Estimating The Costs And Cost-effectiveness Of Promoting Mammography Screening Among US-based Latinas

Purpose: We characterize the costs and cost-effectiveness of a community health worker (CHW)-based intervention to promote screening mammography among US-based non-adherent Latinas. Methods: The parent study was a randomized controlled trial for 536 Latinas aged 42-74 years old who had sought care within a safety net health center in Western Washington. Participants were block-randomized within clinic to the control arm (usual care) or intervention arm (CHW-led motivational interviewing intervention). We used the perspective of the organization implementing promotional activities to characterize costs and cost-effectiveness. Cost data were categorized as program set-up and maintenance (initial training, booster/annual training) program implementation (administrative activities, intervention delivery); and, overhead/miscellaneous expenses. Cost-effectiveness was calculated as the incremental cost of screening for each additional woman screened between the intervention and control arms. Results: The respective costs per participant for standard care and the intervention arm were $69.96 and$300.99. There were no study arm differences in 1-year QALYs among women who completed a 12-month follow-up survey (intervention= 0.8827, standard care = 0.8841). Most costs pertained to program implementation and administrative activities specifically. The incremental cost per additional woman screened was $2,595.32. Conclusions: Our findings are within the ranges of costs and cost-effectiveness for other CHW programs to promote screening mammography among underserved populations. Our strong study design and focus on non-adherent women provides important strengths to this body of work, especially give implementation and dissemination science efforts regarding CHW-based health promotion for health disparity populations

Photovoltaic module segmentation and thermal analysis tool from thermal images

The growing interest in the use of clean energy has led to the construction of increasingly large photovoltaic systems. Consequently, monitoring the proper functioning of these systems has become a highly relevant issue.In this paper, automatic detection, and analysis of photovoltaic modules are proposed. To perform the analysis, a module identification step, based on a digital image processing algorithm, is first carried out. This algorithm consists of image enhancement (contrast enhancement, noise reduction, etc.), followed by segmentation of the photovoltaic module. Subsequently, a statistical analysis based on the temperature values of the segmented module is performed.Besides, a graphical user interface has been designed as a potential tool that provides relevant information of the photovoltaic modules.Comment: 7 pages, 12 Figure

Strong enhancement of superconductivity at high pressures within the charge-density-wave states of 2H-TaS 2 and 2H-TaSe 2

We present measurements of the superconducting and charge density wave critical temperatures (Tc and TCDW) as a function of pressure in the transition metal dichalchogenides 2H-TaSe2 and 2H-TaS2. Resistance and susceptibility measurements show that Tc increases from temperatures below 1 K up to 8.5 K at 9.5 GPa in 2H-TaS2 and 8.2 K at 23 GPa in 2H-TaSe2. We observe a kink in the pressure dependence of TCDW at about 4 GPa that we attribute to the lock-in transition from incommensurate CDW to commensurate CDW. Above this pressure, the commensurate TCDW slowly decreases coexisting with superconductivity within our full pressure range.Comment: Published in Phys. Rev B 93, 184512 (2016

Scanning tunneling spectroscopy of layers of superconducting 2H-TaSe2_\textbf{2}: Evidence for a zero bias anomaly in single layers

We report a characterization of surfaces of the dichalcogenide TaSe$_2$ using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/S) at 150 mK. When the top layer has the 2H structure and the layer immediately below the 1T structure, we find a singular spatial dependence of the tunneling conductance below 1 K, changing from a zero bias peak on top of Se atoms to a gap in between Se atoms. The zero bias peak is additionally modulated by the commensurate $3a_0 \times 3a_0$ charge density wave of 2H-TaSe$_2$. Multilayers of 2H-TaSe$_2$ show a spatially homogeneous superconducting gap with a critical temperature also of 1 K. We discuss possible origins for the peculiar tunneling conductance in single layers.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure

REVIEW OF CFD SIMULATION OF OXY-COAL COMBUSTION FOR ELETRICAL POWER GENERATION: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

The oxy-combustion has generated significant interested for reduction of CO2 emission when the fossil fuel is coal, due to simplification on the separation process of CO2 from the flue gas, it can be more easily stored in reservoir. The CFD numerical simulation techniques in oxy-coal combustion has the potential to contribute to designers in cost savings and reduced computational time; Furthermore, such techniques also provide a robust tool for better understanding and description of the aerothermodynamics processes involved, as well as, aiding the design of most efficient furnaces. However, to obtain representative results of the physical phenomena, the numerical models employed by CFD needs to be suitable for oxy-coal combustion. So, the aim of the paper is to carry out a review of the recent models that are being used for turbulence, combustion and pollutant emissions. Moreover, it is shown a comparison of different results obtained in the numerical simulation of oxy-coal combustion among new models, existing models and experiments. The analysis of the models and experiments shows that the challenges that are still being faced to obtain better accuracy of numerical simulation results. Improvements in the models for oxy-coal combustion can be seen like potential opportunities to investigate and optimize the process that occur in the combustion

ASSESSMENT OF SOIL QUALITY IN CONSERVATIVE AGRICULTURE SYSTEMS VERSUS CONVENTIONAL AGRICULTURE

The paper presents the results of the researches carried out in the SCDA Drăgăneşti Vlaşca experimental field, in two agriculture systems, conservative and conventional. Soil samples, taken in two phases, were analyzed in the laboratory to determine physical and chemical parameters: organic matter content, soil structure, bulk density, soil reaction, nutrients (N, P, K, and S) contents, total porosity, and resistance to penetration. Micro biological analyses were also performed: total number of bacteria (TNB´106/g dry soil), total number of micro fungi (TNF´103/g soil), and soil respiration (mg CO2/100 g sol). Soil arrangement state assessed through BD, TP, and RP is more favorable in the case of the conservative system as compared to the conventional one. The analyzed indicators highlight a soil looser arrangement in the conservative system and a certain improvement of the air condition. The slightly positive effects determined by the conservative system application reflect upon the soil hydric and physical state, and a little better conditions are present for water accumulation in soil. Diminished surface traffic permitted the so-called `soil rest` resulting in a natural soil aggregates re-arrangement and a slight improvement of the air-water system. From the chemical point of view the soil in both agriculture systems presented characteristics relatively favorable for growth and evolution of cultivated plants. From the micro biological point of view an increase of the TNF values was noticed at the spring harvest 2017 in two of the three probes made in the soil worked in conservative system as compared both to the autumn harvest and the conventional system, due to the nutrients abundance proceeded from the vegetal biomass left at the soil surface after harvest. Soil respiration as a soil biologic activity indicator closely modelled the TNB and TNF values obtained in both agriculture systems and in both harvest periods, proving that the soil microorganisms` populations are really active and develop their metabolic and ecologic functions in the soil

HE4 tumor marker as a predictive factor for lymphatic metastasis in endometrial cancer

Endometrial cancer is the most common genital cancer in high-resource countries. Treatment is essentially surgical, but the role of lymphadenectomy in the treatment of low-stage and low-grade tumors has not been defined. Although no tumor factors have been validated for use as preoperative prognostic markers of endometrial cancer at yet, human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) has received much interest as a potential diagnostic and prognostic tumor marker. Since 2008, several studies have explored its utility in the management of endometrial cancer: HE4 may be a useful preoperative prognostic marker because it is associated with lymphatic metastasis and other unfavorable factors in endometrial cancer. In addition, some studies have explored a HE4 cutoff value to classify patients according to lymph node involvement. HE4 might be beneficial as a serum marker that helps clinicians in the decision-making algorithm for treatment of endometrial cancer, enabling them to perform individualized operations and decrease the adverse effects of unnecessary surgery

Short communication: Stability and integrity of classical swine fever virus RNA stored at room temperature

Worldwide cooperation between laboratories working with classical swine fever virus (CSFV) requires exchange of virus isolates. For this purpose, shipment of CSFV RNA is a safe alternative to the exchange of infectious material. New techniques using desiccation have been developed to store RNA at room temperature and are reported as effective means of preserving RNA integrity. In this study, we evaluated the stability and integrity of dried CSFV RNA stored at room temperature. First, we determined the stability of CSFV RNA covering CSFV genome regions used typically for the detection of viral RNA in diagnostic samples by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). To this end, different concentrations of in vitro-transcribed RNAs of the 5’-untranslated region and of the NS5B gene were stored as dried RNA at 4, 20, and 37oC for two months. Aliquots were analyzed every week by CSFV-specific quantitative real-time RT-PCR. Neither the RNA concentration nor the storage temperature did affect CSFV RNA yields at any of the time evaluated until the end of the experiment. Furthermore, it was possible to recover infectious CSFV after transfection of SK-6 cells with dried viral RNA stored at room temperature for one week. The full-length E2 of CSFV was amplified from all the recovered viruses, and nucleotide sequence analysis revealed 100% identity with the corresponding sequence obtained from RNA of the original material. These results show that CSFV RNA stored as dried RNA at room temperature is stable, maintaining its integrity for downstream analyses and applications