Development & Evaluation of a Teaching Assistant Institute to Build Near-Peer Teaching Capacity in Delivering Inclusive Public Health Education.

Teaching assistants (TAs) play a significant role in students' learning environment and experience but receive limited training in the non-curricular aspects of teaching and student support. Graduate students frequently engage in near-peer teaching, with student teachers with one or more years' experience compared to learners engaged in a structured teaching role. Academic institutions may perpetuate racism and its effects on health through institutional norms and pedagogy; training TAs to foster inclusive learning environments is therefore essential.

Incorporating Aeroallergen Exposure Metrics into Clinical Asthma Care: A Pilot Study Using A Mixed-Methods Survey to Assess Aeroallergen Knowledge, Perceived Asthma Control, and Mitigation Strategies in Households of Children with Asthma.

Mitigation of household allergens is associated with the reduction of asthma exacerbations in those with allergic asthma and is recommended in recent asthma guidelines. However, we need to better understand patient knowledge of aeroallergens in their homes prior to integrating direct allergen measurement methods into standard asthma care. We conducted a mixed-methods sequential pilot study consisting of a survey and virtual interview with caregivers of children aged 3 to 15 with asthma diagnosis (any severity) about asthma control, household environment, mitigation knowledge and strategies, and knowledge of allergens and asthma.

DFT electronic structure investigation of chromium ion-implanted cupric oxide thin films dedicated for photovoltaic absorber layers.

This study explores the enhancement of cupric oxide (CuO) thin films for photovoltaic applications through chromium doping and subsequent annealing. Thin films of CuO were deposited on silicon and glass substrates using reactive magnetron sputtering. Chromium was introduced via ion implantation, and samples were annealed to restore the crystal structure.

Extracellular Vesicle-Encapsulated microRNAs and Respiratory Health Among American Indian Participants in the Strong Heart Study.

Background: American Indian populations have experienced marked disparities in respiratory disease burden. Extracellular vesicle-encapsulated microRNAs (EV-miRNAs) are a novel class of biomarkers that may improve recognition of lung damage in indigenous populations in the United States.

Research Question: Are plasma EV-miRNAs viable biomarkers of respiratory health in American Indian populations?

Study Design And Methods: The Strong Heart Study is a prospective cohort study that enrolled American Indian patients aged 45 to 74 years.

Home and school pollutant exposure, respiratory outcomes, and influence of historical redlining.

Background: The discriminatory and racist policy of historical redlining in the United States during the 1930s played a role in perpetuating contemporary environmental health disparities.

Objective: Our objectives were to determine associations between home and school pollutant exposure (fine particulate matter [PM], NO) and respiratory outcomes (Composite Asthma Severity Index, lung function) among school-aged children with asthma and examine whether associations differed between children who resided and/or attended school in historically redlined compared to non-redlined neighborhoods.

Methods: Children ages 6 to 17 with moderate-to-severe asthma (N = 240) from 9 US cities were included.

Rhinorrhea and watery eyes in infancy and risk of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in school-age children.

Increased parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity is associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) inattentive symptoms, but not hyperactive-impulsive symptoms, and may contribute to inattentive subtype etiology. Guided by prior work linking infant rhinorrhea and watery eyes without a cold (RWWC) to PNS dysregulation, we examined associations between infant RWWC and childhood ADHD symptoms in a longitudinal cohort of Black and Latinx children living in the context of economic disadvantage (N = 301 youth: 158 females, 143 males). Infant RWWC predicted higher inattentive (relative risk [RR] 2.

In Utero Exposure to Alcohol and Tobacco and Electroencephalogram Power During Childhood.

Importance: Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and prenatal tobacco exposure (PTE) are risk factors associated with adverse neurobehavioral and cognitive outcomes.

Objective: To quantify long-term associations of PAE and PTE with brain activity in early and middle childhood via electroencephalography (EEG).

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cohort study included participants enrolled in the Safe Passage Study (August 2007 to January 2015), from which a subset of 649 participants were followed up in the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes Program.

Household Air Pollution and Child Lung Function: The Ghana Randomized Air Pollution and Health Study.

The impact of a household air pollution (HAP) stove intervention on child lung function has been poorly described. To assess the effect of a HAP stove intervention for infants prenatally to age 1 on, and exposure-response associations with, lung function at child age 4. The Ghana Randomized Air Pollution and Health Study randomized pregnant women to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), improved biomass, or open-fire (control) stove conditions through child age 1.

Associations between mitochondrial biomarkers, urban residential exposures and childhood asthma outcomes over 6 months.

Determining biomarkers of responses to environmental exposures and evaluating whether they predict respiratory outcomes may help optimize environmental and medical approaches to childhood asthma. Relative mitochondrial (mt) DNA abundance and other potential mitochondrial indicators of oxidative stress may provide a sensitive metric of the child's shifting molecular responses to its changing environment. We leveraged two urban childhood cohorts (Environmental Control as Add-on Therapy in Childhood Asthma (ECATCh); Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH)) to ascertain whether biomarkers in buccal mtDNA associate with airway inflammation and altered lung function over 6 months of time and capture biologic responses to multiple external stressors such as indoor allergens and fine particulate matter (PM).

Fungal diversity in homes and asthma morbidity among school-age children in New York City.

Background: Asthma development has been inversely associated with exposure to fungal diversity. However, the influence of fungi on measures of asthma morbidity is not well understood.

Objectives: This study aimed to test the hypothesis that fungal diversity is inversely associated with neighborhood asthma prevalence and identify specific fungal species associated with asthma morbidity.

Neonatal rhinorrhea, heart rate variability, and childhood exercise-induced wheeze.

Background: There is increasing evidence linking infant rhinorrhea to school-age exercise-induced wheeze (EIW) via a parasympathetic nervous system pathway. The ratio of the root mean square of successive differences in heart beats (RMSSD) measured in quiet sleep versus active sleep (RMSSD) is a novel biomarker in asthma.

Objective: We tested the hypotheses that (1) neonatal rhinorrhea predicts childhood EIW independent of other neonatal respiratory symptoms, (2) neonatal RMSSD predicts childhood EIW, and (3) RMSSD mediates the association between neonatal rhinorrhea and childhood EIW.

Influence of proton irradiation on the magnetic properties of two-dimensional Ni(II) molecular magnet.

The influence of 1.9 MeV proton irradiation on structural and magnetic properties has been explored in the two-dimensional (2D) NiSO(1,3-phenylenediamine) coordination ferrimagnet. The X-ray powder diffraction and IR spectroscopy revealed that the octahedrons with Ni ion in the center remain unchanged regardless of the fluence a sample received.

Spring is associated with increased total and allergenic fungal concentrations in house dust from a pediatric asthma cohort in New York City.

Introduction: Asthma and allergy symptoms vary seasonally due to exposure to environmental sources of allergen, including fungi. However, we need an improved understanding of seasonal influence on fungal exposures in the indoor environment. We hypothesized that concentrations of total fungi and allergenic species in vacuumed dust vary significantly by season.

Incidence rates of childhood asthma with recurrent exacerbations in the US Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program.

Background: Descriptive epidemiological data on incidence rates (IRs) of asthma with recurrent exacerbations (ARE) are sparse.

Objectives: This study hypothesized that IRs for ARE would vary by time, geography, age, and race and ethnicity, irrespective of parental asthma history.

Methods: The investigators leveraged data from 17,246 children born after 1990 enrolled in 59 US with 1 Puerto Rican cohort in the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) consortium to estimate IRs for ARE.

Oxygen Aspects in the High-Pressure and High-Temperature Sintering of Semiconductor Kesterite CuZnSnS Nanopowders Prepared by a Mechanochemically-Assisted Synthesis Method.

We explore the important aspects of adventitious oxygen presence in nanopowders, as well as in the high-pressure and high-temperature-sintered nanoceramics of semiconductor kesterite CuZnSnS. The initial nanopowders were prepared via the mechanochemical synthesis route from two precursor systems, i.e.

Early-life risk factors for development of asthma from 8 to 28 years of age: a prospective cohort study.

Background: The objective was to estimate the incidence rate of asthma from age 8 to 28 years and evaluate early-life risk factors for asthma onset at different ages.

Methods: In 1996, within the Obstructive Lung Disease in Northern Sweden (OLIN) studies, a cohort of 3430 schoolchildren (97% of invited) was recruited at age 8 years to a prospective study about asthma. The cohort was followed annually from age 8 to 19 years and at 28 years by questionnaire surveys (67% of the original cohort participated).

Tuning of the Titanium Oxide Surface to Control Magnetic Properties of Thin Iron Films.

We describe the magnetic properties of thin iron films deposited on the nanoporous titanium oxide templates and analyze their dependance on nanopore radius. We then compare the results to a continuous iron film of the same thickness. Additionally, we investigate the evolution of the magnetic properties of these films after annealing.

Solid-State Dewetting as a Driving Force for Structural Transformation and Magnetization Reversal Mechanism in FePd Thin Films.

In this work, the process of solid-state dewetting in FePd thin films and its influence on structural transformation and magnetic properties is presented. The morphology, structure and magnetic properties of the FePd system subjected to annealing at 600 °C for different times were studied. The analysis showed a strong correlation between the dewetting process and various physical phenomena.

Characteristics of peak exposure to black carbon pollution in school, commute and home environments among school children in an urban community.

Although real-time personal exposure monitoring devices have the ability to capture a wealth of data regarding fluctuations in pollutant levels, only a few studies have defined 'peaks' in black carbon (BC) exposure utilizing high-resolution data. Furthermore, studies to assess and characterize various features of peak exposure are very limited especially among children. A better understanding of characteristics of BC peak exposure would improve our understanding of health risks associated with BC.

The effects of the historical practice of residential redlining in the United States on recent temporal trends of air pollution near New York City schools.

Background: In the 1930's the United States (US) sponsored Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) created maps that determined risk for mortgage lending based on the racial and ethnic composition of neighborhoods leading to disinvestment in "redlined" or highest risk neighborhoods. This historical practice has perpetuated racial and economic segregation, and health disparities, that persist today. Interventions near schools where children spend large portions of the day, could impact large groups of children but schools are an often-overlooked environment for exposure.

Magnetic anisotropy in the exchange-biased laser-patterned thin Co/CoO films.

Materials exhibiting an exchange bias effect are a class of magnetic systems that have a wide range of possible technological applications e.g. in sensors, read heads, and spintronic devices.