EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH, blogosfera militar, guerra contra el terror, medios sociales, Milblogs, War on Terror, and Social Media

Nueva mirada a la política del Departamento de Defensa de los Estados Unidos en torno el uso que de las capacidades basadas en Internet y, en especial, el de la blogosfera y de los medios sociales en este siglo. Se considera que, el Departamento de Defensa de los Estados Unidos ha atravesado por distintas etapas hasta lograr un papel proactivo en la blogosfera y los medios sociales. Se habla del surgimiento del blog y de la blogosfera en términos generales, para luego enfocarse en las características de la blogosfera militar. Explica las distintas etapas por las que ha atravesado la política del Pentágono en torno a la misma, y con relación a los medios sociales.
Fresh look upon the United States Defense Department's policy on the use of Internet-based capabilities, and especially the blogosphere and social media, in this century. It shows that this Department has passed through several stages until it has played a proactive role in the blogosphere and social media. The paper is divided into several sections. First, the emergence of blogging and the blogosphere is broadly talked about, and then features of milblogs are examined. It also examines several stages passed through by the Pentagon policy on milblogs and social media.

Humans, United States, Mental Disorders therapy, Mental Health Services, Military Personnel, Mobile Applications standards, Telemedicine standards, United States Department of Defense, United States Department of Veterans Affairs, and Veterans

In the present systematic review, we summarize the feasibility, usability, efficacy, and effectiveness of mental health-related apps created by the Veterans Affairs (VA) or the Department of Defense (DoD). Twenty-two articles were identified, reporting on 8 of the 20 VA/DoD mental health self-management and treatment companion apps. Review inclusion criteria were studies that reported original data on the usability, acceptability, feasibility, efficacy, and effectiveness, or attitudes toward the app. We collected data from each article regarding type of study, sample size, participant population, follow-up period, measures/assessments, and summary of findings. The apps have been tested with patients seeking treatment, patients with elevated mental health symptoms, and clinicians. The strongest area of support for the apps is regarding evidence of their feasibility and acceptability. Research support for efficacy and effectiveness of the apps is scarce with exceptions for two apps (PTSD Coach, Virtual Hope Box). Until more evidence accumulates, clinicians should use their judgment and be careful not to overstate the potential benefits of the apps. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Humans, Publishing, Research, United States, Biological Specimen Banks statistics numerical data, Serum, and United States Department of Defense

Specimens in the United States Department of Defense (DoD) Serum Repository have accumulated in frozen storage since 1985 when the DoD began universal screening for human immunodeficiency virus. Use of the stored serum for health research has been carefully controlled, but the resulting publications have never been systematically identified or described. The Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center (AFHSC) information systems and open (online) sites were used as data sources. Through 2012, the repository contained 54,542,658 serum specimens, of which 228,610 (0.42%) have been accessed for any purpose. Between 2001 (the first year that comprehensive, digital records were available) and 2012, 65.2% of all approved requests for serum were for healthcare or public health investigations, but greater than 99% of all shipped samples were for research. Using two different methods - a structure search of PubMed and an exhaustive online search based on records from AFHSC - we identified 76 articles published between October 1988 and March 2013 that covered a multitude of infectious diseases, injuries, environmental exposures and mental health conditions through analysis of antibodies, biological metabolic, signaling and regulatory substances, Vitamin D, organochlorines, dioxin, omega-3-fatty acid, and portions of human deoxyribonucleic acid. Despite its operational and scientific value, it appears that the DoD Serum Repository has been underutilized. Changes to policy and increased capacity for specimen processing could increase use of the repository without risking privacy or the availability of specimens for the healthcare of individual service members in the future.