Health of American Indian and Alaska Native Elders in California

Analyzes the health risks, health status, and utilization of and access to health services among American Indians/Alaska Natives age 55 and older in California, as well as trends in demographics and underlying factors including economic security

Entanglement, fractional magnetization and long-range interactions

Based on the theory of Matrix Product States, we give precise statements and complete analytical proofs of the following claim: a large fractionalization in the magnetization or the need of long-range interactions imply large entanglement in the state of a quantum spin chain.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur

Supersymmetric exact sequence, heat kernel and super KdV hierarchy

We introduce the free N=1 supersymmetric derivation ring and prove the existence of an exact sequence of supersymmetric rings and linear transformations. We apply necessary and sufficient conditions arising from this exact supersymmetric sequence to obtain the essential relations between conserved quantities, gradients and the N=1 super KdV hierarchy. We combine this algebraic approach with an analytic analysis of the super heat operator.We obtain the explicit expression for the Green's function of the super heat operator in terms of a series expansion and discuss its properties. The expansion is convergent under the assumption of bounded bosonic and fermionic potentials. We show that the asymptotic expansion when $t\to0^+$ of the Green's function for the super heat operator evaluated over its diagonal generates all the members of the N=1 super KdV hierarchy.Comment: 20 pages, to be published in JM

Generation of All-in-Focus Images by Noise-Robust Selective Fusion of Limited Depth-of-Field Images

The limited depth-of-field of some cameras prevents them from capturing perfectly focused images when the imaged scene covers a large distance range. In order to compensate for this problem, image fusion has been exploited for combining images captured with different camera settings, thus yielding a higher quality all-in-focus image. Since most current approaches for image fusion rely on maximizing the spatial frequency of the composed image, the fusion process is sensitive to noise. In this paper, a new algorithm for computing the all-in-focus image from a sequence of images captured with a low depth-of-field camera is presented. The proposed approach adaptively fuses the different frames of the focus sequence in order to reduce noise while preserving image features. The algorithm consists of three stages: 1) focus measure; 2) selectivity measure; 3) and image fusion. An extensive set of experimental tests has been carried out in order to compare the proposed algorithm with state-of-the-art all-in-focus methods using both synthetic and real sequences. The obtained results show the advantages of the proposed scheme even for high levels of noise

Who Do Farmers Trust? Identifying Farmer Support Systems During Times of Stress and Suicide Risk

Farmers experience high stress and elevated suicide risk. Using surveys distributed at a regional agricultural exposition, our study identified those who are closest to farmers and trusted during times of high stress, and how to communicate stress-related information to farmers. We found farmers were most likely to trust spouses, other farmers, friends, and faith leaders and preferred information from other farmers, agricultural publications, social media, churches, and Extension offices. Farmers and non-farmers differed significantly in views on these questions. This work identifies potential partners for Extension programming on farmer stress, highlighting the importance of including farmers in program development/delivery

Metal content determination in biodiesel samples by microwave mineralization and ICP-AES

El trabajo comprende la puesta a punto de un método de digestión, mediante calentamiento de microondas, de muestras de biodiesel obtenidas mediante catálisis homogénea de aceites vegetales, para la determinación de 20 elementos mediante ICP-AES

Matching-Adjusted Indirect Comparison (MAIC) of Tepotinib with Other MET Inhibitors for the Treatment of Advanced NSCLC with MET Exon 14 Skipping Mutations

Introduction MET exon 14 skipping in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (aNSCLC), can be targeted with MET inhibitors including tepotinib, capmatinib, savolitinib, and crizotinib. Matching-adjusted indirect comparison (MAIC) methodology was used to compare outcomes data between agents and to address bias from differences in baseline characteristics. Methods Patient-level data from the VISION study (tepotinib) were weighted for comparison with aggregate data from the GEOMETRY mono-1 (capmatinib), NCT02897479 (savolitinib) and PROFILE 1001 (crizotinib) studies in patients with aNSCLC, using baseline characteristics prognostic for overall survival (OS) in VISION. Overall response rate (ORR), OS, progression-free survival (PFS), and duration of response (DOR) were compared. Patients were stratified by line of therapy: overall (all lines), previously treated, and treatment-naive. Results Improvements in ORR and all time-to-event endpoints were predicted for tepotinib compared with crizotinib and savolitinib in the different populations, although comparisons with savolitinib were hindered by considerable differences in baseline patient populations. Tepotinib appeared to be associated with prolonged PFS and OS compared with capmatinib in previously treated patients (PFS HR 0.54; 95% CI 0.36-0.83; OS HR 0.66; 95% CI 0.42-1.06) and the overall populations (PFS HR 0.60; 95% CI 0.43-0.86; OS HR 0.72; 95% CI 0.49-1.05), with smaller improvements in DOR. The ORR comparisons between tepotinib and capmatinib identified a swing of up to +/- 6 percentage points in the weighted tepotinib ORR depending on the population studied (treatment-naive vs. previously treated patients). Conclusions The MAIC identified potential differences in efficacy endpoints with the different MET inhibitors, and predicted prolonged PFS and OS with tepotinib compared with capmatinib and crizotinib. Although MAIC cannot balance for unobserved factors, it remains an informative method to contextualize single-arm studies, where head-to-head trials are unlikely to be feasible

Pumping Iron - How Do Race and Gender Affect the Risk of Anemia in a Cohort of Predominantly Hispanic Heart Failure (HF) Patients Seen in a Community Hospital in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV)?

Introduction Anemia in patients with heart failure (HF) is common. Data reported shows a variable prevalence ranging from 10-40%. Additionally, it has also been demonstrated that it is associated with poor outcomes. Multiple risk factors have been shown to contribute to the presence of anemia in HF patients (1). We were interested in determining the risk factors for anemia in HF patients in our population in the lower Rio Grande Valley. Methods We performed a retrospective chart review of patients admitted with a diagnosis of HF (Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction HFpEF, Heart Failure with Reduced Ejection Fraction HFrEF or combined) during the year 2017 to our community hospital. Patients’ charts were reviewed for multimorbidities, laboratory data, and anemia treatments. Outcomes were assessed as readmissions and death within 1 year from index admission. Definitions were used according to preestablished guidelines. Statistical analysis was done using Minitab software and univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. Results A total of 320 patients were evaluated. The average age was 71 14, 121 (38%) were female, 229 (72%) were Hispanics, and average BMI was 31 7. 118 (37%) patients had HFrEF and 102 (32%) had HFpEF. 218 (68%) had coronary artery disease, 280 (88%) hypertension, 188 (59%) diabetes mellitus, 149 (47%) chronic kidney disease, and 102 (32%) atrial fibrillation. Of 320 patients that were evaluated, 185 (58%) had anemia with a mean hemoglobin level of 10 1 mg/dl. The major risk factors for anemia in our patient population were Hispanic race with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.8 (CI 1.01-2.3) p-value 0.03, HFpEF with an OR 1.6 (CI 1.2-2.6) p-value 0.04, female gender OR 2.3 (1.42-3.74) p-value 0.0007, and CKD with an OR 2.6 (CI 1.6-3.0) p-value 0.001 - all adjusted to age. Obesity and its different classifications was not a risk factor for anemia. Mortality and readmission rates were higher in patients with anemia (5.4% vs 2.9% and 34% vs 31%, respectively). Conclusions We found that women were more likely to have anemia than men, confirming previous observations (2). Additionally, Hispanics were more likely than non-Hispanics to have anemia, which has been suggested in previous studies (3). This probably accounts for the high prevalence of anemia in our patient population. We had anticipated that obesity would be a risk factor, but thorough analysis of the data could not detect any increase in anemia no matter the degree of obesity. We believe that further studies are warranted to evaluate this subset of HF patients since they are at higher risk of worse outcomes and to determine whether treating the anemia reduces negative outcomes such as death and readmission

Heavy-flavour production in Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC, measured with the ALICE detector

We present the first results from the ALICE experiment on the nuclear modification factors for heavy-flavour hadron production in Pb-Pb collisions at sqrt{s_NN}=2.76 TeV. Using proton-proton and lead-lead collision samples at sqrt{s}=7 TeV and sqrt{s_NN}=2.76 TeV, respectively, nuclear modification factors R_AA(pt) were measured for D mesons at central rapidity (via displaced decay vertex reconstruction), and for electrons and muons, at central and forward rapidity, respectively.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, plenary talk at Quark Matter 2011, Annecy, Franc

The KINDRA project. Sharing and evaluating groundwater research and knowledge in Europe

Groundwater knowledge and research in the European Union is often scattered and non-standardised, because of different subjects involved and different approaches from Member States. The Horizon2020 project KINDRA has conducted an EU-wide assessment of existing groundwater-related practical and scientific knowledge based on a new Hydrogeological Research Classification System, identifying more than 280 keywords related to three main categories (namely Operational Actions, Research topics and Societal Challenges) to be intersected in a 3D-diagram approach. The classification is supported by a web-service, the European Inventory of Groundwater Research, which acts not only as knowledge repository but also as a tool to help identify relevant researchm topics, existing research trends and critical research challenges. The records have been uploaded during the project by 20 national experts from National Associations of Geologists, under the umbrella of the European Federation of Geologists. The total number of metadata included in the inventory at the end of the project are about 2300, and the analysis of the results is considered useful for producing synergies, implementing policies and optimising water management in Europe. By the use of additional indicators, the database content has been analysed by occurrence of keywords, type of document, level of innovation. Using the three-axes classification, more easily understandable by 2D diagrams as bubble plots, occurrence and relationship of different topics (main categories) in groundwater research have been highlighted. This article summarizes the activities realized in relation to the common classification system and to the metadata included in the EIGR, showing the distribution of thecollected information in different categories and attributes identified by the classification