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Introduction: We sought to determine pre-infection correlates of protection against SARS-CoV-2 post-vaccine inzfections (PVI) acquired during the first Omicron wave in the United States. Methods: Serum and saliva samples from 176 vaccinated adults were collected from October to December of 2021, immediately before the Omicron wave, and assessed for SARS-CoV-2 Spike-specific IgG and IgA binding antibodies (bAb). Sera were also assessed for bAb using commercial assays, and for neutralization activity against several SARS-CoV-2 variants. PVI duration and severity, as well as risk and precautionary behaviors, were assessed by questionnaires. Results: Serum anti-Spike IgG levels assessed by research assay, neutralization titers against Omicron subvariants, and low home risk scores correlated with protection against PVIs after multivariable regression analysis. Commercial assays did not perform as well as research assay, likely due to their lower dynamic range. Discussion: In the 32 participants that developed PVI, anti-Spike IgG bAbs correlated with lower disease severity and shorter duration of illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine the smoking patterns of women who experienced stressful life events and the impact of racial disparities on the relationship between stressful life events, and prenatal/ postpartum smoking. Methods: The study analyzed data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System Phase 8 (2016–2018) survey across five states (CT, LA, MA, MO, WI). Four stressful life event categories were created using thirteen affiliated questions: financial, trauma, partner, and emotional. We assessed: 1) the association between smoking and stressful life events, 2) the impact of race on the relation between smoking and stressful life events, and 3) the long-term effects of smoking on health by assessing the association between smoking and maternal morbidity. Bivariate statistics and multivariate Poisson regression models were conducted. Results: A total of 24,209 women from five states were included. 8.9% of respondents reported smoking during pregnancy, and 12.7% reported smoking postpartum. There was a significant association between all stressful life events and smoking. Trauma stressful life event had the strongest association with smoking during pregnancy (adjusted PR=2.01; CI: 1.79-2.27) and postpartum (adjusted PR= 1.80; CI: 1.64-1.98). Race and stressful life event interaction effects on smoking had varied significant findings, but at least one racial/ ethnic minority group (Black, Hispanic, Asian) had a higher smoking prevalence than non-Hispanic White per stressful life event category. Lastly, the prevalence of maternal morbidity was higher for smoking during pregnancy (adjusted PR= 1.28; CI: 1.19-1.38) and postpartum (adjusted PR= 1.30; CI: 1.22-1.38) compared to no smoking. Conclusions for Practice: Culturally congruent, multi-disciplinary care teams are needed to address both clinical and social needs to reduce stressful life events and smoking. Screenings for stress should be standardized with a referral system in place to provide ongoing support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Electronic medical record software is common in healthcare settings. However, data privacy and security challenges persist and may impede patients' willingness to disclose health information to their clinicians. Positive patient-provider communication may foster patient trust and subsequently reduce information nondisclosure. This study sought to characterize information-withholding behaviors among women and evaluate the association between positive patient-provider communication and women's health information-withholding behavior in the United States. Methods: Data were pooled from the 2011 to 2018 Health Information National Trends Survey. We used descriptive statistics, bivariate, and logistic regression analyses to investigate whether positive patient-provider communication significantly impacted health information-withholding behaviors. Data from 7,738 women were analyzed. Results: About 10.8% or 1 in 10 women endorsed withholding health information from their providers because of privacy or security concerns about their medical records. After adjusting for the covariates, higher positive patient-provider communication scores were associated with lower odds of withholding information from the provider because of privacy and security concerns (aOR 0.93; 95% CI = 0.90–0.95). Additionally, we found that age, race/ethnicity, educational status, psychological distress, and smoking status significantly predicted women's willingness to disclose health information. Conclusions: Findings suggest that improving positive patient-provider communication quality may reduce women's privacy and security concerns and encourage them to disclose sensitive medical information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investors have long been unhappy with certain governance arrangements adopted by companies undertaking initial public offerings ("IPOs"), such as dual-class voting structures. Traditional sources of corporate governance rules--the Securities and Exchange Commission, state law, and exchange listing rules--do not constrain these arrangements. As a result, investors have turned to a new source of governance rules: index providers. This Article provides a comprehensive analysis of index exclusion rules and their likely effects on insiders' decision-making. We show that efforts to portray index providers as the new sheriffs of the U.S. capital markets are overstated. Index providers face complex and conflicting interests, which make them reluctant regulators, at best. We put forward an analysis of insider incentives in light of index exclusions and apply it to one of the most important applications of index exclusion rules to date, the recent decision by index providers to exclude from their indexes certain companies with dual-class share structures. We conclude that the efficacy of index exclusions in preventing disfavored arrangements such as dual-class structures is likely to be limited, but not zero. Index exclusions are a corporate governance experiment, one that has important lessons. We examine these lessons, and the way forward for corporate governance. These lessons are all the more important because of the central place of index funds, and therefore index providers, in our capital markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the prevalence, correlates, and sources of women's health information-seeking behaviors in the United States using the Andersen Behavioral Model. The 2012–2019 Health Information National Trends Survey data were used to analyze how and where women seek health theoretically. Weighted prevalence, descriptive analysis, and separate multivariable logistic regression models were computed to test the argument. The overall prevalence of seeking health information from any source was (83%, 95% CI: 0.82–0.84). Between 2012 and 2019, the analysis revealed a downward trend in health information seeking from any source (85.2–82.4%), health care provider (19.0–14.8%), family/friends (10.4–6.6%), and traditional channels (5.4–4.8%). Interestingly, there was an increase in Internet usage from 65.4% to 73.8%. We found statistically significant relationships between the predisposing, enabling, and need factors of the Andersen Behavioral Model. Specifically, age, race/ethnicity, income levels, educational status, perceived health status, having a regular provider, and smoking status predicted women's health information-seeking behaviors. Our study concludes that several factors influence health information-seeking behaviors, and disparities exist in the channels through which women seek care. The implications for health communication strategies, practitioners, and policymakers are also discussed. • Analyzed the prevalence, correlates, and sources of women's health-seeking behaviors. • Used the pooled 2012, 2014, 2017, 2018, and 2019 Health Information National Trends Survey. • There is a declining trend in women's health-seeking behaviors. • Women consume health information from the Internet more than they do from their health care providers. • There are disparities in women's health-seeking behaviors by sociodemographic and contextual characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the El Niño water current. The methods used in the observations and predictions of the 2015-16 El Niño, the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) status for the countries of Australia, Peru, and the United States, and the forecasts for the sea temperature regarding the current are presented.

Jihadist terror is a multidimensional challenge that compels unique difficulties on compatibility between the military campaign and the political goal. Compatibility between military campaigns and political goal requires a deeper understanding about the Jihadi terrorism phenomenon that could be achieved by a strategic and diagnostic learning process. Such learning requires certain characteristics, which enable the creation of open discourse. This article introduced definitions of closed and open discourse, characterized the required conditions for creating open discourse, and explained the linkage between strategic learning and open discourse. This article aims to add another theoretical layer to Rebecca Schiff's "targeted partnership" concept by elaborating on the essence of the encounter and discourse between the political and the military echelons in the context of terrorism in the Middle East, using examples from the American and Israeli experience. The concepts of "Discourse Space" and "Diagnostic Learning" are corresponding with Schiff's concept and accomplish it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boards of public corporations in the United States are becoming increasingly independent due to an effort to ensure that shareholders' interests in the company are protected. Yet, little attention has been given to the way that board members obtain and digest the information necessary for their independent decision-making. In this Article, we highlight how "independent" boards remain extremely dependent on management for the information they need to accomplish their role--what we classify as the "informational capture" of the board. We further describe how activist hedge funds identified this capture and are using what is commonly termed as "super directors" to mitigate it. Contrary to many who cast the rise of activist super directors in a negative light, we assert that super directors are not a new phenomenon, that they are not limited to activist nominees, and that they perform an important role in mitigating the board's informational capture. We further show that this positive role carries several important doctrinal implications for the way Delaware law treats these nominees. However, while activist super directors serve an important role in mitigating this capture, they are far from a perfect solution. Therefore, we propose a more systematic approach to mitigating the board's capture. Specifically, we call for the creation of a "Board Suite"--a dedicated office within the board that would be in charge of independent data collection and dissemination, therefore minimizing the dependence of the board on management for its information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional wisdom among corporate law theorists holds that the presence of a controlling shareholder should alleviate the problem of managerial opportunism because such a controller has both the power and incentives to curb excessive executive pay. This Article challenges that common understanding by proposing a different view based on an agency problem paradigm. Controlling shareholders, this Article suggests, may in fact overpay managers in order to maximize controllers ' consumption of private benefits, due to their close social and business ties with professional managers or for other reasons, such as being captured by professional managers. This tendency to overpay managers is further aggravated by the use of control-enhancing mechanisms, such as dual-class structures, which distort controllers ' monitoring incentives. The Article uses a unique approach to question conventional beliefs on executive pay by reviewing the ISS recommendations on say-on-pay votes, finding empirical indications that compensation packages in U.S. controlled companies appear to be a bigger problem than initially predicted. It, then, concludes by calling for a new regulatory approach: reconceptualize the pay of professional managers in controlled companies as an indirect, self-dealing transaction and subject it to the applicable rules that regulate conflicted transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides an overview on the production growth of natural gas in the Rocky Mountain states as well as the pipeline infrastructure in the U.S. It cites an increase of dry natural gas production in the Rocky Mountain states from an average of 5.49 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) to 8.61 Bcf/d in 2006. It adds that the annual dry natural gas production in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming has increased by over 4% a year since 1998 and an averaged 9.25% over the period, while the underground natural gas capacity is estimated to a total of 140 Bcf in 2005.

The authors compare the preparedness of the health care system in the U.S. and Israel in enhancing hospital surge capacity during a sudden mass casualty event. They claim that hospitals in Israel resemble that of U.S. hospitals in terms of technical sophistication, staffing and occupancy, but unlike the U.S., they are prepared to accept a sudden surge of casualties. They outline the doctrine developed by the Israeli Ministry of Health to enhance surge capacity. They also address the differences in hospital operations between the two countries.

Background: Severe cardiac injury caused by penetrating rib or sternal fractures after blunt chest trauma is a rare clinical entity that has been described in only a few case reports over the last half-century. As a result, questions have arisen about the utility of the cardiac component in the Focused Assessment with Sonography in Trauma (cFAST) examination in evaluating blunt trauma patients.Case Report: We present a series of 3 patients who sustained blunt trauma and were discovered on cFAST examination to have developed pericardial tamponade from overlying rib or sternal fractures in the emergency departments of two academic level I trauma hospitals in the United States. Why Should an Emergency Physician Be Aware of This? These cases highlight the need for emergency and trauma physicians to be aware of blunt-induced, penetrating trauma to the heart and mediastinum, and for future trauma care guidelines to consider the importance of the cFAST examination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medications with a higher risk of harm or that are unlikely to be beneficial are used by nearly all older patients in home health care (HHC). The objective of this study was to understand stakeholders' perspectives on challenges in deprescribing these medications for post-acute HHC patients. Qualitative individual interviews were conducted with stakeholders involved with post-acute deprescribing. Older HHC patients, HHC nurses, pharmacists, and primary/acute care/post-acute prescribers from 9 US states participated in individual qualitative interviews. Interview questions were focused on the experience, processes, roles, training, workflow, and challenges of deprescribing in hospital-to-home transitions. We used the constant comparison approach to identify and compare findings among patient, prescriber, and pharmacist and HHC nurse stakeholders. We interviewed 9 older patients, 11 HHC nurses, 5 primary care physicians (PCP), 3 pharmacists, 1 hospitalist, and 1 post-acute nurse practitioner. Four challenges were described in post-acute deprescribing for HHC patients. First, PCPs' time constraints, the timing of patient encounters after hospital discharge, and the lack of prioritization of deprescribing make it difficult for PCPs to initiate post-acute deprescribing. Second, patients are often confused about their medications, despite the care team's efforts in educating the patients. Third, communication is challenging between HHC nurses, PCPs, specialists, and hospitalists. Fourth, the roles of HHC nurses and pharmacists are limited in care team collaboration and discussion about post-acute deprescribing. Post-acute deprescribing relies on multiple parties in the care team yet it has challenges. Interventions to align the timing of deprescribing and that of post-acute care visits, prioritize deprescribing and allow clinicians more time to complete related tasks, improve medication education for patients, and ensure effective communication in the care team with synchronized electronic health record systems are needed to advance deprescribing during the transition from hospital to home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The study of physical injury from terrorist explosives is an increasing international area of research. However, there are few data sets to characterize the scope of injury and death from these devices. Therefore, one option is to begin evaluating statistics reported by a nontraditional public health data source, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Bomb Data Center. Methods: We reviewed data reported by the FBI Bomb Data Center for the years 1988-1997 and analyzed the number of bomb-related deaths and injuries and incidence of bombings. Results: The FBI reported 17,579 bombings, 427 related deaths, and 4,063 injuries in the United States between 1988 and 1997. The benefits of this data are reporting of information not normally found in public health data, including type of explosive device and explosive composition. The primary limitations include lack of case comparison and unknown methods of data reporting and data collection. Conclusion: To completely study physical injury from explosive devices requires a systematic and comprehensive data set. The FBI data provides an interesting statistical resource to assess the scope of injury from bombs in the United States, but at the current time cannot be used for extensive epidemiological analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Individuals at greater risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) display poorer cognitive functioning across various cognitive domains. This finding is particularly prevalent among older adults; however, few studies examine these relationships among younger adults or among African Americans., Purpose: The objective was to examine the relationships among 2 cardiovascular risk factors, elevated blood pressure and elevated triglycerides, and verbal learning in a community-based sample of African Americans., Methods: Measurements of blood pressure and triglycerides were obtained in 121 African-American adults and compared to performance on 3 domains of the California Verbal Learning Test-II (CVLT-II)., Results: Blood pressure was not related to CVLT-II performance. Triglyceride levels were inversely related to CVLT-II performance. Higher triglyceride levels were associated with poorer immediate, short delay and long delay recall., Conclusions: Consistent with studies involving older participants, the current investigation shows that in a nonelderly sample of African Americans, triglyceride levels may be related to cognitive functioning. Because early detection and intervention of vascular-related cognitive impairment may have a salutary effect, future studies should include younger adults to highlight the impact of cardiovascular risk on cognition.