Snapshot 2005: Where the American Public Stands on Terrorism and Preparedness Four Years after September 11

The National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP) 2005 survey of the American public’s attitudes and views on terrorism, preparedness, and associated issues is the latest in a series of national surveys administered annually beginning in the months after September 11, 2001. The survey was completed in July 2005, just after the London Underground bombings and just before Hurricane Katrina. NCDP commissioned national and New York City public opinion polls in the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001 to gauge the American public’s views and attitudes on a wide range of topics germane to disaster preparedness and emergency events. Since the first polls which were completed 3 and 6-months after September 11, 2001, NCDP has annually commissioned a survey which goes to the field in July-August, just before the anniversary of September 11. The 2005 survey was the fourth annual. Each survey includes trended questions as well as “one-off” questions appropriate to the given time period. Trended questions include confidence in government; willingness and ability to evacuate; personal and family preparedness plans; personal sacrifice; community preparedness; perceptions and engagement of all-hazard preparedness; and other questions thematic with the afore listed.. All questions are cross-tabulated with a variety of demographics including race, age, gender, income, region, size of community, political affiliation, and education. Further, select questions establishing a division of respondent (e.g. those having personal and family preparedness plans versus those who do not) are cross-tabulated with other selected questions to observe correlations. (e.g. awareness of community preparedness plans). The surveys are developed by NCDP investigators in conjunction with Marist, who administers the survey, codes the data, and produces the frequency tables. Full data and trend tables are available on request

Quantitation of Cutaneous Langerhans Cells of Sarcoidosis Patients

Langerhans cells play a role in cell-mediated immune reactions which are often depressed in sarcoidosis. We examined the epidermis of 17 anergic patients with sarcoidosis (Kveim-reactive and/or biopsy-proved) for the number of Langerhans cells in noninvolved skin and in any cutaneous sarcoidal lesions. Skin biopsies of 10 healthy volunteers served as controls. In comparison to controls, the epidermis overlying noninvolved (p < 0.05), sarcoidal (p < 0.0005), and Kveim-reactive (p < 0.005) skin contained significantly fewer detectable Ia and T6 antigen-bearing Langerhans cells. The reductions within noninvolved skin were most pronounced in patients with multisystem disease. Lower epidermal Langerhans cell densities, in comparison to controls, were detected in both prednisone-treated and untreated patients. Epidermis overlying sarcoidal skin of untreated patients contained significantly fewer Ia and T6 antigen-bearing Langerhans cells (p < 0.05, p < 0.0025, respectively) than epidermis from noninvolved skin. Whether reduced numbers of cutaneous Langerhans cells are due to either a local and/or systemic effect of sarcoidosis, or reflect the anergic state of these patients is unknown

Analysis of the results of the Washington County District 15 elementary school vision screening program: The Abbo study (volume I)

Analysis of the results of the Washington County District 15 elementary school vision screening program: The Abbo study (volume I

Analysis of the results of the Washington County District 15 elementary school vision screening program: The Abbo study (volume II)

Analysis of the results of the Washington County District 15 elementary school vision screening program: The Abbo study (volume II

Financial health, exports, and firm survival: evidence from UK and French firms

We use firm-level data for the UK and France to assess the role of exporting in the link between financial health and firm survival. We examine whether firms at different stages of export activity (starters, exiters, continuers, switchers) react differently to changes in financial variables. In general, export starters and exiters experience much stronger adverse effects of financial constraints for their survival prospects. By contrast, the exit probability of continuous exporters and export switchers is less negatively affected by financial characteristics. These relationships between exporting, finance and survival are broadly similar in the UK and French samples

SARA: a server for function annotation of RNA structures

Recent interest in non-coding RNA transcripts has resulted in a rapid increase of deposited RNA structures in the Protein Data Bank. However, a characterization and functional classification of the RNA structure and function space have only been partially addressed. Here, we introduce the SARA program for pair-wise alignment of RNA structures as a web server for structure-based RNA function assignment. The SARA server relies on the SARA program, which aligns two RNA structures based on a unit-vector root-mean-square approach. The likely accuracy of the SARA alignments is assessed by three different P-values estimating the statistical significance of the sequence, secondary structure and tertiary structure identity scores, respectively. Our benchmarks, which relied on a set of 419 RNA structures with known SCOR structural class, indicate that at a negative logarithm of mean P-value higher or equal than 2.5, SARA can assign the correct or a similar SCOR class to 81.4% and 95.3% of the benchmark set, respectively. The SARA server is freely accessible via the World Wide Web at http://sgu.bioinfo.cipf.es/services/SARA/

Burden of cirrhosis on older Americans and their families: Analysis of the health and retirement study

Prevalence of cirrhosis among older adults is expected to increase; therefore, we studied the health status, functional disability, and need for supportive care in a large national sample of individuals with cirrhosis. A prospective cohort of individuals with cirrhosis was identified within the longitudinal, nationally representative Health and Retirement Study. Cirrhosis cases were identified in linked Medicare data via ICD‐9‐CM (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification) codes and compared to an age‐matched cohort without cirrhosis. Two primary outcome domains were assessed: (1) patients' health status (perceived health status, comorbidities, health care utilization, and functional disability as determined by activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living), and (2) informal caregiving (hours of caregiving provided by a primary informal caregiver and associated cost). Adjusted negative binomial regression was used to assess the association between cirrhosis and functional disability. A total of 317 individuals with cirrhosis and 951 age‐matched comparators were identified. Relative to the comparison group, individuals with cirrhosis had worse self‐reported health status, more comorbidities, and used significantly more health care services (hospitalizations, nursing home stays, physician visits; P < 0.001 for all bivariable comparisons). They also had greater functional disability ( P < 0.001 for activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living), despite adjustment for covariates such as comorbidities and health care utilization. Individuals with cirrhosis received more than twice the number of informal caregiving hours per week ( P < 0.001), at an annual cost of US $4700 per person. Conclusion: Older Americans with cirrhosis have high rates of disability, health care utilization, and need for informal caregiving. Improved care coordination and caregiver support is necessary to optimize management of this frail population. (H EPATOLOGY 2012;55:184–191)Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89512/1/24616_ftp.pd

5-SPICE: the application of an original framework for community health worker program design, quality improvement and research agenda setting

Introduction: Despite decades of experience with community health workers (CHWs) in a wide variety of global health projects, there is no established conceptual framework that structures how implementers and researchers can understand, study and improve their respective programs based on lessons learned by other CHW programs. Objective: To apply an original, non-linear framework and case study method, 5-SPICE, to multiple sister projects of a large, international non-governmental organization (NGO), and other CHW projects. Design: Engaging a large group of implementers, researchers and the best available literature, the 5-SPICE framework was refined and then applied to a selection of CHW programs. Insights gleaned from the case study method were summarized in a tabular format named the ‘5×5-SPICE chart’. This format graphically lists the ways in which essential CHW program elements interact, both positively and negatively, in the implementation field. Results: The 5×5-SPICE charts reveal a variety of insights that come from a more complex understanding of how essential CHW projects interact and influence each other in their unique context. Some have been well described in the literature previously, while others are exclusive to this article. An analysis of how best to compensate CHWs is also offered as an example of the type of insights that this method may yield. Conclusions: The 5-SPICE framework is a novel instrument that can be used to guide discussions about CHW projects. Insights from this process can help guide quality improvement efforts, or be used as hypothesis that will form the basis of a program's research agenda. Recent experience with research protocols embedded into successfully implemented projects demonstrates how such hypothesis can be rigorously tested