Study protocol: Exploring the use of Family Health Histories in the African American community to reduce health disparities in Flint, Michigan.

Background: Health disparities are costly and preventable differences in disease progression that disproportionately affect minority communities such as African Americans. Practices to reduce health disparities can be rooted in prevention, particularly through screening tools. Family Health History tools are preventative screening mechanisms meant to explore family history to better understand how an individual's health can potentially be predicted or impacted.

Non-traumatic head and neck emergencies.

This review aims to provide pictorial examples of non-traumatic head and neck emergencies one may commonly encounter in the Emergency Department, with a few important, rarer cases for educational purposes. It begins with a brief introduction to compartmental neck space anatomy and how one might approach choosing an imaging modality, moving on to consider a variety of predominantly infective pathologies that may present acutely. It is not a comprehensive overview of all non-traumatic emergencies but will hopefully stimulate interest in the subject and encourage further reading.

Developing relevant assessments of community-engaged research partnerships: A community-based participatory approach to evaluating clinical and health research study teams.

Background/objective: In 2017, the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research (MICHR) and community partners in Flint, Michigan collaborated to launch a research funding program and evaluate the dynamics of those research partnerships receiving funding. While validated assessments for community-engaged research (CEnR) partnerships were available, the study team found none sufficiently relevant to conducting CEnR in the context of the work. MICHR faculty and staff along with community partners living and working in Flint used a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to develop and administer a locally relevant assessment of CEnR partnerships that were active in Flint in 2019 and 2021.

Perspectives from a Predominantly African American Community about Biobank Research and a Biobank Consent Form.

Minority populations have been underrepresented in clinical trials, as well as in research biobanks that are created to conduct research with participants' biospecimens and related medical and research data. Biobank research raises issues about informed consent and privacy and the confidentiality of participants' personal data. Our study involved three focus groups of 10 adults each that were conducted in a medically underserved, predominantly African American community to elucidate questions and concerns regarding an institutional biobank.

Creating and Implementing a Nurse Mentoring Program: A Team Approach.

This article describes a team approach to developing an evidence-based mentoring program for nurses at a major academic medical center. The center's nursing leadership empowered nurses to design and implement a program that supports staff engagement and professional development. This structured, collaborative process resulted in an innovative mentoring program that is aligned with the organizational culture and practices.

A Real-Time Multiplexed Microbial Growth Intervalometer for Capturing High-Resolution Growth Curves.

Batch cultures are a low maintenance and routine culturing method in microbiology. Automated tools that measure growth curves from microorganisms grown in traditional laboratory glassware, such as Balch-type tubes, are not commercially available. Here, we present a new MicrobiAl Growth Intervalometer (MAGI) that measures optical density as it correlates to microbial growth by utilizing photo-conduction as opposed to photo-attenuation used by traditional OD measurement equipment.

Resource Concentration Modulates the Fate of Dissimilated Nitrogen in a Dual-Pathway Actinobacterium.

Respiratory ammonification and denitrification are two evolutionarily unrelated dissimilatory nitrogen (N) processes central to the global N cycle, the activity of which is thought to be controlled by carbon (C) to nitrate (NO ) ratio. Here we find that C5, a novel dual-pathway denitrifier/respiratory ammonifier, disproportionately utilizes ammonification rather than denitrification when grown under low C concentrations, even at low C:NO ratios. This finding is in conflict with the paradigm that high C:NO ratios promote ammonification and low C:NO ratios promote denitrification.

Community Experiences and Perceptions of Clinical and Translational Research and Researchers.

Background: Engaging communities in research is increasingly recognized as critical to translation of research into improved health outcomes. Our objective was to understand community stakeholders' perspectives on researchers, academic institutions, and how community is valued in research.

Methods: A 45-item survey assessing experiences and perceptions of research (trust, community value, equity, researcher preparedness, and indicators of successful engagement) was distributed to 226 community members involved in health research with academic institutions.

"I think that's all a lie…I think It's genocide": Applying a Critical Race Praxis to Youth Perceptions of Flint Water Contamination.

Background: In April 2014, the emergency manager of Flint, Michigan switched the city's water supplier from Detroit's water department to the Flint River. The change in water source resulted in the Flint Water Crisis (FWC) in which lead (Pb) from the city's network of old pipes leached into residents' tap water. Residents of Flint reported concerns about the water to officials; however, the concerns were ignored for more than a year.

Moderating Effect of Residential History on the Effects of a Fatherhood Program on Parenting Skills Satisfaction among Nonresident African American Fathers.

Nonresident African American (AA) fathers sometimes face challenges to achieving satisfaction with their parenting skills, which may inhibit their motivations for parenting. Studies have found that residential history of fathers is associated with parental involvement; however, current fatherhood programs rarely consider the influence of different residential history on fathering. In the current study, we examined whether nonresident AA fathers' residential history with their sons moderated their parenting skills satisfaction after participating in the Fathers and Sons Program.

Improving paranasal sinus computed tomography reporting prior to functional endoscopic sinus surgery - an ENT-UK panel perspective.

Background: Functional endoscopic sinus surgery is recognised to have a significant complication profile (e.g. blindness, cerebrospinal fluid leak and intracranial sepsis).

Perceptions of Graduating Health Professional Students of Their Interprofessional Education Experiences during Pre-Licensure Education.

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to identify graduating students' perspectives on what makes prelicensure interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional collaboration (IPC) experiences valuable and effective and to identify other opportunities for effective IPE. We conducted telephone interviews with 12 students in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and physiotherapy during their final year of training and thematically analyzed the verbatim transcripts. We found factors that make existing IPE experiences valuable and effective and could facilitate leverage of other curricular opportunities include: 1) experiential learning in clinical and classroom contexts, 2) relevancy of the IPE experiences, 3) opportunities for role clarification, 4) supervisors' influence (e.

The role of radiology in active middle ear implantation.

Active middle ear implants (AMEIs) have been available for a number of years and yet most radiologists have never heard of them. Some bear a striking resemblance to cochlear implants whereas others are more similar to conventional hearing aids. The aims of this review are to provide an introduction as to the types of implants available, how they work and when they are indicated.

Nonresident African-American fathers' influence on sons' exercise intentions in the fathers and sons program.

Purpose: To test the effects of a family-centered intervention for enhancing intentions to exercise among African-American boys with nonresident fathers.

Design: Quasi-experimental, intervention study.

Setting: Two Midwestern cities.

Pathways to prevention: improving nonresident African American fathers' parenting skills and behaviors to reduce sons' aggression.

This study describes a test of the Fathers and Sons Program for increasing intentions to avoid violence and reducing aggressive behaviors in 8- to 12-year-old African American boys by enhancing the parenting skills satisfaction and parenting behaviors of their nonresident fathers. The study included 158 intervention and 129 comparison group families. Structural equation model results indicated that the intervention was effective for improving fathers' parenting skills satisfaction, which was positively associated with sons' satisfaction with paternal engagement.

Tensions in informed self-assessment: how the desire for feedback and reticence to collect and use it can conflict.

Purpose: Informed self-assessment describes the set of processes through which individuals use external and internal data to generate an appraisal of their own abilities. The purpose of this project was to explore the tensions described by learners and professionals when informing their self-assessments of clinical performance.

Method: This 2008 qualitative study was guided by principles of grounded theory.

Features of assessment learners use to make informed self-assessments of clinical performance.

Context: Conceptualisations of self-assessment are changing as its role in professional development comes to be viewed more broadly as needing to be both externally and internally informed through activities that enable access to and the interpretation and integration of data from external sources. Education programmes use various activities to promote learners' reflection and self-direction, yet we know little about how effective these activities are in 'informing' learners' self-assessments.

Objectives: This study aimed to increase understanding of the specific ways in which undergraduate and postgraduate learners used learning and assessment activities to inform self-assessments of their clinical performance.

Factors influencing responsiveness to feedback: on the interplay between fear, confidence, and reasoning processes.

Self-appraisal has repeatedly been shown to be inadequate as a mechanism for performance improvement. This has placed greater emphasis on understanding the processes through which self-perception and external feedback interact to influence professional development. As feedback is inevitably interpreted through the lens of one's self-perceptions it is important to understand how learners interpret, accept, and use feedback (or not) and the factors that influence those interpretations.

Feedback data sources that inform physician self-assessment.

Background: Self-assessment is a process of interpreting data about one's performance and comparing it to explicit or implicit standards.

Aim: To examine the external data sources physicians used to monitor themselves.

Methods: Focus groups were conducted with physicians who participated in three practice improvement activities: a multisource feedback program; a program providing patient and chart audit data; and practice-based learning groups.

The processes and dimensions of informed self-assessment: a conceptual model.

Purpose: To determine how learners and physicians engaged in various structured interventions to inform self-assessment, how they perceived and used self-assessment in clinical learning and practice, and the components and processes comprising informed self-assessment and factors that influence these.

Method: This was a qualitative study guided by principles of grounded theory. Using purposive sampling, eight programs were selected in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Belgium, representing low, medium, and high degrees of structure/rigor in self-assessment activities.

Enhancing parenting skills among nonresident African American fathers as a strategy for preventing youth risky behaviors.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a theoretically based, culturally specific family intervention designed to prevent youth risky behaviors by influencing the parenting attitudes and behaviors of nonresident African American fathers and the parent-child interactions, intentions to avoid violence, and aggressive behaviors of their preadolescent sons. A sample of 158 intervention and 129 comparison group families participated. ANCOVA results indicated that the intervention was promising for enhancing parental monitoring, communication about sex, intentions to communicate, race-related socialization practices, and parenting skills satisfaction among fathers.

Recurrent syncope and chronic ear pain.

An elderly gentleman presented to hospital with recurrent blackout episodes consistent with syncope and a 3-month history of right ear pain. Significant postural hypotension was recorded. White cell count and C reactive protein were elevated.

Repressive and non-repressive chromatin at native telomeres in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Background: In Saccharomyces cerevisiae genes that are located close to a telomere can become transcriptionally repressed by an epigenetic process known as telomere position effect. There is large variation in the level of the telomere position effect among telomeres, with many native ends exhibiting little repression.

Results: Chromatin analysis, using microccocal nuclease and indirect end labelling, reveals distinct patterns for ends with different silencing states.