Interdisciplinary partnerships foster innovation to address pressing social problems. This paper describes an interdisciplinary partnership called the Chicago Food System Collaborative (CFSC) composed of a team of partners from four academic institutions and three community-based organizations representing a total of eight disciplines that included: community development and community organizing, community psychology, geography, nursing, nutrition, public health, sociology, and urban planning and policy. Partners came together to address the issue of access to healthy foods and nutrition in a working class African American neighborhood. We analyze and discuss the core principles that guided the partnership and its impact across three dimensions: understanding through interdisciplinary action research, building capacity, and facilitating innovations in practices and policies. Despite the challenges of interdisciplinary partnerships, the potential benefits and impact of such efforts reflect their value as a comprehensive approach to addressing complex social problems.

A major public health crisis facing America's society is the increase in child and youth obesity, which has seen a fourfold increase in the last four decades. Major concerns include what children eat for school lunch and what other foods are available in schools. This paper illustrates efforts towards systems change in the luncheon program and food vending machines in the Chicago Public Schools. We discuss the different factors that lead to such changes using the framework of the social ecological model and the soft systems methodology, and we analyze how the resulting innovation was implemented and evaluated. First, we present a theoretical perspective to explain factors that influence children's eating patterns from a systems approach. Second, we discuss the antecedent factors that lead to systems change. Finally, we examine challenges to systems change, such as resistance to change, different stakeholder priorities, lack of resources, institutional bureaucracy, and unrealistic funder expectations.

University-community relationships are sometimes marked by division and hostility. Key problems in the relationship include the assumed objectivity of the academy and the real estate interests of universities. The history and description of these relationships in Chicago indicates that there are other historical trends that have led to fruitful partnerships, including the strength and diversity of community groups and change and diversity in university students and personnel. This article uses the examples of the UIC Neighborhoods Initiative at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Policy Research Action Group to show how strong, viable collaborations can occur. Their experiences point to a new research model and some key lessons learned on how to use collaborative partnerships to enhance the way society deals with today's urban problems.

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Summary No previous studies have explicitly addressed the issue of diagnostic criteria for restless legs syndrome (RLS) in children. Diagnosis of RLS in adults is primarily based on the ­patient's history. Children may exhibit and report symptoms of RLS differently from adults, depending on the child's chronological and developmental age and on the child's ability at verbal expression. Members of the study groups ‘Movement Disorder’ and ‘Paediatrics’ of the German Sleep Society have therefore elaborated a consensus proposal for diagnostic criteria of RLS in childhood by adapting and modifying the criteria of the International Restless Legs Syndrome Study Group used in adults. As minimal criteria for the diagnosis of RLS in childhood we propose: 1) The desire to move the legs is associated with sensations like discomfort or pain in the legs; 2) Increase in dysaesthesiae in the legs at rest and decrease due to motor activity; 3) The dysaesthesiae of the legs are worse during the even­ing and at night; 4) The child obviously suffers from the symptomatology; and 5) The symptoms described should persist for at least 6 months. Additional clinical features proposed include: 6) Sleep disturbance and its consequences; 7) Involuntary movements of the legs while awake and at rest or periodic leg movements in sleep; 8) Normal neurological examination; and 9) Positive family history.