2,013 research outputs found
Use of Public Record Databases in Newspaper and Television Newsrooms
After almost fifty years of unprecedented freedom, access to public records is under threat today at the state and federal level. Survey research and in-depth interviews of newspaper and television journalists show that public records are being obtained through several mechanisms, including databases. This Comment, together with its underlying study, illustrates that these databases are essential to developing certain stories, including some covering the most critical subjects: investigative reports, crime, and political stories. Therefore, this Comment argues, restricting access to public records has the potential to halt or substantially hinder the mediaâs ability to serve as a check on business and government
Use of Public Record Databases in Newspaper and Television Newsrooms
After almost fifty years of unprecedented freedom, access to public records is under threat today at the state and federal level. Survey research and in-depth interviews of newspaper and television journalists show that public records are being obtained through several mechanisms, including databases. This Comment, together with its underlying study, illustrates that these databases are essential to developing certain stories, including some covering the most critical subjects: investigative reports, crime, and political stories. Therefore, this Comment argues, restricting access to public records has the potential to halt or substantially hinder the mediaâs ability to serve as a check on business and government
Resisting recommended treatment for prostate cancer: a qualitative analysis of the lived experience of possible overdiagnosis
Training Shelter Dogs for Service and Therapy Work
Are shelter dogsâ reliable candidates for service work, and what is the best way to utilize the dogs selected to be successful in the field of work? In this research project we were able to broaden our data by temperament testing more dogs in the Putnam County Animal Shelter, using three steps of evaluation. We tested behavioral issues such as fear, fear aggression, food aggression, dog aggression, lack of confidence, etc. With the selected few dogs, we were able to pursue training in the areas or diabetic detection, cancer detection, peanut detection, and therapy work. With these selected dogs, the goal was to remove them from a shelter setting as quickly as possible; to increase chances of success with this project, some of the researchers adopted the dogs to further train in the tasks assigned to the dog. For the full duration of the research project, the team continuously evaluated dogs as they cycled into the shelter. The most important attribute of the dogs was confidence and ability to engage with the handler in new environments. Throughout the entire process of evaluations, the dogs were introduced to new environments slowly to decrease the amount of stress and help with developing communication with the handler. The dogs had to pass through four phases of evaluations. For conditioning dogs to odor and scent discrimination we have investigated designing a scent wall to minimize the contact the handler has with the odor source
The Lobby in transition: what the 2009 MPsâ expenses scandal revealed about the changing relationship between politicians and the Westminster Lobby?
The 2009 MPs' expenses scandal was one of the most significant political stories of modern times. It raised questions, not just about the ethics and behaviour of MPs but also about the relationship between politicians at Westminster and the political correspondents who follow them on a daily basis, known as âthe lobbyâ. For the significance of this scandal, in media terms, was that the story was not broken by members of the lobby but came from outside the traditional Westminster news gathering process. This paper examines why this was the case and it compares the lobby today with that which was described and analysed by Jeremy Tunstall and Colin Seymour-Ure in their respective studies more than 40 years ago. The article concludes that the lobby missed the story partly because of the nature of the lobby itself and partly as a result of a number of specific changes which have taken place in the media and the political systems over the past 40 years
The Impact of Prenatal Nicotine Exposure on Impulsivity and Neural Firing in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex
Prenatal nicotine exposure (PNE) is linked to a large number of psychiatric disorders,
including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Current literature suggests that
core deficits observed in ADHD reflect abnormal inhibitory control governed by the
prefrontal cortex (PFC) of the brain. The PFC is structurally altered by PNE, but it is still
unclear how neural firing is affected during tasks that test behavioral inhibition, such as
the stop-signal task, or if neural correlates related to inhibitory control are affected after
PNE in awake behaving animals. To address these questions, we recorded from single
medial PFC (mPFC) neurons in control rats and PNE rats as they performed our stopsignal
task. We found that PNE rats were faster for all trial types and were less likely to
inhibit the behavioral response on STOP trials. Neurons in mPFC fired more strongly on
STOP trials and were correlated with accuracy and reaction time. Although the number of
neurons exhibiting significant modulation during task performance did not differ between
groups, overall activity in PNE was reduced. We conclude that PNE makes rats impulsive
and reduces firing in mPFC neurons that carry signals related to response inhibition
A feasibility study of a theory-based intervention to improve appropriate polypharmacy for older people in primary care
Background: A general practitioner (GP)-targeted intervention aimed at improving the prescribing of appropriate polypharmacy for older people was previously developed using a systematic, theory-based approach based on the UK Medical Research Councilâs complex intervention framework. The primary intervention component comprised a video demonstration of a GP prescribing appropriate polypharmacy during a consultation with an older patient. The video was delivered to GPs online and included feedback emphasising the positive outcomes of performing the behaviour. As a complementary intervention component, patients were invited to scheduled medication review consultations with GPs. This study aimed to test the feasibility of the intervention and study procedures (recruitment, data collection).
Methods: GPs from two general practices were given access to the video, and reception staff scheduled consultations with older patients receiving polypharmacy (âĽ4 medicines). Primary feasibility study outcomes were the usability and acceptability of the intervention to GPs. Feedback was collected from GP and patient participants using structured questionnaires. Clinical data were also extracted from recruited patientsâ medical records (baseline and 1 month post-consultation). The feasibility of applying validated assessment of prescribing appropriateness (STOPP/ START criteria, Medication Appropriateness Index) and medication regimen complexity (Medication Regimen Complexity Index) to these data was investigated. Data analysis was descriptive, providing an overview of participantsâ feedback and clinical assessment findings.
Results: Four GPs and ten patients were recruited across two practices. The intervention was considered usable and acceptable by GPs. Some reservations were expressed by GPs as to whether the video truly reflected resource and time pressures encountered in the general practice working environment. Patient feedback on the scheduled consultations was positive. Patients welcomed the opportunity to have their medications reviewed. Due to the short time to follow-up and a lack of detailed clinical information in patient records, it was not feasible to detect any prescribing changes or to apply the assessment tools to patientsâ clinical data.
Conclusion: The findings will help to further refine the intervention and study procedures (including time to follow-up) which will be tested in a randomised pilot study that will inform the design of a definitive trial to evaluate the interventionâs effectiveness
Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS
has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions
at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection
criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined.
For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a
muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the
whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4,
while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The
efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than
90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall
momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The
transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity
for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be
better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions
of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO
Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS
has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions
at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection
criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined.
For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a
muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the
whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4,
while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The
efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than
90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall
momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The
transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity
for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be
better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions
of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO
X-ray emission from the Sombrero galaxy: discrete sources
We present a study of discrete X-ray sources in and around the
bulge-dominated, massive Sa galaxy, Sombrero (M104), based on new and archival
Chandra observations with a total exposure of ~200 ks. With a detection limit
of L_X = 1E37 erg/s and a field of view covering a galactocentric radius of ~30
kpc (11.5 arcminute), 383 sources are detected. Cross-correlation with Spitler
et al.'s catalogue of Sombrero globular clusters (GCs) identified from HST/ACS
observations reveals 41 X-rays sources in GCs, presumably low-mass X-ray
binaries (LMXBs). We quantify the differential luminosity functions (LFs) for
both the detected GC and field LMXBs, whose power-low indices (~1.1 for the
GC-LF and ~1.6 for field-LF) are consistent with previous studies for
elliptical galaxies. With precise sky positions of the GCs without a detected
X-ray source, we further quantify, through a fluctuation analysis, the GC LF at
fainter luminosities down to 1E35 erg/s. The derived index rules out a
faint-end slope flatter than 1.1 at a 2 sigma significance, contrary to recent
findings in several elliptical galaxies and the bulge of M31. On the other
hand, the 2-6 keV unresolved emission places a tight constraint on the field
LF, implying a flattened index of ~1.0 below 1E37 erg/s. We also detect 101
sources in the halo of Sombrero. The presence of these sources cannot be
interpreted as galactic LMXBs whose spatial distribution empirically follows
the starlight. Their number is also higher than the expected number of cosmic
AGNs (52+/-11 [1 sigma]) whose surface density is constrained by deep X-ray
surveys. We suggest that either the cosmic X-ray background is unusually high
in the direction of Sombrero, or a distinct population of X-ray sources is
present in the halo of Sombrero.Comment: 11 figures, 5 tables, ApJ in pres
- âŚ