An evaluation of a community-academic-clinical partnership to reduce prostate cancer disparities in the South.

Engaging partners in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of cancer education programs is critical for improving the health of our communities. A 2-year pilot education intervention on prostate cancer decision making and participation in medical research was funded by the National Cancer Institute. The partnership involving community members and clinical staff at a cancer center was used to develop recruitment strategies and plan for the implementation of the intervention with African-American middle-age and older men and female family members. We assessed partners' perceptions of this community-academic-clinical research collaboration. In year 2, eight project advisory council members were selected among existing partners and year 1 participants to serve as a formal committee. Council members were required to participate in telephone and in person meetings and actively support recruitment/implementation efforts. At the conclusion of the project, 20 individuals (all clinical and community partners, including the eight advisory council members) were invited to complete a survey to assess their perceived impact of the collaboration on the community and provide suggestions for future collaborations. Most partners agreed that their organization benefitted from the collaboration and that various aspects of the advisory council process (e.g., both formal and informal communication) worked well. The most noted accomplishment of the partnership related to leveraging the collaboration to make men more knowledgeable about prostate cancer decision making. Suggested improvements for future collaborations included distributing more frequent updates regarding project successes. Evaluating partners' perceptions of this collaboration provided important recommendations for future planning, implementation, and evaluation of community-based cancer education programs.

The structural dynamics of the American five-string banjo.

The American five-string banjo is unique among musical instruments in that many significant parameters that effect tone are easily adjusted. This is probably why so many banjo players fiddle with their banjo. The instrument is a combination of canonical vibrating systems (strings, and a circular membrane) and therefore more amenable to analysis and modeling than most other musical instruments (e.g., the violin). Such an analysis is presented here. The model is a harmonically driven string which excites the other strings and a membrane under tension, causing the membrane to radiate sound. Three figures-of-merit, FOMs, are assumed. They are loudness, brightness, and decay of the sound. The effects of a number of parameters on the proposed FOMs are investigated. Among these are the loss factor and tension of the membrane, the mass of the bridge, and the location on the string of the excitation. It is noted that the calculated effects of the changes agree with generally accepted setup practices.