Suburban District Research Articles

School Shootings and Security Lock‐downs: Myths, Positive School Climates, and Safer Campuses

AbstractSchool shooting tragedies and the juvenile justice system’s movement toward a retributive and punitive framework gravely impacted how primary and secondary school students, disproportionately urban districts, used security measures to lock down campuses and build “fortress‐like” schools. This iteration of control on school campuses emerged in tandem with the most recent generation’s zero tolerance approach to student violence and problems; a policy widely regarded as ineffective in urban, suburban, and rural districts. As school shootings continue to impact state legislative action and public reactions to school management, this paper takes a critical approach to school security policies and reviews the evidence on the risk for school violence and how to move away from student control approaches that do not improve school safety. Instead, the incorporation of prosocial education and school engagement efforts finds that school and student safety is improved. These, and related approaches to student body management, decreases campus violence and may also minimize the risk of some school shootings ‐ as rare as these tragic incidents are across the nation’s schools. The interplay of schools, students, and the juvenile and family courts is ongoing. Knowing how school districts can best approach their campus environments, safety, and learning is important for school social workers and court personnel because of how often these systems work, or do not work, together.

High prevalence of Babesia microti in small mammals in Beijing

BackgroundBabesiosis is an emerging tick-borne zoonotic infectious disease. Babesia microti is responsible for most cases of human babesiosis globally. It is important to investigate the prevalence of B. microti in the mammalian host population of a specific region in order to elucidate mechanisms of pathogen transmission and to define geographic areas where humans face the greatest risk of exposure. The aim of this study is to understand the prevalence and genotypes of B. microti in the small mammals that are found in Beijing, China.MethodsWe trapped small mammals from all of the 16 urban, suburban, and outer suburban districts of Beijing during the years 2014, 2017 and 2018. Genomic DNA was extracted from the heart tissues individually and the Babesia 18S rRNA gene was detected by PCR. The genotypes of B. microti were identified based on sequence alignments and phylogenetic analysis. The morphology of the parasites was observed under light microscopy. The risk factors were analyzed statistically based on both univariate analyses and multivariate logistic regression.ResultsA total of 1391 small mammals were collected. Positive infection of B. microti was detected in 12.1% (168/1391) of small mammals from 15 out of the 16 districts. Both Kobe-type and U.S.-type B. microti, accounting for 9.5% and 2.7%, respectively, were identified. Classic diverse morphologic forms of B. microti were observed. Specific types of ecological habitats including shrub areas, broad-leaved forest, and cropland were revealed to be risk factors associated with B. microti infection.ConclusionsThis study demonstrated the wide prevalence of B. microti infection in eight species of small mammals in Beijing, with Kobe-type more prevalent than U.S.-type. This study provides fundamental information for the development of informed prevention and control measures by public health authorities; the data gathered indicates a need for further monitoring of both clinical diseases in individuals presenting with babesiosis-like symptoms, as well as the infection status of ticks in high risk areas.

The Influence of Traditional Police Culture On the Activities of School Resource Officers

School resource officers (SROs) have become increasingly prevalent in U.S. public schools, yet critics suggest that there is an inherent incompatibility between the cultures of police and education. However, research has not examined the extent to which some of the potentially incompatible elements of police culture exist among SROs. This study examines three elements of traditional police culture that are likely to be particularly incompatible with school settings— suspicion, danger anticipation, and unpredictability. Given SROs’ involvement in roles such as teaching and informal counseling that extend beyond the typical duties of police officers, it is unclear whether these elements of police culture extend to SROs and influence their work. The current mixed methods study examines these dynamics using data from 31 surveys, 50 time logs, and 47 in-depth interviews with SROs from two suburban school districts. Findings indicated that SROs did embody characteristics typical of traditional police culture and that these characteristics shaped their daily activities and interactions with students, particularly regarding maintaining security and building relationships. Implications for theory, research, and policy are offered.

Effects of ambient ozone on daily mortality in a suburban district, Beijing

Background/Aim To understand the effects of ambient ozone on daily mortality in suburban area in China. Methods Data on air pollution, mortality and meteorology in Shunyi District were collected from Jan. 2012 to Dec. 2016. Generalized additive model (GAM) was applied to evaluate the association between ambient ozone and daily mortality. Results The average level was 111.8μg/m3 for O3.1h-max, 94.6μg/m3 for O3.8h-max and 54.8μg/m3 for O3.24h. Daily non-accidental mortality increased by 0.59% (95%CI:0.28%-0.91%), 0.64%(95%CI:0.22%-1.06%) and 0.95%(95% CI:0.28%-1.62%) with 10 μg/m3 increases of O3.1h-max, O3.8h-max and O3.24h concentrations(lag1) , respectively. Which were higher than those of in large and medium-sized cities in China. The increase of 10 μg/m3 in O3.1h-max were significantly associated with 0.56%(95%CI:0.14%-0.97%) increasing for daily mortality caused by circulatory system diseases, 0.87%(95%CI:0.25%-1.48%) for cardiovascular diseases and 0.84%(95%CI:0.22%-1.47%) for ischemic heart disease, respectively. Effects of O3.8h-max and O3.24h on daily mortality caused by above diseases were similar with O3.1h-max without significance. The increases of 10 μg/m3 in the level of O3.1h-max, O3.8h-max and O3.24h were responsible for 0.33%, 0.29% and 0.16% increases in daily mortality caused by cerebrovascular diseases, respectively, with no significance. Daily mortality caused by cerebrovascular diseases showed lower risk to ambient ozone compared with that caused by cardiovascular diseases. Conclusions The risks of ambient O3 in Shunyi District were very similar with those in large or medium-sized cities. Mortality caused by cardiovascular diseases suffered higher risk to ozone than that by cerebrovascular diseases. For the studies of effects on daily mortality, O3.1h-max as an indicator was more sensitive compared with O3.8h-max and O3.24h.

Risk of air pollution on daily mortality in a suburban district is different from a urban district

Background/Aim Almost all studies on the effect of air pollution on mortality in China focus on large or medium-sized cities. There was rarely report for suburban areas. However, there were enormous differences between them, including green space, per capita disposable income, density of population, coal consumption and education years. This will affect or modify the risk of mortality. In order to find a clue for further research, we tend to compare the effect of air pollution on daily mortality between urban and suburban populations. Methods A suburban district(Shunyi) and a urban district(Chaoyang) in Beijing was selected. Data on mortality, air pollution and weather were collected from 2012 to 2016, and ecological environment and social-economy in 2016. The GAM was applied to established model. Results The air quality was very similar in two districts. The levels of PM2.5, PM10 and O3max-1h were 81.1ug/m3, 101.1ug/m3, 111.8ug/m3 in Shunyi, and 83.6ug/m3, 113.2ug/m3, 111.1ug/m3 in Chaoyang. For every 10μg/m3 PM2.5 increasing non-accidental mortality and mortality caused by cardiovascular disease increased by 0.56% and 0.60% in Shunyi, which were 2.24 and 2.00 times as in Chaoyang. Meanwhile every 10μg/m3 PM10 increasing was associated with increase of 0.48% for non-accidental mortality and 0.52% mortality caused by cardiovascular disease in Shunyi, which were 2.00 and 2.20 times as in Chaoyang. Corresponding risks for ozone were very similar. The increase for non-accidental mortality were 0.59% in Shunyi and 0.52% in Chaoyang with 10μg/m3 increase, while mortality caused by cardiovascular disease increased by 0.56% and 0.67%. Conclusions The risks of ambient particles on non-accidental mortality and mortality caused by cardiovascular disease were great different between suburban and urban populations, while these of ozone were similar. All suggested that we should pay more attention to the study on rural population.

VP45.34: Knowledge, attitudes, practices and influencing factors of anxiety among pregnant women in Wuhan during the outbreak of COVID‐19

Our study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of pregnant women in Wuhan, investigate the status of anxiety and assess influencing factors during the outbreak of COVID-19. We recruited 817 participants from two maternity hospitals in Wuhan, which are respectively in Jiangan (urban) and Jiangxia (suburban) district. All participants completed a structured questionnaire include sociodemographic and clinical characteristic, KAP, Zung self-rating anxiety scale (SAS). The mean score of knowledge was 13.15 ± 1.10. The prevalence of prenatal anxiety was 20.81%. Having kids, low score of knowledge, very worried about getting contacted with COVID-19, worried about getting contacted with COVID-19 by ultrasound transducer were risk factors for the prenatal anxiety, trust in official media, postponed antenatal care (ANC) or reduced the visiting times were protective factors. Prenatal anxiety was relative common among pregnant women in Wuhan during the outbreak of COVID-19, Our findings recognised factors associated with a lower level of prenatal anxiety that can be used to design psychological interventions to improve the mental health of pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic. Supporting information can be found in the online version of this abstract Supporting Information Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.

A Steady Trickle-Down from Metro Districts and Improving Epidemic-Parameters Characterize the Increasing COVID-19 Cases in India

Background: By mid-September of 2020, the number of daily new infections in India have crossed 95,000. To facilitate an intuition for the spatio-temporal development of the pandemic and to help resource deployment planning, we analyze and describe how the disease burden almost-predictably shifted from large metropolitan districts to sub-urban districts. Methods: We gathered the publicly available granular data from 186 different districts (equivalent of counties) on their COVID-19 infections and deaths during the 15 April to 31 August 2020 period. These districts presented an active case burden of 559,566 and a cumulative 2,715,656 infections as of August 31. The epidemiological data of these districts was fit to a susceptible-asymptomatic-infected-recovered-dead (SAIRD) model and the underlying epidemic parameters for each of these districts during the course of 4 months was estimated. We validated these parameters against known epidemiological characteristic distributions and analyzed them to understand their changes in space-time during the pandemic. Findings: The center of the burden of the current-active infections which on May 15 was in the large metro districts with most international access shifted continuously and smoothly shifted towards districts which could be accessed by domestic airports and by trains. A linear trend-analysis showed a continuous improvement in most epidemic parameters consistently across the districts with four categories of accessibility from an international travel perspective - large metro, metro, urban and sub-urban districts. The reproduction numbers improved from 1.77±0.58 on May 15 to 1.07±0.13 on August 31 in large metro districts (p-Value of trend 0.0001053); and from 1.58±0.39 on May 15 to 0.94±0.11 on August 31 in sub-urban districts (p-Value of trend 0.0067). The recovery rate per infected person per day improved from 0.0581±0.009 on May 15 to 0.091±0.010 on August 31 in large metro districts (p-Value of trend 0.26x10-12; and from 0.059±0.011 on May 15 to 0.100±0.010 on August 31 in sub-urban districts (p-Value of trend 0.12±10-16). The death rate of symptomatic individuals which includes the case-fatality-rate as well as the time from symptoms to death, consistently decreased from 0.0025±0.0014 on May 15 to 0.0013±0.0003 on August 31 in large metro districts (p-Value of trend 0.0010); and from 0.0018±0.0008 on May 15 to 0.0014±0.0003 on August 31 in sub-urban districts (p-Value of trend 0.2789). Interpretation: As the daily infections continue to rise at a national level, it is important to notice a "local-flattening" in larger metro districts, and a shift of the pandemic-burden towards smaller sized districts in a clear hierarchical fashion of accessibility from an international travel perspective. The pandemic burden shifting towards remotely accessible regions, with possibly lesser health care facilities, is a call for attention to the re-organization of resources.Funding Statement: None.Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Academic stars and Energy Stars, an assessment of student academic achievement and school building energy efficiency

Considerable efforts have been made to increase the energy efficiency of school buildings across the country. Despite this, limited research examines the relationship between energy efficiency and student productivity. We use a unique panel dataset from a suburban school district that includes information on school building energy efficiency, measured by Energy Star scores, and other environmental attributes of buildings, as well as measures of individual student achievement, measured by standardized test scores. The empirical analysis controls for student and school fixed effects and evaluates the relationship between school characteristics and achievement. Separate models also evaluate how school characteristics impact student health and behavioral outcomes and the how these outcomes influence student test scores. We find no evidence that Energy Star scores have an impact on the indoor school environment or student performance on standardized tests, suggesting that building energy performance does not come at a cost to the performance of building inhabitants. We also find positive relationships between building thermal comfort and visual quality and standard test scores. Overall, the results highlight the importance of considering both the environmental and human capital impacts associated with decisions about investments in school infrastructure.

The quality of primary care in community health centers: comparison among urban, suburban and rural users in Shanghai, China

ObjectiveFollowing World Health Organization’s initiatives to advance primary care, China put forth forceful policies including the Personal Family Doctor Contract to ensure that every family sign up with a qualified doctor in a community health center (CHC) ever since its 2009 New Health Reform. We used the Johns Hopkins-designed Primary Care Assessment Tool (PCAT) to assess primary care quality experienced by the contracted residents and compare this across different socioeconomic regions.MethodsUsing a multistage sampling method, four CHCs each were randomly selected from urban, suburban and rural districts of Shanghai, a metropolitan with 24 million residents. ANOVA and Multivariate analyses were used to assess the association between location of CHC and the quality of primary care experience.FindingsA total of 2404 CHC users completed our survey. Except for the domain of coordination (information systems), users from suburban CHCs reported best primary care experiences in all other domains, followed by users of rural CHCs. After controlling for covariates, suburban CHC users were more likely to report higher total PCAT scores (ß = 1.57, P < 0.001) compared with those from urban CHCs.ConclusionThat contracted residents from suburban CHCs reporting better primary care experience than those from urban CHCs demonstrates the unique value of CHCs in relatively medical-underserved areas. In particular, urban CHCs could further strengthen first contact (utilization), first contact (accessibility), coordination (referral system), comprehensiveness (available), and community orientation aspects of primary care performance. However, all CHCs could improve coordination (information system).

Wind speed estimation in urban areas based on the relationships between background wind speeds and morphological parameters

This study proposes a method for estimating wind speeds. The method determined the rate of change in wind speed associated with the morphological parameters in the urban or suburban districts by conducting multiple regression analyses. Then, it estimated wind speeds by combining the change rate and inflow wind speeds in Gangnam-gu (GD), Yangcheon-gu (YD), and Pyeongtaek City (PD). Compared to the local data assimilation and prediction system (LDAPS), the estimation method decreased the root mean square error (RMSE) of wind speeds at the automatic weather stations for 1 year (56.2% in GD and 25.6% in YD). For the selected period (4–13 Feb. 2017), the RMSEs in GD (0.66 ​m ​s−1) and PD (0.80 ​m ​s−1) of the wind speeds estimated by the proposed methods were comparable to, or even better than, those (0.72 ​m ​s−1 in GD and 1.00 ​m ​s−1 in PD) of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model coupled to LDAPS. The wind speed distribution estimated by the proposed method was reasonably well correlated with that simulated by LDAPS-CFD coupled model (R ​= ​0.69–0.92). We need to improve the method for districts with spatially uneven morphological parameters.

Variation in School District Nutrition Policies and Practices: Community Context Matters

ABSTRACT Background The school nutrition environment has a large impact on child diet. However, there is a paucity of nationally representative research on factors that predict effective nutrition policies, practices, and education in schools. Purpose: The current study utilized Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data from the 2016 School Health Policies and Practices Survey (SHPPS) to explore the impact of poverty and community type (i.e., urban/rural spectrum) on these variables. Methods: Data from the 2016 SHPPS included 740 U.S. public schools. Composite scores were created from survey items related to dietary policies and practices. Results: Schools of greater rurality and urbanicity had more nutrition policies and education but fewer practices than suburban districts. Rural districts generally had fewer nutrition policies, practices, and education than urban districts. Poverty did not consistently predict these variables. Discussion: Community type is a crucial variable in the school nutrition environment and may better explain discrepancies among schools than poverty. Future efforts might focus on improving school nutrition policy and practice adherence, especially in rural areas. Translation to Health Eduation Practice: Further research using nationally representative data can help health educators better understand what interventions may produce the best results within their unique community type.

Progress or Setback: Revisiting the Current State of Assessment Practices of Black Children

The Larry P. v. Riles case highlighted the disproportional representation of Black students in special education and called for the need of fair and nondiscriminatory psychological and educational evaluations. Despite the longstanding ban of the use of cognitive assessments with Black children in the state of California, Black children continue to be overrepresented in special education across the USA and are more likely to receive subpar educational services and supports O'Connor and Fernandez (Educational Researcher 35(6):6–11, 2006); Graves and Ye (Journal of Black Psychology 43(2):192–213, 2017). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine current evaluation practices with Black children and to assess how current school psychologists account for cultural biases during the assessment process. School psychologists who practice in urban, suburban, and rural districts were surveyed regarding their demographic profiles, preparedness for assessing Black students, and current assessment practices. Results indicated several notable issues regarding the use of cognitive assessments with Black students including culturally bias test content and disproportionality.

Assessing the Predictive Nature of Teacher and Student Writing Self-Regulation Discrepancy

In this study, we examine the extent to which the discrepancy between teacher-reported and student-reported self-regulatory behaviours during writing were associated with students’ end-of-year writing grades after controlling for student writing ability and other demographic characteristics. Results of our study, conducted with a sample of 201 middle grades students enrolled in a large, comprehensive suburban school district in the Mid-Atlantic U.S., suggest a significant and positive relationship between teacher discrepancy and grades, after controlling for writing ability, student self-regulation, gender, race/ethnicity, and SES. This has clear implications for the classroom, as it suggests that even after accounting for student difference in terms of ability background, and demographics, the effort that teachers perceive their students making in the fall are still associated with students’ year-end performance in their class. This represents some of the first frontline evidence of the predictive relationship between self-regulation discrepancy and student achievement in writing.

\u2018To give or not to give medication, that is the question.\u2019 Healthcare personnel\u2019s perceptions of factors affecting pro re nata medication in sheltered housing for older adults \u2014 a focus-group interview study

BackgroundResidents living in sheltered housing depend on help from healthcare personnel (HCP) with medication management, regarding regular long-term and pro re nata (PRN) medication. The HCP assess the need for PRN medication prior to administration to the residents. The purpose of this study was to describe HCP’s perceptions of factors affecting PRN medication management in sheltered housing for older adults.MethodThis was a qualitative study with five focus-group interviews with 22 HCP working in sheltered housing for older adults. The HCP were heterogenous regarding scholarly education and experiences, working in four different municipalities in mid-Norway, representing urban, sub-urban and rural districts. The analysis was inductive, based on qualitative, manifest, content analysis. The main outcome was HCP perceptions of the factors affecting PRN medication management in sheltered housing.ResultsFour main factors affecting the PRN medication management were identified in the data and were related to either: 1) the medication; 2) the resident; 3) the HCP; or 4) the organisation. These categories included 14 subcategories. Overall, the HCP described the management of PRN medication as a complex process, where the above factors all have impact on the residents’ health and safety.ConclusionHCP working in sheltered housing describe that PRN medication management is affected by numerous human factors, that consequently may affect patient outcomes and safety. HCP involved in PRN medication management should be aware of factors that affect their decision-making, and safe management requires a professional practice built on medicines competence, practical skills and experience.

A benefit evaluation model for build-up land use in megacity suburban districts

In the process of rapid development of megacities, existing cost-benefit evaluation for economic and ecological benefits of urban land use cannot be easily applied to evaluation of suburbs in megacities. In this paper, a benefit evaluation model is constructed to solve this problem on the basis of the “core-edge” theory. A “population-economy-space” triangular element evaluation system and a two-dimensional evaluation system are established. The method compares and differentiates suburban districts and central urban areas. Taking Tianjin, China as an example, this study carries out an empirical evaluation and applies the model to 11 suburban districts. The conclusions of the empirical evaluation are summarized as follows: (1) from the comparative results of similar suburban districts, the horizontal benefits in the districts above the development axis are higher than those in other districts; (2) from the comparative results between the central urban area and suburban districts, the land use benefit level of suburban districts has not increased with the increase in the total amount levels of population and economy, and some have a decreasing trend; (3) from the developmental patterns of suburban districts, most districts are under the model of marginal expansion, which reflects limitations of sub-center city planning and sprawling developmental pattern of build-up land. Our analytical models can facilitate the policy-making related to intensifying land use and optimizing land supply structure.

Puttin’ on ole massa: auto-ethnography, Afro-Pessimism, and imagining in the broadest sense possible in education

ABSTRACT This article theorises and historically contextualises the racialised experiences of a Black male who has attempted to do racial equity work with white teachers in a suburban Minnesota school district. I use Afro-Pessimism as a theoretical tool and guidepost as I weave the journey to becoming a racial equity teacher and the systemic troubles of succeeding and failing in that kind of work.

Cohort profile: protocol and baseline survey for the Shanghai Suburban Adult Cohort and Biobank (SSACB) study

PurposeThe Shanghai Suburban Adult Cohort and Biobank (SSACB) was established to identify environmental, lifestyle and genetic risk factors for non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs) in adults (20–74 years old) living in...

Differences in regional distribution and inequality in health-resource allocation at hospital and primary health centre levels: a longitudinal study in Shanghai, China

ObjectivesTo analyse differences in regional distribution and inequality in health-resource allocation at the hospital and primary health centre (PHC) levels in Shanghai over 7 years.DesignA longitudinal survey using 2010–2016 data,...

Assessing Speech Sound Disorders in School-Age Children From Diverse Language Backgrounds: A Tutorial With Three Case Studies

Purpose Assessing speech sound disorders (SSDs) in children from multilingual backgrounds requires synthesis of language- and dialect-specific information to arrive at a more accurate diagnosis. We present three case studies of school-age children with unique linguistic profiles to aid speech-language pathologists in assessing this diverse population. Our aim is to offer feasible strategies for speech-language pathologists who do not speak the student's language(s). Method Three multilingual school-age children with suspected SSD were assessed as part of an initial evaluation at a suburban school district. Children spoke Vietnamese–English, Japanese–Polish–English, and Tamil–English. Students' languages were considered in the entire assessment process (i.e., interview, test selection, data analysis, and clinical decision making), and appropriate measures and resources were chosen to understand word-level and spontaneous articulation, phonological awareness, and language skills. A contrastive analysis was used to determine the presence of an SSD. Conclusions Although all students presented with patterns attributable to transfer processes (e.g., nonmainstream vowel productions) and/or dialectal differences, only one of the three students presented with an SSD. Together, these cases underscore the importance of a comprehensive assessment for multilingual children.

Teachers’ Efficacy Beliefs in Mathematics Teaching: A Study of Public Primary Schools in Sarawak

The Ministry of Education in Malaysia has voiced concern over the serious problems of underachieving primary school students in Mathematics. While the Ministry is gearing its education direction towards a new generation of STEM experts, the teachers have been assigned to shoulder the movement of the vision. Hence, their views must be understood. A study was conducted among 66 Mathematics teachers from 39 public primary schools in the sub-urban district of Samarahan inMalaysia to understand their mathematics teaching efficacy. The Mathematics Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument (MTEBI) by Enochs, Smith and Huinker (2000) was adapted and used in the data collection. Quantitative data analysis methods include descriptive statistics and the analysis of variance. The results indicated that the teachers were confident of their efficacy in Mathematics teaching. Specifically, the teachers’ personal efficacy was slightly lower than outcome expectancy. In addition, there was a moderate positive significant relationship between teachers’ personal efficacy and outcome expectancy. Gender, years of Mathematics teaching experience and highest education attained were not significant to teachers’ efficacy.