Advances in fidelity measurement for mental health services research

The official published article is available online at http://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201100430.OBJECTIVE: Mental health intervention research requires clear and accurate specification of treatment conditions in intervention studies. Measures are increasingly available for community-based interventions for persons with serious mental illnesses. Measures must go beyond structural features to assess critical processes in interventions. They must also balance effectiveness, adequate coverage of active treatment elements, with efficiency, the degree to which measures may be used cost-effectively. The context of their use is changing with the emergence of new frameworks for implementation research and quality improvement. METHODS: The focus, content, and results of preliminary studies of four recently developed fidelity measures are described. Measures respectively assess fidelity to case management, cognitive therapy for psychosis, illness management and recovery, and assertive community treatment. RESULTS: Fidelity measures described assess interventions in a range of treatment contexts from dyads to teams. Each measure focuses assessment resources on the elements critical to the respective intervention. Each has demonstrated coverage of its target intervention and satisfactory psychometric properties and is related to outcomes. Measures have been used for training, quality improvement, or certification. Current fidelity measures assess domains and have uses beyond their nominal position in implementation and quality frameworks. CONCLUSION: Process components in community-based interventions can be effectively assessed in fidelity measures. Omission of elements assessing potentially critical, active treatment components poses risk to both research and practice until there is evidence to demonstrate they are non-essential. Further development of fidelity measurement theory and approaches should articulate with development of theory and methods in implementation science

Measuring Policy Content on the U.S. Supreme Court

Political scientists have developed increasingly sophisticated understandings of the influences on Supreme Court decision making. Yet, much less attention has been paid to empirical measures of the Court’s ideological output. We develop a theory of the interactions between rational litigants, lower court judges, and Supreme Court justices. We argue that the most common measure of the Supreme Court’s ideological output—whether the Court’s decision is liberal or conservative—suffers from systematic bias. We trace this bias empirically and explain the undesirable consequences it has for empirical analyses of judicial behavior. Specifically, we show that, although the Court’s preferences are positively correlated with the ideological direction of the justices’ decision to reverse a lower court, the attitudes of the justices are negatively related—and significantly so—to the ideological direction of outcomes that affirm lower court decisions. We also offer a solution that allows scholars to work around this ‘‘affirmance bias.’

Spatial dependence of the superexchange interactions for transition-metal trimers in graphene

This study examines the magnetic interactions between spatially-variable manganese and chromium trimers substituted into a graphene superlattice. Using density functional theory, we calculate the electronic band structure and magnetic populations for the determination of the electronic and magnetic properties of the system. To explore the super-exchange coupling between the transition-metal atoms, we establish the magnetic magnetic ground states through a comparison of multiple magnetic and spatial configurations. Through an analysis of the electronic and magnetic properties, we conclude that the presence of transition-metal atoms can induce a distinct magnetic moment in the surrounding carbon atoms as well as produce an RKKY-like super-exchange coupling. It hoped that these simulations can lead to the realization of spintronic applications in graphene through electronic control of the magnetic clusters.Comment: 6 pages, 5 Figur

Formalism for testing theories of gravity using lensing by compact objects. III: Braneworld gravity

Braneworld gravity is a model that endows physical space with an extra dimension. In the type II Randall-Sundrum braneworld gravity model, the extra dimension modifies the spacetime geometry around black holes, and changes predictions for the formation and survival of primordial black holes. We develop a comprehensive analytical formalism for far-field black hole lensing in this model, using invariant quantities to compute all geometric optics lensing observables. We then make the first analysis of wave optics in braneworld lensing, working in the semi-classical limit. We show that wave optics offers the only realistic way to observe braneworld effects in black hole lensing. We point out that if primordial braneworld black holes exist, have mass M, and contribute a fraction f of the dark matter, then roughly 3e5 x f (M/1e-18 Msun)^(-1) of them lie within our Solar System. These objects, which we call "attolenses," would produce interference fringes in the energy spectra of gamma-ray bursts at energies ~100 (M/1e-18 Msun)^(-1) MeV (which will soon be accessible with the GLAST satellite). Primordial braneworld black holes spread throughout the universe could produce similar interference effects; the probability for "attolensing" may be non-negligible. If interference fringes were observed, the fringe spacing would yield a simple upper limit on M. Detection of a primordial black hole with M <~ 1e-19 Msun would challenge general relativity and favor the braneworld model. Further work on lensing tests of braneworld gravity must proceed into the physical optics regime, which awaits a description of the full spacetime geometry around braneworld black holes.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures; accepted in PRD; expanded discussion of prospects for observing attolensing with GLAS

Fostering bioinformatics education through skill development of professors: Big Genomic Data Skills Training for Professors.

Bioinformatics has become an indispensable part of life science over the past 2 decades. However, bioinformatics education is not well integrated at the undergraduate level, especially in liberal arts colleges and regional universities in the United States. One significant obstacle pointed out by the Network for Integrating Bioinformatics into Life Sciences Education is the lack of faculty in the bioinformatics area. Most current life science professors did not acquire bioinformatics analysis skills during their own training. Consequently, a great number of undergraduate and graduate students do not get the chance to learn bioinformatics or computational biology skills within a structured curriculum during their education. To address this gap, we developed a module-based, week-long short course to train small college and regional university professors with essential bioinformatics skills. The bioinformatics modules were built to be adapted by the professor-trainees afterward and used in their own classes. All the course materials can be accessed at https://github.com/TheJacksonLaboratory/JAXBD2K-ShortCourse

Water quality and immatures of the M and S forms of Anopheles gambiae s.s. and An. arabiensis in a Malian village

INTRODUCTION: The associations between the immatures of Anopheles gambiae s.s. (Diptera: Culicidae), its M and S forms, and Anopheles arabiensis among and within larval breeding habitats in Banambani, Mali were investigated under varying conditions of water quality and rainfall. The intent was to elucidate on niche partitioning of these taxa. METHODS: Immatures of An. arabiensis, An. gambiae s.s., and its M and S forms were sampled every alternate day for a month in mid-rainy season from three sampling sites in each of the larval breeding habitats (rock pools, swamp, and puddles). Water quality was characterized by alkalinity, conductivity, dissolved oxygen (D.O.), nitrate, orthophosphate, pH, temperature, total dissolved solids (TDS), and turbidity. A type 3 analysis of the GENMOD model was used to examine the associations between the proportional frequencies of young (first and second instar larvae) and old (third and fourth instar larvae and pupae) or total immatures of species or forms among sampling sites within and among larval breeding habitats during a category of rainfall as influenced by water quality. RESULTS: Of the 4,174 immatures sampled, 1,300 were molecularly identified to species and forms. Significant association between the proportional frequencies of young larvae of An. arabiensis, An. gambiae s.s., its M and S forms was found among sampling sites within habitats but not among larval breeding habitats. The proportional frequencies of young larvae of M and S forms varied daily perhaps due to recruitment, mortality, and dispersal within habitats. Conductivity and TDS had significant effects when the proportional frequencies of young larvae of M and S forms among sampling sites within habitats were significantly associated. Alkalinity, D.O., orthophosphate, pH, nitrate, temperature and turbidity had no effects on niche partitioning of species and forms among sampling sites within habitats. Rainfall did not affect the frequencies of these immatures. CONCLUSION: Conductivity and TDS have significant effects on niche partitioning of young larvae of M and S forms among sampling sites within habitats in Banambani, Mali