Recent Developments: The Uniform Arbitration Act

Recent Developments: The Uniform Arbitration Act, a project prepared annually since 1983, is a survey of recent court decisions that interpret state versions of the Uniform Arbitration Act ( U.A.A. ). 3 Currently, thirty-four states and the District of Columbia have adopted arbitration statutes patterned after the U.A.A. 4 The purpose of this project is to promote uniformity in interpretation of the U.A.A. by explaining the underlying policies and rationales of recent court decisions.\u2

Neuropsychological deficits in pediatric neurological disorders

D.Phil. (Psychology)Please refer to full text to view abstrac

Implementation of An Immediate Postpartum Long-Acting Reversible Contraception Program in a Southern Texas Border Population

Background: Expanding contraceptive access in a Southern Texas border population can reduce the number of unintended and short-interval pregnancies, which have been associated with poor maternal and neonatal health outcomes. Healthcare encounters can be maximized to include immediate postpartum long-acting reversible contraception (IPP LARC) as an additive to the healthcare access many women have during pregnancy. The implementation of the IPP LARC Program allowed for the provision of accessible LARCs to fulfill the contraceptive needs of our patient population. This program was supported by Medicaid reimbursements and a private teaching grant that was awarded to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Ob/Gyn residency program at Doctors Hospital at Renaissance (DHR). Methods: Data was collected retrospectively from participants who received a LARC from 2/2017 to 7/2021 at DHR Women’s Hospital after receiving IRB approval. Patient demographic information, such as age, gravidity, parity, delivery route, primary provider, and funding were assessed, along with LARC distribution and insertion timing. The reimbursement status for Medicaid-funded devices was obtained from the DHR Billing Department. Results: A total of 467 LARCs were inserted under the IPP LARC Program over 4.5 years. Ages ranged from 13-57 years old. A total of 353 (76%) participants received primary care from the UTRGV Ob/Gyn Residency Program. All others were consults who had received care from private physicians at the DHR WH. A total of 314 (67.2%) implants and 153 (32.8%) IUDs were inserted and 313 (75%) devices were placed following a vaginal delivery, while 103 (25%) after a cesarean section. Majority (257 participants (55.2%)) lacked funding, while 193 (41.4%) had Medicaid, and 16 (3.4%) had private insurance. Conclusion: The IPP LARC program provided for 467 participants, with majority of the recipients requesting immediate postpartum contraception. Most lacked adequate funding and many requests came from private providers wanting to provide patients with their desired postpartum contraceptive method. The program helped fulfill the contraceptive needs of this population by expanding access regardless of funding status. Follow-up studies should assess patient satisfaction and LARC continuation rates to help obtain future funding and promote expansion of the program

Cloud BioLinux: pre-configured and on-demand bioinformatics computing for the genomics community

Background: A steep drop in the cost of next-generation sequencing during recent years has made the technology affordable to the majority of researchers, but downstream bioinformatic analysis still poses a resource bottleneck for smaller laboratories and institutes that do not have access to substantial computational resources. Sequencing instruments are typically bundled with only the minimal processing and storage capacity required for data capture during sequencing runs. Given the scale of sequence datasets, scientific value cannot be obtained from acquiring a sequencer unless it is accompanied by an equal investment in informatics infrastructure. Results: Cloud BioLinux is a publicly accessible Virtual Machine (VM) that enables scientists to quickly provision on-demand infrastructures for high-performance bioinformatics computing using cloud platforms. Users have instant access to a range of pre-configured command line and graphical software applications, including a full-featured desktop interface, documentation and over 135 bioinformatics packages for applications including sequence alignment, clustering, assembly, display, editing, and phylogeny. Each tool's functionality is fully described in the documentation directly accessible from the graphical interface of the VM. Besides the Amazon EC2 cloud, we have started instances of Cloud BioLinux on a private Eucalyptus cloud installed at the J. Craig Venter Institute, and demonstrated access to the bioinformatic tools interface through a remote connection to EC2 instances from a local desktop computer. Documentation for using Cloud BioLinux on EC2 is available from our project website, while a Eucalyptus cloud image and VirtualBox Appliance is also publicly available for download and use by researchers with access to private clouds. Conclusions: Cloud BioLinux provides a platform for developing bioinformatics infrastructures on the cloud. An automated and configurable process builds Virtual Machines, allowing the development of highly customized versions from a shared code base. This shared community toolkit enables application specific analysis platforms on the cloud by minimizing the effort required to prepare and maintain them

The Luminosities of Protostars in the Spitzer c2d and Gould Belt Legacy Clouds

Motivated by the long-standing "luminosity problem" in low-mass star formation whereby protostars are underluminous compared to theoretical expectations, we identify 230 protostars in 18 molecular clouds observed by two Spitzer Space Telescope Legacy surveys of nearby star-forming regions. We compile complete spectral energy distributions, calculate Lbol for each source, and study the protostellar luminosity distribution. This distribution extends over three orders of magnitude, from 0.01 Lsun - 69 Lsun, and has a mean and median of 4.3 Lsun and 1.3 Lsun, respectively. The distributions are very similar for Class 0 and Class I sources except for an excess of low luminosity (Lbol < 0.5 Lsun) Class I sources compared to Class 0. 100 out of the 230 protostars (43%) lack any available data in the far-infrared and submillimeter (70 um < wavelength < 850 um) and have Lbol underestimated by factors of 2.5 on average, and up to factors of 8-10 in extreme cases. Correcting these underestimates for each source individually once additional data becomes available will likely increase both the mean and median of the sample by 35% - 40%. We discuss and compare our results to several recent theoretical studies of protostellar luminosities and show that our new results do not invalidate the conclusions of any of these studies. As these studies demonstrate that there is more than one plausible accretion scenario that can match observations, future attention is clearly needed. The better statistics provided by our increased dataset should aid such future work.Comment: Accepted for publication in AJ. 21 pages, 10 figures, 4 table

The Spitzer Survey of Interstellar Clouds in the Gould Belt. VI. The Auriga-California Molecular Cloud observed with IRAC and MIPS

We present observations of the Auriga-California Molecular Cloud (AMC) at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, 8.0, 24, 70 and 160 micron observed with the IRAC and MIPS detectors as part of the Spitzer Gould Belt Legacy Survey. The total mapped areas are 2.5 sq-deg with IRAC and 10.47 sq-deg with MIPS. This giant molecular cloud is one of two in the nearby Gould Belt of star-forming regions, the other being the Orion A Molecular Cloud (OMC). We compare source counts, colors and magnitudes in our observed region to a subset of the SWIRE data that was processed through our pipeline. Using color-magnitude and color-color diagrams, we find evidence for a substantial population of 166 young stellar objects (YSOs) in the cloud, many of which were previously unknown. Most of this population is concentrated around the LkHalpha 101 cluster and the filament extending from it. We present a quantitative description of the degree of clustering and discuss the fraction of YSOs in the region with disks relative to an estimate of the diskless YSO population. Although the AMC is similar in mass, size and distance to the OMC, it is forming about 15 - 20 times fewer stars.Comment: (30 pages, 17 figures (2 multipage figures), accepted for publication in ApJ

The Spitzer Survey of Interstellar Clouds in the Gould Belt. III. A Multi-Wavelength View of Corona Australis

We present Spitzer Space Telescope IRAC and MIPS observations of a 0.85 deg^2 field including the Corona Australis (CrA) star-forming region. At a distance of 130 pc, CrA is one of the closest regions known to be actively forming stars, particularly within its embedded association, the Coronet. Using the Spitzer data, we identify 51 young stellar objects (YSOs) in CrA which include sources in the well-studied Coronet cluster as well as distributed throughout the molecular cloud. Twelve of the YSOs discussed are new candidates, one of which is located in the Coronet. Known YSOs retrieved from the literature are also added to the list, and a total of 116 candidate YSOs in CrA are compiled. Based on these YSO candidates, the star formation rate is computed to be 12 M_o Myr^-1, similar to that of the Lupus clouds. A clustering analysis was also performed, finding that the main cluster core, consisting of 68 members, is elongated (having an aspect ratio of 2.36), with a circular radius of 0.59 pc and mean surface density of 150 pc^-2. In addition, we analyze outflows and jets in CrA by means of new CO and H_2 data. We present 1.3 mm interferometric continuum observations made with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) covering R CrA, IRS 5, IRS 7, and IRAS 18595-3712 (IRAS 32). We also present multi-epoch H_2 maps and detect jets and outflows, study their proper motions, and identify exciting sources. The Spitzer and ISAAC/VLT observations of IRAS 32 show a bipolar precessing jet, which drives a CO (2-1) outflow detected in the SMA observations. There is also clear evidence for a parsec-scale precessing outflow, E-W oriented, and originating in the SMA 2 region, likely driven by SMA 2 or IRS 7A.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJS. 112 pages, 42 figures (quality reduced), 13 tables. Full resolution version can be found at http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~dpeterson/CrA/CrA_highres.pd

Comparative Effectiveness of Carotid Endarterectomy vs Initial Medical Therapy in Patients With Asymptomatic Carotid Stenosis

Importance Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) among asymptomatic patients involves a trade-off between a higher short-term perioperative risk in exchange for a lower long-term risk of stroke. The clinical benefit observed in randomized clinical trials (RCTs) may not extend to real-world practice. Objective To examine whether early intervention (CEA) was superior to initial medical therapy in real-world practice in preventing fatal and nonfatal strokes among patients with asymptomatic carotid stenosis. Design, Setting, and Participants This comparative effectiveness study was conducted from August 28, 2018, to March 2, 2020, using the Corporate Data Warehouse, Suicide Data Repository, and other databases of the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Data analyzed were those of veterans of the US Armed Forces aged 65 years or older who received carotid imaging between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2009. Patients without a carotid imaging report, those with carotid stenosis of less than 50% or hemodynamically insignificant stenosis, and those with a history of stroke or transient ischemic attack in the 6 months before index imaging were excluded. A cohort of patients who received initial medical therapy and a cohort of similar patients who received CEA were constructed and followed up for 5 years. The target trial method was used to compute weighted Kaplan-Meier curves and estimate the risk of fatal and nonfatal strokes in each cohort in the pragmatic sample across 5 years of follow-up. This analysis was repeated after restricting the sample to patients who met RCT inclusion criteria. Cumulative incidence functions for fatal and nonfatal strokes were estimated, accounting for nonstroke deaths as competing risks in both the pragmatic and RCT-like samples. Exposures Receipt of CEA vs initial medical therapy. Main Outcomes and Measures Fatal and nonfatal strokes. Results Of the total 5221 patients, 2712 (51.9%; mean [SD] age, 73.6 [6.0] years; 2678 men [98.8%]) received CEA and 2509 (48.1%; mean [SD] age, 73.6 [6.0] years; 2479 men [98.8%]) received initial medical therapy within 1 year after the index carotid imaging. The observed rate of stroke or death (perioperative complications) within 30 days in the CEA cohort was 2.5% (95% CI, 2.0%-3.1%). The 5-year risk of fatal and nonfatal strokes was lower among patients randomized to CEA compared with patients randomized to initial medical therapy (5.6% vs 7.8%; risk difference, −2.3%; 95% CI, −4.0% to −0.3%). In an analysis that incorporated the competing risk of death, the risk difference between the 2 cohorts was lower and not statistically significant (risk difference, −0.8%; 95% CI, −2.1% to 0.5%). Among patients who met RCT inclusion criteria, the 5-year risk of fatal and nonfatal strokes was 5.5% (95% CI, 4.5%-6.5%) among patients randomized to CEA and was 7.6% (95% CI, 5.7%-9.5%) among those randomized to initial medical therapy (risk difference, −2.1%; 95% CI, −4.4% to −0.2%). Accounting for competing risks resulted in a risk difference of −0.9% (95% CI, −2.9% to 0.7%) that was not statistically significant. Conclusions and Relevance This study found that the absolute reduction in the risk of fatal and nonfatal strokes associated with early CEA was less than half the risk difference in trials from 20 years ago and was no longer statistically significant when the competing risk of nonstroke deaths was accounted for in the analysis. Given the nonnegligible perioperative 30-day risks and the improvements in stroke prevention, medical therapy may be an acceptable therapeutic strategy

The Kiloparsec-Scale Kinematics of High-Redshift Star-Forming Galaxies

We present the results of a spectroscopic survey of the kinematic structure of star-forming galaxies at redshift z ~ 2 - 3 using Keck/OSIRIS integral field spectroscopy. Our sample is comprised of 12 galaxies between redshifts z ~ 2.0 and 2.5 and one galaxy at z ~ 3.3 which are well detected in either HAlpha or [O III] emission. These observations were obtained in conjunction with the Keck laser guide star adaptive optics system, with a typical angular resolution after spatial smoothing ~ 0.15" (approximately 1 kpc at the redshift of the target sample). At most five of these 13 galaxies have spatially resolved velocity gradients consistent with rotation while the remaining galaxies have relatively featureless or irregular velocity fields. All of our galaxies show local velocity dispersions ~ 60 - 100 km/s, suggesting that (particularly for those galaxies with featureless velocity fields) rotation about a preferred axis may not be the dominant mechanism of physical support. While some galaxies show evidence for major mergers such evidence is unrelated to the kinematics of individual components (one of our strongest merger candidates also exhibits unambiguous rotational structure), refuting a simple bimodal disk/merger classification scheme. We discuss these data in light of complementary surveys and extant UV-IR spectroscopy and photometry, concluding that the dynamical importance of cold gas may be the primary factor governing the observed kinematics of z ~ 2 galaxies. We conclude by speculating on the importance of mechanisms for accreting low angular-momentum gas and the early formation of quasi-spheroidal systems in the young universe.(abridged)Comment: 34 pages, 13 figures. Revised version accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. Version with full-resolution figures is available at http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~drlaw/Papers/OSIRIS_data2.pd