Academic Research Teams Research Articles

Implementation of a Stress Intervention with Latino Immigrants in a Non-traditional Migration City

Stress negatively impacts health outcomes across all racial and ethnic groups, but the health disparities experienced by Latino immigrants in nontraditional migration cities are exacerbated by undeveloped infrastructure and weak social support networks. Immigrants in new migration cities can be difficult to engage in health interventions and are therefore underrepresented in the very research where their inclusion is most crucial. To effectively engage Latino immigrants, a team of academic and community researchers collaborated on a community-based participatory research project to design and implement a stress and coping intervention. Top stressors reported were family, children, and work, but health was most commonly identified as the primary stressor. Participants overwhelmingly chose physical activity goals for stress reduction. Pre- to post- intervention results revealed significant improvements in social support and stress management. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of a peer-led, community-partnered approach to implementing a stress intervention with Latino immigrants in a nontraditional migration city.

Perspectives of Community Co-Researchers About Group Dynamics and Equitable Partnership Within a Community-Academic Research Team.

Equitable partnership processes and group dynamics, including individual, relational, and structural factors, have been identified as key ingredients to successful community-based participatory research partnerships. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the key aspects of group dynamics and partnership from the perspectives of community members serving as co-researchers. Semistructured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 Latino immigrant co-researchers from an intervention project with Latinos Unidos por la Salud (LU-Salud), a community research team composed of Latino immigrant community members and academic investigators working in a health research partnership. A deductive framework approach guided the interview process and qualitative data analysis. The LU-Salud co-researchers described relationships, personal growth, beliefs/identity motivation (individual dynamics), coexistence (relational dynamics), diversity, and power/resource sharing (structural dynamics) as key foundational aspects of the community-academic partnership. Building on existing CBPR and team science frameworks, these findings demonstrate that group dynamics and partnership processes are fundamental drivers of individual-level motivation and meaning making, which ultimately sustain efforts of community partners to engage with the research team and also contribute to the achievement of intended research outcomes.

Ideas for Extending the Approach to Evaluating Health in All Policies in South Australia Comment on "Developing a Framework for a Program Theory-Based Approach to Evaluating Policy Processes and Outcomes: Health in All Policies in South Australia".

Since 2008, the government of South Australia has been using a Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach to achieve their strategic plan (South Australia Strategic Plan of 2004). In this commentary, we summarize some of the strengths and contributions of the innovative evaluation framework that was developed by an embedded team of academic researchers. To inform how the use of HiAP is evaluated more generally, we also describe several ideas for extending their approach, including: deeper integration of interdisciplinary theory (eg, public health sciences, policy and political sciences) to make use of existing knowledge and ideas about how and why HiAP works; including a focus on implementation outcomes and using developmental evaluation (DE) partnerships to strengthen the use of HiAP over time; use of systems theory to help understand the complexity of social systems and changing contexts involved in using HiAP; integrating economic considerations into HiAP evaluations to better understand the health, social and economic benefits and trade-offs of using HiAP.

Themis-ml: A Fairness-Aware Machine Learning Interface for End-To-End Discrimination Discovery and Mitigation

ABSTRACTAs more industries integrate machine learning into socially sensitive decision processes like hiring, loan-approval, and parole-granting, we are at risk of perpetuating historical and contemporary socioeconomic disparities. This is a critical problem because on the one hand, organizations who use but do not understand the discriminatory potential of such systems will facilitate the widening of social disparities under the assumption that algorithms are categorically objective. On the other hand, the responsible use of machine learning can help us measure, understand, and mitigate the implicit historical biases in socially sensitive data by expressing implicit decision-making mental models in terms of explicit statistical models. In this article we specify, implement, and evaluate a “fairness-aware” machine learning interface called themis-ml, which is intended for use by individual data scientists and engineers, academic research teams, or larger product teams who use machine learning in production systems.

Dynamic safety capability and organizational management systems: An assessment tool to evaluate the "fitness-to-operate" in high-risk industrial environments

Aim: The paper outlines a systemic approach to understanding and assessing safety capability in high-risk industries, like off-shore oil, gas industry, chemical operators. The Fitness to Operate framework (acronym: FTO) (Griffin et al., 2014) has been recently defined by three enabling capitals that create safety capability: organizational capital, social capital, and human capital. Furthermore, each type of capital is identified by more specific dimensions based on current theories of safety, management, and organizational processes. In this paper, we will present a multidimensional assessment tool that offers a comprehensive picture of safety capability by real industrial operators in order to understand and evaluate their (FTO). Method: This current paper aims to describe the multi-phase development process of a FTO assessment tool in the format of a multidimensional survey questionnaire. A) The first research phase consists of the item generation of a large prototype pool with about 200 contents-items covering the 27 dimensions of the conceptual representation of the FTO framework. This initial pool was developed by a team of academic researchers, through a deductive process, and in the light of the original FTO conceptualization, as defined by Griffin and colleagues (2014) B) In a second research phase, the initial pools of items were re-examined by a new pool of academic researchers, assessing the quality of the contents, and in order to refine the extensive version of the prototype, eliminating potential redundancies and inadequate items. C) In a third phase with structured interviews to a pool of industrial experts (senior safety managers; senior executives), the authors assessed the quality of the prototype tool developed by the academic researchers, in order to evaluate and ranks the items of the prototype in term of quality, in order to define and identify a shorter version of the prototype. All the items were assessed by the experts considering criteria such as: i) relevance ii) clearness iii) verifiability iv) specificity v) ease of answer. Implications: Overall, the FTO assessment tool enables a comprehensive coverage of factors that influence short-term and long-term safety outcomes. The tool may serve to help safety regulators and industrial operators to understand, assess, and eventually implement and improve the safety capability and fitness-to-operate in complex industrial and organizational contexts

Social capital and knowledge sharing in academic research teams

The purpose of this article is to analyse the role of social capital within academic research teams and its influence on knowledge sharing. An empirical study was carried out with 87 academic research teams at a Spanish university. The results show that internal ties have a positive effect on trust. Moreover, the results also reflect that both dimensions of social capital (internal ties and trust) have a positive and significant effect on research teams’ knowledge sharing. Therefore, the findings reveal that the network’s structure has a positive influence on the quality of relationships among academic researchers that favour knowledge sharing. Points for practitioners The results provide universities’ managers with a better understanding of internal social capital in academic research teams, which has important implications for researchers’ willingness to collaborate and share knowledge. Public university managers may use strategies to improve interdependence among research team members, favouring social relations among researchers. Thus, public universities should enhance research teams with stronger ties and high levels of trust that increase knowledge sharing.

Creating a platform for collaborative genomic research

ABSTRACT
 ObjectivesThe objective was to deliver a platform to accelerate collaborative research into the genetics of dementia. The project is part of a larger effort to establish a platform for research incorporating components related to epidemiological data, imaging, wearable technology and tissue banking with initiatives to link these different data sets.
 The genomics platform aimed to address a number of challenges encountered by researchers:
 
 Enabling patient-level linkage between genomic and other datasets
 Selection of study cohorts using genotypic and phenotypic characteristics
 Collaborating with other groups to perform large-scale meta analysis
 Supporting repeatable analysis workflows
 
 ApproachThe genomics platform was developed using a mixture of open source, commercial and bespoke components developed for this project. It is designed to securely handle data and scale to cope with increasing data volumes as well as the quantity and complexity of research undertaken.
 It is located in a data centre where researchers can access, explore and analyse the data in a secure environment addressing data security and privacy concerns.
 The platform integrates with a supercomputer allowing complex analysis of data to be undertaken easily using novel code or predefined workflows.
 The platform was designed and developed through close collaboration with a prominent academic research team.
 ResultsWe have created a collaborative genomics informatics platform that provides efficient and intuitive selection of study cohorts from multiple data sources, with potentially varying data formats and types, based on both genotypic and phenotypic characteristics. Researchers can combine cohorts definitions using set operations and publish these definitions allowing other researchers to apply them to other datasets.
 There is an internet accessible portal which allows researchers to share results of their analysis and support meta analysis of this research. A sophisticated search engine allows these results to be found based on genetic information or annotations. This portal accelerates meta-analysis, an intrinsically collaborative endeavour in genomics research.
 There is also close integration with HPC (High Performance Computing) resources for computationally expensive tasks. The platform is underpinned by analytical workflows that not only accelerate and enable reproducible research, but reduce the technical barriers to its use.
 The platform enables patient-level linkage with other non-genomics data sources through integration with other research platforms.
 ConclusionThe developed genomics informatics platform provides a step-change in this type of genetic research, accelerating reproducible collaborative research across multiple disparate organisations and data sources, of varying type and complexity.

The basics of building effective protection methods of statistical databases

The main aim of this article was to highlight to the importance of research and experimental development studies concerning methods for the protection of statistical databases, when the universal database management systems do not provide the mechanisms supporting the required security level of statistical bases. The study presents the basic models of controlling access and data flow, and it proves their limited relevance to statistical databases. Moreover, the specific nature of security issues as well as methods of attacking and protecting such databases were discussed. In conclusion, it was stated that Poland does not apply universally recognized, theoretical basics for the development of secure protection mechanisms of statistical databases. The work on data protection was fragmentary, distant from the possibilities of commercial implementation of the results. Therefore, there is a need for interdisciplinary work of the CSO and academic research teams.

“It Goes on Everywhere”: Injection Drug Use in Canadian Federal Prisons

ABSTRACTBackground: International and Canadian research on in-prison injection drug use has documented the frequency of its occurrence as well as some of the resulting consequences such as increased prevalence of HIV and hepatitis C virus. Access to prison-based harm reduction programing is thus important. Objectives: The aim of this study was to learn from former prisoner experiences and insights on in-prison injection drug use in order to advance and improve access to harm reduction options, in particular prison-based needle and syringe programs (PNSPs). Methods: The qualitative and community-based study was conducted in 2014/2015 and included former prisoners from Ontario, Canada (N = 30) who had recent experience of incarceration in a federal prison and knowledge of injection drug use. Data analysis followed the deductive approach, drawing on the expertise of the academic and community-based research team members. Results: Interview and focus group participants disclosed that drugs are readily available in Canadian federal prisons and that equipment used to inject is accessed in a variety of ways, sometimes gained through illicit means and sometimes made by prisoners themselves. Equipment sharing is a frequent occurrence, and disposal of such supplies is rare. Conclusions/Importance: While not yet available in Canada, PNSPs have led to positive outcomes in international contexts, including reductions in needle sharing and transmission of HIV and hepatitis C. Support for PNSPs among numerous Canadian organizations and associations, along with a recent change in government, could suggest a renewed opportunity for PNSP implementation.

Abstract A31: Evaluating a diverse and cross community and academic partnership to promote colorectal cancer screening guidelines

Abstract Background A community and academic partnership is a powerful vehicle to translate lessons learned in research to a wider audience and bring about changes that can improve community health and eventually eliminate health disparities. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an approach to research that focuses on the development of a community-academic partnership. In CBPR, researchers work collaboratively with communities as true partners and use CBPR principles, such as co-learning and mutual benefit, to address identified public health concerns. Evaluating these partnerships and understanding the conditions and processes within CBPR that lead to achieving project goals, such as successful research implementation and outcomes, is important to move the science of CBPR forward. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a cross community and academic partnership that involved seven Asian communities (Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Laotian, South Asians and Vietnamese) that were different in culture, immigration history, and language. Method The parent project was designed to use a community-centered dissemination model to promote the adoption of colorectal cancer screening guidelines in Asian Americans (AA). The academic investigator has already established a good rapport with all partners prior to the project and has done projects with some of them in the past. Since community capacity building and sustainability are key values and outcomes of CBPR, an initial assessment of each partner's capacity and readiness was conducted during the first three months. Based on the findings, the research team conducted several training sessions throughout the 3-year project period to build capacity. In-person quarterly meetings were conduct to discuss project progress, solicit inputs for survey tools, disseminate findings and share lessons learned. The meeting sites were rotated among partners. A website was established to communicate project activities, findings and allow members to post comments. All partner leaderships were asked to participate in an one-on-one, in-depth interview at the end of the project to describe their experience of the partnership and the CBPR process. All interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed. All transcripts were coded and reviewed by three research members until consensus arrived on all themes. Results Overall project satisfaction rates were high, ranging from 8 to 10 out of a 10 scale (0=not at all satisfy and 10 = extremely satisfy). All partner leaderships reported that the project aligned with their priorities and values, although there were differences across organizations, from “including more specific education around specific diseases” to “getting some data for our work”. All leadership reported getting benefits from participating in the project. They also placed high value on the co-learning experience, from the academia and from other organizations. They also felt strongly about the collaboration, among partners and academia, and the attention they got as “mutually, equitably and well distributed”. Some organizations in their early development stage felt empowered by learning from more established organizations. Some saw the project as an opportunity to explore some other issues in their communities. All partners wanted to maintain the task force and to brainstorm issues that were relevant to Asian communities, even after the funding was ended. Conclusion A diverse and cross community partnership may sound complicated; however, with careful planning from the academic research team and mutual respect from all partners, it can enrich the CBPR process and generate greater outcomes. Citation Format: Karen Kim, Michael Quinn, Edwin Chandrasekar, Reena Patel, Helen Lam. Evaluating a diverse and cross community and academic partnership to promote colorectal cancer screening guidelines. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Ninth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2016 Sep 25-28; Fort Lauderdale, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2017;26(2 Suppl):Abstract nr A31.

Issues in Supply Chain Management: Progress and potential

In a 2000 article in Industrial Marketing Management, “Issues in Supply Chain Management,” Lambert and Cooper presented a framework for Supply Chain Management (SCM) as well as issues related to how it should be implemented and directions for future research. The framework was comprised of eight cross-functional, cross-firm business processes that could be used as a new way to manage relationships with suppliers and customers. It was based on research conducted by a team of academic researchers working with a group of executives from non-competing firms that had been meeting regularly since 1992 with the objective of improving SCM theory and practice. The research has continued for the past 16years and now covers a total of 25years. In this paper, we review the progress that has been made in the development and implementation of the proposed SCM framework since 2000 and identify opportunities for further research.

Climate science information needs among natural resource decision-makers in the Northwest US

Managing water resources, air quality, forests, rangelands and agricultural systems in the context of climate change requires a new level of integrated knowledge. In order to articulate a role for university-based research teams as providers of climate services, this paper analyzes environmental change concerns and expectations about climate models among natural resources decision-makers in the Northwest US. Data were collected during a series of workshops organized by researchers from BioEarth, a regional earth systems modeling initiative. Eighty-three stakeholders from industry, government agencies and non-governmental organizations engaged with a team of academic researchers developing integrated biophysical and economic climate modeling tools. Analysis of transcripts of workshop discussions, surveys, and questionnaires reveals diverse attitudes among stakeholders about: 1) preferred modes of engaging in climate science research, 2) specific concerns and questions about climate change impacts, and 3) the most relevant and usable scope and scale of climate change impacts projections. Diverse concerns and information needs among natural resource decision-makers highlight the need for research teams to define clear and precise goals for stakeholder engagement. Utilizing the skills of research team members who have communication and extension expertise is pivotally important. We suggest impactful opportunities for research teams and natural resource decision-makers to interface and learn from one another. Effective approaches include structuring group discussions to identify gaps in existing climate change impacts information, explicitly considering changing policies, technologies and management practices, and exploring possible unintended consequences of decisions.

Leveraging Academic Partnerships to Improve Logistics at Nonprofit Organizations

This article presents the results of a partnership between a nonprofit organization and a team of academic researchers that developed a low‐cost spreadsheet‐based tool that allows organizations to effectively schedule vehicle operations. Specifically, the tool (1) handles the real‐world constraints present in moderately complex logistics environments; and (2) uses general computing hardware and software that is already deployed in most organizations, thereby rendering the solution radically low cost (effectively free). We deployed this tool to a humanitarian organization, the Idaho Foodbank, which realized a substantial improvement in its fleet efficiency and a corresponding reduction in route‐planning time. The methodology used to manage this collaboration with academia can be leveraged by other nonprofit organizations attempting to overcome the financial barriers that commonly prevent budget‐constrained organizations from accessing advanced technologies.

Surveying for Environmental Health Justice: Community Organizing Applications of Community-Based Participatory Research

Abstract Although the benefits of community-based participatory research (CBPR) for community and university partners have been well documented, these have mostly focused on disseminating research findings. However, how CBPR can function as a useful community organizing tool remains understudied. We present the CBPR process of an environmental health survey conducted by a team of community organizers and academic researchers in Richmond, CA, to describe how survey research can be aligned with community organizing principles and methods. Through a case study of our Richmond health survey that documented and quantified neighborhood concerns and health problems, we describe and analyze three steps through which community organizing and CBPR align: community-driven hypothesis generation and testing, how community surveyors are trained and study participants are recruited, and how results are applied and disseminated to policy advocacy and community action. Our case study of surveying for environmental health ...

Living with moderate to severe renal failure from the perspective of patients.

BackgroundWithin healthcare, almost no attention is given to patients with moderate-to- severe chronic kidney disease, having a with GFR between 20 and 45 while the presumption exists that these patients already experience several problems in their lives during the course of their illness.MethodsA team of academic researchers and a renal patient participated in a qualitative study. Individual interviews (n = 31) and focus groups (10 participants in total) with patients having moderate-to-severe chronic kidney disease were conducted to gain insight into their everyday problems.ResultsParticipants mentioned several experiences that can be divided into physical, social, societal and psychological aspects as well as aspects related to healthcare. The most important findings, following under each of these categories are: 1) the experience of fatigue (physical aspects) 2) the search for acknowledgment of complaints/not enough attention given to complaints leading to overcompensation and secrecy (societal aspects) 3) work problems (societal aspects) and 4) the wish to control the disease but not receiving enough support for this (healthcare). Patients feel in general that healthcare professionals do not take them seriously in their complaints and problems.ConclusionsThis study offers important new insights into an expanding group of patients having moderate-to-severe chronic kidney disease. Healthcare professionals should acknowledge their problems instead of ignoring or rejecting them and they should support patients in finding a way to deal with them. The assumptions of Personalised Care Planning could be used to support patients.

Adaptation and Feasibility Study of a Digital Health Program to Prevent Diabetes among Low-Income Patients: Results from a Partnership between a Digital Health Company and an Academic Research Team.

Background. The feasibility of digital health programs to prevent and manage diabetes in low-income patients has not been adequately explored. Methods. Researchers collaborated with a digital health company to adapt a diabetes prevention program for low-income prediabetes patients at a large safety net clinic. We conducted focus groups to assess patient perspectives, revised lessons for improved readability and cultural relevance to low-income and Hispanic patients, conducted a feasibility study of the adapted program in English and Spanish speaking cohorts, and implemented real-time adaptations to the program for commercial use and for a larger trial of in multiple safety net clinics. Results. The majority of focus group participants were receptive to the program. We modified the curriculum to a 5th-grade reading level and adapted content based on patient feedback. In the feasibility study, 54% of eligible contacted patients expressed interest in enrolling (n = 23). Although some participants' computer access and literacy made registration challenging, they were highly satisfied and engaged (80% logged in at least once/week). Conclusions. Underserved prediabetic patients displayed high engagement and satisfaction with a digital diabetes prevention program despite lower digital literacy skills. The collaboration between researchers and a digital health company enabled iterative improvements in technology implementation to address challenges in low-income populations.

Health Care Use and Barriers to Care among Latino Immigrants in a New Migration Area.

Unlike regions with larger Latino populations, the health care infrastructure in Cincinnati does not include linguistically and culturally appropriate services to meet the need of the growing Latino immigrant community. In order to guide development of appropriate health care services, a team of academic and community researchers collaborated on a community-based participatory research project to understand health care use, barriers to health care, perceptions of health care, and health care needs of Latino immigrants. Co-researchers administered 518 surveys and conducted focus groups with 34 Latino immigrants. Participants relied on community clinics for care more often than is seen in nationwide Hispanic samples. Results revealed significant health care barriers, which Latino immigrants attribute to language, lack of quality interpreters, documentation status, and discrimination. Results suggest that the dearth of established social support networks and health care infrastructure in new Latino growth areas exacerbate the health care obstacles experienced by Latino immigrants throughout the country.

Clinical Supervisors' Perceptions of Counselor Characteristics Associated with Effective and Well-Balanced Practices

Counselors are expected to have certain personal attributes and professional skills to be effective in their work. Personal wellness is viewed as a significant contributor to counselor effectiveness and is included in the expectations of instructors, advisors, supervisors, and employers. The purpose of the present study was to identify characteristics of effective and well-balanced counselors by directly engaging those who have provided clinical supervision to this population. Twenty-seven counseling supervisors (encompassing rehabilitation, school, addictions, and mental health specialty areas) brainstormed 71 elements in response to the following question: What are the characteristics of a counselor in your field who is effective and well-balanced? These were condensed to 37 elements, and supervisors then categorized them into four categories: Counseling Skills, Solution Focused, Personal Characteristics, and Taking Care of Self. The academic research team independently sorted these clusters into four categories: Counseling Skills, Organization and Management Skills, Personal Characteristics, and Well-being. Comparisons of the products created by the two groups revealed a difference in perceptions in the arena of Personal Characteristics. The academic team was more likely to use the Personal Characteristics category than the field supervisors. Implications for counselor education and supervision regarding the conceptualization of skills vs. traits are discussed.

Development of a Faith-Based Stress Management Intervention in a Rural African American Community.

Faith-based mental health interventions developed and implemented using a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach hold promise for reaching rural African Americans and addressing health disparities. To describe the development, challenges, and lessons learned from the Trinity Life Management, a faith-based stress management intervention in a rural African American faith community. The researchers used a CBPR approach by partnering with the African American faith community to develop a stress management intervention. Development strategies include working with key informants, focus groups, and a community advisory board (CAB). The community identified the key concepts that should be included in a stress management intervention. The faith-based "Trinity Life Management" stress management intervention was developed collaboratively by a CAB and an academic research team. The intervention includes stress management techniques that incorporate Biblical principles and information about the stress-distress-depression continuum.

Team Building on Dangerous Ice: A Study in Collaborative Learning

399 T PAPER DESCRIBES HOW A TEAM of local river travelers and academic researchers documented the shifting ice conditions on an interior Alaskan river, learned from each other and from shared experiences on the ice, and created products that represented this learning. From 2004 to 2012, with funding from the National Science Foundation and led by Knut Kielland and William Schneider, the Dangerous Ice Project investigated winter ice conditions on the Tanana River in Interior Alaska. Like other rivers in Interior Alaska, the Tanana River exhibits changing winter ice conditions, from overflow to thinning ice and open leads. Travelers who get caught in these situations can be in trouble, ranging from the inconvenience of getting out of overflow to suffering the effects of exposure, or in the worst cases, drowning or freezing to death. The Tanana River and the sections chosen for intensive study were selected because we knew from personal experience that they were unpredictable and dangerous, and we wanted to understand them better. To accomplish this, we fostered a partnership between academics (social and natural scientists) and local river travelers and built a broad framework for interpreting natural phenomena and human understanding derived from a variety of perspectives. We use the term “local river travelers” to refer to members of the research team whose primary orientation and expertise comes from years of traveling in summer and winter on the river in the course of activities important to their culture and lifestyle. We also use the term “local knowledge,” but note similar terms such as “traditional knowledge” and “indigenous knowledge” because they all emphasize the theme of community-based knowledge of conditions and transmission of this information to community members over generations (Usher, 2000; Cruikshank, 2005; Ellis, 2005; Huntington, 2005; Bell and Harwood, 2012). Many of the scientific principles we chose to investigate came from questions raised by local river travelers (e.g., How can there be open water at sub-zero temperatures?) Questions of mutual interest to all team members provided a basis for cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary exchange of ideas and information. Shared experiences over many seasons, application of scientific principles, as well as group discussions and critiques of presentations, refined and reinforced learning across knowledge systems. Team Building on Dangerous Ice: A Study in Collaborative Learning