2,698 research outputs found
Modeling of the Temporal Patterns of Fluoxetine Prescriptions and Suicide Rates in the United States
BACKGROUND: To study the potential association of antidepressant use and suicide at a population level, we analyzed the associations between suicide rates and dispensing of the prototypic SSRI antidepressant fluoxetine in the United States during the period 1960â2002. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Sources of data included Centers of Disease Control and US Census Bureau age-adjusted suicide rates since 1960 and numbers of fluoxetine sales in the US, since its introduction in 1988. We conducted statistical analysis of age-adjusted population data and prescription numbers. Suicide rates fluctuated between 12.2 and 13.7 per 100,000 for the entire population from the early 1960s until 1988. Since then, suicide rates have gradually declined, with the lowest value of 10.4 per 100,000 in 2000. This steady decline is significantly associated with increased numbers of fluoxetine prescriptions dispensed from 2,469,000 in 1988 to 33,320,000 in 2002 (r(s) = â0.92; p < 0.001). Mathematical modeling of what suicide rates would have been during the 1988â2002 period based on pre-1988 data indicates that since the introduction of fluoxetine in 1988 through 2002 there has been a cumulative decrease in expected suicide mortality of 33,600 individuals (posterior median, 95% Bayesian credible interval 22,400â45,000). CONCLUSIONS: The introduction of SSRIs in 1988 has been temporally associated with a substantial reduction in the number of suicides. This effect may have been more apparent in the female population, whom we postulate might have particularly benefited from SSRI treatment. While these types of data cannot lead to conclusions on causality, we suggest here that in the context of untreated depression being the major cause of suicide, antidepressant treatment could have had a contributory role in the reduction of suicide rates in the period 1988â2002
Disarmament and Development: An Idea Whose Time Should Have Come
SUMMARY In 1982 the General Assembly advised governments âto start to plan and prepare for a conversion process which could be implemented in a disarmament situationâ. But to make the required decisions and actions, drastic changes were needed in the behaviour of political leaders, particularly those of the dominant military powers. So far, efforts to create a political constituency for disarmament and development have not been successful. Only the Swedish government has undertaken a study, resulting in the report, In Pursuit of Disarmament . Although this study does not necessarily establish a model that can be replicated in other countries, it does show that the UN's recommendations can in principle be put into effect. SOMMAIRE DĂ©sarmement et dĂ©veloppement: II n'est jamais trop tard pour y penser En 1982 l'AssemblĂ©e GĂ©nĂ©rale conseillait aux gouvernements 'de commencer Ă planifier et Ă prĂ©parer un procĂ©dĂ© de conversion qui pourrait ĂȘtre rendu effectif dans une situation de dĂ©sarmement. âMais afin de prendre les dĂ©cisions correctes et d'agir en consĂ©quence, il faudrait des changements radicaux dans l'attitude des chefs politiques, particuliĂšrement ceux des puissances militaires dominantesâ. Jusqu'Ă prĂ©sent les efforts dirigĂ©s Ă la crĂ©ation d'une circonscription Ă©lectorale politique en faveur du dĂ©sarmement et du dĂ©veloppement n'ont pas abouti. Seul le gouvernement SuĂ©dois a entrepris une Ă©tude, figurant dans mon rapport, In Pursuit of Disarmament . Quoique cette Ă©tude n'Ă©tablit pas nĂ©cessairement un modĂšle qui pourrait ĂȘtre adaptĂ© dans d'autres pays, il montre que les recommendations des Nations Unies peuvent en principe ĂȘtre mise en pratique. RESUMEN Desarme y desarrollo: una idea cuyo turno debiera haber llegado En 1982, la Asamblea General le recomendĂł a los gobiernos âque empezaran a planificar y a prepararse para un proceso de conversiĂłn a implementarse en una situaciĂłn de desarmeâ. El comportamiento de los dirigentes polĂticos, especialmente de aquellos dĂ© las potencias militares dominantes tiene que cambiar drĂĄsticamente si se quiere adoptar las decisiones y llevar a cabo acciones necesarias. Hasta ahora, los esfuerzos desplegados para crear un entorno polĂtico favorable al desarme y el desarrollo no han tenido Ă©xito. SĂłlo el gobierno sueco ha realizado un estudio que culminĂł en mi informe En BĂșsqueda del Desarme . A pesar de que este estudio no establece necesariamente un modelo que se pueda copiar en otros paĂses, demuestra que las recomendaciones de las Naciones Unidas pueden, en principio, ponerse en prĂĄctica
Paradox of Health Care in the World's Greatest Nation: Commentary on the 2013 Annual American Public Health Association Conference in Boston
Crowdworker Economics in the Gig Economy
The nature of work is changing. As labor increasingly trends to casual work in the emerging gig economy, understanding the broader economic context is crucial to effective engage- ment with a contingent workforce. Crowdsourcing represents an early manifestation of this fluid, laisser-faire, on-demand workforce. This work analyzes the results of four large-scale surveys of US-based Amazon Mechanical Turk workers recorded over a six-year period, providing compa- rable measures to national statistics. Our results show that despite unemployment far higher than national levels, crowd- workers are seeing positive shifts in employment status and household income. Our most recent surveys indicate a trend away from full-time-equivalent crowdwork, coupled with a reduction in estimated poverty levels to below national figures. These trends are indicative of an increasingly flexible workforce, able to maximize their opportunities in a rapidly changing national labor market, which may have material impacts on existing models of crowdworker behavior.This work was supported by an EPSRC studentship and EPSRC grants EP/N010558/1 and EP/R004471/1
Carbon stored in human settlements: the conterminous United States
Urban areas are home to more than half of the world's people, responsible for >70% of anthropogenic release of carbon dioxide and 76% of wood used for industrial purposes. By 2050 the proportion of the urban population is expected to increase to 70% worldwide. Despite fast rates of change and potential value for mitigation of carbon dioxide emissions, the organic carbon storage in human settlements has not been well quantified. Here, we show that human settlements can store as much carbon per unit area (23â42âkgâCâm â2 urban areas and 7â16âkgâCâm â2 exurban areas) as tropical forests, which have the highest carbon density of natural ecosystems (4â25âkgâCâm â2 ). By the year 2000 carbon storage attributed to human settlements of the conterminous United States was 18âPg of carbon or 10% of its total land carbon storage. Sixty-four percent of this carbon was attributed to soil, 20% to vegetation, 11% to landfills, and 5% to buildings. To offset rising urban emissions of carbon, regional and national governments should consider how to protect or even to increase carbon storage of human-dominated landscapes. Rigorous studies addressing carbon budgets of human settlements and vulnerability of their carbon storage are needed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75157/1/j.1365-2486.2009.02002.x.pd
Diasporas and democratization in the post-communist world
If diaspora communities are socialized with democratic values in Western societies, they could be expected to be sympathetic to the democratization of their home countries. However, there is a high degree of variation in their behavior. Contrary to the predominant understanding in the literature that diasporas act in exclusively nationalist ways, this article argues that they do engage with the democratization of their home countries. Various challenges to the sovereignty of their homelands explain whether diasporas involve with procedural or liberal aspects of democratization. Drawing evidence from the activities of the Ukrainian, Serbian, Albanian and Armenian diasporas after the end of communism, I argue that unless diasporas are linked to home countries that enjoy both international legal and domestic sovereignty, they will involve only with procedural aspects of democratization. Diasporas filter international pressure to democratize post-communist societies by utilizing democratic procedures to advance unresolved nationalist goals
Prototyping Self in Silicon Valley, Deep Diversity as a Framework for Anthropological Inquiry
High-technology work fuels a dynamic global exchange from technopoles throughout the world, but especially between East and South Asia and the northern Californian region of Silicon Valley. This migration drives an expanded number of ancestral identities. Professional and activity-based identities flourish as Silicon Valleyâs strong narrative of meritocracy loosens the grip of birth ascription on the creation of identities. These achieved identities proliferate as people experiment on their own sense of self. Traditional conceptual tools related to immigration, and even such contemporary approaches as Appaduraiâs ethnoscapes, do not adequately illuminate the ethnographic data on Silicon Valley workers, families, and especially youth. The concept of deep diversity, first posed by philosopher Charles Taylor and reified by anthropologist Clifford Geertz, reinterprets the interactions of traditional ethnic identity categories, providing a powerful framework with which to think
Is the test of senior friendly âchild resistant packaging ethical?
Research has documented the drastic reduction of unintentional poisonings of children since the introduction of child resistant (CR) packaging. However, studies also indicate that consumers report difficulty using CR packages, in part because tests which determine the âsenior friendlinessâ of CR designs that are used throughout the world disallow people with âovert or obviousâ disabilities from being test subjects. Our review of drug package usability suggests that the current tests of CR packaging can and should be revised to correct this problem. We use US legislation, regulation and data to exemplify these points, but the conclusions are applicable to all protocols that include the exclusionary provision
Single parenting: Interventions in the transitional stage
Following divorce or separation, many mother-headed families need to mourn losses, including reduced economic resources. They need to reestablish family rituals, confront such issues as time management and structural changes that can result in scapegoating or over-reliance on a parental child. Normalizing difficulties associated with parenting is important because single parents tend to internalize societal attribution of family difficulties to inadequate family structure rather than developmental stages, limited economic resources, and negative expectations about the capacity of women to head families.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44289/1/10591_2004_Article_BF00891869.pd
The limits of social class in explaining ethnic gaps in educational attainment
This paper reports an analysis of the educational attainment and progress between age 11 and age 14 of over 14,500 students from the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE). The mean attainment gap in national tests at age 14 between White British and several ethnic minority groups were large, more than three times the size of the gender gap, but at the same time only about one-third of the size of the social class gap. Socio-economic variables could account for the attainment gaps for Black African, Pakistani and Bangladeshi students, but not for Black Caribbean students. Further controls for parental and student attitudes, expectations and behaviours indicated minority ethnic groups were on average more advantaged on these measures than White British students, but this was not reflected proportionately in their levels of attainment. Black Caribbean students were distinctive as the only group making less progress than White British students between age 11 and 14 and this could not be accounted for by any of the measured contextual variables. Possible explanations for the White British-Black Caribbean gap are considered
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