. Even chain supermarkets, typically regarded as healthful food sources compared to smaller food stores, may expose customers to tobacco marketing inside. Future research could explore combining efforts to reduce obesity and tobacco use by addressing tobacco marketing, healthy food availability and physical activity opportunities at retail food outlets. PMID:26516620

Evaluation of a shared-work program for reducing assistance provided to supported workers with severe multiple disabilities.

PubMed

Parsons, Marsha B; Reid, Dennis H; Green, Carolyn W; Browning, Leah B; Hensley, Mary B

2002-01-01

Concern has been expressed recently regarding the need to enhance the performance of individuals with highly significant disabilities in community-based, supported jobs. We evaluated a shared-work program for reducing job coach assistance provided to three workers with severe multiple disabilities in a publishing company. Following systematic observations of the assistance provided as each worker worked on entire job tasks, steps comprising the tasks were then re-assigned across workers. The re-assignment involved assigning each worker only those task steps for which the respective worker received the least amount of assistance (e.g., re-assigning steps that a worker could not complete due to physical disabilities), and ensuring the entire tasks were still completed by combining steps performed by all three workers. The shared-work program was accompanied by reductions in job coach assistance provided to each worker. Work productivity of the supported workers initially decreased but then increased to a level equivalent to the higher ranges of baseline productivity. These results suggested that the shared-work program appears to represent a viable means of enhancing supported work performance of people with severe multiple disabilities in some types of community jobs. Future research needs discussed focus on evaluating shared-work approaches with other jobs, and developing additional community work models specifically for people with highly significant disabilities.

"I'm Making It Different to the Book": Transmediation in Young Children's Multimodal and Digital Texts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mills, Kathy

2011-01-01

Young children shift meanings across multiple modes long before they have mastered formal writing skills. In a digital age, children are socialised into a wide range of new digital media conventions in the home, at school, and in community-based settings. This article draws on longitudinal classroom research with a culturally diverse cohort of…

The Evolution of Flagship Universities: From the Traditional to the New. Research & Occasional Paper Series: CSHE.11.16

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Douglass, John Aubrey

2016-01-01

In the face of the dominant World Class University rhetoric and ranking paradigm, most academic leaders and their academic communities have had difficulty conceptualizing and articulating their grander purpose and multiple engagements with society. Some seem to wait for the next ministerial edict to help or push them toward greater societal…

Somali Adolescents' Negotiation of Religious and Racial Bias in and out of School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bigelow, Martha

2008-01-01

This article explores the issues of race and religion as they pertain to adolescent Somali immigrants and their lives at school, among their families, and in their communities. Research from a number of contexts offers a range of perceptions, held by Somali youth and adults, not commonly available in the media. Multiple suggestions are offered to…

CARBON AND NUTRIENT FLOW THROUGH MULTIPLE TROPHIC LEVELS IN A CO2-ENRICHED SOUTHERN PINE FOREST COMMUNITY - FINAL TECHNICAL REPORT

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The ability to predict the consequences of global change is predicated on our understanding of controls of energy and material flows through ecosystems. Research was conducted at the Forest Atmosphere CO2 Transfer and Storage-1 (FACTS-1) site at Duke University. This is a flagship experiment of the ...

The Relationship between High Stakes Information and the Community Cultural Wealth Model Perspective: Lessons from Milwaukee and Beyond

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooper, Robert; Liou, Daniel; Antrop-González, René

2010-01-01

In high schools throughout the U.S., the disparity in academic achievement between students in urban and suburban schools continues to widen. The achievement gap is exacerbated when race and socioeconomic class are considered. Research continues to document the multiplicity of factors that contribute to the success and failure of students within…

Utilization of the Seniors Falls Investigation Methodology to Identify System-Wide Causes of Falls in Community-Dwelling Seniors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zecevic, Aleksandra A.; Salmoni, Alan W.; Lewko, John H.; Vandervoort, Anthoney A.; Speechley, Mark

2009-01-01

Purpose: As a highly heterogeneous group, seniors live in complex environments influenced by multiple physical and social structures that affect their safety. Until now, the major approach to falls research has been person centered. However, in industrial settings, the individuals involved in an accident are seen as the inheritors of system…

Value co-creation in healthcare through positive deviance.

PubMed

Zanetti, Cole Anthony; Taylor, Natalie

2016-12-01

To explore how converging fields of co-creation and positive deviance may increase value in healthcare. Informed by research in positive deviance, patient engagement, value co-creation, and quality improvement, we propose a positive deviance approach to co-creation of health. Co-creation has shown to improve health outcomes with regard to multiple health conditions. Positive deviance has also shown to improve outcomes in multiple healthcare and patient community environments. A positive deviance co-creation framework may aid in achieving improved outcomes for patients, care teams and their respective healthcare organizations. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Is the Alma Ata vision of comprehensive primary health care viable? Findings from an international project.

PubMed

Labonté, Ronald; Sanders, David; Packer, Corinne; Schaay, Nikki

2014-01-01

The 4-year (2007-2011) Revitalizing Health for All international research program (http://www.globalhealthequity.ca/projects/proj_revitalizing/index.shtml) supported 20 research teams located in 15 low- and middle-income countries to explore the strengths and weaknesses of comprehensive primary health care (CPHC) initiatives at their local or national levels. Teams were organized in a triad comprised of a senior researcher, a new researcher, and a 'research user' from government, health services, or other organizations with the authority or capacity to apply the research findings. Multiple regional and global team capacity-enhancement meetings were organized to refine methods and to discuss and assess cross-case findings. Most research projects used mixed methods, incorporating analyses of qualitative data (interviews and focus groups), secondary data, and key policy and program documents. Some incorporated historical case study analyses, and a few undertook new surveys. The synthesis of findings in this report was derived through qualitative analysis of final project reports undertaken by three different reviewers. Evidence of comprehensiveness (defined in this research program as efforts to improve equity in access, community empowerment and participation, social and environmental health determinants, and intersectoral action) was found in many of the cases. Despite the important contextual differences amongst the different country studies, the similarity of many of their findings, often generated using mixed methods, attests to certain transferable health systems characteristics to create and sustain CPHC practices. These include:1. Well-trained and supported community health workers (CHWs) able to work effectively with marginalized communities2. Effective mechanisms for community participation, both informal (through participation in projects and programs, and meaningful consultation) and formal (though program management structures)3. Co-partnership models in program and policy development (in which financial and knowledge supports from governments or institutions are provided to communities, which retain decision-making powers in program design and implementation)4. Support for community advocacy and engagement in health and social systems decision makingThese characteristics, in turn, require a political context that supports state responsibilities for redistributive health and social protection measures.

Collaborative community hazard exposure mapping: Distant Early Warning radar sites in Alaska's North Slope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brady, M.

2015-12-01

A method to produce hazard exposure maps that are developed in collaboration with local coastal communities is the focus of this research. Typically efforts to map community exposure to climate threats over large areas have limited consideration of local perspectives about associated risks, constraining their utility for local management. This problem is especially acute in remote locations such as the Arctic where there are unique vulnerabilities to coastal threats that can be fully understood only through inclusion of community stakeholders. Through collaboration with community members, this study identifies important coastal assets and places and surveys local perspectives of exposure to climate threats along Alaska's vast North Slope coastline spanning multiple municipalities. To model physical exposure, the study adapts the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) coastal vulnerability index (CVI) to the Arctic context by incorporating the effects of open water distance determined by sea ice extent, and assigning CVI values to coastal assets and places according to direction and proximity. The study found that in addition to concerns about exposed municipal and industrial assets, North Slope communities viewed exposure of traditional activity sites as presenting a particular risk for communities. Highly exposed legacy Cold War Distant Early Warning Line sites are of particular concern with impacts ranging from financial risk to contamination of sensitive coastal marine environments. This research demonstrates a method to collaboratively map community exposure to coastal climate threats to better understand local risks and produce locally usable exposure maps.

Common Data Format: New XML and Conversion Tools

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, D. B.; Liu, M. H.; McGuire, R. E.

2002-12-01

Common Data Format (CDF) is a self-describing platform-independent data format for storing, accessing, and manipulating scalar and multidimensional scientific data sets. Significant benefit has accrued to specific science communities from their use of standard formats within those communities. Examples include the International Solar Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) community in using CDF for traditional space physics data (fields, particles and plasma, waves, and images), the worldwide astronomical community in using FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) for solar data (primarily spectral images), the NASA Planetary community in using Planetary Data System (PDS) Labels, and the earth science community in using Hierarchical Data Format (HDF). Scientific progress in solar-terrestrial physics continues to be impeded by the multiplicity of available standards for data formats and dearth of general data format translators. As a result, scientists today spend a significant amount of time translating data into the format they are familiar with for their research. To minimize this unnecessary data translation time and to allow more research time, the CDF office located at GSFC National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) has developed HDF-to-CDF and FITS-to-CDF translators, and employed the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) technology to facilitate and promote data interoperability within the space science community. We will present the current status of the CDF work including the conversion tools that have been recently developed, conversion tools that are planned in the near future, share some of the XML experiences, and use the discussion to gain community feedback to our planned future work.

Conflicting Community Commitments: A Dialogical Analysis of a British Woman's World War II Diaries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gillespie, Alex; Cornish, Flora; Aveling, Emma-Louise; Zittoun, Tania

2008-01-01

Recent developments of the concept of "sense of community" have highlighted the multiplicity of people's senses of community. In this article, the authors introduce the theory of the dialogical self as a means of theorizing the conflicts that can arise between a person's commitments to multiple communities. They ask the question,…

The long arm of community: the influence of childhood community contexts across the early life course.

PubMed

Wickrama, K A S; Noh, Samuel

2010-08-01

This study examines the longitudinal effects of childhood community contexts on young adult outcomes. The study uses a sample of 14,000 adolescents (52% female) derived from the 1990 US Census and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Addhealth). The study examines whether community and family environments exert separate and/or joint long-term influences on young adult achievement and depression. We found both direct and indirect long-term influences of childhood community adversity on young adult educational attainment. The indirect influences of childhood community adversity operated through family and individual-level factors. The long-term influence of childhood community adversity on young adult depression was only indirect. Overall, community influences on young adult achievement outcomes were mediated by family context and by the adolescents' adjustments and transitions, including adolescent depression, school adjustment, and disruptive transitional events. The moderating effect of childhood community adversity suggests that the protective effects of family resources on young adult outcomes dissipate significantly in extremely adverse neighborhoods. The findings demonstrate the importance of integrating multiple theoretical perspectives for longitudinal research to capture pathways of community influence on adolescent developmental and young adulthood outcomes.

Ethical issues in perinatal mental health research.

PubMed

Brandon, Anna R; Shivakumar, Geetha; Lee, Simon Craddock; Inrig, Stephen J; Sadler, John Z

2009-11-01

To review the background of current ethical standards for the conduct of perinatal mental health research and describe the ethical challenges in this research domain. Current literature reflects a growing sentiment in the scientific community that having no information regarding the impact of psychiatric treatment on the mother and developing fetus/infant poses dangers that may exceed the risks involved in research. However, without sufficient consensus across the scientific community, both regulatory bodies and perinatal researchers find themselves without a framework for decision making that satisfactorily limits the risks and facilitates the benefits of participation of pregnant and lactating women in clinical research. Psychiatric research in perinatal mental health is critically important as it enables clinicians and patients to participate in informed decision-making concerning treatment for psychiatric disorders. Specific areas of concern include fetal safety, maternal risk, the therapeutic misconception, commercial interests, forensic/legal issues, the informed consent process, and study design. Developing guidelines that address ethical challenges and include the views and concerns of multiple stakeholders could improve the access of perinatal women to the benefits of participation in mental health research in addition to providing evidence-based mental healthcare for this subpopulation.

Expanding the Horizon: A Journey to Explore and Share Effective Geoscience Research Experiences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bolman, J.

2013-12-01

The Indian Natural Resource Science and Engineering Program (INRSEP) has worked diligently over the past 40 + years to ensure the success of Tribal, Indigenous and Underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students in geoscience and natural resources fields of study. Central to this success has been the development of cultural relevant research opportunities directed by Tribal people. The research experiences have been initiated to address culturally relevant challenges on Tribal and non-Tribal lands. It has become critically important to ensure students have multiple research experiences across North America as well as throughout the continent. The INRSEP community has found creating and maintaining relationships with organizations like the Geoscience Alliance, Minorities Striving and Pursuing Higher Degrees of Success (MSPHD's) and the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program has greatly improved the success of students matriculating to graduate STEM programs. These relationships also serve an immense capacity in tracking students, promoting best practices in research development and assessing outcomes. The presentation will highlight lessons learned on how to 1) Develop a diverse cohort or 'community' of student researchers; 2) Evolve intergenerational mentoring processes and outcomes; 3) Tether to related research and programs; and Foster the broader impact of geoscience research and outcomes.

Experimental strategies to assess the biological ramifications of multiple drivers of global ocean change-A review.

PubMed

Boyd, Philip W; Collins, Sinead; Dupont, Sam; Fabricius, Katharina; Gattuso, Jean-Pierre; Havenhand, Jonathan; Hutchins, David A; Riebesell, Ulf; Rintoul, Max S; Vichi, Marcello; Biswas, Haimanti; Ciotti, Aurea; Gao, Kunshan; Gehlen, Marion; Hurd, Catriona L; Kurihara, Haruko; McGraw, Christina M; Navarro, Jorge M; Nilsson, Göran E; Passow, Uta; Pörtner, Hans-Otto

2018-06-01

Marine life is controlled by multiple physical and chemical drivers and by diverse ecological processes. Many of these oceanic properties are being altered by climate change and other anthropogenic pressures. Hence, identifying the influences of multifaceted ocean change, from local to global scales, is a complex task. To guide policy-making and make projections of the future of the marine biosphere, it is essential to understand biological responses at physiological, evolutionary and ecological levels. Here, we contrast and compare different approaches to multiple driver experiments that aim to elucidate biological responses to a complex matrix of ocean global change. We present the benefits and the challenges of each approach with a focus on marine research, and guidelines to navigate through these different categories to help identify strategies that might best address research questions in fundamental physiology, experimental evolutionary biology and community ecology. Our review reveals that the field of multiple driver research is being pulled in complementary directions: the need for reductionist approaches to obtain process-oriented, mechanistic understanding and a requirement to quantify responses to projected future scenarios of ocean change. We conclude the review with recommendations on how best to align different experimental approaches to contribute fundamental information needed for science-based policy formulation. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Social determinants of health among African Americans in a rural community in the Deep South: an ecological exploration.

PubMed

Scott, A J; Wilson, R F

2011-01-01

African Americans living in rural USA experience multiple health disparities as a result of both race and rural geography. An increasing literature suggests that social determinants of health, the social contexts in which people live their lives, are key contributors to these health disparities. Ecological theory provides a valuable conceptual framework for exploring social determinants of health in communities, but few US rural health community-based studies have utilized this approach, or engaged ecological theory to explore rural contexts. This exploratory study blended a community-based, qualitative approach with ecological theory with the objective of identifying potential social determinants of health among African Americans in a rural community in the Deep South, from the perspectives of participants. In-depth interviews were conducted with rural, Deep South African Americans participants who were purposefully sampled to incorporate a range of perspectives. Interview guides structured around five ecological levels (individual, relational, environmental, structural, and superstructural) were used to frame interviews. Iterative content analysis of interview transcripts and field notes identified potential social determinants of health. An 'editing' approach to content analysis was used. Data and analysis quality was tested by triangulation at the level of the researcher, and by member checking with community members. Potential determinants of health were identified at all five levels of the ecological framework. At the individual level, lack of engagement with personal health and health promotion was a recurring theme. Participation in preventive health activities and education was minimal, even when offered in community settings. At the relational level, lack of social capital emerged as another potential social determinant of health, with estrangement between the younger and elder generations as one source, and fractiousness among churches (key institutions in the community) representing another. At the environmental level, the community built environment was an area of concern as it lacked opportunities for physical activity and access to healthy foods. The local job environment was identified as a potential social determinant of health, given the strong ties between income and health. At the structural level, participants complained of cronyism and nepotism favoring Whites in access to jobs, including those where local policies and funding allocations were made (eg funding for the local health department). In education, school system tracking policies were perceived to discourage African Americans from university education. At the superstructural level, high rates of poverty and racism emerged as potential social determinants. Poverty directly limited many African Americans' access to quality health care, and subtle racism was perceived in some delivery of care. Persistent stress from poverty and racism was reported, which creates health risks through physiologic pathways. This study identified potential social determinants of health, at multiple ecological levels, among African Americans in a rural community in the Deep South. The social determinants identified had the ability to impact a variety of health behaviors and health outcomes. The results demonstrate the value of this approach to conducting rural, community-based research. This descriptive and exploratory study highlights the need for quantitative exploration of these issues, as well as the development of context-appropriate, community-based health interventions that address multiple ecological levels.

Collaborative depression care: history, evolution and ways to enhance dissemination and sustainability.

PubMed

Katon, Wayne; Unützer, Jürgen; Wells, Kenneth; Jones, Loretta

2010-01-01

To describe the history and evolution of the collaborative depression care model and new research aimed at enhancing dissemination. Four keynote speakers from the 2009 NIMH Annual Mental Health Services Meeting collaborated in this article in order to describe the history and evolution of collaborative depression care, adaptation of collaborative care to new populations and medical settings, and optimal ways to enhance dissemination of this model. Extensive evidence across 37 randomized trials has shown the effectiveness of collaborative care vs. usual primary care in enhancing quality of depression care and in improving depressive outcomes for up to 2 to 5 years. Collaborative care is currently being disseminated in large health care organizations such as the Veterans Administration and Kaiser Permanente, as well as in fee-for-services systems and federally funded clinic systems of care in multiple states. New adaptations of collaborative care are being tested in pediatric and ob-gyn populations as well as in populations of patients with multiple comorbid medical illnesses. New NIMH-funded research is also testing community-based participatory research approaches to collaborative care to attempt to decrease disparities of care in underserved minority populations. Collaborative depression care has extensive research supporting the effectiveness of this model. New research and demonstration projects have focused on adapting this model to new populations and medical settings and on studying ways to optimally disseminate this approach to care, including developing financial models to incentivize dissemination and partnerships with community populations to enhance sustainability and to decrease disparities in quality of mental health care. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Conducting health survey research in a deep rural South African community: challenges and adaptive strategies

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background In many parts of the developing world, rural health requires focused policy attention, informed by reliable, representative health data. Yet there is surprisingly little published material to guide health researchers who face the unique set of hurdles associated with conducting field research in remote rural areas. Methods In this paper we provide a detailed description of the key challenges encountered during health survey field research carried out in 2010 in a deep rural site in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The aim of the field research was to collect data on the health of children aged 10 to 17 years old, and their primary adult caregivers, as part of a larger national health survey; the research was a collaboration between several South African and foreign universities, South African national government departments, and various NGO partners. In presenting each of the four fieldwork challenges encountered on this site, we describe the initial planning decisions made, the difficulties faced when implementing these in the field, and the adaptive strategies we used to respond to these challenges. We reflect on learnings of potential relevance for the research community. Results Our four key fieldwork challenges were scarce research capacity, staff relocation tensions, logistical constraints, and difficulties related to community buy-in. Addressing each of these obstacles required timely assessment of the situation and adaptation of field plans, in collaboration with our local NGO partner. Adaptive strategies included a greater use of local knowledge; the adoption of tribal authority boundaries as the smallest geopolitical units for sampling; a creative developmental approach to capacity building; and planned, on-going engagement with multiple community representatives. Conclusions We argue that in order to maintain high scientific standards of research and manage to ‘get the job done’ on the ground, it is necessary to respond to fieldwork challenges that arise as a cohesive team, with timely, locally-relevant, and often creative, solutions. Budgeting sufficient time and project resources for capacity building and community buy-in processes is also essential when working in remote communities unaccustomed to research. Documenting and sharing field experiences can provide valuable information for other researchers planning to conduct fieldwork in similar contexts. PMID:23618363

Relationships between reef fish communities and remotely sensed rugosity measurements in Biscayne National Park, Florida, USA

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kuffner, Ilsa B.; Brock, John C.; Grober-Dunsmore, Rikki; Bonito, Victor E.; Hickey, T. Donald; Wright, C. Wayne

2007-01-01

The realization that coral reef ecosystem management must occur across multiple spatial scales and habitat types has led scientists and resource managers to seek variables that are easily measured over large areas and correlate well with reef resources. Here we investigate the utility of new technology in airborne laser surveying (NASA Experimental Advanced Airborne Research Lidar (EAARL)) in assessing topographical complexity (rugosity) to predict reef fish community structure on shallow (n = 10–13 per reef). Rugosity at each station was assessed in situ by divers using the traditional chain-transect method (10-m scale), and remotely using the EAARL submarine topography data at multiple spatial scales (2, 5, and 10 m). The rugosity and biological datasets were analyzed together to elucidate the predictive power of EAARL rugosity in describing the variance in reef fish community variables and to assess the correlation between chain-transect and EAARL rugosity. EAARL rugosity was not well correlated with chain-transect rugosity, or with species richness of fishes (although statistically significant, the amount of variance explained by the model was very low). Variance in reef fish community attributes was better explained in reef-by-reef variability than by physical variables. However, once the reef-by-reef variability was taken into account in a two-way analysis of variance, the importance of rugosity could be seen on individual reefs. Fish species richness and abundance were statistically higher at high rugosity stations compared to medium and low rugosity stations, as predicted by prior ecological research. The EAARL shows promise as an important mapping tool for reef resource managers as they strive to inventory and protect coral reef resources.

Community-Driven Support in the Hydrologic Sciences through Data, Education and Outreach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clark, E.

2015-12-01

The Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) is a non-profit funded by the National Science Foundation to support water science research and education. As outlined in the CUAHSI Education and Outreach Strategy, our objectives are: 1) helping the member institutions communicate water science; 2) cross-disciplinary water education; 3) dissemination of research; 4) place-based water education using data services; and 5) broadening participation. Through the CUAHSI Water Data Center, online tools and resources are available to discover, download, and analyze multiple time-series water datasets across various parameters. CUAHSI supports novel graduate student research through the Pathfinder Fellowship program which has enhanced the interdisciplinary breadth of early-career research. Public outreach through the Let's Talk About Water film symposium and cyberseminar programs have proven effective in distributing research, leading to more recent development of virtual training workshops. By refining and building upon CUAHSI's existing programs, new training opportunities, collaborative projects, and community-building activities for the hydrologic sciences have come to fruition, such as the recent National Flood Interoperability Experiment with the NOAA's National Water Center.

Community-Driven Support in the Hydrologic Sciences through Data, Education and Outreach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cox, P. R.

2014-12-01

The Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) is a non-profit funded by the National Science Foundation to support water science research and education. As outlined in the CUAHSI Education and Outreach Strategy, our objectives are: 1) helping the member institutions communicate water science; 2) cross-disciplinary water education; 3) dissemination of research; 4) place-based water education using data services; and 5) broadening participation. Through the CUAHSI Water Data Center, online tools and resources are available to discover, download, and analyze multiple time-series water datasets across various parameters. CUAHSI supports novel graduate student research through the Pathfinder Fellowship program which has enhanced the interdisciplinary breadth of early-career research. Public outreach through the Let's Talk About Water film symposium and cyberseminar programs have proven effective in distributing research, leading to more recent development of virtual training workshops. By refining and building upon CUAHSI's existing programs, new training opportunities, collaborative projects, and community-building activities for the hydrologic sciences have come to fruition, such as the recent National Flood Interoperability Experiment with the NOAA's National Water Center.

New linked data on research investments: scientific workforce, productivity, and public value

PubMed Central

Lane, Julia; Owen-Smith, Jason; Rosen, Rebecca; Weinberg, Bruce

2015-01-01

Longitudinal micro-data derived from transaction level information about wage and vendor payments made by federal grants on multiple U.S. campuses are being developed in a partnership involving researchers, university administrators, representatives of federal agencies, and others. This paper describes the UMETRICS data initiative that has been implemented under the auspices of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation. The resulting data set reflects an emerging conceptual framework for analyzing the process, products, and impact of research. It grows from and engages the work of a diverse and vibrant community. This paper situates the UMETRICS effort in the context of research evaluation and ongoing data infrastructure efforts in order to highlight its novel and valuable features. Refocusing data construction in this field around individuals, networks, and teams offers dramatic possibilities for data linkage, the evaluation of research investments, and the development of rigorous conceptual and empirical models. Two preliminary analyses of the scientific workforce and network approaches to characterizing scientific teams ground a discussion of future directions and a call for increased community engagement. PMID:26335785

Suicide and accidental death in Australia's rural farming communities: a review of the literature.

PubMed

Kennedy, Alison J; Maple, Myfanwy J; McKay, Kathy; Brumby, Susan A

2014-01-01

Australia's farmers constitute a heterogeneous group within the rural population. This literature review incorporates four broad areas: an understanding of farming communities, families and individuals and the contexts in which they live and work; an exploration of the challenges to morbidity and mortality that these communities face; a description of the patterns of suicide and accidental death in farming communities; and an outline of what is missing from the current body of research. Recommendations will be made on how these gaps may be addressed. In developing this comprehensive literature review, a snowballing and saturation approach was adopted. Initial search terms included suicid*, farm*, accident*, fatal*, death, sudden death, rural OR remote, Australia and NOT Australia. Databases searched included SCOPUS, PubMed, Proquest and SafetyLit; research from 1995 onwards was examined for relevance. Earlier seminal texts were also included. Reference lists of retrieved articles were searched and citations explored for further relevant research material. The primary focus was on Australian peer-reviewed research with supplementary grey literature. International material was used as examples. The literature variously describes farmers as members of both rural farming communities and farming families, and as individuals within an occupational classification. Within each of these classifications, there is evidence of the cumulative impact of a multiplicity of social, geographical and psychological factors relating to work, living and social arrangements that impact the health and wellbeing of Australia's farmers and their families, particularly accidental death and suicide. Research consistently demonstrates traumatic death to be at a greater rate than in the general Australian population, with reductions found more recently in some modes of farming-related accidental death. Patterns of accidental death and suicide are commonly linked to the changing shape of contemporary farming. Suicide rates are also frequently described in relation to lethality and accessibility of means. The limitations of suicide and accidental death data are considerable. While there is consistent reporting of heightened levels of risk for suicide and accidental death in farming communities the limitations of the research remain significant. There are substantial gaps in current knowledge, and the body of research to date lacks clarity, inclusiveness and contextual specificity. Absent from the literature is any investigation of the impact of these frequently preventable deaths on the families and communities in which they occur. Recommendations for future research are suggested.

Transdisciplinarity Within the North American Climate Change Mitigation Research Community, Specifically the Carbon Dioxide Capture, Transportation, Utilization and Storage Community

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carpenter, Steven Michael

This research investigates the existence of and potential challenges to the development of a transdisciplinary approach to the climate change mitigation technology research focusing on carbon dioxide capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) in North America. The unprecedented challenge of global climate change is one that invites a transdisciplinary approach. The challenge of climate change mitigation requires an understanding of multiple disciplines, as well as the role that complexity, post-normal or post-modern science, and uncertainty play in combining these various disciplines. This research followed the general discourse of transdisciplinarity as described by Klein (2014) and Augsburg (2016) which describe it as using transcendence, problem solving, and transgression to address wicked, complex societal problems, and as taught by California School of Transdisciplinarity, where the research focuses on sustainability in the age of post-normal science (Funtowicz & Ravetz, 1993). Through the use of electronic surveys and semi-structured interviews, members of the North American climate change mitigation research community shared their views and understanding of transdisciplinarity (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009). The data indicate that much of the research currently being conducted by members of the North American CCUS research community is in fact transdisciplinary. What is most intriguing is the manner in which researchers arrived at their current understanding of transdisciplinarity, which is in many cases without any foreknowledge or use of the term transdisciplinary. The data reveals that in many cases the researchers now understand that this transdisciplinary approach is borne out of personal beliefs or emotion, social or societal aspects, their educational process, the way in which they communicate, and in most cases, the CCUS research itself, that require this transdisciplinary approach, but had never thought about giving it a name or understanding its origin or dimensions. Much of this new knowledge has come from the analysis and understanding of the Tier 1, Tier 2 and Emergent traits of the transdisciplinarian.

Community interventions providing care and support to orphans and vulnerable children: a review of evaluation evidence.

PubMed

Schenk, Katie D

2009-07-01

Children affected by HIV in their families and communities face multiple risks to their health, education and psychosocial wellbeing. Community interventions for children who have been orphaned or rendered vulnerable take many forms, including educational assistance, home-based care, legal protection and psychosocial support. Despite a recent influx of funding for programme implementation, there exists little evidence to inform policymakers about whether their investments are improving the lives of vulnerable children and meeting key benchmarks including the Millennium Development Goals. This paper reviews the current evidence base on evaluations of community interventions for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in high HIV-prevalence African settings, focusing on studies' methodologies. Sources reviewed include published research studies and evidence from the unpublished programmatic "grey literature" located through database and internet searches. A total of 21 studies, varying in scope and generalisability, were identified. Interventions reviewed address children's wellbeing through various strategies within their communities. Evaluation methodologies reflect quantitative and qualitative approaches, including surveys (with and without baseline or comparison data), costing studies, focus groups, interviews, case studies, and participatory review techniques. Varied study methodologies reflect diverse research questions, various intervention types, and the challenges associated with evaluating complex interventions; highlighting the need to broaden the research paradigm in order to build the evidence base by including quasi-experimental and process evaluation approaches, and seeking further insights through participatory qualitative methodologies and costing studies. Although findings overall indicate the value of community interventions in effecting measurable improvements in child and family wellbeing, the quality and rigour of evidence is varied. A strategic research agenda is urgently needed to inform resource allocation and programme management decisions. Immediate imperatives include building local technical capacity to conduct quantitative and qualitative evaluation research, and strengthening monitoring and evaluation systems to collect process and outcome data (including costing) on key support models. Donors and implementers must support the collection of sound empirical evidence to inform the development and scale-up of OVC programmes.

Explainers' development of science-learner identities through participation in a community of practice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Richardson, Anne E.

The urgent environmental issues of today require science-literate adults to engage in business and political decisions to create solutions. Despite the need, few adults have the knowledge and skills of science literacy. This doctoral dissertation is an analytical case study examining the science-learner identity development of Exploratorium Field Trip Explainers. Located in San Francisco, CA, the Exploratorium is a museum of science, art, and human perception dedicated to nurturing curiosity and exploration. Data collected included semi-structured interviews with sixteen former Field Trip Explainers, participant observation of the current Field Trip Explainer Program, and review of relevant documentation. Data analysis employed constant comparative analysis, guided by the communities of practice theoretical framework (Wenger, 1998) and the National Research Council's (2009) Six Strands of Science Learning. Findings of this research indicate that Exploratorium Field Trip Explainers participate in a community of practice made up of a diverse group of people that values curiosity and openness to multiple ways of learning. Many participants entered the Field Trip Explainer Program with an understanding of science learning as a rigid process reserved for a select group of people; through participation in the Field Trip Explainer community of practice, participants developed an understanding of science learning as accessible and a part of everyday life. The findings of this case study have implications for research, theory, and practice in informal adult science learning, access of non-dominant groups to science learning, and adult workplace learning in communities of practice.

Leveraging geospatial data, technology, and methods for improving the health of communities: priorities and strategies from an expert panel convened by the CDC.

PubMed

Elmore, Kim; Flanagan, Barry; Jones, Nicholas F; Heitgerd, Janet L

2010-04-01

In 2008, CDC convened an expert panel to gather input on the use of geospatial science in surveillance, research and program activities focused on CDC's Healthy Communities Goal. The panel suggested six priorities: spatially enable and strengthen public health surveillance infrastructure; develop metrics for geospatial categorization of community health and health inequity; evaluate the feasibility and validity of standard metrics of community health and health inequities; support and develop GIScience and geospatial analysis; provide geospatial capacity building, training and education; and, engage non-traditional partners. Following the meeting, the strategies and action items suggested by the expert panel were reviewed by a CDC subcommittee to determine priorities relative to ongoing CDC geospatial activities, recognizing that many activities may need to occur either in parallel, or occur multiple times across phases. Phase A of the action items centers on developing leadership support. Phase B focuses on developing internal and external capacity in both physical (e.g., software and hardware) and intellectual infrastructure. Phase C of the action items plan concerns the development and integration of geospatial methods. In summary, the panel members provided critical input to the development of CDC's strategic thinking on integrating geospatial methods and research issues across program efforts in support of its Healthy Communities Goal.

Making objective summaries of climate model behavior more accessible

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gleckler, P. J.

2016-12-01

For multiple reasons, a more efficient and systematic evaluation of publically available climate model simulations is urgently needed. The IPCC, national assessments, and an assortment of other public and policy-driven needs place taxing demands on researchers. While cutting edge research is essential to meeting these needs, so too are results from well-established analysis, and these should be more efficiently produced, widely accessible, and be highly traceable. Furthermore, the number of simulations used by the research community is already large and expected to dramatically increase with the 6th phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). To help meet the demands on the research community and synthesize results from the rapidly expanding number and complexity of model simulations, well-established characteristics from all CMIP DECK (Diagnosis, Evaluation and Characterization of Klima) experiments will be routinely produced and made accessible. This presentation highlights the PCMDI Metrics Package (PMP), a capability that is designed to provide a diverse suite of objective summary statistics across spatial and temporal scales, gauging the agreement between models and observations. In addition to the PMP, ESMValTool is being developed to broadly diagnose CMIP simulations, and a variety of other packages target specialized sets of analysis. The challenges and opportunities of working towards coordinating these community-based capabilities will be discussed.

Emerging technologies and web accessibility: research challenges and opportunities focussing on vision issues.

PubMed

Harper, Simon; Yesilada, Yeliz

2012-01-01

This is a technological review paper focussed on identifying both the research challenges and opportunities for further investigation arising from emerging technologies, and it does not aim to propose any recommendation or standard. It is focussed on blind and partially sighted World Wide Web (Web) users along with others who use assistive technologies. The Web is a fast moving interdisciplinary domain in which new technologies, techniques and research is in perpetual development. It is often difficult to maintain a holistic view of new developments within the multiple domains which together make up the Web. This suggests that knowledge of the current developments and predictions of future developments are additionally important for the accessibility community. Web accessibility has previously been characterised by the correction of our past mistakes to make the current Web fulfil the original vision of access for all. New technologies were not designed with accessibility in mind and technologies that could be useful for addressing accessibility issues were not identified or adopted by the accessibility community. We wish to enable the research community to undertake preventative measures and proactively address challenges, while recognising opportunities, before they become unpreventable or require retrospective technological enhancement. This article then reviews emerging trends within the Web and Web Accessibility domains.

Combining qualitative and quantitative operational research methods to inform quality improvement in pathways that span multiple settings

PubMed Central

Crowe, Sonya; Brown, Katherine; Tregay, Jenifer; Wray, Jo; Knowles, Rachel; Ridout, Deborah A; Bull, Catherine; Utley, Martin

2017-01-01

Background Improving integration and continuity of care across sectors within resource constraints is a priority in many health systems. Qualitative operational research methods of problem structuring have been used to address quality improvement in services involving multiple sectors but not in combination with quantitative operational research methods that enable targeting of interventions according to patient risk. We aimed to combine these methods to augment and inform an improvement initiative concerning infants with congenital heart disease (CHD) whose complex care pathway spans multiple sectors. Methods Soft systems methodology was used to consider systematically changes to services from the perspectives of community, primary, secondary and tertiary care professionals and a patient group, incorporating relevant evidence. Classification and regression tree (CART) analysis of national audit datasets was conducted along with data visualisation designed to inform service improvement within the context of limited resources. Results A ‘Rich Picture’ was developed capturing the main features of services for infants with CHD pertinent to service improvement. This was used, along with a graphical summary of the CART analysis, to guide discussions about targeting interventions at specific patient risk groups. Agreement was reached across representatives of relevant health professions and patients on a coherent set of targeted recommendations for quality improvement. These fed into national decisions about service provision and commissioning. Conclusions When tackling complex problems in service provision across multiple settings, it is important to acknowledge and work with multiple perspectives systematically and to consider targeting service improvements in response to confined resources. Our research demonstrates that applying a combination of qualitative and quantitative operational research methods is one approach to doing so that warrants further consideration. PMID:28062603

Comparative metagenomics reveals impact of contaminants on groundwater microbiomes

DOE PAGES

Hemme, Christopher L.; Tu, Qichao; Shi, Zhou; ...

2015-10-31

To understand patterns of geochemical cycling in pristine versus contaminated groundwater ecosystems, pristine shallow groundwater (FW301) and contaminated groundwater (FW106) samples from the Oak Ridge Integrated Field Research Center (OR-IFRC) were sequenced and compared to each other to determine phylogenetic and metabolic difference between the communities. Proteobacteria (e.g., Burkholderia, Pseudomonas) are the most abundant lineages in the pristine community, though a significant proportion ( >55%) of the community is composed of poorly characterized low abundance (individually <1%) lineages. The phylogenetic diversity of the pristine community contributed to a broader diversity of metabolic networks than the contaminated community. In addition, themore » pristine community encodes redundant and mostly complete geochemical cycles distributed over multiple lineages and appears capable of a wide range of metabolic activities. In contrast, many geochemical cycles in the contaminated community appear truncated or minimized due to decreased biodiversity and dominance by Rhodanobacter populations capable of surviving the combination of stresses at the site. In conclusion, these results indicate that the pristine site contains more robust and encodes more functional redundancy than the stressed community, which contributes to more efficient nutrient cycling and adaptability than the stressed community.« less

Cultural patterns in children's learning through keen observation and participation in their communities.

PubMed

Correa-Chávez, Maricela; Roberts, Amy L D; Pérez, Margarita Martínez

2011-01-01

This chapter examines children's learning through careful attention and participation in the ongoing activities of their community. This form of learning, which has been called learning through Intent Community Participation, seems to be especially common in Mesoamerican Indigenous communities. In these communities, children are integrated into the everyday work and lives of adults and their learning may not be the central focus. We contrast this pattern with that of middle-class European American communities where children are segregated from the primary adult functions of the community. In middle-class communities and schools, children are often encouraged to engage in abstract lessons where their attention is explicitly directed to specific events. In contrast, learning through keen attention and observation may rely on learning through attention to instructions not specifically directed to the learner. Studies demonstrate Mesoamerican Indigenous children's ability to learn through simultaneous and open attention to overheard or observed activities. This form of learning is supported through multiple modalities of communication and interaction. Motivation to learn stems from the learner's inclusion into the major activities and goals of the community. Implications of research and future directions for the study of learning through keen observation are discussed.

Using a two-phase evolutionary framework to select multiple network spreaders based on community structure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fu, Yu-Hsiang; Huang, Chung-Yuan; Sun, Chuen-Tsai

2016-11-01

Using network community structures to identify multiple influential spreaders is an appropriate method for analyzing the dissemination of information, ideas and infectious diseases. For example, data on spreaders selected from groups of customers who make similar purchases may be used to advertise products and to optimize limited resource allocation. Other examples include community detection approaches aimed at identifying structures and groups in social or complex networks. However, determining the number of communities in a network remains a challenge. In this paper we describe our proposal for a two-phase evolutionary framework (TPEF) for determining community numbers and maximizing community modularity. Lancichinetti-Fortunato-Radicchi benchmark networks were used to test our proposed method and to analyze execution time, community structure quality, convergence, and the network spreading effect. Results indicate that our proposed TPEF generates satisfactory levels of community quality and convergence. They also suggest a need for an index, mechanism or sampling technique to determine whether a community detection approach should be used for selecting multiple network spreaders.

Community Engaged Leadership to Advance Health Equity and Build Healthier Communities

PubMed Central

Holden, Kisha; Akintobi, Tabia; Hopkins, Jammie; Belton, Allyson; McGregor, Brian; Blanks, Starla; Wrenn, Glenda

2016-01-01

Health is a human right. Equity in health implies that ideally everyone should have a fair opportunity to attain their full health potential and, more pragmatically, that no one should be disadvantaged from achieving this potential. Addressing the multi-faceted health needs of ethnically and culturally diverse individuals in the United States is a complex issue that requires inventive strategies to reduce risk factors and buttress protective factors to promote greater well-being among individuals, families, and communities. With growing diversity concerning various ethnicities and nationalities; and with significant changes in the constellation of multiple of risk factors that can influence health outcomes, it is imperative that we delineate strategic efforts that encourage better access to primary care, focused community-based programs, multi-disciplinary clinical and translational research methodologies, and health policy advocacy initiatives that may improve individuals’ longevity and quality of life. PMID:27713839

Aging in Community: Developing a More Holistic Approach to Enhance Older Adults' Well-Being.

PubMed

Davitt, Joan K; Madigan, Elizabeth A; Rantz, Marilyn; Skemp, Lisa

2016-01-01

Public health advances have contributed to increased longevity; however, individuals are more likely to live longer with multiple chronic conditions. The existing health care system primarily focuses on treating disease rather than addressing well-being as a holistic construct that includes physical, social, and environmental components. The current commentary emphasizes the importance of supporting healthy active aging and aging in community. The barriers to aging in community and the state of the intervention science in response to this problem are discussed, and recommendations for future research are provided. Active aging is more than managing illness or care transitions-it promotes engagement, participation, dignity, self-fulfillment, self-determination, and support for older adults. To support aging in community and healthy active aging, a paradigm shift is needed in how the well-being of older adults is thought about and supported. Copyright 2016, SLACK Incorporated.

Social networks and community prevention coalitions.

PubMed

Feinberg, Mark E; Riggs, Nathaniel R; Greenberg, Mark T

2005-07-01

This study investigates the links between community readiness and the social networks among participants in Communities That Care (CTC), community-based prevention coalitions. The coalitions targeted adolescent behavior problems through community risk factor assessments, prioritization of risk factors, and selection/implementation of corresponding evidence-based family, school, and community programs. Key leaders (n = 219) in 23 new CTC sites completed questionnaires focusing on community readiness to implement CTC and the respondents' personal, work, and social organization links to other key leaders in the community. Outside technical assistants also completed ratings of each community's readiness and early CTC functioning. Measures of network cohesion/integration were positively associated with readiness, while centralization was negatively associated. These results suggest that non-centralized networks in which ties between members are close and direct may be an indicator of community readiness. In addition, we found different associations between readiness and different domains of social relations. EDITORS' STRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS: The authors present the promising practice of using social network analysis to characterize the functioning of local prevention coalitions and their readiness to implement a community-based prevention initiative. Researchers and community planners will benefit from the lessons in this article, which capitalizes on a large sample and multiple informants. This work raises interesting questions about how to combine the promotion of coalition functioning while simultaneously encouraging diversity of coalition membership.

Observatories, think tanks, and community models in the hydrologic and environmental sciences: How does it affect me?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Torgersen, Thomas

2006-06-01

Multiple issues in hydrologic and environmental sciences are now squarely in the public focus and require both government and scientific study. Two facts also emerge: (1) The new approach being touted publicly for advancing the hydrologic and environmental sciences is the establishment of community-operated "big science" (observatories, think tanks, community models, and data repositories). (2) There have been important changes in the business of science over the last 20 years that make it important for the hydrologic and environmental sciences to demonstrate the "value" of public investment in hydrological and environmental science. Given that community-operated big science (observatories, think tanks, community models, and data repositories) could become operational, I argue that such big science should not mean a reduction in the importance of single-investigator science. Rather, specific linkages between the large-scale, team-built, community-operated big science and the single investigator should provide context data, observatory data, and systems models for a continuing stream of hypotheses by discipline-based, specialized research and a strong rationale for continued, single-PI ("discovery-based") research. I also argue that big science can be managed to provide a better means of demonstrating the value of public investment in the hydrologic and environmental sciences. Decisions regarding policy will still be political, but big science could provide an integration of the best scientific understanding as a guide for the best policy.

Multiple immunofluorescence labelling of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue

PubMed Central

Robertson, David; Savage, Kay; Reis-Filho, Jorge S; Isacke, Clare M

2008-01-01

Background Investigating the expression of candidate genes in tissue samples usually involves either immunohistochemical labelling of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) sections or immunofluorescence labelling of cryosections. Although both of these methods provide essential data, both have important limitations as research tools. Consequently, there is a demand in the research community to be able to perform routine, high quality immunofluorescence labelling of FFPE tissues. Results We present here a robust optimised method for high resolution immunofluorescence labelling of FFPE tissues, which involves the combination of antigen retrieval, indirect immunofluorescence and confocal laser scanning microscopy. We demonstrate the utility of this method with examples of immunofluorescence labelling of human kidney, human breast and a tissue microarray of invasive human breast cancers. Finally, we demonstrate that stained slides can be stored in the short term at 4°C or in the longer term at -20°C prior to images being collected. This approach has the potential to unlock a large in vivo database for immunofluorescence investigations and has the major advantages over immunohistochemistry in that it provides higher resolution imaging of antigen localization and the ability to label multiple antigens simultaneously. Conclusion This method provides a link between the cell biology and pathology communities. For the cell biologist, it will enable them to utilise the vast archive of pathology specimens to advance their in vitro data into in vivo samples, in particular archival material and tissue microarrays. For the pathologist, it will enable them to utilise multiple antibodies on a single section to characterise particular cell populations or to test multiple biomarkers in limited samples and define with greater accuracy cellular heterogeneity in tissue samples. PMID:18366689

Data collection challenges in community settings: Insights from two field studies of patients with chronic disease

PubMed Central

Holden, Richard J.; McDougald Scott, Amanda M.; Hoonakker, Peter L.T.; Hundt, Ann S.; Carayon, Pascale

2014-01-01

Purpose Collecting information about health and disease directly from patients can be fruitfully accomplished using contextual approaches, ones that combine more and less structured methods in home and community settings. This paper's purpose is to describe and illustrate a framework of the challenges of contextual data collection. Methods A framework is presented based on prior work in community-based participatory research and organizational science, comprised of ten types of challenges across four broader categories. Illustrations of challenges and suggestions for addressing them are drawn from two mixed-method, contextual studies of patients with chronic disease in two regions of the US. Results The first major category of challenges was concerned with the researcher-participant partnership, for example, the initial lack of mutual trust and understanding between researchers, patients, and family members. The second category concerned patient characteristics such as cognitive limitations and a busy personal schedule that created barriers to successful data collection. The third concerned research logistics and procedures such as recruitment, travel distances, and compensation. The fourth concerned scientific quality and interpretation, including issues of validity, reliability, and combining data from multiple sources. The two illustrative studies faced both common and diverse research challenges and used many different strategies to address them. Conclusion Collecting less structured data from patients and others in the community is potentially very productive but requires the anticipation, avoidance, or negotiation of various challenges. Future work is necessary to better understand these challenges across different methods and settings, as well as to test and identify strategies to address them. PMID:25154464

Quali-quantitative analysis (QQA): why it could open new frontiers for holistic health practice.

PubMed

Bell, Erica

2006-12-15

Holistic health practice is often described as being about understanding the larger contexts of patients, their health services, and their communities. Yet do traditional quantitative and qualitative health research methods produce the best possible evidence for the holistic practices of doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals? This paper argues "no", and examines the potential of a cutting-edge, social science research method--Quali-Quantitative Research (QQA)--for providing better evidence for holistic practice, particularly in small-N populations, such as rural and remote communities. It does so with reference to the international literature on holistic medicine, as well as three holistic health projects conducted in Tasmania: about prevention of falls in older people, adolescent substance abuse, and interventions for children aged 0-5 exposed to domestic violence. The findings suggest that much health research fails to capture rigorously the contextual complexity of holistic health challenges: the multiple different needs of individual patients, and the interprofessional approaches needed to deliver multidisciplinary and multiservice health interventions tailored to meet those needs in particular community contexts. QQA offers a "configurational", case-based, diversity-oriented approach to analysing data that combines qualitative and quantitative techniques to overcome the limitations of both research traditions. The author concludes that QQA could open new frontiers for holistic health by helping doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals answer a fundamental question presented by complex health challenges: "Given this set of whole-of-patient needs, what elements of which interventions in what services would work best in this particular community?"

Multiple-level stakeholder engagement in malaria clinical trials: addressing the challenges of conducting clinical research in resource-limited settings.

PubMed

Mtove, George; Kimani, Joshua; Kisinza, William; Makenga, Geofrey; Mangesho, Peter; Duparc, Stephan; Nakalembe, Miriam; Phiri, Kamija S; Orrico, Russell; Rojo, Ricardo; Vandenbroucke, Pol

2018-03-22

Multinational clinical trials are logistically complex and require close coordination between various stakeholders. They must comply with global clinical standards and are accountable to multiple regulatory and ethical bodies. In resource-limited settings, it is challenging to understand how to apply global clinical standards to international, national, and local factors in clinical trials, making multiple-level stakeholder engagement an important element in the successful conduct of these clinical trials. During the planning and implementation of a large multinational clinical trial for intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy in resource-limited areas of sub-Saharan Africa, we encountered numerous challenges, which required implementation of a range of engagement measures to ensure compliance with global clinical and regulatory standards. These challenges included coordination with ongoing global malaria efforts, heterogeneity in national regulatory structures, sub-optimal healthcare infrastructure, local practices and beliefs, and perspectives that view healthcare providers with undue trust or suspicion. In addition to engagement with international bodies, such as the World Health Organization, the Malaria in Pregnancy Consortium, the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in order to address the challenges just described, Pfizer Inc. and Medicines for Malaria Venture (the "Sponsoring Entities" for these studies) and investigators liaised with national- and district-level stakeholders such as health ministers and regional/local community health workers. Community engagement measures undertaken by investigators included local meetings with community leaders to explain the research aims and answer questions and concerns voiced by the community. The investigators also engaged with family members of prospective trial participants in order to be sensitive to local practices and beliefs. Engagement with key stakeholders at international and national levels enabled the Sponsoring Entities to address challenges by aligning the study design with the requirements of health and regulatory agencies and to understand and address healthcare infrastructure needs prior to trial initiation. Local stakeholder engagement, including community members, study participants, and family enabled the investigators to address challenges by ensuring that study design and conduct were adapted to local considerations and ensuring accurate information about the study aims was shared with the public. ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT01103063 . Registered on 7 April 2010.

Gene Ontology Consortium: going forward.

PubMed

2015-01-01

The Gene Ontology (GO; http://www.geneontology.org) is a community-based bioinformatics resource that supplies information about gene product function using ontologies to represent biological knowledge. Here we describe improvements and expansions to several branches of the ontology, as well as updates that have allowed us to more efficiently disseminate the GO and capture feedback from the research community. The Gene Ontology Consortium (GOC) has expanded areas of the ontology such as cilia-related terms, cell-cycle terms and multicellular organism processes. We have also implemented new tools for generating ontology terms based on a set of logical rules making use of templates, and we have made efforts to increase our use of logical definitions. The GOC has a new and improved web site summarizing new developments and documentation, serving as a portal to GO data. Users can perform GO enrichment analysis, and search the GO for terms, annotations to gene products, and associated metadata across multiple species using the all-new AmiGO 2 browser. We encourage and welcome the input of the research community in all biological areas in our continued effort to improve the Gene Ontology. © The Author(s) 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

Increasing advance personal planning: the need for action at the community level.

PubMed

Waller, Amy; Sanson-Fisher, Rob; Ries, Nola; Bryant, Jamie

2018-05-09

Advance personal planning is the process by which people consider, document and communicate their preferences for personal, financial and health matters in case they lose the ability to make decisions or express their wishes in the future. Advance personal planning is most often undertaken by individuals who are seriously ill, often in the context of a medical crisis and/or at the time of admission to hospital. However, the clinical utility and legal validity of the planning process may be compromised in these circumstances. Patients may lack sufficient capacity to meaningfully engage in advance personal planning; there may be insufficient time to adequately reflect on and discuss wishes with key others; and there may also be limited opportunity for inter-professional input and collaboration in the process. Here, we propose an agenda for research to advance the science of advance personal planning by promoting a 'whole community' approach. Adoption of advance personal planning at a community level may be achieved using a variety of strategies including public media campaigns, intervening with professionals across a range of health care and legal settings, and mobilising support from influential groups and local government. One potentially promising method for encouraging earlier adoption of advance personal planning among a broader population involves a community action approach, whereby multiple evidence-based strategies are integrated across multiple access points. Community action involves calling on community members, professionals, community and/or government organisations to work collaboratively to design and systematically implement intervention strategies with the aim of bringing about desired behaviour change. An example of a community action trial to improving uptake and quality of advance personal planning is described. While promising, there is a need for rigorous evidence to demonstrate whether a community action approach is effective in establishing whole community adoption of advance personal planning.

NCBI GEO: archive for functional genomics data sets--10 years on.

PubMed

Barrett, Tanya; Troup, Dennis B; Wilhite, Stephen E; Ledoux, Pierre; Evangelista, Carlos; Kim, Irene F; Tomashevsky, Maxim; Marshall, Kimberly A; Phillippy, Katherine H; Sherman, Patti M; Muertter, Rolf N; Holko, Michelle; Ayanbule, Oluwabukunmi; Yefanov, Andrey; Soboleva, Alexandra

2011-01-01

A decade ago, the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database was established at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). The original objective of GEO was to serve as a public repository for high-throughput gene expression data generated mostly by microarray technology. However, the research community quickly applied microarrays to non-gene-expression studies, including examination of genome copy number variation and genome-wide profiling of DNA-binding proteins. Because the GEO database was designed with a flexible structure, it was possible to quickly adapt the repository to store these data types. More recently, as the microarray community switches to next-generation sequencing technologies, GEO has again adapted to host these data sets. Today, GEO stores over 20,000 microarray- and sequence-based functional genomics studies, and continues to handle the majority of direct high-throughput data submissions from the research community. Multiple mechanisms are provided to help users effectively search, browse, download and visualize the data at the level of individual genes or entire studies. This paper describes recent database enhancements, including new search and data representation tools, as well as a brief review of how the community uses GEO data. GEO is freely accessible at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/.

Assisting community management of groundwater: Irrigator attitudes in two watersheds in Rajasthan and Gujarat, India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Varua, M. E.; Ward, J.; Maheshwari, B.; Oza, S.; Purohit, R.; Hakimuddin; Chinnasamy, P.

2016-06-01

The absence of either state regulations or markets to coordinate the operation of individual wells has focussed attention on community level institutions as the primary loci for sustainable groundwater management in Rajasthan and Gujarat, India. The reported research relied on theoretical propositions that livelihood strategies, groundwater management and the propensity to cooperate are associated with the attitudinal orientations of well owners in the Meghraj and Dharta watersheds, located in Gujarat and Rajasthan respectively. The research tested the hypothesis that attitudes to groundwater management and farming practices, household income and trust levels of assisting agencies were not consistent across the watersheds, implying that a targeted approach, in contrast to default uniform programs, would assist communities craft rules to manage groundwater across multiple hydro-geological settings. Hierarchical cluster analysis of attitudes held by survey respondents revealed four statistically significant discrete clusters, supporting acceptance of the hypothesis. Further analyses revealed significant differences in farming practices, household wealth and willingness to adapt across the four groundwater management clusters. In conclusion, the need to account for attitudinal diversity is highlighted and a framework to guide the specific design of processes to assist communities craft coordinating instruments to sustainably manage local aquifers described.

Concept Mapping for Planning and Evaluation of a Community-Based Initiative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chiu, Korinne

2012-01-01

Community-based initiatives address community issues by providing a multi-agency approach to prevention and intervention services (Connell et al.,1995). When incorporating multiple agencies, it can be challenging to obtain multiple perspectives and gaining consensus on the priorities and direction for these initiatives. This study employed a…

SOMOS: Evaluation of an HIV Prevention Intervention for Latino Gay Men

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vega, Miriam Y.; Spieldenner, Andrew R.; DeLeon, Dennis; Nieto, Bolivar X.; Stroman, Carolyn A.

2011-01-01

Latino gay men face multiple barriers to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention, in particular a lack of intervention programs that integrate prevention messages with cultural norms and address issues of social marginalization from multiple communities (gay community and Latino community), homophobia and racism. In order to address these…

Perceptions and Effects of Classroom Capture Software on Course Performance among Selected Online Community College Mathematics Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Rachel Naomi

2017-01-01

The purpose of this mixed methods research study was two-fold. First, I compared the findings of the success rates of online mathematics students with the perceived effects of classroom capture software in hopes to find convergence. Second, I used multiple methods in different phases of the study to expand the breadth and range of the effects of…

Going and Passing through Community Colleges: Examining the Effectiveness of Project Lead The Way in STEM Pathways

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Starobin, Soko S.; Schenk, Tom, Jr.; Laanan, Frankie Santos; Rethwisch, David G.; Moeller, Darin

2013-01-01

Project Lead The Way (PLTW), which aims to create a seamless pathway from secondary education to college and career success in STEM fields, was first implemented in the state of Iowa in 2005. As a part of a statewide, longitudinal research in PLTW, this study explores the effectiveness of PLTW in college persistence by analyzing multiple data…

A Case Study of an Instrumental Music Program and Its Influence on the Culture of a School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Womack, Anthony Terence

2017-01-01

The purpose of this case study was to examine how participation in a school-based instrumental music program contributed to the culture of a suburban high school. The questions guiding the research were: (1) How and why are multiple music programs supported by staff, students, parents and the community at this school? (2) What are the benefits of…

Using Video Analysis to Support Prospective K-8 Teachers' Noticing of Students' Multiple Mathematical Knowledge Bases

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roth McDuffie, Amy; Foote, Mary Q.; Bolson, Catherine; Turner, Erin E.; Aguirre, Julia M.; Bartell, Tonya Gau; Drake, Corey; Land, Tonia

2014-01-01

As part of a larger research project aimed at transforming preK-8 mathematics teacher preparation, the purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which prospective teachers notice children's competencies related to children's mathematical thinking, and children's community, cultural, and linguistic funds of knowledge or what…

Assessment of the biophysical characteristics of rangeland community using scatterometer and optical measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kanemasu, E. T.; Asrar, Ghassem; Myneni, Ranga; Martin, Robert, Jr.; Burnett, R. Bruce

1987-01-01

Research activities for the following study areas are summarized: single scattering of parallel direct and axially symmetric diffuse solar radiation in vegetative canopies; the use of successive orders of scattering approximations (SOSA) for treating multiple scattering in a plant canopy; reflectance of a soybean canopy using the SOSA method; and C-band scatterometer measurements of the Konza tallgrass prairie.

Examining the Effects of Online Enrollment on Course Outcomes Using Weighting Procedures after Multiple Imputation on a State-Wide University System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Nichole Danielle

2017-01-01

According to the few quasi-experimental studies examining course outcomes for community college (Xu & Jaggars, 2011a, 2011b, 2013, 2014) and for-profit students (Bettinger, Fox, Loeb, & Taylor, 2014), there is a significant penalty for online students. No comparable research has been conducted on public four-year university students to…

Exploring the Viability of School-Based Support for Vulnerable Children: A Case Study of Two Township Schools in Johannesburg. CREATE Pathways to Access. Research Monograph No. 46

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Samantha E.

2010-01-01

The South African Department of Education is working with multiple non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to transform schools into "caring schools" that emphasise: health promotion, safety, care for orphans and vulnerable children, quality education, community engagement and respect for rights and equality. Using a qualitative case study…

A qualitative evaluation of the 2005–2011 National Academic Centers of Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention Program☆

PubMed Central

Holland, Kristin M.; Vivolo-Kantor, Alana M.; Cruz, Jason Dela; Massetti, Greta M.; Mahendra, Reshma

2018-01-01

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Violence Prevention (DVP) funded eight National Academic Centers of Excellence (ACEs) in Youth Violence Prevention from 2005 to 2010 and two Urban Partnership Academic Centers of Excellence (UPACEs) in Youth Violence Prevention from 2006 to 2011. The ACEs and UPACEs constitute DVP’s 2005–2011 ACE Program. ACE Program goals include partnering with communities to promote youth violence (YV) prevention and fostering connections between research and community practice. This article describes a qualitative evaluation of the 2005–2011 ACE Program using an innovative approach for collecting and analyzing data from multiple large research centers via a web-based Information System (ACE-IS). The ACE-IS was established as an efficient mechanism to collect and document ACE research and programmatic activities. Performance indicators for the ACE Program were established in an ACE Program logic model. Data on performance indicators were collected through the ACE-IS biannually. Data assessed Centers’ ability to develop, implement, and evaluate YV prevention activities. Performance indicator data demonstrate substantial progress on Centers’ research in YV risk and protective factors, community partnerships, and other accomplishments. Findings provide important lessons learned, illustrate progress made by the Centers, and point to new directions for YV prevention research and programmatic efforts. PMID:26319174

Selenium Levels in the Whole Blood of Children and Teenagers from Two Riparian Communities at the Madeira River Basin in the Western Brazilian Amazon.

PubMed

Vega, Claudia M; Godoy, José M; Barrocas, Paulo R G; Gonçalves, Rodrigo A; De Oliveira, Beatriz F A; Jacobson, Ludmilla V; Mourão, Dennys S; Hacon, Sandra S

2017-01-01

Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient that exerts multiple functions in the organism, and both its deficiency and excess can cause health impairments. Thus, it is important to monitor its levels in the population, especially in vulnerable groups, such as children from the Brazilian Amazon region, where there is a lack of information in this regard. The aim of this research was to study Se levels in the whole blood of children and teenagers (5-16 years old) from two riparian communities at the Madeira River (Cuniã RESEX and Belmont). Se level variations related to the communities' location, seasonality, diet, and body mass index (BMI) were assessed. Blood samples were collected in both communities for Se determinations, using ICP-MS and hemogram analyses, during May and September of 2011. Food frequency questionnaires were applied to assess consumption rates of specific food items. Non-parametric tests and linear multiple regressions were applied in the data analyses. Median Se levels were significantly higher during May (Cuniã RESEX 149 μg L -1 ; Belmont 85 μg L -1 ) compared to September (Cuniã RESEX 79 μg L -1 ; Belmont 53 μg L -1 ). No significant differences were found between the communities regarding BMI measurements and anemia prevalence. However, Se blood levels were significantly higher at the Cuniã RESEX compared to Belmont. In addition, the former showed higher fish and Brazil nut intakes, which may be the main Se sources for this community. These results contribute to a better understanding of Se reference levels for children and teenagers of Western Amazon riparian communities.

Spatio-temporal dynamics in phytobenthos structural properties reveal insights into agricultural catchment dynamics and nutrient fluxes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reaney, S. M.; Snell, M. A.; Barker, P. A.; Aftab, A.; Barber, N. J.; Benskin, C.; Burke, S.; Cleasby, W.; Haygarth, P.; Jonczyk, J. C.; Owen, G. J.; Perks, M. T.; Quinn, P. F.; Surridge, B.

2016-12-01

Low order streams are spatially extensive, temporally dynamic, systems within the agricultural landscape. This dynamism extends to the aquatic communities within these streams, including the phytobentos, which demonstrates considerable resilience to diffuse anthropogenic nutrient pressures and changing climate dynamics. The phytobenthos community can substantially contribute to the food web, in particular diatoms, which dominate photo-autotrophic assemblages in low order streams. Diatoms are widely used in ecological monitoring because of their high sensitivity to environmental condition, but knowledge is limited on the ecological effects of winter disturbances and variance introduced by multiple and interacting pressures (N, P, sediment), introducing bias in understanding temporal dynamics in benthic diatom communities. Using the environmental time series data from long term monitoring within the River Eden Demonstration Test Catchment programme, we assess the impact of multiple hydro-chemical stressors on phytobenthic community resilience, and synthesize the impact of an extreme winter event. Monthly data from diatom communities collected in the Eden DTC from March 2011 to present show that river flow, strongly coupled to precipitation, is a key driver of these communities. Discharge has a direct effect on communities through scouring, but is also tightly correlated to nutrient delivery, such that 80% of the annual TP load arrives in 10% of the time. Trophic Diatom Index (TDI) values demonstrated considerable resilience by the stability of inter-monthly TDI scores over 5 seasonal cycles against the characterised highly variable hydrological regime. This research demonstrates that well characterised winter disturbances are critical to understanding drivers of aquatic dynamics. This has implications for catchment diffuse pollution policy, farm management and economics, given the climate projections of increases in frequency and intensity of extreme winter events, which may alter instream nutrient fluxes.

Effectiveness of a multiple-strategy community intervention to reduce maternal and child health inequalities in Haryana, North India: a mixed-methods study protocol

PubMed Central

Gupta, Madhu; Angeli, Federica; van Schayck, Onno C. P.; Bosma, Hans

2015-01-01

Background A multiple-strategy community intervention, known as National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), launched in India to improve the availability of and access to better-quality healthcare, especially for rural, poor mothers and children. The final goal of the intervention is to reduce maternal and child health inequalities across geographical areas, socioeconomic status groups, and sex of the child. Extensive, in-depth research is necessary to assess the effectiveness of NRHM, on multiple outcome dimensions. This paper presents the design of a new study, able to overcome the shortcomings of previous research. Objective To propose a comprehensive, methodologically sound protocol to assess the extent of implementation and the effectiveness of NRHM measures to improve maternal and child health outcomes and reduce maternal and child health inequalities. Design A mixed-methods approach (quantitative and qualitative) is proposed for this study in Haryana, a state in North India. NRHM's health sector plans included health system strengthening, specific maternal and child healthcare strategies, and communitization. Mission documents and reports on progress, financial monitoring, and common and joint review will be reviewed in-depth to assess the extent of the implementation of plans. Data on maternal and child health indicators will be obtained from demographic health surveys held before, during, and after the implementation of the first phase of the NRHM (2005–2012) and compared over time. Differences in maternal and child health indicators will be used to measure maternal and child health inequalities; these will be compared pre- and post-NRHM. Focus group discussions (FGDs) with service providers and in-depth interviews with program managers, community representatives, and mothers will be conducted until data saturation is achieved, in two districts of Haryana. Using Nvivo software, an inductive qualitative content analysis will be performed to search for the broader themes across the interviews and FGDs. Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research. PMID:25676665

A Laboratory-Based System for Managing and Distributing Publically Funded Geochemical Data in a Collaborative Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McInnes, B.; Brown, A.; Liffers, M.

2015-12-01

Publically funded laboratories have a responsibility to generate, archive and disseminate analytical data to the research community. Laboratory managers know however, that a long tail of analytical effort never escapes researchers' thumb drives once they leave the lab. This work reports on a research data management project (Digital Mineralogy Library) where integrated hardware and software systems automatically archive and deliver analytical data and metadata to institutional and community data portals. The scientific objective of the DML project was to quantify the modal abundance of heavy minerals extracted from key lithological units in Western Australia. The selected analytical platform was a TESCAN Integrated Mineral Analyser (TIMA) that uses EDS-based mineral classification software to image and quantify mineral abundance and grain size at micron scale resolution. The analytical workflow used a bespoke laboratory information management system (LIMS) to orchestrate: (1) the preparation of grain mounts with embedded QR codes that serve as enduring links between physical samples and analytical data, (2) the assignment of an International Geo Sample Number (IGSN) and Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to each grain mount via the System for Earth Sample Registry (SESAR), (3) the assignment of a DOI to instrument metadata via Research Data Australia, (4) the delivery of TIMA analytical outputs, including spatially registered mineralogy images and mineral abundance data, to an institutionally-based data management server, and (5) the downstream delivery of a final data product via a Google Maps interface such as the AuScope Discovery Portal. The modular design of the system permits the networking of multiple instruments within a single site or multiple collaborating research institutions. Although sharing analytical data does provide new opportunities for the geochemistry community, the creation of an open data network requires: (1) adopting open data reporting standards and conventions, (2) requiring instrument manufacturers and software developers to deliver and process data in formats compatible with open standards, and (3) public funding agencies to incentivise researchers, laboratories and institutions to make their data open and accessible to consumers.

IDENTIFYING SEXUAL HEALTH PROTECTIVE FACTORS AMONG NORTHERN PLAINS AMERICAN INDIAN YOUTH: AN ECOLOGICAL APPROACH UTILIZING MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES

PubMed Central

Griese, Emily R.; Kenyon, DenYelle Baete; McMahon, Tracey R.

2017-01-01

This study examined aspects of the sociocultural context in which American Indian (AI) teen pregnancy occurs, focusing specifically on protective factors for Northern Plains AI youth. Principles of community-based participatory research guided the qualitative data collection from 185 community members (focus groups with AI youth, youth parents, and elders; interviews with health care providers and school personnel) from a reservation and an urban community. Results indicated three protective systems impacted the sexual health and behaviors of AI youth: school, family, and enculturation. These findings provide a better understanding of how specific protective factors within these systems may buffer AI youth from involvement in risky sexual behaviors and work to inform culturally relevant prevention and intervention efforts. PMID:27536896

School dropout prevention: what arts-based community and out-of-school-time programs can contribute.

PubMed

Charmaraman, Linda; Hall, Georgia

2011-01-01

Out-of-school-time programs, especially arts-based programs, can be critical players in a community's efforts to prevent school dropout. This research review suggests the following approaches for arts-based programs: (1) recruitment and retention of target populations with multiple risk factors; (2) long-term skill development that engages youth behaviorally, emotionally, and academically rather than a drop-in culture; (3) an emphasis on the critical ingredient of real-world applications through performance; (4) staff development and mentoring; (5) a strategic community-level plan for dropout prevention; (6) and program content reframed toward competencies that underlie better school performance and prosocial behavior, such as communication, initiative, problem solving, motivation, and self-efficacy. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company.

A Community "Hub" Network Intervention for HIV Stigma Reduction: A Case Study.

PubMed

Prinsloo, Catharina D; Greeff, Minrie

2016-01-01

We describe the implementation of a community "hub" network intervention to reduce HIV stigma in the Tlokwe Municipality, North West Province, South Africa. A holistic case study design was used, focusing on community members with no differentiation by HIV status. Participants were recruited through accessibility sampling. Data analyses used open coding and document analysis. Findings showed that the HIV stigma-reduction community hub network intervention successfully activated mobilizers to initiate change; lessened the stigma experience for people living with HIV; and addressed HIV stigma in a whole community using a combination of strategies including individual and interpersonal levels, social networks, and the public. Further research is recommended to replicate and enhance the intervention. In particular, the hub network system should be extended, the intervention period should be longer, there should be a stronger support system for mobilizers, and the multiple strategy approach should be continued on individual and social levels. Copyright © 2016 Association of Nurses in AIDS Care. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Crosstown initiative: art, community, and placemaking in Memphis.

PubMed

Thomas, Elizabeth; Pate, Sarah; Ranson, Anna

2015-03-01

This case study examines an arts organization at the center of an urban neighborhood revitalization effort and its contributions to creative placemaking and inclusive community building. The study documents innovative arts practices and explores their meaning for a local context, an understudied city in the Mid-South region of the United States. It builds on the research team's ongoing work as teachers, students, and scholars in partnership with the arts organization. It includes systematic participant observation, interviews with stakeholders, and a review of historical and contemporary media coverage. We found that the organization and its practices provided a rich context for exploring an expanded sense of community including bridging social capital and place-based frameworks. Analysis suggests that the organization's intentional arts based practices bring multiple understandings of community and art into meaningful dialogue through the generation of creative and social friction. These practices illustrate one context-specific strategy addressing the tensions in a community-diversity dialectic (Townley et al. in Am J Commun Psychol 47:69-85, 2011).

Multiple reputation domains and cooperative behaviour in two Latin American communities

PubMed Central

Macfarlan, Shane J.; Lyle, Henry F.

2015-01-01

Reputations are a ubiquitous feature of human social life, and a large literature has been dedicated to explaining the relationship between prosocial reputations and cooperation in social dilemmas. However, humans form reputations in domains other than prosociality, such as economic competency that could affect cooperation. To date, no research has evaluated the relative effects of multiple reputation domains on cooperation. To bridge this gap, we analyse how prosocial and competency reputations affect cooperation in two Latin American communities (Bwa Mawego, Dominica, and Pucucanchita, Peru) across a number of social contexts (Dominica: labour contracting, labour exchange and conjugal partnership formation; Peru: agricultural and health advice network size). First, we examine the behavioural correlates of prosocial and competency reputations. Following, we analyse whether prosocial, competency, or both reputation domains explain the flow of cooperative benefits within the two communities. Our analyses suggest that (i) although some behaviours affect both reputation domains simultaneously, each reputation domain has a unique behavioural signature; and (ii) competency reputations affect cooperation across a greater number of social contexts compared to prosocial reputations. Results are contextualized with reference to the social markets in which behaviour is embedded and a call for greater theory development is stressed. PMID:26503682

Translating research into practice: the role of provider-based research networks in the diffusion of an evidence-based colon cancer treatment innovation.

PubMed

Carpenter, William R; Meyer, Anne-Marie; Wu, Yang; Qaqish, Bahjat; Sanoff, Hanna K; Goldberg, Richard M; Weiner, Bryan J

2012-08-01

Provider-based research networks (PBRNs)--collaborative research partnerships between academic centers and community-based practitioners--are a promising model for accelerating the translation of research into practice; however, empirical evidence of accelerated translation is limited. Oxaliplatin in adjuvant combination chemotherapy is an innovation with clinical trial-proven survival benefit compared with prior therapies. The goal of this study is to examine the diffusion of oxaliplatin into community practice, and whether affiliation with the National Cancer Institute's (NCI's) Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP)--a nationwide cancer-focused PBRN--is associated with accelerated innovation adoption. This retrospective observational study used linked Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare and NCI CCOP data to examine Medicare participants with stage III colon cancer initiating treatment in 2003 through 2006, the years surrounding oxaliplatin's Food and Drug Administration approval. A fixed-effects analysis examined chemotherapy use among patients treated outside academic centers at CCOP-affiliated practices compared with non-CCOP practices. Two-group modeling controlled for multiple levels of clustering, year of chemotherapy initiation, tumor characteristics, patient age, race, comorbidity, Medicaid dual-eligibility status, and education. Of 4055 community patients, 35% received 5-fluoruracil, 20% received oxaliplatin, 7% received another chemotherapy, and 38% received no chemotherapy. Twenty-five percent of CCOP patients received oxaliplatin, compared with 19% of non-CCOP patients. In multivariable analysis, CCOP exposure was associated with higher odds of receiving guideline-concordant treatment in general, and oxaliplatin specifically. These findings contribute to a growing set of evidence linking PBRNs with a greater probability of receiving treatment innovations and high-quality cancer care, with implications for clinical and research policy.

The Community as Classroom: Multiple Perspectives on Student Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kerrigan, Seanna; Gelmon, Sherrill; Spring, Amy

2003-01-01

Reports on the multiple perspectives of students, community members, and faculty to document the affect of student participation in service-learning courses. The study examined in this article used a large sample size and multiple qualitative and quantitative methods over several years. The results indicate that service learning affects students…

Big Five personality and health in adults with and without cancer.

PubMed

Rochefort, Catherine; Hoerger, Michael; Turiano, Nicholas A; Duberstein, Paul

2018-01-01

Personality is associated with health, but examinations in patients with illnesses are lacking. We aimed to determine whether personality-physical health associations differed between community and cancer samples. This cross-sectional study involved 168 participants without cancer, 212 men with prostate cancer, and 55 women with breast cancer. We examined whether the Big Five personality dimensions were associated with health behaviors and multiple health indicators. Higher conscientiousness and lower neuroticism were associated with better health behaviors and health ( r max  = .31), with few differences between community and cancer samples. Findings call for research on the implications of personality in patients with serious illnesses.

Life-history strategies constrain invertebrate community tolerance to multiple stressors: A case study in the Ebro basin.

PubMed

Mondy, Cédric P; Muñoz, Isabel; Dolédec, Sylvain

2016-12-01

Multiple stressors constitute a serious threat to aquatic ecosystems, particularly in the Mediterranean region where water scarcity is likely to interact with other anthropogenic stressors. Biological traits potentially allow the unravelling of the effects of multiple stressors. However, thus far, trait-based approaches have failed to fully deliver on their promise and still lack strong predictive power when multiple stressors are present. We aimed to quantify specific community tolerances against six anthropogenic stressors and investigate the responses of the underlying macroinvertebrate biological traits and their combinations. We built and calibrated boosted regression tree models to predict community tolerances using multiple biological traits with a priori hypotheses regarding their individual responses to specific stressors. We analysed the combinations of traits underlying community tolerance and the effect of trait association on this tolerance. Our results validated the following three hypotheses: (i) the community tolerance models efficiently and robustly related trait combinations to stressor intensities and, to a lesser extent, to stressors related to the presence of dams and insecticides; (ii) the effects of traits on community tolerance not only depended on trait identity but also on the trait associations emerging at the community level from the co-occurrence of different traits in species; and (iii) the community tolerances and the underlying trait combinations were specific to the different stressors. This study takes a further step towards predictive tools in community ecology that consider combinations and associations of traits as the basis of stressor tolerance. Additionally, the community tolerance concept has potential application to help stream managers in the decision process regarding management options. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

High levels of multiple infections, recombination and horizontal transmission of Wolbachia in the Andricus mukaigawae (Hymenoptera; Cynipidae) communities.

PubMed

Yang, Xiao-Hui; Zhu, Dao-Hong; Liu, Zhiwei; Zhao, Ling; Su, Cheng-Yuan

2013-01-01

Wolbachia are maternally inherited endosymbiotic bacteria of arthropods and nematodes. In arthropods, they manipulate the reproduction of their hosts to facilitate their own spread in host populations, causing cytoplasmic incompatibility, parthenogenesis induction, feminization of genetic males and male-killing. In this study, we investigated Wolbachia infection and studied wsp (Wolbachia surface protein) sequences in three wasp species associated with the unisexual galls of A. mukaigawae with the aim of determining the transmission mode and the reason for multiple infections of Wolbachia. Frequency of Wolbachia infected populations for A. mukaigawae, Synergus japonicus (inquiline), and Torymus sp. (parasitoid) was 75%, 100%, and 100%, respectively. Multiple Wolbachia infections were detected in A. mukaigawae and S. japonicus, with 5 and 8 Wolbachia strains, respectively. The two host species shared 5 Wolbachia strains and were infected by identical strains in several locations, indicating horizontal transmission of Wolbachia. The transmission potentially takes place through gall tissues, which the larvae of both wasps feed on. Furthermore, three recombination events of Wolbachia were observed: the strains W8, W2 and W6 apparently have derived from W3 and W5a, W6 and W7, W4 and W9, respectively. W8 and W2 and their respective parental strains were detected in S. japonicus. W6 was detected with only one parent (W4) in S. japonicus; W9 was detected in Torymus sp., suggesting horizontal transmission between hosts and parasitoids. In conclusion, our research supports earlier studies that horizontal transmission of Wolbachia, a symbiont of the Rickettsiales order, may be plant-mediated or take place between hosts and parasitoids. Our research provides novel molecular evidence for multiple recombination events of Wolbachia in gall wasp communities. We suggest that genomic recombination and potential plant-mediated horizontal transmission may be attributable to the high levels of multiple Wolbachia infections observed in A. mukaigawae and S. japonicus.

Community-based group aquatic programme for individuals with multiple sclerosis: a pilot study.

PubMed

Salem, Yasser; Scott, Anne Hiller; Karpatkin, Herbert; Concert, George; Haller, Leah; Kaminsky, Eva; Weisbrot, Rivky; Spatz, Eugene

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of providing a community-based aquatic exercise programme and to examine the effects of a group aquatic exercise programme in individuals with multiple sclerosis. This study illustrates the implementation of a multidisciplinary community-based programme in a university community wellness centre coordinated with a local advocacy group. Eleven subjects with multiple sclerosis participated in a 5-week community-based aquatic exercise programme. Aquatic exercises were held twice weekly for 60 minutes and included aerobic exercises, strength training, flexibility exercises, balance training and walking activities. The 10-Metre Walk test, the Berg Balance Scale (BBS), the 'Timed Up and Go' (TUG) test, grip strength and the Modified Fatigue Impact Scale were used to assess motor function. Analysis of the scores demonstrated improved gait speed, BBS, TUG test and grip strength. The average attendance of the training sessions was good (88%), and no incidence of injuries, no incidence of falls and no adverse effects related to the exercise programme were reported. All participants reported that they enjoyed the programme, and they had improved after the training. A community-based aquatic exercise programme is feasible and resulted in improvement in motor functions of individuals with multiple sclerosis. These findings indicate that an aquatic training programme is appropriate and beneficial for individuals with multiple sclerosis and should be considered to augment the rehabilitation of those individuals. This programme may provide a viable model for a community-based wellness programme for people with disability including individuals with multiple sclerosis.

“Complexities of holistic community based participatory research for a low-income, multi-ethnic population exposed to multiple built-environment stressors in Worcester, Massachusetts”

PubMed Central

Downs, Timothy J.; Ross, Laurie; Patton, Suzanne; Rulnick, Sarah; Sinha, Deb; Mucciarone, Danielle; Calvache, Maria; Parmenter, Sarah; Subedi, Rajendra; Wysokenski, Donna; Anderson, Erin; Dezan, Rebecca; Lowe, Kate; Bowen, Jennifer; Tejani, Amee; Piersanti, Kelly; Taylor, Octavia; Goble, Robert

2009-01-01

Low income, multi-ethnic communities in Main South/Piedmont neighborhoods of Worcester, Massachusetts are exposed to cumulative, chronic built-environment stressors, and have limited capacity to respond, magnifying their vulnerability to adverse health outcomes. “Neighborhood STRENGTH”, our community based participatory research (CBPR) project, comprised four partners: a youth center; an environmental non-profit; a community based health center; and a university. Unlike most CBPR projects that are single topic-focused, our ‘holistic’, systems-based project targeted five priorities. The three research-focused/action-oriented components were: 1) participatory monitoring of indoor and outdoor pollution; 2) learning about health needs and concerns of residents through community based listening sessions; and 3) engaging in collaborative survey work, including a household vulnerability survey and an asthma prevalence survey for schoolchildren. The two action-focused/research-informed components were: 4) tackling persistent street trash and illegal dumping strategically; and 5) educating and empowering youth to promote environmental justice. We used a coupled CBPR-capacity building approach to design, vulnerability theory to frame, and mixed methods: quantitative environmental testing and qualitative surveys. Process and outcomes yielded important lessons: vulnerability theory helps frame issues holistically; having several topic-based projects yielded useful information, but was hard to manage and articulate to the public; access to, and engagement with, the target population was very difficult and would have benefited greatly from having representative residents who were paid at the partners' table. Engagement with residents and conflict burden varied highly across components. Notwithstanding, we built enabling capacity, strengthened our understanding of vulnerability, and are able to share valuable experiential knowledge. PMID:19762014

BioenergyKDF: Enabling Spatiotemporal Data Synthesis and Research Collaboration

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Myers, Aaron T; Movva, Sunil; Karthik, Rajasekar

2014-01-01

The Bioenergy Knowledge Discovery Framework (BioenergyKDF) is a scalable, web-based collaborative environment for scientists working on bioenergy related research in which the connections between data, literature, and models can be explored and more clearly understood. The fully-operational and deployed system, built on multiple open source libraries and architectures, stores contributions from the community of practice and makes them easy to find, but that is just its base functionality. The BioenergyKDF provides a national spatiotemporal decision support capability that enables data sharing, analysis, modeling, and visualization as well as fosters the development and management of the U.S. bioenergy infrastructure, which ismore » an essential component of the national energy infrastructure. The BioenergyKDF is built on a flexible, customizable platform that can be extended to support the requirements of any user community especially those that work with spatiotemporal data. While there are several community data-sharing software platforms available, some developed and distributed by national governments, none of them have the full suite of capabilities available in BioenergyKDF. For example, this component-based platform and database independent architecture allows it to be quickly deployed to existing infrastructure and to connect to existing data repositories (spatial or otherwise). As new data, analysis, and features are added; the BioenergyKDF will help lead research and support decisions concerning bioenergy into the future, but will also enable the development and growth of additional communities of practice both inside and outside of the Department of Energy. These communities will be able to leverage the substantial investment the agency has made in the KDF platform to quickly stand up systems that are customized to their data and research needs.« less

Complexities of holistic community-based participatory research for a low income, multi-ethnic population exposed to multiple built-environment stressors in Worcester, Massachusetts.

PubMed

Downs, Timothy J; Ross, Laurie; Patton, Suzanne; Rulnick, Sarah; Sinha, Deb; Mucciarone, Danielle; Calvache, Maria; Parmenter, Sarah; Subedi, Rajendra; Wysokenski, Donna; Anderson, Erin; Dezan, Rebecca; Lowe, Kate; Bowen, Jennifer; Tejani, Amee; Piersanti, Kelly; Taylor, Octavia; Goble, Robert

2009-11-01

Low income, multi-ethnic communities in Main South/Piedmont neighborhoods of Worcester, Massachusetts are exposed to cumulative, chronic built-environment stressors, and have limited capacity to respond, magnifying their vulnerability to adverse health outcomes. "Neighborhood STRENGTH", our community-based participatory research (CBPR) project, comprised four partners: a youth center; an environmental non-profit; a community-based health center; and a university. Unlike most CBPR projects that are single topic-focused, our 'holistic', systems-based project targeted five priorities. The three research-focused/action-oriented components were: (1) participatory monitoring of indoor and outdoor pollution; (2) learning about health needs and concerns of residents through community-based listening sessions; (3) engaging in collaborative survey work, including a household vulnerability survey and an asthma prevalence survey for schoolchildren. The two action-focused/research-informed components were: (4) tackling persistent street trash and illegal dumping strategically; and (5) educating and empowering youth to promote environmental justice. We used a coupled CBPR-capacity building approach to design, vulnerability theory to frame, and mixed methods: quantitative environmental testing and qualitative surveys. Process and outcomes yielded important lessons: vulnerability theory helps frame issues holistically; having several topic-based projects yielded useful information, but was hard to manage and articulate to the public; access to, and engagement with, the target population was very difficult and would have benefited greatly from having representative residents who were paid at the partners' table. Engagement with residents and conflict burden varied highly across components. Notwithstanding, we built enabling capacity, strengthened our understanding of vulnerability, and are able to share valuable experiential knowledge.

Efficacy of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) in the Treatment of Schizophrenia: A Review of the Literature to Date.

PubMed

Cole, Jonathan C; Green Bernacki, Carolyn; Helmer, Amanda; Pinninti, Narsimha; O'reardon, John P

2015-01-01

We reviewed the literature on transcranial magnetic stimulation and its uses and efficacy in schizophrenia. Multiple sources were examined on transcranial magnetic stimulation efficacy in relieving positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Literature review was conducted via Ovid Medline and PubMed databases. We found multiple published studies and metaanalyses that give evidence that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation can have benefit in relieving positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, particularly auditory hallucinations. These findings should encourage the psychiatric community to expand research into other applications for which transcranial magnetic stimulation may be used to treat patients with psychiatric disability.

The Children’s Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Telemental Health Treatment Study: Methodology for Conducting a Trial of Telemental Health in Multiple Underserved Communities

PubMed Central

Stoep, Ann Vander; Myers, Kathleen

2013-01-01

Background Children who live in non-metropolitan communities are underserved by evidence-based mental health care and underrepresented in clinical trials of mental health services. Telemental Health (TMH), the use of videoteleconferencing (VTC) to provide care that is usually delivered in person, shows promise for helping to rectify these service disparities. Purpose The Children’s ADHD Telemental Health Treatment Study (CATTS) is a randomized controlled trial designed to test the effectiveness of TMH in providing treatment to children diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who are living in underserved communities. In this paper we describe the methodologies we developed for the trial and lessons learned. Methods Children ages 5.5-12 years of age with ADHD were referred to CATTS by their primary care physicians (PCP’s). The test intervention group (Group A) received six telepsychiatry sessions followed by in-person caregiver behavioral training delivered by a local therapist who was trained and supervised remotely. A secure website was used to support decision-making by the telepsychiatrists, to facilitate real-time collaboration between the telepsychiatrists and community therapists, and communication with the PCP’s. The control group (Group B) received a single telepsychiatry consultation followed by treatment with their PCP’s who implemented the telepsychiatrists’ recommendations at their discretion. Caregivers completed five sets of questionnaires about children’s symptoms and functioning and their own levels of distress. Older children (aged 10-12 years) completed questionnaires about their symptoms and functioning. Teachers completed ADHD rating scales. Questionnaires were completed online through a secure portal from personal computers. Results Eighty-eight PCP’s in seven communities referred the 223 children who participated in the trial. Attrition was low (3%). Children in Group A completed an average of 5.3 of 6 scheduled sessions; 96% of children in Group B completed their telepsychiatry consultation. Parents in both groups completed an average of 4.8 of 5 assessments. Telepsychiatrists and therapists showed high adherence to treatment protocols. Lessons Learned TMH proved to be a viable means of providing evidence-based pharmacological services to children and of training local therapists in evidence-based caregiver behavioral management. Recruitment was enhanced by offering the control group a telepsychiatry consultation. To meet recruitment targets across multiple dispersed sites, we developed community-specific strategies. A dedicated scheduler was a critical staff role to coordinate the multiple sites, sessions, and clinicians. Trial implementation was easier with sites that shared an electronic medical record system with our research hub. Conclusions The CATTS study used methods and procedures to optimize inclusion of children living in multiple dispersed and underserved areas. These experiences should advance the development of technologies needed to recruit underserved populations into research projects with the goal of reducing disparities in access to quality mental health care. PMID:23897950

Loneliness in senior housing communities.

PubMed

Taylor, Harry Owen; Wang, Yi; Morrow-Howell, Nancy

2018-05-23

There are many studies on loneliness among community-dwelling older adults; however, there is limited research examining the extent and correlates of loneliness among older adults who reside in senior housing communities. This study examines the extent and correlates of loneliness in three public senior housing communities in the St. Louis area. Data for this project was collected with survey questionnaires with a total sample size of 148 respondents. Loneliness was measured using the Hughes 3-item loneliness scale. Additionally, the questionnaire contained measures on socio-demographics, health/mental health, social engagement, and social support. Missing data for the hierarchical multivariate regression models were imputed using multiple imputation methods. Results showed approximately 30.8% of the sample was not lonely, 42.7% was moderately lonely, and 26.6% was severely lonely. In the multivariate analyses, loneliness was primarily associated with depressive symptoms. Contrary to popular opinion, our study found the prevalence of loneliness was high in senior housing communities. Nevertheless, senior housing communities could be ideal locations for reducing loneliness among older adults. Interventions should focus on concomitantly addressing both an individual's loneliness and mental health.

Environmental influences on physical activity in rural Midwestern adults: a qualitative approach.

PubMed

Chrisman, Matthew; Nothwehr, Faryle; Yang, Ginger; Oleson, Jacob

2015-01-01

Qualitative research can be used to examine multiple factors associated with physical activity and help practitioners identify language used by the rural adult population when discussing this behavior. Three focus groups were conducted among 19 residents of multiple towns in a rural Midwestern county to examine the language and influences on rural physical activity. Focus group members were asked to define physical activity, exercise, community, and neighborhood. They were asked about the activities they engaged in and facilitators and barriers to those activities. A guidebook was developed to capture major themes and common patterns that emerged in the responses to the topics discussed. The data were reviewed for repeated statements and points that were agreed on by multiple participants. Important factors associated with physical activity include the importance of social support and modeling physical activity behavior. Also, the influence of pets and children was important for engaging these adults in physical activity. The focus group members engaged in walking and bicycling in their neighborhood streets and community trails, and desired to see community buildings be open to the public for exercise. This study revealed contextual issues and culturally relevant language for practitioners to use in tailoring physical activity measurement tools or designing interventions for a rural adult population. Social support (specifically, seeing others being active and using pets as motivators for being active) and policy attitudes may be targeted for interventions to increase physical activity in rural adults. © 2014 Society for Public Health Education.

Environmental Influences on Physical Activity in Rural Midwestern Adults: A Qualitative Approach

PubMed Central

Chrisman, Matthew; Nothwehr, Faryle; Yang, Ginger; Oleson, Jacob

2014-01-01

Qualitative research can be used to examine multiple factors associated with physical activity and help practitioners identify language used by the rural adult population when discussing this behavior. Three focus groups were conducted among 19 residents of multiple towns in a rural Midwestern county to examine the language and influences on rural physical activity. Focus group members were asked to define physical activity, exercise, community, and neighborhood. They were asked about the activities they engaged in and facilitators and barriers to those activities. A guidebook was developed to capture major themes and common patterns that emerged in the responses to the topics discussed. The data were reviewed for repeated statements and points that were agreed on by multiple participants. Important factors associated with physical activity include the importance of social support and modeling physical activity behavior. Also, the influence of pets and children was important for engaging these adults in physical activity. The focus group members engaged in walking and bicycling in their neighborhood streets and community trails, and desired to see community buildings be open to the public for exercise. This study revealed contextual issues and culturally relevant language for practitioners to use in tailoring physical activity measurement tools or designing interventions for a rural adult population. Social support (specifically, seeing others being active and using pets as motivators for being active) and policy attitudes may be targeted for interventions to increase physical activity in rural adults. PMID:24662894

Garrison Institute on Aging: A New Hope for Elderly Individuals and Patients with Alzheimer's Disease.

PubMed

Reddy, P Hemachandra; Blackmon, Joan; Molinar-Lopez, Veronica; Ament, Clay; Manczak, Maria; Kandimalla, Ramesh; Yin, Xianglin; Pandey, Akhilesh; Kuruva, Chandra Sekhar; Wang, Rui; Fry, David; Osborn, Carrah; Stonum, Kathleen; Quesada, Kandi; Gonzales, Ruben; Boles, Annette

2015-01-01

The Garrison Institute on Aging (GIA) is an established institute within Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, whose mission is to promote healthy aging through cutting-edge research on Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other diseases of aging through innovative educational opportunities for students, clinicians, researchers, health care professionals, and the public. The GIA has multiple programs, including both research and education on healthy aging and AD, community outreach, caregiving, the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, Healthy Lubbock, the GIA Brain Bank, healthy aging seminars, research seminars, and collaborations and scholarships. The GIA programs connect basic and clinical researchers and health care professionals, and provide a unique environment to help our growing elderly population and patients with AD and their families.

An environmental scan of emergency response systems and services in remote First Nations communities in Northern Ontario.

PubMed

Mew, E J; Ritchie, S D; VanderBurgh, D; Beardy, J L; Gordon, J; Fortune, M; Mamakwa, S; Orkin, A M

2017-01-01

Approximately 24,000 Ontarians live in remote Indigenous communities with no road access. These communities are a subset of Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN), a political grouping of 49 First Nations communities in Northern Ontario, Canada. Limited information is available regarding the status of emergency care in these communities. We aimed to understand emergency response systems, services, and training in remote NAN communities. We used an environmental scan approach to compile information from multiple sources including community-based participatory research. This included the analysis of data collected from key informant interviews (n=10) with First Nations community health leaders and a multi-stakeholder roundtable meeting (n=33) in October 2013. Qualitative analysis of the interview data revealed four issues related to emergency response systems and training: (1) inequity in response capacity and services, (2) lack of formalised dispatch systems, (3) turnover and burnout in volunteer emergency services, and (4) challenges related to first aid training. Roundtable stakeholders supported the development of a community-based emergency care system to address gaps. Existing first response, paramedical, and ambulance service models do not meet the unique geographical, epidemiological and cultural needs in most NAN communities. Sustainable, context-appropriate, and culturally relevant emergency care systems are needed.

The SCEC Unified Community Velocity Model (UCVM) Software Framework for Distributing and Querying Seismic Velocity Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maechling, P. J.; Taborda, R.; Callaghan, S.; Shaw, J. H.; Plesch, A.; Olsen, K. B.; Jordan, T. H.; Goulet, C. A.

2017-12-01

Crustal seismic velocity models and datasets play a key role in regional three-dimensional numerical earthquake ground-motion simulation, full waveform tomography, modern physics-based probabilistic earthquake hazard analysis, as well as in other related fields including geophysics, seismology, and earthquake engineering. The standard material properties provided by a seismic velocity model are P- and S-wave velocities and density for any arbitrary point within the geographic volume for which the model is defined. Many seismic velocity models and datasets are constructed by synthesizing information from multiple sources and the resulting models are delivered to users in multiple file formats, such as text files, binary files, HDF-5 files, structured and unstructured grids, and through computer applications that allow for interactive querying of material properties. The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) has developed the Unified Community Velocity Model (UCVM) software framework to facilitate the registration and distribution of existing and future seismic velocity models to the SCEC community. The UCVM software framework is designed to provide a standard query interface to multiple, alternative velocity models, even if the underlying velocity models are defined in different formats or use different geographic projections. The UCVM framework provides a comprehensive set of open-source tools for querying seismic velocity model properties, combining regional 3D models and 1D background models, visualizing 3D models, and generating computational models in the form of regular grids or unstructured meshes that can be used as inputs for ground-motion simulations. The UCVM framework helps researchers compare seismic velocity models and build equivalent simulation meshes from alternative velocity models. These capabilities enable researchers to evaluate the impact of alternative velocity models in ground-motion simulations and seismic hazard analysis applications. In this poster, we summarize the key components of the UCVM framework and describe the impact it has had in various computational geoscientific applications.

Setting a research agenda for progressive multiple sclerosis: the International Collaborative on Progressive MS.

PubMed

Fox, Robert J; Thompson, Alan; Baker, David; Baneke, Peer; Brown, Doug; Browne, Paul; Chandraratna, Dhia; Ciccarelli, Olga; Coetzee, Timothy; Comi, Giancarlo; Feinstein, Anthony; Kapoor, Raj; Lee, Karen; Salvetti, Marco; Sharrock, Kersten; Toosy, Ahmed; Zaratin, Paola; Zuidwijk, Kim

2012-11-01

Despite significant progress in the development of therapies for relapsing MS, progressive MS remains comparatively disappointing. Our objective, in this paper, is to review the current challenges in developing therapies for progressive MS and identify key priority areas for research. A collaborative was convened by volunteer and staff leaders from several MS societies with the mission to expedite the development of effective disease-modifying and symptom management therapies for progressive forms of multiple sclerosis. Through a series of scientific and strategic planning meetings, the collaborative identified and developed new perspectives on five key priority areas for research: experimental models, identification and validation of targets and repurposing opportunities, proof-of-concept clinical trial strategies, clinical outcome measures, and symptom management and rehabilitation. Our conclusions, tackling the impediments in developing therapies for progressive MS will require an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach to enable effective translation of research into therapies for progressive MS. Engagement of the MS research community through an international effort is needed to address and fund these research priorities with the ultimate goal of expediting the development of disease-modifying and symptom-relief treatments for progressive MS.

Setting a research agenda for progressive multiple sclerosis: The International Collaborative on Progressive MS

PubMed Central

Thompson, Alan; Baker, David; Baneke, Peer; Brown, Doug; Browne, Paul; Chandraratna, Dhia; Ciccarelli, Olga; Coetzee, Timothy; Comi, Giancarlo; Feinstein, Anthony; Kapoor, Raj; Lee, Karen; Salvetti, Marco; Sharrock, Kersten; Toosy, Ahmed; Zaratin, Paola; Zuidwijk, Kim

2012-01-01

Despite significant progress in the development of therapies for relapsing MS, progressive MS remains comparatively disappointing. Our objective, in this paper, is to review the current challenges in developing therapies for progressive MS and identify key priority areas for research. A collaborative was convened by volunteer and staff leaders from several MS societies with the mission to expedite the development of effective disease-modifying and symptom management therapies for progressive forms of multiple sclerosis. Through a series of scientific and strategic planning meetings, the collaborative identified and developed new perspectives on five key priority areas for research: experimental models, identification and validation of targets and repurposing opportunities, proof-of-concept clinical trial strategies, clinical outcome measures, and symptom management and rehabilitation. Our conclusions, tackling the impediments in developing therapies for progressive MS will require an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach to enable effective translation of research into therapies for progressive MS. Engagement of the MS research community through an international effort is needed to address and fund these research priorities with the ultimate goal of expediting the development of disease-modifying and symptom-relief treatments for progressive MS. PMID:22917690

[Effects of different multiple cropping systems on paddy field weed community under long term paddy-upland rotation].

PubMed

Yang, Bin-Juan; Huang, Guo-Qin; Xu, Ning; Wang, Shu-Bin

2013-09-01

Based on a long term field experiment, this paper studied the effects of different multiple cropping systems on the weed community composition and species diversity under paddy-upland rotation. The multiple cropping rotation systems could significantly decrease weed density and inhibited weed growth. Among the rotation systems, the milk vetch-early rice-late maize --> milk vetchearly maize intercropped with early soybean-late rice (CCSR) had the lowest weed species dominance, which inhibited the dominant weeds and decreased their damage. Under different multiple cropping systems, the main weed community was all composed of Monochoia vaginalis, Echinochloa crusgalli, and Sagittaria pygmae, and the similarity of weed community was higher, with the highest similarity appeared in milk vetch-early rice-late maize intercropped with late soybean --> milk vetch-early maize-late rice (CSCR) and in CCSR. In sum, the multiple cropping rotations in paddy field could inhibit weeds to a certain extent, but attentions should be paid to the damage of some less important weeds.

Is the Alma Ata vision of comprehensive primary health care viable? Findings from an international project

PubMed Central

Labonté, Ronald; Sanders, David; Packer, Corinne; Schaay, Nikki

2014-01-01

Background The 4-year (2007–2011) Revitalizing Health for All international research program (http://www.globalhealthequity.ca/projects/proj_revitalizing/index.shtml) supported 20 research teams located in 15 low- and middle-income countries to explore the strengths and weaknesses of comprehensive primary health care (CPHC) initiatives at their local or national levels. Teams were organized in a triad comprised of a senior researcher, a new researcher, and a ‘research user’ from government, health services, or other organizations with the authority or capacity to apply the research findings. Multiple regional and global team capacity-enhancement meetings were organized to refine methods and to discuss and assess cross-case findings. Objective Most research projects used mixed methods, incorporating analyses of qualitative data (interviews and focus groups), secondary data, and key policy and program documents. Some incorporated historical case study analyses, and a few undertook new surveys. The synthesis of findings in this report was derived through qualitative analysis of final project reports undertaken by three different reviewers. Results Evidence of comprehensiveness (defined in this research program as efforts to improve equity in access, community empowerment and participation, social and environmental health determinants, and intersectoral action) was found in many of the cases. Conclusions Despite the important contextual differences amongst the different country studies, the similarity of many of their findings, often generated using mixed methods, attests to certain transferable health systems characteristics to create and sustain CPHC practices. These include:  Well-trained and supported community health workers (CHWs) able to work effectively with marginalized communities Effective mechanisms for community participation, both informal (through participation in projects and programs, and meaningful consultation) and formal (though program management structures) Co-partnership models in program and policy development (in which financial and knowledge supports from governments or institutions are provided to communities, which retain decision-making powers in program design and implementation) Support for community advocacy and engagement in health and social systems decision making These characteristics, in turn, require a political context that supports state responsibilities for redistributive health and social protection measures. PMID:25150030

Underreporting Discrimination among Arab American and Muslim American Community College Students: Using Focus Groups to Unravel the Ambiguities within the Survey Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shammas, Diane

2017-01-01

Using a mixed methods approach, the researcher gathered a set of narrative responses from focus groups that supported the claim of underreporting campus discrimination on a survey. Multiple studies have shown that underrepresented minority students are likely to bond with same-ethnic peers in a racially tense campus climate. This mixed method is a…

Water Pollution and Leukemia: A Model for Interdisciplinary Research in the Classroom Experiences Incorporating Effective Pedagogical Approaches for Community College General Biology I Lab Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Na; Porter-Morgan, Holly; Doran, Nathan; Keller, Charles

2016-01-01

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education in the United States faces a host of problems including low recruitment and retention in STEM disciplines, under-representation of multiple segments of the US population, and a host of other issues. These problems are well recognized and a variety of solutions are being implemented…

Use of Multiple Imputation to Estimate the Proportion of Respiratory Virus Detections Among Patients Hospitalized With Community-Acquired Pneumonia.

PubMed

Bozio, Catherine H; Flanders, W Dana; Finelli, Lyn; Bramley, Anna M; Reed, Carrie; Gandhi, Neel R; Vidal, Jorge E; Erdman, Dean; Levine, Min Z; Lindstrom, Stephen; Ampofo, Krow; Arnold, Sandra R; Self, Wesley H; Williams, Derek J; Grijalva, Carlos G; Anderson, Evan J; McCullers, Jonathan A; Edwards, Kathryn M; Pavia, Andrew T; Wunderink, Richard G; Jain, Seema

2018-04-01

Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on respiratory specimens and serology on paired blood specimens are used to determine the etiology of respiratory illnesses for research studies. However, convalescent serology is often not collected. We used multiple imputation to assign values for missing serology results to estimate virus-specific prevalence among pediatric and adult community-acquired pneumonia hospitalizations using data from an active population-based surveillance study. Presence of adenoviruses, human metapneumovirus, influenza viruses, parainfluenza virus types 1-3, and respiratory syncytial virus was defined by positive PCR on nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal specimens or a 4-fold rise in paired serology. We performed multiple imputation by developing a multivariable regression model for each virus using data from patients with available serology results. We calculated absolute and relative differences in the proportion of each virus detected comparing the imputed to observed (nonimputed) results. Among 2222 children and 2259 adults, 98.8% and 99.5% had nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal specimens and 43.2% and 37.5% had paired serum specimens, respectively. Imputed results increased viral etiology assignments by an absolute difference of 1.6%-4.4% and 0.8%-2.8% in children and adults, respectively; relative differences were 1.1-3.0 times higher. Multiple imputation can be used when serology results are missing, to refine virus-specific prevalence estimates, and these will likely increase estimates.

Harnessing Connectivity in a Large-Scale Small-Molecule Sensitivity Dataset.

PubMed

Seashore-Ludlow, Brinton; Rees, Matthew G; Cheah, Jaime H; Cokol, Murat; Price, Edmund V; Coletti, Matthew E; Jones, Victor; Bodycombe, Nicole E; Soule, Christian K; Gould, Joshua; Alexander, Benjamin; Li, Ava; Montgomery, Philip; Wawer, Mathias J; Kuru, Nurdan; Kotz, Joanne D; Hon, C Suk-Yee; Munoz, Benito; Liefeld, Ted; Dančík, Vlado; Bittker, Joshua A; Palmer, Michelle; Bradner, James E; Shamji, Alykhan F; Clemons, Paul A; Schreiber, Stuart L

2015-11-01

Identifying genetic alterations that prime a cancer cell to respond to a particular therapeutic agent can facilitate the development of precision cancer medicines. Cancer cell-line (CCL) profiling of small-molecule sensitivity has emerged as an unbiased method to assess the relationships between genetic or cellular features of CCLs and small-molecule response. Here, we developed annotated cluster multidimensional enrichment analysis to explore the associations between groups of small molecules and groups of CCLs in a new, quantitative sensitivity dataset. This analysis reveals insights into small-molecule mechanisms of action, and genomic features that associate with CCL response to small-molecule treatment. We are able to recapitulate known relationships between FDA-approved therapies and cancer dependencies and to uncover new relationships, including for KRAS-mutant cancers and neuroblastoma. To enable the cancer community to explore these data, and to generate novel hypotheses, we created an updated version of the Cancer Therapeutic Response Portal (CTRP v2). We present the largest CCL sensitivity dataset yet available, and an analysis method integrating information from multiple CCLs and multiple small molecules to identify CCL response predictors robustly. We updated the CTRP to enable the cancer research community to leverage these data and analyses. ©2015 American Association for Cancer Research.

Multiple Chronic Condition Combinations and Depression in Community-Dwelling Older Adults.

PubMed

Pruchno, Rachel A; Wilson-Genderson, Maureen; Heid, Allison R

2016-07-01

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently called for a paradigm shift from the study of individual chronic conditions to multiple chronic conditions (MCCs). We identify the most common combinations of chronic diseases experienced by a sample of community-dwelling older people and assess whether depression is differentially associated with combinations of illnesses. Self-reports of diagnosed chronic conditions and depressive symptoms were provided by 5,688 people participating in the ORANJ BOWL(SM) research panel. Each respondent was categorized as belonging to one of 32 groups. ANOVA examined the association between depressive symptoms and combinations of illnesses. People with more health conditions experienced higher levels of depression than people with fewer health conditions. People with some illness combinations had higher levels of depressive symptoms than people with other illness combinations. Findings confirm extensive variability in the combinations of illnesses experienced by older adults and demonstrate the complex associations of specific illness combinations with depressive symptoms. Results highlight the need to expand our conceptualization of research and treatment around MCCs and call for a person-centered approach that addresses the unique needs of individuals with MCCs. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Money Management Activities in Persons With Multiple Sclerosis.

PubMed

Goverover, Yael; Haas, Shannon; DeLuca, John

2016-11-01

To examine whether participants with multiple sclerosis (MS) have more problems in managing finances compared with persons without MS, and to examine the variables that may contribute to these problems. A cross-sectional study. Nonprofit rehabilitation research institution and the community. Participants (N=53) comprised adults with MS (n=30) and persons without MS (n=23) who were recruited from a nonprofit rehabilitation research institution and from the community. Not applicable. Participants were administered a battery of neuropsychological tests, a money management survey, and a functional test to assess money management skills. Individuals with MS reported and demonstrated more problems managing money than persons without MS. Impaired cognitive functioning was significantly correlated with difficulties in money management. Self-report of functional status (Functional Behavior Profile) was significantly correlated with self-reported money management skills. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine money management in MS. Money management is an important activity of daily living that presents problems for individuals with MS. Managing one's own money requires adequate processing speed abilities as well as executive-attentional abilities. Additional studies are needed to explore this area and understand the nature of the problem. Copyright © 2016 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Gene Ontology Consortium: going forward

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

The Gene Ontology (GO; http://www.geneontology.org) is a community-based bioinformatics resource that supplies information about gene product function using ontologies to represent biological knowledge. Here we describe improvements and expansions to several branches of the ontology, as well as updates that have allowed us to more efficiently disseminate the GO and capture feedback from the research community. The Gene Ontology Consortium (GOC) has expanded areas of the ontology such as cilia-related terms, cell-cycle terms and multicellular organism processes. We have also implemented new tools for generating ontology terms based on a set of logical rules making use of templates, and we have made efforts to increase our use of logical definitions. The GOC has a new and improved web site summarizing new developments and documentation, serving as a portal to GO data. Users can perform GO enrichment analysis, and search the GO for terms, annotations to gene products, and associated metadata across multiple species using the all-new AmiGO 2 browser. We encourage and welcome the input of the research community in all biological areas in our continued effort to improve the Gene Ontology. PMID:25428369

A Flight Research Overview of WSPR, a Pilot Project for Sonic Boom Community Response

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cliatt, Larry James; Haering, Ed; Jones, Thomas P.; Waggoner, Erin R.; Flattery, Ashley K.; Wiley, Scott L.

2014-01-01

In support of NASAs ongoing effort to bring supersonic commercial travel to the public, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center and NASA Langley Research Center, in cooperation with other industry organizations, conducted a flight research experiment to identify the methods, tools, and best practices for a large-scale quiet (or low) sonic boom community human response test. The name of the effort was Waveforms and Sonic boom Perception and Response. Such tests will go towards building a dataset that governing agencies like the Federal Aviation Administration and International Civil Aviation Organization will use to establish regulations for acceptable sound levels of overland sonic booms. Until WSPR, there had never been an effort that studied the response of people in their own homes and performing daily activities to non-traditional, low sonic booms.WSPR was a NASA collaborative effort with several industry partners, in response to a NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Research Opportunities in Aeronautics. The primary contractor was Wyle. Other partners included Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, Pennsylvania State University, Tetra Tech, and Fidell Associates, Inc.A major objective of the effort included exposing a community with the sonic boom magnitudes and occurrences expected in high-air traffic regions with a network of supersonic commercial aircraft in place. Low-level sonic booms designed to simulate those produced by the next generation of commercial supersonic aircraft were generated over a small residential community. The sonic boom footprint was recorded with an autonomous wireless microphone array that spanned the entire community. Human response data was collected using multiple survey methods. The research focused on essential elements of community response testing including subject recruitment, survey methods, instrumentation systems, flight planning and operations, and data analysis methods.This paper focuses on NASAs role in the efforts logistics and operations including human response subject recruitment, the operational processes involved in implementing the surveys throughout the community, instrumentation systems, logistics, flight planning, and flight operations. Findings discussed in this paper include critical lessons learned in all of those areas. The paper also discusses flight operations results. Analysis of the accuracy and repeatability of planning and executing the unique aircraft maneuver used to generate low sonic booms concluded that the sonic booms had overpressures within 0.15 pounds-per-square-feet of the planned values for 76 of t he attempts. Similarly, 90 of the attempts to generate low sonic booms within the community were successful.

Mississippi Communities for Healthy Living: Results of a 6-Month Nutrition Education Comparative Effectiveness Trial

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Landry, Alicia S.; Thomson, Jessica L.; Huye, Holly F.; Yadrick, Kathy; Connell, Carol L.

2017-01-01

Background: Improving the diet of communities experiencing health inequities can be challenging given that multiple dietary components are low in quality. Mississippi Communities for Healthy Living was designed to test the comparative effectiveness of nutrition education using a single- versus multiple-message approach to improve the diet of adult…

Development and Use of Health-Related Technologies in Indigenous Communities: Critical Review.

PubMed

Jones, Louise; Jacklin, Kristen; O'Connell, Megan E

2017-07-20

Older Indigenous adults encounter multiple challenges as their age intersects with health inequities. Research suggests that a majority of older Indigenous adults prefer to age in place, and they will need culturally safe assistive technologies to do so. The aim of this critical review was to examine literature concerning use, adaptation, and development of assistive technologies for health purposes by Indigenous peoples. Working within Indigenous research methodologies and from a decolonizing approach, searches of peer-reviewed academic and gray literature dated to February 2016 were conducted using keywords related to assistive technology and Indigenous peoples. Sources were reviewed and coded thematically. Of the 34 sources captured, only 2 concerned technology specifically for older Indigenous adults. Studies detailing technology with Indigenous populations of all ages originated primarily from Canada (n=12), Australia (n=10), and the United States (n=9) and were coded to four themes: meaningful user involvement and community-based processes in development, the digital divide, Indigenous innovation in technology, and health technology needs as holistic and interdependent. A key finding is the necessity of meaningful user involvement in technology development, especially in communities struggling with the digital divide. In spite of, or perhaps because of this divide, Indigenous communities are enthusiastically adapting mobile technologies to suit their needs in creative, culturally specific ways. This enthusiasm and creativity, coupled with the extensive experience many Indigenous communities have with telehealth technologies, presents opportunity for meaningful, culturally safe development processes. ©Louise Jones, Kristen Jacklin, Megan E O'Connell. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 20.07.2017.

Community assembly rules affect the diversity of expanding communities.

PubMed

Peng, Zechen; Zhou, Shurong

2014-11-01

Despite centuries of interest in species range limits, few studies have taken a whole community into consideration. Actually, multiple species may simultaneously respond to environmental changes, for example, global warming, leading a series of dynamical communities toward the advancing front. We investigated multiple species range expansions through the analysis of a two-species dispersion model and simulations of multiple species assemblages regulated by neutral and fecundity-survival trade-offs (FSTs), respectively, and found that species assemblages regulated by different mechanisms would initiate different expanding patterns in geographic ranges in response to environmental changes. The neutral model generally predicts a higher biodiversity near the core of an expanding range, and a lower community similarity compared with a FST model. Without considering the evolution of life history traits, an assortment of the reproduction ability happens at the advancing front under FSTs at the expense of a higher death rate or lower competitive ability. These results emphasize the importance of community assembly rules to the biodiversity maintenance of range expanding communities.

The history and visions of African American psychology: multiple pathways to place, space, and authority.

PubMed

Holliday, Bertha Garrett

2009-10-01

The author describes the multiple pathways of events and strategies that served to nurture African American psychology in the United States. Special attention is given to strategies for inclusion and empowerment used in 4 psychological professional and scholarly associations: the American Counseling Association, the American Psychological Association, the Association of Black Psychologists, and the Society for Research in Child Development. In addition, the author describes 4 major intellectual traditions that informed not only the strategies of inclusion but also the theoretical, research, and intervention perspectives and other professional and academic efforts of African American psychologists. Those perspectives are the Afrocentric/African-centered tradition derived from longstanding nationalist/Pan-African and culturally centered traditions within African American communities; the social contextual/multidisciplinary research tradition of the University of Chicago School of Social Science; the empirical social science research tradition of the University of Michigan; and the Black scholar/activist tradition of Howard University. This article also presents a chronological timeline of major events in the history of African American psychology. Copyright 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

The importance of family and community support for the health of HIV-affected populations in Southern Africa: what do we know and where to from here?

PubMed

Casale, Marisa

2015-02-01

Informal family and community support deriving from social relations can play an important role in protecting mental and physical health in resource-scarce contexts and may help facilitate health service access and uptake. Yet, to date, there has been surprisingly little empirical research investigating the role of social support as a resource for health in HIV-affected Southern African communities, despite the known importance of social connectedness, high rates of physical and mental health conditions, and existing 'treatment gaps'. This paper brings together and discusses findings of multiple linked analyses, from the first large-scale explanatory sequential mixed methods research investigating the relationship between social support and health with caregiver populations in HIV-endemic South Africa. Overall, findings highlight the protective role of social support for caregiver mental health, the multiple perceived psychological and behavioural mechanisms possibly explaining the relationship between social support and both mental and physical health, and gender differences in the provision, effects, and availability of support. Drawing from these findings and the broader literature, four potential foci for future research in Southern Africa are identified and discussed, as are implications for research design and methodologies. These involve achieving a better understanding of the following: The pathways and processes explaining common and differential effects of social support across different population groups; the potential protective role of social support for physical health; and the role of factors such as gender and social and cultural norms in shaping the relationship between social support and health. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Mental and physical health are closely related. HIV increases the risk of mental health conditions. Studies mainly from high-income countries have shown social relations and support to be protective of health. What does this study add? First mixed methods research of this dimension on social support and health in Southern Africa. Highlights importance of social support for mental health among caregivers of children in HIV-endemic South Africa. Points to biological and psychological pathways explaining the support-health relationship in this sample. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

Student perceptions of a community engagement experience: exploration of reflections on social responsibility and professional formation.

PubMed

Furze, Jennifer; Black, Lisa; Peck, Kirk; Jensen, Gail M

2011-08-01

Physical therapy educators are challenged to emphasize the importance of social responsibility as a vital curricular element of professional development. Through reflection, students are able to identify core values, beliefs, and attitudes as part of the professional development process. The purpose of this study was to explore student perceptions and values of a community engagement experience based upon frequency of participation. This qualitative research report investigated student perceptions of the community experience following participation. Data collection tools included an open-ended questionnaire and focus group interviews. Comparisons were made across data for participants who engaged in the activity one time versus multiple times. Data analysis revealed participation in the community engagement experience had a positive impact on most participants. One time only participants demonstrated increased self-awareness, contemplating change, and capacity to serve while more than one time participants described a deeper understanding of community, impact on others, and professional transformation. Student involvement in community engagement activities combined with structured reflection provided meaningful insight into participants' personal beliefs. The results suggest incorporation of community-based learning experiences into academic curriculum may be beneficial in the students' preliminary understanding of social responsibility.

Identifying Perceived Neighborhood Stressors Across Diverse Communities in New York City.

PubMed

Shmool, Jessie L C; Yonas, Michael A; Newman, Ogonnaya Dotson; Kubzansky, Laura D; Joseph, Evelyn; Parks, Ana; Callaway, Charles; Chubb, Lauren G; Shepard, Peggy; Clougherty, Jane E

2015-09-01

There is growing interest in the role of psychosocial stress in health disparities. Identifying which social stressors are most important to community residents is critical for accurately incorporating stressor exposures into health research. Using a community-academic partnered approach, we designed a multi-community study across the five boroughs of New York City to characterize resident perceptions of key neighborhood stressors. We conducted 14 community focus groups; two to three in each borough, with one adolescent group and one Spanish-speaking group per borough. We then used systematic content analysis and participant ranking data to describe prominent neighborhood stressors and identify dominant themes. Three inter-related themes regarding the social and structural sources of stressful experiences were most commonly identified across neighborhoods: (1) physical disorder and perceived neglect, (2) harassment by police and perceived safety and (3) gentrification and racial discrimination. Our findings suggest that multiple sources of distress, including social, political, physical and economic factors, should be considered when investigating health effects of community stressor exposures and psychological distress. Community expertise is essential for comprehensively characterizing the range of neighborhood stressors that may be implicated in psychosocial exposure pathways.

Theory and Metrics of Community Resilience: A Systematic Literature Review Based on Public Health Guidelines.

PubMed

Zamboni, Lucila M

2017-12-01

A systematic literature review on quantitative methods to assess community resilience was conducted following Institute of Medicine and Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute standards. Community resilience is the ability of a community to bounce back or return to normal after a disaster strikes, yet there is no agreement on what this actually means. All studies reviewed addressed natural disasters, but the methodological approaches can be applied to technological disasters, epidemics, and terrorist attacks. Theoretical frameworks consider the association between vulnerability, resilience, and preparedness, yet these associations vary across frameworks. Because of this complexity, indexes based on composite indicators are the predominant methodological tool used to assess community resilience. Indexes identify similar dimensions but observe resilience at both the individual and geographical levels, reflecting a lack of agreement on what constitutes a community. A consistent, cross-disciplinary metric for community resilience would allow for identifying areas to apply short-term versus long-term interventions. A comparable metric for assessing geographic units in multiple levels and dimensions is an opportunity to identify regional strengths and weaknesses, develop timely targeted policy interventions, improve policy evaluation instruments, and grant allocation formulas design. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:756-763).

Making big communities small: using network science to understand the ecological and behavioral requirements for community social capital.

PubMed

Neal, Zachary

2015-06-01

The concept of social capital is becoming increasingly common in community psychology and elsewhere. However, the multiple conceptual and operational definitions of social capital challenge its utility as a theoretical tool. The goals of this paper are to clarify two forms of social capital (bridging and bonding), explicitly link them to the structural characteristics of small world networks, and explore the behavioral and ecological prerequisites of its formation. First, I use the tools of network science and specifically the concept of small-world networks to clarify what patterns of social relationships are likely to facilitate social capital formation. Second, I use an agent-based model to explore how different ecological characteristics (diversity and segregation) and behavioral tendencies (homophily and proximity) impact communities' potential for developing social capital. The results suggest diverse communities have the greatest potential to develop community social capital, and that segregation moderates the effects that the behavioral tendencies of homophily and proximity have on community social capital. The discussion highlights how these findings provide community-based researchers with both a deeper understanding of the contextual constraints with which they must contend, and a useful tool for targeting their efforts in communities with the greatest need or greatest potential.

A Community Assessment Tool for Education Resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hou, C. Y.; Soyka, H.; Hutchison, V.; Budden, A. E.

2016-12-01

In order to facilitate and enhance better understanding of how to conserve life on earth and the environment that sustains it, Data Observation Network for Earth (DataONE) develops, implements, and shares educational activities and materials as part of its commitment to the education of its community, including scientific researchers, educators, and the public. Creating and maintaining educational materials that remain responsive to community needs is reliant on careful evaluations in order to enhance current and future resources. DataONE's extensive collaboration with individuals and organizations has informed the development of its educational resources and through these interactions, the need for a comprehensive, customizable education evaluation instrument became apparent. In this presentation, the authors will briefly describe the design requirements and research behind a prototype instrument that is intended to be used by the community for evaluation of its educational activities and resources. We will then demonstrate the functionality of a web based platform that enables users to identify the type of educational activity across multiple axes. This results in a set of structured evaluation questions that can be included in a survey instrument. Users can also access supporting documentation describing the types of question included in the output or simply download a full editable instrument. Our aim is that by providing the community with access to a structured evaluation instrument, Earth/Geoscience educators will be able to gather feedback easily and efficiently in order to help maintain the quality, currency/relevancy, and value of their resources, and ultimately, support a more data literate community.

Energy Evaluation of a New Construction Pilot Community: Fresno, California

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Burdick, A.; Poerschke, A.; Rapport, A.

2014-06-01

A new construction pilot community was constructed by builder-partner Wathen-Castanos Hybrid Homes (WCHH) based on a single occupied test house that was designed to achieve greater than 30% energy savings with respect to the House Simulation Protocols (Hendron, Robert; Engebrecht, Cheryn (2010). Building America House Simulation Protocols. Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory). Builders face several key problems when implementing a whole-house systems integrated measures package (SIMP) from a single test house into multiple houses. Although a technical solution already may have been evaluated and validated in an individual test house, the potential exists for constructability failures at the communitymore » scale. This report addresses factors of implementation and scalability at the community scale and proposes methodologies by which community-scale energy evaluations can be performed based on results at the occupied test house level. Research focused on the builder and trade implementation of a SIMP and the actual utility usage in the houses at the community scale of production. Five occupants participated in this community-scale research by providing utility bills and information on occupancy and miscellaneous gas and electric appliance use for their houses. IBACOS used these utility data and background information to analyze the actual energy performance of the houses. Verification with measured data is an important component in predictive energy modeling. The actual utility bill readings were compared to projected energy consumption using BEopt with actual weather and thermostat set points for normalization.« less

Emotional insecurity in the family and community and youth delinquency in Northern Ireland: a person-oriented analysis across five waves

PubMed Central

Cummings, E. Mark; Taylor, Laura K.; Merrilees, Christine E.; Goeke-Morey, Marcie C.; Shirlow, Peter

2015-01-01

Background Over one billion children are exposed worldwide to political violence and armed conflict. Currently, conclusions about bases for adjustment problems are qualified by limited longitudinal research from a process-oriented, social-ecological perspective. In this study, we examined a theoretically-based model for the impact of multiple levels of the social ecology (family, community) on adolescent delinquency. Specifically, this study explored the impact of children's emotional insecurity about both the family and community on youth delinquency in Northern Ireland. Methods In the context of a five-wave longitudinal research design, participants included 999 mother–child dyads in Belfast (482 boys, 517 girls), drawn from socially-deprived, ethnically-homogenous areas that had experienced political violence. Youth ranged in age from 10 to 20 and were 12.18 (SD = 1.82) years old on average at Time 1. Findings The longitudinal analyses were conducted in hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), allowing for the modeling of interindividual differences in intraindividual change. Intraindividual trajectories of emotional insecurity about the family related to children's delinquency. Greater insecurity about the community worsened the impact of family conflict on youth's insecurity about the family, consistent with the notion that youth's insecurity about the community sensitizes them to exposure to family conflict in the home. Conclusions The results suggest that ameliorating children's insecurity about family and community in contexts of political violence is an important goal toward improving adolescents' well-being, including reduced risk for delinquency. PMID:25981614

Building America Case Study: Low-Cost Evaluation of Energy Savings at the Community Scale, Fresno, California (Fact Sheet)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

2014-10-01

A new construction pilot community was constructed by builder-partner Wathen-Castanos Hybrid Homes (WCHH) based on a single occupied test house that was designed to achieve greater than 30% energy savings with respect to the House Simulation Protocols (Hendron, Robert; Engebrecht, Cheryn (2010). Building America House Simulation Protocols. Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory.). Builders face several key problems when implementing a whole-house systems integrated measures package (SIMP) from a single test house into multiple houses. Although a technical solution already may have been evaluated and validated in an individual test house, the potential exists for constructability failures at the communitymore » scale. This report addresses factors of implementation and scalability at the community scale and proposes methodologies by which community-scale energy evaluations can be performed based on results at the occupied test house level. Research focused on the builder and trade implementation of a SIMP and the actual utility usage in the houses at the community scale of production. Five occupants participated in this community-scale research by providing utility bills and information on occupancy and miscellaneous gas and electric appliance use for their houses. IBACOS used these utility data and background information to analyze the actual energy performance of the houses. Verification with measured data is an important component in predictive energy modeling. The actual utility bill readings were compared to projected energy consumption using BEopt with actual weather and thermostat set points for normalization.« less