1,671 research outputs found
Prenatal care advice to see a dentist: results from a population-based study
No full textMeredith L. Vandermeer (Department of Public Health, Oregon State University), Kenneth D. Rosenberg (Office of Family Health, Oregon Department of Human Services), Alfredo P. Sandoval (Oregon Health & Science University).Title from PDF caption (viewed on August 14, 2020).This archived document is maintained by the State Library of Oregon as part of the Oregon Documents Depository Program. It is for informational purposes and may not be suitable for legal purposes.Mode of access: Internet from the Oregon Government Publications Collection.Text in English
Comparison of efficacy of induction therapy in low immunologic risk African-American kidney transplant recipients
No full textAfrican-Americans (AA) have higher acute rejection rates and poorer long-term graft survival rates when compared with non-AA. It is yet to be demonstrated that the type of induction therapy modifies outcomes in this 'high-risk' population. This retrospective analysis compares the efficacy of induction therapy [antilymphocyte antibodies (ALA) versus interleukin-2 receptor antagonists (IL-2RA)] in the AA population. Some 189 AAs were included. There was no difference in acute rejection at one year between the groups (ALA (12%) or IL-2RA (12%), P = 0.89). Type of induction therapy had no significant effect on death-censored (P = 0.61) or uncensored graft survival (P = 0.32). There was no difference between CMV or BK virus infections between the groups (P = 0.14 and 0.94 respectively). Type of induction therapy does not appear to affect acute rejection rates or long-term graft survival in low-risk AA kidney transplant recipients
Efficacy of induction therapy on acute rejection and graft outcomes in African American kidney transplantation
No full textBACKGROUND:
African Americans (AA) have higher rejection rates and poorer graft outcomes compared to non-AAs. Induction therapy is yet unproven in this high risk population.
METHODS:
This retrospective study compared the efficacy of induction therapy [IL-2 receptor antibodies (IL2RA) or thymoglobulin] vs. no induction.
RESULTS:
One hundred and seventy-five AA patients were included in this analysis. Patients were well matched for demographic and immunologic characteristics in the non-induction and IL2RA induction groups; the Thymoglobulin induction group had significantly higher risk patients. Significantly fewer episodes of acute rejection occurred at one yr in patients treated with thymoglobulin and IL2RA vs. no induction (18% vs. 47%, p = 0.003, 26% vs. 47%, p = 0.02). Three yr graft survival was significantly improved in the IL2RA group compared to the non-induction group (85% vs. 68%, p = 0.032). Despite the thymoglobulin group being at high risk, they had similar graft survival rates compared to both the IL2RA group (76% vs. 85%, p = 0.18) and the non-induction group (76% vs. 68%, p = 0.48). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that induction therapy (combining IL2RA and thymoglobulin) independently reduced the risk of both acute rejection and graft loss.
CONCLUSION:
The use and type of induction therapy in AA patients significantly reduces acute rejection rates and may improve long-term graft outcomes in AA patients
Impact of scour on lateral resistance of wind turbine monopiles: An experimental study
No full textThe majority of offshore wind structures are supported on large-diameter, rigid monopile foundations. These piles may be subjected to scour due to the waves and currents that causes a loss of soil support and consequently decreases the pile capacity and system stiffness. The results of numerical models suggest that the shape of the scour hole affects the magnitude of pile capacity loss; however, there is a dearth of experimental test data that quantify this effect. This paper presents a series of centrifuge model tests on an instrumented model pile that investigates the effects of scour-hole geometry on the response of a laterally loaded pile embedded in sand. The pile instrumentation allowed load–displacement and p–y (soil reaction – displacement) curves to be derived. Three scour geometries (global, local wide, and local narrow) and three scour depths (1D, 1.5D, and 2D; where D is pile diameter) were modelled. For all three scour types, pile moment capacity decreased almost linearly with increase of scour depth. Simple empirical relations were proposed to evaluate the detrimental influence of scour on the pile moment capacity. A new method has been developed to allow designers to quantify the effect of scour-hole shape and severity of scour on the pile response.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Geo-engineerin
HUMAN CAPITAL ASSESSMENT INDICATORS AS INFLUENTIAL DETERMINANTS PERTAINING TO THE ADMISSION CRITERIA UTILIZED BY PRE-LICENSURE PROGRAMS FOR NURSING EDUCATION
No full textThe attainment of educational credentials contributes to the acquisition of human capital. Academic preparedness is a component therein that allows for the attainment of increased levels of education. Most institutions of higher education utilize measures of academic preparedness, such as grade point averages or standardized tests. Requirements for the levels of academic preparedness are based upon many factors. The requirements most relevant to this study are the selectivity of the institution and the academic preparedness of potential candidates of pre-licensure programs for nursing education.
The pre-licensure education of nurses is enigmatic when compared to other professional disciplines. Pre-licensure education for registered nurses exists in three distinct and differently classified programs: a hospital-based diploma program, an associate degree program, or a baccalaureate program. (There is an additional baccalaureate program, known as accelerated second degree programs, for students possessing a baccalaureate degree in another discipline. These accelerated programs are not included in this discussion.) The National Center for Education Statistics classifies each of the three programs, making clear that the differing program levels of post-secondary education are neither equivalent nor interchangeable.
According to the literature, the academic preparedness of individuals and the level of selectivity of higher education institutions vary greatly depending upon the particular classification of nursing program. What then, is the level of programmatic selectivity, given that all three pre-licensure programs produce candidates for the identical occupational certification while attracting candidates known to have varying levels of academic preparedness? This study aimed to determine the levels of selectivity of the three pre-licensure nursing education programs types so as identify trends and patterns within and across pre-licensure program types. In order to determine these trends and patterns, the author examined the admissions requirements that are transparent to the public on schools’ websites in which these programs are housed, employing the methodology of document analysis. The determination for the level of selectivity was based upon Barron’s Measure of Selectivity (Barron’s Educational Series, 2011)
Charmonium levels near threshold and the narrow state X(3872)->pi(+)pi(-)J/psi
No full textWe explore the influence of open-charm channels on charmonium properties and profile the 1^3D2, 1^3D3, and 2^1P1 charmonium candidates for X(3872). The favored candidates, the 1^3D2 and 1^3D3 levels, both have prominent radiative decays. The 1^3D2 might be visible in the D0D*0 channel, while the dominant decay of the 1^3D3 state should be into D¯D. We propose that additional discrete charmonium levels can be discovered as narrow resonances of charmed and anticharmed mesons.First author draf
Evaluating carbon offsets from forestry and energy projects
No full textUnder the Kyoto Protocol, industrial countries accept caps on their emissions of greenhouse gases. They are permitted to acquire offsetting emissions reductions from developing countries - which do not have emissions limitations - to assist in complying with these caps. Because these emissions reductions are defined against a hypothetical baseline, practical issues arise in ensuring that the reductions are genuine. Forestry-related emissions reduction projects are often thought to present greater difficulties in measurement and implementation, than energy-related emissions reduction projects. The author discusses how project characteristics affect the process for determining compliance with each of the criteria for qualifying. Those criteria are: 1) Additionality. Would these emissions reductions not have taken place without the project? 2) Baseline and systems boundaries (leakage). What would business-as-usual emissions have been without the project? And in this comparison, how broad should spatial, and temporal system boundaries be? 3) Measurement (or sequestration). How accurately can we measure actual with-project emissions levels? 4) Duration or permanence. Will the project have an enduring mitigating effect? 5) Local impact. Will the project benefit its neighbors? For all the criteria except permanence, it is difficult to find generic distinctions between land use change and forestry and energy projects, since both categories comprise diverse project types. The important distinctions among projects have to do with such things as: a) The level and distribution of the project's direct financial benefits. b) How much the project is integrated with the larger system. c) The project components'internal homogeneity and geographic dispersion. d) The local replicability of project technologies. Permanence is an issue specific to land use and forestry projects. The author describes various approaches to ensure permanence, or adjust credits for duration: the ton-year approach (focusing on the benefits from deferring climatic damage, and rewarding longer deferral); the combination approach (bundling current land use change and forestry emissions reductions with future reductions in the buyer's allowed amount); a technology-acceleration approach; and an insurance approach.Montreal Protocol,Environmental Economics&Policies,Climate Change,Decentralization,Global Environment Facility,Environmental Economics&Policies,Energy and Environment,Carbon Policy and Trading,Montreal Protocol,Climate Change
Scripts
No full textScripts used to calculate average pairwise differences between all 6 pairwise combinations along the XR chromosome between Drosophila pseudoobscura, Drosophila persimilis, Sex-Ratio Drosophila persimilis, and Drosophila miranda. These output file can then be used to calculate RND between
D pseudoobscura, D persimilis, and SR D persimilis in another program such as Microsoft Excel. All scripts are written in Perl. Author: Kenneth Hoehn. Date: May-5-2011. Sections: 1. Constructing the combined, raw input file from PILEUP outputs (skip if combined input file is provided); 2. Necessary input files for final analysis; 3. Editing combined input file and calculating average pairwise differences; 4. Calculating RND; 5. Double checking output; 6. Simple window writing script. See README.txt for more details
Centrifuge modeling of the impact of local and global scour erosion on the monotonic lateral response of a monopile in sand
No full textCopyright © 2020 by ASTM International, 100 Barr Harbor Drive, PO Box C700, West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2959. The majority of offshore wind turbines are founded on large-diameter, open-ended steel monopiles. Monopiles must resist lateral loads and overturning moments because of environmental (wind and wave) actions, whereas vertical loads tend to be comparatively small. Recent developments in turbine sizes and increases in hub heights have resulted in pile diameters increasing rapidly, whereas the embedment length to diameter ratio (L/D) is reducing. Soil erosion around piles, termed scour, changes the soil strength and stiffness properties and affects the system's load resistance characteristics. In practice, design scour depths of up to 1.3D are routinely assumed during the turbine lifetime; however, the impact on monopiles with low L/D is not yet fully understood. In this article, centrifuge tests are performed to assess the effect of scour on the performance of piles with low L/D. In particular, the effect of combined loads, scour type (global, local), and depth are considered. A loading system is developed that enables application of realistic load eccentricity and combined vertical, horizontal, and moment loading at the seabed level. An instrumented 1.8-m-diameter pile with L/D = 5 is used. A friction-reducing ball-type connection is designed to transfer lateral loads to the pile without inducing any rotational pile-head constraint, which is associated with loading rigs in tests of this nature. Results suggest that vertical and lateral load interaction is minimal. Scour has a significant impact on the lateral load-bearing capacity and stiffness of the pile, leads to increases in bending moment magnitude along the pile shaft, and lowers the location of peak pile bending moment. The response varies with scour type, with global scour resulting in larger moments than local scour. The size of the local scour hole is found to have a significant impact on the pile response, suggesting that scour hole width should be explicitly considered in design
Opening Up an Intelligent Tutoring System Development Environment for Extensible Student Modeling
No full textITS authoring tools make creating intelligent tutoring systems more cost effective, but few authoring tools make it easy to flexibly incorporate an open-ended range of student modeling methods and learning analytics tools. To support a cumulative science of student modeling and enhance the impact of real-world tutoring systems, it is critical to extend ITS authoring tools so they easily accommodate novel student modeling methods. We report on extensions to the CTAT/Tutorshop architecture to support a plug-in approach to extensible student modeling, which gives an author full control over the content of the student model. The extensions enhance the range of adaptive tutoring behaviors that can be authored and support building external, student- or teacher-facing real-time analytics tools. The contributions of this work are: (1) an open architecture to support the plugging in, sharing, re-mixing, and use of advanced student modeling techniques, ITSs, and dashboards; and (2) case studies illustrating diverse ways authors have used the architecture
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