Building End-User Thesauri from Full-Text

We are interested in the possible contribution of end-user thesauri to the improvement of information retrieval by end- users. Thesauri (from the Greek for treasure or treasury) in information retrieval attempt to record and display relations among concepts and terms -- to be treasuries of concepts and the terms that represent them. End-user thesauri are designed to guide and facilitate end-user searching of textual databases (both full-text databases and reference databases that contain only surrogates of full-texts, such as abstracts). End-user thesauri link: the vocabulary of the searcher and the vocabulary of the database, functioning as part of the user database interface. End-user thesauri are not designed to guide indexing, although they can be used to suggest terms, much like writers have used Roget's thesaurus for centuries

Perceptions of Self-Efficacy & Support Among Secondary Early-Career Teachers and their Principals During the COVID-19 Pandemic

In response to challenges faced by middle and high school educators during the COVID-19 pandemic, a study was conducted in the Spring of 2021 involving 33 early-career mathematics teachers and eight supervising school principals in the State of California. These participants completed detailed surveys which provided demographic information, as well as perceptions of support, efficacy and job satisfaction. Findings show a variety of associations among teacher perceptions of support and their efficacy and job satisfaction in the face of challenging circumstances. As it related to principal support and recognition, principal participants expressed confidence in their ability to support teachers as a result of the pandemic, including understanding best practices for evaluating teachers for online teaching. Additionally, while agreeing that teachers at their schools needed more professional development in instructional practice, participating school principals felt they supported their teachers as they adapted instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aspires to inform practitioners and policymakers alike in their understanding of teachers and their principals as they responded to significant challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic

Scientific Rationale and Requirements for a Global Seismic Network on Mars

Following a brief overview of the mission concepts for a Mars Global Network Mission as of the time of the workshop, we present the principal scientific objectives to be achieved by a Mars seismic network. We review the lessons for extraterrestrial seismology gained from experience to date on the Moon and on Mars. An important unknown on Mars is the expected rate of seismicity, but theoretical expectations and extrapolation from lunar experience both support the view that seismicity rates, wave propagation characteristics, and signal-to-noise ratios are favorable to the collection of a scientifically rich dataset during the multiyear operation of a global seismic experiment. We discuss how particular types of seismic waves will provide the most useful information to address each of the scientific objectives, and this discussion provides the basis for a strategy for station siting. Finally, we define the necessary technical requirements for the seismic stations

Quantum logic gates for coupled superconducting phase qubits

Based on a quantum analysis of two capacitively coupled current-biased Josephson junctions, we propose two fundamental two-qubit quantum logic gates. Each of these gates, when supplemented by single-qubit operations, is sufficient for universal quantum computation. Numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schroedinger equation demonstrate that these operations can be performed with good fidelity.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, revised for publicatio

Patterns of Anti-Osteoporosis Medication Use among Women at High Risk of Fracture : Findings from the Global Longitudinal Study of Osteoporosis in Women (GLOW)

To assess patterns of anti-osteoporosis medication (AOM) use over 3 years among women at high risk of major fracture. The GLOW registry follows a cohort of more than 40,000 women aged ≥55 from 615 primary care practices in 10 countries. Self-administered surveys (baseline, 12, 24, and 36 months) collected data on patient characteristics, perception of fracture risk, and AOM use. FRAX scores were calculated from the baseline surveys and women classified as high risk if their FRAX 10-year probability of major fracture was ≥20%. A total of 5774 women were classified as at high risk and had complete data over 3 years. At baseline, 2271 (39%) reported receiving AOM, 739 (13%) reported prior but not current use, and 2764 (48%) said they had never used AOM. Over 3 years, 85% of baseline non-users continued as non-users and 15% initiated AOM; among baseline users, 49% continued the same medication class, 29% stopped AOM, and 12% switched. Women who stopped AOM were less likely to self-report osteoporosis (HR 0.56, 95% CI 0.42-0.75) than women who continued AOM. Compared with non-users who did not begin treatment, women initiating AOM were more likely to report a diagnosis of osteoporosis (HR 11.3, 95% CI 8.2-15.5) or osteopenia (HR 4.1, 95% CI 2.9-5.7) and be very concerned about osteoporosis (HR 1.9, 95% CI 1.3-2.8). Less than 40% of women at high risk of fracture reported taking AOM. Women who stopped AOM were less likely to believe they have osteoporosis. Women who initiated treatment appeared motivated primarily by a diagnosis of osteoporosis or osteopenia and concern about the condition

A multi-modal intervention for Activating Patients at Risk for Osteoporosis (APROPOS): Rationale, design, and uptake of online study intervention material

OBJECTIVE: To develop an innovative and effective educational intervention to inform patients about the need for osteoporosis treatment and to determine factors associated with its online uptake. METHODS: Postmenopausal women with a prior fracture and not currently using osteoporosis therapy were eligible to be included in the Activating Patients at Risk for OsteoPOroSis (APROPOS). Four nominal groups with a total of 18 racially/ethnically diverse women identified osteoporosis treatment barriers. We used the Information, Motivation, Behavior Skills conceptual model to develop a direct-to-patient intervention to mitigate potentially modifiable barriers to osteoporosis therapy. The intervention included videos tailored by participants\u27 race/ethnicity and their survey responses: ranked barriers to osteoporosis treatment, deduced barriers to treatment, readiness to behavior change, and osteoporosis treatment history. Videos consisted of storytelling narratives, based on osteoporosis patient experiences and portrayed by actresses of patient-identified race/ethnicity. We also delivered personalized brief phone calls followed by an interactive voice-response phone messages aimed to promote uptake of the videos. RESULTS: To address the factors associated with online intervention uptake, we focused on participants assigned to the intervention arm (n = 1342). These participants were 92.9% Caucasian, with a mean (SD) age 74.9 (8.0) years and the majority (77.7%) had some college education. Preference for natural treatments was the barrier ranked #1 by most (n = 130; 27%), while concern about osteonecrosis of the jaw was the most frequently reported barrier (at any level; n = 322; 67%). Overall, 28.1% (n = 377) of participants in the intervention group accessed the videos online. After adjusting for relevant covariates, the participants who provided an email address had 6.07 (95% CI 4.53-8.14) higher adjusted odds of accessing their online videos compared to those who did not. CONCLUSION: We developed and implemented a novel tailored multi-modal intervention to improve initiation of osteoporosis therapy. An email address provided on the survey was the most important factor independently associated with accessing the intervention online. The design and uptake of this intervention may have implications for future studies in osteoporosis or other chronic diseases

Impact of medical and neurological ICU complications on moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI)

Certain admission characteristics are known predictors of adverse outcomes in patients with moderate-severe TBI, but explain only 1/3 of outcome variability. Intensive care unit (ICU) complications occur frequently in this population, but their impact on patient outcomes remains poorly defined. In a prospective observational cohort study of 170 consecutive moderate-severe TBI patients admitted to Level I trauma center (UMASS) over the period 11/2009–2/2012, we examined the association of ICU complications and 3-month outcome (Glasgow Outcome Scale [GOS]). The mean age was 51 years, 72% were men, and the median GCS and injury severity scores were 4 and 29, respectively. Using multiple logistic regression analysis, hypotension requiring vasopressors (HRV) was the strongest predictor of poor outcome (GOS 1-3 [OR 2.8; 95% CI 1-7.5]) among medical complications. After combining medical with neurological ICU complications, brain herniation (OR 5.8; 95% CI 1.1-30.2) and intracranial rebleeding (OR 2.9; 95% CI 1-8.4) were the strongest predictors of poor outcome, while HRV approached significance (OR 2.4; 95% CI 0.9-6.4). We identified important potentially modifiable predictors of adverse outcomes after moderate-severe TBI. Confirmation of our findings in a larger cohort is warranted

Patterns of anti-osteoporosis medication use among women at high risk of fracture: findings from the Global Longitudinal Study of Osteoporosis in Women (GLOW)

OBJECTIVE: To assess patterns of anti-osteoporosis medication (AOM) use over 3 years among women at high risk of major fracture. METHODS: The GLOW registry follows a cohort of more than 40,000 women aged \u3e /= 55 from 615 primary care practices in 10 countries. Self-administered surveys (baseline, 12, 24, and 36 months) collected data on patient characteristics, perception of fracture risk, and AOM use. FRAX scores were calculated from the baseline surveys and women classified as high risk if their FRAX 10-year probability of major fracture was \u3e /= 20%. RESULTS: A total of 5774 women were classified as at high risk and had complete data over 3 years. At baseline, 2271 (39%) reported receiving AOM, 739 (13%) reported prior but not current use, and 2764 (48%) said they had never used AOM. Over 3 years, 85% of baseline non-users continued as non-users and 15% initiated AOM; among baseline users, 49% continued the same medication class, 29% stopped AOM, and 12% switched. Women who stopped AOM were less likely to self-report osteoporosis (HR 0.56, 95% CI 0.42-0.75) than women who continued AOM. Compared with non-users who did not begin treatment, women initiating AOM were more likely to report a diagnosis of osteoporosis (HR 11.3, 95% CI 8.2-15.5) or osteopenia (HR 4.1, 95% CI 2.9-5.7) and be very concerned about osteoporosis (HR 1.9, 95% CI 1.3-2.8). CONCLUSIONS: Less than 40% of women at high risk of fracture reported taking AOM. Women who stopped AOM were less likely to believe they have osteoporosis. Women who initiated treatment appeared motivated primarily by a diagnosis of osteoporosis or osteopenia and concern about the condition