Positive Behavior Support and Intervention Programs vs Responsive Classroom Programs: Impact on Perceptions of School Climate

School climate is an aspect of school life that has been examined closely in recent literature as it related to student interactions, behavior, and student achievement. A number of factors that affect school climate have been identified; these include student/teacher relationships, school safety and student relations, clarity of a school’s expectations, perceived fairness of school rules, and the presence of a strong, welldeveloped and widely-accepted behavior program in a school. Both Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) programs and Responsive Classroom (RC) programs have been identified as having a positive impact on school climate at multiple grade levels and across demographics. The Delaware School Climate Survey (DSCS) is a tool that has been used across the state over multiple years to examine perceptions of school climate in multiple informant groups: teachers and staff members, parents and guardians, and students. This study evaluates the Delaware School Climate Survey results both in a PBIS elementary school and in a RC elementary school to examine the perceptions of school climate between informant groups and across the two school intervention programs. Results of the study found that perceptions of school climate were predominantly higher overall in the PBIS school, compared with the RC school. At the domain level, results showed that teachers, parents, and students in the PBIS school reported higher scores in the areas of Teacher/Student Relations, Student Relations and Safety, Fairness of Rules, and Clarity of Expectations domains

Babesia microti, Upstate New York

Five cases of human babesiosis were reported in the Lower Hudson Valley Region of New York State in 2001. An investigation to determine if Babesia microti was present in local Ixodes scapularis ticks yielded 5 positive pools in 123 pools tested, the first detection of B. microti from field-collected I. scapularis in upstate New York

Molecular Epidemiology of Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus, New York

Southern strains are undergoing amplification, perpetuation, and overwintering in New York

Tick Surveillance Practices in the Northeast

Material included in the supplemental file has been previously published. These materials are either open access or were included with express permission of authors.A review of tick surveillance guidance and best practices tailored for the Northeast USA. Speakers include experts from the New York State Department of Health, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, Maine Medical Center Research Institute, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, and Columbia University. Topics to be covered include: Considerations for starting a surveillance program; Field methods for medically important species; Pathogen testing; Data analysis and communication considerations; and Lessons learned from regional programs. Supplementary materials included: example personnel training manuals, tick field collection protocols and forms, estimated program start-up and operational costs.Northeast Regional Center for Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases.1_c2u00og

Vector-Borne Disease Surveillance & Control Training Needs Assessment

A major goal of the Northeast Regional Center for Excellence in Vector Borne Diseases is to develop training and education tools for public health professionals. The purpose of this needs assessment survey was a first step in these education efforts. We sought to understand perceived gaps in training and workforce needs related to vector-borne disease and public health. Needs assessment content was targeted to public health practitioners, vector control districts and associations, integrated pest management researchers and educators, and state emergency preparedness staff working in the Northeast region of the US.The Northeast Regional Center for Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases is supported through Cooperative Agreement Number 1U01CK000509-01 between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Cornell Universit

Borrelia burgdorferi shows specificity of binding to glycosphingolipids

Live but not fixed or heat-killed Borrelia burgdorferi bound to galactocerebroside, lactosylceramide, and ceramide trihexoside. In addition, this organism bound to the disialoganglioside GD1a and the trisialoganglioside GT1b but not to gangliosides GM1, GD1b, GM2, and GM3 and not to asialo GM1. This adhesion pattern confirmed earlier findings of binding to galactocerebroside and places this organism within a prokaryotic group which binds to lactosylceramide. The binding to GD1a and GT1b, both of which carry terminal as well as multiple sialic acids, indicates that B. burgdorferi can show specificity of binding within a group of acidic gangliosides. Adhesion could not be inhibited by several concentrations of sugars and sialic acid, indicating more complex binding requirements than for terminal carbohydrates alone. Low-passage strains adhered to the four substrates in greater numbers than strains in culture for long periods of time. OspB mutants in general bound better or at least equally well to several of the glycosphingolipids, and preincubation of substrates with soluble recombinant and affinity-purified Osp did not inhibitor or weakly inhibited the binding of the organisms. These findings suggest that outer surface lipoproteins A and B are not directly involved in adhesion to glycosphingolipids.</jats:p

Early Detection of Possible Outbreaks from Electronic Laboratory Reports

Positive laboratory test results are required to confirm over 80% of communicable diseases and they are often the first indication of  a disease. The space-time permutation scan statistic only requires disease counts, event date and disease location, which are available from an electronic laboratory reporting system for early detection of potential disease outbreaks. The timeliness in identifying clusters from data submitted by clinical laboratories to the NY statewide electronic laboratory reporting system was earlier than using the traditional method for selected communicable diseases