The Zoom Paradox: Schrodinger’s Witness

The article explains the role of the common law and federal civil statutes in the evolution of convenience concept in civil procedure through the development of videoconferencing technology

“You Come Back to the Same Ole Shit:” A Qualitative Study of Smoking Cessation Barriers among Women Living with HIV: Implications for Intervention Development

Although tobacco use among women living with HIV (WLWH) is decreasing, the prevalence is more than double that of women in the general population and remains an important health behavior to target among WLWH. Few smoking cessation interventions specifically focus on the unique social and medical needs of women living with HIV (WLWH). Thus, the investigative team engaged WLWH (N=18) in qualitative focus groups to: 1) understand barriers and facilitators to smoking cessation; and 2) inform intervention structure and content priorities. Participants identified salient reasons for smoking and barriers to smoking cessation, which included coping mechanisms for life stressors, HIV-related stress, HIV-related stigma, and social isolation. Further, WLWH highlighted the importance of long-term smoking cessation support, peer support, mental health content, religion/spirituality, and targeted risk messaging in smoking cessation intervention development. Study findings provide concrete, operational strategies for future use in a theory-based smoking cessation intervention, and underscore the importance of formative research to inform smoking cessation interventions for WLWH

Testicular cancer: a longitudinal pilot study on stress response symptoms and quality of life in couples before and after chemotherapy

Goals of work: The current study was designed to longitudinally examine stress response symptoms (SRS) and quality of life (QoL) in couples confronted with disseminated testicular cancer. The objectives were to examine couples' patterns of adjustment over time and possible differences in adjustment between the patient and his partner.Materials and methods: Couples completed the Impact of Event Scale and the QoL subscales physical functioning, social functioning, and mental health of the RAND-36 before chemotherapy (T1), after completion of chemotherapy (T2), and 1 year later (T3). Results: Before chemotherapy 26% of the patients and 50% of partners reported clinically elevated levels of SRS. Patients reported lower physical and social functioning at T2 compared to T1 and T3. Partners reported an improvement in social functioning over the year and no changes in physical functioning or mental health. No relationships between patients and partners' functioning were found. One year after diagnosis, QoL of patients and partners was similar to that of reference groups, and patients even reported better physical functioning than the reference group. SRS of patients and partners were negatively related at T1, and patients and partners' social functioning were positively related at T2. Conclusions: According to stress response levels, the period before the start of chemotherapy was most stressful for couples. Adjustment patterns differ between testicular cancer patients and their partners with patients reporting lowered QoL after completion of chemotherapy. QoL of couples returned to normal levels 1 year after diagnosis. The effect of disseminated testicular cancer on the QoL of patients and their partners seems to be temporary. A minority may need clinical attention for severe SRS

Watson Brake, A Middle Archaic Mound Complex in Northeast Louisiana

Middle Archaic earthen mound complexes in the lower Mississippi valley are remote antecedents of the famous but much younger Poverty Point earthworks. Watson Brake is the largest and most complex of these early mound sites. Wry extensive coring and stratigraphic studies, aided by 25 radiocarbon dates and six huninescence dates, show that minor earthworks were begun here at ca. 3500 B.C. in association with an oval arrangement of burned rock middens at the edge of a stream terrace. The full extent of the first earthworks is not yet known. Substantial moundraising began ca. 3350 B.C. and continued in stages until some time after 3000 B.C. when the site was abandoned. All 11 mounds and their connecting ridges were occupied between building bursts. Soils,formed on some of these temporary surfaces, while lithics. fire-cracked rock. and,fired clay/loam objects became scattered throughout the mound fills. Faunal and floral remains from a basal midden indicate all-season occupation, supported by broad-spectrum foraging centered on nuts, fish, and deer All the overlying fills are so acidic that organics have not survived. The area enclosed by the mounds was kept clean of debris, suggesting its use as ritual space. The reasons why such elaborate activities first occurred here remain elusive. However some building bursts covary with very well-documented increases in El Nino/Southern Oscillation events. During such rapid increases in ENSO frequencies, rainfall becomes extremely erratic and unpredictable. It may be that early moundraising was a communal response to new stresses of droughts and flooding that created a suddenly more unpredictable food base

Telephone Consultation for Improving Health of People Living with or at Risk of HIV: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: Low cost, effective interventions are needed to deal with the major global burden of HIV/AIDS. Telephone consultation offers the potential to improve health of people living with HIV/AIDS cost-effectively and to reduce the burden on affected people and health systems. The aim of this systematic review was to assess the effectiveness of telephone consultation for HIV/AIDS care. METHODS: We undertook a comprehensive search of peer-reviewed and grey literature. Two authors independently screened citations, extracted data and assessed the quality of randomized controlled trials which compared telephone interventions with control groups for HIV/AIDS care. Telephone interventions were voice calls with landlines or mobile phones. We present a narrative overview of the results as the obtained trials were highly heterogeneous in design and therefore the data could not be pooled for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The search yielded 3321 citations. Of these, nine studies involving 1162 participants met the inclusion criteria. The telephone was used for giving HIV test results (one trial) and for delivering behavioural interventions aimed at improving mental health (four trials), reducing sexual transmission risk (one trial), improving medication adherence (two trials) and smoking cessation (one trial). Limited effectiveness of the intervention was found in the trial giving HIV test results, in one trial supporting medication adherence and in one trial for smoking cessation by telephone. CONCLUSIONS: We found some evidence of the benefits of interventions delivered by telephone for the health of people living with HIV or at risk of HIV. However, only limited conclusions can be drawn as we only found nine studies for five different interventions and they mainly took place in the United States. Nevertheless, given the high penetration of low-cost mobile phones in countries with high HIV endemicity, more evidence is needed on how telephone consultation can aid in the delivery of HIV prevention, treatment and care

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for High-Throughput Phenotyping and Agronomic Research

Advances in automation and data science have led agriculturists to seek real-time, high-quality, high-volume crop data to accelerate crop improvement through breeding and to optimize agronomic practices. Breeders have recently gained massive data-collection capability in genome sequencing of plants. Faster phenotypic trait data collection and analysis relative to genetic data leads to faster and better selections in crop improvement. Furthermore, faster and higher-resolution crop data collection leads to greater capability for scientists and growers to improve precision-agriculture practices on increasingly larger farms; e.g., site-specific application of water and nutrients. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have recently gained traction as agricultural data collection systems. Using UAVs for agricultural remote sensing is an innovative technology that differs from traditional remote sensing in more ways than strictly higher-resolution images; it provides many new and unique possibilities, as well as new and unique challenges. Herein we report on processes and lessons learned from year 1-the summer 2015 and winter 2016 growing seasons-of a large multidisciplinary project evaluating UAV images across a range of breeding and agronomic research trials on a large research farm. Included are team and project planning, UAV and sensor selection and integration, and data collection and analysis workflow. The study involved many crops and both breeding plots and agronomic fields. The project's goal was to develop methods for UAVs to collect high-quality, high-volume crop data with fast turnaround time to field scientists. The project included five teams: Administration, Flight Operations, Sensors, Data Management, and Field Research. Four case studies involving multiple crops in breeding and agronomic applications add practical descriptive detail. Lessons learned include critical information on sensors, air vehicles, and configuration parameters for both. As the first and most comprehensive project of its kind to date, these lessons are particularly salient to researchers embarking on agricultural research with UAVs

Physicians are a key to encouraging cessation of smoking among people living with HIV/AIDS: a cross-sectional study in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

BackgroundHIV care providers may be optimally positioned to promote smoking behaviour change in their patients, among whom smoking is both highly prevalent and uniquely harmful. Yet research on this front is scant, particularly in the developing country context. Hence, this study describes smoking behaviour among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, and assesses the association between experience of physician-delivered smoking status assessment and readiness to quit among HIV-positive smokers.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional survey of PLWHA residing in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Data from 321 adult PLWHA were analyzed using multiple logistic regression for correlates of current smoking and, among current smokers, of motivational readiness to quit based on the transtheoretical model (TTM) of behaviour change.ResultsOverall, 47% of participants were current smokers, with significantly higher rates among men (72%), ever- injecting drug users (IDUs), recent (30-day) alcohol consumers, those without any formal education, and those with higher HIV symptom burdens. Of 151 current smokers, 34% were thinking seriously of quitting within the next 6 months (contemplation or preparation stage of behaviour change). Adjusting for potential confounders, experience of physician-delivered smoking status assessment during any visit to a hospital or clinic in the past 12 months was associated with greater readiness to quit smoking (AOR = 3.34; 95% CI = 1.05,10.61).ConclusionsRoughly one-third of HIV-positive smokers residing in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, are at the contemplation or preparation stage of smoking behaviour change, with rates significantly higher among those whose physicians have asked about their smoking status during any clinical interaction over the past year. Systematic screening for smoking by physicians during routine HIV care may help to reduce the heavy burden of smoking and smoking-related morbidity and mortality within HIV-positive populations in Nepal and similar settings

Physical and emotional health outcomes after 12 months of public-sector antiretroviral treatment in the Free State Province of South Africa: a longitudinal study using structural equation modelling

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>African and Asian cohort studies have demonstrated the clinical efficacy of antiretroviral treatment (ART) in resource-limited settings. However, reports of the long-term changes in the physical and emotional quality of life (QoL) of patients on ART in these settings are still scarce. In this study, we assessed the physical and emotional QoL after six and 12 months of ART of a sample of 268 patients enrolled in South Africa's public-sector ART programme. The study also tested the impact of the adverse effects of medication on patients' physical and emotional QoL.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A stratified random sample of 268 patients undergoing ART was interviewed at baseline (< 6 months ART) and follow-up (< 12 months ART). A model of the relationships between the duration of ART, the adverse effects of medication, and physical and emotional QoL (measured using EUROQOL-5D) was tested using structural equation modelling.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The improved physical and emotional QoL shown at baseline was sustained over the 12-month study period, because treatment duration was not significantly associated with changes in the patients' QoL. Physical QoL significantly and positively influenced the patients' emotional QoL (subjective well-being [SWB]) (β = 0.33, <it>P </it>< 0.01). Longitudinal data showed that patients reported significantly fewer adverse effects at follow-up than at baseline (β = -0.38, <it>P </it>< 0.001) and that these adverse effects negatively influenced physical (β = -0.27, <it>P </it>< 0.01) and emotional QoL (β = -0.15, <it>P </it>< 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study provides evidence that the South African public-sector ART programme is effective in delivering sustained improvement in patient well-being. However, the results should encourage clinicians and lay health workers to be vigilant regarding the adverse effects of treatment, because they can seriously affect physical and emotional QoL.</p