An Examination of Partnerships Between Out-of-School Learning (OSL) Organizations and Schools

The purpose of this study was to understand the elements that contribute to successful partnerships between schools and out-of-school learning programs to establish a base set of recommendations for practitioners to implement. Qualitative interviews were conducted with five school principals, five nonprofit executive directors, and five OSL program directors all representing one mid-sized urban metropolitan in the United States. The interviewees responded to questions around their experiences in partnering together and their reflections on what made these partnerships go well and not go well. They also shared their unique perspectives on what conditions must be in place for these types of partnerships to have success. The responses were categorized into three high-level categories based on the themes present from each interviewee. There were 111 mentions of a theme related to people: how the key stakeholders in the partnership interact and engage with one another, there were 78 mentions of a theme related to institutional practices: how the physical entities and organizations that support the partnerships operate, and there were 26 mentions of a theme related to programming: the specific aspects of the youth-serving opportunities that each entity provides. Based on the literature, research, and interview data, it is recommended that schools and OSL programs seeking to partner must recognize and accept a power inequality, invest in relationships and communication, and maintain consistency in program and school operations

Rituximab in combination with high-dose methylprednisolone for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

We observed that high-dose methylprednisolone (HDMP) and rituximab was well tolerated and had promising activity when used in combination to treat patients with fludarabine-refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). This prompted us to evaluate the use of these agents in frontline therapy. A total of 28 patients with a median age of 65 years enrolled in this study. Patients received HDMP at 1 g/m(2) each day for 3 days during each of the three 4-week cycles together with rituximab and prophylactic antimicrobial therapy. The treatment was well tolerated with few adverse events of grade III or higher. The overall response rate was 96% (N=27). Nine patients (32%) achieved a complete remission (CR), two of which were without detectable minimal residual disease (MRD). Six patients with MRD received consolidation with alemtuzumab; five of these patients achieved an MRD-negative CR. With over 3 years of follow-up median progression-free survival was 30.3 months with only 39% of patients requiring additional therapy, and an overall survival was 96%. This study demonstrates that HDMP and rituximab is an effective nonmyelosuppressive treatment combination for patients with CLL that warrants consideration particularly for patients with limited myeloid reserve that might not tolerate standard treatment regimens

New York\u27s Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) Program: How DSRIPtive will this $8 Billion Initiative Be?

For over 30 years, James B. Couch, M.D., J.D., FACPE, has been a practicing physician, attorney and senior executive for leading health care, financial, legal and professional services organizations. He has devoted his career to quality and patient safety, especially where the practices and principles of medicine, law, information technology, business and risk management merge. Dr. Couch’s Forum presentation will address what the NY Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) program is and why it is important to healthcare transformation. He will discuss how the key principles and projects of the NY DSRIP program may combine to promote achievement of the Quadruple Aim. Lastly, Dr. Couch will describe how NY DSRIP’s performance-based funds flow to Performing Provider Systems (PPS) and impact health systems. Dr. Couch has worked extensively in evaluating and positioning leading edge cloud-based electronic health information systems, clinical and population health analytics products for use by top healthcare providers and payers. Couch has published on the development of accountable care capable organizations, and the use of disease and population health management methodologies and health IT to continuously improve patient safety and healthcare quality. Presentation: 54 minutes PowerPoint slides at bottom of pag

Healthcare Analytics Leadership: Clinical & Business Intelligence Plan Development

Future healthcare leaders require expert knowledge and practical capabilities in the evaluation, selection, application and ongoing oversight of the best types of analytics to create continuous learning healthcare systems. These systems may result in continuously improving the demonstrable quality, safety and efficiency of healthcare organizations. Data is an asset for organizations. However, many companies do not know how to establish analytical road maps for future action. Population Health Intelligence describes a new discipline whose role is to collect, organize, harmonize, analyze, disseminate and act upon the data available to clinicians, health system leaders, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, and healthcare payers. This webinar on Analytics Leadership will demonstrate how to create and implement Clinical & Business Intelligence Plans that transform data into actionable organizational insights. Agenda Introduction Healthcare Analytics Leadership: Clinical & Business Intelligence Plan Development Population Health Intelligence Presentation: 53:3

Penguin decays of B mesons

Penguin, or loop, decays of B mesons induce effective flavor-changing neutral currents, which are forbidden at tree level in the Standard Model. These decays give special insight into the CKM matrix and are sensitive to non-standard model effects. In this review, we give a historical and theoretical introduction to penguins and a description of the various types of penguin processes: electromagnetic, electroweak, and gluonic. We review the experimental searches for penguin decays, including the measurements of the electromagnetic penguins b -> s gamma and B -> K* gamma and gluonic penguins B -> K pi, B+ -> omega K+ and B -> eta' K, and their implications for the Standard Model and New Physics. We conclude by exploring the future prospects for penguin physics.Comment: 49 pages, LATEX, 30 embedded figures, submitted to Annual Reviews of Nuclear and Particle Scienc

AART-BC: a sensor system for monitoring Assistive Technology use beyond the clinic

A wide range of assistive and rehabilitative technologies (ART) are available to assist with mobility and upper limb function. However, anecdotal evidence suggests many of the devices prescribed, or purchased, are either poorly used, or rejected entirely. This situation is costly, both for the healthcare provider and the user, and may be leading to secondary consequences, such as falls and/or social isolation. This paper reports on the development and initial feasibility testing of a system for monitoring when and how assistive devices are used outside of the clinic setting, and feeding this information to the device user themselves and/or prescribing clinician (where appropriate). Illustrative data from multiple time-synchronized device and body worn sensors are presented on a wheelchair user and a user of a “rollator” walking frame, moving along a walkway. Observation of the sensor data in both cases showed characteristic signatures corresponding to individual “pushes”. In parallel with this work, other project partners are exploring clinician and patient data requirements, as well we sensor set acceptability The initial results highlight the potential for the approach and demonstrate the need for further work to reduce and optimize the sensor set

Exploiting symmetries in SDP-relaxations for polynomial optimization

In this paper we study various approaches for exploiting symmetries in polynomial optimization problems within the framework of semi definite programming relaxations. Our special focus is on constrained problems especially when the symmetric group is acting on the variables. In particular, we investigate the concept of block decomposition within the framework of constrained polynomial optimization problems, show how the degree principle for the symmetric group can be computationally exploited and also propose some methods to efficiently compute in the geometric quotient.Comment: (v3) Minor revision. To appear in Math. of Operations Researc

Characterisation of rollator use using inertial sensors

The use of walking aids is prevalent among older people and people with mobility impairment. Rollators are designed to support outdoor mobility and require the user to negotiate curbs and slopes in the urban environment. Despite the prevalence of rollators, analysis of their use outside of controlled environments has received relatively little attention. This paper reports on an initial study to characterise rollator movement. An inertial measurement unit (IMU) was used to measure the motion of the rollator and analytical approaches were developed to extract features characterising the rollator movement, properties of the surface, and push events. The analytics were tested in two situations, firstly a healthy participant used a rollator in a laboratory using a motion capture system to obtain ground truth. Secondly the IMU was used to measure the movement of a rollator being used by a user with multiple sclerosis (MS) on a flat surface, cross-slope, up and down slopes, and up and down a step. The results showed that surface inclination and distance travelled measured by the IMU have close approximation to the results from ground truth, therefore demonstrating the potential for IMU-derived metrics to characterise rollator movement and user’s pushing style in the outdoor environment