Fewer, better pathways for all? Intersectional impacts of rural school consolidation in China's minority regions

Primary school consolidation--the closure of small community schools or their mergers into larger, better-resourced schools--is emerging as a significant policy response to changing demographics in middle income countries with large rural populations. In China, large-scale consolidation took place in the early 21st century. Because officially-recognized minority populations disproportionately reside in rural and remote areas, minority students were among those at elevated risk of experiencing school consolidation. We analyze heterogeneous effects of consolidation on educational attainment and reported national language ability in China by exploiting variations in closure timing across villages and cohorts captured in a 2011 survey of provinces and autonomous regions with substantial minority populations. We consider heterogeneous treatment effects across groups defined at the intersections of minority status, gender, and community ethnic composition and socioeconomic status. Compared to villages with schools, villages whose schools had closed reported that the schools students now attended were better resourced, less likely to offer minority language of instruction, more likely to have Han teachers, farther away, and more likely to require boarding. Much more than Han youth, ethnic minority youth were negatively affected by closure, in terms of its impact on both educational attainment and written Mandarin facility. However, significant penalties accruing to minority youth occurred only in the poorest villages. Penalties were generally heavier for girls, but in the most ethnically segregated minority villages, boys from minority families were highly vulnerable to closure effects on attainment and written Mandarin facility. Results show that intersections of minority status, gender, and community characteristics can delineate significant heterogeneities in policy impacts

Retrospective Evaluation of Dosing Body Weight for Unfractionated Heparin in Obese Patients

Purpose: Using adjusted body weight (AdjBW) for heparin dosing in obese patients is a common but not validated clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether using AdjBW in obese patients would lead to quick achievement of therapeutic activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) and low bleeding risk with heparin therapy. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted in patients that received heparin before and after implementation of a revised heparin protocol that utilized AdjBW for obese patients. The primary outcome was percentage of first aPTT values within the therapeutic range. Secondary outcomes included time to first therapeutic aPTT and clinically significant bleeding. Results: There was no difference in the primary outcome in obese compared to non-obese patients in the pre-implementation group (11% vs. 15%) or post implementation group (17% vs. 21%). No difference was seen in time to first therapeutic aPTT between obese and non-obese patients in either group. However, obese patients in the post-implementation group achieved therapeutic aPTT significantly faster than obese patients in pre-implementation group (14 vs. 24 hours, p = 0.002). Clinically significant bleeding was higher in obese than non-obese patients prior to implementation (11% vs. 1%, p = 0.01), but no difference was seen after implementation. Conclusion: Although there was no difference in the first aPTT values, more bleeding was seen in obese patients when actual body weight was used for heparin dose calculation. When AdjBW was used for dosing in obese patients, it was associated with faster achievement of therapeutic aPTT

Liberty County State of the Community

Liberty County, Texas is located in southeastern Texas and part of the Houston metropolitan area.The County is bisected by the Trinity River from North to South and US Highway 90 from East to West. The County has a very strategic location, along the Trinity River, allowing access to the Port to the South,and along US Highway 90, connecting Houston to Beaumont.Texas Target Communitie

A Glycine Zipper Motif Mediates the Formation of Toxic Beta-Amyloid Oligomers in Vitro and in Vivo

Background: The b-amyloid peptide (Ab) contains a Gly-XXX-Gly-XXX-Gly motif in its C-terminal region that hasbeen proposed to form a “glycine zipper” that drives the formation of toxic Ab oligomers. We have tested thishypothesis by examining the toxicity of Ab variants containing substitutions in this motif using a neuronal cell line,primary neurons, and a transgenic C. elegans model.Results: We found that a Gly37Leu substitution dramatically reduced Ab toxicity in all models tested, as measuredby cell dysfunction, cell death, synaptic alteration, or tau phosphorylation. We also demonstrated in multiplemodels that Ab Gly37Leu is actually anti-toxic, thereby supporting the hypothesis that interference with glycinezipper formation blocks assembly of toxic Ab oligomers. To test this model rigorously, we engineered second sitesubstitutions in Ab predicted by the glycine zipper model to compensate for the Gly37Leu substitution andexpressed these in C. elegans. We show that these second site substitutions restore in vivo Abtoxicity, furthersupporting the glycine zipper model.Conclusions: Our structure/function studies support the view that the glycine zipper motif present in the Cterminalportion of Ab plays an important role in the formation of toxic Ab oligomers. Compounds designed tointerfere specifically with formation of the glycine zipper could have therapeutic potential

Explantation of infected thoracic endovascular aortic repair

Prosthetic graft infection is a rare and serious complication of thoracic endovascular aortic repair associated with high mortality and posing unique challenges for treatment. The prosthetic graft infection is often identified late as patients present with mild nonspecific symptoms. We describe the successful medical management and surgical explantation of an infected thoracic endograft with an aorta-bronchial fistula, using an inline reconstruction with an antibiotic-soaked synthetic graft. In this report, we provide an example of a patient with an infected thoracic endograft and how inline reconstruction combined with appropriate medical management is an acceptable treatment strategy

Learning to Speak and Act in a Fantasy Text Adventure Game

We introduce a large scale crowdsourced text adventure game as a research platform for studying grounded dialogue. In it, agents can perceive, emote, and act whilst conducting dialogue with other agents. Models and humans can both act as characters within the game. We describe the results of training state-of-the-art generative and retrieval models in this setting. We show that in addition to using past dialogue, these models are able to effectively use the state of the underlying world to condition their predictions. In particular, we show that grounding on the details of the local environment, including location descriptions, and the objects (and their affordances) and characters (and their previous actions) present within it allows better predictions of agent behavior and dialogue. We analyze the ingredients necessary for successful grounding in this setting, and how each of these factors relate to agents that can talk and act successfully

The Stage as a Drawing Board: Zuni Icosahedron’s Architecture Is Art Festival

The multimedia performances of the Architecture Is Art Festival explore the connections of architecture, theatre, and architecture in theatre to voice a number of concerns relating to heritage preservation and technological development, historical memory and current politics. The interrogatives raised by these performances are intimately connected with the ontology of Hong Kong identity and testify to the spirit of traveling—through cultures, media, and disciplines—and the attitude of questioning that has become synonymous with Zuni Icosahedron

The utility of frequent laboratory monitoring for patients on tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors in dermatology

Introduction. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors (TNF-ai) are becoming increasingly common to use among patients with skin disease. To safely take these medications, it is recommended to monitor laboratory values routinely; however, the utility of this practice and the risk-benefit of frequent laboratory monitoring has not been fully explored in patients with skin disease. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the necessity of routine laboratory monitoring in patients taking a TNF-ai with a dermatological disease.  Methods. Retrospective chart review evaluated laboratory abnormalities (complete blood counts and liver function tests) in adult patients who took a TNF-ai for a dermatologic disease at The University of Kansas Hospital. Results. There were 27 patients included for a total of 45 entries. The most common skin disease was hidradenitis suppurative (23/45) and infliximab (22/45) was most the commonly used medication. Of the 45 entries, there were only 7 patients that developed abnormal monitoring laboratory values related to initiation of TNF-ai. These abnormalities were transient and most frequently occurred after 12 months with (2/45) resulting in no discontinuation or dose reduction of TNF-ai. One patient discontinued medication due to anemia that did not improve after medication withdrawal. Conclusions. Laboratory abnormalities due to TNF-ai were infrequent and when they did occur were transient and mild. The study is limited by the small sample size of patients, and larger prospective studies are needed to fully evaluate these findings. However, dermatologists may be able to safely employ less frequent laboratory monitoring for patients on TNF-ai