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Grounded in the literature on peer social capital, this study examines middle school students' perspectives on COVID-19-related changes in their peer interactions and friendships. Qualitative analyses of 146 students' survey responses showed that a majority experienced changes in their peer interactions and friendships. These students reported: (a) lasting changes in social-emotional states impacted peer interactions and friendships (e.g., increased anxiety); (b) changes in relationships (e.g., loss of friendships); and (c) visible changes in peer interactions (e.g., reduction in sharing behavior). Conversely, a small group of students perceived the changes in their peer interactions positively. The author argues that this paper's findings have farther-reaching implications than the pandemic, given other types of educational disruptions. Implications for educators, schools, and communities are discussed.

Social capital, including engagement with mentors, facilitates educational attainment. However, engagement with mentors differs significantly across groups of adolescents with different backgrounds, including an immigrant background. We investigate how immigrant generation predicts adolescents' engagement with mentors and different types of mentors (i.e., school-based and non-school-based), the association of mentors with educational attainment, and these estimates' heterogeneity based on the immigrant generation. We analyzed nationally representative Add Health data from N = 11,242 adolescents by using school fixed-effect linear probability models. Results show that adolescents from immigrant generations 1 and 2 were less likely than those from generation 3+ to have a mentor, but there were no significant differences in engaging with school-based mentors. Mentors predicted educational attainment; school-based mentor effects were larger than non-school-based mentor effects. The associations between mentors and college attendance and graduation were largest for first-generation immigrants. Our findings indicate the importance of structures supporting relationship-building and mentorship in schools and wider communities.

PurposeThe study analyzes how equity-focused knowledge brokers, working at different levels of the US education system, understand and discuss capacity building in education systems, such as schools, districts, state and local education agencies, to answer this research question: How do equity-focused knowledge brokers support capacity building in education systems?Design/methodology/approachSemi-structured interviews were conducted with five well-known equity-focused organizations that broker evidence-based knowledge and resources to educational systems, practitioners and policymakers. The research team members qualitatively analyzed 18 h of recordings, using their co-developed codebook based on the research questions and prior research on knowledge mobilization.FindingsFour strategies to build capacity within the educational systems were identified. Pursuing sustainable educational change, brokering organizations built capacity with context-specific strategies: (1) engaging various roles within educational systems, (2) fostering communities and partnerships, (3) supporting educators and policymakers’ agency and efficacy and (4) creating a wider culture of external support beyond the systems themselves.Originality/valueThis study shows how knowledge brokers employed context-specific strategies targeting whole systems instead of individuals to ensure that the organization and individuals within had the mindsets, capability, and conditions to engage with and adapt the brokered knowledge and resources. Findings build on existing literature showing how knowledge brokers build capacity through well-known approaches, such as workshops/training, online tutorials and other online resources.

Research provides ample evidence that positive social relations and access to knowledge are supportive for educational change. However, few studies have examined how personnel turnover and restructuring in school districts influence these processes, specifically as they relate to leaders' access to research evidence and perception of organizational learning and culture. In this longitudinal exploratory mixed-methods case study, we examine the changes in social networks and organizational learning among school and district leaders during a 3-year district restructuring process. Our study uses social network analysis, bivariate analyses, and qualitative coding. We surveyed district and school leaders about their districts' capacity for organizational learning, organizational culture, and social ties around research evidence. Our results suggest a decrease in the district's capacity to diffuse ideas from research between Years 1 and 3, which may inhibit efforts for improvement. Further, the data on school and district leaders who did not leave the district indicates a decrease in the perception of organizational learning and culture in school sites, but not in the district with differences between principals and central office staff. Qualitative findings support an association between the restructuring and changes in organizational learning and social structures and provide further reasons for the changes (e.g., lack of communication, time to maintain/build relationships, and opportunities for professional development). These findings speak to the importance of leaders focusing on the social side of change during times of churn, including strengthening trust, fostering collective values and beliefs, and countering division.

Student absenteeism affects students' engagement in school and academic and professional success. While research documents a significant association between school bullying/fighting and student absenteeism due to fear of being at school or getting to school, little research has examined the association of adolescent dating violence (ADV) victimization with this type of absenteeism. This study examined the relationship between physical and/or sexual ADV victimization in the past year (dichotomized as yes or no), and number of days of student absenteeism due to feeling unsafe at school or on the way to school in the past month (dichotomized as any vs. none). We analyzed cross-sectional data from the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), a nationally representative survey of U.S. high school students (n = 9507). We conducted crude and multivariate regression models for the total sample and stratified by sex to assess our hypothesized association of ADV victimization and absenteeism; sex, grade, race/ethnicity, and sexual identity were included as covariates in adjusted models. Findings demonstrate that students reporting past year ADV victimization had 3.69 times the odds of student absenteeism due to feeling unsafe, when compared to students who did not report ADV victimization (95% CI: 3.06-4.45, p < 0.001). Sex-stratified models reveal that this effect is significantly stronger for males than for females, as indicated by non-overlapping confidence intervals (male AOR: 5.67, 95% CI: 4.18-7.68; female AOR: 2.95, 95% CI: 2.32-3.74). The multivariate models also show that Black and Latinx compared with White students, and lesbian/gay/bisexual/unsure compared with heterosexual students, had higher odds of student absenteeism due to feeling unsafe. Findings indicate the need to address ADV victimization and student absenteeism with integrated and gender-tailored responses, and with consideration of greater vulnerabilities for queer students and students of color.

The COVID-19 pandemic presents unprecedented challenges to educational equity for multilingual learners (MLLs) and their families. Given that state education agencies play a prominent role in guiding and supporting schools and districts, they are well-positioned to ensure civil rights obligations for MLLs are upheld amidst the pandemic. This article reports findings from a policy analysis of over 150 state guidance documents related to the COVID-19 pandemic, collected across 50 states and the District of Columbia. Documents were reviewed to examine the extent to which states addressed key issues pertaining to MLL education, as well as how they characterized MLL students and families. Findings reveal substantial variation in the depth of states' guidance focused on six areas of MLL policy, which corresponded with whether characterizations of MLL students and families focused on their assets or perceived deficits. Gaps in guidance across states included partnering with MLL families to support student learning and supporting ongoing assessment practices. Implications for policy and research are presented that consider how state leaders can support schools and districts in attending to equity for MLLs amidst the pandemic.

Knowledge brokers are instrumental in improving education, including increasing equitable opportunities for all students. While many researchers have investigated the social networks between knowledge brokers and their audiences, less is known about knowledge brokers' relational ecosystems, defined as partner networks with organizations and individuals for collaboration, support, and resource exchange. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the characteristics of knowledge brokers' relational ecosystems (e.g., size, strength of relationships, network closure) and how relational ecosystems support and shape knowledge creation and mobilization. This study uses egocentric social network analysis methods to analyze survey and interview data from six equity-focused and evidence-based knowledge broker organizations that create and mobilize resources to different levels of the education system, from K-12 schools to state-level policy contexts in the United States. The evidence suggests that participating knowledge brokers partnered with numerous and heterogeneous individuals and organization types, including researchers, leaders, foundations, and intermediaries. The core relational ecosystems were characterized by strong relationships, partly driven by individual team members' social networks and comprising micro-networks, and were well-connected (i.e., network closure). Furthermore, our data indicates that beyond being collaborators, partners provided infrastructure and financial resources, served as intermediaries for knowledge mobilization, provided insights into policy contexts and audiences' needs, supported knowledge brokers' capacity building, and connected knowledge brokers to people and organizations. These relationships were not one-directional, but often mutually beneficial, resulting in reciprocated relational ecosystems. Our findings suggest that it might be beneficial for knowledge brokers to strategically cultivate relational ecosystems by supporting individual team members in cultivating their social networks, adapting to evolving needs and challenges while being conscious of long-term priorities, and balancing strong ties with the (re-)engagement with new partners and different sources of information.

Validity and reliability refer to the accuracy and consistency of a research tool. In the previous article in this series, we examined the development of a research questionnaire. In this article, we discuss the methods of determining the validity and reliability of a research questionnaire.

Healthy development of the gut microbiome provides long-term health benefits. Children raised in countries with high infectious disease burdens are frequently exposed to diarrhoeal pathogens and antibiotics, which perturb gut microbiome assembly. A recent cluster-randomized trial leveraging >4,000 child observations in Dhaka, Bangladesh, found that automated water chlorination of shared taps effectively reduced child diarrhoea and antibiotic use. In this substudy, we leveraged stool samples collected from 130 children 1 year after chlorine doser installation to examine differences between treatment and control children's gut microbiota. Water chlorination was associated with increased abundance of several bacterial genera previously linked to improved gut health; however, we observed no effects on the overall richness or diversity of taxa. Several clinically relevant antibiotic resistance genes were relatively more abundant in the gut microbiome of treatment children, possibly due to increases in Enterobacteriaceae. While further studies on the long-term health impacts of drinking chlorinated water would be valuable, we conclude that access to chlorinated water did not substantially impact child gut microbiome development in this setting, supporting the use of chlorination to increase global access to safe drinking water.

AIMS OF THE STUDY: Unlicensed drugs are frequently used in paediatric care. To what extent they are prescribed in hospital care in Switzerland is unclear. Because prescribing errors seem to occur more frequently with unlicensed drugs, we aimed to assess the prevalence of unlicensed drug prescriptions in two study periods (2018 and 2019) at the University Children’s Hospital Zurich, compare these periods and investigate whether unlicensed drugs were more prone to prescribing errors than licensed drugs. METHODS: We conducted a sub-analysis of a retrospective single-centre observational study and analysed 5,022 prescriptions for a total of 1,000 patients from 2018 and 2019 in paediatric general wards. The rate of unlicensed drugs, consisting of imported or formula drugs, was investigated. The prescriptions from 2019 were further analysed on prescribing errors to see whether errors occurred more often in unlicensed or licensed drug use. RESULTS: Of all prescriptions, 10.8% were unlicensed drugs, with around half each being imported and formula drugs. Among all patients, 34% were prescribed at least one unlicensed drug. Younger paediatric patients were prescribed more unlicensed drugs than older paediatric patients (newborns: 15.8% of prescriptions, infants: 13.4%, children: 10.6%, adolescents: 7.1%). Ibuprofen suppositories, midazolam oral solution and gentamicin i.v. solution were the most frequently prescribed imported drugs. Macrogol powder, lisinopril oral suspension and potassium chloride i.v. solution were the most frequently prescribed formula drugs. The most common drug forms in unlicensed use were oral liquid forms and i.v. solutions. Unlicensed drugs had a significantly higher rate of prescribing errors than licensed drugs (31.6 errors per 100 prescriptions [95% CI: 26.1–37.0] versus 24.3 errors per 100 prescriptions [95% CI: 22.3–26.2], p = 0.024). In particular, formula drugs carried a higher risk (36.4 errors per 100 prescriptions, p = 0.012). CONCLUSIONS: Unlicensed drugs are frequently prescribed in this paediatric hospital setting in Switzerland. Around every tenth prescription is an unlicensed drug. Because unlicensed drugs showed a significantly higher rate of prescribing errors, licensed drugs are favourable in terms of medication safety and should be prescribed whenever possible. If no licensed drug is available, imported drugs should be favoured over formula drugs due to lower prescribing error rates. To increase medication safety in paediatrics in Switzerland, efforts are necessary to increase the number of suitable licensed drug formulations for paediatric patients, including developing new innovative drug formulations for children.

Using social media is one important strategy to communicate research and public health guidelines to the scientific community and general public. Empirical evidence about which communication strategies are effective around breastfeeding messaging is scarce. To fill this gap, we aimed to identify influencers in the largest available Twitter database using social network analysis (n = 10,694 users), inductively analyze tweets, and explore communication strategies, motivations, and challenges via semi-structured interviews. Influencers had diverse backgrounds within and beyond the scientific health community (SHC; 42.7%): 54.7% were from the general public and 3% were companies. SHC contributed to most of the tweets (n = 798 tweets), disseminating guidelines and research findings more frequently than others (p < 0.001). Influencers from the general community mostly tweeted opinions regarding the current state of breastfeeding research and advocacy. Interviewees provided practical strategies (e.g., preferred visuals, tone, and writing style) to achieve personal and societal goals including career opportunities, community support, and improved breastfeeding practices. Complex challenges that need to be addressed were identified. Ideological differences regarding infant feeding may be hampering constructive communication, including differences in influencers' interpretation of the WHO International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and in perspectives regarding which social media interactions encompass conflict of interest.

Using Twitter to implement public health awareness campaigns is on the rise, but campaign monitoring and evaluation are largely dependent on basic Twitter Analytics. To establish the potential of social network theory-based metrics in better understanding public health campaigns, we analyzed real-time user interactions on Twitter during the 2020 World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) as an exemplar case. Social network analysis (SNA), including community and influencer identification, as well as topic modeling were used to compare the activity of n = 29,958 campaign participants and n = 10,694 reference users from the six-months pre-campaign period. Users formed more inter-connected relationships during the campaign, retweeting and mentioning each other 46,161 times compared to 10,662 times in the prior six months. Campaign participants formed identifiable communities that were not only based on their geolocation, but also based on interests and professional background. While influencers who dominated the WBW conversations were disproportionally members of the scientific community, the campaign did mobilize influencers from the general public who seemed to play a "bridging" role between the public and the scientific community. Users communicated about the campaign beyond its original themes to also discuss breastfeeding within the context of social and racial inequities. Applying SNA allowed understanding of the breastfeeding campaign's messaging and engagement dynamics across communities and influencers. Moving forward, WBW could benefit from improving targeting to enhance geographic coverage and user interactions. As this exemplar case indicates, social network theory and analysis can be used to inform other public health campaigns with data on user interactions that go beyond traditional metrics.

Qualitative research methods are widely used in the social sciences and the humanities, but they can also complement quantitative approaches used in clinical research. In this article, we discuss the key features and contributions of qualitative research methods.

Questionnaires are often used as part of research studies to collect data from participants. However, the information obtained through a questionnaire is dependent on how it has been designed, used, and validated. In this article, we look at the types of research questionnaires, their applications and limitations, and how a new questionnaire is developed.

The conceptual and practical work done by social medicine and global health have often overlapped. In this paper, we argue that new efforts to apprehend 'the social' in social medicine offer important insights to global health along five lines of critical analysis: (1) reconfigurations of the state and new forms of political activism, (2) philanthrocapitalism and the economisation of life, (3) The economy of attention, (4) anthropogenic climate change, and (5) the geopolitics of North and South.

Container-based sanitation (CBS) within a comprehensive service system value chain offers a low-cost sanitation option with potential for revenue generation but may increase microbial health risks to sanitation service workers. This study assessed occupational exposure to rotavirus and Shigella spp. during CBS urine collection and subsequent struvite fertilizer production in eThekwini, South Africa. Primary data included high resolution sequences of hand-object contacts from annotated video and measurement of fecal contamination from urine and surfaces likely to be contacted. A stochastic model incorporated chronological surface contacts, pathogen concentrations in urine, and literature data on transfer efficiencies of pathogens to model pathogen concentrations on hands and risk of infection from hand-to-mouth contacts. The probability of infection was highest from exposure to rotavirus during urine collection (∼10-1) and struvite production (∼10-2), though risks from Shigella spp. during urine collection (∼10-3) and struvite production (∼10-4) were non-negligible. Notably, risk of infection was higher during urine collection than during struvite production due to contact with contaminated urine transport containers. In the scale-up of CBS, disinfection of urine transport containers is expected to reduce pathogen transmission. Exposure data from this study can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of measures to protect sanitation service workers.

Abstract In February 2021, in response to emergence of more transmissible SARS-CoV-2 virus variants, the Canton Grisons launched a unique RNA mass testing program targeting the labour force in local businesses. Employees were offered weekly tests free of charge and on a voluntary basis. If tested positive, they were required to self-isolate for ten days and their contacts were subjected to daily testing at work. Thereby, the quarantine of contact persons could be waved.Here, we evaluate the effects of the testing program on the tested cohorts. We examined 121,364 test results from 27,514 participants during February–March 2021. By distinguishing different cohorts of employees, we observe a noticeable decrease in the test positivity rate and a statistically significant reduction in the associated incidence rate over the considered period. The reduction in the latter ranges between 18 and 50%. The variability is partly explained by different exposures to exogenous infection sources (e.g., contacts with visiting tourists or cross-border commuters). Our analysis provides the first empirical evidence that applying repetitive mass testing to a real population over an extended period of time can prevent spread of COVID-19 pandemic. However, to overcome logistic, uptake, and adherence challenges it is important that the program is carefully designed and that disease incursion from the population outside of the program is considered and controlled.

The persistence of the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 after recovery from infection is an indicator for subsequent protection against infection. Here the authors follow recovered patients and measure antibody and T cell responses and find that these two parts of the immune response may have different longevity.

Rock glaciers are landforms related to permafrost creep that are sensitive to climate variability and change. Their spatial distribution and kinematic behaviour can be critical for managing water resources and geohazards in periglacial areas. Rock glaciers have been inventoried for decades worldwide, often without assessment of their kinematics. The availability of remote sensing data however makes the inclusion of kinematic information potentially feasible, but requires a common methodology in order to create homogeneous inventories. In this context, the International Permafrost Association (IPA) Action Group on rock glacier inventories and kinematics (2018–2023), with the support of the European Space Agency (ESA) Permafrost Climate Change Initiative (CCI) project, is defining standard guidelines for the inclusion of kinematic information within inventories. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility of applying common rules proposed by the Action Group in 11 regions worldwide. Spaceborne interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) was used to characterise identifiable moving areas related to rock glaciers, applying a manual and a semi-automated approach. Subsequently, these areas were used to assign kinematic information to rock glaciers in existing or newly compiled inventories. More than 5000 moving areas and more than 3600 rock glaciers were classified according to their kinematics. The method and the preliminary results were analysed. We identified drawbacks related to the intrinsic limitations of InSAR and to various applied strategies regarding the integration of non-moving rock glaciers in some investigated regions. This is the first internationally coordinated work that incorporates kinematic attributes within rock glacier inventories at a global scale. The results show the value of designing standardised inventorying procedures for periglacial geomorphology.

The Rock Glacier Inventories and Kinematics community (RGIK) has defined standards for generating Rock Glacier Inventories (RoGI). In the framework of the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative for Permafrost (ESA CCI Permafrost), we set up a multi-operator mapping exercise in 12 areas around the world. Each RoGI team was composed of five to ten operators, involving 41 persons in total. Each operator performed similar steps following the RGIK guidelines (RGIK, 2023a) and using a similar QGIS tool. The individual results were compared and combined after common meetings to agree on the final consensus-based solutions. In total, 337 "certain" rock glaciers have been identified and characterised, and 222 additional landforms have been identified as "uncertain" rock glaciers. The dataset consists of three GeoPackage files for each area: 1) the Primary Markers (PM) locating and characterising the identified Rock Glacier Units (RGU), 2) the Moving Areas (MA) delineating areas with surface movement associated with the rock glacier creep, based on spaceborne Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), and 3) the Geomorphological Outlines (GO) delineating the restricted and extended RGU boundaries. Here we present the procedure for generating consensus-based RoGI, describe the data properties, highlight their value and limitations, and discuss potential applications. The final PM/MA/GO dataset is available on Zenodo (Rouyet et al., 2024; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14501399). The GeoPackage (gpkg) templates for performing similar RoGI in other areas, and exercises based on the QGIS tool, are available on the RGIK website (https://www.rgik.org). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and digital PCR (dPCR) are applied for quantifying molecular targets in disease diagnostics, pathogen detection, and ecological monitoring. Uptake of dPCR is increasing due to its higher quantification accuracy relative to qPCR, which stems from its independence from standard curves and its increased resistance to PCR inhibitors. Throughput can be increased through multiplexing, which allows simultaneous quantification of multiple targets. However, multiplexing with dPCR faces unique challenges relative to qPCR. Here, we describe the three-phase development process of non-competing multiplex dPCR assays using target-specific fluorescently labeled hydrolysis probes. We highlight common challenges encountered, along with recommended solutions. Phase 1: In silico assay design; target-specific primers and probes are selected or designed, potential issues with primer and probe interactions are identified, and fluorophores and quenchers are chosen based on dPCR instrumentation. Phase 2: Wet-lab validation; assays are benchmarked using positive controls. Insufficient performance leads to assay redesign, as needed. Phase 3: Assay implementation; assay specificity and sensitivity are validated on relevant sample matrices. Finally, we provide recommendations on the future design and standardization of multiplexed dPCR assays, highlighting the need for better in silico predictions of assay performance, standardizing positive controls, and automating partition classification systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater is an unbiased method to detect the spread of emerging variants and to track regional infection dynamics, which is especially useful in case of limited testing and clinical sequencing. To test how major international events influence the spread of new variants we have sequenced SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the wastewater samples of Davos, Landquart, Lostallo, and St. Moritz in the Swiss canton of Grisons in the time around the international sports competitions in Davos and St. Moritz in December 2021, and additionally in May 2022 and January 2023 in Davos and St. Moritz during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. The prevalence of the variants identified from the wastewater sequencing data showed that the Omicron variant BA.1 had spread in Davos and St. Moritz during the international sporting events hosted there in December 2021. This spread was associated with an increase in case numbers, while it was not observed in Landquart and Lostallo. Another instance of new variant spread occurred during the WEF in January 2023, when the Omicron variant BA.2.75 arrived in Davos but not in St. Moritz. We can therefore conclude that major international events promote the spread of new variants in the respective host region, which has important implications for the protective measures that should be taken.