bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sleep quality and noise: comparisons between hospital and home settings
Authors: Bevan Rosanna , Grantham-Hill Sarah , Bowen Ruth , Clayton Esther , Grice Helen , Venditti Holly Caroline , Stickland Alice , Hill Catherine Mary
Published: July 2018

Background

Children and their parents report poor sleep in hospital and complain about noise.

Objective

To measure sleep quality and noise levels in hospital and compare these with the home environment.

Design

Observational within case-controlled study.

Setting

Paediatric medical wards at Southampton Children’s Hospital and bedrooms at home.

Participants and methods

Participants were children aged 3–16 years and their co-sleeping parents. Sleep quality was measured using actigraphy for a maximum of 5 nights in each setting. Median sound levels at the bedside were monitored overnight in a subgroup in both settings.

Main outcome measures

Total sleep time, sleep efficiency, median sound levels overnight.

Results

40 children and 16 mothers completed actigraphy in both settings. Children had on average 62.9 min, and parents 72.8 min, per night less sleep in hospital than at home. Both children and parents had poorer sleep quality in hospital than at home: mean sleep efficiency 77.0% vs 83.2% for children and 77.1% vs 88.9% for parents, respectively. Median sound levels in hospital measured in 8 children averaged 48.6 dBA compared with 34.7 dBA at home and exceeded World Health Organization recommendations of 30 dB.

Conclusions

Children and their mothers have poor quality sleep in paediatric wards. This may affect the child’s behaviour, recovery and pain tolerance. Sleep deprivation adds to parental burden and stress. Sound levels are significantly raised in hospital and may contribute to poor sleep. Reduction in the level of noise might lead to an improvement in sleep, affecting the quality of stay of both parent and child.
Bushehr Elderly Health (BEH) programme: study protocol and design of musculoskeletal system and cognitive function (stage II)
Authors: Shafiee Gita , Ostovar Afshin , Heshmat Ramin , Darabi Hossein , Sharifi Farshad , Raeisi Alireza , Mehrdad Neda , Shadman Zhaleh , Razi Faride , Amini Mohammad Reza , Arzaghi Seyed Masoud , Meybodi Hamidreza Aghaei , Soltani Akbar , Nabipour Iraj , Larijani Bagher
Published: July 2018

Introduction

Musculoskeletal disorders and cognitive diseases are prevalent, and they are significant determinants of morbidity and mortality in older adults. The aim of this study is to investigate the prevalence of musculoskeletal and cognitive diseases and their risk factors and also to assess their associations during future follow-ups.

Methods and analysis

Bushehr Elderly Health (BEH) programme is a population-based prospective cohort study being conducted in Bushehr, a southern province of Iran. A total of 3000 older people aged ≥60 years participated in the first stage from which 2772 were eligible to participate in the second stage, which started after 2.5 years. Data including demographic status, lifestyle factors, general healthandmedical history, and mentalandfunctional health are collected through a questionnaire. Anthropometric measures, performance testsandmuscle strength, blood pressure and and body composition measurements are done. A total 25 cc venous blood is taken, and sera are stored at –80°C for possible future analyses.

Ethics and dissemination

The study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute, affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Science as well as the Research Ethics Committee of Bushehr University of Medical Sciences. A written informed consent was signed by all the participants. The study findings will show the prevalence of musculoskeletal disease, cognitive impairment and their risk factors in an elderly population. The participants will be followed during the study to measure the occurrence outcomes.

This study will also have the potential to inform the development of beneficial interventions to improve the management of musculoskeletal and cognitive impairment in Iran and other countries in the Middle East.

Our findings will be disseminated via scientific publication as well as presentation to stakeholders, including the patients, clinicians, the public and policymakers, via appropriate avenues.
Turing Patterns of a Lotka–Volterra Competitive System with Nonlocal Delay
Authors: Han Bang-Sheng , Wang Zhi-Cheng
Published: July 2018

This paper focuses on the dynamical behavior of a Lotka–Volterra competitive system with nonlocal delay. We first establish the conditions of Turing bifurcation occurring in the system. According to it and by using multiple scale method, the amplitude equations of the different Turing patterns are obtained. Then, we observe when these patterns (spots pattern and stripes pattern) arise in the Lotka–Volterra competitive system. Finally, some numerical simulations are given to verify our theoretical analysis.
Turing Instability and Hopf Bifurcation in a Modified Leslie–Gower Predator–Prey Model with Cross-Diffusion
Authors: Abid Walid , Yafia R. , Aziz-Alaoui M. A. , Aghriche Ahmed
Published: July 2018

This paper is concerned with some mathematical analysis and numerical aspects of a reaction–diffusion system with cross-diffusion. This system models a modified version of Leslie–Gower functional response as well as that of the Holling-type II. Our aim is to investigate theoretically and numerically the asymptotic behavior of the interior equilibrium of the model. The conditions of boundedness, existence of a positively invariant set are proved. Criteria for local stability/instability and global stability are obtained. By using the bifurcation theory, the conditions of Hopf and Turing bifurcation critical lines in a spatial domain are proved. Finally, we carry out some numerical simulations in order to support our theoretical results and to interpret how biological processes affect spatiotemporal pattern formation which show that it is useful to use the predator–prey model to detect the spatial dynamics in the real life.
Codimension-3 Flip Bifurcation of a Class of Difference Equations
Authors: Zhong Jiyu , Zhou Xingwang
Published: July 2018

In this paper, we consider a one-dimensional difference equation with three parameters, the derivative of which at a fixed point has an eigenvalue [Formula: see text] as the parameters are all zero. In the case that both nondegeneracy conditions of the flip bifurcation and the generalized flip bifurcation are not satisfied, by computing normal form, we give the nondegeneracy condition and transversality condition of the codimension-3 flip bifurcation. Moreover, by discussing the number of positive zeros of a cubic function in a neighborhood of the origin, we show the bifurcation scenario and give the parameter conditions, respectively, that the normal form of the equation possesses three 2-cycles, two 2-cycles, only one 2-cycle or none.
COMPUTATIONAL MODELING OF PASS EFFECTIVENESS IN SOCCER
Authors: CAKMAK ALI , UZUN ALI , DELIBAS EMRULLAH
Published: July 2018

The emerging data explosion in sports field has created new opportunities to practice data science and analytics for deeper and larger scale analysis of games. With collaborating and competing 22 players on the field, soccer is often considered as a complex system. More specifically, each game is usually modeled as a network with players as nodes and passes between them as the edges. The number of passes usually define the weight of each edge, and these weights are employed to identify the key players using network modeling theory. However, the number of passes metric considers each pass the same and cannot differentiate players who are making ordinary passes, usually in their own pitch to a close teammate, from those who make key passes that start or improve an attack. As a solution, in this paper, we present a descriptive model to quantify the effectiveness of passes in soccer to differentiate between key passes and regular passes with not much contribution to the play of a team. Our model captures the perception of domain experts with a careful combination of risk and gain assessments. We have implemented our model in a soccer data analytics software. We performed a user study with domain experts, and the results show that our model captures domain expert evaluations of a number of example scenarios with 94% accuracy. The proposed model is not computationally demanding which allows real-time pass assessment during games on commodity hardware as demonstrated by our software prototype.
Localness of Location-based Knowledge Sharing
Authors: Park Sangkeun , Ackerman Mark S. , Lee Uichin
Published: July 2018

In location-based social Q8A services, people ask a question with a high expectation that local residents who have local knowledge will answer the question. However, little is known about the locality of user activities in location-based social Q8A services. This study aims to deepen our understanding of location-based knowledge sharing by investigating the following: general behavioral characteristics of users, the topical and typological patterns related to geographic characteristics, geographic locality of user activities, and motivations of local knowledge sharing. To this end, we analyzed a 12-month period Q8A dataset from Naver KiN “Here,” a location-based social Q8A mobile app, in addition to a supplementary survey dataset obtained from 285 mobile users. Our results reveal several unique characteristics of location-based social Q8A. When compared with conventional social Q8A sites, users ask and answer different topical/typological questions. In addition, those who answer have a strong spatial locality wherein they primarily have local knowledge in a few regions, in areas such as their home and work. We also find unique motivators such as ownership of local knowledge and a sense of local community. The findings reported in the article have significant implications for the design of Q8A systems, especially location-based social Q8A systems.
Extracting and Summarizing Situational Information from the Twitter Social Media during Disasters
Authors: Rudra Koustav , Ganguly Niloy , Goyal Pawan , Ghosh Saptarshi
Published: July 2018

Microblogging sites like Twitter have become important sources of real-time information during disaster events. A large amount of valuable
situational information
is posted in these sites during disasters; however, the information is dispersed among hundreds of thousands of tweets containing sentiments and opinions of the masses. To effectively utilize microblogging sites during disaster events, it is necessary to not only
extract
the situational information from the large amounts of sentiments and opinions, but also to
summarize
the large amounts of situational information posted in real-time. During disasters in countries like India, a sizable number of tweets are posted in
local resource-poor languages
besides the normal English-language tweets. For instance, in the Indian subcontinent, a large number of tweets are posted in Hindi/Devanagari (the national language of India), and some of the information contained in such non-English tweets is not available (or available at a later point of time) through English tweets. In this work, we develop a novel classification-summarization framework which handles tweets in both English and Hindi—we first extract tweets containing situational information, and then summarize this information. Our proposed methodology is developed based on the understanding of how several concepts evolve in Twitter during disaster. This understanding helps us achieve superior performance compared to the state-of-the-art tweet classifiers and summarization approaches on English tweets. Additionally, to our knowledge, this is the first attempt to extract situational information from non-English tweets.
Borderline Ovarian Tumors Share Familial Risks with Themselves and Invasive Cancers
Authors: Zheng Guoqiao , Yu Hongyao , Kanerva Anna , Försti Asta , Sundquist Kristina , Hemminki Kari
Published: July 2018

Background: Borderline ovarian tumors (BOTs) are a subgroup of ovarian malignancies with low malignant potential. Very limited earlier data are available on familial clustering of BOTs with other cancers. We aim to explore histology-specific familial associations among BOTs and associations between BOTs and any invasive cancers.

Methods: On the basis of 16.1 million individuals in the Swedish Family-Cancer Database, we estimated familial risks for overall or histology-specific patients with BOT considering both BOT and any invasive cancers in first-degree relatives (parents or siblings), as well as familial risks for invasive cancers considering family history of BOTs.

Results: A total of 4,199 BOT cases were found in the offspring generation; among them, 34 (0.8%) cases had first-degree relatives diagnosed with any BOT, and 2,489 (59.3%) cases with any invasive cancers. A family history of BOT was associated with risks for all BOTs (RR = 2.20, P < 0.001). Papillary BOT in first-degree relatives was associated with the increased risk of having the same type of BOT (RR = 10.10, P < 0.001). BOTs showed familial associations with some invasive cancers, most consistently with colorectal, ovarian, pancreatic, lung, and bone cancers, and with leukemia. In histologic analyses, associations of BOT with even rare cancers of the anus, thyroid, and endocrine glands were noted.

Conclusions: BOTs may share susceptibility with themselves and a number of invasive cancers.

Impact: These results provide insight into familial associations of BOT for the first time, which may help with the etiologic mechanism and preventive strategy of BOTs, as well as the genetic counseling for patients with BOT. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 27(11); 1358–63. ©2018 AACR.
Cytokines Produced by Dendritic Cells Administered Intratumorally Correlate with Clinical Outcome in Patients with Diverse Cancers
Authors: Subbiah Vivek , Murthy Ravi , Hong David S. , Prins Robert M. , Hosing Chitra , Hendricks Kyle , Kolli Deepthi , Noffsinger Lori , Brown Robert , McGuire Mary , Fu Siquing , Piha-Paul Sarina , Naing Aung , Conley Anthony P. , Benjamin Robert S. , Kaur Indreshpal , Bosch Marnix L.
Published: July 2018

Purpose: Dendritic cells (DC) initiate adaptive immune responses through the uptake and presentation of antigenic material. In preclinical studies, intratumorally injected activated DCs (aDCs; DCVax-Direct) were superior to immature DCs in rejecting tumors from mice.

Experimental Design: This single-arm, open-label phase I clinical trial evaluated the safety and efficacy of aDCs, administered intratumorally, in patients with solid tumors. Three dose levels (2 million, 6 million, and 15 million aDCs per injection) were tested using a standard 3 + 3 dose-escalation trial design. Feasibility, immunogenicity, changes to the tumor microenvironment after direct injection, and survival were evaluated. We also investigated cytokine production of aDCs prior to injection.

Results: In total, 39 of the 40 enrolled patients were evaluable. The injections of aDCs were well tolerated with no dose-limiting toxicities. Increased lymphocyte infiltration was observed in 54% of assessed patients. Stable disease (SD; best response) at week 8 was associated with increased overall survival. Increased secretion of interleukin (IL)-8 and IL12p40 by aDCs was significantly associated with survival (P = 0.023 and 0.024, respectively). Increased TNFα levels correlated positively with SD at week 8 (P < 0.01).

Conclusions: Intratumoral aDC injections were feasible and safe. Increased production of specific cytokines was correlated with SD and prolonged survival, demonstrating a link between the functional profile of aDCs prior to injection and patient outcomes. Clin Cancer Res; 24(16); 3845–56. ©2018 AACR.
Cachectic Cancer Patients: Immune to Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy?
Authors: Coss Christopher C. , Clinton Steven K. , Phelps Mitch A.
Published: July 2018

Immune checkpoint inhibition is dramatically improving patient outcomes in diverse cancers, many of which responded poorly to traditional cytotoxic agents. Drivers of heterogeneous response to immune checkpoint therapy are poorly characterized. Cachectic cancer patients exhibit elevated pembrolizumab clearance and poor response, highlighting the immense therapeutic challenge posed by cancer cachexia.

See related article by Turner et al., p. 5841
Revision of the genus Lamprima Latreille, 1804 (Coleoptera: Lucanidae)
Authors: REID CHRIS A.M. , SMITH KINDI , BEATSON MAX
Published: July 2018

The genus Lamprima Latreille, 1804 (Coleoptera: Lucanidae: Lampriminae: Lamprimini), is revised. Five species are recognised: one in New Guinea (L. adolphinae (Gestro, 1875)), two on isolated western Pacific islands (L. aenea Fabricius, 1792: Norfolk Island; L. insularis W.J. Macleay, 1885: Lord Howe Island), one in northeastern New South Wales (L. imberbis Carter, 1926) and a common widespread species in eastern and southern Australia, L. aurata Latreille, 1817.                   Lamprima aurata varies considerably morphologically and many of the different forms encompassed by this variation have been described as species. Our study of morphology does not support this classification. Therefore, Lamprima aurata is designated a senior synonym of the following 24 names: L. cuprea Latreille, 1817; L. latreillii W.S. MacLeay, 1819 (new synonym); L. pygmaea W.S. MacLeay, 1819 (new synonym); L. fulgida Boisduval, 1835; L. micardi Reiche, 1841 (new synonym); L. rutilans Erichson, 1842; L. splendens Erichson, 1842; L. viridis Erichson, 1842; L. nigricollis Hope in Westwood, 1845 (new synonym); L. purpurascens Hope in Westwood, 1845 (new synonym); L. sumptuosa Hope in Westwood, 1845 (new synonym); L. tasmaniae Hope in Westwood, 1845 (new synonym); L. varians Burmeister, 1847 (new synonym); L. cultridens Burmeister, 1847 (new synonym); L. amplicollis Thomson, 1862 (new synonym); L. krefftii W.J. MacLeay, 1871 (new synonym); L. violacea W.J. Macleay, 1885 (new synonym); L. mandibularis W.J. Macleay, 1885 (new synonym); L. sericea W..J Macleay, 1885 (new synonym); L.nigripennis W.J. Macleay, 1885 (new synonym); L. minima W.J. Macleay, 1885 (new synonym); L. mariae Lea, 1910; L. coerulea Boileau, 1913 (new synonym); L. insularis Boileau, 1913 (new synonym). Lamprima adolphinae is a senior synonym of L. bohni (Darge & Séguy, 1953) (new synonym). Lamprima schreibersi Hope in Westwood, 1845, is an unnecessary nomen novum for L. aenea redescribed by Schreibers in 1802 from the same material as Fabricius, and therefore an objective synonym of L. aenea. Lamprima puncticollis Dejean, 1833, L. coerulea Hope in Westwood, 1845, and L. insularis Hope in Westwood, 1845, are nomina nuda, the last two names first made available by Boileau in 1913. The five Lamprima species are redescribed and recommendations made for their conservation. Type specimens of the species of Lamprima described by William Sharpe MacLeay and William John Macleay are illustrated for the first time. Lectotypes are designated for Lamprima insularis, L. latreillii, L. latreillii sericea, and L. mandibularis.
Role of North Indian Ocean Air–Sea Interaction in Summer Monsoon Intraseasonal Oscillation
Authors: Zhang Lei , Han Weiqing , Li Yuanlong , Maloney Eric D.
Published: July 2018

Air–sea coupling processes over the north Indian Ocean associated with the Indian summer monsoon intraseasonal oscillation (MISO) are investigated. Observations show that MISO convection anomalies affect underlying sea surface temperature (SST) through changes in surface shortwave radiation and surface latent heat flux. In turn, SST anomalies may also affect the MISO precipitation tendency ( dP/ dt). In particular, warm (cold) SST anomalies can contribute to increasing (decreasing) precipitation rate through enhanced (suppressed) surface convergence associated with boundary layer pressure gradients. These air–sea interaction processes are manifest in a quadrature relation between MISO precipitation and SST anomalies. A local air–sea coupling model (LACM) is formulated based on these observed physical processes. The period of the LACM is proportional to the square root of seasonal mixed layer depth H, assuming other physical parameters remain unchanged. Hence, LACM predicts a relatively short (long) MISO period over the north Indian Ocean during the May–June monsoon developing (July–August monsoon mature) phase when H is shallow (deep). This result is consistent with observed MISO characteristics. A 30-day-period oscillating external forcing is also added to the LACM, representing intraseasonal oscillations propagating from the equatorial Indian Ocean to the north Indian Ocean. It is found that resonance will occur when H is close to 25 m, which significantly enhances the MISO amplitude. This process may contribute to the higher MISO amplitude during the monsoon developing phase compared to the mature phase, which is associated with the seasonal cycle of H.
Dynamics of Three-Dimensional Turbulent Wall Plumes and Implications for Estimates of Submarine Glacier Melting
Authors: Ezhova Ekaterina , Cenedese Claudia , Brandt Luca
Published: July 2018

Subglacial discharges have been observed to generate buoyant plumes along the ice face of Greenland tidewater glaciers. These plumes have been traditionally modeled using classical plume theory, and their characteristic parameters (e.g., velocity) are employed in the widely used three-equation melt parameterization. However, the applicability of plume theory for three-dimensional turbulent wall plumes is questionable because of the complex near-wall plume dynamics. In this study, corrections to the classical plume theory are introduced to account for the presence of a wall. In particular, the drag and entrainment coefficients are quantified for a three-dimensional turbulent wall plume using data from direct numerical simulations. The drag coefficient is found to be an order of magnitude larger than that for a boundary layer flow over a flat plate at a similar Reynolds number. This result suggests a significant increase in the melting estimates by the current parameterization. However, the volume flux in a wall plume is found to be one-half that of a conical plume that has 2 times the buoyancy flux. This finding suggests that the total entrainment (per unit area) of ambient water is the same and that the plume scalar characteristics (i.e., temperature and salinity) can be predicted reasonably well using classical plume theory.
Assimilation of All-Sky Infrared Radiances from Himawari-8 and Impacts of Moisture and Hydrometer Initialization on Convection-Permitting Tropical Cyclone Prediction
Authors: Minamide Masashi , Zhang Fuqing
Published: July 2018

This study explores the impacts of assimilating all-sky infrared satellite radiances from Himawari-8, a new-generation geostationary satellite that shares similar remote sensing technology with the U.S. geostationary satellite GOES-16, for convection-permitting initialization and prediction of tropical cyclones with an ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF). This case studies the rapid intensification stages of Supertyphoon Soudelor (2015), one of the most intense tropical cyclones ever observed by Himawari-8. It is found that hourly cycling assimilation of the infrared radiance improves not only the estimate of the initial intensity, but also the spatial distribution of essential convective activity associated with the incipient tropical cyclone vortex. Deterministic convection-permitting forecasts initialized from the EnKF analyses are capable of simulating the early development of Soudelor, which demonstrates encouraging prospects for future improvement in tropical cyclone prediction through assimilating all-sky radiances from geostationary satellites such as Himawari-8 and GOES-16. A series of forecast sensitivity experiments are designed to systematically explore the impacts of moisture updates in the data assimilation cycles on the development and prediction of Soudelor. It is found that the assimilation of the brightness temperatures contributes not only to better constraining moist convection within the inner-core region, but also to developing a more resilient initial vortex, both of which are necessary to properly capture the rapid intensification process of tropical cyclones.
No Kid Is an Island: Privacy Scarcities and Digital Inequalities
Authors: Robinson Laura , Gran Brian K.
Published: July 2018

This article examines how digital inequalities give rise to privacy practices and resource acquisition strategies among disadvantaged youths. Based on in-depth interview data, the article probes the hidden costs of digital inequality among high school students in an agricultural belt of California. The analysis pays special attention to high-achieving students engaging in capital-enhancing activities such as schoolwork and college applications necessitating the use of digital resources. The findings examine the emotional costs paid by disadvantaged strivers whose privacy is compromised in their struggles to obtain the digital resources critical to college admissions, scholarship, and financial aid applications—almost all of which must be completed online. More specifically, the data show how youths facing a dearth of digital resources must manage their lack of physical privacy and digital footprints, as well as adaptively disclose private information to resource gatekeepers. When underresourced youths seek digital resources necessary for capital-enhancing activities, they must weigh the benefits of access to resources against the emotional costs of potentially shaming disclosures. In this way, for these youths lacking resources but with high educational aspirations, privacy and resource acquisition are negotiated processes that require emotional labor.
Multinationals’ Compliance with Employment Law: An Empirical Assessment Using Administrative Data from Ontario, 2004 to 2015
Authors: Pohler Dionne , Riddell Chris
Published: July 2018

This study contributes new evidence to the literature on multinational corporation (MNC) behavior by exploring three related questions: 1) Do MNCs comply with local employment laws in a developed country? 2) To the extent that compliance varies across MNCs, what factors are important in shaping compliance? 3) Is there a “foreignness” effect for MNCs operating in developed countries, and does this effect vary according to country-of-origin and/or union status? To investigate these questions, the authors compiled unique firm-level administrative data on MNC compliance with regulatory and quasi-regulatory employment practices during mass layoffs in Ontario, Canada. Adopting a research design that uses the behavior of Canadian MNCs as the comparison group, their key findings suggest that unions are a very robust predictor of compliance across all foreign MNCs and systematic country-of-origin effects on MNC compliance are present only in non-unionized workplaces.
The Chief Peril Is Not a DSM Diagnosis but the Polarized Mind
Authors: Schneider Kirk J.
Published: July 2018

This article calls on organized psychiatry and psychology to wake up and address a major underappreciated discrepancy. This is the discrepancy between diagnostic nomenclature for therapy clients and the nonpathologizing or even glorifying nomenclature for many throughout history who are abusive, degrading, and massively destructive. While the former, typically clinical population, may be referred to as the “diagnosed” and the latter, typically nonclinical population, as the “undiagnosed,” I show how the compartmentalization of our current psychiatric diagnostic system prevents us from seeing the larger problems with mental health in our country and beyond and show that these problems require an alternative framework. Such a framework would address both that which we conventionally term mental disorder as well as the disorder of cultures, which so often forms the basis for that which we term mental disorders. I propose that the phenomenologically based framework that I call “the polarized mind” is one such alternative that might help us more equitably treat suffering, whether individual or collective.
Comparison of two prevalent individually ventilated caging systems for detection of murine infectious agents via exhaust air particles
Authors: Mahabir Esther , Durand Stephanie , Henderson Kenneth S , Hardy Patrick
Published: July 2018

We compared the efficacies of two different individually ventilated cage systems (Allentown and Tecniplast) for health monitoring (HM) of murine infectious agents using exhaust air particle (EAP) capture and real-time PCR. After three months of monitoring, both EAP capture media allowed detection of Helicobacter, Pasteurella and Entamoeba. Use of the EAP real-time PCR for HM reduces the number of mice used.
Pathways to Armenian Youth Empowerment in Low Socioeconomic Communities: Indirect Effects of Parenting and Moderating Effects of Gender
Authors: Devenish Bethany , Hooley Merrilyn , Stokes Mark , Mellor David
Published: July 2018

This study evaluated self-esteem and emotional regulation as possible mediators of the relationship between authoritative parenting and sociopolitical control in 240 low socioeconomic youths, aged 10 to 16 years ( M = 12.48 years, SD = 1.33 years; 122 males, 118 females). Participants completed self-report questionnaires assessing their self-esteem, emotional regulation, perception of sociopolitical control, and perceptions of their parents’ supportive parenting and behavior monitoring. The relationship between authoritative parenting and perception of sociopolitical control was mediated by self-esteem and emotional regulation cognitive reappraisal skills. The relationship between authoritative parenting and self-esteem was moderated by gender, in that, authoritative parenting was more predictive of self-esteem in male youth than female youth. This research identifies the importance of family interventions designed to increase authoritative parenting for youth from low socioeconomic communities, and highlights the need to identify other factors that may be important for the development of sociopolitical control in female youth.
Examination of the New Short-Stay Nursing Home Quality Measures: Rehospitalizations, Emergency Department Visits, and Successful Returns to the Community
Authors: Saliba Debra , Weimer David L. , Shi Yuxi , Mukamel Dana B.
Published: July 2018

In 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) introduced 3 new quality measures (QMs) to its report card, Nursing Home Compare (NHC). These measures—rehospitalizations, emergency department visits, and successful discharges to the community—focus on short-stay residents. We offer a first analysis of nursing homes’ performance in terms of these new measures. We examined their properties and distribution across nursing homes using descriptive statistics and regression models. We found that, similar to other QMs, performance varies across the country, and that there is very minimal correlation between these 3 new QMs as well as between these QMs and other NHC QMs. Regression models reveal that better performance on these QMs tends to be associated with fewer deficiencies, higher staffing and more skilled staffing, nonprofit ownership, and lower proportion of Medicaid residents. Other characteristics are associated with better performance for some but not all 3 QMs. We also found improvement in all 3 QMs in the second year of publication. This study contributes to the validity of these measures by demonstrating their relationship to these structural QMs. It also suggests that these QMs are important by demonstrating their large variation across the country, suggesting substantial room for improvement, and finding that nursing homes are already responding to the incentives created by publication of these QMs.
Time spent being malnourished during the first five years of life! An unseen aspect of child malnutrition
Authors: Pandey Pavan , Jain Sneha , Parihar Ashish , Sharma Arushi
Published: July 2018

The burden of malnutrition is often estimated in terms of ‘prevalence’ without considering two important contributing factors: incidence and duration.

To illustrate this, we conducted a community-based retrospective cohort study involving 24,278 children enrolled in an integrated child development scheme in India. Anthropometric data of study participants from birth to five years of age were collected from the growth charts maintained by Anganwadi workers. Of all the growth charts reviewed, 1460 (6.0%) children died before their fifth birthday and 4013 (16.5%) were excluded after initial screening because either the growth chart was incomplete (4.8%) or had missing entries (11.7%). Of the remaining 20,265 children included in the study, in the first five years of their life, 35.6% suffered from exclusive moderate malnourishment and 9.4% from severe malnourishment. The most common age groups for the onset of moderate and severe malnutrition were 9–11 months and 12–15 months, respectively. The mode, median and mean duration of time spent by children being severely underweight was 3, 7 and 8.4 months respectively, and being moderately underweight was 8, 11 and 15.1 months, respectively. Thus, a comprehensive strategy for preventing the onset of malnutrition (both moderate and severe) among children is urgently needed.
Robust block roots assignment in linear discrete-time sliding mode control for a class of multivariable system: gas turbine power plant application
Authors: Nail Bachir , Kouzou Abdellah , Hafaifa Ahmed
Published: July 2018

This paper deals with the development of a new extended robust control algorithm based on the assignment of robust block roots to extended linear discrete-time sliding mode control; matrix fraction description (MFD) theory is used to improve the performance of the proposed control algorithm and make it more robust. To validate the proposed control algorithm, an application on a gas turbine system (GE MS5001P), which is used in electrical power generation plants, is presented in this paper. An autoregressive model with exogenous excitation is obtained for the studied system, based on the left MFD multivariable least-squares estimator, using real data obtained on-site in order to obtain a minimum-order model with optimum validation criteria. The main objective of the implementation of the proposed control algorithm within the presented application is to ensure stability in the dynamic behaviour of the gas turbine system. Furthermore, a comparison with some classical and modern controllers has been made to prove the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control algorithm.
Assessing the effectiveness of nutrition interventions implemented among US college students to promote healthy behaviors: A systematic review
Authors: Brace Andrea M , De Andrade Fernanda CD , Finkelstein Bobbi
Published: July 2018

Background:

Nutrition interventions are used to increase knowledge, change attitudes and beliefs about healthy eating, to increase skills, and promote healthy eating.

Aims:

To review the effectiveness of published nutrition interventions implemented among college students to promote healthy behaviors.

Methods:

The authors explored multiple electronic databases, such as ERIC, Science Direct, and EBSCOhost. Search criteria included nutritional interventions implemented among students attending US colleges, written in English, and published in peer-reviewed journals between 2000 and 2015. The authors conducted a systematic search of 1413 articles, and an in-depth review of 30 articles. The authors evaluated the following: (a) participants; (b) research design; (c) assessment instruments; (d) outcome measures; (e) results; and (f) methodological issues.

Results:

Short-term interventions showed promise in promoting positive dietary changes, which can serve as a protective factor for developing overweight and obesity. Methodological issues related to lack of comparison groups and minimal long-term follow-up do not allow researchers to determine if the interventions were the cause of the change, or if these changes are sustained over time. Studies that have a comparison group, use visual displays, or have longer durations, may maximize outcomes, improving long-term effects.

Conclusions:

Nutrition interventions can effectively change dietary habits among college students. This can lead to healthy weight management and reduce the risk for overweight and obesity. Future research should consider the highlighted methodological issues to improve the quality of nutrition interventions.
Tall tales make fast friends: Exaggerating when retelling previous experiences fosters relational closeness
Authors: Cole Holly E. , Beike Denise R.
Published: July 2018

This research explores the possibility that exaggerating in order to entertain the listener while sharing previous experiences can increase interpersonal closeness in new relationships. It is hypothesized that adding exaggerations about previous experiences will increase the quality of the story, which will lead to increased interpersonal closeness, and that even listeners who are provided with the actual facts will show this effect. Three studies with 592 total participants investigated the impact of exaggerating when sharing a story about a previous experience on feelings of closeness to the storyteller. In Study 1, participants read scenarios of a person telling a story about a previous experience. Results indicate a preference for exaggerated stories and a concomitant feeling of closeness to the storyteller. In Study 2, participants retold the events of a video to another participant who was a stranger. Participants instructed to give an entertaining recalling used more exaggerations, and listeners felt closer to them. In Study 3, participants watched a video of a confederate retelling events accurately or with clear exaggerations. Participants reported feeling closer to the confederate when exaggerations were included, even when they knew the facts the storyteller was retelling. Discussion centers on reasons why being entertaining was more beneficial in creating relationship closeness than being honest.
Impact of education and training course for ECMO patients based on high-fidelity simulation: a pilot study dedicated to ICU nurses
Authors: Fouilloux Virginie , Gran Célia , Guervilly Christophe , Breaud Jean , El Louali Fedoua , Rostini Pierre
Published: July 2018

Introduction:

Medical and para-medical education is one of the key points of healthcare strategy. Training and education based on high-fidelity simulation is one of the gold standards in modern healthcare institutions. We describe a model of training dedicated to ICU nurses in charge of patients with ECMO. The aim of our educational tool was to teach ICU nurses ECMO basic knowledge and skills.

Methods:

An ECMO Specialist Course Committee implemented the training programme. It was on two consecutive days and consisted of theoretical, practical and high-fidelity, simulation-based teaching. A content expert implemented each scenario and learning objectives were defined. Participants were assessed pre- and post-test (Group 1 and Group 2).

Results:

In two years, seven sessions took place and 40 volunteers were enrolled. High-fidelity, simulation-based teaching consisted of seven scenarios. There was a significant improvement in mean score between pre- and post-test. Moreover, we noticed that the basic level (pre-test) of participants was improving over the time. The mean pre-test scores of Group 2 were significantly higher than Group1.

Conclusion:

The implementation of education and training course for ICU nurses in charge of patients on ECMO is feasible and reliable. It improves nurse personal levels, but also shares in improving the global level of the team to which they belong.
Treatment of varicose veins, international consensus on which major complications to discuss with the patient: A Delphi study
Authors: de Mik Sylvana ML , Stubenrouch Fabienne E , Legemate Dink A , Balm Ron , Ubbink Dirk T
Published: July 2018

Objective

To reach consensus on which complications of varicose vein treatments physicians consider major or minor, in order to standardize the informed consent procedure and improve shared decision-making.

Methods

Using the e-Delphi method, expert physicians from 10 countries were asked to rate complications as “major” or “minor” on a 5-point Likert scale. Reference articles from a Cochrane review on varicose veins were used to compose the list of complications.

Results

Participating experts reached consensus on 12 major complications: allergic reaction, cellulitis requiring intravenous antibiotics/intensive care, wound infection requiring debridement, hemorrhage requiring blood transfusion/surgical intervention, pulmonary embolism, skin necrosis requiring surgery, arteriovenous fistula requiring repair, deep venous thrombosis, lymphocele, thermal injury, transient ischemic attack/stroke, and permanent discoloration.

Conclusion

An international consensus was reached about what physicians consider to be major complications of varicose vein treatments. This consensus may assist in standardizing the information physicians discuss with patients prior to varicose vein treatment.
Screening for cognitive deficits with the Evaluation of Cognitive Processes involved in Disability in Schizophrenia scale
Authors: Roux Paul , Urbach Mathieu , Fonteneau Sandrine , Berna Fabrice , Brunel Lore , Capdevielle Delphine , Chereau Isabelle , Dubreucq Julien , Faget-Agius Catherine , Fond Guillaume , Leignier Sylvain , Perier Claire-Cécile , Richieri Raphaëlle , Schneider Priscille , Schürhoff Franck , Tronche Anne Marie , Yazbek Hanan , Zinetti-Bertschy Anna ,   FondaMental Advanced Centers of Expertise in Schizophrenia (FACE-SCZ) Collaborators, Passerieux Christine , Brunet-Gouet Eric
Published: July 2018

Objective:

This study aimed to evaluate the validity of the Evaluation of Cognitive Processes involved in Disability in Schizophrenia scale (ECPDS) to discriminate for cognitive impairment in schizophrenia.

Design:

This multicentre cross-sectional study used a validation design with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.

Settings:

The study was undertaken in a French network of seven outward referral centres.

Subjects:

We recruited individuals with clinically stable schizophrenia diagnosed based on the Structured Clinical Interview for assessing Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., rev.; DSM-IV-R) criteria.

Main measures:

The index test for cognitive impairment was ECPDS (independent variable), a 13-item scale completed by a relative of the participant. The reference standard was a standardized test battery that evaluated seven cognitive domains. Cognitive impairment was the dependent variable and was defined as an average z-score more than 1 SD below the normative mean in two or more cognitive domains.

Results:

Overall, 97 patients were included (67 with schizophrenia, 28 with schizoaffective disorder, and 2 with schizophreniform disorder). The mean age was 30.2 (SD 7.7) years, and there were 75 men (77.3%). There were 59 (60.8%) patients with cognitive impairment on the neuropsychological battery, and the mean ECPDS score was 27.3 (SD 7.3). The ROC curve analysis showed that the optimal ECPDS cut-off was 29.5. The area under the curve was 0.77, with 76.3% specificity and 71.1% sensitivity to discriminate against cognitive impairment.

Conclusion:

The ECPDS is a valid triage tool for detecting cognitive impairment in schizophrenia, before using an extensive neuropsychological battery, and holds promise for use in everyday clinical practice.
Assessing the validity of proxy caregiver reporting for potential palliative care outcome measures in Parkinson’s disease
Authors: Sebring Kelly , Shattuck Jo , Berk Julie , Boersma Isabel , Sillau Stefan , Kluger Benzi M
Published: July 2018

Background:

There is increasing interest in applying palliative care approaches for patients with Parkinson’s disease. Methodological studies are needed to validate palliative care outcome measures for Parkinson’s disease to build this evidence base. As many patients with Parkinson’s disease have cognitive and/or communication issues, proxy outcome measures may improve the inclusivity and relevance of research.

Aim:

To assess the validity of proxy caregiver reports for several potential palliative care outcome measures.

Design:

A cross-sectional study of Parkinson’s disease patients and caregivers completed a battery of outcome measures relevant to palliative care including the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Prolonged Grief Questionnaire 12, Parkinson Disease Questionnaire 39, Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy–Spiritual Wellbeing, and Schwab and England. Intraclass correlation coefficients were used to assess agreement.

Setting/participants:

A total of 50 Parkinson’s disease patient and caregiver dyads recruited at an academic medical center, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and community support groups.

Results:

There was moderate to good agreement for Schwab and England, Parkinson Disease Questionnaire 39 total, and majority of Parkinson Disease Questionnaire 39 subscales; moderate to good agreement for the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy–Spiritual Wellbeing, Prolonged Grief Questionnaire 12, and Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale; and poor to moderate agreement for the Parkinson Disease Questionnaire 39 stigma, social support, and bodily pain subscales. Caregivers tended to attribute higher symptom severity than patients. We did not detect differences in intraclass correlation coefficient based on cognitive status but patients with advanced illness had significantly lower intraclass correlation coefficients for several outcomes.

Conclusions:

Caution is indicated when considering caregiver proxy reporting for most outcomes assessed, particularly in Parkinson’s disease patients with advanced disease.
Evolution as a fact? A discourse analysis
Authors: Jean Jason , Lu Yixi
Published: July 2018

Since the middle of the twentieth century, there has been a heated debate between evolutionists and antievolutionists regarding whether or not evolution is a ‘fact’. The debate has spawned a number of court cases involving antievolutionists describing evolution as a ‘theory, not a fact’. An analysis of the ‘fact of biological evolution’ discourse reveals several overarching agreements among its advocates, but also a contradictory morass of positions regarding how scientific theories, hypotheses and facts interrelate, how these terms are related to biological evolution, what a scientific fact is, and how science popularizers use the scientific and public vernaculars. The formation, structure and development of the discourse is assessed through a Foucauldian discourse analysis, as well as through the lens of Gieryn’s conceptions of public science and cultural cartography.