Grant Funding: Studies on Racial Disparities in Maternal Morbidity. NIH, Office of Research on Women's Health

Applications for NIH Funding of Studies on
Racial Disparities in Maternal Morbidity
and Mortality Due Soon

Women in the United States experience maternal morbidity and mortality (MMM) at much higher rates than those in our peer nations, and American women who are racial and ethnic minorities experience much higher rates of MMM than American White women. To address this concerning issue, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released a request for applications (RFA) titled Addressing Racial Disparities in Maternal Mortality and Morbidity (RFA-MD-20-008).This funding opportunity is designed to support multidisciplinary research examining mechanisms underlying these racial and ethnic disparities, evaluating the efficacy and/or effectiveness of multilevel interventions, and/or testing strategies to optimally and sustainably deliver proven-effective prevention and treatment interventions to reduce these disparities.

Applications are due May 29, 2020, by 5 p.m. local time of the applicant organization. Click the button below for further guidance on potential application topics.

Beyond COVID-19 Action: Black Fire Brigade Celebrates First EMT Class. February 14, 2019

https://chicagodefender.com/black-fire-brigade-celebrates-first-emt-class/

CHICAGODEFENDER

Black Fire Brigade Celebrates First EMT Class

• Katara Patton
• February 14, 2019

A Chicago first happened this Black History Month. On Saturday, February 9th, the Black Fire Brigade graduated its first inaugural EMT class.

Lt. Quention “Que” Curtis founded the Black Fire Brigade as a place for Black firefighters to find fellowship and to mentor young Black people interested in joining the department. Curtis spent more than 30 years working for the Chicago Fire Department and had grown frustrated from watching the department’s racist hiring practices that led to almost $100 million in lawsuits in the past decade. He decided to create a space for retired, current, and prospective Black firefighters to engage with and train each other.

After a long career as a firefighter, and dedicating hours to building his new organization, Curtis finally witnessed the fruits of his labor with a class of over 20 young Black people graduating from the training center.

“The Black Fire Brigade’s vision was to have a place for mentoring, support, training, historical remembrance, and a community for firefighters, EMS personnel, and the next generation of leaders,” said Ald. Derrick Curtis (18) to a room of approximately 200. The Black Fire Brigade is located in Ald. Curtis’ ward, at 8404 S. Kedzie, in the Ashburn community.

Other political heavyweights such as State Representative Mary Flowers, Alderman David Moore, and City Clerk Anna M. Valencia all expressed their support to the newly graduated EMTs.

“…if you’re having problems as you move on, you call your alderman and State Rep and tell us about the opportunities that you should be getting,” announced Ald. Moore. “I promise you, that if nobody else will, I will help you knock down those walls.”

All throughout the ceremony, former firefighters imparted wisdom to the inaugural class; politicians boosted the effort echoing their support. The festive occasion doubled as a teaching moment for graduates. Many acknowledged that the city is in need of more firefighters; but more importantly, they emphasized the journey and plight of Chicago’s  Black firefighters.

Ald. Curtis sponsored an ordinance that awarded the Black Fire Brigade a donated fire engine to use for training. Lt. Lewis said he named the fire engine “Engine 21,” in honor of the first Black fire company in Chicago.  Morris Davis provided another historical marker of the event. Davis, a firefighter for 38 years and the founder of the African-American Firefighter Museum, told the story of his most dangerous rescue.

 “Believe in yourself and you’re going to make it,” Davis told graduates.

Terri Winston gave the ceremony’s keynote speech before graduates were called up to receive their EMT certificates. For 10 minutes, Winston painted the pictures of how the Black Fire Brigade originated.  She enthusiastically described Lt. Curtis’s ability to “lean on faith,” and her fear when presented with the task of fundraising money for the organization.

Winston shouted, “Now running a magazine? I can do that. But raising money for young people to be trained by us? I don’t know about this Que.”

Well, it turns out their hard work paid off. This Black History Month, Chicago can say it is the only city in the nation to graduate an EMT class from a Black Fire Brigade.

NIST 2020 Symposium.. July 28-29, 2020. Virtual

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is pleased to announce its third annual Disaster Resilience Symposium to be held on July 28-29, 2020.  NIST is closely monitoring guidance from Federal, State, and local health authorities on the outbreak of COVID-19. To protect the health and safety of NIST employees and the American public they continue to serve, NIST has decided to make the 2020 NIST Disaster Resilience Symposium virtual-only. 

The symposium will feature a keynote presentation by Erik Rasmussen, Senior Research Scientist at CIMMS NSSL and the University of Oklahoma, on how we can enhance the resilience of US communities. The symposium will also feature presentations from 23 grant awardees funded by NIST on topics related to disaster and failure studies, earthquake engineering, wind engineering, community resilience, and wildland-urban interface fires: 

§  Development of Tornado Design Criteria for Buildings and Shelters Subject to Tornado Induced Loads 

§  Improving Disaster Resilience Through Scientific Data Collection with UAV Swarms 

§  Seismic Assessment, Retrofit Strategies and Policy Implications for Vulnerable Existing Steel Buildings 

§  Integrating Aging Effects in Performance-Based Seismic Design and Assessment of Reinforced Concrete Structures 

§  Resilience of Steel Moment Frame Systems with Deep Slender Column Sections 

§  Coastal Inundation Events in Developed Regions 

§  Decision-Oriented Column Simulation Capabilities for Enhancing Disaster Resilience of Reinforced Concrete Buildings 

§  Liquefaction-Targeted Ground Motion Parameters 

§  Improving Disaster Resilience by Quantifying WUI Community Ember Exposure  

§  Imaging pyrometry of smoldering wood embers 

§  Development of Methodology for Determination of Ignition Propensity by Firebrands in Wildland-Urban Interface 

§  Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) System and LIDAR Experiments for the Characterization of Strong Wind Loads on Non-Structural Components and Near-Surface Wind Profiles 

§  Innovative Measurement and Modeling of Dynamical Social and Health Effects of Windstorms 

§  4-D Measurement and Modeling of Engineering-Relevant Windstorm Characteristics 

§  Measurement of Near-Surface Pressure, Wind and Wind-Induced Load Characteristics Using Novel Sensors in Thunderstorm, Tornado, and Tornado-Like Environments 

§  Spatiotemporal Maps of Damaging Winds from Integrated Remote and In Situ Observations 

§  Seismic Rehabilitation of Existing Unreinforced Masonry Buildings 

§  Designing for and Assessing Functional Recovery in Seismic Retrofit of Existing Concrete Buildings: A Framework 

§  Seismic Assessment and Retrofit Methods for Existing Non-Ductile Reinforced Concrete Wall Structures 

§  Leveraging Uncertain Disaster Field Data for Community-Scale Assessment of Connected Buildings and Lifelines 

§  Assessing long-range firebrand impingement rates in recent WUI wildfire events 

§  Development of a Fundamental Model for Ignition of Structural Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fuels Subjected to Firebrand Attack 

§  Firebrand Material Ignition Conditions & Assessment Method Development 

Registration is free and is now open at: https://www.nist.gov/news-events/events/2020/07/virtual-2020-nist-disaster-resilience-symposium.  Everyone planning to participate is asked to register so we know how many attendees to expect on the platform.  We will continue to update this website with more information on the virtual symposium as it becomes available. In the meantime, please feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions, and we will do our best to answer them.   

Climate Change in Africa. Academia. May 2020

Climate Change and Food Security in West Asia and North Africa (Chap.16- Afforestation Potential in WANA Region to Sequester Carbon)  Roger Williams 1,250 Views  View PDF ▸ Download PDF ⬇ CLIMATE CHANGE IN NIGERIA.pdf - rasak bamidele Contemporary Environmental Readings Climate Change A Blessing or a Curse for  Agriculture? First Edition With contribution by - Yasser Hassan The Effects of Global Warming new - sri supartini Climate Change - Some Mitigation Methods - Mayadhar Swain