Representation and Hispanic School Boards in North Central Texas: Confirming a Lack of Representation

This paper provides an overview of representation as defined by scholars and applies their theories to school boards. The paper presents a study of 156 school districts in the North Central Texas region to reveal the degree of Hispanic school board representation in two educational regions. The study includes an overview of the number of seats on each school board; Hispanic school board membership and percentages; Hispanic student enrollment in each district, and the percentage of Hispanic students in each district. The study concludes that Hispanic children are underrepresented

Responsive Management: Municipal Leadership for an Aging Population

This article focuses on the responsive management of municipal leadership by identifying organizational and community values that affect age friendly policy making. The data comes from a sample of 1050 cities extracted from a national list of cities identified as place geography on the U.S. census list of geographies. The web-based questionnaire explored policy choices of 331 respondents in the areas of mobility, housing, the built environment, and public service delivery administered between May and August 2016. The institutionalization of the needs of an aging population in city management principles results in high levels of age friendly policy action by cities. Public advocacy on aging issues enhances the impact on local policy-making. Safeguarding of public interest through city management suggests municipalities may adjust procedurally to respond to the needs of an aging population. Public managers may find opportunities to facilitate increased policy action and services to support a growing older adult population. There are implications for older people to age in place when their community lacks municipal leadership on aging in place policies and older people have limited voice on aging issues

The Logic of Uncertainty and Executive Discretion in Decision Making: The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex Ebola Response

This paper addresses an important question: what can a highly complex public health situation such as the Dallas-Fort Worth Ebola outbreak tell us about the use of discretion by executive level public administrators? The public administration literature is rich with evidence of street-level bureaucratic discretion, but has not explored executive level discretion decision making. The authors argue that in highly complex situations of uncertainty, such as in the case of the Dallas-Fort Worth regional Ebola emergency response, the executive use of discretion translates to decisions under the conditions of uncertainty. This article theorizes a logic of uncertainty when two important assumptions exist; the situation is absent a plan to guide decision making, and the decision makers lack any previous precedent with the situation. Results indicate that when survey respondents departed from their emergency management plan, and planned as the event folded, they were more likely to use executive discretion decision making

Soluciones globales para vertederos locales a través del aprendizaje y servicio estudiantil

La generación de más de 3,5 millones de Ton/día de residuos sólidos urbanos convierte a esta problemática en un asunto prioritario a resolver. México, al ser el 9° país que más residuos produce (103 mil Ton/día) debe buscar soluciones al respecto, ya que tan solo en el Estado de México seis municipios concentran más del 50% de la generación de residuos debido a la gran concentración poblacional e industrial. El principal problema que el Estado de México enfrenta es que solo el 4,26% de los residuos reciclables son valorizados, por lo que una gran cantidad de toneladas de residuos deben disponerse y solo el 37% se conduce a rellenos sanitarios adecuados. El resto son colocados en espacios abiertos (comúnmente llamados vertederos o tiraderos) sin control operacional o de protección del medio ambiente y salud. Los lixiviados (efluentes líquidos percolados a través de residuos sólidos debido a agua de lluvia e hidrólisis de desechos), son otro grave problema que atañe a todos los sitios de disposición de residuos sólidos, ya que contienen grandes cantidades de materia orgánica, compuestos orgánicos organoclorados y fenólicos e incluso plaguicidas residuales y metales pesados. El presente trabajo financiado por el programa 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund, y ExxonMobil, tiene como finalidad promover la movilidad estudiantil entre la Universidad del Norte de Texas (Denton, Texas, EE.UU.), la Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Argentina) y la Universidad Autónoma del Estado México a través del Centro Interamericano de Recursos del Agua (CIRA)-apoyado por la Universidad Tecnológica del Valle de Toluca (UTVT) con la finalidad de generar iniciativas para encontrar soluciones globales y recomendar políticas públicas que aborden la contaminación medioambiental generada por los rellenos sanitarios y sus impactos en las comunidades locales.Trabajo publicado en Acta Bioquímica Clínica Latinoamericana; no. 52, supl. 2, parte II, diciembre de 2018.Universidad Nacional de La Plat

Captura sustentable del dióxido de carbono en los lixiviados de un relleno sanitario

Las actividades de tratamiento y manejo de los residuos sólidos urbanos (RSU) son fuente de emisión de gases de efecto invernadero tales como son el metano (CH4) y el dióxido de carbono (CO2), principales gases generados y emitidos por los rellenos de RSU. Según la EPA, los rellenos generan aproximadamente el 20,2% del total de las emisiones de metano antropogénico, y es el tercer más grande generador de éstos en los EE.UU. Otro producto de la descomposición de los RSU en un relleno son los lixiviados, efluente líquido formado por la infiltración del agua de lluvia e hidrólisis de los RSU, orgánicos e inorgánicos. En el sitio de estudio se utiliza un material arcilloso llamado tepetate y parcialmente también un compuesto de cal comercialmente denominado calhidra, ambos como medio de recubrimiento de los RSU previo a la compactación. En el presente trabajo se estudia la capacidad de los lixiviados para capturar, en los rellenos, el CO2 producido por la descomposición de la materia orgánica de los RSU, y por la propiedad del agua de disolver este gas y de retenerlo en forma disuelta como bicarbonato cuando el pH del lixiviado tiende a un valor básico al aumentar la edad de operación, como es el caso del sitio en estudio en el que el pH es de 8.2 a 8.7; una expresión de la concentración del CO2 capturado en el lixiviado es la alcalinidad como g/m3 de carbonato de calcio, que aquí llega a ser mayor a las 14.000 unidades de alcalinidad y que equivale a más de 12 kg de CO2/m3 de lixiviado. Una condición que promueve la interacción de fases líquido-gas para la captura del CO2 en el lixiviado es el encapsulado de los RSU en capas de recubrimiento de tepetate y calhidra.Trabajo publicado en Acta Bioquímica Clínica Latinoamericana; no. 52, supl. 2, parte I, diciembre de 2018.Universidad Nacional de La Plat

Why Are Outcomes Different for Registry Patients Enrolled Prospectively and Retrospectively? Insights from the Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF).

Background: Retrospective and prospective observational studies are designed to reflect real-world evidence on clinical practice, but can yield conflicting results. The GARFIELD-AF Registry includes both methods of enrolment and allows analysis of differences in patient characteristics and outcomes that may result. Methods and Results: Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and ≥1 risk factor for stroke at diagnosis of AF were recruited either retrospectively (n = 5069) or prospectively (n = 5501) from 19 countries and then followed prospectively. The retrospectively enrolled cohort comprised patients with established AF (for a least 6, and up to 24 months before enrolment), who were identified retrospectively (and baseline and partial follow-up data were collected from the emedical records) and then followed prospectively between 0-18 months (such that the total time of follow-up was 24 months; data collection Dec-2009 and Oct-2010). In the prospectively enrolled cohort, patients with newly diagnosed AF (≤6 weeks after diagnosis) were recruited between Mar-2010 and Oct-2011 and were followed for 24 months after enrolment. Differences between the cohorts were observed in clinical characteristics, including type of AF, stroke prevention strategies, and event rates. More patients in the retrospectively identified cohort received vitamin K antagonists (62.1% vs. 53.2%) and fewer received non-vitamin K oral anticoagulants (1.8% vs . 4.2%). All-cause mortality rates per 100 person-years during the prospective follow-up (starting the first study visit up to 1 year) were significantly lower in the retrospective than prospectively identified cohort (3.04 [95% CI 2.51 to 3.67] vs . 4.05 [95% CI 3.53 to 4.63]; p = 0.016). Conclusions: Interpretations of data from registries that aim to evaluate the characteristics and outcomes of patients with AF must take account of differences in registry design and the impact of recall bias and survivorship bias that is incurred with retrospective enrolment. Clinical Trial Registration: - URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov . Unique identifier for GARFIELD-AF (NCT01090362)

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Risk profiles and one-year outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation in India: Insights from the GARFIELD-AF Registry.

BACKGROUND: The Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF) is an ongoing prospective noninterventional registry, which is providing important information on the baseline characteristics, treatment patterns, and 1-year outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). This report describes data from Indian patients recruited in this registry. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 52,014 patients with newly diagnosed AF were enrolled globally; of these, 1388 patients were recruited from 26 sites within India (2012-2016). In India, the mean age was 65.8 years at diagnosis of NVAF. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor for AF, present in 68.5% of patients from India and in 76.3% of patients globally (P < 0.001). Diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD) were prevalent in 36.2% and 28.1% of patients as compared with global prevalence of 22.2% and 21.6%, respectively (P < 0.001 for both). Antiplatelet therapy was the most common antithrombotic treatment in India. With increasing stroke risk, however, patients were more likely to receive oral anticoagulant therapy [mainly vitamin K antagonist (VKA)], but average international normalized ratio (INR) was lower among Indian patients [median INR value 1.6 (interquartile range {IQR}: 1.3-2.3) versus 2.3 (IQR 1.8-2.8) (P < 0.001)]. Compared with other countries, patients from India had markedly higher rates of all-cause mortality [7.68 per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval 6.32-9.35) vs 4.34 (4.16-4.53), P < 0.0001], while rates of stroke/systemic embolism and major bleeding were lower after 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Compared to previously published registries from India, the GARFIELD-AF registry describes clinical profiles and outcomes in Indian patients with AF of a different etiology. The registry data show that compared to the rest of the world, Indian AF patients are younger in age and have more diabetes and CAD. Patients with a higher stroke risk are more likely to receive anticoagulation therapy with VKA but are underdosed compared with the global average in the GARFIELD-AF. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION-URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01090362

New-Student Orientations: Supporting Success and Socialization in Graduate Programs

This article describes the use of an orientation logic model to examine whether certain orientation program characteristics, such as resources and tenets, are associated with student retention, grade achievement, and socialization