Will you get vaccinated? Trade‐offs between purity, liberty and care predict attitudes towards Covid‐19 vaccination

How do tensions between moral values predict how likely we are to receive Covid-19 vaccination? Previous work suggests that moral foundations, particularly purity and liberty, relate to decisions to vaccinate. In addition, research on the moral trade-off hypothesis suggests value in exploring trade-offs between foundations. We conducted three studies across the pandemic: at the start of the vaccine rollout (Study 1, N = 170); during delivery (Study 2, N = 328) and 2 years later (Study 3, N = 388). We find that trade-offs between purity and care and between liberty and care are predictive of higher levels of vaccine reluctance—individuals who endorse purity or liberty more, relative to care, were more reluctant towards Covid-19 vaccination, less likely to have received a vaccine and have lower intention to get future Covid-19 vaccines. This research highlights the relevance of moral values, and trade-offs between them, in vaccine attitudes and decisions.</p

Bone mineral density loss in relation to the final menstrual period in a multiethnic cohort: Results from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN)

The objective of this study was to describe the time of onset and offset of bone mineral density (BMD) loss relative to the date of the final menstrual period (FMP); the rate and amount of BMD decline during the 5 years before and the 5 years after the FMP; and the independent associations between age at FMP, body mass index (BMI), and race/ethnicity with rates of BMD loss during this time interval. The sample included 242 African American, 384 white, 117 Chinese, and 119 Japanese women, pre‐ or early perimenopausal at baseline, who had experienced their FMP and for whom an FMP date could be determined. Loess‐smoothed curves showed that BMD loss began 1 year before the FMP and decelerated (but did not cease) 2 years after the FMP, at both the lumbar spine (LS) and femoral neck (FN) sites. Piecewise, linear, mixed‐effects regression models demonstrated that during the 10‐year observation period, at each bone site, the rates and cumulative amounts of bone loss were greatest from 1 year before through 2 years after the FMP, termed the transmenopause. Postmenopausal loss rates, those occurring between 2 and 5 years after the FMP, were less than those observed during transmenopause. Cumulative, 10‐year LS BMD loss was 10.6%; 7.38% was lost during the transmenopause. Cumulative FN loss was 9.1%; 5.8% was lost during the transmenopause. Greater BMI and African American heritage were related to slower loss rates, whereas the opposite was true of Japanese and Chinese ancestry. © 2012 American Society for Bone and Mineral ResearchPeer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89478/1/534_ftp.pd

High levels of childhood obesity observed among 3- to 7-year-old New Zealand Pacific children is a public health concern.

This cross-sectional, community-based survey was designed to assess attained growth and body composition of 3- to 7-y-old Pacific children (n = 21 boys and 20 girls) living in Dunedin, New Zealand, and to examine nondietary factors associated with the percentage of body fat. Fat mass, lean tissue mass and the percentage of body fat were measured using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. One trained anthropometrist also measured height, weight, skinfolds (triceps, subscapular) and circumferences (mid-upper arm, chest, waist, calf). Compared with the National Center for Health Statistics and National Health and Examination Surveys I and II reference data, these Pacific children were tall and heavy for their age with high arm-muscle-area-for-height. Median (quartiles) Z-scores for height and BMI-for-age and arm-muscle-area-for-height were 1.33 (0.60, 2.15), 1.20 (0.74, 4.43) and 1.09 (0.63, 1.85), respectively. Their median (quartile) percentage of body fat was 21.8% (15.0, 35.5) of which 38.5% was located in the trunk. The estimated percentage of children classified as obese ranged from 34 to 49% depending on the criterion used. Over 60% of the children had levels of trunk fat above 1 SD of reported age- and sex-specific Z-scores for New Zealand children. The nondietary factors examined (hours of television viewing and hours playing organized sports, as reported by parents) were not associated with variations in the percentage of body fat, after adjusting for age, sex and birth weight. These extremely high levels of obesity and truncal fat among very young New Zealand children will have major public health implications as these children age

Presentations and outcomes of people with unexplained symptoms in acute general surgery: protocol for a mixed-methods study

Introduction Unexplained symptoms are common across healthcare settings and are associated with increased mental and physical morbidity and healthcare expenditure. Improving the identification, explanation and management of unexplained symptoms will be helpful to patientsand healthcare systems. Limited data exists exploring unexplained acute abdominal pain in the surgical setting. Objectives This protocol describes three interlinked studies. Study one will determine the prevalence of anxiety and depression in patients presenting with explained and unexplained abdominal pain in an acute surgical setting. Study two will explore how the explanation and management of unexplained symptoms is conveyed to patients. Study three will explore how patients with unexplained symptoms understand these explanations. Methods and analysis Patients aged ≥18 years who present to a surgical same day emergency care unit with acute abdominal pain will be eligible. In study one, participants will be asked to complete a questionnaire, including validated self-report measures, at the time of presentation and six months later. They will be divided into explained and unexplained symptom groups based on clinical presentation and investigation outcomes. The proportion in each group meeting diagnostic thresholds for anxiety and depression will be compared and baseline predictors of pain and quality of life six months later will be determined. In study two, recordings of consultations between patients and surgeons involving the explanation and management of unexplained abdominal pain will be analysed. In study three, participants will be interviewed to explore their experiences and understanding of their symptoms

The dynamics of quality: a national panel study of evidence-based standards

This is the final version of the article. Available from NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme via the DOI in this record.Background Shortfalls in the receipt of recommended health care have been previously reported in England, leading to preventable poor health. Objectives To assess changes over 6 years in the receipt of effective health-care interventions for people aged 50 years or over in England with cardiovascular disease, depression, diabetes or osteoarthritis; to identify how quality varied with participant characteristics; and to compare the distribution of illness burden in the population with the distributions of diagnosis and treatment. Setting and participants Information on health-care quality indicators and participant characteristics was collected using face-to-face structured interviews and nurse visits in participants’ homes by the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing in 2004–5, 2006–7, 2008–9 and 2010–11. A total of 16,773 participants aged 50 years or older were interviewed at least once and 5114 were interviewed in all four waves; 5404 reported diagnosis of one or more of four conditions in 2010–11. Main outcome measures Percentage of indicated health care received by eligible participants for 19 quality indicators: seven for cardiovascular disease, three for depression, five for diabetes and four for osteoarthritis, and condition-level quality indicator achievement, including achievement of a bundle of three diabetes indicators. Analysis Changes in quality indicator achievement over time and variations in quality with participant characteristics were tested with Pearson’s chi-squared test and logistic regression models. The size of inequality between the hypothetically wealthiest and poorest participants, for illness burden, diagnosis and treatment, was estimated using slope indices of wealth inequality. Results Achievement of indicators for cardiovascular disease was 82.7% [95% confidence interval (CI) 79.9% to 85.5%] in 2004–5 and 84.2% (95% CI 82.1% to 86.2%) in 2010–11, for depression 63.3% (95% CI 57.6% to 69.0%) and 59.8% (95% CI 52.4% to 64.3%), for diabetes 76.0% (95% CI 74.1% to 77.8%) and 76.5% (95% CI 74.8% to 78.1%), and for osteoarthritis 31.2% (95% CI 28.5% to 33.8%) and 35.6% (95% CI 34.2% to 37.1%). Achievement of the diabetes care bundle was 67.8% (95% CI 64.5% to 70.9%) in 2010–11. Variations in quality by participant characteristics were generally small. Diabetes indicator achievement was worse in participants with cognitive impairment [odds ratio (OR) 0.5, 95% CI 0.4 to 0.7] and better in those living alone (OR 1.7, 95% CI 1.3 to 2.0). Hypertension care was better for those aged over 74 years (vs. 50–64 years) (OR 3.2, 95% CI 2.0 to 5.3). Osteoarthritis care was better for those with severe (vs. mild) pain (OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.4 to 2.2), limiting illness (OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.5 to 2.1), and obesity (OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.2 to 2.0). Previous non-achievement of the diabetes care bundle was the biggest predictor of non-achievement 2 years later (OR 3.3, 95% CI 2.2 to 4.7). Poorer participants were always more likely than wealthier participants to have illness burden (statistically significant OR 3.9 to 16.0), but not always more likely to be diagnosed or receive treatment (0.2 to 5.3). Conclusions Shortfalls in quality of care for these four conditions have persisted over 6 years, with only half of the level of indicated health care achieved for osteoarthritis, compared with the other three conditions. Quality for osteoarthritis improved slightly over time but remains poor. The relatively high prevalence of specific illness burden in poorer participants was not matched by an equally high prevalence of diagnosis or treatment, suggesting that barriers to equity may exist at the stage at diagnosis. Further research is needed into the association between quality and health system characteristics at the level of clinicians, general practices or hospitals, and regions. Linkage to routinely collected data could provide information on health service characteristics at the individual patient level.Funding for this study was provided by the Health Services and Delivery Research programme of the National Institute for Health Research

'This is not America': Cultural mythscapes, media representation and the anatomy of the Surveillance School in Australia

Schools have exhibited a demonstrable predilection for surveillance technologies in recent years. While much attention has been paid to the globalized diffusion of surveillance and security practices, in contrast, the ways in which artefacts of surveillance surface and take root unevenly internationally has not received much scholarly attention. Drawing on the media representation of emergent school surveillance technologies in Australia, this article seeks to illuminate how distinctive cultural dynamics interact with acceptability, reverence and rejection of surveillance apparatus in the educational context. Far from revealing homogeneity in the manifestation of surveillance practices, the findings show that cultural context and specificity are central to understanding the materiality of surveillance apparatus and regimes

Geometric Integrability of the Camassa-Holm Equation. II

It is known that the Camassa–Holm (CH) equation describes pseudo-spherical surfaces and that therefore its integrability properties can be studied by geometrical means. In particular, the CH equation admits nonlocal symmetries of “pseudo-potential type”: the standard quadratic pseudo-potential associated with the geodesics of the pseudo-spherical surfaces determined by (generic) solutions to CH, allows us to construct a covering π of the equation manifold of CH on which nonlocal symmetries can be explicitly calculated. In this article, we present the Lie algebra of (first-order) nonlocal π-symmetries for the CH equation, and we show that this algebra contains a semidirect sum of the loop algebra over sl(2,R) and the centerless Virasoro algebra. As applications, we compute explicit solutions, we construct a Darboux transformation for the CH equation, and we recover its recursion operator. We also extend our results to the associated Camassa–Holm equation introduced by J. Schiff

MAD3 Encodes a Novel Component of the Spindle Checkpoint Which Interacts with Bub3p, Cdc20p, and Mad2p

We show that MAD3 encodes a novel 58-kD nuclear protein which is not essential for viability, but is an integral component of the spindle checkpoint in budding yeast. Sequence analysis reveals two regions of Mad3p that are 46 and 47% identical to sequences in the NH2-terminal region of the budding yeast Bub1 protein kinase. Bub1p is known to bind Bub3p (Roberts et al. 1994) and we use two-hybrid assays and coimmunoprecipitation experiments to show that Mad3p can also bind to Bub3p. In addition, we find that Mad3p interacts with Mad2p and the cell cycle regulator Cdc20p. We show that the two regions of homology between Mad3p and Bub1p are crucial for these interactions and identify loss of function mutations within each domain of Mad3p. We discuss roles for Mad3p and its interactions with other spindle checkpoint proteins and with Cdc20p, the target of the checkpoint

Kentucky UST Field Manual

This study was undertaken to address the removal and closure of defective petroleum underground storage tanks in Kentucky. Goals for the study included: To address standards for levels of contamination requiring corrective action consistent with accepted scientific and technical principles. To recommend a matrix or scoring system to be used for (a) ranking sites as to actual or potential harm to human health and the environment caused by release of petroleum from a petroleum storage tank, and (2) establishing standards and procedures for corrective action that shall adequately protect human health and the environment. To address all compounds individually and collectively known as petroleum. To produce a report that shall be scientifically defensible