bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Does the Impact of Managed Care on Substance Abuse Treatment Services Vary by Provider Profit Status?
Authors: Olmstead Todd A. , Sindelar Jody L. 
Published: November 2005

Objective. To extend our previous research by determining whether, and how, the impact of managed care (MC) on substance abuse treatment (SAT) services differs by facility ownership.Data Sources. The 2000 National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services, which is designed to collect data on service offerings and other characteristics of SAT facilities in the U.S. These data are merged with data from the 2002 Area Resource File, a county‐specific database containing information on population and MC activity. We use data on 10,513 facilities, virtually a census of all SAT facilities.Study Design. For each facility ownership type (for‐profit [FP], not‐for‐profit [NFP], public), we estimate the impact of MC on the number and types of SAT services offered. We use instrumental variables techniques that account for possible endogeneity between facilities' involvement in MC and service offerings.Principal Findings.We find that the impact of MC on SAT service offerings differs in magnitude and direction by facility ownership. On average, MC causes FPs to offer approximately four additional services, causes publics to offer approximately four fewer services, and has no impact on the number of services offered by NFPs. The differential impact of MC on FPs and publics appears to be concentrated in therapy/counseling, medical testing, and transitional services.Conclusion. Our findings raise policy concerns that MC may reduce the quality of care provided by public SAT facilities by limiting the range of services offered. On the other hand, we find that FP clinics increase their range of services. One explanation is that MC results in standardization of service offerings across facilities of different ownership type. Further research is needed to better understand both the specific mechanisms of MC on SAT and the net impact on society.
Development and Testing of a Short Form of the Patient Activation Measure
Authors: Hibbard Judith H. , Mahoney Eldon R. , Stockard Jean , Tusler Martin 
Published: November 2005

Objective. The Patient Activation Measure (PAM) is a 22‐item measure that assesses patient knowledge, skill, and confidence for self‐management. The measure was developed using Rasch analyses and is an interval level, unidimensional, Guttman‐like measure. The current analysis is aimed at reducing the number of items in the measure while maintaining adequate precision.Study Methods. We relied on an iterative use of Rasch analysis to identify items that could be eliminated without loss of significant precision and reliability. With each item deletion, the item scale locations were recalibrated and the person reliability evaluated to check if and how much of a decline in precision of measurement resulted from the deletion of the item.Data Sources. The data used in the analysis were the same data used in the development of the original 22‐item measure. These data were collected in 2003 via a telephone survey of 1,515 randomly selected adults.Principal Findings. The analysis yielded a 13‐item measure that has psychometric properties similar to the original 22‐item version. The scores for the 13‐item measure range in value from 38.6 to 53.0 (on a theoretical 0–100 point scale). The range of values is essentially unchanged from the original 22‐item version. Subgroup analysis suggests that there is a slight loss of precision with some subgroups.Conclusions. The results of the analysis indicate that the shortened 13‐item version is both reliable and valid.
Case‐Mix Adjustment of the CAHPS® Hospital Survey
Authors: O'Malley A. James , Zaslavsky Alan M. , Elliott Marc N. , Zaborski Lawrence , Cleary Paul D. 
Published: November 2005

Objectives: To develop a model for case‐mix adjustment of Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) Hospital survey responses, and to assess the impact of adjustment on comparisons of hospital quality.Data Sources: Survey of 19,720 patients discharged from 132 hospitals.Methods: We analyzed CAHPS Hospital survey data to assess the extent to which patient characteristics predict patient ratings (“predictive power”) and the heterogeneity of the characteristics across hospitals. We combined the measures to estimate the impact of each predictor (“impact factor”) and selected high impact variables for adjusting ratings from the CAHPS Hospital survey.Principle Findings: The most important case‐mix variables are: hospital service (surgery, obstetric, medical), age, race (non‐Hispanic black), education, general health status (GHS), speaking Spanish at home, having a circulatory disorder, and interactions of each of these variables with service. Adjustment for GHS and education affected scores in each of the three services, while age and being non‐Hispanic black had important impacts for those receiving surgery or medical services. Circulatory disorder, Spanish language, and Hispanic affected scores for those treated on surgery, obstetrics, and medical services, respectively. Of the 20 medical conditions we tested, only circulatory problems had an important impact within any of the services. Results were consistent for the overall ratings of nurse, doctor, and hospital. Although the overall impact of case‐mix adjustment is modest, the rankings of some hospitals may be substantially affected.Conclusions: Case‐mix adjustment has a small impact on hospital ratings, but can lead to important reductions in the bias in comparisons between hospitals.
Methods Used to Streamline the CAHPS® Hospital Survey
Authors: Keller San , O'Malley A. James , Hays Ron D. , Matthew Rebecca A. , Zaslavsky Alan M. , Hepner Kimberly A. , Cleary Paul D. 
Published: November 2005

Objective. To identify a parsimonious subset of reliable, valid, and consumer‐salient items from 33 questions asking for patient reports about hospital care quality.Data Source. CAHPS® Hospital Survey pilot data were collected during the summer of 2003 using mail and telephone from 19,720 patients who had been treated in 132 hospitals in three states and discharged from November 2002 to January 2003.Methods. Standard psychometric methods were used to assess the reliability (internal consistency reliability and hospital‐level reliability) and construct validity (exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, strength of relationship to overall rating of hospital) of the 33 report items. The best subset of items from among the 33 was selected based on their statistical properties in conjunction with the importance assigned to each item by participants in 14 focus groups.Principal Findings. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated that a subset of 16 questions proposed to measure seven aspects of hospital care (communication with nurses, communication with doctors, responsiveness to patient needs, physical environment, pain control, communication about medication, and discharge information) demonstrated excellent fit to the data. Scales in each of these areas had acceptable levels of reliability to discriminate among hospitals and internal consistency reliability estimates comparable with previously developed CAHPS instruments.Conclusion. Although half the length of the original, the shorter CAHPS hospital survey demonstrates promising measurement properties, identifies variations in care among hospitals, and deals with aspects of the hospital stay that are important to patients' evaluations of care quality.
Moisture Absorption
and Diffusion Characterization of Molding
Compound
Authors: Chen Xu , Zhao Shufeng , Zhai Linda 
Published: November 2005

Abstract
The moisture absorption experiments of two kinds of molding compound are conducted. The diffusion at low temperature and humidity observes the Fick’s Law, but it does not strictly obey at higher temperature and humidity. The phenomena can be attributed to the occurrence of the second phase, and the Fick’s Law can be modified by diffusion coefficient varying with the moisture concentration. The predicted value by the modified Fick’s Law agrees with the test data. At certain temperature, the saturated moisture content of molding compound is proportional to the relative humidity, and the proportional factor is the product of solubility and saturated vapor pressure. The solubility is a physical characteristic, which has no relations with the relative humidity of ambient air.
The IIT MST in computer science program
Authors: Meinke John G. , Bauer Charles R. 
Published: November 2005

The MST program at Illinois Institute of Technology evolved as a result of Computer Science emerging as a separate discipline at the secondary school level. The State of Illinois and the Chicago Board of Education have both been investigating certification for Computer Science teachers, but at present only two states, Wisconsin and Minnesota, have certification programs for teachers of Computer Science. In the not too far distant future there will be certification programs in many states and the IIT MST program in Computer Science is designed to meet those requirements.
It is important to realize before discussing the program itself that the MST program is not designed to teach people how to teach. Before entering the program, a teacher must have at least three years of superior teaching experience as well as recommendations from his principal attesting to his quality as a teacher. Of the 32 semester hours required for the MST degree, a maximum of 12 semester hours are in Computer Pedagogy, with the norm being nine. In addition, students in the program study on a part-time basis to encourage use of the principles studied at IIT in their own classrooms.
A course description for teacher education in computer science
Authors: Poirot J. L. 
Published: November 2005

This paper describes the content of a course entitled “Computers in Education” offered within the teacher certification program at Southwest Texas State University. This course, designed specifically for teacher education has several objectives including the following:
(1) to cover material which would be most likely included in a secondary school curriculum,
(2) to give adequate motivation for covering this material in the secondary school,
(3) to list objectives to be reached in the secondary school classroom for each topic,
(4) to present teaching techniques for topics in the secondary school,
(5) to present computer related topics designed to aid the teacher in instruction,
(6) to present computer related topics designed to aid the teacher in school administrative work.
Becun the educational computer user's network at battelle
Authors: Beerman Thomas H. , Jonesku Gregory S. 
Published: November 2005

The Educational Computer User's Network at Battelle represents a unique application of the joint-computer-center concept. The program is unique in two respects. First, it is a cooperative effort between a group of Ohio colleges, secondary schools, and a large research-oriented organization. Second, the entire program has proceeded without any federal or other outside financial support. Both Battelle and the schools have participated by utilizing funds available within their own operating budgets.
The purpose of this paper is to describe the program and some of its results from the viewpoint of Battelle's Computer Center.
Modeling the student and the discipline in CAI drill and practice
Authors: Lorton Paul , Killam Rosemary N. 
Published: November 2005

Models built into computer assisted instructional courses have several advantages. They make the underlying theoretical assumptions more explicit and, at the same time, give a clearer direction to the actual development of the CAI program. The purpose of this discussion is to present some of the areas in which models have had an implicit or explicit impact and to indicate how our current work is focused by these efforts.
The main purpose of the modeling discussed here is to provide better, more effective instruction (models of the learner) with substantially generated curriculum (models of the discipline). The drill and practice context is emphasized because that is one with a history of models in both areas and one which has demonstrated potential.
A generalized system for university mathematics instruction
Authors: Smith Robert L. , Blaine Lee H. 
Published: November 2005

EXCHECK is a system for developing mathematically-based CAI courses. It is currently being used at Stanford University to teach a college-credit course in axiomatic set theory
The design of this system had several goals. First, we wanted an instructional system that would provide a semantic base for our work on processing natural language and computer-generated audio. Axiomatic mathematics fits this description in that the underlying semantics is relatively well understood, but many of the interesting problems of natural language are also involved in the informal language of mathematics and the informal expression of mathematical proofs.
Second, we recognized that traditional proof checkers were inadequate for teaching mathematics, or for that matter, introductory logic. People understand mathematical concepts and arguments at a level much higher than the traditional formal systems of mathematical logic.
Finally, we designed the EXCHECK system to be an extensible system in which other curricula could be implemented with incrementally less work.
Panel discussion
Authors: Bar Avron , Brown John Seely , Gentner Donald , Goldstein Ira , Miller Mark , Fletcher J. D. 
Published: November 2005

An important area of computer-assisted instruction is the development of intelligent instructional systems. These systems can be distinguished from more conventional approaches by the automation of instructional interaction and choice of strategy. They promise both to reduce the costs of instructional materials preparation and to increase the adaptability and individualization of the instruction delivered. An appropriately intelligent instructional system should create a reactive environment in which a student can test his own hypotheses concerning the subject matter, probe for information at different levels of difficulty and abstraction, acquire wide experience in minimum time, obtain instructional material generated for his unique abilities and needs, receive instructional aids for partially completed solutions, and receive critiques for completed problem solutions.
The panel is composed of investigators who are actively engaged in the design, development, and evaluation of intelligent instructional systems. Each member of the panel will briefly outline an aspect of his current work that illustrates a problem or issue appropriate for general discussion. An attempt will be made to assess the state-of-the-art of intelligent instructional systems and to indicate reasonable next steps for their development. Attendees are encouraged to arrive bearing questions, comments, and information.
Identification of SFRP1 as a Candidate Mediator of Stromal-to-Epithelial Signaling in Prostate Cancer
Authors: Joesting Margaret S. , Perrin Steve , Elenbaas Brian , Fawell Stephen E. , Rubin Jeffrey S. , Franco Omar E. , Hayward Simon W. , Cunha Gerald R. , Marker Paul C. 
Published: November 2005

Abstract
Genetic changes in epithelial cells initiate the development of prostatic adenocarcinomas. As nascent tumors grow and undergo progression, epithelial tumor cells are intimately associated with stromal cells. Stromal cells within the tumor microenvironment acquire new properties, including the capacity to promote phenotypic and genetic progression in adjacent epithelial cells. Affymetrix microarrays were used to identify 119 genes differentially expressed between normal-derived and carcinoma-derived prostatic stromal cells. These included 31 genes encoding extracellular proteins that may act as stromal-to-epithelial paracrine signals. Further investigation of one of these genes, secreted frizzled related protein 1 (SFRP1), revealed that its expression parallels prostatic growth with high expression during prostatic development, low expression in the adult prostate, and elevated expression in prostatic tumor stroma. In addition, as prostatic epithelial cells progressed to a tumorigenic state under the influence of tumor stroma, SFRP1 became overexpressed in the progressed epithelial cells. To further understand the roles of SFRP1 in the prostate, we tested the affects of increased SFRP1 levels on prostatic tissues and cells. Treatment of developing prostates with SFRP1 in culture led to increased organ growth. Treatment of a human prostatic epithelial cell line with SFRP1 led to increased proliferation, decreased apoptosis, and decreased signaling through the Wnt/β-catenin pathway in vitro and increased proliferation in vivo. These data suggest that overexpression of SFRP1 by prostatic tumor stroma may account for the previously reported capacity of prostatic tumor stroma to provide a pro-proliferative paracrine signal to adjacent epithelial cells.
Sensitization for γ-Irradiation–Induced Apoptosis by Second Mitochondria-Derived Activator of Caspase
Authors: Giagkousiklidis Stavros , Vogler Meike , Westhoff Mike-Andrew , Kasperczyk Hubert , Debatin Klaus-Michael , Fulda Simone 
Published: November 2005

Abstract
Resistance to current treatment regimens, such as radiation therapy, remains a major concern in oncology and may be caused by defects in apoptosis programs. Because inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs), which are expressed at high levels in many tumors, block apoptosis at the core of the apoptotic machinery by inhibiting caspases, therapeutic modulation of IAPs could target a key control point in resistance. Here, we report for the first time that full-length or mature second mitochondria-derived activator of caspase (Smac), an inhibitor of IAPs, significantly enhanced γ-irradiation–induced apoptosis and reduced clonogenic survival in neuroblastoma, glioblastoma, or pancreatic carcinoma cells. Notably, Smac had no effect on DNA damage/DNA repair, activation of nuclear factor-κB, up-regulation of p53 and p21 proteins, or cell cycle arrest following γ-irradiation, indicating that Smac did not alter the initial damage and/or cellular stress response. Smac enhanced activation of caspase-2, caspase-3, caspase-8, and caspase-9, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential, and cytochrome c release on γ-irradiation. Inhibition of caspases also blocked γ-irradiation–induced mitochondrial perturbations, indicating that Smac facilitated caspase activation, which in turn triggered a mitochondrial amplification loop. Interestingly, mitochondrial perturbations were completely blocked by the broad-range caspase inhibitor N-benzyloxycarbonyl-Val-Ala-Asp-fluoromethylketone or the relatively selective caspase-2 inhibitor N-benzyloxycarbonyl-Val-Asp-Val-Ala-Asp-fluoromethylketone, whereas caspase-8 or caspase-3 inhibitors only inhibited the increased drop of mitochondrial membrane potential provided by Smac, suggesting that caspase-2 was acting upstream of mitochondria after γ-irradiation. In conclusion, our findings provide evidence that targeting IAPs (e.g., by Smac agonists) is a promising strategy to enhance radiosensitivity in human cancers.
Methylation-Associated Silencing of theNuclear Receptor 1I2Gene in Advanced-Type Neuroblastomas, Identified by Bacterial Artificial Chromosome Array-Based Methylated CpG Island Amplification
Authors: Misawa Akiko , Inoue Jun , Sugino Yuriko , Hosoi Hajime , Sugimoto Tohru , Hosoda Fumie , Ohki Misao , Imoto Issei , Inazawa Johji 
Published: November 2005

AbstractTo identify genes whose expression patterns are altered by methylation of DNA, we established a method for scanning human genomes for methylated DNA sequences, namely bacterial artificial chromosome array-based methylated CpG island amplification (BAMCA). In the course of a program using BAMCA to screen neuroblastoma cell lines for aberrant DNA methylation compared with stage I primary neuroblastoma tumors, we identified CpG methylation-dependent silencing of the nuclear receptor 1I2 (NR1I2) gene. NR1I2 was methylated in a subset of neuroblastoma cell lines and also in advanced-stage primary tumors with amplification of MYCN. Its methylation status was inversely associated with gene expression. Treatment with the demethylating agent 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine restored NR1I2 transcription in neuroblastoma cell lines lacking endogenous expression of this gene. A CpG island located around exon 3 of NR1I2 showed promoter activity, and its methylation status was clearly and inversely correlated with NR1I2 expression status. The gene product, NR1I2, has a known function in regulating response to xenobiotic agents but it also suppressed growth of neuroblastoma cells in our experiments. We identified some possible transcriptional targets of NR1I2 by expression array analysis. The high prevalence of NR1I2 silencing by methylation in aggressive neuroblastomas, together with the growth-suppressive activity of NR1I2, suggests that this molecule could serve as a diagnostic marker to predict prognosis for neuroblastomas.
Sensitization of Human Carcinoma Cells to Alkylating Agents by Small Interfering RNA Suppression of 3-Alkyladenine-DNA Glycosylase
Authors: Paik Johanna , Duncan Tod , Lindahl Tomas , Sedgwick Barbara 
Published: November 2005

Abstract
One of the major cytotoxic lesions generated by alkylating agents is DNA 3-alkyladenine, which can be excised by 3-alkyladenine DNA glycosylase (AAG). Inhibition of AAG may therefore result in increased cellular sensitivity to chemotherapeutic alkylating agents. To investigate this possibility, we have examined the role of AAG in protecting human tumor cells against such agents. Plasmids that express small interfering RNAs targeted to two different regions of AAG mRNA were transfected into HeLa cervical carcinoma cells and A2780-SCA ovarian carcinoma cells. Stable derivatives of both cell types with low AAG protein levels were sensitized to alkylating agents. Two HeLa cell lines with AAG protein levels reduced by at least 80% to 90% displayed a 5- to 10-fold increase in sensitivity to methyl methanesulfonate, N-methyl-N-nitrosourea, and the chemotherapeutic drugs temozolomide and 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea. These cells showed no increase in sensitivity to UV light or ionizing radiation. After treatment with methyl methanesulfonate, AAG knockdown HeLa cells were delayed in S phase but accumulated in G2-M. Our data support the hypothesis that ablation of AAG activity in human tumor cells may provide a useful strategy to enhance the efficacy of current chemotherapeutic regimens that include alkylating agents.