Impact of Experience Corps® Participation on Children’s Academic Achievement and School Behavior

This article reports on the impact of the Experience Corps® (EC) Baltimore program, an intergenerational, school-based program aimed at improving academic achievement and reducing disruptive school behavior in urban, elementary school students in Kindergarten through third grade (K-3). Teams of adult volunteers aged 60 and older were placed in public schools, serving 15 h or more per week, to perform meaningful and important roles to improve the educational outcomes of children and the health and well-being of volunteers. Findings indicate no significant impact of the EC program on standardized reading or mathematical achievement test scores among children in grades 1–3 exposed to the program. K-1st grade students in EC schools had fewer principal office referrals compared to K-1st grade students in matched control schools during their second year in the EC program; second graders in EC schools had fewer suspensions and expulsions than second graders in non-EC schools during their first year in the EC program. In general, both boys and girls appeared to benefit from the EC program in school behavior. The results suggest that a volunteer engagement program for older adults can be modestly effective for improving selective aspects of classroom behavior among elementary school students in under-resourced, urban schools, but there were no significant improvements in academic achievement. More work is needed to identify individual- and school-level factors that may help account for these results

Reduction of missed appointments at an urban primary care clinic: a randomised controlled study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Missed appointments are known to interfere with appropriate care and to misspend medical and administrative resources. The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of a sequential intervention reminding patients of their upcoming appointment and to identify the profile of patients missing their appointments.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We conducted a randomised controlled study in an urban primary care clinic at the Geneva University Hospitals serving a majority of vulnerable patients. All patients booked in a primary care or HIV clinic at the Geneva University Hospitals were sent a reminder 48 hrs prior to their appointment according to the following sequential intervention: 1. Phone call (fixed or mobile) reminder; 2. If no phone response: a Short Message Service (SMS) reminder; 3. If no available mobile phone number: a postal reminder. The rate of missed appointment, the cost of the intervention, and the profile of patients missing their appointment were recorded.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>2123 patients were included: 1052 in the intervention group, 1071 in the control group. Only 61.7% patients had a mobile phone recorded at the clinic. The sequential intervention significantly reduced the rate of missed appointments: 11.4% (n = 122) in the control group and 7.8% (n = 82) in the intervention group (p < 0.005), and allowed to reallocate 28% of cancelled appointments. It also proved to be cost effective in providing a total net benefit of 1846. - EUR/3 months. A satisfaction survey conducted with 241 patients showed that 93% of them were not bothered by the reminders and 78% considered them to be useful. By multivariate analysis, the following characteristics were significant predictors of missed appointments: younger age (OR per additional decade 0.82; CI 0.71-0.94), male gender (OR 1.72; CI 1.18-2.50), follow-up appointment >1year (OR 2.2; CI: 1.15-4.2), substance abuse (2.09, CI 1.21-3.61), and being an asylum seeker (OR 2.73: CI 1.22-6.09).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A practical reminder system can significantly increase patient attendance at medical outpatient clinics. An intervention focused on specific patient characteristics could further increase the effectiveness of appointment reminders.</p

Digital Signal Processing Research Program

Contains table of contents for Section 2, an introduction, reports on twenty research projects and a list of publications.Lockheed Sanders, Inc. Contract BZ4962U.S. Army Research Laboratory Grant QK-8819U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-93-1-0686National Science Foundation Grant MIP 95-02885U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-95-1-0834U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-96-1-0930U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-95-1-0362National Defense Science and Engineering FellowshipU.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research Grant F49620-96-1-0072National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Grant MIP 95-02885Lockheed Sanders, Inc. Grant N00014-93-1-0686National Science Foundation Graduate FellowshipU.S. Army Research Laboratory/ARL Advanced Sensors Federated Lab Program Contract DAAL01-96-2-000

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

It Costs to Be Clean and Fit: Energetics of Comfort Behavior in Breeding-Fasting Penguins

), seabirds known to fast for up to one month during incubation shifts ashore.A time budget was estimated from focal and scan sampling field observations and the energy cost of comfort activities was calculated from the associated increase in heart rate (HR) during comfort episodes, using previously determined equations relating HR to energy expenditure. We show that incubating birds spent 22% of their daily time budget in comfort behavior (with no differences between day and night) mainly devoted to preening (73%) and head/body shaking (16%). During comfort behavior, energy expenditure averaged 1.24 times resting metabolic rate (RMR) and the corresponding energy cost (i.e., energy expended in excess to RMR) was 58 kJ/hr. Energy expenditure varied greatly among various types of comfort behavior, ranging from 1.03 (yawning) to 1.78 (stretching) times RMR. Comfort behavior contributed 8.8–9.3% to total daily energy expenditure and 69.4–73.5% to energy expended daily for activity. About half of this energy was expended caring for plumage.This study is the first to estimate the contribution of comfort behavior to overall energy budget in a free-living animal. It shows that although breeding on a tight energy budget, king penguins devote a substantial amount of time and energy to comfort behavior. Such findings underline the importance of comfort behavior for the fitness of colonial seabirds

Pain Reactivity and Plasma β-Endorphin in Children and Adolescents with Autistic Disorder

International audienceBackground: Reports of reduced pain sensitivity in autism have prompted opioid theories of autism and have practical care ramifications. Our objective was to examine behavioral and physiological pain responses, plasma β-endorphin levels and their relationship in a large group of individuals with autism.Methodology/Principal Findings: The study was conducted on 73 children and adolescents with autism and 115 normal individuals matched for age, sex and pubertal stage. Behavioral pain reactivity of individuals with autism was assessed in three observational situations (parents at home, two caregivers at day-care, a nurse and child psychiatrist during blood drawing), and compared to controls during venepuncture. Plasma β-endorphin concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay. A high proportion of individuals with autism displayed absent or reduced behavioral pain reactivity at home (68.6%), at day-care (34.2%) and during venepuncture (55.6%). Despite their high rate of absent behavioral pain reactivity during venepuncture (41.3 vs. 8.7% of controls, P<0.0001), individuals with autism displayed a significantly increased heart rate in response to venepuncture (P<0.05). Moreover, this response (Δ heart rate) was significantly greater than for controls (mean±SEM; 6.4±2.5 vs. 1.3±0.8 beats/min, P<0.05). Plasma β-endorphin levels were higher in the autistic group (P<0.001) and were positively associated with autism severity (P<0.001) and heart rate before or after venepuncture (P<0.05), but not with behavioral pain reactivity.Conclusions/Significance: The greater heart rate response to venepuncture and the elevated plasma β-endorphin found in individuals with autism reflect enhanced physiological and biological stress responses that are dissociated from observable emotional and behavioral reactions. The results suggest strongly that prior reports of reduced pain sensitivity in autism are related to a different mode of pain expression rather than to an insensitivity or endogenous analgesia, and do not support opioid theories of autism. Clinical care practice and hypotheses regarding underlying mechanisms need to assume that children with autism are sensitive to pain

Minimally Symptomatic Infection in an Ebola ‘Hotspot’: A Cross-Sectional Serosurvey

Introduction: Evidence for minimally symptomatic Ebola virus (EBOV) infection is limited. During the 2013–16 outbreak in West Africa, it was not considered epidemiologically relevant to published models or projections of intervention effects. In order to improve our understanding of the transmission dynamics of EBOV in humans, we investigated the occurrence of minimally symptomatic EBOV infection in quarantined contacts of reported Ebola virus disease cases in a recognized ‘hotspot.’ Methodology/Principal Findings We conducted a cross-sectional serosurvey in Sukudu, Kono District, Sierra Leone, from October 2015 to January 2016. A blood sample was collected from 187 study participants, 132 negative controls (individuals with a low likelihood of previous exposure to Ebola virus), and 30 positive controls (Ebola virus disease survivors). IgG responses to Ebola glycoprotein and nucleoprotein were measured using Alpha Diagnostic International ELISA kits with plasma diluted at 1:200. Optical density was read at 450 nm (subtracting OD at 630nm to normalize well background) on a ChroMate 4300 microplate reader. A cutoff of 4.7 U/mL for the anti-GP ELISA yielded 96.7% sensitivity and 97.7% specificity in distinguishing positive and negative controls. We identified 14 seropositive individuals not known to have had Ebola virus disease. Two of the 14 seropositive individuals reported only fever during quarantine while the remaining 12 denied any signs or symptoms during quarantine. Conclusions/Significance: By using ELISA to measure Zaire Ebola virus antibody concentrations, we identified a significant number of individuals with previously undetected EBOV infection in a ‘hotspot’ village in Sierra Leone, approximately one year after the village outbreak. The findings provide further evidence that Ebola, like many other viral infections, presents with a spectrum of clinical manifestations, including minimally symptomatic infection. These data also suggest that a significant portion of Ebola transmission events may have gone undetected during the outbreak. Further studies are needed to understand the potential risk of transmission and clinical sequelae in individuals with previously undetected EBOV infection