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Introduction: This study presents a global research scenario in the broad domain of osteoarthritis (OA) research, using quantitative and qualitative publication and citation indicators. Methods: The study is based on 45,368 global publications, sourced from the Scopus bibliographical database, covering three decades (1994–2023). We studied the performance of the top 12 developed and top 12 developing countries. The key countries, organizations and authors at national and international levels were identified. The broad subject areas and key journals contributing to global OA research were delineated, besides identifying the broad characteristics of highly cited papers in the field. Results: The United States and China were the most productive countries, while the Netherlands and Canada made the largest citation impact. Harvard Medical School and the University of Sydney made the most contribution, while Boston University and Pfizer Inc., USA registered the highest citation impact. Hunter DJ and Guermazi A were the most productive authors, while Lohmander LS, and Hochberg MC registered the highest citation impact. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage (n = 4879) and Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (n = 786) published the maximum papers, while Arthritis and Rheumatism and Nature Reviews Rheumatology registered the largest citation impact. The highly cited papers with 100 or more citations constituted 6.25% of the total publications. Conclusions: There has been a systematic growth of publications on OA. The research on OA was mainly done in developed countries, with the maximum publications coming from the United States of America, China and Canada. The most impactful publications on OA were from the Netherlands, Canada and the United States of America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the publication of a research paper that argues in favor of intelligent design in the "Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington" in the U.S. Impact of the publication of the paper on the advocacy of getting intelligent design into the curriculum; Use of information theory and other techniques to argue that the complexity of living organisms cannot be explained by Darwinian evolution; Overview of the arguments of Stephen Meyer, the author of the paper.

Introduction Since 2001, the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau (HRSA MCHB) has funded and directed the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) and the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (NS-CSHCN), unique sources of national and state-level data on child health and health care. Between 2012 and 2015, HRSA MCHB redesigned the surveys, combining content into a single survey, and shifting from a periodic interviewer-assisted telephone survey to an annual self-administered web/paper-based survey utilizing an address-based sampling frame. Methods The U.S. Census Bureau fielded the redesigned NSCH using a random sample of addresses drawn from the Census Master Address File, supplemented with a unique administrative flag to identify households most likely to include children. Data were collected June 2016-February 2017 using a multi-mode design, encouraging web-based responses while allowing for paper mail-in responses. A parent/caregiver knowledgeable about the child’s health completed an age-appropriate questionnaire. Experiments on incentives, branding, and contact strategies were conducted. Results Data were released in September 2017. The final sample size was 50,212 children; the overall weighted response rate was 40.7%. Comparison of 2016 estimates to those from previous survey iterations are not appropriate due to sampling and mode changes. Discussion The NSCH remains an invaluable data source for key measures of child health and attendant health care system, family, and community factors. The redesigned survey extended the utility of this resource while seeking a balance between previous strengths and innovations now possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the failure of U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund the most impactful researchers in favor of more conformists scientists with interests similar to those of the grant reviewers.

Background: Laparoscopic instruments are being used with increasing frequency. Our surgeons recently experienced several independent adverse events involving the laparoscopic linear stapler. Although the Food and Drug Administration maintains a Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience (MAUDE) database to track such voluntary reports, many events are not reported and the true incidence of adverse events is unknown. We attempted to determine how frequently minimally invasive surgeons have experienced technical problems with a laparoscopic stapler. Methods: Following IRB approval, we electronically distributed an anonymous 10-question survey to the 124 minimally invasive program directors listed in the Fellowship Council database. The questions focused on personal or peer experience with laparoscopic stapler malfunction, frequency and type of malfunction, device manufacturer, whether the operation was altered, and root cause analysis of the event. Results: Forty-four of the 124 program directors (35 %) completed the survey. The majority reported personal or peer experience (86 %) with a linear stapler not releasing (66 %) or not firing (73 %) after application, with 27 % of the respondents noting that this occurred three or more times. The malfunction was not related to type of load, straight (23 %) or reticulating (32 %) model, or manufacturer (Ethicon 30 %, Covidien 36 %). One quarter of the respondents noted that the malfunction caused them to significantly alter their operative procedure, and 30 % reported that they received no helpful feedback from the manufacturer despite contacting it. Conclusions: Most minimally invasive surgeons have experienced laparoscopic linear stapler malfunction and 25 % have had to significantly alter the planned operative procedure due to the malfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child birth order (CBO) in the family has received little attention in the field of prevention science. CBO is relevant to early interventionists from a public health perspective, as the most widely disseminated home-visiting program has traditionally targeted mothers and their first-born children. The current paper revisits a previous publication by Shaw et al. (2009) on the effectiveness of the Family Check-Up (FCU) to evaluate CBO (firstborn vs. middle vs. youngest) as a moderator of treatment effects of the FCU in relation to improvements in parenting, maternal depressive symptoms, and child outcomes from ages 2 to 4 in a sample of low-income, ethnically diverse families (N = 709) with multiple children. Results suggest that the FCU elicited improvements in observed parenting from ages 2 to 3 primarily for target children who were the youngest or middle children, but not for firstborns. Findings are discussed in the context of implications for prevention science research, dissemination, and public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the request of French Regulatory Authorities, a new formulation of Levothyrox® was licensed in France in 2017, with the objective of avoiding the stability deficiencies of an existing licensed formulation. Before launching the new formulation, an average bioequivalence (ABE) trial was conducted, having enrolled 204 subjects and selected for interpretation a narrow a priori bioequivalence range of 0.90-1.11. Bioequivalence was concluded. In a previous publication, we questioned the ability of an ABE trial to guarantee the switchability within patients of the new and old levothyroxine formulations. It was suggested that the two formulations should be compared using the conceptual framework of individual bioequivalence. The present paper is a response to those claiming that, despite the fact that ABE analysis does not formally address the switchability of the two formulations, future patients will nevertheless be fully protected. The basis for this claim is that the ABE study was established in a large trial and analyzed using a stringent a priori acceptance interval of equivalence. These claims are questionable, because the use of a very large number of subjects nullifies the implicit precautionary intention of the European guideline when, for a Narrow Therapeutic Index drug, it recommends shortening the a priori acceptance interval from 0.80-1.25 to 0.90-1.11. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delivering well-coordinated care is essential for optimizing clinical outcomes, enhancing patient care experiences, minimizing costs, and increasing provider satisfaction. The Veterans Health Administration (VA) has built a strong foundation for internally coordinating care. However, VA faces mounting internal care coordination challenges due to growth in the number of Veterans using VA care, high complexity in Veterans' care needs, the breadth and depth of VA services, and increasing use of virtual care. VA's Health Services Research and Development service with the Office of Research and Development held a conference assessing the state-of-the-art (SOTA) on care coordination. One workgroup within the SOTA focused on coordination between VA providers for high-need Veterans, including (1) Veterans with multiple chronic conditions; (2) Veterans with high-intensity, focused, specialty care needs; (3) Veterans experiencing care transitions; (4) Veterans with severe mental illness; (5) and Veterans with homelessness and/or substance use disorders. We report on this workgroup's recommendations for policy and organizational initiatives and identify questions for further research. Recommendations from a separate workgroup on coordinating VA and non-VA care are contained in a companion paper. Leaders from research, clinical services, and VA policy will need to partner closely as they develop, implement, assess, and spread effective practices if VA is to fully realize its potential for delivering highly coordinated care to every Veteran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This perspective paper seeks to lay out an efficient approach for health care providers, researchers, and other stakeholders involved in interventions aimed at improving care coordination to partner in locating and using applicable care coordination theory. The objective is to learn from relevant theory-based literature about fit between intervention options and coordination needs, thereby bringing insights from theory to enhance intervention design, implementation, and troubleshooting. To take this idea from an abstract notion to tangible application, our workgroup on models and measures from the Veterans Health Administration (VA) State of the Art (SOTA) conference on care coordination first summarizes our distillation of care coordination theoretical frameworks (models) into three common conceptual domains-context of an intervention, locus in which an intervention is applied, and specific design features of the intervention. Then we apply these three conceptual domains to four cases of care coordination interventions ("use cases") chosen to represent various scopes and stages of interventions to improve care coordination for veterans. Taken together, these examples make theory more accessible and practical by demonstrating how it can be applied to specific cases. Drawing from theory offers one method to anticipate which intervention options match a particular coordination situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Improving care coordination is a key priority for many healthcare systems. However, initiatives to improve care coordination are complex to implement and have produced mixed results. A better understanding of how to craft and support implementation of effective care coordination strategies is needed.Objective: To identify and understand the challenges and factors encountered by Patient-Aligned Care Team (PACT) staff in performing care coordination tasks in outpatient clinics in the Veterans Health Administration (VA).Design: Qualitative study using semi-structured formative evaluation interviews.Participants: Fourteen interviews with 18 clinical frontline managers and staff from 12 clinic sites across five VA health systems.Interventions: This paper reports on baseline data collected for the Coordination Toolkit and Coaching (CTAC) project. CTAC aims to improve patients' experience of care coordination within VA primary care and between PACT and other outpatient and community settings.Approach: We conducted pre-implementation telephone interviews with frontline managers and staff, primarily nurse managers.Key Results: PACT staff described challenges in aligning care coordination priorities across different levels of the VA system, including staff, patients, and leadership. Additionally, PACT staff noted challenges coordinating care both within and outside the VA, and identified resource barriers impeding their care coordination efforts. To address these challenges, staff made several recommendations for improvement, including (1) contingency staffing to address staff burnout; (2) additional PACT training for new staff; (3) clarification of care coordination roles and responsibilities; and (4) and care coordination initiatives that align both with centrally initiated care coordination programs and frontline needs.Conclusion: In the VA and similarly complex healthcare systems, our findings suggest the need for care coordination strategies that are buttressed by a system-level vision for care coordination, backed up by clear roles and responsibilities for information exchange between primary care staff and other settings, and multidimensional accountability metrics that encompass patient-, staff-, and system-level goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States (US) federal government allocates hundreds of billions of dollars to provide resources to Americans with disabilities, older adults, and the poor. The American Community Survey (ACS) influences the distribution of those resources. The specific aim of the project is to introduce health researchers to Public Use Microdata Sample file from 2009 to 2011. The overall goal of our paper is to promote the use of ACS data relevant to disability status. This study provides prevalence estimates of three disability related items for the population at or over the age of 15 years who reside in one of the continental states. When population weights are applied to the 7,198,221 individuals in the sample under analysis, they are said to represent 239,641,088 of their counterparts in the US population. Detailed tabulations by state (provided as Microsoft Excel® spreadsheets in ACS output) clearly show disability prevalence varies from state-to-state. Because analyses of the ACS data have the ability to influence resources aiding individuals with physical mobility challenges, its use should be promoted. Particular attention should be given to monetary allocations which will improve accessibility of the existing built environment for the individuals with mobility impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The widespread adoption of science-based prevention requires local infrastructures for prevention service delivery. Communities That Care (CTC) is a tested prevention service delivery system that enables a local coalition of community stakeholders to use a science-based approach to prevention and improve the behavioral health of young people. This paper uses data from the Community Youth Development Study (CYDS), a community-randomized trial of CTC, to examine the extent to which better internal team functioning of CTC coalitions increases the community-wide adoption of science-based prevention within 12 communities, relative to 12 matched comparison communities. Specifically, this paper examines the potential of both a direct relationship between coalition functioning and the community-wide adoption of science-based prevention and a direct relationship between functioning and the coalition capacities that ultimately enable the adoption of science-based prevention. Findings indicate no evidence of a direct relationship between four dimensions of coalition functioning and the community-wide adoption of a science-based approach to prevention, but suggest a relationship between coalition functioning and coalition capacities (building new member skills and establishing external linkages with existing community organizations) that enable science-based prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The European NCI compounds programme, a joint initiative of the EORTC Research Branch, Cancer Research Campaign and the US National Cancer Institute, was initiated in 1993. The objective was to help the NCI in reducing the backlog of in vivo testing of potential anticancer compounds, synthesised in Europe that emerged from the NCI in vitro 60-cell screen.Methods: Over a period of more than twenty years the EORTC-Cancer Research Campaign panel reviewed ∼2000 compounds of which 95 were selected for further evaluation. Selected compounds were stepwise developed with clear go/no go decision points using a pharmacologically directed programme.Results: This approach eliminated quickly compounds with unsuitable pharmacological properties. A few compounds went into Phase I clinical evaluation. The lessons learned and many of the principles outlined in the paper can easily be applied to current and future drug discovery and development programmes.Conclusions: Changes in the review panel, restrictions regarding numbers and types of compounds tested in the NCI in vitro screen and the appearance of targeted agents led to the discontinuation of the European NCI programme in 2017 and its transformation into an academic platform of excellence for anticancer drug discovery and development within the EORTC-PAMM group. This group remains open for advice and collaboration with interested parties in the field of cancer pharmacology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The natural history of mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) or concussion remains poorly defined and no objective biomarker of physiological recovery exists for clinical use. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the US Department of Defense (DoD) established the Concussion Assessment, Research and Education (CARE) Consortium to study the natural history of clinical and neurobiological recovery after concussion in the service of improved injury prevention, safety and medical care for student-athletes and military personnel. Objectives: The objectives of this paper were to (i) describe the background and driving rationale for the CARE Consortium; (ii) outline the infrastructure of the Consortium policies, procedures, and governance; (iii) describe the longitudinal 6-month clinical and neurobiological study methodology; and (iv) characterize special considerations in the design and implementation of a multicenter trial. Methods: Beginning Fall 2014, CARE Consortium institutions have recruited and enrolled 23,533 student-athletes and military service academy students (approximately 90% of eligible student-athletes and cadets; 64.6% male, 35.4% female). A total of 1174 concussions have been diagnosed in participating subjects, with both concussion and baseline cases deposited in the Federal Interagency Traumatic Brain Injury Research (FITBIR) database. Conclusions: Challenges have included coordinating regulatory issues across civilian and military institutions, operationalizing study procedures, neuroimaging protocol harmonization across sites and platforms, construction and maintenance of a relational database, and data quality and integrity monitoring. The NCAA-DoD CARE Consortium represents a comprehensive investigation of concussion in student-athletes and military service academy students. The richly characterized study sample and multidimensional approach provide an opportunity to advance the field of concussion science, not only among student athletes but in all populations at risk for mild TBI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper evaluated the impact of cleft-related surgery on the oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) of youth with cleft over time.Methods: Data were derived from a 5-year, multi-center, prospective, longitudinal study of 1196 youth with cleft lip and/or palate and their caregivers. Eligible youth were between 7.5 and 18.5 years old, spoke English or Spanish, and were non-syndromic. During each observational period, which included baseline, and 1- and 2-year post-baseline follow-up visits, youths and their caregivers completed the Child Oral Health Impact Profile, a validated measure of OHRQoL. Multilevel mixed-effects models were used to analyze the effects of receipt of craniofacial surgery on OHRQoL over time.Results: During the course of this study a total of 516 patients (43 %) received at least one surgery. Youth in the surgery recommendation group had lower self- (β = -2.18, p < 0.05) and proxy-rated (β = -2.92, p < 0.02) OHRQoL when compared to non-surgical self- and proxy-rated OHRQoL at baseline. Both surgical and non-surgical youth (β = 3.73, p < 0.001) and caregiver (β = 1.91, p < 0.05) ratings of OHRQoL improved over time. There was significant incremental improvement (time × surgery interaction) in self-reported OHRQoL for youth postsurgery (β = 1.04, p < 0.05), but this postsurgery increment was not seen in the caregiver proxy ratings.Conclusions: Surgical intervention impacts OHRQoL among youth with cleft. Youth who were surgical candidates had lower baseline self- and caregiver-rated OHRQoL when compared to non-surgical youth. Youth who underwent cleft-related surgery had significant incremental improvements in self-rated but not caregiver (proxy)-rated OHRQoL after surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the results of a quantitative 42-item survey that explored foster, adoptive, and kinship parents' (N = 160) utilization of different types of respite services (formal, informal, and a mixture of formal and informal), as well as their impressions of the impact of respite care on aspects of their lives related to family cohesion and stability, caring for their children, and their personal wellbeing. An exploratory cross-sectional, survey design was used to assess both the formal and informal respite care experiences of the foster, adoptive, and kinship caregivers. Two-tailed Fisher's exact tests were used to examine the relationship between the type of respite received and caregivers' respite experiences. Findings indicated that parent experiences differed depending on the type of respite services they received. Specifically, parents who used a mixture of formal and informal respite reported positive experiences related to respite more frequently than the other two types of respite groups, while those who received only informal respite reported less benefit than others. Parents who used formal respite (either alone or mixed with informal respite) reported greater stress reduction. The greatest increase in family stability was reported by parents who received a mix of informal and formal respite. While this study revealed clear benefits for families to using both informal and formal respite services, the findings suggest that formal respite care was helpful to parents regardless of whether used alone or in combination with informal care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Racial-ethnic minorities receive lower quality and intensity of health care compared with whites across a wide range of preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic services and disease entities. These disparities in health care contribute to continuing racial-ethnic disparities in the burden of illness and death. Several national medical organizations and the Institute of Medicine have issued position papers and recommendations for the elimination of health care disparities. However, physicians in practice are often at a loss for how to translate these principles and recommendations into specific interventions in their own clinical practices. This paper serves as a blueprint for translating principles for the elimination of racial-ethnic disparities in health care into specific actions that are relevant for individual clinical practices. We describe what is known about reducing racial-ethnic disparities in clinical practice and make recommendations for how clinician leaders can apply this evidence to transform their own practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract??This paper focuses on the role conundrums that confront action researchers who are engaged in co-inquiry designs for purposes of generating knowledge that is both actionable and makes a robust contribution to a more generalized body of knowledge. Drawing on the lived experience of researchers in such a project in U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, this paper describes the conundrums that confronted the researchers, identifies the central dynamics around which they seem to be organized, and discusses the impact on the subsequent practice of the researchers. Practices that establish reflexivity in the research process are an important part of the role of the researchers. So too is establishing relationships that provide for sensemaking and integrating rigor and relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the dynamics of competition in higher education. National competition and global competition are distinct, but feed into each other. Higher education produces ‘positional goods’ (Hirsch 1976) that provide access to social prestige and income-earning. Research universities aim to maximise their status as producers of positional goods. This status is a function of student selectivity plus research performance. At system-level competition bifurcates between exclusivist elite institutions that produce highly value positional goods, where demand always exceeds supply and expansion is constrained to maximise status; and mass institutions (profit and non-profit) characterised by place-filling and expansion. Intermediate universities are differentiated between these poles. In global competition, the networked open information environment has facilitated (1) the emergence of a world-wide positional market of elite US/UK universities; and (2) the rapid development of a commercial mass market led by UK and Australian universities. Global competition is vectored by research capacity. This is dominated by English language, especially US universities, contributing to the pattern of asymmetrical resources and one-way global flows. The paper uses Australia as its example of system segmentation and global/national interface. It closes by reflecting on a more balanced global distribution of capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mission of the Veterans Health Administration's (VHA) quality enhancement research initiative (QUERI) is to enhance the quality of VHA health care by implementing clinical research findings into routine care. This paper presents lessons that QUERI investigators have learned through their initial attempts to pursue the QUERI mission. The lessons in this paper represent those that were common across multiple QUERI projects and were mutually agreed on as having substantial impact on the success of implementation. While the lessons are consistent with commonly recognized ingredients of successful implementation efforts, the examples highlight the fact that, even with a thorough knowledge of the literature and thoughtful planning, unexpected circumstances arise during implementation efforts that require flexibility and adaptability. The findings stress the importance of utilizing formative evaluation techniques to identify barriers to successful implementation and strategies to address these barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we report on the process of translating five mental health outcome measures into Spanish and adapting them to Latino culture. The instruments considered are the World Health Organization-Disability Assessment Scale, the Burden Assessment Scale, the Family Burden Scale, Lehman's Quality of Life Interview and the Continuity of Care in Mental Health Services Interview. A systematic process of translation and adaptation of the instruments was followed with the goal of achieving cultural equivalence between the English and Spanish versions of the instruments in five dimensions: semantic, content, technical, construct, and criterion equivalence. In this paper we present data about the semantic, content, and technical equivalence. Various steps were taken to achieve equivalence in these dimensions, including the use of a bilingual committee, a multi-national bilingual committee, back-translation, and focus groups with mental health patients and their relatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, the mental health needs of populations are measured using large-sample surveys with standardized measures and methods. Such efforts, however, rarely include sufficient number of smaller, culturally defined populations to draw defensible conclusions about their needs. Furthermore, without some adaptation, the standardized methods and measures may yield invalid results in such populations. Using a recently completed psychiatric epidemiology and services study with American Indian populations as a case example, this paper outlines issues facing epidemiologists working in such culturally diverse contexts. The issues discussed include the following: (1) persuading the scientific community and potential sponsors that work with distinct or culturally defined populations is important; (2) framing research questions and activities to meet the needs of communities; (3) defining a population of inference; (4) balancing the needs for comparability and cultural specificity; (5) maximizing scientific validity in light of the challenges in sample acquisition; and (6) developing and implementing data collection methods that uphold scientific standards but are also realistic given the context. The authors draw on their experiences--most recently in the American Indian Service Utilization, Psychiatric Epidemiology, Risk and Protective Factors Project (AI-SUPERPFP)--to illustrate these issues and suggest ways to address each. A goal of this paper is to challenge those invested in conducting culturally valid epidemiologic work in such populations to better articulate the nature of these efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Different health state utility (HSU) instruments produce different utilities for the same individuals, thereby compromising the intended comparability of economic evaluations of health care interventions. When developing crosswalks, previous studies have indicated nonlinear relationships. This paper inquires into the degree of nonlinearity across the four most widely used HSU-instruments and proposes exchange rates that differ depending on the severity levels of the health state utility scale.Methods: Overall, 7933 respondents from six countries, 1760 in a non-diagnosed healthy group and 6173 in seven disease groups, reported their health states using four different instruments: EQ-5D-5L, SF-6D, HUI-3 and 15D. Quantile regressions investigate the degree of nonlinear relationships between these instruments. To compare the instruments across different disease severities, we split the health state utility scale into utility intervals with 0.2 successive decrements in utility starting from perfect health at 1.00. Exchange rates (ERs) are calculated as the mean utility difference between two utility intervals on one HSU-instrument divided by the difference in mean utility on another HSU-instrument.Results: Quantile regressions reveal significant nonlinear relationships across all four HSU-instruments. The degrees of nonlinearities differ, with a maximum degree of difference in the coefficients along the health state utility scale of 3.34 when SF-6D is regressed on EQ-5D. At the lower end of the health state utility scale, the exchange rate from SF-6D to EQ-5D is 2.11, whilst at the upper end it is 0.38.Conclusion: Comparisons at different utility levels illustrate the fallacy of using linear functions as crosswalks between HSU-instruments. The existence of nonlinear relationships between different HSU-instruments suggests that level-specific exchange rates should be used when converting a change in utility on the instrument used, onto a corresponding utility change had another instrument been used. Accounting for nonlinearities will increase the validity of the comparison for decision makers when faced with a choice between interventions whose calculations of QALY gains have been based on different HSU-instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore hope in the context of living with chronic pain. Individuals with chronic pain from temporomandibular disorder(s) were interviewed four to five times over the course of their 18-month participation in a clinical trial investigating the effectiveness of Traditional Chinese Medicine. We sought to understand shifts in participants' descriptions of expectations and hopefulness, particularly with regard to the work involved in counterbalancing positive thinking with buffers against disappointment. We found hope to be a dynamic and multifaceted mindset as distinct from being a single entity to be measured. Drawing upon Polanyi's concept of tacit knowing, we explore how different ways of hoping emerge and index one another in participant narratives. We offer a working typology of hope and raise as an issue the manner in which the paradox of hope--hoping enough to carry on while keeping hopes in check to avoid the ever-present possibility of despair--complicates simplistic notions of the relationship between positive thinking and the placebo response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing use of wearable actimetry devices in cohort studies can provide a deep and objective insight in physical activity (PA) patterns. For reliable and reproducible pattern recognition, and to minimize the influence of specific device characteristics, there is a need for a generic method to identify relevant PA events in sensor data sets on the basis of comprehensive features such as PA duration and intensity. The objectives of this paper are to present a method to identify universal event detection thresholds for such parameters, and to attempt to find stable meta-clusters of PA behaviour. PA events of 5, 10, 20 and 30 min with low, medium and high intensity thresholds found in literature and intensity deciles were computed for a random sample ( N = 100) of the NHANES 2005-06 accelerometer data set ( N = 7457). On the basis of all combinations of the above, activity events were detected, and parameters mean duration, mean intensity and event regularity were computed. Results were clustered using x-Means clustering and visualized for 5-, 10-, 20-, and 30-min events. Stable clustering results are obtained with intensity thresholds up to the 8th decile and for event durations up to 10 min. Two stable meta-clusters were detected: 'irregularly active' (intensity at 52nd percentile) and 'regularly active' (intensity at 42nd percentile). Distinct generic thresholds could be identified and are proposed. They may prove useful for further investigations of similar actimetry data sets, minimising the influence of specific device characteristics. The results also confirm that distinct PA event patterns - including event regularity - can be identified using wearable sensor devices, especially when regarding low-intensity, short-term activities which do not correspond to current PA recommendations. Further research is necessary to evaluate actual associations between sensor-based PA parameters and health outcome. The author identified generic intensity and duration thresholds for analysing objective PA data from wearable devices. This may contribute to further analyses of PA patterns along with their relations with health outcome parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to a controversy concerning whether the stigma of mental illness has declined significantly in the United States in the past several decades, we assessed changes in public perceptions that mentally ill people are violent. Specifically, we compared answers to an open-ended question regarding respondents' understanding of the term "mental illness" from two nationally representative surveys, one conducted in 1950 and one in 1996. In an earlier paper, we reported the finding that perceptions of violence not only failed to decrease but actually increased significantly between 1950 and 1996. In this paper, we explore the possibility that the dangerousness criterion for involuntary commitment, widely adopted in the United States beginning in the 1960s, has contributed to the unexpected increase in perceptions that mentally ill people are dangerous. We find that, among respondents who mention violence in their description of a mentally ill person, the percentage who use "dangerous to self or others" phrasing to indicate this belief increased substantially, from 4.2% in 1950 to 44.0% in 1996. Moreover, eliminating these respondents from consideration, there was a slight decrease in perceptions of violence between 1950 and 1996. We discuss the possibility that the adoption of the dangerousness criterion, which was intended to protect the civil liberties of mentally ill persons, may also have had the unintended consequence of increasing the stigma of mental illness in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current adoption controversy in the United States has prompted researchers to study factors that influence adoptees' attitudes towards obtaining identifying information1 about their birth parents. This paper considers the usefulness of some recent methodological perspectives on the contextuality of meaning for the purpose of conducting and analyzing adoption interviews. I will argue that, because of the tendency among researchers to look only for adoptees' reasons for or against requesting genealogical knowledge, the dilemma-ridden nature of their thinking has been ignored. Theoretically, the paper proposes an alternative approach to adoption research and raises the issue of the sociological and methodological significance of ambivalence. Empirically, it shows that contradictory or ambivalent attitudes towards the disclosure of identifying information can be interpreted, not as signs of inconsistency, immaturity or delusion, but in terms of two intersecting moral vocabularies: the ethic of self-discovery and the ethic of reciprocity. Rather than merely expressing individual differences in experience or temperament, these vocabularies reflect moral themes in the culture at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a discussion on issues related to scientific collaborations among researchers in the United States. The paper focuses on the agreement between biologist Paul Weldon and chemist Andrew Evans to confirm the compound content of the bovidic-acid samples, a suspected gaur's natural mosquito repellant. However, disagreement arose over who owned the samples. These consequences of failed collaboration is said to be a common conflict over biotechnology papers, publications, and data ownership. To avoid the problem, documented agreement at the start is suggested. Relevant questions to discuss before starting collaboration are also offered.

On April 9, 1912, the law establishing the Children's Bureau was signed by President William Howard Taft. The original mission of the Children's Bureau was to 'investigate and report ... upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life among all classes of our people.' This paper focuses on the transitional years from roughly 1950 to 1969, when the Children's Bureau's investigative mandate was transformed from a set of intramural activities that viewed maternal and child health research as part of a larger effort cutting across investigative, programmatic, and policy goals, and across different domains of the child's life, to an extramural research program focused specifically on maternal and child health. Discussion focuses on the mission of the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Research Program, housed now within the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the effects an experimental English as a Foreign Language (EFL) program in Second Life (SL) had on Chinese student EFL learning. The study took an evaluative approach using quasi-experimental design with participants from one Chinese university and one American university in the southeastern United States. Results indicated significant main effects between a control group and the SL group on EFL measures, as well as significant gains in total score and several subcomponents between pre-test and post test. Further analysis using a post study survey, students' blog posting, and interview transcripts revealed that the SL_EFL Program had a positive impact on students' EFL learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of the phrase 'basic research' as a term used in science policy discussion dates only to about 1920. At the time the phrase referred to what we today commonly refer to as applied research in support of specific missions or goals, especially agriculture. Upon the publication of Vannevar Bush's well-known report, Science - The Endless Frontier, the phrase 'basic research' became a key political symbol, representing various identifications, expectations and demands related to science policy among scientists and politicians. This paper tracks and evaluates the evolution of 'basic research' as a political symbol from early in the 20th century to the present. With considerable attention having been paid to the on-going evolution of post-Cold War science policy, much less attention has focused on the factors which have shaped the dominant narrative of contemporary science policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses studies on chronic pain selected by the members of the Society of General Internal Medicine. It says that the papers were chosen for their potential to change generalist care of patients with chronic pain. The articles include one on the assessment of pain intensity and interference, a randomized trial on optimized antidepressant therapy and pain self-management to improve pain and depression outcomes, and one on the trends in opioid use in patients with non-cancer pain.

Surgical societies, including SAGES, distribute grant funds to support research, as well as to promote recipient careers. Although we hypothesize that these awards have a positive impact, no objective evidence exists. We sought to benchmark the scientific productivity of the grants, the academic success of the recipients, and the generation of further research projects. All SAGES grant principle investigators (PI) and co-PIs were surveyed using Survey Monkey™. Questions included resultant presentations/publications, ensuing funding, academic promotion, further research initiatives, and opinions on grant impact. A Medline query of all grant recipients was used to verify and supplement this data. 48 of 108 recipients (44%) responded to the survey, with 81% of respondents listed as the PI. The majority of the funded studies (73%) were accepted for presentation at a national meeting, with 89% presented at SAGES and 9% receiving various meeting awards. Grant recipients attended 3.8 of the last 5 SAGES meetings. Respondents also reported a 64% rate of publication, with the majority published in Surgical Endoscopy (68%). Of recipients, 84% had at least one publication identified by a Medline search, with an average of 32 papers since grant completion. Among the awardees, 43% received further research funding, most frequently (43%) from a professional organization and occasionally (7%) from the National Institutes of Health. The amount of extramural funding received was greater than US $50,000 for 67% of the awardees, with half of those receiving more than US $200,000. SAGES grants have a strong impact on recipient academic careers. Future funding, society activism, and publication are favorably influenced by these grants. SAGES should continue to support research with this successful mechanism as a necessary tool for the academic growth of recipients and development of research deemed important by SAGES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the changes in the provisional patent application (PPA) procedure for the biotechnology industry in the U.S. to solve the obstacles to free access to research findings and intellectual property rights (IPR). The author recommends considering the provisional patented paper applications (PPPA) as an obligatory measure in filing application for patents. She outlines several benefits to those who would submit PPPA upon the compliance of an agreement. She stresses the role of PPPA in tackling secrecy threat which deals with the possibility for potential patentees to reluctantly disclose information.

Background: Endoscopic hemostasis is commonly practiced during GI endoscopy practice. We hypothesized that, because the choice of endoscopic intervention is influenced by many factors, for example personal experience, prior training, guidelines, etc., there would be differences in practice patterns among different groups of endoscopists.Objective: To explore the potentially different practices for endoscopic hemostasis between the "East" (eight Asian countries) and the "West" (USA and Canada).Design: Cross-sectional descriptive study (internet-based survey).Study Subjects: We administered a questionnaire survey to American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) and Korean Society of Gastroenterology (KSGE) members (see: http://www4.utsouthwestern.edu/inetdemo/endoscopy/hemostasis.html , or supplementary paper for review online).Results: Eastern ASGE members (n = 112) were more likely to complete this survey than ASGE members in the West (n = 180): 15.1 vs. 5.0%, P < 0.001. Choice of hemostatic method, regardless of primary or recurrent bleeding, varied significantly among Eastern and Western endoscopists. For example, for treatment of a gastric ulcer with a visible vessel, a vast majority (70%) of Western endoscopists preferred pre-injection followed by thermocoagulation whereas responses from the East were more diverse, with endoclip application +/- pre-injection being the top choice (29%) (P < 0.001). Personal EGD volume and hospital bed numbers did not seem to be associated with hemostatic choices in either the East or the West.Conclusions: Endoscopic hemostasis practice patterns for upper GI tract bleeding differed among Eastern and Western endoscopists, suggesting fundamental differences in practice habit determinants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1980, national university departmental ranking exercises have developed in several countries. This paper reviews exercises in the U.S., U.K. and Australia to assess the state-of-the-art and to identify common themes and trends. The findings are that the exercises are becoming more elaborate, even unwieldy, and that there is some retreat from complexity. There seems to be a movement towards bibliometric measures. The exercises also seem to be effective in enhancing university focus on research strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2006 and 2007, the World Health Organization (WHO) released two sets of child growth standards (World Health Organization, WHO Child Growth Standards. Methods and development. Length/height-for-age, weight-for-age, weight-for-length, weight-for-height and body mass index-for-age. WHO, Geneva, 2006; World Health Organization, WHO Child Growth Standards: Methods and Development. Head circumference-for-age, arm circumference-for-age, triceps skinfold-for-age and subscapular skinfold-for-age. WHO, Geneva, 2007) to replace the National Center for Health Statistics references (Hamill et al., National Center for Health Statistics, Vital and Health Statistics Series 11, No 165, 1977) as an international tool for growth and nutritional assessment. This paper explores the scope of implications for future anthropometric research, highlighting foreseeable effects on the choice of research questions, choice of nutritional indices, training of measurers, and issues of internal and external validity of research results. The conclusion drawn is that the introduction of the WHO child growth standards is expected to have wide implications for growth and nutrition research. The full scope of this effect will gradually become clear while researchers, similar to health care workers, make the transition to using the new standards, re-evaluate results of past approaches, and explore the uses and functional validity of the standards, including those for indices that were not previously available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, rapid growth of the U.S. Hispanic population has raised concerns about immigrant adaptation, including fertility. Empirical research suggests that Hispanics, especially Mexicans, might not be following the historical European pattern of rapid intergenerational fertility decline (and convergence toward native levels). If confirmed, continued high Hispanic fertility could indicate a broader lack of assimilation into mainstream American society. In this paper, we reexamine the issue of Hispanic and Mexican fertility using an approach that combines biological and immigrant generations to more closely approximate a comparison of immigrant women with those of their daughters' and granddaughters' generation. Contrary to cross-sectional results, our new analyses show that Hispanic and Mexican fertility is converging with that of whites, and that it is similarly responsive to period conditions and to women's level of education. In addition, we employ a mathematical simulation to illustrate the conditions under which cross-sectional analyses can produce misleading results. Finally, we discuss the import of the fertility convergence we document for debates about immigrant assimilation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expansion of women in the military is reshaping the veteran population, with women now constituting the fastest growing segment of eligible VA health care users. In recognition of the changing demographics and special health care needs of women, the VA Office of Research & Development recently sponsored the first national VA Women's Health Research Agenda-setting conference to map research priorities to the needs of women veterans and position VA as a national leader in Women's Health Research. This paper summarizes the process and outcomes of this effort, outlining VA's research priorities for biomedical, clinical, rehabilitation, and health services research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. health care system is one of the world's most advanced systems. Yet, the health care system suffers from unexplained practice variations, major gaps between evidence and practice, and suboptimal quality. Although information processing, communication, and management are key to health care delivery and considerable evidence links information/communication technology (IT) to improvements in patient safety and quality of care, the health care system has a longstanding gap in its investment. In the Crossing the Quality Chasm and Building a Better Delivery System reports, The Institute of Medicine and National Academy of Engineering identified IT integration as critical to improving health care delivery systems. This paper reviews the state of IT use in the U.S. health care system, its role in facilitating evidence-based practices, and identifies key attributes of an ideal IT infrastructure and issues surrounding IT implementation. We also examine structural, financial, policy-related, cultural, and organizational barriers to IT implementation for evidence-based practice and strategies to overcome them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlabelled: The public health infrastructure of the former Soviet Union was impacted by both the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and the Soviet breakup in 1991. This paper examines mortality patterns among children aged 1-14 years within the Mogilev region of Belarus between 1980 and 2000. This study utilized a regional cohort design that included all childhood deaths (ages 1-14 years) occurring among persons residing within the Mogilev oblast of Belarus between 1980 and 2000. Patterns of death and death rates were examined across three intervals: 1980-1985 (pre-Chernobyl), 1986-1991 (post-Chernobyl and pre-Former Soviet Union (FSU) breakup) and 1992-2000 (post-Chernobyl and post-FSU breakup) based upon administrative death files. Annual death rates among children aged 1-4 years declined between 1980 and 2000, while mortality rates among children aged 5-9 years and 10-14 years remained steady over this time period. Average annual mortality rates among males aged 5-9 years and 10-14 years increased significantly between 1986 and 1991. Compared to the baseline interval, mortality among both males and females aged 1-4 years was significantly decreased during 1986-1990 and 1992-2000. In general, mortality rates among males were 24%-95% greater compared to females. Injuries and poisonings accounted for the largest proportion of deaths across all age and gender groups examined. Subsequent to the Chernobyl disaster, significant decreases were noted in mortality rates among children aged 1-4 years while mortality rates among children aged 5-9 and 10-14 remained stable.Conclusion: Similar to the findings in other countries, injuries and poisonings predominated as the leading cause of death among Belarussian children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anogenital human papillomavirus (HPV) is estimated to be the most commonly occurring sexually transmitted infection in the US. Comprehensive estimates of the annual economic burden associated with the prevention and treatment of anogenital HPV-related disease in the US population are currently unavailable. The purpose of this paper is to (i) outline an analytic framework from which to estimate the annual economic burden of preventing and treating anogenital HPV-related disease in the US; (ii) review available US literature concerning the annual economic burden of HPV; and (iii) highlight gaps in current knowledge where further study is particularly warranted. Among eight US studies identified that describe the annual economic burden pertaining to one or more aspects of anogenital HPV-related disease, three met the review eligibility criteria (published between 1990 and 2004, examined multiple facets of annual anogenital HPV-related economic burden, and clearly articulated the data and methods used in the estimation process). All costs were adjusted to 2004 US dollars. Estimates of the annual direct medical costs associated with cervical cancer were comparable across studies (range 300-400 million US dollars). In contrast, there was a wide range across studies for estimates of the annual direct medical costs associated with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (range 700 million US dollars-2.3 billion US dollars). Only one study reported direct medical costs for anogenital warts (200 million US dollars) and routine cervical cancer screening (2.3 billion US dollars). No studies examined direct medical costs attributable to HPV-related anal, penile, vaginal or vulvar cancers, or the work and productivity losses resulting from time spent receiving medical care, morbidity or mortality. Current economic burden estimates would suggest annual direct medical costs associated with the prevention and treatment of anogenital warts and cervical HPV-related disease of at least 4 billion US dollars. This figure would likely rise to at least 5 billion US dollars per year if direct medical costs associated with other disease entities caused by the sexual transmission of HPV were included, with further additions to the economic burden totalling in the billions of dollars if work and productivity losses were incorporated, a research priority for future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the process of modifying and transporting an evidence-based treatment, Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Depressed Adolescents (IPT-A), from a university setting to school-based health clinics. It addresses conceptual issues involved in the shift from efficacy to effectiveness research as well as operational issues specific to the transport of IPT-A into school-based health clinics. Consideration is given to the rationale for an IPT-A effectiveness study, methodological concerns, and the timing of the move from the "lab" to the community. The authors identify challenges and barriers to initiating effectiveness and transportability research and provide suggestions for overcoming these barriers. Recommendations for conducting research in school-based practice settings are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many challenges to transporting evidence-based treatments from laboratories into real-world settings. However, if we hope to make our evidence-based treatments accessible and available to children and usable by community professionals, effectiveness research is imperative. We argue that schools represent an ideal real world setting in which to conduct such research. The goals of this paper are to present the advantages of conducting effectiveness research in the school setting and to encourage clinical researchers to engage in effectiveness research in this "location," as there are benefits to children, pre-service professionals, communities, and researchers. We attempt to further advance the literature by discussing the challenges associated with this work and by providing a case example (The Youth Experiencing Success in School [Y.E.S.S.] Program) that demonstrates real world application of our recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While great strides have been made recently in improving end-of-life care in the United States, people with dementia often die with inadequate pain control, with feeding tubes in place, and without the benefits of hospice care. In this paper, we discuss the most important and persistent challenges to providing excellent end-of-life care for patients with dementia, including dementia not being viewed as a terminal illness; the nature of the course and treatment decisions in advanced dementia; assessment and management of symptoms; the caregiver experience and bereavement; and health systems issues. We suggest approaches for overcoming these barriers in the domains of education, clinical practice, and public policy. As the population ages, general internists increasingly will be called upon to provide primary care for a growing number of patients dying with dementia. There are great opportunities to improve end-of-life care for this vulnerable and underserved population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1950s and 1960s, Clark Kerr led the University of California's Berkeley campus, and then the University of California as a whole. Throughout these years, he developed a system of managerial strategies. This paper shows how Kerr's administrative views drew upon his background in industrial relations, his liberal theories of pluralistic industrial change, and contemporary understandings of American business organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early 1970s, aluminium toxicity was first implicated in the pathogenesis of clinical disorders in patients with chronic renal failure involving bone (renal osteomalacia) or brain tissue (dialysis encephalopathy). Before that time the toxic effects of aluminium ingestion were not considered to be a major concern because absorption seemed unlikely to occur. Meanwhile, aluminium toxicity has been investigated in countless epidemiological and clinical studies as well as in animal experiments and many papers have been published on the subject. It is now commonly acknowledged that aluminium toxicity can be induced by infusion of aluminium-contaminated dialysis fluids, by parenteral nutrition solutions, and by oral exposure as a result of aluminium-containing pharmaceutical products such as aluminium-based phosphate binders or antacid intake. Over-the-counter antacids are the most important source for human aluminium exposure from a quantitative point of view. However, aluminium can act as a powerful neurological toxicant and provoke embryonic and fetal toxic effects in animals and humans after gestational exposure. Despite these facts, the patient information leaflets from European antacids that are available OTC show substantial differences regarding warnings from aluminium toxicity. It seems advisable that all patients should receive the same information on aluminium toxicity from patient information leaflets, in particular with regard to the increased absorption through concomitant administration with citrate-containing beverages and the use of such antacids during pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the psychometric properties of the Children's Somatization Inventory (CSI) in 600 10-12-year old children in Kyiv, Ukraine, replicating and extending the original findings from a sample in Nashville, Tennessee (J. Garber et al. 1991). The Kyiv children had significantly lower CSI total scores and reported significantly fewer symptoms than the American children. The Kyiv mothers, however, reported significantly more somatization symptoms in their children than did the American mothers. A factor analysis of the children's data yielded four similar factors encompassing pseudoneurologic, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and pain/weakness symptoms. Consistent with the findings from the Nashville study, the CSI was significantly related to the children's self-reports of health and depressive and anxiety symptoms and to maternal reports of child depression and anxiety symptoms. In addition, although more children with the highest CSI scores (25+) reported various illness experiences than those with 0-1 symptoms, no differences were found in the school absentee records. Thus, the results were congruent with the findings of the Nashville study, indicating that the CSI reliably measured somatization in this Ukrainian sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite recent suggestions that depression can be conceptualized as a disorder of affect regulation, relatively little research has focused on affect regulation skills in depressed individuals. This paper investigated whether depressed adolescents (N = 25) differ from nondepressed adolescents (N = 25) on two indices of affect regulation (i.e., duration of negative affective states and reciprocity of maternal negative affect) as well as whether these indices are related to microsocial family interactional processes. Analyses revealed that depressed teens differed from their nondepressed peers with regard to duration of negative affective states but not in their likelihood of reciprocating negative affect. Additionally, indices of adolescent affect regulation were related to family interactional processes. Duration of depressive affect was positively associated with maternal display of facilitative behavior contingent on adolescent depressive behavior. Duration of aggressive behavior was inversely related to maternal problem-solving responses to aggressive behavior. Finally, adolescent reciprocity of maternal depressive and aggressive behaviors was strongly associated with mothers' reciprocity of adolescents' negative affective behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the recognition that violence may be associated with serious consequences for women's reproductive health, the understanding of the relationship between the two remains limited, as does our understanding of the most effective role for reproductive health care providers and services. This paper briefly summarizes the history of the nexus of public health, health care, and violence against women in the United States. In addition, we present some considerations for future directions for research, health care practice, and policy that will advance the understanding of the complex relationship between violence and reproductive health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]