The resilience activation framework: a conceptual model of how access to social resources promotes adaptation and rapid recovery in post-disaster settings.

A number of governmental agencies have called for enhancing citizens' resilience as a means of preparing populations in advance of disasters, and as a counterbalance to social and individual vulnerabilities. This increasing scholarly, policy, and programmatic interest in promoting individual and communal resilience presents a challenge to the research and practice communities: to develop a translational framework that can accommodate multidisciplinary scientific perspectives into a single, applied model. The Resilience Activation Framework provides a basis for testing how access to social resources, such as formal and informal social support and help, promotes positive adaptation or reduced psychopathology among individuals and communities exposed to the acute collective stressors associated with disasters, whether human-made, natural, or technological in origin.

Reproductive Health Assessment After Disasters: embedding a toolkit within the disaster management workforce to address health inequalities among Gulf-Coast women.

Gulf Coast women are especially vulnerable to the effects of disaster and for many this vulnerability is compounded by existing poor health-related quality of life. Post-Hurricane Isaac, a baseline survey battery utilizing the Reproductive Health Assessment After Disasters (RHAD) Toolkit, the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey, and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale were used quantitatively to assess reproductive health risks, services, and outcomes and to explore the psychosocial effects of disaster among pregnant and postpartum women aged 18-45 years (N=300). The pilot study included trained community health workers and patient navigators to implement a community needs assessment in Southeast Louisiana.

Serum aminotransferase levels are associated with markers of hypoxia in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

Study Objectives: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a disorder that often presents with elevated serum aminotransferase levels. Although it has classically been linked with the metabolic syndrome, recent studies suggest NAFLD may also be associated with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). This study evaluates the association between serum aminotransferase levels and factors connected with: either the metabolic syndrome (elevated body mass index [BMI], lipid profile, blood pressure, fasting glucose), or with OSA severity (apnea hypopnea index, lowest oxygen saturation level, oxygen desaturation index, percent of time below 90% saturation [%T<90]).