Current Report Research Articles

Infrared thermography as a non-invasive method for evaluating stress in lactating dairy cows during isolation challenges.

The overall objective of the current data report was to evaluate and test the feasibility of using infrared thermography (IRT) as a non-invasive method for measuring stress signs in lactating dairy cows during short negative challenges, such as visual isolation from herd-mates. The study was carried out at the Experimental Farm of the Research and Development Institute for Bovine Romania, on 20 Holstein-Friesian lactating multiparous dairy cows, between August and September 2022. Cows were housed in two identical tied stanchion barns (170/85 cm), and were isolated individually from the herd for 240 min post-morning milking. Our results shown significant (p ≤ 0.05) rises for both orbital and nasal IRT temperatures following the isolation challenge, suggesting that such approaches could represent adequate tools for assessing social stress in cattle. Overall, current results are in accordance with previous studies which validated both eye and nasal regions as IRT thermal windows for studying the effects of painful and negative contexts on stress response in farmed ruminants, while considering the stress-induced hyperthermia as an integral part of the physiological response to negative stimuli, as well as the current limitations that this tool faces.

Bilateral nodule radiofrequency ablation in a single setting: First reported case series.

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a minimally-invasive ablative technique with an impressive safety profile used to manage thyroid nodules. Current reports with RFA describe the treatment of a single nodule in a single-setting. We describe the first series of bilateral nodule RFA in a single-setting. RFA was performed on patients with bilateral thyroid nodules in a single-setting. A cohort of randomly selected patients undergoing RFA for bilateral thyroid nodules in a separate setting was reported as a control cohort. A total of 12 patients were included in our series, included 6 patients in the single-setting ablation cohort. For patients with bilateral nodules treated by RFA in a separate setting, the mean volume reduction rate (VRR) at 6 months of 63.79% ± 18.86%. There were no reports of complications in the separate setting cohort. For patients with bilateral nodules treated by RFA in a single-setting, the mean VRR at 6 months was 64.% ± 18.97%. There were no reports of complications in the single-setting cohort. Our work describes a novel use of RFA, providing preliminary insight into its use for appropriately selected patients with bilateral thyroid nodules. Future studies with larger sample sizes are warranted to corroborate and expand on our findings.

Bringing novices from the passive role in knowledge sharing to the active role

Purpose: The nature of firm competition between firms and the source of competitive advantage in many industries has shifted toward a knowledge-based economy. This is particularly the case in knowledge intensive industries, wherein a firm’s competitive advantage is highly dependent on its ability to generate and deploy new knowledge solutions. Although knowledge management (KM) is relevant to all organizations, it is likely that its importance is higher at some functional units like maintenance. The field of industrial maintenance is complex and knowledge-intensive. Typically, industrial maintenance knowledge is inaccessible due to industry policies and practices; furthermore, motivation to share knowledge is low or inexistent, due to its tacit and complex nature. Despite these difficulties, sharing knowledge between experienced workers and managers, on one hand, and novices and new comers, on the other hand, is a fundamental problem in industrial maintenance settings, and about which there is still much to be known. The current research reports an investigation aimed at increasing knowledge sharing (KS) between novices and other workers in industrial maintenance. Design/Methodology/Approach: A quantitative field longitudinal research was carried out at a maintenance department of a high-tech company. The research included three steps: the first one assessed the current situation of KM and KS in the department; the second one implemented a number of training programs aimed to increase KS between novices and the rest of the department; and the third one collected information about KM and KS, to assess changes between the two observation moments. Findings: Novices can take an active role in KM and KS in maintenance departments of high-tech industries, rather than a passive role, which can significantly facilitate and improve their own and other employees' knowledge while moderately enhancing the culture of knowledge sharing. Practical Implications: sharing knowledge is a very challenging issue to maintenance managers, faced with risks and problems that need to be acquired by novices. The current research helps knowledge-intensive companies by highlighting solutions that can be designed and adapted to improve employees' knowledge and also KS. Originality/Value: Empowering novices to transition from a passive role in knowledge sharing to an active one, while simultaneously improving their knowledge and also KS practices in industrial maintenance through their involvement.

Roles of bridges on Electronic, linear and nonlinear optical Properties: A computational study on zwitterions with N-methyl pyridinium and p-Dicyanomethanide phenylene

This contribution reports structure–property correlations for a series of interesting zwitterions. All the molecules have N-methyl pyridinium as common acceptor (A), dicyanomethanide substituted p-phenylene as common donor (D), coupled through several mono aromatic rings as the bridges. Computations were carried out using HF, B3LYP, CAM-B3LYP and ωB97xD methodologies. The current report deals with a complete methodical study on the effects of various possible mono aromatic rings as bridges, on dipole moments (μ), polarizabilities (α), hyperpolarizabilities (β) and adiabatic absorption properties. This work shows that compared to literature reported traditional bridges, aromatic bridges indeed showed enhanced nonlinear optical responses (10-fold enhanced β in some cases). Results show that unlike the TICT approach, one can be able to design a wide range of non-TICT chromophores by suitable manipulations through aromatic bridges. Aromatic control on the bridges is suggested as an effective approach in the designing of a wide range of efficient molecular chromophores.

Non-enzymatic glucose detection using free-standing gold nanoparticle loaded carrageenan hydrogel electrodes

The current manuscript reports the development of free-standing nanomaterial-modified hydrogels that can be explored for sensing applications. Most of the nanomaterial-hydrogel systems developed till now rely on the modification of an electrode as the supporting substrate on which the electrochemical reactions can take place. These substrates can be pencil electrodes and or screen-printed electrodes. This widely limits the use of hydrogels which can be used as scaffolds and can be explored for the fabrication of free-standing electrodes. Since the functionality of only hydrogel is quite limited the current manuscript reports the loading of gold nanoparticles inside the hydrogel matrix which makes it functionally active. The successful synthesis of the modified hydrogel was confirmed with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and elemental analysis. The rheological data confirmed the positive effect of gold loading on the hydrogel storage modulus. As a proof of concept, the work reports the non-enzymatic electrochemical detection of glucose using gold nanoparticle loaded carrageenan hydrogel. The sensor showed a linear response towards varying glucose concentrations (0 to 2.5 mM). The hydrogel systems can be incorporated into wearables and implantable sensors and can be extended for the detection of other biomarkers in bodily fluids.

CRBSP:Prediction of CircRNA-RBP Binding Sites Based on Multimodal Intermediate Fusion.

Circular RNA (CircRNA) is widely expressed and has physiological and pathological significance, regulating post-transcriptional processes via its protein-binding activity. However, whereas much work has been done on linear RNA and RNA binding protein (RBP), little is known about the binding sites of CircRNA. The current report is on the development of a medium-term multimodal data fusion strategy, CRBSP, to predict CircRNA-RBP binding sites. CRBSP represents the CircRNA trinucleotide semantic, location, composition and frequency information as the corresponding coding methods of Word to vector (Word2vec), Position-specific trinucleotide propensity (PSTNP), Pseudo trinucleotide composition (PseTNC) and Trinucleotide nucleotide composition (TNC), respectively. CNN (Convolution Neural Networks) was used to extract global information and BiLSTM (bidirectional Long- and Short-Term Memory network) encoder and LSTM (Long- and Short-Term Memory network) decoder for local sequence information. Enhancement of the contributions of key features by the self-attention mechanism was followed by mid-term fusion of the four enhanced features. Logistic Regression (LR) classifier showed that CRBSP gives a mean AUC value of 0.9362 through 5-fold Cross Validation of all 37 datasets, a performance which is superior to five current state-of-the-art models. Similar evaluation of linear RNA-RBP binding sites gave an AUC value of 0.7615 which is also higher than other prediction methods, demonstrating the robustness of CRBSP.

Probe –integrated electrochemical sensing platform for measuring trace levels of parathion pesticides residues in water using Au- nanoparticles anchored Nafion nano composite modified glassy carbon electrode

Nanomaterial represents a principal driver to the adoption of electrochemical sensors for pesticides residues in water. Thus, the current strategy reports facile and highly sensitive electrochemical probe for monitoring parathion residues in water. The probe was based upon the use of Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) functionalized Nafion nanocomposites modified glassy carbon electrode (Au NPs/Nafion/GCE). The surface morphology, effective surface area and electrocatalytic performance of the Au NPs/Nafion/GCE were recorded and assigned using a scanning electron microscopy (SEM), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electronic spectra. A straightforward protocol based upon combination of Au NPs/Nafion/GCE and square wave- adsorptive cathodic stripping voltammetry at pH 7.0 was established for parathion detection. The probe displayed two linear responses between the catholic peak current (ip,c) at − 0.8 V versus parathion concentrations over the ranges from 1.07 × 10−6 - 1.07 × 10−5 and 1.99 × 10−9 - 9.0 × 10−7 M with limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) of 6.06 × 10−10 M and 2.0 × 10−9 M, respectively. The probe exhibited excellent reproducibility, repeatability with RSD of ± 0.5% (n = 5) at 8.0 × 10−7 M parathion. The probe was applied for parathion detection in water and validated by HPLC. The experimental Student texp and Fexp values were less than the tabulated ttab (2.78) and Ftab (6.39) at 95% probability.

N-Oktanol karışımlarıyla çalışan bir dizel motorun ısı yayılımı oranının değişimi için yeni matematiksel korelasyonlar: Sayısal, deneysel ve karşılaştırmalı bir analiz

The current literature reports a few papers regarding the prediction of heat release rate of a diesel engine fuelled with n-octanol blends using numerical methods. To address this gap, the main objective of presented study is to derive new correlations for estimating the variation in heat release rate of a diesel engine fuelled with diesel fuel and diesel fuel-biodiesel-n-octanol blends. For this purpose, three different ternary blends were prepared by varying the n-octanol concentration to 6% (OCT6), 8% (OCT8), and 10% (OCT10) by volume. The estimation of heat release rate was accomplished using the least-squares regression (sine, piecewise, and rational equations) and the function approximation (Padé approximation) methods. The ignition delay and peak heat release rate increased by 3.8462%, 5.9501% for OCT6; 7.6923%, 3.7125% for OCT8; and 8.9744%, 3.0755% for OCT10, respectively, compared to diesel fuel. The peak cylinder pressure of OCT6 and OCT8 was observed to be higher by 2.4378% and 1.3982%, respectively, whereas that of OCT10 is found to be lower by 1.9458%, compared to diesel fuel. Compared to the others, the suggested rational equation qualitatively and quantitatively achieved the best correlation with all experimental heat release rate data measured by both the author and some other authors.

Idebenone protects against ethanol toxicity in HT-22 cells through strengthening neuroimmune response

Idebenone, an analogue of coenzyme Q10, may function as a neuroprotective agent with its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. The current report was designed to examine the beneficial effects of idebenone on ethanol-related neurotoxicity in hippocampal neuronal HT-22 cells in vitro and annotate the neuroprotective mechanism of idebenone. 75 mM ethanol was applied to the cells for 24h to develop ethanol toxicity. Then, different concentrations of idebenone (final concentration in the well to be 1, 2.5, and 5 μM) were applied to HT-22 cells for 24 h to explore the protective impact against ethanol-induced hippocampal damage. Cell viability was evaluated with MTT test. MDA, SOD, and GSH concentrations were examined to interpret oxidative damage. Moreover, the effects of idebenone on IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-23 neuroimmune-related genes expression levels were assigned by the RT-PCR analysis. In our study, 75 mM ethanol decreased neuronal cell viability by approximately 61%. All concentrations of idebenone were not toxic to neurons. In addition, idebenone increased cell viability by reducing the damage caused by alcohol. Idebenone reversed the reduction in antioxidant capacity caused by ethanol through decreasing MDA and increasing SOD and GSH levels. In addition, idebenone attenuated ethanol-induced impairment in neuroimmune and neuroinflammatory responses by reducing IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-23 mRNA expression levels. Treatment with idebenone increased antioxidant capacity and a significant improvement was achieved in neuroimmune and neuroinflammatory parameters. Possible mechanisms underlying these beneficial effects cover the down-regulation of IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-23 receptors, and antioxidant restoration of idebenone.

Chlorine-Coordinated Unsaturated Ni-N2 Sites for Efficient Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Reduction.

Heteroatom-doping is an effective method for modifying the geometric symmetry of metal-nitrogen-carbon (M-N-C) single-atom catalysts and thereby tuning the electronic structure. Up to now, most of the current reports have concentrated on introducing heteroatoms into the highly symmetrical M-N4 structure. The coordination-unsaturated M-N2 structure is more sterically favorable for the insertion of alien atoms to optimize the electronic structure. Herein, a Ni-N2 catalyst with out-of-plane coordinated chlorine(Cl) atoms (Ni-N2 Cl/C) is successfully constructed on chlorine-functionalized carbon supports (C-Cl) for an efficient carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2 RR). Density functional theory calculations demonstrate that the prepared Ni-N2 Cl/C catalyst exhibits a higher capability in balancing COOH* formation and CO* desorption. In addition, in situ Raman spectra confirm that the lower CO binding energy on the Ni-N2 Cl/C facilitates CO escape, leading to excellent CO2 RR performance. A high CO Faradaic efficiency (FECO ) of more than 80% is achieved from -0.6 to -1.2V versus reversible hydrogen electrode on the Ni-N2 Cl/C and it exhibits negligible FECO and current declination over a 40-h stability test. Furthermore, a high turnover frequency (TOF) value of 15 808 h-1 is obtained, which is more than ten times that of Ni-N2 /C (1476 h-1 ) without coordinated Cl atoms.

Validation of reference gene stability for miRNA quantification by reverse transcription quantitative PCR in the peripheral blood of patients with COVID-19 critical illness.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an urgency to study the host gene response that leads to variable clinical presentations of the disease, particularly the critical illness response. miRNAs have been implicated in the mechanism of host immune dysregulation and thus hold potential as biomarkers and/or therapeutic agents with clinical application. Hence, further analyses of their altered expression in COVID-19 is warranted. An important basis for this is identifying appropriate reference genes for high quality expression analysis studies. In the current report, NanoString technology was used to study the expression of 798 miRNAs in the peripheral blood of 24 critically ill patients, 12 had COVID-19 and 12 were COVID-19 negative. A list of potentially stable candidate reference genes was generated that included ten miRNAs. The top six were analyzed using reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) in a total of 41 patients so as to apply standard computational algorithms for validating reference genes, namely geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper and RefFinder. There was general agreement among all four algorithms in the ranking of four stable miRNAs: miR-186-5p, miR-148b-3p, miR-194-5p and miR-448. A detailed analysis of their output rankings led to the conclusion that miR-186-5p and miR-148b-3p are appropriate reference genes for miRNA expression studies using PaxGene tubes in the peripheral blood of patients critically ill with COVID-19 disease.

Intramuscular Hemangioma of the Sternocleidomastoid: A Rare Tumor in an Unusual Location.

Intramuscular hemangiomas (IMH) are benign vascular tumors of the skeletal muscles. These tumors are uncommon in the head and neck region and usually affect the trunk and extremities. IMH of the masseter and trapezius muscles have been reported in the head and neck region. However, the sternocleidomastoid is extremely rare. In the current case report, we described a 25-year-old man with a rare case of intramuscular hemangioma involving the sternocleidomastoid muscle and reviewed the relevant literature. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography was initially obtained and showed a slightly hyperdense soft tissue mass. Head and neck magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrate a well-delineated hyperintense lesion on the T2 sequence suggestive of a soft tissue hemangioma. Subsequently, angioembolization using onyx was performed, followed by surgical excision of the mass under general anesthesia. Histopathological examination of the mass showed vascular proliferation within the skeletal muscles, and fatty tissue with an abundance of capillaries, which are consistent with capillary type intramuscular hemangioma. The patient was followed up in the clinic until the wound healed. Three months after surgery, no recurrence was observed. Preoperative angioembolization contributed to the success of IMH surgery by reducing morbidity, facilitating complete excision, and decreasing the risk of recurrence.

Using Cognitive Analytic Therapy as a Transdiagnostic Intervention for Comorbid Personality Disorder, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and Functional Neurological Symptom Disorder: A Case Report of a 68 Woman’s Journey Toward the Integration of Dissociated Self-States

Functional neurological symptom disorder (FND) is associated with complex specialist investigations and poor prognosis. The theoretical understanding of FND posits that functional symptoms are predisposed by both psychological factors, including attachment disturbances and childhood trauma, and biological factors such as neuroplasticity and epigenetics. Current treatment recommendations include psychological therapy, with moderate effects observed with cognitive-behavioural therapy and psychodynamic therapy modalities, however, psychological understanding is key to success. The current case report describes cognitive analytic therapy (CAT) with a 68 year-old woman presenting to services with diagnoses of FND and borderline personality disorder (BPD). The target problem for therapy was integration of fragmented self-states (dissociative and driven) pertinent to both FND and BPD. 16 session CAT was delivered, with four follow up sessions, exploring unhelpful patterns of relating with self and others, based on an unconscious repertoire of internalised patterns and procedures from early life. CAT tools were used to facilitate change; reformulation and ending letters, mapping and the therapeutic relationship. Scores on the personality structure questionnaire (PSQ) and an idiosyncratic measure of state-shifting indicated positive outcomes, sustained at 3 month follow up. This shows modest early acceptability and feasibility of CAT for working with comorbid BPD and FND, providing a validating and blame free formulation of the development and maintenance of symptoms. Additional measures would have improved the ability to comment on the effectiveness of the treatment and future research implications are discussed.

Plasma-Made Nanogold for DNA Sensing with SERS

Facilitated electrochemical properties of plasma are crucial for improving functional nanomaterials synthesis and design for novel sensor development. Controlled customization and functionality tailoring at multiscale is the targeted challenge for better detection devices performance. In the modern era of optoelectronics, among various probing approaches, plasmonic sensing accompanied by Raman, FTIR or Fluorescent spectroscopy is considered a tool for the efficient investigation of molecular properties. In particular, Raman scattering is often called SERS (surface-enhanced Raman scattering) due to plasmonic enhancers, which are used to improve the probing of analytes at a reduced scale. This feature is extremely useful for biologically relevant analytical tasks when samples alike DNA and similar need to be investigated fast and accurately. DNA/RNA-related investigations are highly important in modern nanomedicine due to the solid progress of bionanotechnology, DNA vaccines, and functional gene engineering. DNA is the most valued substance for microbiologists because it contains information about bio-species' nature.[1] Currently, the number of molecular-sensitive methods for DNA-level study is quite limited, among which PCR (polymer chain reaction) related methods dominate the field. However, it is challenging to investigate it with optical techniques like SERS. Despite being promising, SERS is still under technological and analytical improvement. Better performance comes with sophisticated plasmonic nanomaterials, which provide considerably improved photon scattering due to the strongly localized field confinement effect.[2] In the current report, a well-performing nanoplasmonic sensor was designed using a plasma-driven electrochemical reduction mechanism. Exploiting atmospheric pressure He-plasma jet setup operating kHz frequency, the reactive oxidative species donated electrons via liquid-gas electrochemistry towards the Ar-delivered Au(3+)-containing microdroplets. Through this method, microscaled aggregates composed of AuNPs were obtained from the nebulized ionic gold liquid precursor. Due to the strong coupling between nanoparticles, a high analytical enhancement factor of about 107 was achieved and the substrate allowed to obtain Raman fingerprints of bacterial DNA fragments (M. luteus and S. aureus, E. coli, J. lividum) at nanovolume sample quantities. In addition, main DNA molecular vibrational signatures associated with nucleobase motions were extracted from spectra collected and used to classify the bacterial strains reliably by employing statistical principal component analysis.

The Effect of Humidity on Blood Serum Pattern Formation and Blood Transfer

A detailed knowledge of the drying properties of blood is important for a more complete understanding of the forensic information that may exist at a crime location. Although the effect of relative humidity on the general properties of blood drying has been evaluated, relatively little information exists regarding the alterations of blood serum distribution that may occur during the drying process. Moreover, the influence of humidity on the ability of dried blood drops to transfer from skin to absorbent material has never been studied. The data in the current report show that blood serum pattern formation is distinctly altered by increased humidity in drying drops of blood. In addition, these data document that high humidity conditions were sufficient to remoisten dried blood drops such that they were able to transfer to the absorbent material, with the original bloodstain pattern maintained.

A comparison between real-time intraoperative voice dictation and the operative report in laparoscopic cholecystectomy: a multicenter prospective observational study

PurposeThe current operative report often inadequately reflects events occurring during laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). The addition of intraoperative video recording to the operative report has already proven to add important information. It was hypothesized that real-time intraoperative voice dictation (RIVD) can provide an equal or more complete overview of the operative procedure compared to the narrative operative report (NR) produced postoperatively.MethodsSONAR is a multicenter prospective observational trial, conducted at four surgical centers in the Netherlands. Elective LCs of patients aged 18 years and older were included. Participating surgeons were requested to dictate the essential steps of LC during surgery. RIVDs and NRs were reviewed according to the stepwise LC guideline of the Dutch Society for Surgery. The cumulative adequacy rates for RIVDs were compared with those of the postoperatively written NR.Results79 of 90 cases were eligible for inclusion and available for further analysis. RIVD resulted in a significantly higher adequacy rate compared to NR for the circumferential dissection of the cystic duct and artery (NR 32.5% vs. RIVD 61.0%, P = 0.016). NR had higher adequacy rates in reporting the transection of the cystic duct (NR 100% vs. RIVD 77.9%, P = < 0.001) and the removal of the gallbladder from the liver bed (NR 98.7% vs. RIVD 68.8%, P < 0.001). The total adequacy was not significantly different between the two reporting methods (NR 78.0% vs. RIVD 76.4%, P = 1.00).ConclusionOverall, the adequacy of RIVD is comparable to the postoperatively written NR in reporting surgical steps in LC. However, the most essential surgical step, the circumferential dissection of the cystic duct and artery, was reported more adequately in RIVD.

Histopathological insight into a healed case of osteoradionecrosis treated with triple therapy medical management

AbstractThere is increasing interest in the management of osteoradionecrosis via pharmacological therapy as an alternative to surgery. Successful outcomes have been presented in the literature based on clinical and radiographic assessment. The current case reports on a clinically healed case of osteoradionecrosis who subsequently underwent resection for the purpose of oro‐dento‐facial rehabilitation providing a rare insight into the histopathological status of resolved case via medical management.

Individual differences in second-order false-belief understanding and executive abilities: A meta-analytic review of evidence from school-age children and adults

Theory of Mind (ToM) and Executive Functioning (EF) are two pillars of human social cognition often studied in conjunction, but rarely considered together beyond childhood. Adults routinely undertake ToM activities of higher levels, such as those that require reasoning recursively through other individuals’ presumed reasoning about others (e.g., she believes that he believes that this is difficult to grasp). Yet, the possibility of links between EF and these special kinds of representations, termed second-order ToM, has been much less studied empirically. The objective of the current pre-registered report is to provide a meta-analytic review of the extant literature linking second-order ToM and EF in school-age children and adults. Studies reporting on the relation between EF and second-order ToM were located through systematic search of published and non-published research databases. A final set of 32 studies were meta-analyzed, providing 83 effect sizes and a pooled N of over 2584 child and adult participants. The developmental literature provided evidence of moderate second-order ToM-EF linkage in children (r = .25), which resisted statistical adjustment for age, and did not differ on the basis of children’s cultural background. In contrast, the adult findings were weaker (r = .09), and only accounted for a very small percentage of the meta-analyzed literature. Important methodological gaps were identified, highlighting the need for more research on the links between second-order ToM and EF.

Preliminary Pilot-Testing of Intimate Partner Violence Screening for Transgender and Gender Diverse (TGD) Individuals in Med-Peds and Family Medicine.

Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals, comprised of those whose gender identity does not correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth, represent approximately 1.4 million people in the U.S., with a higher prevalence among those 18-24 years old. TGD individuals experience high levels of intimate partner violence (IPV), which leads to disproportionately negative mental and physical health outcomes for this population. As a result, there is a resounding need to connect TGD populations to health-promoting services, supports and resources. Med-Peds and Family Medicine clinics may be particularly well-positioned to support these efforts due to physicians' focus on transitional-aged youth and young adults under 30. The current manuscript reports on processes and outcomes related to a quality improvement (QI) initiative that aimed to test the feasibility and acceptability of implementing IPV screening within both a Med-Peds and a Family Medicine specialty clinic serving TGD populations in Los Angeles, CA. This QI initiative included screeners that capture IPV in cisgender/non-TGD populations (Humiliation, Afraid, Rape, Kick [HARK]) as well as in TGD populations specifically (IPV-T). We utilized a mixed-methods approach to both quantify and qualify responses to existing IPV screening as well as informal feedback from clinic "champions" in each clinic. Quantitative and qualitative findings from this QI initiative, featuring both general and TGD-specific IPV screening measures with 140 TGD individuals, elucidated several important processes that can support effective IPV screening and referral to supports and services. These include the importance of interdisciplinary teams, the utility of an iterative approach to screener roll-out, and the essential role of solidifying a referral process in these efforts. This project additionally shed light on the potential utility and challenges of implementing both general and TGD-specific IPV screening measures. Our pilot test did not support the necessity of a TGD-specific IPV screener for identifying and responding to IPV in this population, yet additional data is critical to generate more conclusive recommendations. We recommend larger-scale data collection efforts to evaluate the utility of integrating general and TGD-specific screeners into clinic workflows to ensure optimal health promotion for the TGD population in Med-Peds and Family Medicine clinics.

Designing a skills training pathway for the agricultural workforce from the employer perspective: skills micro-credentials from seasonal worker to supervisor

ABSTRACT Purpose To identify a skilled micro-credentialled training pathway for agricultural careers. Design/Methodology/Approach A survey consisting of open ended and Likert-type ratings questions regarding workforce skills requirements, training priorities and training delivery preferences was administered with 17 agricultural business managers and employers. Data were analysed to understand current workforce structures, compliance and training skills needs for workforce segments including: (a) seasonal workers, (b) entry level workers, and (c) supervisors. Findings Seventeen compliance and technical skills were identified as training priorities, and preferred approaches to training delivery included blended and on-the-job training, with formal accredited training preferred across all skills domains. Practical Implications Findings suggest that micro-credentials for these skills domains are of use for industry, with a skills development pathway for different workforce segments identified. Theoretical Implications It has been argued that micro-credentials may be a mechanism to improve the career motivations of workforce segments that traditionally do not engage in certificate or diploma level courses. The current research reports on an employer-identified need for this type of system, with further research required to explore employee perspectives. Originality/Value This research contributes a skills map that can be used to inform the design a micro-credentialled training pathway for the agricultural workforce.