Quantitative Viscoelastic Response (QVisR): Direct Estimation of Viscoelasticity with Neural Networks.

We present a machine learning method to directly estimate viscoelastic moduli from displacement time-series profiles generated by Viscoelastic Response (VisR) ultrasound excitations. VisR uses two colocalized acoustic radiation force pushes to approximate tissue viscoelastic creep response and tracks displacements on-axis to measure the material relaxation. A fully-connected neural network is trained to learn a nonlinear mapping from VisR displacements, the push focal depth, and the measurement axial depth to the material elastic and viscous moduli. In this work, we assess the validity of Quantitative Viscoelastic Response (QVisR) in simulated materials, propose a method of domain adaption to phantom VisR displacements, and show in vivo estimates from a clinically acquired dataset.

Analysis of Social Media Involvement in Violent Injury.

This cross-sectional study uses police agency­collected information to quantify the association among social media involvement, crime, and violence.

Implementation of an Outpatient Violence Intervention Program to Increase Service Uptake.

Challenges in participant recruitment and retention limit the effectiveness of hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIPs). This study aimed to determine if an outpatient violence intervention program (VIP) could be integrated into a trauma clinic and increase uptake of violence prevention services. Patients previously hospitalized for intent-to-harm being seen for outpatient follow-up were eligible. VIP counselors met with participants during their clinic visit, administered the survey, and offered violence prevention services (April to June 2019). Patients were followed for 6 months to assess involvement. The primary outcome of interest was long-term participation in the VIP, defined as uptake of services at 6 months, in comparison to inpatient recruitment. Out of 76 patients, 34 (44.7%) did not appear for their appointment. The remainder (n = 42) were offered participation in the study, of which 32 (76.2%) completed the survey. From the group offered VIP services, 57.1% expressed interest, and 5 (20.8%) ultimately took part yielding an overall participation rate of 11.9% at 6 months. The inpatient recruitment rate in 2019 was 2.4%. An outpatient VIP program can be integrated into a clinic setting but suffers from the same challenges faced by inpatient programs resulting in low rates of long-term participation in services. Although a high proportion of participants reported interest, actual engagement at 6 months was low. Reasons behind low participation in VIP services must be investigated.

Exploring emergent barriers to hospital-based violence intervention programming during the COVID-19 pandemic.

National rates of gun violence have risen during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are many contributing factors to this increase, including the compounding consequences of social isolation, unstable housing, decreased economic stability, and ineffective and violent policing of communities of color. The effects of these factors are exacerbated by the pandemic's impact on the provision and availability of psychosocial services for individuals in marginalized communities, particularly those who have been violently injured. Hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIPs) have been identified as a crucial intervention strategy in reducing repeat violent injury. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has engendered, significant barriers in HVIPs' attempts to assist program participants in achieving their health-related and social goals. This research offers insight into the complexities of providing social services during the convergence of two public health crises-COVID-19 and gun violence-at the HVIPs associated with the two busiest trauma centers in the state of Maryland. In considering the effects of inadequate financial support and resources, issues with staffing, and the shift to virtual programming due to restrictions on in-person care, we suggest possible changes to violence prevention programming to increase the quality of care provided to participants in a manner reflective of their unique structural positions.

The Challenges and Strategies of Affordable Care Act Navigators and In-Person Assisters with Enrolling Uninsured, Violently Injured Young Black Men into Healthcare Insurance Coverage.

Low-income young Black men experience a disproportionate burden of violent injury in the United States. These men face significant disparities in healthcare insurance coverage and access to care. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) created a new healthcare workforce, Navigators and In-Person Assisters (IPAs), to support low-income minority populations with insurance enrollment. Using a longitudinal qualitative case study approach with Navigators and IPAs at the two busiest urban trauma centers in Maryland, this study identifies the culturally and structurally responsive enrollment strategies used by three Navigators/IPAs as they enrolled violently injured young Black men in healthcare insurance coverage. These approaches included gaining their trust and building rapport and engaging female caregivers during enrollment. Navigators and IPAs faced significant barriers, including identity verification, health literacy, privacy and confidentiality, and technological issues. These findings offer novel insight into the vital work performed by Navigators and IPAs, as they attempt to decrease health disparities for young Black male survivors of violence. Despite high rates of victimization due to violent firearm injury, little is known about how this population gains access to healthcare insurance. Although the generalizability of this research may be limited due to the small sample size of participants, the qualitative case study approach offers critical exploratory data suggesting the importance of trauma-informed care in insurance enrollment by Navigators and IPAs. They also emphasize the need to further address structural issues, which affect insurance enrollment and thus undermine the well-being of young Black men who have survived violent injury.

Staying Out of the Way: Perceptions of Digital Non-Emergency Medical Transportation Services, Barriers, and Access to Care Among Young Black Male Survivors of Firearm Violence.

With a reduction in primary barriers to healthcare access as a result of the Affordable Care Act, there is an increased need to address secondary barriers faced by low-income young Black male survivors of violent injury. While transportation is often characterized as a barrier for individuals with chronic disease and disability, it also acts as a significant barrier in accessing cognitive behavioral therapy and mentoring services through hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIPs). These services address the traumatic stress associated with surviving gun violence. Although there are many challenges associated with the current practices of non-emergency medical transportation, participants in HVIPs face additional risk factors. We highlight the application of a digital transportation intervention to increase the use of psychosocial services among low-income young Black male survivors of violent injury participating in an HVIP. Digital non-emergency medical transportation services (DNEMT) address issues concerning financial barriers, personal safety, program credibility, and program participation. We conducted qualitative interviews and a focus group with this population to assess the impact of Uber Health, a DNEMT service, on their participation in an HVIP located in a suburban Maryland hospital immediately outside of Washington, D.C. Survivors identified the use of Uber Health as essential to addressing the multifaceted and interconnected barriers to treatment. These barriers included reluctance to use alternative forms of transportation services (i.e., bus or subway) due to potential encounters with rivals, increased risk of repeat violent victimization, the need to carry a weapon for protection, stigmatization, and symptoms associated with traumatic stress. We found that integrating digital transportation services into the standard practices of HVIPs, as a part of a patient-centered outcomes framework, contributes to a reduction in violent injury and re-traumatization by addressing the multi-layered risks experienced by survivors of gun violence.

Shook Ones: Understanding the Intersection of Nonfatal Violent Firearm Injury, Incarceration, and Traumatic Stress Among Young Black Men.

Violent injury is a leading cause of death and disability among young Black men, with the highest rates occurring in low-income urban populations. Hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIPs) offer a promising opportunity to address the biopsychosocial factors that adversely affect this population. However, there are major gaps between the needs of young Black male survivors of violent injury and the forms of care provided by HVIPs. Patient-centered outcomes research provides a useful mode of inquiry to develop strategies to decrease these differences. Care for survivors, including treatment for traumatic stress disorders, must be reconceptualized to center the lived experiences of young Black men. This paper qualitatively explores how these survivors of gun violence express symptoms of traumatic stress and the ways in which their narratives can inform the implementation of the biopsychosocial model in HVIPs. A phenomenological variant ecological systems theory framework was used to analyze participant narratives to aid in understanding their symptoms of traumatic stress and post-injury affective changes as both psychologically and socially important experiences. Such insight may inform changes to HVIP practice to address persistent health disparities related to violence.

A decompositional analysis of firearm-related mortality in the United States, 2001-2012.

Prior literature reporting increased rates of firearm-related homicide and suicide with increasing firearm availability is limited by only examining the availability of firearms, which is only one component of firearm-related mortality. The objective of the current study is to separate the rates into their respective components and determine which components contribute to mortality rate changes. To address the objective, nationally representative data from 2001 to 2012 was collected from a variety of publicly-available sources. Utilizing decompositional methodology, a negative binomial regression was used to estimate rate ratios for the association between the components and year category, and relative contributions of each component were calculated. From 2001 to 2012, the homicide and unintentional mortality rate decreased while the suicide rate increased. The suicide rate was only the firearm prevalence rate. The unintentional mortality rate was a factor of firearm prevalence, injury incidence, and case fatality rate. The homicide rate was a factor of firearm prevalence, violent crime rate, injury incidence, and case fatality rate. The current results suggest that the contributors of changes in firearm-related mortality are multi-faceted. Future studies should perform a decompositional analysis utilizing more granular data to examine whether the currently reported results are true associations or a factor of ecologic fallacy.

Risk factors for recurrent violent injury among black men.

BACKGROUND: Black men are disproportionately overrepresented among victims of repeat violent injury. However, little is known about the risk factors that influence violent trauma recidivism among black men. We hypothesize that the following risk factors would be significant among black male victims of repeat violent injury: disrespect; being under the influence; being in a fight and using a weapon in the past year; and previous incarceration when comparing trauma recidivists versus nonrecidivists. METHODS: Using secondary data analysis, we identified a sample of 191 (n = 191) urban low-income black men treated by a level I trauma unit in Baltimore for violent injury (e.g., gunshot wound, stabbing, or assault) who participated in a hospital-based violence intervention program from 1998 to 2011. Participants in the program completed a risk factor for violent injury questionnaire to assess: exposure to chronic violence, criminal justice involvement, substance abuse, and disrespect (code of the street). RESULTS: We found that 58% of the sample is characterized as trauma recidivists (defined as hospitalization two or more times for violent injury). Black male patients of violent injury who engage in the following: substance abuse; had previously been in a fight or used a weapon in the past year; perceived disrespect as a precursor to violence; and experienced a previous incarceration were more likely to have multiple hospitalizations for violent injury. CONCLUSIONS: Trauma recidivism among urban black male victims of violent injury is a major public health issue. Hospital-based violence intervention programs should be engaged in reducing trauma recidivism among this population.

Who Shot Ya? How Emergency Departments Can Collect Reliable Police Shooting Data.

This paper examines an alternative solution for collecting reliable police shooting data. One alternative is the collection of police shooting data from hospital trauma units, specifically hospital-based violence intervention programs. These programs are situated in Level I trauma units in many major cities in USA. While the intent of these programs is to reduce the risk factors associated with trauma recidivism among victims of violent injury, they also collect reliable data on the number of individuals treated for gunshot wounds. While most trauma units do a great job collecting data on mode of injury, many do not collect data on the circumstances surrounding the injury, particularly police-involved shootings. Research protocol on firearm-related injury conducted in emergency departments typically does not allow researchers to interview victims of violent injury who are under arrest. Most victims of nonfatal police-involved shootings are under arrest at the time they are treated by the ED for their injury. Research protocol on victims of violent injury often excludes individuals under arrest; they fall under the exclusion criteria when recruiting potential participants for research on violence. Researchers working in hospital emergency departments are prohibited from recruited individuals under arrests. The trauma staff, particularly ED physicians and nurses, are in a strategic position to collect this kind of data. Thus, this paper examines how trauma units can serve as an alternative in the reliable collection of police shooting data.

Taking boys out of the hood: exile as a parenting strategy for African American male youth.

Research indicates that inner-city neighborhood effects are correlated with school dropout, substance abuse, crime, violence, homicide, HIV risk related behaviors, and incarceration for adolescent African American males. Parents of adolescent African American males face many challenges as they try to keep their children safe in high-risk neighborhoods. Parents often use multiple parenting approaches to improve the life chances and opportunities for this vulnerable population of youth. This chapter elaborates on the concept of exile. Exile is a parenting strategy used by parents to relocate young African American males living in high-risk communities to safer spaces. Drawing on qualitative data collected from a longitudinal ethnographic research study on the social context of adolescent violence among African American males, this chapter examines exile as a parenting approach used to keep children safe.

Pathways to early violent death: the voices of serious violent youth offenders.

Quantitative studies have uncovered factors associated with early violent death among youth offenders detained in the juvenile justice system, but little is known about the contextual factors associated with pathways to early violent death among youths detained in adult jails. We interviewed young Black male serious violent youth offenders detained in an adult jail to understand their experience of violence. Their narratives reveal how the code of the street, informal rules that govern interpersonal violence among poor inner-city Black male youths, increases the likelihood of violent victimization. Youth offenders detained in adult jails have the lowest rate of service provision among all jail populations. We have addressed how services for youth offenders can be improved to reduce the pathways to early violent death.

A qualitative study of relationships among parenting strategies, social capital, the juvenile justice system, and mental health care for at-risk African American male youth.

For many poor, African American families living in the inner city, the juvenile justice system has become a de facto mental health service provider. In this article, longitudinal, ethnographic study methods were used to examine how resource-deprived, inner-city parents in a New York City community relied on the juvenile justice system to provide their African American male children with mental health care resources. The results of three case studies indicate that this strategy actually contributed to an escalation in delinquency among the youth.

Mental health, substance abuse, and HIV disparities in correctional settings: practice and policy implications for African Americans.

Mental health challenges, substance use disorders, and HIV/AIDS disproportionately affect Black people in correctional settings. Culturally responsive practice and equitable policy is predicated upon research that explores the burden, prevalence, and mortality of these public health concerns on the health and social well-being of African Americans in the correctional setting. This paper has three sections: (1) mental health; (2) substance abuse; and (3) HIV/AIDS. Each section summarizes current treatment issues unique to correctional settings, and provides recommendations for enhancing programs and policy to meet the needs of Black people who have been arrested, detained, incarcerated, paroled, or released. Further, we make recommendations for how interdisciplinary researchers and health care/treatment providers can engage in science-guided advocacy to address these issues and reduce related disparities experienced by people of African ancestry.