Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Including Group Quarters Residents with Household Residents Can Change What We Know About Working-Age People with Disabilities

Information about residents of institutional and noninstitutional group quarters (GQ), particularly those with disabilities, has been limited by gaps in survey data, and statistics based on data that exclude some or all GQ residents are biased as estimates of total population statistics. We used the 2006 and 2007 American Community Survey (ACS) to identify the distribution of working-age populations with and without disabilities by major residence type, and to assess the sensitivity of disability statistics to GQ residence. Our findings showed that (1) of those with disabilities, about one in 13 males and one in 33 females live in GQ; (2) younger males with disabilities are more likely to reside there, particularly at institutional GQ; (3) individuals with and without disabilities who are black, American Indian, never married, or have less than a high school education had higher GQ residence rates; (4) 40% of male and 62% of female GQ residents have a disability; (5) adding GQ residents to household residents increases estimated disability prevalence for males by 6% and the estimated difference between disability prevalence rates by gender nearly disappears; and (6) inclusion of the GQ population substantively lowers employment rate estimates for males with disabilities—especially young blacks and American Indians

Decompression sickness (DCS): "the bends"

This issue of eMedRef provides information to clinicians on the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and therapeutics of decompression sickness

Which risk factors and signs and symptoms are associated with coccidioidomycosis?

Q: Which risk factors and signs and symptoms are associated with coccidioidomycosis? Evidence-Based Answer: Risk factors for coccidioidomycosis, or valley fever, include lower respiratory tract symptoms lasting longer than 14 days, chest pain, rash, having lived in endemic areas fewer than 10 years, and diabetes mellitus or immunosuppressive conditions (strength of recommendation [SOR]: B, several prospective cohort and case-control studies). The most common signs and symptoms include cough (74%), fever (56%), night sweats (35%), pleuritic chest pain (33%), chills (28%), dyspnea (27%), weight loss (21%), and rash (14%) (SOR: B, retrospective cohort study)

Closures Are the Tip of the Iceberg: Exploring the Variation in State Vocational Rehabilitation Program Exits After Service Receipt (Abstract)

State vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies play an important role in promoting employment for people with disabilities. However, little information has been available about how many people with disabilities exit after VR service receipt and how exits vary with individual characteristics and across states compared to the general population with disabilities. We used RSA administrative data from fiscal year 2007 and public use files from the American Community Survey to calculate the ratio of the number of individuals completing VR services to the estimated number of working-age people with disabilities in 2007 at the national and state-levels and for demographic, educational, and disability subgroups. Overall, our results show that 1.3 of every 100 working-age adults with a disability living in the community exited a VR agency after receiving services, with state variation ranging from 0.6 percent in Washington and Puerto Rico to 4.0 percent in Vermont. We also found large differences in these numbers across sex, age, racial, ethnic, and educational groups—differences that are much larger in some states than in others. These observed disparities raise questions about why some groups are more likely to complete VR services than others and whether VR agencies should be systematically targeting more resources to certain groups. Further research and additional data collection strategies are needed to better understand how well people with disabilities complete VR agency services

Sunmaster: An SEP cargo vehicle for Mars missions

Options are examined for an unmanned solar powered electric propulsion cargo vehicle for Mars missions. The 6 prime areas of study include: trajectory, propulsion system, power system, supporting structure, control system, and launch consideration. Optimization of the low thrust trajectory resulted in a total round trip mission time just under 4 years. The argon propelled electrostatic ion thruster system consists of seventeen 5 N engines and uses a specific impulse of 10,300 secs. At Earth, the system uses 13 engines to produce 60 N of thrust; at Mars, five engines are used, producing 25 N thrust. The thrust of the craft is varied between 60 N at Earth and 24 N at Mars due to reduced solar power available. Solar power is collected by a Fresnel lens concentrator system using a multistacked cell. This system provides 3.5 MW to the propulsion system after losses. Control and positioning to the craft are provided by a system of three double gimballed control moment gyros. Four shuttle 'C' launches will be used to transport the unassembled vehicle in modular units to low Earth orbit where it will be assembled using the Mobile Transporter of the Space Station Freedom

HIV-1 infection, response to treatment and establishment of viral latency in a novel humanized T cell-only mouse (TOM) model

Abstract Background The major targets of HIV infection in humans are CD4+ T cells. CD4+ T cell depletion is a hallmark of AIDS. Previously, the SCID-hu thy/liv model was used to study the effect of HIV on thymopoeisis in vivo. However, these mice did not develop high levels of peripheral T cell reconstitution and required invasive surgery for infection and analysis. Here, we describe a novel variant of this model in which thy/liv implantation results in systemic reconstitution with human T cells in the absence of any other human hematopoietic lineages. Results NOD/SCID-hu thy/liv and NSG-hu thy/liv mice were created by implanting human fetal thymus and liver tissues under the kidney capsule of either NOD/SCID or NSG mice. In contrast to NOD/SCID-hu thy/liv mice that show little or no human cells in peripheral blood or tissues, substantial systemic human reconstitution occurs in NSG-hu thy/liv. These mice are exclusively reconstituted with human T cells (i.e. T-cell only mice or TOM). Despite substantial levels of human T cells no signs of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) were noted in these mice over a period of 14 months. TOM are readily infected after parenteral exposure to HIV-1. HIV replication is sustained in peripheral blood at high levels and results in modest reduction of CD4+ T cells. HIV-1 replication in TOM responds to daily administration of combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) resulting in strong suppression of virus replication as determined by undetectable viral load in plasma. Latently HIV infected resting CD4+ T cells can be isolated from suppressed mice that can be induced to express HIV ex-vivo upon activation demonstrating the establishment of latency in vivo. Conclusions NSG-hu thy/liv mice are systemically reconstituted with human T cells. No other human lymphoid lineages are present in these mice (i.e. monocytes/macrophages, B cells and DC are all absent). These T cell only mice do not develop GVHD, are susceptible to HIV-1 infection and can efficiently maintain virus replication. HIV infected TOM undergoing ART harbor latently infected, resting CD4+ T cells

Energy Landscape and Global Optimization for a Frustrated Model Protein

The three-color (BLN) 69-residue model protein was designed to exhibit frustrated folding. We investigate the energy landscape of this protein using disconnectivity graphs and compare it to a Go model, which is designed to reduce the frustration by removing all non-native attractive interactions. Finding the global minimum on a frustrated energy landscape is a good test of global optimization techniques, and we present calculations evaluating the performance of basin-hopping and genetic algorithms for this system.Comparisons are made with the widely studied 46-residue BLN protein.We show that the energy landscape of the 69-residue BLN protein contains several deep funnels, each of which corresponds to a different β-barrel structure

The Sexual Use of a Social Networking Site: The Case of Pup Twitter

This article examines how Twitter has been adopted and used by a sexual subculture in distinct ways. Drawing on interviews with 26 gay and bisexual men based in the UK who identify as ‘pups’, it demonstrates how a kinky sexual subculture exists on a social networking site in new and innovative ways, adapting various elements of Twitter to form a unique subculture that I call ‘Pup Twitter’. Engaging with debates about social trends related to sexuality, as well as contemporary understandings of social networking sites, the study documents how this subcultural sexual community, while predating Twitter, has adopted online methods to enhance communication, engagement, and even visibility. The intersection of sexuality and social networking sites is an area ripe for further study, and this article develops empirical and conceptual ways to examine this issue in the future

Cost-effectiveness of HBV and HCV screening strategies:a systematic review of existing modelling techniques

Introduction: Studies evaluating the cost-effectiveness of screening for Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) are generally heterogeneous in terms of risk groups, settings, screening intervention, outcomes and the economic modelling framework. It is therefore difficult to compare cost-effectiveness results between studies. This systematic review aims to summarise and critically assess existing economic models for HBV and HCV in order to identify the main methodological differences in modelling approaches. Methods: A structured search strategy was developed and a systematic review carried out. A critical assessment of the decision-analytic models was carried out according to the guidelines and framework developed for assessment of decision-analytic models in Health Technology Assessment of health care interventions. Results: The overall approach to analysing the cost-effectiveness of screening strategies was found to be broadly consistent for HBV and HCV. However, modelling parameters and related structure differed between models, producing different results. More recent publications performed better against a performance matrix, evaluating model components and methodology. Conclusion: When assessing screening strategies for HBV and HCV infection, the focus should be on more recent studies, which applied the latest treatment regimes, test methods and had better and more complete data on which to base their models. In addition to parameter selection and associated assumptions, careful consideration of dynamic versus static modelling is recommended. Future research may want to focus on these methodological issues. In addition, the ability to evaluate screening strategies for multiple infectious diseases, (HCV and HIV at the same time) might prove important for decision makers