Technology Access and Perceptions of Telehealth Services Among Young Adults Involved in the Court System

PURPOSE

This study examined access to technology and telehealth among young adults (ages 18-24) who were court-involved and were recruited from an alternative sentencing program in New York City.

METHODS

Using sequential mixed methods design, we examined demographic factors linked with access to technology and perceived usefulness of the Internet among n = 321 young adults who were court-involved (75% male, 65% African American, 35% Latinx). We then conducted in-depth interviews with 27 young adults to elicit first-person account of their access to, interest in, and experience with technology and telehealth.

RESULTS

Although most participants had access to a phone with a data plan, a substantial proportion reported inconsistent access to the technology critical to telehealth. Certain young adults were more likely to lack consistent access to the technology needed for telehealth, including Black young adults, males, those with less than a high school diploma, those with a history of homelessness, and those who had difficulties paying for basic necessities. Qualitative interviews revealed that most had a strong self-efficacy using technology, while distrust of technology, inexperience with and skepticism of telehealth, low perceived need for care, and medical mistrust were common significant barriers in this underserved population.

DISCUSSION

Findings underscored the critical need to address medical mistrust and increase access to and utilization of care among young adults who are court-involved. Results can inform the development and implementation of interventions designed to improve accessibility and acceptability of telehealth.

Development of LIME-NZ: a generic tool for prompt estimation of economic impacts of disease for New Zealand livestock

AIMS

To develop a simple and robust generic tool to measure the impacts of livestock diseases on New Zealand dairy, beef and sheep farms using enterprise gross margin models.

METHODS

The most recent (2018-2020) livestock production benchmarking data was extracted from industry-led economic surveys. Gross margin models were built for each enterprise type, accounting for 11 dairy farm types and 16 farm types for beef and sheep. Disease parameters, including changes in mortality, reproduction performance, milk yield, price of animals and culling rate, as well as additional expenses for veterinary intervention, were applied to the infected compartment of the herd/flock using the assumed annual within-herd disease incidence. Farm-level disease impacts were estimated as the difference in annual profit between the baseline and infected farm. The baseline gross margin models were validated against the industry data. The disease impact models were validated using a recently published study on bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD). The impact assessment tool, LIME-NZ, was developed using the statistical software R and implemented in the web-based R package Shiny. The input parameters can be varied interactively to obtain a range of disease impacts for uncertain disease parameters.

RESULTS

The baseline gross margin models demonstrated reasonable accuracy with a mean percentage error of <14% when compared with the industry reports. The estimated annual impacts of BVD were comparable to those reported in the BVD study, NZ$38.5-140.4 thousand and $0.9-32.6 thousand per farm per year for dairy and beef enterprises, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

LIME-NZ can be used to rapidly obtain the likely economic impacts of diseases that are endemic, recently introduced or at increased risk of introduction in the New Zealand context. This will aid communication and decision-making among government agencies and the livestock industry, including veterinarians and livestock producers, about the management of diseases, until refined information becomes available to improve decision-making.

Durability of deep transcranial magnetic stimulation for veterans with treatment resistant depression with comorbid suicide risk and PTSD symptoms

Evidence supports transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) as an effective treatment for symptoms of depression and PTSD; however, there has been limited investigation into the durability of symptoms reduction. The Hampton Veterans Affairs Medical Center's (HVAMC) rTMS clinic used H-coil for dTMS for Veterans with treatment-resistant depression and tracked symptomology at multiple times points up to six months post-treatment. Veterans underwent 30 session of dTMS treatment using the Hesed coil (H1 coil). The PHQ-9, PCL-5, and BSS were administered to Veterans at four time points: pretreatment, post-treatment, three months after treatment, and six months after treatment. In aggregate, there were clinically significant reductions in symptoms of depression (43.47%), PTSD (44.14%) and suicidal ideation (54.02%) at the six month follow-up relative to pretreatment. Results provide evidence of the impact and durability of dTMS on symptoms of MDD, PTSD, and suicidal ideation among Veterans with treatment-resistant depression.

Assessing Extensive Cow-Calf Welfare in Namibia: Feasibility of Adapting a New Zealand Beef Cow Welfare Assessment Protocol

Namibia needs a robust welfare assessment protocol for beef cattle for benchmarking and trade. As there is presently no such protocol, one was developed for Namibian conditions based on one designed for extensive beef cattle in New Zealand which had been derived from the Welfare Quality and UC Davis Cow-Calf protocols, the modified protocol was evaluated in a semi-commercial farming village during the pregnancy testing of 141 cows from 5 herds of different households. Animal- and stockperson-based measures were assessed directly, cows were observed at grazing, and a questionnaire-guided interview was conducted. The protocol provided a good basis for welfare assessment, but additional measures and modifications were needed for the Namibian system. These were the effects of recurrent drought, predation, plant poisoning, external parasites, walking long distances to water and grazing, compulsory hot-iron branding, extraneous cattle marking, and variable standards of handling facilities. The protocol was modified to incorporate these changes, resulting in a total of 40 measures. It now needs full validation through widespread testing across the range of beef production systems used in Namibia.

Exploring Theater Neuroscience: Using Wearable Functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy to Measure the Sense of Self and Interpersonal Coordination in Professional Actors

Ecologically valid research and wearable brain imaging are increasingly important in cognitive neuroscience as they enable researchers to measure neural mechanisms of complex social behaviors in real-world environments. This article presents a proof of principle study that aims to push the limits of what wearable brain imaging can capture and find new ways to explore the neuroscience of acting. Specifically, we focus on how to build an interdisciplinary paradigm to investigate the effects of taking on a role on an actor's sense of self and present methods to quantify interpersonal coordination at different levels (brain, physiology, behavior) as pairs of actors rehearse an extract of a play prepared for live performance. Participants were six actors from Flute Theatre, rehearsing an extract from Shakespeare's A Midsummers Night's Dream. Sense of self was measured in terms of the response of the pFC to hearing one's own name (compared with another person's name). Interpersonal coordination was measured using wavelet coherence analysis of brain signals, heartbeats, breathing, and behavior. Findings show that it is possible to capture an actor's pFC response to their own name and that this response is suppressed when an actor rehearses a segment of the play. In addition, we found that it is possible to measure interpersonal synchrony across three modalities simultaneously. These methods open the way to new studies that can use wearable neuroimaging and hyperscanning to understand the neuroscience of social interaction and the complex social-emotional processes involved in theatrical training and performing theater.

The role of sheep (Ovis aries) in maintaining Theileria orientalis Ikeda type infection

Theileria orientalis is a tick‒borne intracellular parasite of red blood cells that causes severe and mild infections in various ruminants worldwide. To date there have been 11 types identified within this species, of which 4 types are presently found in New Zealand cattle. Since 2012, New Zealand has suffered a substantial epidemic of infectious bovine anaemia in both dairy and beef cattle associated with the Ikeda type. The speed at which the disease spread through the North Island suggested that other species could have been involved in transmission. The aim of a series of related experiments was to test the null hypothesis that sheep cannot maintain T. orientalis Ikeda type infection or infect ticks that feed on them. Several studies were conducted over 2 years to address this hypothesis which together showed that sheep can have detectable levels of T. orientalis Ikeda type infection in both the acute and chronic phase and that Haemaphysalis longicornis larvae can become infected when feeding on sheep. No anaemia, weight loss or clinical disease was recorded in the sheep in the acute phase of infection. The levels of infection recorded in the sheep were much lower than those found in cattle, consistent with the sheep being asymptomatic carriers of T. orientalis Ikeda type infection.

Comparison of Plasma Metabolite Concentrations and Enzyme Activities in Beef Cattle Raised by Different Feeding Systems in Korea, Japan and New Zealand

Concentrations of metabolites and immunoreactive insulin (IRI) and activities of enzymes related to energy metabolism were measured in plasma of Korean and Japanese beef cattle, which were raised by the indoor feeding system programmed to feed larger amount of roughage in their growing periods and larger amount of concentrate diet in their finishing periods (Japanese feeding system), and grazing New Zealand beef cattle. By the Japanese beef grading system, Korean and Japanese beef cattle showed high beef quality score, average grade 3.3 and 3.6, respectively. The plasma free fatty acid and lactate concentrations and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), malate dehydrogenase (MDH) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) activities in Korean beef cattle were significantly higher than those in Japanese beef cattle. The plasma lactate concentration in Korean beef cattle was 8.40 mmol/l, which was similar to the values observed in lactic acidosis. The higher activities of plasma LDH, MDH and AST may indicate slight liver damage by slightly acidotic conditions in Korean beef cattle. New Zealand beef cattle fed on pasture which they harvest by grazing showed significantly lower plasma glucose, cholesterol, lactate and IRI concentrations and enzyme activities than those in Korean and Japanese beef cattle fed on larger amount of concentrate diets. Plasma metabolite concentrations and energy metabolism-related enzyme activities may be good indicators for evaluating metabolic conditions of beef cattle raised by different feeding systems.

Advances in molecular-based diagnostics in meeting crop biosecurity and phytosanitary issues

Awareness of crop biosecurity and phytosanitation has been heightened since 9/11 and the unresolved anthrax releases in October 2001. Crops are highly vulnerable to accidental or deliberate introductions of crop pathogens from outside U.S. borders. Strategic thinking about protection against deliberate or accidental release of a plant pathogen is an urgent priority. Rapid detection will be the key to success. This review summarizes recent progress in the development of rapid real-time PCR protocols and evaluates their effectiveness in a proposed nationwide network of diagnostic laboratories that will facilitate rapid diagnostics and improved communication.

Maternal oestriol levels reflect placental function rather than foetal function

We have examined the relationship between foetal levels of E3 and DHEA-SO4 and the birthweight of the child. Levels of these steroids do not relate to birthweight--although the concentration of DHEA-SO4 was marginally but not significantly higher in infants of lower birthweight. These findings suggest that the placental conversion of foetal precursors, and not the level of the precursors themselves, determines the concentration of E3 in the mother. Measurement of E3 as a clinical test reflects the function of both the foetus and the placenta.

Circulating reverse triiodothyronine in humans during exercise

Circulating thyroxine (T4), triiodothyronine (T3) and reverse triiodothyronine (rT3) as well as blood lactate and glucose concentrations were measured in a group of 12 trained volunteer subjects prior to and after swimming 0.18 or 0.9 km, to determine if increase in metabolic activity was accompanied by diversion of T4 monodeiodination from the active (T4 to T3) to the inactive (T4 to rT3) pathway. The resting T4, T3, and rT3 levels were 8.5 micrograms . 100 ml-1, 108 ng . 100 ml-1, and 57 ng . 100 ml-1, respectively, whereas after 0.18 km of swimming the corresponding levels were 9.5 micrograms . 100 ml-1, 135 ng. 100 ml-1 and 70 ng . 100 ml-1. After 0.9 km of swimming, T4, T3, and rT3 levels were 9.0 micrograms . 100 ml-1, 126 ng . 100 ml-1, and 66 ng . 100 ml-1, respectively. The swimming was accompanied by hemoconcentration and increase in blood lactate but not in glucose concentrations. In two other investigations thyroid hormones were measured prior to and after 60 or 90 min of moderate exercise on a bicycle ergometer. This exercise had no effect on circulating thyroid hormone levels. Free thyroxine (FT4) concentration and thyroxine binding globulin (TBG) capacity were unaltered after exercise. In conclusion, brief strenuous swimming or moderate bicycle exercise had minor or no effect on thyroid hormone concentrations when consideration was given to the attendant hemoconcentration. Even when exercise induced small T3 and rT3 changes were noted, they were in the same direction (increase) thus demonstrating a lack of diversion of peripheral T4 monodeiodination.