Black and White Perceptions of Quality of Life in Boston

It is difficult, probably impossible, to compare objectively the seriousness of racial problems and tensions in Boston with those in other cities. However, there can be little doubt that there is a widespread perception that relationships between blacks and whites in Boston constitute a serious problem. Specifically, one image is that Boston is a community in which blacks are not welcome and in which they are treated with unusual hostility and abuse. Another image is that whites in Boston are unfairly maligned as racists and bigots. In 1980, following several race-related incidents, The Boston Committee was formed. The purpose of the Committee is to direct an integrated effort to address the problems that contribute to racial tension and conflict in Boston. A needed first step was a clear, factually-based definition of the real problems in Boston

Watchful Waiting vs. Immediate Transurethral Prostatectomy for Symptomatic Prostatism

The rate of resection for benign prostatic hypertrophy shows considerable variability among small geographic areas. To help inform the decision to recommend prostatectomy to men with prostatism without signs of chronic retention, we performed a decision analysis to compare the expected outcomes with immediate transurethral resection and watchful waiting. Data used in the model originated from the medical literature, Medicare claims data, and patient interview studies. In our base-case for 70-year-old men, immediate surgery resulted in the loss of 1.01 months of life expectancy, but when adjustments were made for quality of life, immediate surgery was favored with a net utility benefit of 2.94 quality-adjusted life-months. However, the analysis was particularly sensitive to the degree of disutility attributed to the index symptoms of prostatism. We conclude that patient preferences should be the dominant factor in the decision whether to recommend prostatectomy

The American Public’s Perception of Illegal Steroid Use: A National Survey, 2013

Through the surge of news about doping scandals in the media, it is expected that the public is aware of the magnitude of the problem among professional athletes; however, it is uncertain whether the public is aware that the problem often starts when athletes are younger. To this end, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, the Taylor Hooton Foundation, and the Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society partnered with the Center for Social Development and Education and the Center for Survey Research at the University of Massachusetts Boston to conduct the most comprehensive national opinion survey to date to assess the public’s knowledge, perceptions, and beliefs about the use of performance enhancing drugs among adolescents. It is hoped that the findings obtained through this survey will provide a foundation for a national dialogue about this problem

Results of the US contribution to the joint US/USSR Bering Sea experiment

The atmospheric circulation which occurred during the Bering Sea Experiment, 15 February to 10 March 1973, in and around the experiment area is analyzed and related to the macroscale morphology and dynamics of the sea ice cover. The ice cover was very complex in structure, being made up of five ice types, and underwent strong dynamic activity. Synoptic analyses show that an optimum variety of weather situations occurred during the experiment: an initial strong anticyclonic period (6 days), followed by a period of strong cyclonic activity (6 days), followed by weak anticyclonic activity (3 days), and finally a period of weak cyclonic activity (4 days). The data of the mesoscale test areas observed on the four sea ice option flights, and ship weather, and drift data give a detailed description of mesoscale ice dynamics which correlates well with the macroscale view: anticyclonic activity advects the ice southward with strong ice divergence and a regular lead and polynya pattern; cyclonic activity advects the ice northward with ice convergence, or slight divergence, and a random lead and polynya pattern

Orchard Day, August 18, 1955; Results of Fruit Research

Storing peaches / Donald Comin -- Trends in storages / Donald Comin -- Grape varieties ; Grape soil management and fertilization ; Nitrogen fertilizers for apple trees / J. M. Beattie -- Colorset on Golden Delicious and Grimes ; Planting distance influence on yield of apples ; Harvest dates for apples ; Summer varieties of apples ; Pre-harvest spraying for Baldwin / C. W. Ellenwood -- Peach investigations ; The blueberry planting ; Strawberry studies ; Plum varieties and culture ; Grape weed control studies / R. G. Hill, Jr. -- Semi-dwarf apple trees in Ohio / Freeman S. Howlett and T. E. Fowler -- The Franklin Apple / Freeman S. Howlett and C. W. Ellenwood -- Status of intermediate (trunk-forming) stocks for the apple ; Pruning the newly planted apple tree ; Status of the pear industry in Ohio / Freeman S. Howlett -- Pear variety collection indicates several deserve limited trial / Freeman S. Howlett and C. W. Ellenwoo

Resilience in Virginia: Outlook 2021

VCPC\u27s October webinar included an update on Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and the implementation of Executive Order 24; remarks from the Speaker of the House of Delegates, Eileen Filler -Corn, and a legislative panel discussed resilience issues for the upcoming 2021 Virginia General Assembly session. VCPC was honored to host Governor Ralph Northam for Closing Remarks

Convexity in partial cubes: the hull number

We prove that the combinatorial optimization problem of determining the hull number of a partial cube is NP-complete. This makes partial cubes the minimal graph class for which NP-completeness of this problem is known and improves some earlier results in the literature. On the other hand we provide a polynomial-time algorithm to determine the hull number of planar partial cube quadrangulations. Instances of the hull number problem for partial cubes described include poset dimension and hitting sets for interiors of curves in the plane. To obtain the above results, we investigate convexity in partial cubes and characterize these graphs in terms of their lattice of convex subgraphs, improving a theorem of Handa. Furthermore we provide a topological representation theorem for planar partial cubes, generalizing a result of Fukuda and Handa about rank three oriented matroids.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure