Educational Service District 105

BackgroundCommunity violence intervention (CVI) is increasingly considered an important component of comprehensive public safety infrastructure, but research and evaluation of CVI programs remain underdeveloped. There is a critical need for evaluation measures that are developed collaboratively with those most proximate to these interventions and that capture interventions' nuanced and holistic impacts. This paper presents the process and results of a practitioner-academic partnership to co-develop youth-focused CVI evaluation measures in Washington state.ResultsThe process of co-developing evaluation measures involved two phases. For phase 1, we created a menu of quantitative measures (n = 60) for each outcome construct in a previously co-developed CVI theory of change by integrating existing measures, identified through a literature review, with insights and recommendations from CVI practitioners gathered during a workshop. For phase 2, we tailored and refined quantitative and qualitative measures with/for 7 CVI programs involved in the collaboration via individual meetings (n = 45 one-hour meetings over the course of 10 months, average = 6.4 meetings per program). The process of refining measures involved extensive discussion around several key considerations, including confidentiality, age appropriateness of questions, and language/jargon. After revisions, each CVI program had a customized list of quantitative and qualitative measures that fit their program and the population they served. We also created an online toolkit accompanying this paper so others may easily use, tailor, and build upon our work.ConclusionsOur process of co-developing youth-focused CVI evaluation measures drew from existing literature while heavily prioritizing the knowledge, expertise, and capacity of CVI practitioners. This helped facilitate power sharing and responsiveness to community needs, and we believe it resulted in more appropriate and contextually relevant measures. By detailing the iterative process that we took along with the resulting evaluation measures, our intent is to encourage practitioner-academic collaboration and underscore how such partnerships can enhance the field’s understanding of CVI implementation and impacts.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40621-025-00642-5.

Community violence intervention (CVI) is a promising strategy to reduce community violence, but research on CVI programs remains underdeveloped. While prior reviews have examined the effectiveness of certain CVI models, we lack a comprehensive synthesis of how CVI research is done and what measures are used. We conducted a scoping review of CVI evaluation measures and methods in the United States, reviewing both peer-reviewed and gray literature from 1996 through 2023. We summarized characteristics of CVI program evaluations, including evaluation measures used, units of analysis, and involvement of external partners—including community members—in the evaluation. Of 1763 articles screened, 149 were included. A plurality of studies examined both outcome and process measures (38.9%), and use of process measures increased over time. Most outcome evaluations used only deficit-based measures (76.4%), with variation across CVI model/approach. Authors of studies included in this review reported that CVI practitioners contributed to evaluations in various ways, but only 10.7% of evaluations included CVI practitioners as authors. Process measures were most often collected at the individual level (84.2%), while outcome measures were collected relatively equally at the individual (56.6%) and community level (53.8%) though with notable variation across CVI models/approaches. Community partners working in CVI were part of our authorship team and offered critical insights into interpreting the findings from this scoping review. Findings underscore the need for a more comprehensive approach to CVI evaluation. By including process and outcome measures, including community-level units of analysis in addition to the typical individual-level ones, employing asset-based frameworks, and actively involving community voices, future research can more effectively assess the implementation and impacts of CVI programs.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on all school staff. As a consequence of their role as frontline responders, school nurses experienced significant trauma and moral injury. The Washington State School Nurse Corps debriefed the pandemic response to plan for future disasters. In the process, they discovered that much of the literature reflects the school nurse's role in the early phase of disaster response. There is little attention given to recovery processes and few current sources could be found on the role of nursing in debriefing. School nurses could benefit from and play an important role in supporting recovery, particularly debriefing, for their school communities.

Much of the previous work on preparing undergraduates for industry focusses on software engineering and the skills needed to design and to implement new software systems. There has been relatively little attention given to the skills needed to maintain, to modify, and to repair systems already in use. These skills are captured in the emerging discipline of site reliability engineering, a relative of software reliability engineering. Site reliability engineers use a distinct set of skills, tools, and techniques for managing complex production systems. More importantly, they have a mindset that prioritizes high performance and reliability while attempting to minimize repetitive tasks done by human operators. In this paper we describe an upper-division elective that was designed to introduce students to site reliability engineering through hands-on assignments requiring teams to deploy, maintain, and scale a working software system, done alongside readings and discussion of high-stakes episodes from the broader history of complex systems. We discuss the design of the class and reflect on what worked well and not so well in the initial offerings.

Introduction: A previous study was conducted to examine the relationship between poor air quality in the form of PM2.5 exposure and COVID-19 morbidity and mortality in Yakima County, Washington (USA). Results showed there was a significant correlation (p<0.05) between PM2.5 exposure and COVID-19 hospitalization and mortality in the 12-day lag analysis, however it was not clear if this association remains consistent over time. The purpose of this study was to analyze a second year of PM2.5 exposure and COVID-19 morbidity and mortality in a population significantly impacted by poor air quality (PM2.5) and high COVID-19 morbidity to determine whether the findings of the previous study could be confirmed. Methods: A 12-day lag analysis correlating PM2.5 levels and county-level COVID-19 case counts, hospitalization, and mortality was conducted using Pearson correlation between the period of February 1, 2021 and December 20, 2021 in Yakima, County, Washington, USA. Results: PM2.5 was found to be significantly correlated (p<.011) to COVID-19 morbidity (r = 0.38), hospitalization (r = 0.41), and mortality (r = 0.18). Discussion: This study expands upon and confirm previous preliminary findings examining the association between poor air quality exposure and negative COVID-19 outcomes. Populations exposed to long-term PM2.5 may need additional safeguards from COVID-19 as they may have a higher risk of infection, hospitalization, and mortality.

The impact of the growing environment on the aroma of agricultural products such as wine, coffee, or tea has been investigated in detail, leading to the concept of regional identity; however, there have been only limited studies examining regional variation in hops. A systematic investigation of Cascade and Mosaic® hops from the 2020 harvest year grown at 39 different locations in Oregon and Washington was performed using chemical/instrumental and human sensory analyses, which revealed significant between-state and within-state differences for both varieties, suggesting substantial regional and subregional identity effects. A subset of 14 hop samples was selected to produce standardized single-hop beers (IPA) in pilot scale. Sensory evaluation of the beers revealed similar regional-dependent results as observed for the hops with slightly stronger fruity, citrus, and tropical notes but weaker herbal, grassy, and woody notes in the beers compared to hops, suggesting that the regional identity effect was observable in beer.

Nearly 50% of all stroke patients experience gastrointestinal complications that include gut microbiota dysbiosis, “leaky” gut, gut hemorrhage and gut epithelium damage. Evidence suggests that the gut signaling affects brain function and recovery from brain injury. Here we tested the hypothesis that “repairing of ischemic gut function by it’s stem cells may improve stroke outcome”. Methods: Adult and middle-aged Sprague-Dawley female and male rats were used for this study and assigned to the following groups: Control (sham), stroke with sham transplant (vehicle), or stroke with IESC transplantation. Rats were subjected to stereotaxic middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo) using Endothelin-1, a chemical vasoconstrictor. Primary IESCs were isolated from young or middle-aged female and male rats to prepare organoid cultures. Dispersed organoid cells were labeled with PKH67 and injected iv 4h/24h/48h to adult or middle aged hosts after stroke. Behavioral assays and saphenous blood draws were performed pre-stroke and at 2d and 4d after stroke. Trunk blood, brain tissue and a segment of small intestine were collected at termination. TTC staining was used to quantify infarct volume. Intestine samples were processed for the histomorphmetric analyses and immunohistochemistry to analyze specific markers of gut function (Lgr5+, Wnt3a, ZO-1,Ki67 and Villin). The blood-gut barrier was assessed by measuring serum levels of iFABP, LPS and Muc-2(surrogate markers of gut permeability). Results: PKH67-labelled IESC transplanted cells were observed in the basal part of the host crypt. Compared to vehicle group, MCAo-induced mortality and infarct volume were significantly reduced in middle-aged female and male rats that received IESCs from adult animals of the same sex. Sensory motor performance in the acute phase was also improved in transplanted animals as well as improved gut architecture and gut repair, and a reduction of intestinal permeability markers. However, no improvement was seen in adult animals that received senescent IESC from middle-aged animals. Conclusion: Overall, these data show that a novel stem cell population derived from the gut of young animals, but not middle-aged animals can significantly improve stroke outcomes.

BACKGROUNDCaptures of codling moth, Cydia pomonella (L.), in traps are used to establish action thresholds and time insecticide sprays. The need for frequent trap inspections in often remote orchards has created a niche for remote sensing smart traps. A smart trap baited with a five‐component pheromone‐kairomone blend was evaluated for codling moth monitoring among an assemblage of other nontargets in apple and pear orchards.RESULTSCodling moth captures did not differ between the smart trap and a standard trap when both were checked manually. However, the correlation between automatic and manual counts of codling moth in the smart traps was low, R2 = 0.66 ÷ 0.87. False‐negative identifications by the smart trap were infrequent <5%, but false‐positive identifications accounted for up to 67% of the count. These errors were primarily due to the misidentification of three moth species of fairly similar‐size to codling moth: apple clearwing moth Synanthedon myopaeformis (Borkhausen), oriental fruit moth Grapholita molesta (Busck), and carnation tortrix Cacoecimorpha pronubana (Hübner). Other false‐positive counts were less frequent and included the misidentifications of dipterans, other arthropods, patches of moth scales, and the double counting of some moths.CONCLUSIONCodling moth was successfully monitored remotely with a smart trap baited with a nonselective sex pheromone‐kairomone lure, but automatic counts were inflated in some orchards due to mischaracterizations of primarily similar‐sized nontarget moths. Improved image‐identification algorithms are needed for smart traps baited with less‐selective lures and with lure sets targeting multiple species.

ObjectiveTo evaluate participation in COVID-19 case investigation and contact tracing in central Washington State between June 15 and July 12, 2020.MethodsIn this retrospective observational evaluation we combined SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR and antigen test reports from the Washington Disease Reporting System with community case investigation and contact tracing data for 3 health districts (comprising 5 counties) in central Washington State. All 3 health districts have large Hispanic communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19.ResultsInvestigators attempted to call all referred individuals with COVID-19 (n = 4,987); 71% were interviewed. Of those asked about close contacts (n = 3,572), 68% reported having no close contacts, with similar proportions across ethnicity, sex, and age group. The 968 individuals with COVID-19 who named specific contacts (27% of those asked) reported a total of 2,293 contacts (mean of 2.4 contacts per individual with COVID-19); 85% of listed contacts participated in an interview.ConclusionsMost individuals with COVID-19 reported having no close contacts. Increasing community engagement and public messaging, as well as understanding and addressing barriers to participation, are crucial for CICT to contribute meaningfully to controlling the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Background: Early sexually transmitted infections (STIs) diagnosis facilitates prompt treatment initiation and contributes to reduced transmission. This study examined the extent to which contextual characteristics such as proximity to screening site, rurality, and neighborhood disadvantage along with demographic variables, may influence treatment seeking behavior among individuals with STIs (i.e., chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis). Methods: Data on 16,075 diagnosed cases of STIs between 2007 and 2018 in Yakima County were obtained from the Washington State Department of Health Database Surveillance System. Multilevel models were applied to explore the associations between contextual and demographic characteristics and two outcomes: (a) not receiving treatment and (b) the number of days to receiving treatment. Results: Contextual risk factors for not receiving treatment or having increased number of days to treatment were living ≥10 miles from the screening site and living in micropolitan, small towns, or rural areas. Older age was a protective factor and being female was a risk for both outcomes. Conclusions: Healthcare providers and facilities should be made aware of demographic and contextual characteristics that can impact treatment seeking behavior among individuals with STIs, especially among youth, females, and rural residents.