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Nocardia is an environmental aerobic actinobacterium (Actinomycete) that stains positive on Gram stain and forms commonly in soil and water. Infection is primarily acquired through inhalation; however, it may also [...]

BackgroundChildren with central nervous system (CNS) tumors undergo frequent imaging for diagnosis and follow-up, but few studies have characterized longitudinal imaging patterns. We described medical imaging in children before and after malignant CNS tumor diagnosis.ProcedureWe conducted a retrospective cohort study of children aged 0-20 years diagnosed with CNS tumors between 1996-2016 at six U.S. integrated healthcare systems and Ontario, Canada. We collected computed topography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), radiography, ultrasound, nuclear medicine examinations from 12 months before through 10 years after CNS diagnosis censoring six months before death or a subsequent cancer diagnosis, disenrollment from the health system, age 21 years, or December 31, 2016. We calculated imaging rates per child per month stratified by modality, country, diagnosis age, calendar year, time since diagnosis, and tumor grade.ResultsWe observed 1,879 children with median four years follow-up post-diagnosis in the U.S. and seven years in Ontario, Canada. During the diagnosis period (±15 days of diagnosis), children averaged 1.10 CTs (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.09-1.13) and 2.14 MRIs (95%CI 2.12-2.16) in the U.S., and 1.67 CTs (95%CI 1.65-1.68) and 1.86 MRIs (95%CI 1.85-1.88) in Ontario. Within one year after diagnosis, 19% of children had ≥5 CTs and 45% had ≥5 MRIs. By nine years after diagnosis, children averaged one MRI and one radiograph per year with little use of other imaging modalities.ConclusionsMRI and CT are commonly used for CNS tumor diagnosis, whereas MRI is the primary modality used during surveillance of children with CNS tumors.

The purpose of this study was to investigate ethnically and racially diverse school psychology students' experiences with racial microaggressions in school psychology graduate training. Through a national survey of ethnically and racially diverse school psychology students (N = 228), the study examined if level of graduate training (i.e., interns versus noninterns) affects diverse ethnic and racial groups and their experience of workplace and school microaggressions. Although the experience of racial microaggressions was not found dependent on level of graduate training, there was a main effect for ethnic and racial group classification and the significant difference in the means of racial microaggressions were between Black and multiethnic participants. Across all groups, Black interns reported experiencing the highest frequency of workplace and school microaggressions. Implications for university- and field-based intern supervisors regarding addressing racial microaggressions are provided.

This paper offers socio-ecological, situated perspectives on adolescent resilience derived from an application of interpretive visual methodologies to deepen understanding of adaptive youth development in diverse majority-world cultural contexts (South Africa, Thailand, China, Mexican migration to Canada). The research is not "cross-cultural"; by contrast, it situates youth engagement contextually, using local perspectives, especially perspectives of adolescents themselves, on "growing up well" under adverse circumstances, to interrogate conceptions of resilience in cultural context. Participants are viewed as members of cultural communities: observations with a small number of individuals are not generalized to national groups. Rather, knowledge gained by these methods is employed to enrich knowledge of the processes of majority-world youth thriving despite such adversities as poverty and social displacement. (Contains 3 tables.)

This cross-cultural study of the moral judgements of Mainland Han-Chinese, Chinese-Canadian, and Euro-Canadian children aged seven to 11 examined the evaluations of narrative protagonists' modest lies and self-promoting truthful statements in situations where they had done a good deed. The story characters had thus either lied or told the truth about a prosocial act that they had committed. Chinese children judged modest lies more positively and boastful truths less positively than Euro-Canadian children. Chinese and Chinese-Canadian children rated immodest statements more negatively than did Euro-Canadian children. The cultural differences were greatest with the oldest children. Chinese children rated modest lies significantly more positively than either Canadian group who did not differ from each other but an interaction between age and culture revealed the three groups to be significantly different at age 11 with Chinese children most positive, followed by Chinese-Canadian children, and with Euro-Canadian children evaluating modest lies least positively. Cultural strictures and acculturation factors respecting modesty and self-enhancement are reflected in these differences. (Contains 5 tables and 4 figures.)

Grounded in the examples of four impoverished, relocated youths (two Sesotho-speaking orphans in South Africa and two Mexican immigrants in Canada), we explore cultural factors as potential roots of resilience. We triangulate rich qualitative findings (visual, dialogical, and observational) to foreground the particular, as well as acknowledge the universal, in explicating resilience in transitional contexts. Resilience-promoting cultural practices rely on adults to function as custodians of protective practices and values and on youth actively to accept their roles as cultural cocustodians. Our findings urge service providers toward forefronting the specific cultural context of young people in their therapeutic interventions and toward purposefully championing resilience-promoting cultural values and practices.

This social-ecological inquiry explores youth resiliency in diverse communities using innovative qualitative visual methodologies. It engages adolescents in a process of sharing their daily experiences and reflecting on the resources they bring to bear to thrive in the face of geographic and social relocations. The four youth participants were identified by local community advisors as especially resilient teenagers despite experiencing transitions that could provoke risks to normative development. The youths were interviewed and videotaped during a weekend "day in [their] lives." They also engaged in deliberations on that day; took part in a photo elicitation that reflected on significant people, places, and objects in their environments; and responded to a resilience questionnaire. These visual data and the youths' deliberations were analyzed for themes of "positive identity" and "personal control" observed within and across communities by their "passing on" the nurturant interchanges they themselves had experienced during that "day."

Aims: The purpose of the study was to assess the status of emerging therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of anti‐infective agents in Australian hospitals. Methods: A nationwide cross‐sectional survey of all Australian hospitals operating in the public and private health sector was conducted between August and September 2019. The survey consisted of questions regarding institutional TDM practice for anti‐infective agents and clinical vignettes specific to β‐lactam antibiotics. Results: Responses were received from 82 unique institutions, representing all Australian states and territories. All 29 (100%) of principal referral (major) hospitals in Australia participated. Five surveys were partially complete. Only 25% (20/80) of hospitals had TDM testing available on‐site for any of the eight emerging TDM candidates considered: β‐lactam antibiotics, anti‐tuberculous agents, flucytosine, fluoroquinolones, ganciclovir, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) drugs, linezolid and teicoplanin. A considerable time lag was noted between TDM sampling and reporting of results. With respect to β‐lactam antibiotic TDM, variable indications, pharmacodynamic targets and sampling times were identified. The three greatest barriers to local TDM performance were found to be (1) lack of timely assays/results, (2) lack of institutional‐wide expertise and/or training and (3) lack of guidelines to inform ordering of TDM and interpretation of results. The majority of respondents favoured establishing national TDM guidelines and increasing access to dose prediction software, at rates of 89% and 96%, respectively. Conclusion: Translating emerging TDM evidence into daily clinical practice is slow. Concerted efforts are required to address the barriers identified and facilitate the implementation of standardised practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]