Pandemic response in Alaska: Preparing pharmacists to lead vaccination efforts.

BACKGROUND: Despite the established efficacy of vaccines, many Alaskans choose not to be vaccinated, citing safety and efficacy concerns. Vaccine hesitancy, consistently ranked among the top 10, is one of most addressable global health threats. The main objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the steps taken by our team to help identify and address vaccine hesitancy by identifying unmet training needs and engaging pharmacists, pharmacy interns, and technicians in the development of tailored vaccine hesitancy education to improve vaccine confidence and vaccination rates among all Alaskans. METHODS: To determine the unmet training needs that contributed to vaccine hesitancy, an assessment survey was developed and administered to pharmacists across the state. RESULTS: An expert panel, composed of pharmacists across the state, was convened to review survey results and to establish a scalable health care provider training program. Adult-learning strategies and real-world examples were used to address pharmacist identified factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy and provide more tailored training to pharmacists and technicians in Alaska to help address factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy in patients that may be extending the pandemic. CONCLUSION: Pharmacy professionals are well positioned to respond to emerging threats, but more training and practice opportunities are required to get comfortable addressing vaccine hesitancy with established communication strategies.

The Effect of Timing and Type of Exercise on the Quality of Sleep in Trained Individuals.

Sleep is an extremely important component for overall health and for a well-balanced training program. Recent studies have highlighted the interaction between sleep, recovery, and performance in elite and recreational athletes alike. Exercise has been known to affect the quality of sleep, nevertheless the impact is not well understood in the current research, particularly the effects of exercise timing and intensity on sleep quality. The purpose of this study was to understand if exercise timing and intensity significantly impact sleep quality among recreational exercisers. The participants involved were recreational exercisers who were self-grouped into an AM or PM exercise group. They participated in a seven-day quantitative, quasi-experimental, exploratory study wearing an Actigraph watch. The participant's intensity was also self-grouped into moderate intensity or high intensity based on criteria cut points. Data was analyzed using a factorial ANOVA to examine if there was a significant difference between exercise timing and intensity on sleep quality of the participants. There were no significant differences in sleep quality in either the time group (AM vs PM) or the intensity group (MOD vs VIG) within the four measures of sleep that were looked at throughout this study; total sleep time, sleep onset latency, sleep efficiency % and wake after sleep onset (TST, SOL, SE, and WASO). Results within both, the AM and PM group and the MOD and VIG group, results showed no significant differences. These results conclude that neither exercise intensity or timing had an effect on sleep quality.

Playing it cool: Characterizing social play, bout termination, and candidate play signals of juvenile and infant Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana).

Play behaviors and signals during playful interactions with juvenile conspecifics are important for both the social and cognitive development of young animals. The social organization of a species can also influence juvenile social play. We examined the relationships among play behaviors, candidate play signals, and play bout termination in Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana) during juvenile and infant social play to characterize the species play style. As Tibetan macaques are despotic and live in groups with strict linear dominance hierarchies and infrequent reconciliation, we predicted that play would be at risk of misinterpretation by both the individuals engaged in the play bout and by those watching, possibly leading to injury of the players. Animals living in such societies might need to frequently and clearly signal playful intent to play partners and other group members to avoid aggressive outcomes. We gathered video data on 21 individually-identified juvenile and infant macaques (one month to five years of age) from the Valley of the Wild Monkeys, Mt. Huangshan, China. We used all-occurrence sampling to record play behaviors and candidate play signals based on an ethogram. We predicted that play groups would use multiple candidate play signals in a variety of contexts and in association with the number of audience members in proximity to the players and play bout length. In the 283 playful interactions we scored, juvenile and infant macaques used multiple body and facial candidate play signals. Our data showed that juvenile and infant Tibetan macaques use a versatile repertoire of play behaviors and signals to sustain play.

Surface investigation of intermetallic PdGa(111).

The intermetallic PdGa is a highly selective and potent catalyst in the semihydrogenation of acetylene, which is attributed to the surface stability and isolated Pd atom ensembles. In this context PdGa single crystals of form B with (111) orientation were investigated by means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), X-ray photoelectron diffraction (XPD), and low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) to study the electronic and geometric properties of this surface. UPS and thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) were used to probe the chemisorption behavior of CO. The PdGa(111) surface exhibits a (1 × 1) LEED and a pronounced XPD pattern indicating an unreconstructed bulk-truncated surface. Low-temperature STM reveals a smooth surface with a (1 × 1) unit cell. No segregation occurs, and no impurities are detected by XPS. The electronic structure and the CO adsorption properties reveal PdGa(111) to be a bulk-truncated intermetallic compound with Pd-Ga partial covalent bonding.

Genetic diversity of North American captive-born gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla).

Western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) are designated as critically endangered and wild populations are dramatically declining as a result of habitat destruction, fragmentation, diseases (e.g., Ebola) and the illegal bushmeat trade. As wild populations continue to decline, the genetic management of the North American captive western lowland gorilla population will be an important component of the long-term conservation of the species. We genotyped 26 individuals from the North American captive gorilla collection at 11 autosomal microsatellite loci in order to compare levels of genetic diversity to wild populations, investigate genetic signatures of a population bottleneck and identify the genetic structure of the captive-born population. Captive gorillas had significantly higher levels of allelic diversity (t(7) = 4.49, P = 0.002) and heterozygosity (t(7) = 4.15, P = 0.004) than comparative wild populations, yet the population has lost significant allelic diversity while in captivity when compared to founders (t(7) = 2.44, P = 0.04). Analyses suggested no genetic evidence for a population bottleneck of the captive population. Genetic structure results supported the management of North American captive gorillas as a single population. Our results highlight the utility of genetic management approaches for endangered nonhuman primate species.