The effects of expectations on performance: generalizing Galatea

The Galatea effect occurs when self-efficacy is intentionally raised yielding an increase in performance. The study focused on generalizing the Galatea effect to the historically under researched populations of Blacks in the workforce. To raise self-efficacy, the participants in the experimental condition were presented with a scenario designed to increase specific self-efficacy through verbal persuasion. This study used a diverse sample of male and female college students. The dependent variable was performance on Sudoku – a cognition puzzle. The Sudoku puzzle is a test of deductive reasoning which can be related to cognitive performance. Cognitive ability is often used in business settings. The Sudoku puzzle is a logical reasoning puzzle that can be investigated using mathematics. Participants were asked to complete a scale expected to measure specific self-efficacy (Mathematics Self-Efficacy Scale). The study’s lack of significant findings suggests that the Galatea effect is more complex than has been perceived

A Modest Proposal: Leveraging Private Enforcement Mechanisms and the Bayh-Dole Act to Reduce Drug Prices in the U.S. Healthcare Industry

The United States healthcare system is one of the most expensive in the world. Unlike other products, when drug prices skyrocket, people may die. While advocating for various solutions, both the Biden and Trump administrations have recognized the importance of halting the rise of prescription drug prices. Most of the solutions advanced are focused on government-side initiatives, such as allowing Medicare to directly negotiate with pharmaceutical companies. Yet, the march-in rights built into the Bayh-Dole Act create an opportunity to set up a mechanism that would invite private actors to sue pharmaceutical companies for unconscionable drug pricing. The Bayh-Dole Act includes march-in rights which allow the government under certain circumstances to force the private parties that own the patents for drugs developed using federal funding to grant a license to an applicant. This Note analyzes the United States system of ex post law enforcement through private litigation for the healthcare system, including Paragraph IV litigation from the Hatch-Waxman Act, qui tam litigation, and antitrust litigation. Although private enforcement can be ad hoc and uneven, it provides an avenue for redress when regulation has failed and gives the party with the informational advantage control over litigation. Taken together, these private enforcement mechanisms work to moderate drug prices, reduce fraud in healthcare billing, and ensure a healthy, competitive pharmaceutical market. This Note advocates for an Amendment to the Bayh-Dole Act to clarify the criteria for the march-in rights by listing factors to define when drug prices are unreasonable or unconscionable, and to create a new mechanism for private enforcement where qui tam relators can bring suits to obtain licenses to manufacture and sell drugs at a lower price should a court find the newly set-out criteria have been violated. By housing the march-in rights in a system of private enforcement, Congress can create a system of ex post regulation for drug prices without stifling innovation or creating an unpredictable regulatory regime. This would ultimately create a relatively stable price ceiling for brand drug manufacturers to alter their economic behavior accordingly. The overall effect would be a system of more conscionable drug pricing for those drugs which the federal government funded

PaPaS: A Portable, Lightweight, and Generic Framework for Parallel Parameter Studies

The current landscape of scientific research is widely based on modeling and simulation, typically with complexity in the simulation's flow of execution and parameterization properties. Execution flows are not necessarily straightforward since they may need multiple processing tasks and iterations. Furthermore, parameter and performance studies are common approaches used to characterize a simulation, often requiring traversal of a large parameter space. High-performance computers offer practical resources at the expense of users handling the setup, submission, and management of jobs. This work presents the design of PaPaS, a portable, lightweight, and generic workflow framework for conducting parallel parameter and performance studies. Workflows are defined using parameter files based on keyword-value pairs syntax, thus removing from the user the overhead of creating complex scripts to manage the workflow. A parameter set consists of any combination of environment variables, files, partial file contents, and command line arguments. PaPaS is being developed in Python 3 with support for distributed parallelization using SSH, batch systems, and C++ MPI. The PaPaS framework will run as user processes, and can be used in single/multi-node and multi-tenant computing systems. An example simulation using the BehaviorSpace tool from NetLogo and a matrix multiply using OpenMP are presented as parameter and performance studies, respectively. The results demonstrate that the PaPaS framework offers a simple method for defining and managing parameter studies, while increasing resource utilization.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, PEARC '18: Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing, July 22--26, 2018, Pittsburgh, PA, US

Comparing intervention strategies for reducing Clostridioides difficile transmission in acute healthcare settings: An agent-based modeling study

BACKGROUND: Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is one of the most common healthcare infections. Common strategies aiming at controlling CDI include antibiotic stewardship, environmental decontamination, and improved hand hygiene and contact precautions. Mathematical models provide a framework to evaluate control strategies. Our objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of control strategies in decreasing C. difficile colonization and infection using an agent-based model in an acute healthcare setting. METHODS: We developed an agent-based model that simulates the transmission of C. difficile in medical wards. This model explicitly incorporates healthcare workers (HCWs) as vectors of transmission, tracks individual patient antibiotic histories, incorporates varying risk levels of antibiotics with respect to CDI susceptibility, and tracks contamination levels of ward rooms by C. difficile. Interventions include two forms of antimicrobial stewardship, increased environmental decontamination through room cleaning, improved HCW compliance, and a preliminary assessment of vaccination. RESULTS: Increased HCW compliance with CDI patients was ranked as the most effective intervention in decreasing colonizations, with reductions up to 56%. Antibiotic stewardship practices were highly ranked after contact precaution compliance. Vaccination and reduction of high-risk antibiotics were the most effective intervention in decreasing CDI. Vaccination reduced CDI cases to up to 90%, and the reduction of high-risk antibiotics decreased CDI cases up to 23%. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, interventions that decrease patient susceptibility to colonization by C. difficile, such as antibiotic stewardship, were the most effective interventions in reducing both colonizations and CDI cases

Inclusion and Equity Committee Recommendations for Diverse Recruitment Report

The UNLV University Libraries Inclusion and Equity Committee (IEC) developed the Diverse Recruitment project in order to fulfill its charge in supporting the Libraries’ commitment to increasing representation and retention of historically underrepresented groups at all levels of staff. These recommendations draw upon a range of best practices, procedures, and programs. Largely informed by Duke University’s February 2018 Task Force for Diversity in Recruitment Report, three task forces each investigated a different aspect of understanding diverse recruitment as it related to the Libraries. These results were synthesized into a series of recommendations for the Libraries’ Leadership Team (LLT) and the Libraries to consider implementing

Family Communication in a Population at Risk for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Encouraging family communication is an integral component of genetic counseling; therefore, we sought to identify factors impacting communication to family members at risk for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM). Participants (N = 383) completed an online survey assessing: 1) demographics (gender, genetic test results, HCM family history, and disease severity); 2) illness representations; 3) family functioning and cohesiveness; 4) coping styles; 5) comprehension of HCM autosomal dominant inheritance; and 6) communication of HCM risk information to at‐risk relatives. Participants were a national sample of individuals with HCM, recruited through the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Association. Data from 183 participants were analyzed using a logistic regression analysis, with family communication as a dichotomous dependent variable. We found that female gender and higher comprehension of autosomal dominant inheritance were significant predictors of participants’ communication of HCM risk information to all their siblings and children. Our results suggest that utilizing interventions that promote patient comprehension (e.g., a teaching‐focused model of genetic counseling) are important and may positively impact family communication within families with HCM.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147017/1/jgc40336.pd

An Expanded Stratigraphic Record of the Devonian-Carboniferous Boundary Hangenberg Biogeochemical Event from Southeast Iowa (U.S.A.)

The Devonian-Carboniferous boundary in the type area of the Mississippian subsystem (tri-state area of Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri) has been historically difficult to identify. Many of the localities contain similar lithologies and stratigraphic successions, but chronostratigraphic correlation of seemingly identical lithologies can vary greatly in this interval and frequently this has led to miscorrelation. In particular, the similar lithofacies that comprise the McCraney Formation and Louisiana Formation have been a source of stratigraphic confusion for over 100 years. To investigate the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary interval in the Mississippian type area we selected two localities in southeastern Iowa, the H-28 core from Lee County outside of Keokuk, Iowa, and the Starr’s Cave outcrop located near Burlington, Iowa. In total, 62 conodont samples and 299 carbonate carbon isotope samples were processed for this study and recorded the Hangenberg positive carbon isotope excursion and 25 conodont species, including a diverse assemblage of siphonodellids. The Hangenberg excursion is recorded in over 20 m of strata in southeast Iowa, making this one of the thickest stratigraphic records of this important biogeochemical event yet recovered, and helps to define more clearly the position of the base of the Carboniferous System in the region. These results show that the “McCraney” Fm. at the Starr’s Cave outcrop and the coeval carbonate unit in the H-28 core are both the Louisiana Formation, and calls into question the use of the name McCraney throughout the State of Iowa

Investigation of Testosterone, Androstenone, and Estradiol Metabolism in HepG2 Cells and Primary Culture Pig Hepatocytes and Their Effects on 17βHSD7 Gene Expression

Steroid metabolism is important in various species. The accumulation of androgen metabolite, androstenone, in pig adipose tissue is negatively associated with pork flavor, odour and makes the meat unfit for human consumption. The 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 7 (17βHSD7) expressed abundantly in porcine liver, and it was previously suggested to be associated with androstenone levels. Understanding the enzymes and metabolic pathways responsible for androstenone as well as other steroids metabolism is important for improving the meat quality. At the same time, metabolism of steroids is known to be species- and tissue-specific. Therefore it is important to investigate between-species variations in the hepatic steroid metabolism and to elucidate the role of 17βHSD7 in this process. Here we used an effective methodological approach, liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, to investigate species-specific metabolism of androstenone, testosterone and beta-estradiol in HepG2 cell line, and pig cultured hepatocytes. Species- and concentration-depended effect of steroids on 17βHSD7 gene expression was also investigated. It was demonstrated that the investigated steroids can regulate the 17βHSD7 gene expression in HepG2 and primary cultured porcine hepatocytes in a concentration-dependent and species-dependent pattern. Investigation of steroid metabolites demonstrated that androstenone formed a 3′-hydroxy compound 3β-hydroxy-5α-androst-16-ene. Testosterone was metabolized to 4-androstene-3,17-dione. Estrone was found as the metabolite for β-estradiol. Inhibition study with 17βHSD inhibitor apigenin showed that apigenin didn't affect androstenone metabolism. Apigenin at high concentration (50 μM) tends to inhibit testosterone metabolism but this inhibition effect was negligible. Beta-estradiol metabolism was notably inhibited with apigenin at high concentration. The study also established that the level of testosterone and β-estradiol metabolites was markedly increased after co-incubation with high concentration of apigenin. This study established that 17βHSD7 is not the key enzyme responsible for androstenone and testosterone metabolism in porcine liver cells. © 2012 Chen et al