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We explored a two-stage recognition memory paradigm in which people first make single-item "studied"/"not studied" decisions and then have a chance to correct their errors in forced-choice trials. Each forced-choice trial included one studied word ("target") and one nonstudied word ("lure") that received the same previous single-item response. For example, a studied-studied trial would have a target that was correctly called "studied" and a lure that was incorrectly called "studied." The two-high-threshold (2HT) model and the unequal-variance signal detection (UVSD) model predict opposite effects of biasing the initial single-item responses on subsequent forced-choice accuracy. Results from two experiments showed that the bias effect is actually near zero and well out of the range of effects predicted by either model. Follow-up analyses suggested that the model failures were not a function of experiment artifacts like changing memory states between the two types of recognition trials. Follow-up analyses also showed that the dual process signal detection model made better predictions for the forced-choice data than 2HT and UVSD models.

The authors document in detail how the entrepreneurship program was created at Babson College in the 1970s. They recount the early history of Babson's program because the school was one of the first, if not the first, to make a huge institutional commitment that led to entrepreneurship becoming a core part of its academic programs. At the time, other schools had an entrepreneurship course or two, but Babson's commitment involved the creation of an undergraduate major, an MBA concentration, an annual research conference, a Distinguished Academy of Entrepreneurs, an Entrepreneurship Chair, and numerous outreach programs. These efforts influenced other universities to increase their entrepreneurship offerings to the extent that a new academic discipline--entrepreneurship studies--was born. A second reason for this article is the belief by those directly involved in the creation of Babson's program that the complete story has not been told and is in danger of being misunderstood. Like most innovations, the creation of Babson's entrepreneurship program was not a neat and tidy affair, but one more consistent with the turbulent notions put forth by Joseph Schumpeter and Clayton Christenson. Understanding Babson's early history with entrepreneurship can help others pursuing or facilitating their own academic innovations.

What common values do diverse Jesuit institutions share? In what ways are Jesuit colleges and universities working to maintain mission, identity, and traditions within the context of 21st-century higher education? To ground their response to these questions, the researchers first review the historical and ecclesial developments that have influenced the mission and identity of Catholic institutions of higher education (IHEs). They discuss the resulting changes in the vision of US Jesuit colleges and universities and trace the impact of the theological shift fostered by Vatican II documents and the Land O'Lakes statement on Catholic colleges and universities in general and Jesuit institutions in particular. Finally, the study critically analyzes the reciprocal interdependence of the seven AJCU characteristics to provide insights and recommendations for implementation of a reimagined articulation of Jesuit, Catholic mission and identity for member institutions, and other Catholic IHEs.

In this correlational study, we analyzed data from 71 Spanish-English biliterate students in grades 3 (n=21), 4 (n=23), and 5 (n=27) with the goal of investigating the applicability of the Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Hoover & Gough, 1990) in English and in Spanish for this population. The simple view posits that decoding (the ability to read words) and linguistic comprehension (the ability to understand language) both contribute uniquely in predicting reading comprehension, but that they also theoretically and statistically interact with one another. Using this model, we sought to determine whether the rea- ding process was comparable between Spanish, a transparent orthography, and English, an opaque orthography. We collected analogue measures of reading comprehension, real-word reading (a proxy for decoding), and language proficiency (measures of syntax, morphology, and broad vocabulary) in Spanish and English to model the Simple View. Results showed that, for Spanish, language skills and decoding both made significant contributions to reading comprehension, in line with theoretical predictions. However, no interactions bet- ween decoding and language were detected. In English, by contrast, decoding and language both made independent contributions to reading in addition to a significant interaction effect that showed students with weaker language skills benefitting more from decoding than students with stronger language skills.

The purpose of this study was to examine the factorial invariance of the Abbreviated Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS-A) across subgroups based on demographic, health-related, behavioral, and environmental characteristics among Nurses' Health Study participants (N = 2,919; age M = 73.0, SD = 6.9 years) living in California, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. A series of multigroup confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to evaluate increasingly restrictive hypotheses of factorial invariance. Factorial invariance was supported across age, walking limitations, and neighborhood walking. Only partial scalar invariance was supported across state residence and neighborhood population density. This evidence provides support for using the NEWS-A with older women of different ages, who have different degrees of walking limitations, and who engage in different amounts of neighborhood walking. Partial scalar invariance suggests that researchers should be cautious when using the NEWS-A to compare older adults living in different states and neighborhoods with different levels of population density.

Purpose: Most built environment studies have quantified characteristics of the areas around participants' homes. However, the environmental exposures for physical activity (PA) are spatially dynamic rather than static. Thus, merged accelerometer and global positioning system (GPS) data were utilized to estimate associations between the built environment and PA among adults. Methods: Participants (N = 142) were recruited on trails in Massachusetts and wore an accelerometer and GPS unit for 1-4 days. Two binary outcomes were created: moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA vs. light PA-to-sedentary); and light-to-vigorous PA (LVPA vs. sedentary). Five built environment variables were created within 50-meter buffers around GPS points: population density, street density, land use mix (LUM), greenness, and walkability index. Generalized linear mixed models were fit to examine associations between environmental variables and both outcomes, adjusting for demographic covariates. Results: Overall, in the fully adjusted models, greenness was positively associated with MVPA and LVPA (odds ratios [ORs] = 1.15, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.03, 1.30 and 1.25, 95% CI = 1.12, 1.41, respectively). In contrast, street density and LUM were negatively associated with MVPA (ORs = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.67, 0.71 and 0.87, 95% CI = 0.78, 0.97, respectively) and LVPA (ORs = 0.79, 95% CI = 0.77, 0.81 and 0.81, 95% CI = 0.74, 0.90, respectively). Negative associations of population density and walkability with both outcomes reached statistical significance, yet the effect sizes were small. Conclusions: Concurrent monitoring of activity with accelerometers and GPS units allowed us to investigate relationships between objectively measured built environment around GPS points and minute-by-minute PA. Negative relationships between street density and LUM and PA contrast evidence from most built environment studies in adults. However, direct comparisons should be made with caution since most previous studies have focused on spatially fixed buffers around home locations, rather than the precise locations where PA occurs.

The two-high-threshold (2HT) model of recognition memory assumes that people make memory errors because they fail to retrieve information from memory and make a guess, whereas the continuous unequal-variance (UV) model and the low-threshold (LT) model assume that people make memory errors because they retrieve misleading information from memory. We explored the nature of memory errors by comparing guessing and memory performance. In 2 experiments, participants studied lists of words followed by a test in which each trial was preceded by a cue indicating the probability that the trial would have a studied word. Participants first guessed whether or not the word would be studied, and then they saw the word and responded again. When the response that was more likely according to the cue was the correct response, participants made more errors after attempting to remember the word than in their initial guesses. This suggests that participants made errors because they retrieved misleading information even when they could guess the correct response on the basis of the probability cue. We also compared the models in terms of their ability to fit ROC functions using parametric bootstrap procedures to correct for model mimicry. These analyses supported both the UV and LT models over the 2HT model.

"Mussar," an approach to character growth emerging as a movement in the 18th century, has increasingly been incorporated into contemporary Jewish education. The purpose of mussar--the cultivation of character--is consistent with the goals of Jewish day schools and other settings. This article examines the implementation of a mussar-based program in a Jewish community high school. Particular attention is given to questions raised by the introduction of this program into a pluralistic school setting. Implications are discussed in terms of the broader goals of Jewish education.

In this essay, we explore "why" there has traditionally been so little emphasis on teaching preparation in business doctoral programs. Program administrators and faculty typically espouse support for teaching development; yet the existing reward systems are powerfully aligned in favor of a focus on research competency. Indeed, through the lens of a performance diagnostic model, it is entirely predictable that doctoral programs have not offered more teaching development opportunities, as administrators often do not have the requisite motivation, ability, opportunity, or resources to develop comparable teaching competence. However, given that the average graduate will take a professorial position with greater than 50% of responsibilities devoted to teaching, most external observers would conclude that there is a curious dearth of teaching preparation in contemporary business doctoral programs. However "understandable" the dearth of teaching development, we argue that those reasons are no longer "acceptable," and the present essay is predominately a call for change. Suggestions for enhancing the depth and nature of teaching development are offered, and we include some examples of progressive initiatives underway in the hopes of provoking a more intense conversation on the teaching preparation of the next generation of business professors.

Increasing the number of study trials creates a crossover pattern in source memory zROC slopes; that is, the slope is either below or above 1 depending on which source receives stronger learning. This pattern can be produced if additional learning affects memory processes such as the relative contribution of recollection and familiarity to source performance. However, the pattern can also be produced by decision processes if participants are more willing to make high-confidence source judgments when they are more confident that the test item was studied. We explored the role of memory and decision processes by comparing performance across 3 conditions: (a) words seen once with a male or female face (no repetition), (b) words seen once with a face after being presented twice with a picture of either a bird or a fish (different-source repetition), and (c) words seen 3 times with the same face (same-source repetition). zROC functions for the male-female decision showed that different-source repetition produced the same crossover effect as same-source repetition. This pattern was predicted by the decision process account, because it assumes that increasing item memory affects source confidence ratings even if source memory is not improved. Also supporting this account, we found a strong positive relationship between recognition confidence and source confidence even when analyses were limited to items that were attributed to the incorrect source or items that were not studied in either source.

Parent- and lab-based observer ratings were employed to examine genetic and environmental influences on continuity and change in inhibitory control (IC) in over 300 twin-pairs assessed longitudinally at 2 and 3 years of age. Genetic influences accounted for approximately 60% of the variance in parent-rated IC at both ages. Although many of the same genetic effects on parent-rated IC were stable across age, there were also novel genetic effects that emerged at age 3 (i.e., genetic factors contributed to both continuity and change in parent ratings of IC). Observed IC displayed a different developmental pattern. Genetic influences were moderate at age 2 (38%) and nonsignificant at age 3 (6%). Change in observed IC across early childhood was due to shared and nonshared environmental factors. Findings indicate that it is important to consider the measurement of IC when interpreting developmental and etiological findings.

The 2-high-threshold (2HT) model of recognition memory assumes that test items result in distinct internal states: they are either detected or not, and the probability of responding at a particular confidence level that an item is "old" or "new" depends on the state-response mapping parameters. The mapping parameters are independent of the probability that an item yields a particular state (e.g., both strong and weak items that are detected as old have the same probability of producing a highest-confidence "old" response). We tested this conditional independence assumption by presenting nouns 1, 2, or 4 times. To maximize the strength of some items, "superstrong" items were repeated 4 times and encoded in conjunction with pleasantness, imageability, anagram, and survival processing tasks. The 2HT model failed to simultaneously capture the response rate data for all item classes, demonstrating that the data violated the conditional independence assumption. In contrast, a Gaussian signal detection model, which posits that the level of confidence that an item is "old" or "new" is a function of its continuous strength value, provided a good account of the data.

Many of today's youth feel disconnected from their local communities. At the same time, most of them are regularly connected to the Internet and other digital media to gather information and communicate with their peers. This study conducts a qualitative textual analysis of 14 scholastic and nonscholastic youth media websites to derive five emergent themes related to connecting youth and local communities. While some content examined addressed specific community concerns, the strongest current value of these websites is that they serve as a source of diverse peer support and self-expression for local teens as they collectively experience the joys and struggles of adolescence. These sites also promote attachment to local schools, an important community node and social ecology for teens.

This issue of "College and University" marks a transition in the Editor-in-Chief Position, with the interview of Louise Lonabocker, who has served in this capacity for the past ten years. She has also served as President of AACRAO, and in both positions, Lonabocker has been a role model for many AACRAO leaders. Lonabocker describes the changes she has observed over her tenure and reflects on her future from the campus of Boston College. Lonabocker adds that beautiful, Ignatian values are inspirational, and she's always been proud to tell people where she worked and what she did. Lonabocker quips that she never aspired to this career, but what a great career it has turned out to be. Louise Lonabocker is executive director of student services and university registrar at Boston College.

Siegfried and Stock (2007) explore the undergraduate training of PhD economists. Their findings show that among U.S. undergraduate economics programs, the Harvard University Economics Department produces many eventual economics PhD recipients. In this article, the authors discuss Harvard's undergraduate economics program and highlight some key features. Harvard undergraduate economics students are not explicitly pushed into economics PhD programs. Instead, they are exposed to economics research early and often, allowing them to see and experience the potential of economics training to explore a variety of interesting questions and career possibilities. Additionally, while acknowledging the benefits of small classes and cohorts at liberal arts colleges, the Harvard undergraduate economics program believes it is possible for large economics departments to create an economics community and actively engage undergraduates in economics.

The lack of skilled workers to fill open positions is a growing concern for the economy. The talent search firm Korn Ferry has estimated that the U.S. could face a deficit of 6.5 million highly skilled workers by 2030, and the skills gap could cost the country $1.75 trillion in revenue by that same year. More important, the failure to better connect K-12 education to college and workforce success translates into lost opportunities for students. A proposal the authors have introduced and are championing in Massachusetts aims to do just that. House Bill 567 would expand opportunities for high school students to earn industry-recognized credentials (IRCs) that data confirm are of high employment value. The proposal will fuel a diverse, highly skilled workforce pipeline that is the engine of growth and prosperity and provides students with opportunities for upward mobility. It would require the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development to provide the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education with an annual list of high-need occupations that require an industry-recognized credential, ranked by employment value.

Introduction: Not all patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection develop symptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), making it challenging to assess the burden of COVID-19-related hospitalizations and mortality. We aimed to determine the proportion, resource utilization, and outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 positive patients admitted for COVID-19, and assess the impact of using the Center for Disease Control's (CDC) discharge diagnosis-based algorithm and the Massachusetts state department's drug administration-based classification system on identifying admissions for COVID-19. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we enrolled consecutive SARS-CoV-2 positive patients admitted to one of five hospitals in British Columbia between December 19, 2021 and May 31,2022. We completed medical record reviews, and classified hospitalizations as being primarily for COVID-19 or with incidental SARS-CoV-2 infection. We applied the CDC algorithm and the Massachusetts classification to estimate the difference in hospital days, intensive care unit (ICU) days and in-hospital mortality and calculated sensitivity and specificity. Results: Of 42,505 Emergency Department patients, 1,651 were admitted and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, with 858 (52.0%, 95% CI 49.6–54.4) admitted for COVID-19. Patients hospitalized for COVID-19 required ICU admission (14.0% versus 8.2%, p<0.001) and died (12.6% versus 6.4%, p<0.001) more frequently compared with patients with incidental SARS-CoV-2. Compared to case classification by clinicians, the CDC algorithm had a sensitivity of 82.9% (711/858, 95% CI 80.3%, 85.4%) and specificity of 98.1% (778/793, 95% CI 97.2%, 99.1%) for COVID-19-related admissions and underestimated COVID-19 attributable hospital days. The Massachusetts classification had a sensitivity of 60.5% (519/858, 95% CI 57.2%, 63.8%) and specificity of 78.6% (623/793, 95% CI 75.7%, 81.4%) for COVID-19-related admissions, underestimating total number of hospital and ICU bed days while overestimating COVID-19-related intubations, ICU admissions, and deaths. Conclusion: Half of SARS-CoV-2 hospitalizations were for COVID-19 during the Omicron wave. The CDC algorithm was more specific and sensitive than the Massachusetts classification, but underestimated the burden of COVID-19 admissions. Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT04702945. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We tested the dual process and unequal variance signal detection models by jointly modeling recognition and source confidence ratings. The 2 approaches make unique predictions for the slope of the recognition memory zROC function for items with correct versus incorrect source decisions. The standard bivariate Gaussian version of the unequal variance model predicts little or no slope difference between the source-correct and source-incorrect functions. We also developed a "bounded" version of this model that did not permit below-chance source discrimination in any region of the evidence space. The bounded version predicts that the source-correct function should have a lower slope than the source-incorrect function. A bivariate version of the dual process signal detection model can predict slope differences in either direction, but it must predict a u-shaped slope for items attributed to the correct source than items attributed to the incorrect source, and source zROC function if the source-correct slope is lower than the source-incorrect slope. Across 4 experiments, results consistently showed that the recognition memory zROC function had a lower the source zROC function for words recognized with high confidence was linear. Only the bounded version of the unequal variance model successfully predicted the full pattern of results.

I investigate a possible unintended consequence of Proposition 2½ override behavior--that it led to increased segregation in school districts in Massachusetts. This can occur because richer, low-minority towns tend to have more successful override votes that attract similar households with relatively high demands for public services who can afford to pay for them. To evaluate this hypothesis, I collect panel data on override behavior from 1982 to 2012 and merge this with data on school district enrollments and other district- and town-level characteristics. I find evidence that passing overrides earmarked for schools results in a significant decrease in the percent of nonwhite students enrolled in Massachusetts school districts. This happens in districts with below-average nonwhite school enrollments, and hence increases segregation.

Source memory zROC slopes change from below 1 to above 1 depending on which source gets the strongest learning. This effect has been attributed to memory processes, either in terms of a threshold source recollection process or changes in the variability of continuous source evidence. We propose 2 decision mechanisms that can produce the slope effect, and we test them in 3 experiments. The evidence mixing account assumes that people change how they weight item versus source evidence based on which source is stronger, and the converging criteria account assumes that participants become more willing to make high confidence source responses for test probes that have higher item strength. Results failed to support the evidence mixing account, in that the slope effect emerged even when item evidence was not informative for the source judgment (i.e., in tests that included strong and weak items from both sources). In contrast, results showed strong support for the converging criteria account. This account not only accommodated the unequal-strength slope effect but also made a prediction for unstudied (new) items that was empirically confirmed: participants made more high confidence source responses for new items when they were more confident that the item was studied. The converging criteria account has an advantage over accounts based on source recollection or evidence variability, as the latter accounts do not predict the relationship between recognition and source confidence for new items.

The goal of the Deconstructing Engineering Education Programmes project is to revise the mechanical engineering undergraduate curriculum to make the discipline more able to attract and retain a diverse community of students. The project seeks to reduce and reorder the prerequisite structure linking courses to offer greater flexibility for students. This paper describes the methods used to study the prerequisites and the resulting proposed curriculum revision. The process involved dissecting each course into topics at roughly the level of a line in a syllabus, editing the list of topics, associating prerequisites and successors to each topic and then using a genetic algorithm to produce clusters of topics. The new curriculum, which consists of 12 clusters, each of which could be a full year course, is quite different from the traditional curriculum. (Contains 1 note, 3 tables, and 2 figures.)

The idea that one's competencies are as important as one's qualifications has gained acceptance in both business and academia. Business organizations have developed sophisticated management systems around employee competence. There are education assessment tools that help ascertain students' competencies. In this study, the authors investigated one such tool entitled Making the Match: Base Competencies and Skill Sets. The authors conducted the study to develop an understanding of the sources of student competence exclusive of the college curriculum. The authors found significant correlations between student personal characteristics, student background characteristics, and their work-related competencies. (Contains 1 table.)

Based on a broader qualitative study of organizational level changes in schools participating in Massachusetts' Safe Schools Program, the authors describe four roles that GSAs played in the twenty-two schools: counseling and support; "safe" space; primary vehicle for raising awareness, increasing visibility, and educating about LGBT issues in school; and, part of broader school efforts for raising awareness, increasing visibility, and educating about LGBT issues in school. The advantages and disadvantages of each role are discussed in terms of addressing broader issues of heterosexism in schools, providing safety for LGBT students, and sustaining long-term organizational level changes in schools. (Contains 1 table.)

In 1993, the state of Massachusetts implemented comprehensive reforms that included increased state aid to local school districts. This study presents empirical evidence on whether these reforms actually increased educational spending and, if so, in what functional areas. These evaluations are based on relatively detailed annual financial data from the unified school districts in Massachusetts and two neighboring states over the 1990-1996 period. The results indicate that the reforms did increase state aid to and spending by those districts that spent the least prior to the reforms. Furthermore, most of the new spending in these low-spending districts was directed towards student instruction and capital investments.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdowns disrupted access to harm reduction supplies and services known to be effective in overdose prevention and contributed to a worsening of the opioid crisis. However, because pharmacies can provide naloxone and sell over-the-counter (OTC) sterile syringes, their continued operation throughout the pandemic potentially reinforced a public health role as a distribution hub for safer use supplies.Objectives: The objective of this analysis was to examine patterns of naloxone and OTC syringe sale volume at 463 community pharmacies in 2 states with high overdose rates during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: We analyzed weekly pharmacy-level dispensing data from January 5, 2020, to December 31, 2020, from one corporate community pharmacy chain in Massachusetts (n = 415 pharmacies) and New Hampshire (n = 48 pharmacies). Descriptive statistics and visualizations over the analytical period were generated as initial explorations of the outcome. Zero-inflated Poisson and negative binomial models were used to analyze distribution data along with county-level COVID-19 case rates and store-level COVID-19 testing location status during the same time. Interactions tested the effect of COVID-19 case rates on naloxone and OTC syringe sales.Results: Pharmacies that reported selling nonprescription syringes and dispensing naloxone during the study period averaged 210.13 OTC syringes sold and 0.53 naloxone prescriptions per week. Pharmacies in communities that experienced greater COVID-19 case burden also exhibited higher naloxone dispensing and OTC syringe sales during this period. The odds of selling OTC syringes increased over time but naloxone dispensing remained constant over the pandemic year. Pharmacies hosting COVID-19 testing tended to have lower OTC syringe sales and naloxone provision than nontesting sites.Conclusion: During the COVID-19 pandemic, pharmacies provided harm reduction services and dispensed lifesaving medications by quickly adapting to fulfill community needs without disrupting co-located services for COVID-19 response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advances involving high-throughput techniques for data generation and analysis have made familiarity with basic bioinformatics concepts and programs a necessity in the biological sciences. Undergraduate students increasingly need training in methods related to finding and retrieving information stored in vast databases. The rapid rise of bioinformatics as a new discipline has challenged many colleges and universities to keep current with their curricula, often in the face of static or dwindling resources. On the plus side, many bioinformatics modules and related databases and software programs are free and accessible online, and interdisciplinary partnerships between existing faculty members and their support staff have proved advantageous in such efforts. We present examples of strategies and methods that have been successfully used to incorporate bioinformatics content into undergraduate curricula.

Northeastern University's continuing-education division is being rejuvenated with market research, faculty involvement, and a non-traditional approach under its new vice president Christopher E. Hopey. The college shifted its emphasis from undergraduates to graduate and certificate programs aimed at working professionals, resulting in a 20 percent rise in enrollment and a 21 percent jump in tuition revenue.

Technology is a funding priority among federal education programs, which provide schools with networking capabilities and students with Internet access. Other programs include Star Schools (targeting underserved students), the Technology Literacy Challenge, and the 1997 Telecommunications Act providing E-Rate discounts. State technology funding initiatives also abound. (19 references) (MLH)

Background: The role pharmacies play in addressing the opioid crisis and drug-related risks such as injection drug use is evolving. Estimating the prevalence of injection drug use at the community level is challenging because of the stigma of drug use. Many community pharmacies sell nonprescription sterile syringes; thus, pharmacy-level sales of injection equipment may be an indicator of drug-related harms and unmet needs of high-risk populations.Objectives: To describe, compare, and assess the convergent validity of staff-reported nonprescription syringe (NPS) sales volume and NPS administrative sales data from community pharmacies in Massachusetts (MA) and Rhode Island (RI).Methods: This study employed both prospective cross-sectional survey data collection and utilization of administrative pharmacy sales data. Between November 2017 and January 2018, we administered a telephone-based survey to estimate average weekly NPS type and volume for 191 chain pharmacies (CVS Health) located in communities experiencing fatal opioid overdoses above the state's 2015 annual median rate. For the same time period, we obtained NPS sales data from surveyed pharmacies and all CVS Health pharmacies in the 2 states. We calculated Spearman correlations to assess convergence of average weekly volume between pharmacy staff reports and sales data.Results: All pharmacies responded to the survey. Most (98.4%) pharmacies surveyed sold NPS, but 42.0% reported running out of stock monthly or more frequently. Pharmacy staff tended to under-report syringe sales. Staff-reported weekly NPS sales volume was 67,922 versus 70,962 syringes from administrative pharmacy sales data. Spearman correlation between reported and actual NPS sales was 0.40 (95% CI 0.27-0.51).Conclusion: The counts of administrative pharmacy syringe sales data in MA and RI indicate high need, substantial volume, and notable access at community pharmacies. Future research should use NPS sales data rather than self-report data to track emerging trends and tailor local responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Castagno, K.A.; Donnelly, J.P., and Woodruff, J.D., 2021. Grain-size analysis of hurricane-induced event beds in a New England salt marsh, Massachusetts, USA. Journal of Coastal Research, 37(2), 326–335. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Tropical cyclones pose a growing threat to coastal infrastructure and livelihood. Because instrumental and historic records are too short to help us understand interactions between tropical cyclones and climate on a longer scale, proxy records are the only means for reconstructing millennia of tropical cyclone impacts. This study determines grain-size trends in storm-induced overwash deposits along a transect of sediment cores from a salt marsh in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, to characterize sorting trends and compare deposits associated with individual storms. The overwash deposits preserved within the high-marsh peat provide a record spanning the last two millennia. Building on a 2010 study, a different approach was used to accurately determine the grain-size distribution of overwash deposits from cores in a transect running perpendicular to the adjacent sandy/gravely barrier. Although maximum grain-size values are expected to decrease as distance from the barrier increases, not all event deposits that were studied follow this trend within uncertainty. Analysis of the storm event beds reveal a significant difference in settling trends between historic and prehistoric deposits, with historic deposits largely displaying landward-fining trends and prehistoric deposits largely displaying landward-coarsening trends. This suggests changes in the hydrodynamic or that geomorphic regime may have altered the way in which storm beds were deposited at this site. This new in-depth, transect-based approach has utility for improving the accuracy of future storm reconstructions, particularly for events for which no historic record exists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Pharmacies provide accessible sources of naloxone to caregivers, patients taking opioids, and individuals using drugs. While laws permit expanded pharmacy naloxone access, prior work identified barriers like concerns about stigma of addiction and time constraints that inhibit scale-up. We sought to examine similarities and differences in experiences obtaining naloxone at the pharmacy over a 1-year period in 2 states, and to explore reactions from people with opioid use disorder, patients taking opioids for chronic pain, caregivers of opioid users, and pharmacists to communication tools and patient outreach materials designed to improve naloxone uptake.Design: Eight focus groups (FGs) held December 2016 to April 2017 in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.Setting and Participants: Participants were recruited from pharmacies, health clinics, and community organizations; pharmacists were recruited from professional organizations and pharmacy colleges.Outcome Measures: The FGs were led by trained qualitative researchers using a topic guide and prototypes designed for input. Five analysts applied a coding scheme to transcripts. Thematic analysis involved synthesis of coded data and connections between themes, with comparisons across groups and to first-year findings.Results: A total of 56 individuals participated: patients taking opioids for chronic pain (n = 13), people with opioid use disorders (n = 15), caregivers (n = 13), and pharmacists (n = 16). Fear of future consequences and stigma in the pharmacy was a prominent theme from the previous year. Four new themes emerged: experience providing pharmacy naloxone, clinician-pharmacist-partnered approaches, naloxone coprescription, and fentanyl as motivator for pharmacy naloxone. Prototypes for prompting consumers about naloxone availability, materials facilitating naloxone conversations, and posters designed to address stigma were well received.Conclusions: Experiences dispensing naloxone are quickly evolving, and a greater diversity of patients are obtaining pharmacy naloxone. Persistent stigma-related concerns underscore the need for tools to help pharmacists offer naloxone, facilitate patient requests, and provide reassurance when getting naloxone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate pharmacist attitudes regarding recommending pharmacy-based naloxone (PBN). The influence of gender, practice setting, the number of years of practice, state, and PBN involvement were explored. Barriers to, and facilitators of, provision of PBN were also assessed.Design: A 71-question survey was designed to assess experience with, and attitudes toward, PBN. We employed a cross-sectional study design and utilized the online survey site Qualtrics (Qualtrics International Inc, Provo, UT).Setting and Participants: The survey was e-mailed to approximately 2900 licensed pharmacists from all practice settings in Massachusetts (approximately 1400) and Rhode Island (approximately 1500) and was open from April 5, 2016, until July 13, 2016.Outcome Measures: Attitudes toward opioid overdose prevention (12 questions) were used to develop the Opioid Overdose Prevention Attitude (OOPA) scale which consisted of 3 subscales: Opioid Overdose Prevention Attitude, Public Health Attitude, and Naloxone Dispensing Attitude.Results: Of the approximately 2900 pharmacists who received the survey, 402 responded (13%), and 245 (137 from Massachusetts and 108 from Rhode Island) were included in the analyses. The majority (79%) identified as White or Caucasian, and 127 (51.8%) stated they had ever dispensed naloxone. Of those, 85 (67%) had done so in the past 30 days. We examined differences in the OOPA subscales by pharmacists' characteristics and pharmacy practice settings. Working in a pharmacy that had a standing order or collaborative practice agreement allowing pharmacists to dispense naloxone without a physician's prescription, or in a pharmacy that stocked naloxone resulted in more positive attitudes toward opioid overdose prevention and public health prevention.Conclusion: Respondents who practiced in a pharmacy with a standing order or collaborative practice agreement were more likely to have dispensed naloxone. Both stocking naloxone and ever having dispensed naloxone were associated with higher OOPA scores. More research is needed to better understand how pharmacist attitudes influence the distribution of naloxone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we develop and apply a new methodology for obtaining accurate and equitable property value assessments. This methodology adds a time dimension to the Geographically Weighted Regressions (GWR) framework, which we call Time-Geographically Weighted Regressions (TGWR). That is, when generating assessed values, we consider sales that are close in time and space to the designated unit. We think this is an important improvement of GWR since this increases the number of comparable sales that can be used to generate assessed values. Furthermore, it is likely that units that sold at an earlier time but are spatially near the designated unit are likely to be closer in value than units that are sold at a similar time but farther away geographically. This is because location is such an important determinant of house value. We apply this new methodology to sales data for residential properties in 50 municipalities in Connecticut for 1994–2013 and 145 municipalities in Massachusetts for 1987–2012. This allows us to compare results over a long time period and across municipalities in two states. We find that TGWR performs better than OLS with fixed effects and leads to less regressive assessed values than OLS. In many cases, TGWR performs better than GWR that ignores the time dimension. In at least one specification, several suburban and rural towns meet the IAAO Coefficient of Dispersion cutoffs for acceptable accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summarizes some ways Massachusetts schools have trimmed their budgets in response to Proposition 2 1/2 and offers suggestions concerning how other schools or districts could go about doing the same. (JM)

In this article, Oakmont Regional High School (Ashburnham, Massachusetts) librarian Jeffrey Aubuchon describes how the school library is developing a new classification scheme called the Spartan system. This system seeks to mirror instructional practices at Oakmont. The major divisions of the collection will be drawn around academic departments and then topically according to course offerings. The Spartan system also allows flexibility in handling sensitive topics, such as the Holocaust and health-related issues, at the direction of teachers, the subject experts. Understanding the curricular context helps place books in the school library collection. While this approach is not unlike Dewey's subsection classification scheme, Oakmont's approach allows for curriculum-driven collection organization. The underlying goal of this new scheme is to link what is done in the school library more closely to what is done in the classroom by stressing conceptual relationships.

Objectives: There is limited research on the attitudes of pharmacy technicians toward pharmacy naloxone provision, despite their widespread role in the pharmacy. We examined attitudes and perceptions of pharmacy technicians in the provision of naloxone in a sample of Massachusetts pharmacies.Design: Thirty-nine community retail pharmacies from 1 U.S. chain were purposely sampled in 13 municipalities across Massachusetts. Pharmacies were divided into high-risk municipalities (HRMs) versus low-risk municipalities (LRMs) based on the state average opioid-related death rate from 2011 to 2015.Setting and Participants: A pharmacy technician working in each pharmacy was administered an in-person survey. Survey topics included technician beliefs about current naloxone provision practices; patient groups at greater risk of overdose; whether individuals filling prescriptions would benefit from naloxone; and whether individuals purchasing syringes would benefit from naloxone.Outcome Measures: Closed-ended responses were analyzed by Mann-Whitney U, Fisher exact, and chi-square tests. Open-ended responses were summarized for themes and then contrasted by municipality risk status.Results: Technician participation was 100% (n = 39). Technicians in both groups believed they could identify patient groups at risk of overdose in their practice, but HRM technicians recognized the need for naloxone for more of their at-risk patients (81% in HRM vs. 33% in LRM believed > 25% of patients need naloxone, P < 0.01). A willingness to provide naloxone was high (> 89%) in both groups. Open-ended responses revealed commonalities between groups, including the belief that patients need lower-cost naloxone, and a lack of patient and technician awareness that naloxone could prevent overdose in individuals at risk through use of prescription opioids not just through use of illicit drugs.Conclusion: Pharmacy technicians would benefit from overdose prevention training and are well positioned to recognize overdose risk and offer preventive interventions, such as naloxone. Among technicians, there is a high willingness to be involved in implementing broader naloxone access in pharmacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Mechanically ventilated patients increasingly spend hours in emergency department beds before ICU admission. This study evaluated the performance of blood gases in mechanically ventilated subjects in the emergency department and subsequent changes to mechanical ventilation settings. METHODS: This was a multi-center, prospective, observational study of subjects ventilated in the emergency department, conducted at 3 academic emergency departments from July 2011 to March 2013. We measured the rate of arterial blood gas (ABG) and venous blood gas (VBG) analysis, and we assessed the associations between the conditions of hypoxemia, hyperoxia, hypercapnia, or acidemia and changes to mechanical ventilator settings. RESULTS: Of 292 ventilated subjects, 17.1% did not have a blood gas sent in the emergency department. Ventilator changes were made significantly more frequently for subjects who had an ABG as the initial blood gas sent in the emergency department (odds ratio 2.70, 95% CI 1.46-4.99, P = .002). However, findings of hypoxemia, hyperoxia, hypercapnia, or acidemia were not correlated with ventilator adjustments. CONCLUSIONS: In this prospective observational study of subjects mechanically ventilated in the emergency department, the majority had a blood gas checked while in the emergency department. While ABGs were associated with having changes made to ventilator settings in the emergency department, clinical findings of hypoxemia, hyperoxia, hypercapnia, and acidemia were not. Inattention to blood gas results may lead to missed opportunities in guiding ventilator changes in the emergency department. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]