COVID-19 and Pneumonia: Increased Risk for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities during the Pandemic

Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are more likely to develop pneumonia than adults without IDD. This brief describes the implications of higher rates of pneumonia among individuals with IDD for increased risk of serious complications (including death) from COVID-19

A BAYESIAN RANDOM COEFFICIENT NONLINEAR REGRESSION MODEL FOR A SPLIT-PLOT EXPERIMENT

In random coefficients regression, we are often interested in the mean of a certain para-meter particular to the experimental unit (EU). When the mean depends on some treatment regimen, we are then interested in comparing the means among the different treatments. When the EUs are repeatedly measured on a variable containing information about the EU parameter, a standard procedure is to estimate each EU parameter and treat the estimates as the response variables. This is especially true when the regression model for an EU is non-linear. Often, for designed experiments with a factorial treatment structure, the estimated EU parameters are then modeled with an appropriate linear (mixed) model. Here, we consider a split-plot experiment conducted to detect differences in the half-life of a compound between different treatment regimens of the compound, namely compound preparation and temperature (whole-plot factors) and initial compound amount (split-plot factor). Initially, we provide a standard (classical) analysis plan, and then present a Bayes random coefficients regression model to address the researcher’s questions of interest. We finally compare the results from the standard and Bayes analyses

Less Worthy Lives? We Must Prioritize People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation

Individuals with developmental and intellectual disability should prioritized during COVID-19 vaccination allocation

COVID-19 Trends Among Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) Living in Residential Group Homes in New York State through July 10, 2020

While COVID-19 case rates increased between April 10, 2020 and July 10, 2020 for both groups, from April 10 to May 1, the case rate increased by 2.5 times for people with IDD, from 2,225 to 5,544 cases per 100,000, but only increased by 1.6 times for New York State, from 886 to 1,584 cases per 100,000

An audit of antimicrobial prescribing by dental practitioners in the north east of England and Cumbria

Background Inappropriate prescribing of antimicrobials is a significant threat to global public health. In England, approximately 5% of all antimicrobial items are prescribed by dentists, despite the limited indications for their use in the treatment of oral infections in published clinical guidelines. The objective of this study was to survey antimicrobial prescribing by dental practitioners in North East England and Cumbria, identify educational and training needs and develop a self-assessment tool that can be used for Continued Professional Development by individual practitioners. Methods During October 2016, 275 dental practitioners used a standardised form to record anonymous information about patients who had been prescribed antimicrobials. Clinical information and prescribing details were compared against clinical guidelines published by the Faculty of General Dental Practitioners UK. Results Dental practitioners provided data on 1893 antimicrobial prescriptions. There was documented evidence of systemic spread, such as pyrexia in 18% of patients. Dentists recorded patients’ pain (91.1% of patients), local lymph gland involvement (41.5%) gross diffuse swelling (55.5%) dysphagia (7.2%) and trismus (13.6%). Reasons for prescribing antimicrobials included patient expectations (25.8%), patient preference (24.8%), time pressures (10.9%), and patients uncooperative with other treatments (10.4%). The most commonly prescribed antimicrobials were amoxicillin, accounting for 61.2% of prescriptions, followed by metronidazole (29.9%). Most prescriptions for amoxicillin were for either 5 days (66.8%) or 7 days (29.6%) and most prescriptions for metronidazole were for a 5-day course (65.2%) or 7-day (18.6%) course. Conclusion In most cases, when an antimicrobial was prescribed, practitioners used the correct choice of agents and usually prescribed these at the correct dose. However, some evidence of suboptimal prescribing practices when compared to the Faculty of General Dental Practitioner guidelines were identified. The audit has identified training needs across the region and aided the development of Continued Professional Development sessions. Further work to identify barriers and facilitators for improving antimicrobial prescribing and determining appropriate methods to improve clinical practice are required

Future economics of liver transplantation: A 20-year cost modeling forecast and the prospect of bioengineering autologous liver grafts

During the past 20 years liver transplantation has become the definitive treatment for most severe types of liver failure and hepatocellular carcinoma, in both children and adults. In the U.S., roughly 16,000 individuals are on the liver transplant waiting list. Only 38% of them will receive a transplant due to the organ shortage. This paper explores another option: bioengineering an autologous liver graft. We developed a 20-year model projecting future demand for liver transplants, along with costs based on current technology. We compared these cost projections against projected costs to bioengineer autologous liver grafts. The model was divided into: 1) the epidemiology model forecasting the number of wait-listed patients, operated patients and postoperative patients; and 2) the treatment model forecasting costs (pre-transplant-related costs; transplant (admission)-related costs; and 10-year post-transplant- related costs) during the simulation period. The patient population was categorized using the Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score. The number of patients on the waiting list was projected to increase 23% over 20 years while the weighted average treatment costs in the pre-liver transplantation phase were forecast to increase 83% in Year 20. Projected demand for livers will increase 10% in 10 years and 23% in 20 years. Total costs of liver transplantation are forecast to increase 33% in 10 years and 81% in 20 years. By comparison, the projected cost to bioengineer autologous liver grafts is $9.7M based on current catalog prices for iPS-derived liver cells. The model projects a persistent increase in need and cost of donor livers over the next 20 years that's constrained by a limited supply of donor livers. The number of patients who die while on the waiting list will reflect this evergrowing disparity. Currently, bioengineering autologous liver grafts is cost prohibitive. However, costs will decline rapidly with the introduction of new manufacturing strategies and economies of scale

Is copyright blind to the visual?

This article argues that, with respect to the copyright protection of works of visual art, the general uneasiness that has always pervaded the relationship between copyright law and concepts of creativity produces three anomalous results. One of these is that copyright lacks much in the way of a central concept of 'visual art' and, to the extent that it embraces any concept of the 'visual', it is rooted in the rhetorical discourse of the Renaissance. This means that copyright is poorly equipped to deal with modern developments in the visual arts. Secondly, the pervasive effect of rhetorical discourse appears to have made it particularly difficult for copyright law to strike a meaningful balance between protecting creativity and permitting its use in further creative works. Thirdly, just when rhetorical discourse might have been useful in identifying the significance and materiality of the unique one-off work of visual art, copyright law chooses to ignore its implications

Discounting of money and sex: Effects of commodity and temporal position in stimulant-dependent men and women

Research on delay discounting has contributed to the understanding of numerous addiction-related phenomena. For example, studies have shown that substance dependent individuals discount their addictive substances (e.g., cocaine) more rapidly than they do other commodities (e.g., money). Recent research has shown that substance dependent individuals discount delayed sex more rapidly than delayed money, and their discounting rates for delayed sex were higher than those of non-addicted individuals. The particular reason that delay discounting rates for sex are higher than those for money, however, are unclear. Do individuals discount delayed sex rapidly because immediate sex is particularly appealing or because delayed sex does not retain its value? Moreover, do the same factors influence men and women’s choices? The current study examined delay discounting in four conditions (money now versus money later; sex now versus sex later; money now, versus sex later; sex now versus money later) in cocaine dependent men and women. The procedures used isolated the role of the immediate versus delayed commodity. For men, the higher rates of delay discounting for sex were because delayed sex did not retain its value, whereas both the immediate and delayed commodity influenced the female participants’ decisions