Addressing the Gap Between Academic Research and Grassroots Public Health Practice: Supporting Policy, Systems, and Environmental Changes in Rural Communities.

Public health practice continues to expand beyond traditional partners to increase reach and impact in communities. This is particularly important in rural communities, who face inequities in the social determinants of health and increased chronic disease burden. However, the capacity for non-traditional community organizations to understand and implement public health work varies widely.

Grow This!

Gardening is associated with a wide array of health benefits. We describe the dissemination of a low-cost social media-based campaign (Grow This!), an intervention intended to reach novice gardeners and which combined elements of old (seeds) and new (Facebook) technology. Grow This! was implemented before (2018, 2019) and during (2020) the COVID pandemic, providing an interesting framework for understanding participants' motivations for gardening.

Maximizing the Potential of Mini-Grants to Promote Policy, Systems, and Environmental Changes: Outcomes and Challenges.

Purpose And Objectives: This article describes the implementation and evaluation of a chronic disease mini-grant initiative, coordinated by a state health department in collaboration with multiple stakeholders. Braided funding from federal and state sources was used to build and implement the initiative.

Intervention Approach: Mini-grants, facilitated by five different facilitating organizations, were funded to promote implementation of policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) changes at the local level.

An Arduino-based constant pressure fluid pump.

Constant pressure pumps are an invaluable yet underutilized resource for microfluidic flow systems. In particular, constant pressure pumps are able to stabilize the fluid pressure in systems where the viscosity may change due to chemical reactions or the flow rate may vary due to deformations of the channels. The constant pressure pump presented here is designed on the premise of creating and maintaining a pressure differential between the laboratory and a pressure reservoir.

Environmental Factors Affecting Rural Physical Activity Behaviors: Learning from Community Partners.

Background: Rural environments present many barriers to regular physical activity (PA), and residents who live in these communities are at higher risk for a variety of health issues.

Objectives: We used community-based participatory research (CBPR) to guide the development of project interventions and enhance partnerships within the communities.

Methods: University-community partnerships, including Extension professionals, were used to gather data from twenty key informants in two West Virginia counties.

Dynamics of Reaction-Diffusion Oscillators in Star and other Networks with Cyclic Symmetries Exhibiting Multiple Clusters.

We experimentally and theoretically investigate the dynamics of inhibitory coupled self-driven oscillators on a star network in which a single central hub node is connected to k peripheral arm nodes. The system consists of water-in-oil Belousov-Zhabotinsky ∼100  μm emulsion drops contained in storage wells etched in silicon wafers. We observed three dynamical attractors by varying the number of arms in the star graph and the coupling strength: (i) unlocked, uncorrelated phase shifts between all oscillators; (ii) locked, arm hubs synchronized in phase with a k-dependent phase shift between the arm and central hub; and (iii) center silent, a central hub stopped oscillating and the arm hubs oscillated without synchrony.

Cold External Temperatures and Sickle Cell Morbidity in Children: A Retrospective Analysis.

Background: Genetic and environmental factors affect the occurrence of vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs) in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). Research provides inconsistent evidence on how environmental temperature affects SCD. Edmonton, Alberta, has an increasing SCD population and is the northern-most city in North America with a population of over a million.

A Model for Link Pruning to Establish Correctly Polarized and Oriented Tip Links in Hair Bundles.

Tip links are thought to gate the mechanically sensitive transduction channels of hair cells, but how they form during development and regeneration remains mysterious. In particular, it is unclear how tip links are strung between stereocilia so that they are oriented parallel to a single axis; why their polarity is uniform despite their constituent molecules' intrinsic asymmetry; and why only a single tip link is present at each tip-link position. We present here a series of simple rules that reasonably explain why these phenomena occur.

An inexpensive programmable illumination microscope with active feedback.

We have developed a programmable illumination system capable of tracking and illuminating numerous objects simultaneously using only low-cost and reused optical components. The active feedback control software allows for a closed-loop system that tracks and perturbs objects of interest automatically. Our system uses a static stage where the objects of interest are tracked computationally as they move across the field of view allowing for a large number of simultaneous experiments.

Configurable NOR gate arrays from Belousov-Zhabotinsky micro-droplets.

We investigate the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction in an attempt to establish a basis for computation using chemical oscillators coupled via inhibition. The system consists of BZ droplets suspended in oil. Interdrop coupling is governed by the non-polar communicator of inhibition, Br.

Creation and perturbation of planar networks of chemical oscillators.

Methods for creating custom planar networks of diffusively coupled chemical oscillators and perturbing individual oscillators within the network are presented. The oscillators consist of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction contained in an emulsion. Networks of drops of the BZ reaction are created with either Dirichlet (constant-concentration) or Neumann (no-flux) boundary conditions in a custom planar configuration using programmable illumination for the perturbations.

Tunable diffusive lateral inhibition in chemical cells.

The Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction has become the prototype of nonlinear chemical dynamics. Microfluidic techniques provide a convenient method for emulsifying BZ solutions into monodispersed drops with diameters of tens to hundreds of microns, providing a unique system in which reaction-diffusion theory can be quantitatively tested. In this work, we investigate monolayers of microfluidically generated BZ drops confined in close-packed two-dimensional (2D) arrays through experiments and finite element simulations.

Municipal Officials' Participation in Built Environment Policy Development in the United States.

Purpose: This study examined municipal officials' participation in built environment policy initiatives focused on land use design, transportation, and parks and recreation.

Design: Web-based cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Eighty-three municipalities with 50,000 or more residents in eight states.

Cytohesin-associated scaffolding protein (CASP) is a substrate for granzyme B and ubiquitination.

Natural killer (NK) cells are a sub-population of cytotoxic lymphocytes that can kill tumor or infected cells without prior exposure, by secreting the contents of preformed cytotoxic vesicles, containing perforin and granzymes, at the immune synapse. Cytohesin-associated scaffolding protein (CASP) is an adaptor molecule uniquely expressed in lymphocytes that forms complexes with both vesicle-initiating and sorting proteins, and has roles in NK cell migration, cytotoxicity, and cytokine secretion. In this study, we show that CASP contains a conserved granzyme B cleavage site that could modify its intracellular localization and interaction with sorting nexin 27.

Cytohesin-associated scaffolding protein (CASP) is involved in migration and IFN-γ secretion in natural killer cells.

Natural Killer (NK) cells are highly mobile, specialized sub-populations of lymphocytic cells that survey their host to identify and eliminate infected or tumor cells. They are one of the key players in innate immunity and do not need prior activation through antigen recognition to deliver cytotoxic packages and release messenger chemicals to recruit immune cells. Cytohesin associated scaffolding protein (CASP) is a highly expressed lymphocyte adaptor protein that forms complexes with vesicles and sorting proteins including SNX27 and Cytohesin-1.

Developing school psychologists as agents of social justice: a qualitative analysis of student understanding across three years.

This study employed a cohort-sequential design with four cohorts over 3 years to investigate school psychology graduate trainees' (n=37) understanding of social justice. Using consensual qualitative research methods, participants' perspectives on social justice writ large, social justice as it applies to school psychology, and effective aspects of social justice training in their graduate training program were collected through semi-structured focus group interviews. Field-based training though service-learning in diverse communities provided trainees with exposure to experiences that were viewed as instrumental in their understanding of social justice in general and as it applies to school psychology.

Deletion of potD, encoding a putative spermidine-binding protein, results in a complex phenotype in Legionella pneumophila.

L. pneumophila is an intracellular pathogen that replicates in a membrane-bound compartment known as the Legionella-containing vacuole (LCV). We previously observed that the polyamine spermidine, produced by host cells or added exogenously, enhances the intracellular growth of L.

Testing Turing's theory of morphogenesis in chemical cells.

Alan Turing, in "The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis" [Turing AM (1952) Philos Trans R Soc Lond 237(641):37-72], described how, in circular arrays of identical biological cells, diffusion can interact with chemical reactions to generate up to six periodic spatiotemporal chemical structures. Turing proposed that one of these structures, a stationary pattern with a chemically determined wavelength, is responsible for differentiation. We quantitatively test Turing's ideas in a cellular chemical system consisting of an emulsion of aqueous droplets containing the Belousov-Zhabotinsky oscillatory chemical reactants, dispersed in oil, and demonstrate that reaction-diffusion processes lead to chemical differentiation, which drives physical morphogenesis in chemical cells.

In-depth interviews with state public health practitioners on the United States National Physical Activity Plan.

Background: The United States National Physical Activity Plan (NPAP; 2010), the country's first national plan for physical activity, provides strategies to increase population-level physical activity to complement the 2008 physical activity guidelines. This study examined state public health practitioner awareness, dissemination, use, challenges, and recommendations for the NPAP.

Methods: In 2011-2012, we interviewed 27 state practitioners from 25 states.

Municipal officials' perceived barriers to consideration of physical activity in community design decision making.

Context: Built environment-focused interventions and policies are recommended as sustainable approaches for promoting physical activity. Physical activity has not traditionally been considered in land use and transportation decision making. Effective collaboration with non-public health partners requires knowledge of their perceived barriers to such consideration.

Advancing environmental and policy change through active living collaboratives: compositional and stakeholder engagement correlates of group effectiveness.

Objective: This study aims to evaluate compositional factors, including collaborative age and size, and community, policy, and political engagement activities that may influence collaboratives' effectiveness in advancing environmental improvements and policies for active living.

Design/participants/setting: Structured interviews were conducted with collaboratives' coordinators. Survey items included organizational composition, community, policy, and political engagement activities and reported environmental improvements and policy change.

Roles and strategies of state organizations related to school-based physical education and physical activity policies.

School-based physical education (PE) and physical activity (PA) policies can improve PA levels of students and promote health. Studies of policy implementation, communication, monitoring, enforcement, and evaluation are lacking. To describe how states implement, communicate, monitor, enforce, and evaluate key school-based PE and PA policies, researchers interviewed 24 key informants from state-level organizations in 9 states, including representatives from state departments of health and education, state boards of education, and advocacy/professional organizations.

Understanding physical activity outcomes as a function of teen smoking cessation.

Objective: Recent evidence suggests physical activity may be protective against smoking initiation and increased smoking among youth. The present study explored the effects of a teen smoking cessation intervention supplemented with a physical activity module on participants' physical activity outcomes. A secondary aim examined the relationship between participants' physical activity outcomes and postprogram smoking intensity.

Active living collaboratives in the United States: understanding characteristics, activities, and achievement of environmental and policy change.

Introduction: Changing the built environment to promote active lifestyles requires collaboration among diverse sectors. Multisectoral collaborative groups in the United States promote active lifestyles through environmental and policy changes. The objective of this study was to examine the characteristics of these collaborative groups and the extent to which they have achieved change.