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A February 3, 2023 train derailment and subsequent burn released hazardous chemicals into East Palestine, Ohio. One potential exposure was polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, dibenzofurans, and coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls (cPCBs), collectively referred to as dioxins. Many studies have linked dioxins to numerous health effects. A pilot study was conducted July 17-18, 2023 to assess residents serum dioxin levels. Eighteen persons who were White, nonsmokers with a mean age of 55, and 56% female, provided serum for analysis. Measurement of 20 dioxins, furans, and cPCBs congeners was conducted using gas chromatography, isotope dilution, and high-resolution mass spectrometry. A toxic equivalency (TEQ) value for each participant was calculated by multiplying the reported concentration of each congener by its toxic equivalency factor and summing the results. TEQs were compared to 2011-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data by race/ethnicity, sex, and age group. All participants had serum TEQ values either below or within the range of NHANES values. Mean TEQ values were lower in younger age groups; we observed no sex-specific differences. These pilot data demonstrate that although dioxins may have formed during the derailment, exposures to participants did not increase their TEQ values compared with 2011-2012 NHANES.

On December 11, 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the first COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use for persons [greater than or equal to] 16 years of age [...]

Research has shown mixed results regarding the association between women's postpartum depression and mother-infant interactions, suggesting that a woman's unique experience and context may moderate how depression shapes these interactions. We examined the extent to which a woman's comorbid anxiety, her exposure to adversity, and infant characteristics moderate the relationship between depressive symptoms of women and interactions with their infants at 6 (n = 647) and 12 months (n = 346) postpartum. The methods included standardized coding of mother-infant interactions and structural regression modeling. The results at 6 months of infant age indicated that infant male sex and infant negative affectivity were risk factors for mothers' depression being associated with less optimal interactions. At 12 months of infant age, two moderators appeared to buffer the influence of depression: a woman's history of trauma and infant preterm birth (≤37 weeks gestation). The results reinforce the salience of infant characteristics in the relationship between maternal depression and mother-infant interactions. The findings also suggest that experiences of trauma may offer opportunities for psychological growth that foster constructive management of depression's potential effect on mother-infant interactions. Further research is needed to clarify the underlying processes and mechanisms that explain the influence of these moderators. The ultimate goals are to reduce the risk of suboptimal interactions and reinforce healthy dyadic relations.

The present study examined mothers' emotional availability (EA) during daytime free play and bedtime as a mediator of linkages between maternal nighttime sleep and infant-mother attachment. Participants included 153 mothers (85% White) with infants (53% female). When infants were 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months, maternal sleep was assessed using actigraphy and daily sleep diaries for 7 consecutive days. At each time point, mothers' EA was scored from one observation of daytime free play and from one evening observation of infant bedtime by trained observers who were blind to all other participant information. Average scores were created for maternal sleep and EA across the five occasions in the first year. At 12 and 18 months, infant-mother attachment security in the home was scored by blind observers using the Attachment Q-Set, averaged across the two age points, and used in analyses. Mediational analyses revealed that mothers who experienced highly variable sleep and had poor sleep quality were less emotionally available with infants at bedtime during infants' first year of life, which in turn was predictive of lower infant-mother attachment security in the second year, supporting mediation. Linkages between maternal sleep characteristics and daytime EA were less evident. Later maternal sleep timing was also directly predictive of low attachment security, after accounting for maternal EA. Findings emphasize that poor parental sleep places both parenting and infant socioemotional development at risk, and that parental sleep hygiene and sleep habits should be a salient focus of parenting intervention.

Panelists in this traditional session will discuss holistic decision-making frameworks for collection management activities. They will share how to build accountability to their organizational mission and values in these frameworks, as well as transparency in decision-making and strategic thinking to achieve long-term goals. In particular, the panelists will focus on how they are thinking about and embedding principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion in these decision-making frameworks. The panelists represent a variety of institutional perspectives with differing stakeholders, priorities, legacies, and processes in place, as well as a range of collection management functions, which includes prioritizing processing; strategic decision-making related to backlogs, reappraisal, and discovery; ethical and legal responsibilities towards contributors of metadata; and the creation of a DEI interest group to critically examine all areas of collection management.

This paper investigates the impact of social media movements on shareholders' wealth. The #WhoMadeMyClothes Twitter campaign is an annual social media movement that emerged after the collapse of the Rana Plaza, a building in Bangladesh that housed five garment factories, in April 2013. The global campaign serves as a remembrance day for the factory victims and gives social media users an outlet to address ethical concerns towards apparel retail companies that were buyers of the Rana Plaza factories. My research investigates how this Twitter campaign, in specially April 2015, impacted the stock returns of the companies involved in the Rana Plaza collapse. My analysis is based on 180 publicly traded, global apparel and retail firms. I find an overall negative stock market reaction towards the US firms, regardless of their relationship to the factories, when aggregating over the all active campaign days. However, when pooling firms from all represented countries, I find that only firms involved in the collapse experienced significant negative returns. These firms are also more likely to experience negative returns after the campaign day, compared to the other firms that were not involved in the collapse. On a global perspective, shareholders may have punished firms that had significant ties to the collapse during and after the campaign day. Isolating US firms, a spillover effect might explain the negative returns for apparel and retail firms in general, regardless of their relation to the collapse

PROBLEM:: There is increased focus on supporting medical students’ transitions to internships to improve basic knowledge, efficiency and quality of care. Providing pre-residency education may help improve knowledge, clinical skills, and confidence. INTERVENTION:: A 2-day preparatory course for OB/Gyn-matched MS4s reviewed topics in the OB/Gyn ACGME Milestone 1 curriculum. The course used lectures, videos, and “hands-on” skills workshops. CONTEXT:: OB/Gyn-matched MS4s were invited to attend. Students took the APGO Prep for Res knowledge test (scored as percent correct) and completed a survey assessing confidence in Milestone 1 topics (Likert scale, 1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree) before and after the course. Students were sent a follow-up survey two months into internship assessing how the course impacted skills and inviting feedback. OUTCOME/LESSONS LEARNED:: Nine students attended. All 9 completed the pre-test, 7 the post-test, and 8 completed both surveys. The average test score before the course was 73%, and after 79% (p=0.24). No student had lower knowledge score after the course. Average confidence skills were 3.03 before and 4.47 after (p

Objectives/hypothesisUnilateral ML is a commonly performed surgery for dysphonia secondary to glottic insufficiency. The safety of this procedure performed in the outpatient setting has not been extensively examined. The purpose of the study was to assess the safety of outpatient unilateral ML in adults and determine the incidence and timing of postoperative complications across two tertiary-care academic medical centers.Study designRetrospective chart review, METHODS: A review of patients undergoing unilateral ML at two tertiary-care academic centers from 2011 to 2017 was performed. Patients undergoing bilateral medialization laryngoplasty, revision surgery, or those undergoing additional laryngeal framework procedures including arytenoid adduction were excluded. Patient demographics, operative details, and perioperative and postoperative complications were recorded. Comparisons were made between those individuals who underwent inpatient versus outpatient ML.ResultsOne hundred three total procedures met inclusion criteria. Fifty-seven were performed as outpatient procedures, and 46 individuals were observed for at least 23 hours following surgery. Silastic or Gore-Tex implants were used in all but two surgeries. There were no postoperative complications in either setting, including hematoma, dyspnea, wound infections or seromas.ConclusionsThe incidence of adverse events during and immediately following unilateral ML is very low. Patients can be discharged safely the day of surgery without geographic restrictions.Level of evidence4 Laryngoscope, 129:1647-1649, 2019.