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Shaofeng Wu, Yating Wei, Hao Li, Chenxing Zhou, Tianyou Chen, Jichong Zhu, Lu Liu, Siling Wu, Fengzhi Ma, Zhen Ye, Guobing Deng, Yuanlin Yao, Binguang Fan, Shian Liao, Shengsheng Huang, Xuhua Sun, Liyi Chen, Hao Guo, Wuhua Chen, Xinli Zhan, Chong Liu Department of Spine and Osteopathy Ward, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Chong Liu; Xinli Zhan, Department of Spine and Osteopathy Ward, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, People’s Republic of China, Email liuchong@stu.gxmu.edu.cn; zhanxinli@stu.gxmu.edu.cnObjective: The study aimed to develop and validate a nomogram model with clinical risk factors and radiomic features for differentiating tuberculous spondylitis (TS) from pyogenic spondylitis (PS).Methods: A total of 254 patients with TS (n = 141) or PS (n = 113) were randomly divided into training (n = 180) and validation (n = 74) groups. In addition, 43 patients (TS = 22 and PS = 21) were collected to construct a test cohort. t-test analysis, de-redundancy analysis, and minimum absolute shrinkage and selection operator (lasso) algorithm were utilized on the training set to obtain the optimal radiomics features from computed tomography (CT) for constructing the radiomics model and determine the radiomics score (Rad-score). Eight clinical risk predictors were identified to develop the clinical model. Combined with clinical risk predictors and Rad-scores, a nomogram model was constructed using multivariate logistic regression analysis.Results: A total of 1781 features were extracted, and 12 optimal radiomic features were utilized to construct the radiomic model and determine the Rad-score. The combined clinical radiomics model revealed good discrimination performance in both the training cohort and the validation cohort (AUC = 0.891 and 0.830) and was superior to the clinical (AUC = 0.807 and 0.785) and radiomics (AUC = 0.796 and 0.811) models. The calibration curve and DCA also depicted that the nomogram had better clinical efficacy. The discriminative performance of the model is well validated in the test cohort (AUC=0.877).Conclusion: The clinical radiomic nomogram could serve as a promising predictive tool for differentiating TS from PS, which could be helpful for clinical decision-making.Keywords: tuberculous spondylitis, pyogenic spondylitis, computed tomography, radiomics, clinical risk factors, nomogram

Research on social work practice is essential for developing an indigenized base of knowledge. In China, while social work education has grown rapidly, much of what is taught – and many social work priorities in research and practice – is influenced by rapidly changing national government policies. This policy environment creates both opportunities and challenges to building an infrastructure to support research on social work practice. This article reviews the context and challenges related to developing research on social work practice in mainland China, and the important role for social work education to support this development.

The outbreak of COVID-19 posed an immediate and serious challenge to Chinese society. This article reviews the overall situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Mainland China, introduces the anti-pand...

The extracurricular life and education of migrant children are significant to the formation of personality and values, but it has been ignored for a long time. The aim of this study is to obtain evidence supporting the theoretical argument that social work intervention in extracurricular education can have a positive impact on migrant children’s learning ability, social adaptability, personality, and interest shaping. From the perspective of practice, including participatory observation and case study method, this paper analyzes the situation of 71 migrant children in order to improve their extracurricular life quality by social work intervention. In the short term, project members have generally developed good study habits. In the long term, the academic performance is generally excellent, which is beneficial to the development of school teaching tasks. The project has an obvious beneficial impact on the academic learning ability and mental health of migrant workers’ children, especially the ability of social adaptation and the shaping of personality interests. The project helps to strengthen the sustainability of migrant children’s education.

Mental illnesses of American elders have posed serious public health challenges to today's U.S. society. Due to prevalent social stigma against both aging and mental illnesses, the mismatch between needs of American elders and provisions of mental health care, and the fragmented mental health service delivery, American elders have still been an underserved population in urgent needs of mental health care. Given that policies pervade every aspect of human life, the authors developed a two-dimensional policy evaluation model and then applied this model to the underutilization of mental health services among American elders. The vertical dimension represents a chronological approach (time). The horizontal dimension represents a SPECI analysis (space and being). Using this model, this article aims to understand which factors contribute to the underutilization of mental health services among American elders. Finally, implications for social work practice with mentally ill American elders are discussed.

This pilot study developed and validated an organizational competency scale (OCS) for elder civic engagement programs. The OCS was used to comprehensively measure the organizational compete...

Summary: Today’s American elders are increasingly being seen as an asset to society through civic engagement. A new challenge facing America now and in the years ahead is how to tap such asset. Formal organizations should play a leading role in institutionalizing American elders’ civic engagement. Due to a structural lag between social changes and organizational practices, however, many organizations are not ready to engage the large number of American elders. To address this issue, formal organizations first need to know which factors affect American elders’ civic engagement and then are able to come up with effective solutions. Although some studies have investigated the contributing factors of American elders’ civic engagement, there are very few systematic syntheses of these factors from various different studies. To fill this gap, the authors conducted a mixed methods systematic literature review using meta-summary. Through electronic search of five databases and hand search of bibliographies, 22 articles were used in final analysis based on eligibility criteria, including 19 quantitative studies, two qualitative studies and one mixed methods study. Findings: The review identified six themes and 28 factors related to American elders’ civic engagement. These themes encompassed socio-demographic factors (eight factors), health status (four factors), program characteristics (four factors), engagement opportunities (three factors), engagement outcomes (five factors) and social capital (four factors). Applications: Formal organizations are advised to develop relevant competencies to capture the influences of identified factors. Social workers are also required to develop multilevel competencies to better engage American elders with the organizational settings.