THE PREVALENCE OF BIRTH DEFECTS AMONG NON-HISPANIC ASIANS AND AMERICAN INDIANS/ALASKA NATIVES IN TEXAS, 1999-2015

Background: Birth defects are disproportionately higher among certain race/ethnic groups. We examined how birth defects prevalence differs among the less studied non-Hispanic (NH) Asian and any American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations, relative to NH Whites. Methods: Data were obtained from the Texas Birth Defect Registry from 1999 to 2015 for infants born to Texas-resident mothers who were NH White, NH Asian, or AI/AN. This covers a livebirth population of 2.6 million. Prevalence ratios were calculated for NH Asians and AI/ANs (relative to NH Whites) for 44 birth defects using Poisson regression and were adjusted for maternal age. Results: After adjustment, there were 34 statistically significant prevalence ratios. Among NH Asians, 23 defects had a lower adjusted prevalence ratio (aPR) and 3 defects had a higher aPR. AI/ANs had 2 defects with a significantly lower aPR and 6 with a higher aPR. Conclusions: NH Asians generally have a lower prevalence for birth defects while AI/ANs have a higher prevalence compared to NH Whites. These findings update the limited previous literature on this topic and also warrant additional research among larger populations in order to identify the true association of these understudied race/ethnic groups

On the use of lognormal distribution for environmental data analysis

Contaminant concentration data from Superfund sites is quite often positively skewed, and the log-normal theory based statistical procedures are typically used for such data. Recent work in the environmental statistics literature, however, has shown that the use of log-normal theory based formulas, such as the H-statistic confidence interval, is problematic. The performance of the H -- UCL in the presence of non -- detects in the sample is investigated via simulated examples. When comparing mean contaminant concentration at a site with that of the background, the 2-sample t-test on log-transformed data is commonly used. A part of this thesis deals with investigation of power of the t-test on log-transformed data by using Monte Carlo simulation

Effects of Simple Postural Instructions on Running Form Modification in Recreational Runners – Preliminary Findings

Background and purpose: Running is one of the most popular exercises but it is also an activity with a high incidence of injury. Running form modification involving a forward lean of the trunk and forefoot strike pattern has been shown to be effective in attenuating the impact forces of the lower extremity. However, it is currently unknown how these changes can be most effectively instructed and learned by the runners. Previous studies have shown that practicing a motor task with an external focus can facilitate learning and retention when compared to the more common internal focus instructions. The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of external and internal attentional focus cues on trunk posture and peak vertical ground reaction force (GRF) during the stance phase of running. Subjects and Methods: Ten recreational runners were selected for this study and randomly assigned tone of two groups receiving external or internal instructions designed to modify their running form. Trunk posture and GRF were obtained using a 3D motion capture system and a force plate instrumented treadmill while running at 2.5 m/s and a self-selected speed. Subjects were tested over a 5-week time period consisting of 4 sessions over a 4-week training program, followed by a final session 1 week after the training program to analyze retention of running form modification. Results: Overall there was a significant increase in trunk angle observed over time, following instruction, for both groups at speed 2.5 m/s. Running at speeds 2.5 m/s and a self-selected speed showed no statistically significant difference in increased trunk angle or GRF when comparing an internal versus external attentional focus. Conclusion: Simple postural instructions were shown to be effective for inducing greater trunk lean during running. This study found no difference in trunk angle or GRF when comparing internal and external attentional focus groups. Future studies would benefit from using clear and proper instructions that incorporate internal and external attentional focus cues with feedback to reinforce motor learning

Temporal Feature Selection with Symbolic Regression

Building and discovering useful features when constructing machine learning models is the central task for the machine learning practitioner. Good features are useful not only in increasing the predictive power of a model but also in illuminating the underlying drivers of a target variable. In this research we propose a novel feature learning technique in which Symbolic regression is endowed with a ``Range Terminal\u27\u27 that allows it to explore functions of the aggregate of variables over time. We test the Range Terminal on a synthetic data set and a real world data in which we predict seasonal greenness using satellite derived temperature and snow data over a portion of the Arctic. On the synthetic data set we find Symbolic regression with the Range Terminal outperforms standard Symbolic regression and Lasso regression. On the Arctic data set we find it outperforms standard Symbolic regression, fails to beat the Lasso regression, but finds useful features describing the interaction between Land Surface Temperature, Snow, and seasonal vegetative growth in the Arctic

An Expert System for an Idiosyncratic Domain: Love, Intimacy, and Friendship.

No abstract available

A systematic review of whole class, subject based, pedagogies with reported outcomes for the academic and social inclusion of pupils with special educational needs in mainstream classrooms

Schools across the world have responded to international and national initiatives designed to further the development of inclusive education. In England, there is a statutory requirement for all schools to provide effective learning opportunities for all pupils (QCA, 2000) and children with special educational needs (SEN) are positioned as having a right to be within mainstream classrooms accessing an appropriate curriculum (SENDA, 2001). Previous reviews which have sought to identify classroom practices that support the inclusion of children with SEN have been technically non-systematic and hence a need for a systematic review within this area has been identified (Nind et al., 2004; Rix et al., 2006). This systematic literature review is the last in a series of three

The Distribution of Some Natural Resources Between India and Pakistan

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston Universit

Comparing The Effects Of Menthol Status On The Behavioral Pharmacology Of Smoking Reduced Nicotine Content Cigarettes

Introduction: An active area of tobacco regulatory science research focuses on examining the effects of varying the nicotine content of cigarettes as part of a potential national policy to lower their nicotine content levels to reduce addiction potential. The present study examines differences in the behavioral effects of reduced nicotine content cigarettes related to their menthol status. Menthol is the only cigarette flavoring that is still legally permissible according to Food and Drug administration regulations. Methods: Participants were 26 current adult smokers from three populations especially vulnerable to tobacco use and addiction (economically disadvantaged women, opioid-dependent individuals, individuals with affective disorders) dichotomized as menthol (n=11) or non-menthol (n=15) smokers. Participants completed 14 experimental sessions following acute smoking abstinence (CO\u3c50% baseline level). Across sessions, participants smoked four Spectrum research cigarettes (22nd Century Group, Clarence, NY) with varying nicotine content levels (0.4mg/g, 2.4 mg/g, 5.2 mg/g, 15.8 mg/g) or their usual brand cigarette. Research cigarettes were mentholated or non-mentholated corresponding to participants usual brand. Upon completion of smoking, participants completed tasks measuring reinforcing efficacy, subjective effects, topography, and withdrawal and craving measures. Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance was used for all analyses (p\u3c.05). Results: Main effects of menthol status, as well as interactions of nicotine dose and menthol were noted across subscales of subjective effects and direct assessments of reinforcing efficacy. Usual brand mentholated cigarettes produced a profile of equal or greater relative reinforcing effects than usual brand non-mentholated cigarettes, while mentholated research cigarettes produced a profile of effects that fell below (i.e., lower relative reinforcing effects compared to usual brand or non-mentholated cigarettes) those of non-mentholated research cigarettes. Conclusions: Mentholated research cigarettes produce a lower profile of reinforcing and subjective effects, without discernible differences in smoking topography. The potential impact of mentholation on reinforcing efficacy and subjective effects should be considered when using Spectrum research cigarettes

Implementation of JPEG compression and motion estimation on FPGA hardware

A hardware implementation of JPEG allows for real-time compression in data intensivve applications, such as high speed scanning, medical imaging and satellite image transmission. Implementation options include dedicated DSP or media processors, FPGA boards, and ASICs. Factors that affect the choice of platform selection involve cost, speed, memory, size, power consumption, and case of reconfiguration. The proposed hardware solution is based on a Very high speed integrated circuit Hardware Description Language (VHDL) implememtation of the codec with prefered realization using an FPGA board due to speed, cost and flexibility factors; The VHDL language is commonly used to model hardware impletations from a top down perspective. The VHDL code may be simulated to correct mistakes and subsequently synthesized into hardware using a synthesis tool, such as the xilinx ise suite. The same VHDL code may be synthesized into a number of sifferent hardware architetcures based on constraints given. For example speed was the major constraint when synthesizing the pipeline of jpeg encoding and decoding, while chip area and power consumption were primary constraints when synthesizing the on-die memory because of large area. Thus, there is a trade off between area and speed in logic synthesis