Outbreaks: Protecting Americans From Infectious Diseases 2015

Infectious diseases -- most of which are preventable -- disrupt the lives of millions of Americans each year. But the country does not sufficiently invest in basic protections that could help avoid significant numbers of outbreaks and save billions of dollars in unnecessary healthcare costs. U.S. investments in infectious disease prevention ebb and flow, where there is a major ramp up when a new eminent threat emerges, but then falls back when the problem seems contained.In the most recent example last year, the Ebola outbreak resulted in ephemeral attention and emergency supplemental funding to backfill gaps in the nation's ability to respond. But, lags in even emergency funding processes meant much of the support came too late to address immediate needs in states and in Africa. And the funding was not at a sufficient level to shore up ongoing gaps, leaving the United States still vulnerable for when the next emerging threat arises.Fighting infectious disease requires constant vigilance. Policies and resources must be in place to allow scientists and public health and medical experts to have the tools they need to: control ongoing outbreaks -- such as HIV/AIDS, antibiotic-resistant superbugs and foodborne illnesses; detect new or reemerging outbreaks -- such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), measles and avian flu; and monitor for potential bioterrorist threats -- such as anthrax or smallpox

Outbreaks: Protecting Americans From Infectious Diseases 2014

This report examines a range of infectious disease concerns. The report highlights a series of 10 indicators in each state that, taken collectively, offer a composite snapshot of strengths and vulnerabilities across the health system. These indicators help illustrate the types of policy fundamentals that are important to have in place not just to prevent the spread of disease in the first place but also to detect, diagnose and respond to outbreaks. In addition, the report examines key areas of concern in the nation's ability to prevent and control infectious diseases and offers recommendations for addressing these gaps. The Outbreaks report provides the public, policymakers and a broad and diverse set of groups involved in public health and the healthcare system with an objective, nonpartisan, independent analysis of the status of infectious disease policies; encourages greater transparency and accountability of the system; and recommends ways to assure the public health and healthcare systems meet today's needs and work across borders to accomplish their goals

Comparison of English Comprehension among Students from Different Backgrounds using a Narrative-Centered Digital Game

This paper reports the continuation of the field testing of a narrative-centered digital game for English comprehension called Learning Likha: Rangers to the Rescue (LLRR) with a two-fold goal: first, identify the differences in terms of usage, attitudes towards, and perceptions of the English language between students from southern Philippines and the National Capital Region, and second, to determine how the LLRR in-game performance, post-test comprehension scores, engagement, and motivation of students differ between the groups. The participants who are grade school students from a province in southern Philippines answered questionnaires about their attitude towards and perception of English, played LLRR, answered the English comprehension post-test, and assessed their engagement and motivation using the adapted game-based learning engagement (GBLE) and intrinsic motivation inventory (IMI) questionnaires, respectively. Responses and interaction logs were compared to the data collected from NCR. Findings showed no significant difference between the groups in terms of the usage of English whether at home or with friends. However, NCR-based students were more receptive in terms of their perception and attitude towards the language, had better LLRR in-game performance, and obtained higher English comprehension post-test ratings. These findings are consistent with the results of the Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA) in 2018 where students from the southern regions have lower English reading literacy compared to those from NCR. In terms of GBLE and IMI responses, the gap is consistent as self-reports of participants from the south indicated lower behavior and emotion engagement, enjoyment, effort exerted, and perceived competence while playing LLRR

How do cities approach policy innovation and policy learning? A study of 30 policies in Northern Europe and North America

This paper reports on a study of current practice in policy transfer, and ways in which its effectiveness can be increased. A literature review identifies important factors in examining the transfer of policies. Results of interviews in eleven cities in Northern Europe and North America investigate these factors further. The principal motivations for policy transfer were strategic need and curiosity. Local officials and politicians dominated the process of initiating policy transfer, and local officials were also the leading players in transferring experience. A range of information sources are used in the search process but human interaction was the most important source of learning for two main reasons. First, there is too much information available through the Internet and the search techniques are not seen to be wholly effective in identifying the necessary information. Secondly, the information available on websites, portals and even good practice guides is not seen to be of mixed quality with risks of focussing only on successful implementation and therefore subject to some bias. Officials therefore rely on their trusted networks of peers for lessons as here they can access the ‘real implementation’ story and the unwritten lessons. Organisations which have a culture that is supportive of learning from elsewhere had strong and broad networks of external contacts and resourced their development whilst others are more insular or inward looking and reluctant to invest in policy lessons from elsewhere. Solutions to the problems identified in the evidence base are proposed

Mach edges: local features predicted by 3rd derivative spatial filtering

Edges are key points of information in visual scenes. One important class of models supposes that edges correspond to the steepest parts of the luminance profile, implying that they can be found as peaks and troughs in the response of a gradient (1st derivative) filter, or as zero-crossings in the 2nd derivative (ZCs). We tested those ideas using a stimulus that has no local peaks of gradient and no ZCs, at any scale. The stimulus profile is analogous to the Mach ramp, but it is the luminance gradient (not the absolute luminance) that increases as a linear ramp between two plateaux; the luminance profile is a blurred triangle-wave. For all image-blurs tested, observers marked edges at or close to the corner points in the gradient profile, even though these were not gradient maxima. These Mach edges correspond to peaks and troughs in the 3rd derivative. Thus Mach edges are inconsistent with many standard edge-detection schemes, but are nicely predicted by a recent model that finds edge points with a 2-stage sequence of 1st then 2nd derivative operators, each followed by a half-wave rectifier

5\u3csup\u3eth\u3c/sup\u3e Generation vs 4\u3csup\u3eth\u3c/sup\u3e Generation Troponin T in Predicting Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events and All-Cause Mortality in Patients Hospitalized for Non-Cardiac Indications: A Cohort Study

OBJECTIVE: The frequency and implications of an elevated cardiac troponin (4th or 5th generation TnT) in patients outside of the emergency department or presenting with non-cardiac conditions is unclear. METHODS: Consecutive patients aged 18 years or older admitted for a primary non-cardiac condition who had the 4th generation TnT drawn had the 5th generation TnT run on the residual blood sample. Primary and secondary outcomes were all-cause mortality (ACM) and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) respectively at 1 year. RESULTS: 918 patients were included (mean age 59.8 years, 55% male) in the cohort. 69% had elevated 5th generation TnT while 46% had elevated 4th generation TnT. 5th generation TnT was more sensitive and less specific than 4th generation TnT in predicting both ACM and MACE. The sensitivities for the 5th generation TnT assay were 85% for ACM and 90% for MACE rates, compared to 65% and 70% respectively for the 4th generation assay. 5th generation TnT positive patients that were missed by 4th generation TnT had a higher risk of ACM (27.5%) than patients with both assays negative (27.5% vs 11.1%, p\u3c 0.001), but lower than patients who had both assay positive (42.1%). MACE rates were not better stratified using the 5th generation TnT assay. CONCLUSIONS: In patients admitted for a non-cardiac condition, 5th generation TnT is more sensitive although less specific in predicting MACE and ACM. 5th generation TnT identifies an intermediate risk group for ACM previously missed with the 4th generation assay

A First- and Second-Order Motion Energy Analysis of Peripheral Motion Illusions Leads to Further Evidence of “Feature Blur” in Peripheral Vision

Anatomical and physiological differences between the central and peripheral visual systems are well documented. Recent findings have suggested that vision in the periphery is not just a scaled version of foveal vision, but rather is relatively poor at representing spatial and temporal phase and other visual features. Shapiro, Lu, Huang, Knight, and Ennis (2010) have recently examined a motion stimulus (the “curveball illusion”) in which the shift from foveal to peripheral viewing results in a dramatic spatial/temporal discontinuity. Here, we apply a similar analysis to a range of other spatial/temporal configurations that create perceptual conflict between foveal and peripheral vision.To elucidate how the differences between foveal and peripheral vision affect super-threshold vision, we created a series of complex visual displays that contain opposing sources of motion information. The displays (referred to as the peripheral escalator illusion, peripheral acceleration and deceleration illusions, rotating reversals illusion, and disappearing squares illusion) create dramatically different perceptions when viewed foveally versus peripherally. We compute the first-order and second-order directional motion energy available in the displays using a three-dimensional Fourier analysis in the (x, y, t) space. The peripheral escalator, acceleration and deceleration illusions and rotating reversals illusion all show a similar trend: in the fovea, the first-order motion energy and second-order motion energy can be perceptually separated from each other; in the periphery, the perception seems to correspond to a combination of the multiple sources of motion information. The disappearing squares illusion shows that the ability to assemble the features of Kanisza squares becomes slower in the periphery.The results lead us to hypothesize “feature blur” in the periphery (i.e., the peripheral visual system combines features that the foveal visual system can separate). Feature blur is of general importance because humans are frequently bringing the information in the periphery to the fovea and vice versa

Examining the Moral Grey Zone: The Role of Moral Disengagement, Authenticity, and Situational Strength in predicting Unethical Managerial Behaviour

In the business context, there is a broad spectrum of practices that potentially harm others, yet might benefit the organization. We examined the influence of individual and situational differences in predicting (un)ethical behavior in these moral gray zones using an in-basket exercise that included covert moral issues in which managers could give unethical instructions to their followers. Results show that individual differences in moral disengagement directly predicted unethical behavior and functioned as a mediator of the relationship between authenticity and unethical behavior. Furthermore, effects differed in weak compared to strong situations. Study 2, replicated the results from Study 1, developed a direct test of the situational strength hypothesis, and showed that high versus low situation strength moderated the relation of moral disengagement to unethical behavior