Active Community Members Research Articles

Catching invasives with curiosity: the importance of passive biosecurity surveillance systems for invasive forest pest detection.

First detections of nonnative insect species are often made by curious members of the public rather than by specialists or trained professionals. Passive surveillance is a crucial component of national biosecurity surveillance, highlighted by early detection case studies of several prominent nonnative arthropod pests (e.g., Asian longhorned beetle [ALB], Jorō spider, spotted lanternfly). These examples demonstrate that curiosity and the recognition of novelty in the natural world, along with enabling technology and systems, are a critical part of early detection and effective invasive species management. This is particularly impactful when dealing with conspicuous pests or for new and emerging nonnative species that have yet to be detected in a new location. Data from historical and recent accounts of first detections of ALB incursions and other invasive forest pests underscore the need to invest in passive surveillance reporting systems and fully integrate public observations into existing surveillance frameworks. New automated approaches streamline the assessment of public observations and can generate pest alerts to initiate a formal regulatory assessment. Biodiversity monitoring platforms, such as iNaturalist, provide a focal point for community engagement and aggregate verified public observations. Empowering proactive reporting of biological novelty provides needed support for early detection of invasive species. Embracing the public as active members of the surveillance community can be cost effective and lead to the greatest gains in the proactive management of invasive species around the world.

Exploring Pathways from Community Involvement to Empowerment in Sexual and Reproductive Health: A Public Health Perspective

The intersection of community involvement and empowerment in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) initiatives represents a critical area in public health. This scoping review aimed to explore the pathways from community involvement to empowerment within SRH initiatives, providing a comprehensive understanding of how public health strategies engage and build the capacity of communities. The literature from databases such as PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science were reviewed systematically, focusing on studies published between 2000 and 2023. The review identified various public health interventions that initially engage communities through participation, consultation and collaboration. These interventions often serve as the foundation for subsequent empowerment, characterised by capacity building, autonomy and advocacy. Key findings highlight that effective SRH initiatives involve community members in programme activities and foster environments where they can gain the skills, knowledge and confidence needed to take control of their health outcomes. Our analysis revealed that successful pathways from involvement to empowerment are multifaceted, requiring sustained commitment, resources and culturally sensitive approaches. The review underscores the importance of integrating community involvement and empowerment in designing and implementing SRH programmes to ensure sustainable and impactful health outcomes. This scoping review contributes to the existing literature by mapping the relationship between community involvement and empowerment, offering insights for public health practitioners and policymakers aiming to enhance SRH initiatives. Future research should focus on longitudinal studies to better understand the long-term impacts of these pathways on community health and well-being.

Unraveling Factors Influencing Local Willingness to Participate in Sustainable Komodo Conservation and Protected Area Tourism

Komodo National Park is at the forefront of balancing environmental conservation with the challenges and opportunities of sustainable tourism. This research delves into the attitudes and engagement levels of the local communities within Komodo's distinctive ecological context, aiming to unravel the factors that drive or hinder their involvement in sustainable tourism and conservation activities. Through Exploratory Factor Analysis, we distilled key influences on community engagement, followed by a K-Mean Cluster Analysis to segment the community by their involvement levels. Logistic Regression was then employed to explore the likelihood of continued participation in these initiatives. The analysis identified three primary factors affecting community participation: the degree of involvement in sustainable tourism activities, the extent of community and environmental involvement, and the level of awareness regarding tourism development policies. The Cluster Analysis illuminated diverse engagement patterns across demographic lines, revealing how differences in settlement type, income levels, marital status, gender, and age contribute to varied participation rates. Interestingly, the logistic regression pointed to a paradox where higher engagement in sustainable tourism correlates with a lower probability of future participation, hinting at possible sustainability fatigue among highly active community members. These intricate dynamics of community engagement in sustainable tourism within Komodo National Park, highlight the importance of tailored, demographic-specific approaches to foster inclusive participation in conservation efforts. The insights gained underscore the complexity of promoting sustainable tourism in sensitive ecological areas and offer critical recommendations for policymakers and conservation stakeholders aiming to enhance sustainable development in Komodo and similar settings globally.

Hachan Markas Lavrinovičius’ commitment to the Karaim language Trakai dialect preservation and revitalisation

The paper introduces Markas Lavrinovičius’ most significant jobs in the Karaim cultural heritage preservation and revitalisation. Markas Lavrinovičius (1938–2011) was a Doctor of Science, Lithuanian Karaims’ Hachan, and the Chairman of the Lithuanian Karaims’ Religious Community. He was an active Karaim community member who made an important contribution to the language research and its revival. He described Karaim customs and traditions, compiled Karaim literary heritage, and prepared it for publication; he also described the Biblical stories in the Karaim language, translated relative Turkic-speaking nations’ folk fairy tales into Karaim, and compiled and computerised the Russian-Karaim dictionary. In addition, the article contains a review of the Karaim language coursebook titled 100 karaj tiliniń üriatiuviu. Troch karaj sioziu ([100 Karaim language lessons. Trakai dialect]) – one of his most significant works, containing a thorough research on the Karaim grammar, conducted by Markas Lavrinovičius and Diana Lavrinovič. Despite being surrounded by non-Turkic languages for 625 years, the Karaim language Trakai dialect has managed to preserve its purity and remain untouched throughout the centuries. Unfortunately, it currently faces the threat of extinction. Therefore, teaching the mother tongue was Markas Lavrinovičius’ ultimate goal.

Social values of an added literacy: the case of Latgalian

ABSTRACT Reading and writing in Latgalian constitute an added literacy within a multilingual repertoire of skills and practices where Standard Latvian dominates. In this situation, the social and symbolic values of literacy and orthography are more important than their practical value in everyday life. This paper discusses the historical development and the current importance of the Latgalian written language from such a perspective. We draw on a case study on language attitudes conducted in 2019 as well as our observations of literacy practices and the public discourse around them during the past 20 years. For the case study, 47 semi-structured interviews were conducted with active members of the speech community. All respondents had a decidedly positive attitude towards the Latgalian written language and its use in public domains. Debates concern spelling standards and correctness, indicating the importance of visuality especially for lesser-used languages. Script ideologies form part of the community’s overall set of beliefs and constitute an important factor of varied Latgalian identities and lifestyles. The focus on standards may however have a negative effect on attitudes and practices. We claim that social aspects of writing, centring around identity, interlinguality, iconicity, and authority, must be considered in planning Latgalian literacy education.

Muslim American Families: A Social Worker’s Reflections

Muslim families are diverse culturally, in their practice of Islam, and in the challenges they face. They often experience spiritual, social, mental health, and behavioral health concerns. Among them are those whose members are impacted by the problems of childhood traumas, intergenerational communication problems, and marital problems; caring for children and adults with special needs and aging members; and those confronted by mental illness, suicide, domestic abuse, substance use disorder, incarceration, poverty, racism, and Islamophobia. Even as families strive to be healthy in terms of functioning, their struggles are real. Being Muslim does not totally shield one from these and other trials and tests.
 As a Muslim, social worker, and active community member, I have had a front row seat to the successes and challenges facing these families. I have observed aspects of the community’s growth and development over the past 45 years. In this article, I share my reflections.

Experiences of Undergraduate Nursing Students on Clinical Placement as a Formal Community of Practice

Background: Through their academic journey at their academic institutions and clinical practice placements, nursing students experience mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and a shared repertoire that marks a community of practice. As a result of this interaction and activity, students develop an interprofessional identity as they also become active members of this interprofessional community. Method: A descriptive qualitative approach was used to study the experience of 12 student nurses following clinical practice placements. Purposive sampling was adopted and the data from individual interviews was analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Five themes emerged, namely: Bridging the Theory-Practice Gap, Feeling Welcomed and Wanted, Belongness and Support, Chance of Being Selected and Need for Further Collaboration. Conclusion: Through practical placements and engagement with other healthcare professionals, the student’s ability to utilize interpersonal skills and professional skills are highly developed and by becoming part of a community of practice, they develop to become an essential asset in today’s health workforce.

AN ASSESSMENT OF COMMUNICABLE DISEASE SURVEILLANCE IN KAILAHUN DISTRICT

Disease surveillance is critical for recognizing and anticipating infectious disease epidemics. It collects health-related data from a community in order to detect and monitor disease epidemics in their early stages. Disease monitoring necessitates a large network of sentinel sites to follow infections throughout the community. The study focuses on communicable illness surveillance in the Kailahun district. It looks into the surveillance reporting system for communicable diseases, the flow of surveillance information, the various components of individuals involved in surveillance activities, the challenges faced by the surveillance system in the Kailahun district, and the involvement of community members in surveillance activities, as well as ways to improve communicable disease surveillance in the Kailahun district. This study employs a quantitative cross-sectional design for research. It consequently employs the cross-sectional study design. I picked a cross-sectional design for this study based on the data needed to address the research questions. As a result, I structured the study questions so that qualitative data would be collected to provide descriptive information, while quantitative data would be analyzed in tables and charts. Infectious disease surveillance is widely acknowledged as the foundation of public health policy and practice. Surveillance statistics are critical for monitoring the populations health state, diagnosing diseases, and taking action to avoid future illness and contain public health problems. The need to strengthen disease surveillance and response systems is now widely recognized around the world.

Reliability and Validity of a Multidimensional Measure of Subjective Community Well-Being.

An individual's flourishing is sustained by and dependent on their community's well-being. We provide one of the first studies of a measure of communal subjective well-being, focusing on individuals' relationships with their community. Using two samples from the Greater Columbus, Ohio region, we provide evidence of the reliability and validity of the Subjective Community Well-being (SCWB) assessment. The five domains of the SCWB are Good Relationships (α = .92), Proficient Leadership (α = .93), Healthy Practices (α = .92), Satisfying Community (α = .88), and Strong Mission (α = .81). A community-based sample (N = 1,435) and an online sample of Columbus residents (N = 692) were scored on the SCWB and compared across domains. We found evidence that the SCWB scores differentiate between active and less active community members. We discuss the appropriate uses of the SCWB as a measure of well-being and provide recommendations for research that could profitably utilize the SCWB measure to examine community well-being.

Process conditions affect microbial diversity and activity in a haloalkaline biodesulfurization system.

Biodesulfurization (BD) systems that treat sour gas employ mixtures of haloalkaliphilic sulfur-oxidizing bacteria to convert sulfide to elemental sulfur. In the past years, these systems have seen major technical innovations that have led to changes in microbial community composition. Different studies have identified and discussed the microbial communities in both traditional and improved systems. However, these studies do not identify metabolically active community members and merely focus on members' presence/absence. Therefore, their results cannot confirm the activity and role of certain bacteria in the BD system. To investigate the active community members, we determined the microbial communities of six different runs of a pilot-scale BD system. 16S rRNA gene-based amplicon sequencing was performed using both DNA and RNA. A comparison of the DNA- and RNA-based sequencing results identified the active microbes in the BD system. Statistical analyses indicated that not all the existing microbes were actively involved in the system and that microbial communities continuously evolved during the operation. At the end of the run, strains affiliated with Alkalilimnicola ehrlichii and Thioalkalivibrio sulfidiphilus were confirmed as the most active key bacteria in the BD system. This study determined that microbial communities were shaped predominantly by the combination of hydraulic retention time (HRT) and sulfide concentration in the anoxic reactor and, to a lesser extent, by other operational parameters.IMPORTANCEHaloalkaliphilic sulfur-oxidizing bacteria are integral to biodesulfurization (BD) systems and are responsible for converting sulfide to sulfur. To understand the cause of conversions occurring in the BD systems, knowing which bacteria are present and active in the systems is essential. So far, only a few studies have investigated the BD system's microbial composition, but none have identified the active microbial community. Here, we reveal the metabolically active community, their succession, and their influence on product formation.

PEMBERDAYAAN MASYARAKAT MELALUI BANK SAMPAH DI DESA PERBAWATI KABUPATEN SUKABUMI

This research aims to understand the benefits of a Waste Bank in empowering the community in Perbawati Village. The study also seeks to identify the factors that influence community empowerment in the village. The results indicate that Waste Bank activities such as awareness campaigns, waste conservation, waste sorting, training, and evaluation have a positive impact on creating a cleaner environment. The Waste Bank also provides additional income for active community members and strengthens social relationships in Perbawati Village. However, there are still several challenges, including poor management performance, unclear task allocation, and low community participation.

In it together: brands benefit after a transgression when perceived as co-owners of the brand community

ABSTRACT Prior research has found that consumers who perceive themselves to be members of a brand community are more likely to help the brand recover from a transgression, particularly when they feel psychological ownership of the community. We examine whether consumers are also more likely to help when they perceive that the brand is a member, and therefore a co-owner, of the brand community. We find that perceptions of brand membership in the community increase the likelihood to help after a transgression via perceptions of the brand as a co-owner of the community and brand forgiveness. This suggests that brands perceived as members and co-owners of their communities benefit from protections derived from both ingroup favouritism and expectations of group reciprocity. These relationships are strengthened when the brand is perceived as an active community member through the visibility, but not necessarily the quality, of its interactions with the community.

Shedding light on the total and active core microbiomes in slow sand filters for drinking water production

Slow sand filters (SSF) are widely used in the production of drinking water as a last barrier in the removal of pathogens. This removal mainly depends on the ‘Schmutzdecke’, a biofilm-like layer on the surface of the sand bed. Most previous studies focused on the total community as revealed by DNA analysis rather than on the active community, which may lead to an incorrect understanding of the SSF ecology. In the current study, we determined and compared the DNA- (total) and RNA-displayed (active) communities in the Schmutzdecke layer from 10 full-scale slow sand filters and further explored the SSF core microbiome in terms of both presence (DNA) and activity (RNA). Discrepancies were observed between the total and the active community, although there was a consistent grouping in the PCoA analysis. The DNA-displayed community may be somewhat inflated, while the RNA-displayed community could reveal low abundance (or rare) but active community members. The overall results imply that both DNA (presence) and RNA (activity) data should be considered to prevent the underestimation of organisms of functional importance but lower abundance. Microbial communities of studied mature Schmutzdecke were shaped by the influent water. Nevertheless, a core microbiome was shared by the mature Schmutzdeckes from independent filters, representing the dominant and consistent microbial community composition in slow sand filters. In the DNA samples, a total of 33 VSC families (‘very strict core’, with a relative abundance >0.1% and 100% prevalence) were observed across all filters. Among the RNA samples, there were 18 VSC families, including 16 families that overlapped with the DNA VSC families and 2 unique RNA VSC families. The core microbial community structure was influenced by the operational parameters, including the Schmutzdecke age and the sand size, and was less influenced by water flow. In addition, indicator organisms (‘biomarkers’) for the Schmutzdecke age, which show the longest duration that SSF can maintain a good operation, were observed in our study. The abundant presence of bacteria belonging to bacteriap25 and Caldilineaceae was associated with older Schmutzdeckes, revealing longer periods of stable operation performance of the filter, while the high abundance of bacteria belonging to Bdellovibrionaceae and Bryobacteraceae related to short periods of stable operation performance.

Improving School Quality in Junior High Schools in Ghana: Teachers’ Myth and Reality of a Decentralization Policy

In the education decentralization processes, community participation in education governance has been argued to be essential for improving accountability to service beneficiaries. Therefore, this paper examined the perspectives of key actors on the impact of an educational decentralization policy on improving school quality education in Junior High Schools in Ghana. Participants in the study were 54 School Management Committee (SMC)/Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) members, 106 teachers, and 11 head teachers in 11 schools drawn from two districts in the Central Region of Ghana. Teachers filled out questionnaires and interviews were conducted with SMC/PTA members using a semi-structured interview guide and with 11 head teachers. The paper reveals that the education decentralization policy, with community participation at its heart, has given schools some autonomy in their decision-making process. However, the involvement of community members in school activities has been limited mainly to financing, with little emphasis on the decision-making process in school governance. The study recommends that there should be adequate support for communities to become more involved in the decision-making process, especially in implementing the School Performance Improvement Plan for Ghana to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.

RNA-based amplicon sequencing is ineffective in measuring metabolic activity in environmental microbial communities

BackgroundCharacterization of microbial activity is essential to the understanding of the basic biology of microbial communities, as the function of a microbiome is defined by its biochemically active (“viable”) community members. Current sequence-based technologies can rarely differentiate microbial activity, due to their inability to distinguish live and dead sourced DNA. As a result, our understanding of microbial community structures and the potential mechanisms of transmission between humans and our surrounding environments remains incomplete. As a potential solution, 16S rRNA transcript-based amplicon sequencing (16S-RNA-seq) has been proposed as a reliable methodology to characterize the active components of a microbiome, but its efficacy has not been evaluated systematically. Here, we present our work to benchmark RNA-based amplicon sequencing for activity assessment in synthetic and environmentally sourced microbial communities.ResultsIn synthetic mixtures of living and heat-killed Escherichia coli and Streptococcus sanguinis, 16S-RNA-seq successfully reconstructed the active compositions of the communities. However, in the realistic environmental samples, no significant compositional differences were observed in RNA (“actively transcribed — active”) vs. DNA (“whole” communities) spiked with E. coli controls, suggesting that this methodology is not appropriate for activity assessment in complex communities. The results were slightly different when validated in environmental samples of similar origins (i.e., from Boston subway systems), where samples were differentiated both by environment type as well as by library type, though compositional dissimilarities between DNA and RNA samples remained low (Bray–Curtis distance median: 0.34–0.49). To improve the interpretation of 16S-RNA-seq results, we compared our results with previous studies and found that 16S-RNA-seq suggests taxon-wise viability trends (i.e., specific taxa are universally more or less likely to be viable compared to others) in samples of similar origins.ConclusionsThis study provides a comprehensive evaluation of 16S-RNA-seq for viability assessment in synthetic and complex microbial communities. The results found that while 16S-RNA-seq was able to semi-quantify microbial viability in relatively simple communities, it only suggests a taxon-dependent “relative” viability in realistic communities. 1nR3EUqpnMBsNYmvDFwNUyVideo

“The Queer Nuyorican”: Reading Downtown Poetry and Performance Through a Queer Lens

“The Queer Nuyorican”: Reading Downtown Poetry and Performance Through a Queer Lens

ОРГАНІЗАЦІЙНО-ПРАВОВЕ ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ МІСЦЕВОГО ЕКОНОМІЧНОГО РОЗВИТКУ В УМОВАХ ВІЙНИ В УКРАЇНІ

The article defines the peculiarities of organizational and legal provision of local economic development in Ukraine under martial law. In particular, it is indicated that in the modern conditions of russian armed aggression, when territorial communities are constantly working to solve the problems of their livelihood, it is crucially important to mobilize efforts and reorient communities to activities related to the activation of local economic development. At the same time, local economic development is defined as a process of interaction between local self-government bodies, business structures, civil society institutions and active members of the territorial community, aimed at ensuring the effective functioning of the communal sector of the economy and raising the standard of living of local residents. In this context, it is stated that among the anti-crisis tools of local economic development, which can have a positive effect on the modernization of the economy in territorial communities in wartime conditions, specialists single out: financial leasing, outsourcing, industrial parks, local economic development agencies, investment attraction centers, business incubators, cooperatives, clusters, social entrepreneurship, and others. The article focuses on the characteristics of such tools of municipal economic development as financial leasing, outsourcing, and industrial parks, namely, their regulatory support and advantages in modern conditions are analyzed, and examples of their practical application in Ukraine and abroad are given. It is concluded that the main challenges of local self-government bodies in the conditions of war are: preserving (or restoring) the pace of economic development of the territorial community; stimulating the activity of local businesses and ensuring the proper standard of living of the population; accommodation, economic support and establishment of communication with internally displaced persons on the territory of the community; involvement of the relocated business in the community; integration of internally displaced persons and relocated businesses into the utility sector of the economy, etc. At the same time, it is emphasized that local economic development cannot be based on the situational adoption of certain decisions, but should be a component of the general system of strategic planning for the development of the territorial community.

In Memoriam: Soldano Ferrone MD, PhD (1940–2023)

In Memoriam: Soldano Ferrone MD, PhD (1940–2023)

Normative Basis for Climate-Related Civic Engagement by Residents of Lake Superior’s North Shore region

This study examines the determinants of resident engagement in climate change using a survey of a sample of residents in Lake Superior’s North Shore region in Minnesota. We examine the influence of climate concern, responsibility, subjective norms and personal norms on civic engagement. Study findings indicate that climate concern, ascription of local responsibility, and subjective norms influence residents’ personal norms, or sense of personal obligation, which in turn positively predicts civic engagement. Study findings highlight the importance of norms as a motivator of climate-related engagement. Results point to the potential for engaging community members in climate-related activities by tapping feelings of personal obligation for climate change adaptation or mitigation.

Shared Perspective: Considerations for Designing a Quality Online Learning Experience

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for and value of delivering high quality online learning experiences. Engaging students in an online environment poses unique challenges, such as cultivating a community of shared learning, encouraging student buy-in, and focusing student attention, which may be more easily achieved in an in-person setting. Despite these challenges, high student engagement and learning in an online environment is possible. The process of engaging students as active members of an online learning community begins with the recognition of what GenZ students need and requires intentionality in aligning these needs with instructor goals and course learning objectives. Thus, this paper is a shared narrative from an instructor-student writing team that highlights the synergy of instructor practices and techniques and student behaviors and attitudes that promote a quality online learning environment for students enrolled in Clemson University’s Youth Development undergraduate minor in the Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department.