Descriptive Analysis of Assaults in Domestic Violence Incidents Reported to Alaska State Troopers: 2004

This project examined the characteristics of assaults in domestic violence incidents reported to the Alaska State Troopers. Assaults are only one type of criminal offense defined in Alaska statutes as a crime involving domestic violence. This report is not inclusive of all crimes involving domestic violence reported to AST, because it only includes assaults. In addition, this report is not inclusive of assaults in domestic violence incidents that were reported to municipal police departments across Alaska. Only assaults in domestic violence incidents reported to AST are described in this report. The term assault will be used throughout this report to define assault cases that are crimes involving domestic violence incidents; this includes felony and misdemeanor assaults. The sample utilized for this analysis included all assaults in domestic violence incidents reported to AST in 2004. It included information from 1,281 reports on 1,803 assault charges, 1,356 suspects, 1,523 victims, and 1,283 witnesses. This descriptive analysis documents the characteristics of these reports, charges, suspects, victims, witnesses, and legal resolutions.Index of Tables and Figures / Acknowledgements / Executive Summary / Descriptive Analysis of Assaults in Domestic Violence Incidents / Brief Overview of the State of Alaska / Brief Overview of the Alaska State Troopers / Summary of Alaska's Criminal Assault Statutes / Purpose of this Study / Methods / Report Characteristics / Suspect Characteristics / Victim Characteristics / Incident Characteristics / Witness Characteristics / Legal Resolutions / Appendix A -- Data Collection Instruments / Appendix B -- 2004 Alaska's Criminal Assault Statute

Costs of Doing Nothing: Economic Consequences of Not Adapting to Sea Level Rise in the Hampton Roads Region

October of 2016 brought Hurricane Matthew to coastal Virginia, providing once again an illustration of the vulnerability of the Hampton Roads region and economy to the threats and impacts of flooding and the role of sea level rise in those impacts. The hurricane prompted Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe to state, “Climate change is real. Sea-level rise is happening. We’ve got to get into the game.” Indeed, sea level rise, combined with 14 to 17 inches of rain that fell in the region during the hurricane, damaged over 2,000 homes (many that were outside the flood zone and not covered by flood insurance), displaced around 620 individuals, and caused over 13.2 million in estimated damages of public facilities and structures. Increased recognition of this vulnerability is taking place at all levels of government, but the true costs of inaction have yet to be quantified. This study conducted by the Research Triangle Institute (RTI), entitled the Costs of Doing Nothing: Economic Consequences of Not Adapting to Sea Level Rise in the Hampton Roads Region, is a first step to understanding the costs of failing to act. The study, produced for the Virginia Coastal Policy Center at William & Mary Law School (VCPC), through funding from the blue moon fund, models the effects of not implementing any specific measures to mitigate the negative impacts of sea level rise for Virginia’s Hampton Roads coastal communities. The study concludes that sea level rise in the range of .5 meters to .75 meters (the levels predicted by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) by the years 2040 and 2060, respectively) could increase the costs and economic damages from coastal flooding events by up to 100 million annually. This abstract has been adapted from the report\u27s front matter

Canagliflozin and cardiovascular and renal events in type 2 diabetes

Background: Canagliflozin is a sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor that reduces glycemia as well as blood pressure, body weight, and albuminuria in people with diabetes. We report the effects of treatment with canagliflozin on cardiovascular, renal, and safety outcomes. Methods: the CANVAS Program integrated data from two trials involving a total of 10,142 participants with type 2 diabetes and high cardiovascular risk. Participants in each trial were randomly assigned to receive canagliflozin or placebo and were followed for a mean of 188.2 weeks. The primary outcome was a composite of death from cardiovascular causes, nonfatal myocardial infarction, or nonfatal stroke. Results: the mean age of the participants was 63.3 years, 35.8% were women, the mean duration of diabetes was 13.5 years, and 65.6% had a history of cardiovascular disease. The rate of the primary outcome was lower with canagliflozin than with placebo (occurring in 26.9 vs. 31.5 participants per 1000 patient-years; hazard ratio, 0.86; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.75 to 0.97; P<0.001 for noninferiority; P=0.02 for superiority). Although on the basis of the prespecified hypothesis testing sequence the renal outcomes are not viewed as statistically significant, the results showed a possible benefit of canagliflozin with respect to the progression of albuminuria (hazard ratio, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.79) and the composite outcome of a sustained 40% reduction in the estimated glomerular filtration rate, the need for renal-replacement therapy, or death from renal causes (hazard ratio, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.47 to 0.77). Adverse reactions were consistent with the previously reported risks associated with canagliflozin except for an increased risk of amputation (6.3 vs. 3.4 participants per 1000 patient-years; hazard ratio, 1.97; 95% CI, 1.41 to 2.75); amputations were primarily at the level of the toe or metatarsal. Conclusion: in two trials involving patients with type 2 diabetes and an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease, patients treated with canagliflozin had a lower risk of cardiovascular events than those who received placebo but a greater risk of amputation, primarily at the level of the toe or metatarsal. (Funded by Janssen Research and Development; CANVAS and CANVAS-R ClinicalTrials.gov numbers, NCT01032629 and NCT01989754 , respectively)

CAR T manufacturing: process modifications for a transformational autologous product on a rapid path to licensure

The transformational impact of CAR T cell therapies on serious diseases demands a rapid path to licensure in order to establish widespread availability to desperate patients. In addition, the complex, labor intensive, and costly patient-specific manufacturing processes for CAR T cell therapies demand process modifications that enable scalability and affordability to maximize availability to patients. There are many options to improve CAR T processes ranging from automation to improved medium composition to simplified closed-system tubing sets. However, the dramatic dose-dependent safety and efficacy activities of these therapies amplifies the need for maintaining product comparability across process changes. This assessment of comparability is challenged by limited knowledge of product Critical Quality Attributes as well as limited availability of patient cells for process development studies. We have developed a comprehensive analytical toolbox that enables the assessment of product impact of process changes along with a risk-based approach to applying a matrix of appropriate tools for each change. This risk-based approach involves the most extensive product analysis for high-risk changes and a relatively restricted product analysis for low-risk changes. In all cases, the product analysis includes assessments of product characteristics that can hypothetically be impacted by the process change. We describe our approach to identifying, prioritizing, and assessing feasibility of process changes along with generating a suitable product comparability dataset to implement the most impactful process changes on an expedited timeline to licensure. We share examples of comparability data and its application to decision making

Lyrebird [TM]: Developing Spoken Dialog Systems Using Examples

An early release software product for the rapid development of spoken dialog systems SDS's), known as Lyrebird [TM] [1][2][3], will be demonstrated that makes use of grammatical inference to build natural language, mixed initiative, speech recognition applications. The demonstration will consist of the presenter developing a spoken dialog system using Lyrebird [TM], and will include a demonstration of some features that are still in the prototype phase

The Allen Telescope Array Pi GHz Sky Survey I. Survey Description and Static Catalog Results for the Bootes Field

The Pi GHz Sky Survey (PiGSS) is a key project of the Allen Telescope Array. PiGSS is a 3.1 GHz survey of radio continuum emission in the extragalactic sky with an emphasis on synoptic observations that measure the static and time-variable properties of the sky. During the 2.5-year campaign, PiGSS will twice observe ~250,000 radio sources in the 10,000 deg^2 region of the sky with b > 30 deg to an rms sensitivity of ~1 mJy. Additionally, sub-regions of the sky will be observed multiple times to characterize variability on time scales of days to years. We present here observations of a 10 deg^2 region in the Bootes constellation overlapping the NOAO Deep Wide Field Survey field. The PiGSS image was constructed from 75 daily observations distributed over a 4-month period and has an rms flux density between 200 and 250 microJy. This represents a deeper image by a factor of 4 to 8 than we will achieve over the entire 10,000 deg^2. We provide flux densities, source sizes, and spectral indices for the 425 sources detected in the image. We identify ~100$ new flat spectrum radio sources; we project that when completed PiGSS will identify 10^4 flat spectrum sources. We identify one source that is a possible transient radio source. This survey provides new limits on faint radio transients and variables with characteristic durations of months.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; revision submitted with extraneous figure remove

The Allen Telescope Array Pi GHz Sky Survey I. Survey Description and Static Catalog Results for the Bootes Field

The Pi GHz Sky Survey (PiGSS) is a key project of the Allen Telescope Array. PiGSS is a 3.1 GHz survey of radio continuum emission in the extragalactic sky with an emphasis on synoptic observations that measure the static and time-variable properties of the sky. During the 2.5-year campaign, PiGSS will twice observe ~250,000 radio sources in the 10,000 deg^2 region of the sky with b > 30 deg to an rms sensitivity of ~1 mJy. Additionally, sub-regions of the sky will be observed multiple times to characterize variability on time scales of days to years. We present here observations of a 10 deg^2 region in the Bootes constellation overlapping the NOAO Deep Wide Field Survey field. The PiGSS image was constructed from 75 daily observations distributed over a 4-month period and has an rms flux density between 200 and 250 microJy. This represents a deeper image by a factor of 4 to 8 than we will achieve over the entire 10,000 deg^2. We provide flux densities, source sizes, and spectral indices for the 425 sources detected in the image. We identify ~100$ new flat spectrum radio sources; we project that when completed PiGSS will identify 10^4 flat spectrum sources. We identify one source that is a possible transient radio source. This survey provides new limits on faint radio transients and variables with characteristic durations of months.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; revision submitted with extraneous figure remove

International EANM-SNMMI-ISMRM consensus recommendation for PET/MRI in oncology

The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) is an international scientific and professional organization founded in 1954 to promote the science, technology, and practical application of nuclear medicine. The European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) is a professional non-profit medical association that facilitates communication worldwide between individuals pursuing clinical and research excellence in nuclear medicine. The EANM was founded in 1985. The merged International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) is an international, nonprofit, scientific association whose purpose is to promote communication, research, development, and applications in the field of magnetic resonance in medicine and biology and other related topics and to develop and provide channels and facilities for continuing education in the field.The ISMRM was founded in 1994 through the merger of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and the Society of Magnetic Resonance Imaging. SNMMI, ISMRM, and EANM members are physicians, technologists, and scientists specializing in the research and practice of nuclear medicine and/or magnetic resonance imaging. The SNMMI, ISMRM, and EANM will periodically define new guidelines for nuclear medicine practice to help advance the science of nuclear medicine and/or magnetic resonance imaging and to improve the quality of service to patients throughout the world. Existing practice guidelines will be reviewed for revision or renewal, as appropriate, on their fifth anniversary or sooner, if indicated. Each practice guideline, representing a policy statement by the SNMMI/EANM/ISMRM, has undergone a thorough consensus process in which it has been subjected to extensive review. The SNMMI, ISMRM, and EANM recognize that the safe and effective use of diagnostic nuclear medicine imaging and magnetic resonance imaging requires specific training, skills, and techniques, as described in each document. Reproduction or modification of the published practice guideline by those entities not providing these services is not authorized. These guidelines are an educational tool designed to assist practitioners in providing appropriate care for patients. They are not inflexible rules or requirements of practice and are not intended, nor should they be used, to establish a legal standard of care. For these reasons and those set forth below, the SNMMI, the ISMRM, and the EANM caution against the use of these guidelines in litigation in which the clinical decisions of a practitioner are called into question. The ultimate judgment regarding the propriety of any specific procedure or course of action must be made by the physician or medical physicist in light of all the circumstances presented. Thus, there is no implication that an approach differing from the guidelines, standing alone, is below the standard of care. To the contrary, a conscientious practitioner may responsibly adopt a course of action different from that set forth in the guidelines when, in the reasonable judgment of the practitioner, such course of action is indicated by the condition of the patient, limitations of available resources, or advances in knowledge or technology subsequent to publication of the guidelines. The practice of medicine includes both the art and the science of the prevention, diagnosis, alleviation, and treatment of disease. The variety and complexity of human conditions make it impossible to always reach the most appropriate diagnosis or to predict with certainty a particular response to treatment. Therefore, it should be recognized that adherence to these guidelines will not ensure an accurate diagnosis or a successful outcome. All that should be expected is that the practitioner will follow a reasonable course of action based on current knowledge, available resources, and the needs of the patient to deliver effective and safe medical care. The sole purpose of these guidelines is to assist practitioners in achieving this objective

The Allen Telescope Array Twenty-centimeter Survey - A 690-Square-Degree, 12-Epoch Radio Dataset - I: Catalog and Long-Duration Transient Statistics

We present the Allen Telescope Array Twenty-centimeter Survey (ATATS), a multi-epoch (12 visits), 690 square degree radio image and catalog at 1.4GHz. The survey is designed to detect rare, very bright transients as well as to verify the capabilities of the ATA to form large mosaics. The combined image using data from all 12 ATATS epochs has RMS noise sigma = 3.94mJy / beam and dynamic range 180, with a circular beam of 150 arcsec FWHM. It contains 4408 sources to a limiting sensitivity of S = 20 mJy / beam. We compare the catalog generated from this 12-epoch combined image to the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS), a legacy survey at the same frequency, and find that we can measure source positions to better than ~20 arcsec. For sources above the ATATS completeness limit, the median flux density is 97% of the median value for matched NVSS sources, indicative of an accurate overall flux calibration. We examine the effects of source confusion due to the effects of differing resolution between ATATS and NVSS on our ability to compare flux densities. We detect no transients at flux densities greater than 40 mJy in comparison with NVSS, and place a 2-sigma upper limit on the transient rate for such sources of 0.004 per square degree. These results suggest that the > 1 Jy transients reported by Matsumura et al. (2009) may not be true transients, but rather variable sources at their flux density threshold.Comment: 41 pages, 19 figures, ApJ accepted; corrected minor typo in Table