Illinois Department of Human Services

As I walked into an unassuming hotel restaurant in Chicago during the ALA Annual Conference in June, I had my eyes peeled for a colleague I was meeting. Instead, I spotted an icon.Quickly glancing to the right, I spot a woman who looks just like Judy Blume, enjoying coffee at a quiet table. Upon finding my tablemates around the corner, I silently squealed, “Is that Judy Blume?”

Drawing on data from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and Brazil, this chapter outlines forms of abuse and violence present in school spaces and suggests ways to stop transgender and gender non-conforming youth, particularly young people of color, from ending up in the school-to-prison pipeline. It will first discuss the history of policing gender. Second, it provides a global overview of the detrimental effects of bullying. Third, it describes how transgender, and gender non-conforming youth come to be incarcerated. The chapter concludes with some policy suggestions that might be helpful in reducing the number transgender and gender non-conforming youth that are incarcerated, as well as suggestions that may help transgender and gender non-conforming students finish their education.

Boundary layer moisture variability at the Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) site is examined at monthly and daily time scales using 5 years of ground-based observations and output from European Center for Medium range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) reanalysis model. The annual cycle of the mixed layer water budgets is presented to estimate the relative contribution of large-scale advection, local moisture tendency, entrainment, and precipitation to balance the moistening due to surface latent heat flux on monthly timescales. Advection of colder and dry air from the North acts as an important moisture sink (~ 50 % of the overall budget) during fall and winter driving the seasonality of the budget. Entrainment and precipitation contribute to the drying of the boundary layer (~25 % and ~15 % respectively) and the local change in moisture contributes to a small residual part. On a daily temporal scale, moist and dry mesoscale columns of vapor (~10 km) are analyzed during 10 selected days of precipitating stratocumulus clouds. Adjacent moist and dry columns present distinct mesoscale features that are strongly correlated with clouds and precipitation. Dry columns adjacent to moist columns have more frequent and stronger downdrafts immediately below the cloud base. Moist columns have more frequent updrafts, stronger cloud top cooling, higher liquid water path and precipitation compared to the dry columns. This study highlights the complex interaction between large-scale and local processes controlling the boundary layer moisture and the importance of vapor spatial distribution to support convection and precipitation.

Despite calls for increased vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC), <14% of candidates have VBAC. Requirements for documentation of scar type, and prohibitions on induction or augmentation of labor are not supported by evidence but may be widespread. The purpose of this study was to document midwives' perceptions of barriers to labor after cesarean (LAC) and their effects on midwives' ability to accommodate patient desires for LAC. Midwives certified by the American Midwifery Certification Board (AMCB) were surveyed in 2019. Multiple option and open-ended text responses were analyzed using quantitative statistics and thematic content analysis. Select barriers to LAC, ability to accommodate LAC, and supportiveness of collaborators among midwives offering LAC were explored. Responses from 1398 midwives were analyzed. Eighty-four percent felt able to accommodate LAC "most of the time," and 39% reported one or more barriers to LAC. Barriers decreased ability to accommodate LAC by as much as 80%. Analysis of text responses revealed specific themes. Thirty-nine percent of midwives reported their practice was limited by one or more barriers that were inconsistent with professional guidelines. Imposition of barriers was driven primarily by collaborating physicians, and superceded supportive practices of midwives, nurses, and system administrators. Affected midwives were significantly less able to accommodate patient requests for LAC than those not affected. Midwives also reported pride in providing VBAC care, restrictions specific to midwifery scope of practice, and variation in physician support for LAC within practices affecting their ability to provide care.

Individuals who carry guns as a requirement of employment frequently experience hazards that can be stress inducing, violent, traumatizing, or cause personal injury. This study used data from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiological Surveys (CPES; n=20,013), to examine mental health diagnoses of individuals that ever worked at a job requiring a firearm. Consistent with existing literature, the findings indicated that those who worked in professions requiring a firearm showed similar risk of mental health diagnoses as law enforcement officers which includes symptoms of trauma, mood disorders, and alcohol use. Further, race/ethnic differences emerged in patterns of mental health diagnoses, suggesting sociocultural differences influence diagnoses. These findings indicate the necessity for further investigation of the understudied area of mental health of those within employment positions that require firearms.

Employment Security, explain how a regional collaborative of states in the Midwest have joined forces to share education, training, and workforce data across states lines. Overcoming numerous legal and privacy hurdles, the states have established an on-going governance structure using a secure platform to greatly increase the value of their data to policy makers. In the process, they have built state capacity to continue to support evidence-based policymaking. The multi-state products that have been developed, along with the on-going training in data linkages have served the states particularly well as they have had to respond quickly to the need for accurate and timely data during the COVID pandemic.