Homelessness, Alcohol, and Other Drug Abuse: Research Traditions and Policy Responses

Although homeless alcoholics and other drug abusers more often elicit public scorn than sympathy, ironically they enjoy a celebrity status as research subjects. This article provides an overview of research literature on the homeless and their alcohol and drug problems. The evolution of public policies concerning control, rehabilitation, and treatment of homeless substance abusers is also traced with special attention to the interaction between scientific literature and policy responses over the past century. Although homeless populations today are more diverse than their counterparts in earlier decades, the analysis suggests that the policies and programs developed in response to the crisis of homelessness and substance abuse in the 1980s and 1990s reflect themes that are also evident in early literature

Commensal observing with the Allen Telescope array: software command and control

The Allen Telescope Array (ATA) is a Large-Number-Small-Diameter radio telescope array currently with 42 individual antennas and 5 independent back-end science systems (2 imaging FX correlators and 3 time domain beam formers) located at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory (HCRO). The goal of the ATA is to run multiple back-ends simultaneously, supporting multiple science projects commensally. The primary software control systems are based on a combination of Java, JRuby and Ruby on Rails. The primary control API is simplified to provide easy integration with new back-end systems while the lower layers of the software stack are handled by a master observing system. Scheduling observations for the ATA is based on finding a union between the science needs of multiple projects and automatically determining an efficient path to operating the various sub-components to meet those needs. When completed, the ATA is expected to be a world-class radio telescope, combining dedicated SETI projects with numerous radio astronomy science projects.Comment: SPIE Conference Proceedings, Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy, Nicole M. Radziwill; Alan Bridger, Editors, 77400Z, Vol 774

Influence of Sport Specialization on Athletic Performance and Injury Risk in Collegiate Swimmers

To assess the effect of swimming specialization on performance and injury risk in collegiate swimmers, thirty collegiate swimmers (20.1 ± 0.9 years [18.5 – 22.3 years]) were asked to complete an anonymous survey to provide information regarding their sports participation history, success in swimming, and the occurrence and quantity of swimming-related injuries. Specialization status was determined by the swimmer claiming they had specialized and by the number of months (≥ 8 months) they participated in swimming each year. Correlation analysis revealed several significant (p \u3c 0.05) relationships between all determinants of specialization, swimming success, and swimming injuries. Stepwise regression analysis revealed that the age which an athlete specialized was the best predictor of the occurrence of a swimming- related injury (R2 = 0.34, p = 0.004) and the number of injuries sustained (R2 = 0.25, p = 0.019). Years of competitive swimming experience was the best predictor (p \u3c 0.008) of performance in the freestyle stroke at 50-yards (R2 = 0.47), 100-yards (R2 = 0.53), and 500-yards (R2 = 0.43), the back stroke at 200-yards (R2 = 0.41), and the 100-yard butterfly (R2 = 0.55). The age in which the athlete specialized in swimming was the best predictor of the 200-yard individual medley (R2 = 0.30, p = 0.037). Our data suggests that swimming specialization may be beneficial for success in select swimming events but is not as important as years of competitive experience and may also lead to a greater number of swimming-related injuries

Medium-Term Review: 2005-2012, No. 10 December 2005

After a decade of generally high growth and low unemployment there is a growing aura of invincibility about the Irish economy. Even the short slowdown of 2001-03 did not lead to an appreciable rise in unemployment. Today investment in housing is running at an unprecedented rate fuelling growth elsewhere in the economy. The unemployment rate is close to the full-employment level, the lowest in the EU, and Ireland is seen to be the most attractive labour market in Europe for many of its young mobile population. Introductio

Orthostatic Tremor is Responsive to Bilateral Thalamic Deep Brain Stimulation: Report of Two Cases Performed Asleep

Background: Orthostatic tremor (OT) is a hyperkinetic movement disorder characterized by rapid tremor in the lower extremities or trunk upon standing. Case Report: We report two patients presenting with OT, whose symptoms improved markedly following asleep bilateral thalamic deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery. Discussion: Medically refractory OT can respond favorably to asleep bilateral DBS surgery similar to awake surgery, and may have the advantages of less psychological trauma to the patient, shorter procedure times, and less exposure to anesthesia

Anti-Salmonella lacatic acid bacteria from porcine intestinal sources

The aim of this study was to isolate lactic acid bacteria (LAB) with anti-Salmonella activity from the porcine gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and to characterise these for potentially probiotic properties using in vitro assays. Porcine caecal and faecal samples were screened for the presence of anti-Salmonella LAB; the ten most promising isolates belonged to the genera Lactobacillus and Pediococcus. The LAB exhibited large variation in their ability to survive in simulated gastric juice at pH 1.85. While Lactobacillus acidophilus species survived at up to 80% for 30 min, Lb. pentosus species declined to less than 0.001%. All isolates tolerated porcine bile at a concentration of 0.3%, with some capable of growth in the presence of up to 5% bile. The ability of the LAB isolates to prevent Salmonella invasion of intestinal epithelial cells varied, with reductions of 55% (Lb. acidophilus spp.) to 82% (Lb. salivarius spp.) observed. The data demonstrates that some porcine intestinal LAB isolates may offer potential as probiotics for the reduction of Salmonella carriage in pigs

Bioinformatics process management: information flow via a computational journal

This paper presents the Bioinformatics Computational Journal (BCJ), a framework for conducting and managing computational experiments in bioinformatics and computational biology. These experiments often involve series of computations, data searches, filters, and annotations which can benefit from a structured environment. Systems to manage computational experiments exist, ranging from libraries with standard data models to elaborate schemes to chain together input and output between applications. Yet, although such frameworks are available, their use is not widespread–ad hoc scripts are often required to bind applications together. The BCJ explores another solution to this problem through a computer based environment suitable for on-site use, which builds on the traditional laboratory notebook paradigm. It provides an intuitive, extensible paradigm designed for expressive composition of applications. Extensive features facilitate sharing data, computational methods, and entire experiments. By focusing on the bioinformatics and computational biology domain, the scope of the computational framework was narrowed, permitting us to implement a capable set of features for this domain. This report discusses the features determined critical by our system and other projects, along with design issues. We illustrate the use of our implementation of the BCJ on two domain-specific examples