The relation of body mass index, demographic and health-related variables to length of stay for patients at an acute rehabilitation hospital after total hip arthroplasty

Obesity is a growing public health concern world-wide. At the same time, knee and hip replacements are becoming an increasingly regular treatment for osteoarthritis. There are conflicting reports in the literature as to what extent body mass affects the length of stay (LOS) of patients undergoing total hip replacements. This chart review aims at examining the ­relationship between body mass index (BMI), demographic and health-related variables, and LOS. The retrospective chart review of one acute inpatient rehabilitation facility involved n = 119 patients. There was no significant association between LOS and body mass index (BMI), confirming earlier results. Insurance payer type (Medicare vs private) was statistically significant related to LOS. Moreover, there was a trend for the potential influence of race/ethnic patient background on LOS with Caucasians having shorter hospital stays. © 2010 Greenberg and Kroll, publisher and licensee Dove Medical Press Ltd. This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, provided the original work is properly cited.</p

Study of the vacuum matrix element of products of parafields

We study the vacuum matrix elements of products of parafields using graphical and combinatorial methods.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures. Figures were omitted in the first versio

Research on experiential psychotherapies

Reviews research on experiential or humanistic psychotherapies, including meta-analysis of outcome research and studies of particular change processes. Outcome meta-analysis shows large client pre-post change, as well as large controlled effects relative to untreated controls and statistical equivalence to nonexperiential psychotherapies, including CBT

Variational Principle in the Algebra of Asymptotic Fields

This paper proposes a variational principle for the solutions of quantum field theories in which the ``trial functions'' are chosen from the algebra of asymptotic fields, and illustrates this variational principle in simple cases.Comment: 15 pages, Latex, no figure

On elliptic curves with an isogeny of degree 7

We show that if $E$ is an elliptic curve over $\mathbf{Q}$ with a $\mathbf{Q}$-rational isogeny of degree 7, then the image of the 7-adic Galois representation attached to $E$ is as large as allowed by the isogeny, except for the curves with complex multiplication by $\mathbf{Q}(\sqrt{-7})$. The analogous result with 7 replaced by a prime $p > 7$ was proved by the first author in [7]. The present case $p = 7$ has additional interesting complications. We show that any exceptions correspond to the rational points on a certain curve of genus 12. We then use the method of Chabauty to show that the exceptions are exactly the curves with complex multiplication. As a by-product of one of the key steps in our proof, we determine exactly when there exist elliptic curves over an arbitrary field $k$ of characteristic not 7 with a $k$-rational isogeny of degree 7 and a specified Galois action on the kernel of the isogeny, and we give a parametric description of such curves.Comment: The revision gives a complete answer to the question considered in Version 1. Version 3 will appear in the American Journal of Mathematic

Have Welfare-To-Work Programs Improved Over Time In Putting Welfare Recipients To Work?

Data from 76 experimental welfare-to-work programs conducted in the United States between 1983 and 1998 are used to investigate whether the impacts of such programs on employment had been improving over time and whether specific program features influencing such changes can be identified. Over the period, an increasing percentage of control group members received services similar to those offered to program group members. As a result, differential participation in program service activities between program and control group members decreased steadily over time. This reduction in the net receipt of program services tended to reduce the impact of these programs on employment. However, the negative influence of the reduced incremental services was offset by other factors that resulted in program impacts remaining essentially constant from 1983 to 1998. Suggestions are made for possibly improving program impacts in future experiments.Welfare Programs; Program Evaluation; Employment Behavior of Low-Income Families; Meta Analysis

Prospects of dynamical determination of General Relativity parameter beta and solar quadrupole moment J2 with asteroid radar astronomy

We evaluated the prospects of quantifying the parameterized post-Newtonian parameter beta and solar quadrupole moment J2 with observations of near-Earth asteroids with large orbital precession rates (9 to 27 arcsec century$^{-1}$). We considered existing optical and radar astrometry, as well as radar astrometry that can realistically be obtained with the Arecibo planetary radar in the next five years. Our sensitivity calculations relied on a traditional covariance analysis and Monte Carlo simulations. We found that independent estimates of beta and J2 can be obtained with precisions of $6\times10^{-4}$ and $3\times10^{-8}$, respectively. Because we assumed rather conservative observational uncertainties, as is the usual practice when reporting radar astrometry, it is likely that the actual precision will be closer to $2\times10^{-4}$ and $10^{-8}$, respectively. A purely dynamical determination of solar oblateness with asteroid radar astronomy may therefore rival the helioseismology determination.Comment: The astrophysical journal (ApJ), in pres

Flux qubit as a sensor for a magnetometer with quantum limited sensitivity

We propose to use the quantum properties of a superconducting flux qubit in the construction of a magnetometer with quantum limited sensitivity. The main advantage of a flux qubit is that its noise is rather low, and its transfer functions relative to the measured flux can be made to be about 10mV/$\Phi_0$, which is an order of magnitude more than the best value for a conventional SQUID magnetometer. We analyze here the voltage-to-flux, the phase-to-flux transfer functions and the main noise sources. We show that the experimental characteristics of a flux qubit, obtained in recent experiments, allow the use of a flux qubit as magnetometer with energy resolution close to the Planck constant.Comment: 3 pages, 6 figure

Attitudinal influence on technlogy usage by faculty in higher education

textThe rapid inclusion of new technologies into educational curriculum has left some educators feeling ill prepared and anxious towards changes in teaching styles and curriculum necessary to put these innovations to use in their classrooms. It is imperative that we address this reluctance in order to provide inclusion of both faculty and students in the information revolution that began with the Internet and that continues to sweep the globe. Existing research takes primarily an external perspective to lack of technology usage in education; few studies have considered the psychological barriers that may contribute to technological and digital inequality within a University community. Real progress can be made in motivating technology resistant faculty by teaching them to differentiate between the characteristics of experts and novices, by providing them with the tools necessary to improve their self-efficacy to utilize new teaching technologies, and by providing the infrastructural support necessary to succeed.Curriculum and Instructio