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Positive youth development programs such as those offered by Boy Scouts of America (BSA) provide sources of support and opportunities for leadership and character development. Programmatic experts from BSA collaborated with researchers to develop a visual theory of change (pathway model) for youth development in Scouts BSA and for adult volunteer leader development. The pathway model was then validated through focus groups with Scouts BSA youth and adult leaders across the country. Practice mapping was employed to assess the consistency of pathway models with core adult training curricula. The models were aligned with research literature through evidence mapping. The theory of change embedded in the Scouts BSA program was aligned with the Big Three features of positive youth development programs.

Extension educators have new computer-assisted tools as audience response systems (clickers) for increasing educational effectiveness and improving assessment by facilitating client input. From 2010-2012, 26 sessions involving 1093 participants in six diverse client categories demonstrated wide audience acceptance and suitability of clickers in agricultural and horticultural programming. Farmers, ag students, and Master Gardeners provided anonymous information using wireless clickers. Analyzed data was shared in each session. Such user-friendly technology improved pedagogy with rapid and sustained learner engagement and through enhanced peer-to-peer instruction. Pre-post assessment and re-teaching techniques provided documentation for group demographics, educational evaluation, and programmatic impacts.

A team of authors, including a fourth-grade teacher and his professor from a local graduate school, describe culminating elementary lessons with an index card recap and peer review. In an urban district that traditionally struggles with standardized testing, this activity prompts students to summarize and communicate the day's lesson and key ideas in a format that is easy to implement and continue throughout the year. (Contains 8 figures.)

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, providers initially based treatment decisions upon established guidelines for adult respiratory distress syndrome. Even though emergency intubation and mechanical ventilation were recommended for first-line treatment of critically ill patients, clinical leaders in one New Jersey hospital observed mortality rates increased sharply for patients with COVID-19 receiving mechanical ventilation, particularly among the elderly. An interprofessional team created a Deterioration Report, which aggregated key laboratory, radiologic, and other clinical biomarkers. A follow-up provider satisfaction survey indicated treatment decisions were positively influenced by the Deterioration Report, to the extent at-risk patients were identified rapidly and accurately, placed on high-flow oxygenation as first-line treatment, and successfully avoided intubation in most cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Prebiopsy magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the prostate improves detection of significant tumors, while decreasing detection of less-aggressive tumors. Therefore, its use has been increasing over time. In this study, the use of prebiopsy MRI among Medicare beneficiaries with prostate cancer was examined. It was hypothesized that patients of color and those in isolated areas would be less likely to undergo this approach for cancer detection.Methods: Using cancer registry data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program linked to billing claims for fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries, men with nonmetastatic prostate cancer were identified from 2010 through 2015 with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) <30 ng/mL. Outcome was prebiopsy MRI of the prostate performed within 6 months before diagnosis (ie, Current Procedural Terminology 72197). Exposures were patient race/ethnicity and rural/urban status. Multivariable regression estimated the odds of prebiopsy prostate MRI. Post hoc analyses examined associations with the registry-level proportion of non-Hispanic Black patients and MRI use, as well as disparities in MRI use in registries with data on more frequent use of prostate MRI.Results: There were 50,719 men identified with prostate cancer (mean age, 72.1 years). Overall, 964 men (1.9% of cohort) had a prebiopsy MRI. Eighty percent of patients with prebiopsy MRI lived in California, New Jersey, or Connecticut. Non-Hispanic Black men (0.6% vs 2.1% non-Hispanic White; odds ratio [OR], 0.28; 95% CI, 0.19-0.40) and men in less urban areas (1.1% vs 2.2% large metro; OR, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.44-0.97) were less likely to have prebiopsy MRI of the prostate.Conclusions: Non-Hispanic Black patients with prostate cancer and those in less urban areas were less likely to have prebiopsy MRI of the prostate during its initial adoption as a tool for improving prostate cancer detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of suburbanization in New Jersey is a well-established topic in the scholarly literature. Since the middle decades of the nineteenth century, the state's northeastern and southwestern areas have become dense with suburban communities tied, culturally and economically, to New York City or Philadelphia. By the early twentieth century, these areas were a mix of middle-class white enclaves, Black towns, immigrant and working-class communities, agricultural hamlets, and industrial suburbs. However, in the late nineteenth century, some suburbs emerged as religious retreats. This article explores how suburbanization and, by the 1960s, urban renewal, transformed the Gloucester County borough of Pitman's landscape. Founded in 1871 as a Methodist camp meeting resort, the history of Pitman demonstrates ways that religion complemented suburbanization, and suburbanization, amid religious decline and secularization, reshaped the religious landscape of one South Jersey community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In April 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) participated in the Gotham Shield Exercise, led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and in collaboration with other federal agencies to test the federal, state and local government's ability to respond to an improvised nuclear device (IND). With active engagement from CDC leadership, 266 scientific and support staff from across the agency participated in the Gotham Shield exercise. The scenario involved a 10-kiloton detonation near the Lincoln Tunnel in New Jersey. This nuclear detonation scenario provided CDC with the opportunity to test some of the all-hazards tools the agency uses during response to other national or international emergencies, such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and mapping tools, and apply these tools to a nuclear emergency. Geospatial analysis associated with real time data can provide near real time information for individuals and entities associated with response and recovery activities. This type of analysis can provide timely data in regard to maps and information used to properly place staging areas for Community Reception Centers (CRC), mass care locations, and other medical care and countermeasure related services. Maps showing locations of power loss, such as locations of lost or inoperable main electrical grid and substations, combined with real time data on where power is available provides valuable information for first responders and emergency managers as well as responders engaged in communicating critical public messages to affected populations in these areas. By using real-time information, response officials can direct the response, allocate scarce resources, aid in coordination efforts, and provide a more efficient means of providing critical public health and medical services. The results of the exercise highlight the importance of using geospatial analysis for response planning and effect mitigation before, during, and after a public health event of this magnitude, and the value they represent in informed decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explored relationship between elderly women's (N=145) death anxiety, purposefulness, and personal experience of time. Results indicated high death anxiety was associated with less purposefulness, sense of harrassment and pressure by time, discontinuity and lack of direction in lives, inclination to procrastinate, and disposition towards being inconsistent. (AL)

Super Storm Sandy, one of the largest storms endured by the East Coast of the United States, devastated New Jersey and the eastern seaboard. Although natural disasters affect individuals of all ages, children are particularly vulnerable because their sense of normalcy is altered. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects that exposure to Super Storm Sandy had on children who resided in New Jersey. This was a non-experimental, quantitative, cross-sectional research study. Study participants were recruited via printed flyers at disaster resource sites and on a dedicated research team's Facebook site. Each participant completed the Hurricane Stressors Assessment Tool for Children and Adolescents as a web-based survey related to their experiences with the hurricane. One hundred and forty-one (141) children participated in this study. Age groups (preschool, child, and adolescent) had varied results based upon developmental level. Age was positively associated with finding it harder to concentrate and pay attention (r = 0.18, p = 0.04); feeling sad, down, or depressed (r = 0.17, p < 0.05); being quiet and withdrawn (r=0.16, p = 0.05); feeling irritable and grouchy (r= 0.26, p<0.05); and finding it harder to complete schoolwork (r = 0.32, p < 0.001). Certain parental perceptions of their child's behavior were negatively associated with the age of the child. Children had varying degrees of experiences after Sandy. Adolescents were shown to be more aware and affected by the storm than younger children. Observations can be used for intervention initiatives in the post-natural disaster period, encouraging healthcare providers to acknowledge family and community healing to provide adequate mental health referrals in the post-disaster period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes factors associated with transitions into and out of disconnectedness,which is defined as being disconnected from the labor market, welfare, and other substantial financial supports. Findings are based on discrete-time hazard models estimated with a sample of New Jersey welfare recipients followed for 5 years. Work history, human capital, policy environment, and economic conditions are found to be the factors most strongly associated with the dynamics of disconnectedness. More work history and human capital are associated with a lower probability of becoming disconnected and a higher probability of leaving disconnected status for employment. Individuals relying on unemployment insurance benefits are at high risk of becoming disconnected. This suggests that the expiration of such benefits often leads to disconnectedness. Receipt of sanctions for noncompliance with welfare's work requirements are found to triple the risk of becoming disconnected. Finally, transitions into disconnectedness increase sharply with increases in the unemployment rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To inform states with nursing home transition programs, we determine what risk factors are associated with participants' long-term readmission to nursing homes within 1 year after discharge. Design and Methods: We obtained administrative data for all 1,354 nursing home residents who were discharged, and we interviewed 628 transitioning through New Jersey's nursing home transition program in 2000. We used the Andersen behavioral model to select predictors of long-term nursing home readmission, and we used Cox proportional hazards regressions to examine the relative risk of experiencing such readmissions. Results: Overall, 72.6% of the 1,354 individuals remained in the community, with 8.6% readmitted to a nursing home for long stays (>90 days) and 18.8% dying during the study year. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis showed that being male, single, and dissatisfied with one's living situation; living with others; and falling within 8 to 10 weeks after discharge were significant predictors of long-term nursing home readmission during the first year after discharge. Implications: Most of the factors predicting long-term readmission were predisposing, not need, factors. This fact points to the limits of formulaic approaches to assessing candidates for discharge and the importance of working with clients to understand and address their particular vulnerabilities. Consumers, state policy makers, nursing home transition staff, discharge planners, and caregivers can use these findings to understand and help clients understand their particular risks and options, and to identify those individuals needing the greatest attention during the transition period as well as risk-specific services such as fall-prevention programs that should be made available to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]