Sets Definable Over Finite Fields: Their Zeta-Functions

Sets definable over finite fields are introduced. The rationality of the logarithmic derivative of their zeta-function is established, an application of purely algebraic content is given. The ingredients used are a result of Dwork on algebraic varieties over finite fields and model-theoretic tools

What is Translational Research?

Plenary Presentation: Overview of translational science, the application of discoveries generated by laboratory research and preclinical studies to the development of clinical trials and studies in humans

Pseudodefinite Fields, Procyclic Fields and Model-Completion

In this paper, it is shown that the theory of pseudofinite fields is, with respect to a suitable language, the model completion of the theory of procyclic fields. Also, procyclic fields are characterized as the class of relatively algebraically closed subfields of pseudofinite fields

Quality of care and interhospital collaboration: a study of patient transfers in Italy.

OBJECTIVES: We examine the dynamics of patient-sharing relations within an Italian regional community of 35 hospitals serving approximately 1,300,000 people. We test whether interorganizational relations provide individual patients access to higher quality providers of care. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We reconstruct the complete temporal sequence of the 3461 consecutive interhospital patient-sharing events observed between each pair of hospitals in the community during 2005-2008. We distinguish between transfers occurring between and within different medical specialties. We estimate newly derived models for relational event sequences that allow us to control for the most common forms of network-like dependencies that are known to characterize collaborative relations between hospitals. We use 45-day risk-adjusted readmission rate as a proxy for hospital quality. RESULTS: After controls (eg, geographical distance, size, and the existence of prior collaborative relations), we find that patients flow from less to more capable hospitals. We show that this result holds for patient being shared both between as well as within medical specialties. Nonetheless there are strong and persistent other organizational and relational effects driving transfers. CONCLUSIONS: Decentralized patient-sharing decisions taken by the 35 hospitals give rise to a system of collaborative interorganizational arrangements that allow the patient to access hospitals delivering a higher quality of care. This result is relevant for health care policy because it suggests that collaborative relations between hospitals may produce desirable outcomes both for individual patients, and for regional health care systems

Biostatistics, Epidemiology & Research Design (BERD)

This seminar describes the Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design component of the UMCCTS, including the Quantitative Methods Core (QMC). An overview of the new Department of Quantitative Health Sciences is also presented

Religiosity and Patient Engagement in their Healthcare Among Hospital Survivors of an Acute Coronary Syndrome

Background: Optimum management after an Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) requires considerable patient engagement/activation. Religious practices permeate people\u27s lives and may influence engagement in their healthcare. Little is known about the relationship between religiosity and patient activation in hospital survivors of an ACS. Methods: We recruited patients hospitalized for an ACS at six medical centers in Central Massachusetts and Georgia (2011-2013). Participants self-reported three measures of religiosity - strength and comfort from religion, making petition prayers, and awareness of intercessory prayers for health. Patient activation was assessed using the 6-item Patient Activation Measure (PAM-6). We categorized participants as either having low (levels 1 and 2) or high (levels 3 and 4) activation in examining the association between religiosity and patient activation while adjusting for sociodemographic, psychosocial, and clinical variables. Results: Patients (n=2,067) were on average, 61 years old, 34% were women, and 81% were non-Hispanic White. Approximately 85% reported deriving strength and comfort from religion, two-thirds prayed for their health, and 89% received intercessions for their health. Overall, 57.5% had low activation. Reports of a great deal (aOR: 2.02; 95% CI: 1.44-2.84), and little/some (aOR: 1.45; 95% CI: 1.07-1.98) strength and comfort from religion were associated with high activation respectively, as was the receipt of intercessions (aOR: 1.48; 95% CI: 1.07-2.05). Praying for one\u27s health was associated with low activation (aOR: 0.78; 95% CI: 0.61-0.99). Conclusion and Clinical Practice Implications: Patient activation was associated with religiosity, suggesting that healthcare providers may use this knowledge to enhance patient engagement in their care

Navigating Black Aging: The Biological Consequences of Stress and Depression

OBJECTIVES: Black persons in the US are more likely to suffer from social inequality. Chronic stress caused by social inequality and racial discrimination results in weathering of the body that causes physiological dysregulation and biological age being higher than chronological age (accelerated aging). Depression has been linked to both racial discrimination and accelerated aging and accelerated aging has been demonstrated to be higher in Black than White persons, on average. However, we know little about accelerated aging across the life course in Black Americans. METHODS: We used mixed effects growth models to measure biological age acceleration, measured with cardiometabolic markers, over a 20-year period in Black participants of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study (CARDIA) who were aged 27 - 42 years at analytic baseline. We included an interaction between depressive symptoms and time to determine whether risk of depression was associated with a faster rate of biological aging. RESULTS: We found that the rate of biological aging increased over a 20-year span and that those at risk for depression had a faster rate of biological aging than those not at risk. We also found that various social factors were associated with biological age acceleration over time. DISCUSSION: Given the known association between perceived racial discrimination and depressive symptoms, we provide a novel instance of the long-term effects of social inequality. Specifically, biological age acceleration, a marker of physiological dysregulation, is associated with time among Black persons and more strongly associated among those with depressive symptoms

Twenty-Five Year Secular Trends in Lipids and Modifiable Risk Factors in a Population-Based Biracial Cohort: The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study, 1985-2011

BACKGROUND: Cross-sectional analyses suggest that total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) trends that had been declining are now reversing. We examined longitudinal data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study to examine secular trends in total cholesterol, LDL-c, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), and triglycerides over 25 years. We also assessed whether modifiable lifestyle factors (body mass index, physical activity, alcohol consumption, smoking, and lipid-lowering medications) are associated with these trends. METHODS AND RESULTS: CARDIA recruited 5115 black and white men and women ages 18 to 30 years from 4 US communities in 1985-1986, and re-examined them 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 years later. Secular trends, modeled as age-matched time trends, were estimated using repeated-measures regression stratified on race and sex. Total cholesterol and LDL-c initially decreased approximately 5 to 8 mg/dL between visits before plateauing and moving toward adverse trends in all groups, except black women, by year 25. HDL-c showed an upward secular trend of 1 to 3 mg/dL between visits starting at year 15 in all groups; triglyceride trends were largely flat. Obesity and use of lipid-lowering medications, which both increased over follow-up, had strong independent, but opposite, associations with lipid trends over time. In aggregate, associations of modifiable lifestyle factors counterbalanced one another, minimally influencing secular trends. CONCLUSIONS: Over 25 years, initially favorable trends in total cholesterol and LDL-c have leveled off and may be reversing, persisting after control for modifiable risk factors. Factors such as dietary changes over 25 years and poor adherence to medications are candidates for additional investigation

Na fronteira com o Brexit : direitos de circulação e de residência no acordo de saída

Viver a cidadania europeia é imaginar-se a possibilidade de largar tudo num dia – a cidade, a família, os amigos, uma profissão, tudo – e ir à procura de uma vida melhor noutro país. Mudar de língua. Mudar de trabalho. Mudar de casa. Fazer novos amigos. Constituir família. E, no outro dia, o país onde recomeçou e se estabeleceu decide referendar a hipótese de romper com um Tratado, o mesmo Tratado que lhe permitiu chegar aqui. Quando falamos no Brexit falamos nos milhares de pessoas que viram o seu estatuto de residente ameaçado. Falamos das pessoas que viveram em pleno os seus direitos enquanto cidadãos da União, exerceram a prerrogativa de circular e residir noutro Estado -Membro e foram confrontadas com a possibilidade de perder tudo quanto haviam conquistado. Pretende-se com este trabalho abordar a questão do Brexit com esta dimensão, estudando o impacto que teve e tem nos direitos de circulação e de residência dos principais afetados por ele.To live the European Union citizenship is to imagine the possibility of leaving everything behind one day – a city, a family, your friends, a profession, everything – and go looking for a better life in another country. To change the language you speak. To change your job. To move out. Make new friends. Start a family. And then one day, the country where you’ve started again and settled down decides to endorse the possibility of breaking with a Treaty, the same Treaty that allowed you to get here. When we talk about Brexit, we talk about the thousands of people who have seen their resident status threatened. We talk about people who have fully enjoyed their rights as citizens of the European Union, exercised the prerogative to move and reside in another Member State and were faced with the possibility of losing everything they had conquered. The aim of this work is to address the issue of Brexit with this dimension, studying the impact it had and still has on the rights of movement and residence of those most affected by it