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Do lobbyists always advocate for the interests of the members or clients employing them, or, under competing pressures, do they sometimes take positions on bills reflecting the interests of lawmakers or other lobbyists? Do they, in fact, lobby strategically by making choices that balance competing pressures in pursuit of goals like furthering their careers? Most lobbying research assumes that interest groups and lobbyists are the same, but I argue that the interests of lobbyists may be different from those they represent, which I test with a model of strategic lobbying using data on positions lobbyists took on bills in Congress from 2006 to 2017 made available by MapLight. I find that lobbyists sometimes do take positions at odds with member interests under pressure from legislators, other lobbyists, and the president, though some groups can constrain their lobbyists. I conclude by speculating on what this means for lobbying as a form of representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), commonly used antihypertensive drugs, may have a protective effect against depression in older individuals, but evidence in humans is limited. Aims: We evaluated the risk of depression, among older individuals with hypertension, comparing ACE or ARB initiators to thiazide(-like) diuretic initiators. Thiazide(-like) diuretics were used as control because these drugs are not associated with mood disorders. Methods: We used a propensity score-matched new user cohort design with routinely collected data from general practices in England from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink database. We matched 12,938 pairs of new users of ACEIs/ARBs and thiazide(-like) diuretics with hypertension (mean age 67.6 years; 54.7% women). Follow-up time started on the date of drug initiation and ended on the date of treatment discontinuation plus 30 days, or switch to a comparator, occurrence of a study event, death, date of patient's transfer out of practice, or end of the study period. The primary outcome was a composite endpoint of treated depression and nonfatal and fatal self-harm. Results/outcomes: Compared to the thiazide(-like) diuretic group, ACEIs/ARBs use was not associated with a lower risk of the primary outcome (hazard ratio 0.96 (95% confidence interval: 0.79; 1.15)). Results did not differ according to lipophilicity, duration of use, and average daily dose, or class (ACEIs or ARBs). Conclusions/Interpretation: New use of ACEIs or ARBs is not associated with a lower risk of depression among individuals with hypertension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sixth paper presents research findings that emphasizes the importance of incorporating strategies that address diverse motivational techniques I online systems, as it increases student engagement and promotes continuous learning. The second SUNY/CIT paper describes an assessment of a modified course that was redesigned to scaffold an online semester long experiential learning experience. Most higher education degrees and programs use educational technologies to enhance the instructional programs that relate to the academic goals. [Extracted from the article]

The fourth paper provides a report about an experiment designed to compare various ways of using group discussion to help pre-service non-traditional special education elementary school teachers to study and explore metacognition as a learning tool. Sub-systems for promoting active learning need to be properly designed to create learning communities that integrate educational technology with quality pedagogy. In this issue, we feature a set of six papers that report on findings of research that focus on innovations such as student feedback, artificial intelligence (AI)-based conversation-based assessment (CBA), discussion groups, collaborative learning, and other aspects of effective and synergistic learning communities. [Extracted from the article]

Children with autism spectrum disorder often have significant language delays. But do they learn language differently than neurotypical toddlers? We compared the lexical skills of 64 preverbal and minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder to 461 vocabulary-size-matched typically developing toddlers. We also examined social features of verb knowledge using a novel collection of social ratings. Children with autism spectrum disorder produced proportionally more verbs than typically developing toddlers. Children with autism spectrum disorder produced proportionally more action and food words, while typically developing toddlers produced proportionally more animal, people words, and animal sounds and sound effects. Children with autism spectrum disorder also produced "mommy" and "daddy" at lower rates. We discuss how these differences may reflect an association between lexical development and weaknesses in social communication. Although preverbal and minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder represent a significant portion of the autism spectrum disorder population, we have a limited understanding of and characterization of them. Although it is a given that their lexical profiles contain fewer words, it is important to determine whether (a) the words preverbal and minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder produce are similar to the first words typically developing children produce or (b) there are unique features of the limited words that preverbal and minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder produce. The current study compared the early word profiles of preverbal and minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder to vocabulary-matched typically developing toddlers. Children with autism spectrum disorder produced proportionally more verbs than typically developing toddlers. Also, children with autism spectrum disorder produced proportionally more action and food words, while typically developing toddlers produced proportionally more animal words, animal sounds and sound effects, and people words. Children with autism spectrum disorder also produced "mommy" and "daddy" at lower rates. Our findings identified several areas of overlap in early word learning; however, our findings also point to differences that may be connected to core weaknesses in social communication (i.e. people words). The findings highlight words and categories that could serve as useful targets for communication intervention with preverbal and minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does more lobbying by more interest groups, especially groups representing a state's largest business sector, lead to greater spending and debt? Or does the blame really rest with state lawmakers and their political parties, which compete to attract and retain the allegiance of these powerful organized interests so they can win control of state government? We test this question with data on annual state budgets from 2006 to 2015, the number of interest groups in each state for those years, the size of the constituencies in different economic and social sectors these groups potentially represent, and the degree of competition between the political parties. Our results reveal that while there is a positive interest group effect on spending, the effect becomes negative as parties compete more for control of the state. As the gatekeepers, lawmakers and their parties, more than interest groups, are ultimately responsible for a state's fiscal condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People and other animals can search for information inside their heads. Where does this ability come from, and what does it enable cognitive systems to do? In this article, we address the behavioral and cognitive similarities between search in external environments and internal environments (e.g., memory). These require both maplike representations and the means to navigate them, and the latter involves modulation between exploitation and exploration analogous to a foraging process called area-restricted search. These findings have implications for understanding a number of cognitive abilities commonly considered to be hallmarks of the human species, such as well-developed executive control and goal-directed cognition, autonoetic consciousness (i.e., self-awareness), deliberation, and free will. Moreover, this research extends our conception of what organisms may share these abilities and how they evolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are well-understood psychological limits on our capacity to process information. As information proliferation—the consumption and sharing of information—increases through social media and other communications technology, these limits create an attentional bottleneck, favoring information that is more likely to be searched for, attended to, comprehended, encoded, and later reproduced. In information-rich environments, this bottleneck influences the evolution of information via four forces of cognitive selection, selecting for information that is belief-consistent, negative, social, and predictive. Selection for belief-consistent information leads balanced information to support increasingly polarized views. Selection for negative information amplifies information about downside risks and crowds out potential benefits. Selection for social information drives herding, impairs objective assessments, and reduces exploration for solutions to hard problems. Selection for predictive patterns drives overfitting, the replication crisis, and risk seeking. This article summarizes the negative implications of these forces of cognitive selection and presents eight warnings that represent severe pitfalls for the naive "informavore," accelerating extremism, hysteria, herding, and the proliferation of misinformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alaska Native (AN) children experience one of the highest reported rates of severe early childhood caries (S-ECC). Serum vitamin D concentrations in AN childbearing women in the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta (YKD) region have decreased since the 1960s to currently low levels, related to a decrease in traditional marine diet. Recent studies suggest an association between prenatal vitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations in mothers and S-ECC in their infants. We used independent t tests to analyze the influence of prenatal 25(OH)D levels in YKD AN mothers on S-ECC in their children using data collected in the Maternal Organics Monitoring Study (MOMS). Maternal 25(OH)D levels were assessed at prenatal visits and in cord blood. We queried electronic dental records to assess early childhood caries (ECC) status using highest decayed, missing, filled, primary teeth (dmft) scores at 12 to 59 mo of age. We examined prenatal and cord blood for 76 and 57 mother/infant pairs, respectively. Children 12 to 35 mo of age with "deficient" cord blood (25(OH)D <30 nmol/L) had a mean dmft score twice as high as children who were "nondeficient" at birth (9.3 vs. 4.7; P = 0.002). There was no significant difference in mean dmft scores for children aged 36 to 59 mo with deficient versus nondeficient cord blood 25(OH)D (10.9 vs. 8.7 P = 0.14). There was no significant difference in mean dmft scores for children aged 12 to 35 mo whose mothers had "sufficient" versus "insufficient" 25(OH)D during prenatal visits (9.0 vs. 7.4; P = 0.48). In this small sample, children with deficient vitamin D levels in cord blood had a dmft score at 12 to 35 mo 2-fold higher than children with nondeficient cord blood. Maternal 25(OH)D may influence the primary dentition, and improving vitamin D status in pregnant women might affect ECC rates in their infants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association between depression and peripheral artery disease (PAD) outcomes remains widely understudied. In patients with PAD undergoing a peripheral vascular intervention (PVI) who have a recent diagnosis of depression, it is unknown what their long-term outcomes are and what factors may mediate an adverse risk. We therefore studied 797 consecutive patients undergoing PVI across 33 Veterans Affairs (VA) centers. Depression and outcomes were documented from patients’ medical records. Outcomes included: (1) all-cause death; (2) non-fatal cardiovascular events (myocardial infarction, stroke); and (3) PAD-related events (including repeat PVI or amputation). Cox proportional hazards frailty models were constructed, adjusting for age. Additional covariates were selected if they resulted in at least 5% change in the age-adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for depression on outcomes. Overall, 265 (33%) patients had a diagnosis of depression. After a median follow-up of 955 days (range 1–6.25 years), 52 (6.5%) patients died, 30 (3.8%) experienced non-fatal cardiovascular events, and 176 (22.1%) had PAD-related events. Compared to patients without depression, depressed patients had higher rates of non-fatal cardiovascular events (6.4% vs 2.4%, p-value 0.0055). No differences for the other outcomes were noted. Higher risk for non-fatal cardiovascular events persisted after adjustment for age (HR 1.6, 95% CI 1.05–2.47). The only additional covariate that met our selection criteria was hypertension. After adjusting for hypertension, the association between depression and non-fatal cardiovascular outcomes attenuated (HR 1.53, 95% CI 0.99–2.35). In conclusion, a diagnosis of depression in veterans undergoing PVI was associated with increased risk of non-fatal cardiovascular events, mediated by age and hypertension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With cost-based rate regulation, public utilities are seriously concerned about the proper recovery of incurred decommissioning costs from different generations of customers. The cost of cleaning up and removing a nuclear power plant after its service life has ended, that is, the cost of decommissioning the plant, will be significant. The main objective of this study is to demonstrate and evaluate a number of alternative methods that may be used to recover these costs from customers. The discussion is also applicable to the recovery of other costs for public utilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship on interest groups and lobbying has become bifurcated between the dominant micro-level research on the choices of individual groups and macro-level research on group-level populations, especially the work of Gray and Lowery, with almost no integration of the two. Failure to integrate levels of analysis, unfortunately, will impede future progress in the subfield. I discuss some of the challenges to integrating research at multiple levels and then propose a solution which I test by re-analyzing two of my micro-level research projects now combined with Gray and Lowery’ macro-level density variable using hierarchical modeling. It turns out that grouping micro-level observations by group interest niches matters in the statistical analysis, though the effects of varying group population density are more subtle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study identified the readiness factors that may create challenges in the use of telemedicine among patients in northern Louisiana with cancer. To identify these readiness factors, the team of investigators developed 19 survey questions that were provided to the patients or to their caregivers. The team collected responses from 147 respondents from rural and urban residential backgrounds. These responses were used to identify the individuals’ readiness for utilising telemedicine through factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha reliability test, analysis of variance and ordinary least squares regression. The analysis results indicated that the favourable factor (positive readiness item) had a mean value of 3.47, whereas the unfavourable factor (negative readiness item) had a mean value of 2.76. Cronbach’s alpha reliability test provided an alpha value of 0.79. Overall, our study indicated a positive attitude towards the use of telemedicine in northern Louisiana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research-based book also provides many thoughtful and insightful suggestions for enhancing the paradigm shift. The next paper explores the following research questions that relate to the use and benefits of storytelling in online learning systems: How is digital storytelling a modern reincarnation of traditional storytelling? In the past two years, most K-12 and higher education systems have had to transition from F2F instructional systems to online learning systems. [Extracted from the article]

In this article, the author uses an ethnographic encounter in the aftermath of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum to explore questions of identity and nationalism in Scotland. During that encounter, he was confronted by his own, sometimes contradictory, thoughts and feelings about Britain, Britishness and Scotland. Taking inspiration from a genre of social scientific writing called ‘ethnographic memoir’, the article is his attempt to work through, and make sense of, those thoughts and feelings, by drawing on the work of both social anthropologists and sociologists who have written about identity, nationalism and legacies of empire in the UK. Following particularly the work of the social anthropologist Georgie Wemyss, who argues that contemporary discourses around ‘Britain’ legitimate what she calls ‘the invisible empire’, it is suggested that affirmations of Britain during the independence referendum helped empower an insidious, but largely taken for granted, discourse of imperial nationalism. This insight allows the author to locate the source of his own disenchantment with the identity label ‘British’. The article concludes with consideration of some of the wider implications this might have for a subdiscipline that calls itself the Anthropology of Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to examine the meaningful use of remote monitoring. In partnership with a home health care agency, we examined the degree to which the information obtained from remote monitoring influenced change in decisions that affect readmission rates among patients diagnosed with heart failure. Hospital utilization was highly associated with nurses’ clinical decisions to go to the hospital; the additional data provided by technology did not modify decisions. The role of nurses in heart failure management is critical to quality outcomes. Investments into remote monitoring technology should accompany strategies to enhance decision making and align clinical decision making with quality goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the impact of state nursing home staffing standards on nurse staffing levels for the year 2011. Specifically, the study attempted to measure state staffing standards at facility level (i.e., nurse staffing levels that each individual nursing home must retain by its state staffing standards) and analyzed the policy impact. The study findings indicated that state staffing standards for the categories of registered nurse, licensed nurse, or total nurse are positively related to registered nurse, licensed nurse, or total nurse staffing levels, respectively. Nursing homes more actively responded to licensed staffing requirements than total staffing requirements. However, nursing homes did not increase their staffing levels as much as those required by state staffing standards. It is possibly because the quality-oriented inspection allows flexibility in nursing homes' control of nurse staffing levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first paper discussed six dimensions of blended systems and how ready are in-service teachers for making effective use of the new systems. In the 1980s, computer-assisted instruction (CAI) systems began to promote more learner-centered learning activities. Although the microcomputer systems were limited in operational speed, data storage, and graphics, the drill and practice, computer simulation systems and writing, and mathematical software provided new instructional tools. [Extracted from the article]

Impulsive choice and poor information sampling have been found to be key behavioural mechanisms linked to impulse control disorders (ICDs) in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Perceptual decision-making is intimately related to information sampling. Therefore, we wanted to determine whether dopaminergic medication or ICDs influence perceptual decision-making in PD. All participants performed two tasks. One was a simple reaction time task, where subjects needed to respond as quickly as possible. The second was a perceptual decision-making task, in which participants had to estimate whether a stimulus contained either more red or more blue pixels. We tested three groups of patients, one treated with levodopa monotherapy, one additionally treated with dopamine agonists, and a third group had ICDs. Results were compared to healthy controls. We found that all patients made more errors than controls. Further, patients with ICDs responded fastest on the reaction time task and also in incorrect trials on the perceptual decision-making task. Similarly, patients with dopamine agonists responded faster than those on levodopa monotherapy and controls. Our results demonstrate that all patients have deficits in perceptual decision-making. However, patients treated with dopamine agonists closely resembled patients with ICDs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Clinical and translational research is a multidisciplinary, collaborative team process. To evaluate this process, we developed a method to document emerging research networks and collaborations in our medical center to describe their productivity and viability over time. Using an e-mail survey, sent to 1,620 clinical and basic science full- and part-time faculty members, respondents identified their research collaborators. Initial analyses, using Pajek software, assessed the feasibility of using social network analysis (SNA) methods with these data. Nearly 400 respondents identified 1,594 collaborators across 28 medical center departments resulting in 309 networks with 5 or more collaborators. This low-burden approach yielded a rich data set useful for evaluation using SNA to: (a) assess networks at several levels of the organization, including intrapersonal (individuals), interpersonal (social), organizational/institutional leadership (tenure and promotion), and physical/environmental (spatial proximity) and (b) link with other data to assess the evolution of these networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article ethnographically maps the activism of moderates engaged with grassroots Republican Party politics in Kansas, a state that for the last two decades has been a primary battleground in America's so-called 'culture wars' in which the value of 'moderation' has been the subject of strident contestation. Drawing inspiration from the writings of the American pragmatist philosopher John Dewey, it probes the testimony of activists in an effort to identify those political and social practices and principles that might be considered constitutive in the making of a moderate politics. The goal is to 'salvage' a rudimentary activist theory of moderation for those seeking to champion and defend contemporary American democracy at a time when publics and their institutions have been compromised by, or succumbed to, electoral polarization and political extremism. The article argues for the displacement of the usual representation of moderation as a default position defined by the absence of strong ideological or other convictions in favour of an understanding of moderation as a disciplined engagement with divided publics. Most importantly, moderates embrace democracy as a yet-to-be-fulfilled moral project, which serves to infuse the values that underpin moderate politics with normative power and purpose. How to render these values operational in a divided politics remains a central question for both activists and scholars committed to moderation and the practices and values it names. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What does moderation mean in the twenty-first century? And what might a reasoned project of moderation look like, intellectually, politically and in practice? This paper argues for a sociological reappraisal of the historical origins, intellectual foundations and contemporary salience of moderation. Too often wrongly defined by a sense of what it is not - by its apparent absence of ideology - moderation has come, in recent years, to be associated with 'bland' and incoherent notions of centrism. However, moderation presents sociologists and other scholars with particular analytical and theoretical challenges and opportunities. In a post-secular liberal democracy like Britain, an exploration of what moderation might mean demands an interrogation of the often taken-for-granted assumptions of the social sciences and the ideological extremes more generally. Moderation is about the relations among publics and the possibilities of a deep pluralism that is respectful of difference. However, publics are under threat by markets and the future of sociology, tied to the future of publics, without revivified social and political practices of moderation, may be bleak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we quantitatively and qualitatively analyze a sample of novice programmer compilation log data, exploring whether (or how) low-achieving, average, and high-achieving students vary in their grasp of these introductory concepts. High-achieving students self-reported having the easiest time learning the introductory programming topics. In a quantitative analysis, though, high-achieving and average students were: 1) more effective at debugging (on average, as quantified by Jadud's Error Quotient (EQ)) than low-achieving students; and 2) were least confused, as quantified using Lee's confusion metric. However, the differences in EQ and confusion between groups were not statistically significant. This implied that all groups struggled with programming to similar extents. This finding was further supported by the qualitative analysis, in which we found that no group was immune to a particular error type. All groups had difficulties finding small errors, including: differences in capitalization and missing commas; recognizing the scope and lifetime of a variable; confusing the assignment operator with the equal comparator; misusing the variants of the print statement; misusing or failing to use parameters; and implementing principles of object-oriented design such as information hiding and encapsulation. For computer science researchers and educators, the findings suggest learning pitfalls against which teachers can guard during instruction. The findings also imply the need for more reactive and anticipatory support environments, and the usefulness of large scale data collection and analysis in the study of novice programmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mammalian ribonucleaseA family comprises a large group of structurally similar proteins which are secreted by a range of tissues and immune cells. Their physiological role is unclear. It has been suggested that some of these RNases contribute to host defence, notably eosinophil-derived neurotoxin, eosinophil cationic protein, eosinophil-associated RNases, RNase4, angiogenin (RNase5), RNase7, RNase8 and bovine seminal RNase. This review summarises data supporting the involvement of these proteins in host defence, focusing on their antimicrobial, cytotoxic and immunomodulatory activities. The extent to which the data support possible mechanisms of action for these proteins is discussed. This compilation of findings and current hypotheses on the physiological role of these RNases will provide a stimulus for further research and development of ideas on the contribution of the RNases to host defence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We assessed the efficacy of tranexamic acid in reducing transfusion requirements in patients undergoing revision hip arthroplasty. A prospective cohort study was designed comparing Tranexamic acid administration in 30 patients compared to 30 patients in a control group. Blood loss was measured in theatre, pre- and postoperative haemoglobin measurements were recorded and postoperative haemodynamic parameters were evaluated. The mean postoperative haemoglobin was 9.5 g/dl in the tranexamic acid group and 8.2 g/dl in the control group (p<0.01). The mean haemoglobin reduction was 2.7 g/dl in the tranexamic acid group and 3.4 g/dl in the control group (p = 0.47). Mean transfusion requirements were 2.76 units in the study group and 4.0 units in the control group (p = 0.49) and the frequency of transfusion was reduced (p = 0.032). Infected revisions showed no reduction in transfusion requirements with tranexamic acid administration (p = 0.25). There was a reduced frequency of transfusion in patients when revision was performed for aseptic loosening (p = 0.027). This group of patients may benefit from tranexamic acid administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most people believe that being taller and heavier is a sign of higher social status and privilege; however, an objective evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of increased body size (excluding obesity) indicated that shorter, smaller bodies have numerous advantages in terms of health and longevity. With healthful nutrition and lifestyles, and good medical care, shorter people are less likely to suffer from age-related chronic diseases and more likely to reach advanced ages. A variety of biological factors explain the inherent benefits of smaller bodies. These include reduced cell replication, much lower DNA damage and reduced cancer incidence. Other beneficial factors include higher sex hormone binding globulin, higher insulin-like growth factor binding protein-1, lower insulin and lower insulin-like growth factor-1. We discuss recommendations for how taller people can minimize their risks. Future public health practices should focus on healthful nutrition, without promoting continued secular growth in height and weight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using whole-brain pulsed arterial spin labeling magnetic resonance imaging, resting cerebral blood flow (CBF) was measured in 20 mild cognitive impairment (MCI; 11 ɛ3 and 9 ɛ4) and 40 demographically matched cognitively normal (CN; 27 ɛ3 and 13 ɛ4) participants. An interaction of apolipoprotein (APOE) genotype (ɛ3 and ɛ4) and cognitive status (CN and MCI) on quantified gray-matter CBF corrected for partial volume effects was found in the left parahippocampal and fusiform gyri (PHG/FG), right middle frontal gyrus, and left medial frontal gyrus. In the PHG/FG, CBF was elevated for CN ɛ4 carriers but decreased for MCI ɛ4 carriers. The opposite pattern was seen in frontal regions: CBF was decreased for CN ɛ4 carriers but increased for MCI ɛ4 carriers. Cerebral blood flow in the PHG/FG was positively correlated with verbal memory for CN ɛ4 adults (r=0.67, P=0.01). Cerebral blood flow in the left medial frontal gyrus was positively correlated with verbal memory for MCI ɛ4 adults (r=0.70, P=0.05). Findings support dynamic pathophysiologic processes in the brain associated with Alzheimer's disease risk and indicate that cognitive status and APOE genotype have interactive effects on CBF. Correlations between CBF and verbal memory suggest a differential neurovascular compensatory response in posterior and anterior cortices with cognitive decline in ɛ4 adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ICH S8 immunotoxicity testing guideline for human pharmaceuticals was published in 2006 and was intended to provide guidance for assessing the immunotoxicity potential of low-molecular-weight drugs that are not intended to alter the immune system. For drugs intended to modulate the immune system, immunotoxicity testing strategies are generally developed on a case-by-case approach since the targets, intended patient population, and mechanisms of action of the test compound will determine the type of testing needed. Some of the general principles of ICH S8, however, may be applied to immunotoxicity testing strategies for immunomodulatory drugs. A weight-of-evidence approach using factors discussed in ICH S8 in concert with an assessment of the potential value of additional immunotoxicity testing should be considered. For most situations, immunotoxicity studies with immunomodulatory compounds evaluate off-target effects on the immune system and exaggerated pharmacology. The potential use of data from these studies and considerations such as translatability to humans are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores how advocacy organizations strategically select one or more venues for lobbying in a government system that provides multiple access points to state and local lawmakers. Advocates unable to make headway at the state level may refocus their efforts locally, convincing lawmakers in hitherto uninvolved venues to take-up an issue. The data used to test venue shopping hypotheses comes from a survey of charter school advocacy at state and local levels in three states. While ideological congruence between lawmakers and advocates matters, it also turns out that most advocates are also drawn to any venue actively working on an issue. Advocacy resources also limit the number of venues targeted and that implementing venues are chosen when they can be pressured by elected officials who support an advocate’s policy preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Do different patterns of sampling influence the decisions people make, even when the information the decisions are based on is equivalent? Do more and less switching between options correlate with different kinds of decision policies? In past research, the correspondence between search and decision patterns has been difficult to ascertain because the information obtained has often been confounded with its consequences in an exploration-exploitation trade-off. We used a sampling task in which information is explored prior to being exploited. We found that search patterns did reveal decision policies. Individuals who transitioned more frequently between options were more likely to choose options that win most of the time in round-wise comparisons and were more likely to underweight rare, risky events. Less switching between options was associated with choosing options that win in the long run on the basis of summary comparisons—decisions consistent with expected-value maximization and linear weighting of outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The rise of the Christian Right and the pro-life movement over the last fifty years has transformed US politics in general, and the Republican Party in particular. Its seemingly all-pervasive influence on contemporary US politics has commanded much social scientific attention. However, policy debates over embryonic stem cell research during the Presidency of George W. Bush exposed deep, moral fissures amongst American conservatives. As one of the most recent 'hot button' issues in America's culture wars, embryonic stem cell research appeared to energize the under-studied moderate wing of the 'Grand Old Party' (GOP), which belatedly emerged to challenge what often seems like a homogeneous and monolithic Christian Right. This paper argues that during the 109 United States Congress, moderate Republicans identified in embryonic stem cells a powerful entity around which to mobilise themselves as a set of otherwise diverse interests. This enabled them to imagine a political future for themselves in which they could successfully challenge the hegemony of the Christian Right in grassroots Republican Party politics. In states like Missouri, however, which fought a referendum on embryonic stem cell research in the 2006 midterm elections, it could be argued that emboldened GOP moderates overplayed their hand. Furthermore, a fully-formed GOP moderate counter-movement to the Christian Right failed to materialize as centrists and moderates were amongst the first to lose their seats when the Democrats reclaimed Congress at the 2006 midterms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hemispheric ratios of oxygen extraction fraction (OEF), a proven methodology for the detection of severe hemodynamic impairment and stroke risk, are not sensitive for detecting bilateral hemispheric increases in OEF. The aim of this study was to investigate the use of cerebellum as the reference normal. We analyzed positron emission tomographic (PET) measurements of count-based OEF and clinical data from 57 patients with unilateral atherosclerotic carotid occlusion and 13 controls enrolled in a prospective study of stroke risk. The ipsilateral, contralateral, and total cerebellum were each evaluated as possible reference regions, and the ratios of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) hemispheric OEF counts against those in each reference region were determined. A statistically significant correlation (P<0.0001) was observed with all three MCA-to-cerebellar ratios when compared with the gold standard of ipsilateral-to-contralateral MCA hemispheric ratio. Kaplan-Meier analyses showed all MCA-to-cerebellar ratios to be predictive of stroke. By using the total cerebellum method, 7 strokes were found to have occurred in 20 patients with increased OEF (P=0.0007), compared with 7 strokes out of 16 patients with elevated OEF using the ipsilateral or contralateral cerebellum methods (P<0.0001). These methods may be useful for categorizing the hemodynamic status of patients with bilateral cerebral occlusive diseases, including atherosclerosis and moyamoya, to determine the association with the risk of subsequent stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have shown the usefulness of telemedicine and telecare in multiple settings. One form of telemedicine is e-health. Residents of nursing homes are a unique population that may significantly benefit from the e-health resources available to their caregivers. E-health Web sites appear to be viable, feasible, and timely interventional methods to provide the additional knowledge and support practitioners in these settings may need to provide preventative, reactive, and remedial care for frail residents. Jonathan Matusitz, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Nicholson School of Communication at the University of Central Florida. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A positive relationship has been demonstrated between the quality of care delivered in nursing homes and the quality of nursing staff providing the care. The general perception, however, is that there is a decline in registered nurses' staff hours in nursing homes. The primary objective of this study is to investigate whether the levels of registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs), and nursing assistants (NAs) as well as skill mix has changed in nursing homes between the years 1997 and 2007. A descriptive research design was employed on data derived from Online Survey Certification and Reporting System database. After accounting for facility size and ownership, it was found that more nursing homes have increased—rather than decreased—LPN and NA hours per resident day between 1997 and 2007. On the other hand, more nursing homes have decreased-rather than increased—RN hours per resident day and skill mix during the same time period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marginalized communities need to be heard and validated within their local context, so that individual and community support can be garnered and ownership of the concerns can be embraced. This article reports on three modalities that were used in the community outreach activities of Project REECH. The goal of Project REECH is to engage residents in low-income neighborhoods in a dialogue with researchers to identify the major health concerns in their community. With the aid of these community conversations, the goal is to identify and train community residents to conduct such community-identified research in their neighborhoods. This article primarily explores and evaluates the use and effectiveness of an arts modality called Playback Theatre. Also, it briefly reports on the use of Readers' Theatre and graphic facilitation to aid in the dissemination of the data collected from these community conversations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uno's reformulation of Marx's value-form theory has not been correctly understood In highlighting the process of the emergence of money from the value expression of the commodity, not from commodity exchanges, it makes the first important step towards releasing economic theory from its bourgeois confines. In responding to Arthur's critique of the Uno School, here Sekine stresses the importance of distinguishing the supplier's value expression of the commodity from its demanders' measurement of value, in the light of which he shows that the passage from expanded to general value form, whether by Marx or by Arthur, makes no economic sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyses of adult semantic networks suggest a learning mechanism involving preferential attachment: A word is more likely to enter the lexicon the more connected the known words to which it is related. We introduce and test two alternative growth principles: preferential acquisition—words enter the lexicon not because they are related to well-connected words, but because they connect well to other words in the learning environment—and the lure of the associates—new words are favored in proportion to their connections with known words. We tested these alternative principles using longitudinal analyses of developing networks of 130 nouns children learn prior to the age of 30 months. We tested both networks with links between words represented by features and networks with links represented by associations. The feature networks did not predict age of acquisition using any growth model. The associative networks grew by preferential acquisition, with the best model incorporating word frequency, number of phonological neighbors, and connectedness of the new word to words in the learning environment, as operationalized by connectedness to words typically acquired by the age of 30 months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a three-year longitudinal study which documents children's views on healthy eating and consequences of consuming unhealthy foods in South India. The study recruited 307 school children aged 7 to 15 years from three schools representing various socio-economic status (SES) for purposive sampling. It found that older children, with mothers having higher educational levels, viewed the meaning of healthy eating based on diet composition.

Despite the promotion of family meetings as an essential tool for information sharing and planning in palliative care, minimal evidence exists to show their effectiveness. We sought to rectify this gap in evidence-based practice by evaluating recently developed clinical guidelines for facilitating family meetings. Palliative care nurses were trained to conduct family meetings using the guidelines. To assess the effectiveness of the guidelines, primary family carers who attended a family meeting completed a self-report instrument to measure unmet needs at three time periods: immediately before the meeting (T1), immediately after the meeting (T2) and two days after the meeting (T3). Phone interviews with carers were also conducted at T3. Patients, health professionals and family meeting facilitators were also invited to complete an evaluation form at T2. A focus group was conducted at the end of the project to gain reflections from the family meeting facilitators about their role, re-evaluate the family meeting clinical guidelines and discuss barriers and facilitators for ongoing implementation. Twenty family meetings were conducted at St Vincent's Hospital (Melbourne, Australia). A total of 42 participants were involved, including 20 family carers, 4 patients and 18 health professionals. Family carers reported a statistically significant increase in having their care needs met, from T1 to T2, which was maintained at T3; they also reported that the meetings were useful. Health professionals and patients advised that the meetings were well facilitated. The results from this pilot study indicate that family meetings, conducted using specific clinical practice guidelines, were useful and effective. However, more research is required to confirm these findings. Strategies for implementation and further research are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is compelling molecular and behavioral evidence that goal-directed cognition is an evolutionary descendant of spatial-foraging behavior. Across animal species, similar dopaminergic processes modulate between exploratory and exploitative foraging behaviors and control attention. Consequently, we hypothesized that spatial-foraging activity could prime attentional cognitive activity. We examined how searching in physical space influences subsequent search in abstract cognitive space by presenting participants with a spatial-foraging task followed by a repeated Scrabble task involving search for words that could be made from letter sets. Participants who searched through clumpier distributions in space behaved as if words were more densely clumped in the Scrabble task. This was not a function of arousal, but was consistent with predictions of optimal-foraging theory. Furthermore, individual differences in exploratory search were conserved across the two types of tasks. Along with the biological evidence, our results support the idea that there are generalized cognitive search processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Family caregivers are often responsible for providing significant support to relatives who require palliative care at home. However, evidence suggests that family caregivers have limited information, resources or support to prepare them for such a role. Furthermore, family caregiving can be associated with negative physical, financial and psychosocial outcomes. Purpose: This project sought to examine the utility of a group family caregiver psycho-educational programme focused on preparing primary family caregivers for the role of supporting a relative with advanced cancer at home. Method: The education programme consisted of three consecutive weekly sessions presented in a group format, conducted at six home-based palliative care services across metropolitan and regional Victoria (Australia). Participating caregivers were required to complete a set of self-report questionnaires measuring caregiver competence, preparedness, optimism, rewards, social support, burden and information needs, at three time points: commencement of the programme (T1), upon completion (T2) and 2 weeks later (T3). Caregivers were also asked to report on the relevance, acceptability and content of the programme, as well as any barriers to access. Results: Sixteen education programmes were conducted, with 74 caregivers attending the first session. Forty-four caregivers completed all three data collection sets. Following the intervention, a significant positive effect was found for the following outcomes: preparedness for the caring role, caregiving competence, caregiving rewards and having information needs met from T1 to T2. These improvements were maintained at follow-up (T3). Feedback on the individual sessions and entire programme was favourable and the overwhelming majority of participants reported that the programme had a positive impact on their lives. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that a group education programme to prepare family caregivers for the role of supporting a dying relative at home was accessible, applicable and effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To investigate the relationship between fear-avoidance beliefs and future disability and work capacity in patients with neck pain. Design: A prospective observational study. Setting: Physiotherapy outpatient departments. Patients: One hundred and twenty patients with neck pain intensity sufficient to affect their work capacity. Interventions: Patients participated in either six-week conventional physiotherapy or an exercise training programme to test whether the type of treatment received by the patients together with other outcome measures affected the predictive power of fear-avoidance beliefs. Main outcome measures: Patients underwent examination of the active neck range of movements and neck muscle strength and completed the Fear-Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire, the Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire, the Medical Outcomes 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey and the 11-point pain numerical rating scale. These were assessed at the beginning and at week 6 of the rehabilitation programme. Patients' work capacity was assessed at week 6 and three months after the six-week rehabilitation programme. Results: Spearman's correlation coefficients between fear-avoidance beliefs and initial and week 6 disability levels were 0.47 and 0.48, respectively. Regression analysis showed that the fear-avoidance beliefs significantly improved the goodness of fit of the model for predicting week 6 disability levels and return to complete work capacity at week 6 and three months after the rehabilitation programme, even after controlling for the physical impairments, the health status, the pain intensity and the type of treatment received. Conclusions: The fear-avoidance beliefs factor is an important biopsychosocial variable in predicting future disability level and return to complete work capacity in patients with neck pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars know that institutions such as corporations and nonprofits make up much of the lobbying community, yet there is no general theory as to why these organizations, which are not primarily established for advocacy, would ever choose to do it. By integrating the literatures on advocacy in economics, sociology, and political science, the authors propose a theoretical framework using the broad dimensions of organizational mission and external environment that they test with data on charter school advocacy from a four-state survey. The results support the authors' framework and provide greater insight into advocacy choices regarding venue shopping, tactical choices, and resource allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was conducted to determine if culture confirmation is needed for a negative rapid antigen detection test. Data on 18509 tests done in patients younger than 18 years old were reviewed. Of the 14167 (76.5%) that were negative, 968 (6.8%) were associated with positive cultures. No significant seasonal variation was noted. Significant differences were found between hospital and pediatric practices in the percentage of patients with a negative rapid antigen detection test who actually had group A β-hemolytic streptococcus (3.5% to 9.8%). This study supports the recommendation of culture confirmation of a negative rapid antigen detection test and validation of results within an individual practice if confirmatory cultures are not being performed. This study showed a high false-negative rate of the negative rapid antigen detection test and variation among hospital and pediatric practices for rates of positive culture after a negative rapid antigen detection test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores institutional mechanisms explaining the variation in nursing home quality. A two-level panel design with the national data is conducted. Structural equation modeling is employed to examine the main and interaction effects of institutional factors on nursing home quality at both facility and state levels. The findings indicate that the quality of nursing homes is more responsive to regulatory and payment constraints than to normative and mimetic mechanisms. The potential demand for care, Medicaid reimbursement rate, and occupancy rate are positively associated with nursing home quality. An interaction effect between the regulatory mechanism and nurse staffing is statistically significant. The findings lend support to the importance of multi-level analysis of nursing home quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the fate of charter school policy in the American states? The authors argue that dramatic new policies brought about by a radical reconfiguration of interests and politics are frequently short lived, though new policies are rarely erased; instead, they reach a compromise between competing sets of interests. The authors test this notion in a study of the evolution of charter school policy in Michigan and the District of Columbia. They find in Michigan that the original law, dramatic in the breadth of its change to public education, has slowly reverted to reflect a balance of power between the ideal positions preferred by pro- and anti-charter school interests. But in the District of Columbia, the innovativeness of the new law has largely been sustained, mainly because organized opposing interests largely failed to emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]