A Call for an Intersectional Approach to Bias Harassment policies

During this presentation, I discuss the failures of anti-harassment policies, specifically hate crime polices, in protecting transwomen of color. I also discuss the FBI Hate Crimes statistics, along with self-reported survey results from the National Transgender Survey, the recorded instances of hate on communtiesagainsthate.org, and how these make visible the failures of the current policies, laws, and their enforcement. This presentation then highlights the need for an intersectional approach to harassment policies to better protect individuals from facing bias. Before analyzing the reports, I provide an overview of hate crime policy in the United States. Each state determines what constitutes a hate crime. This is evident in several diverse ways, the most common being the varied types of bias that are protected against, types of offenses that can be considered hate crimes, and the sentencing guidelines that are imposed. States offer protection based on race, religion, ethnicity, and gender; yet as we look at other aspects of identity such as ability, sexual orientation and gender identity, protection becomes more limited across the country. My research shows that without an intersectional approach to policy development, individuals who are supposedly guaranteed protection based on multiple aspects of their identity will continue to fall victim to bias discrimination. This harassment affects them economically, mentally, and limits their ability to fully interact within society

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Combination proves effective for acute postoperative pain - a meta-analysis of single dose oral tramadol administered in combination with acetaminophen (paracetamol): product news

Abstract piece taking from "McQuay H, Edwards J. Meta-analysis of single dose oral tramadol plus acetaminophen in acute postoperative pain. Eur J Anaesthesiol. 2003;20 Suppl 28:19-22.

Prevalence of opioid adverse events in chronic non-malignant pain: systematic review of randomised trials of oral opioids

Adverse events of opioids may restrict their use in non-cancer pain. Analysis of the incidence of common adverse events in trials conducted in non-cancer pain has usually been limited to opioids used to treat severe pain according to the WHO three-step ladder. To examine the incidence of common adverse events of opioids in non-cancer pain, a systematic review and meta-analysis of information from randomised trials of all opioids in non-cancer pain was undertaken. Studies used were published randomised trials of oral opioid in non-cancer pain, with placebo or active comparator. Thirty-four trials with 5,546 patients were included with 4,212 patients contributing some information on opioid adverse events. Most opioids used (accounting for 90% of patients) were for treating moderate rather than severe pain. Including trials without a placebo increased the amount of information available by 1.4 times. Because of clinical heterogeneity in condition, opioid, opioid dose, duration, and use of titration, only broad results could be calculated. Use of any oral opioid produced higher rates of adverse events than did placebo. Dry mouth (affecting 25% of patients), nausea (21%), and constipation (15%) were the most common adverse events. A substantial proportion of patients on opioids (22%) withdrew because of adverse events. Because most trials were short, less than four weeks, and because few titrated the dose, these results have limited applicability to longer-term use of opioids in clinical practice. Suggestions for improved studies are made

Transitioning to Adulthood as a Young Person with an Intellectual Disability: Two Case Studies of Mothers’ Perceptions

Making the transition from high school to adult life is a challenging process for youth with Intellectual Disabilities (ID).  Complicated policies, fragmented systems, and uncoordinated services contribute to the problem.  Youth with ID need ongoing support to transition successfully, and this support often comes from their parents.  The current article presents the findings from two case studies that examined mothers’ perceptions of the process of supporting their children with ID through transition from high school to adulthood.  Factors that supported and hindered successful transition, as well as supports or resources that mothers wished they had during transition are presented.

Faecal blood loss with aspirin, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and cyclo-oxygenase-2 selective inhibitors: systematic review of randomized trials using autologous chromium-labelled erythrocytes

INTRODUCTION: Faecal blood loss has been measured using autologous erythrocytes labelled with radioactive chromium for several decades, using generally similar methods. We conducted a systematic review of studies employing this technology to determine the degree of blood loss associated with use of aspirin, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and cyclo-oxygenase-2 selective inhibitors (coxibs). METHODS: A systematic search of PubMed and the Cochrane Library (to December 2006) was conducted to identify randomized trials in which treatment with aspirin, NSAIDs, or coxibs was continued for at least 7 days, and with at least 7 days of washout for crossover trials. Rates of faecal blood loss associated with these agents were determined in the randomized trials identified. Comparators were placebo, active, or no treatment. Outcomes of interest were mean daily faecal blood loss, and the number or proportion of individuals recording faecal blood above 5 ml/day and above 10 ml/day. RESULTS: Forty-five reports of 47 trials were included, including 1,162 individuals, mostly healthy volunteers and predominantly young men. Only 136 patients (as opposed to healthy volunteers; 12%) were included, and these were mostly older people with an arthritic condition. Most NSAIDs and low-dose (325 mg) aspirin resulted in a small average increase in faecal blood loss of 1 to 2 ml/day from about 0.5 ml/day at baseline. Aspirin at full anti-inflammatory doses resulted in much higher average levels of blood loss of about 5 ml/day. Some individuals lost much more blood than average, at least for some of the time, with 5% of those taking NSAIDs having daily blood loss of 5 ml or more and 1% having daily blood loss of 10 ml or more; rates of daily blood loss of 5 ml/day or 10 ml/day were 31% and 10%, respectively, for aspirin at daily doses of 1,800 mg or greater. CONCLUSION: At baseline, or with placebo, faecal blood loss is measured at 1 ml/day or below. With low-dose aspirin and some NSAIDs, average values may be two to four times this, and anti-inflammatory doses of aspirin result in much higher average losses. A small proportion of individuals respond to aspirin or NSAIDs with much higher faecal blood loss of above 5 ml/day or 10 ml/day. There are significant limitations regarding the quality and validity of reporting of these studies, such as limited size and inclusion of inappropriate participants. The potential for blood loss and consequent anaemia requires more study

The Role of Nitrate in Controlling Iron Release from Sediment during Anoxia in Dimictic, Fresh Water Lakes

Recent research suggests the availability of reduced iron (Fe) is key in allowing cyanobacteria to outcompete eukaryotic phytoplankton. Cyanobacteria have a greater need for Fe than their eukaryotic competition and are unable to utilize the oxidized form of Fe(III). This means that Fe can be limiting for cyanobacteria growth as the reduced form, Fe(II), is only readily available under anoxic conditions. When the water just above sediment water interface (SWI) becomes anoxic, the redox potential become low enough for Fe(III) to be reduced to Fe(II). As such, it is important to understand the dynamics of four key redox species affect the redox potential at the SWI: O2, nitrate (NO3-), sulfate (SO42-) and Fe. The overall goal of this thesis is to assess the extent that the presence of NO3- at the SWI limits Fe release from lake sediments and the important role this interaction has on cyanobacterial competition. This will be accomplished through four chapters. Chapter 1 provides background information on nutrients, lake stratification, the redox ladder and outlines the current hypothesis for cyanobacterial dominance of phytoplankton blooms. In Chapters 2 the aim was demonstrate that the timing and extent of Fe release from sediment during anoxia can be predicted using five basic redox reactions. This was accomplished by collecting field data at two locations and calculating consumption rates of DO, NO3- and SO42- as well as the release rate of Fe from the sediment and constructing a parsimonious model. Chapter 3 looks to strengthen the assumptions made in chapter 2. Sediment incubations were conducted to determine whether or not the equations used in the model constructed in chapter 2. Finally Chapter 4 summarizes the findings of this research and proposes future work that would expand on the ideas presented here. A model was developed that utilizes simple reduction equations of dissolved O2, NO3-, SO42- and Fe, rates and rate orders of the reduction of these redox species, determined from previous years of sampling, to predict the timing of Fe release from hypolimnetic sediment in stratified, anoxic lakes. Water samples were collected from the hypolimnion of Sturgeon Bay and Deep Bay bi-weekly during the summer of 2014 and 2015 and were analyzed for concentrations of O2, NO3-, SO42- and Fe. It was determined that reduction rates of all key redox species remain consistent between years which means that the only information required to run the model for other years is the initial concentrations of the key redox elements in the late spring/ early summer of the year in question. By using late spring/early summer concentrations of NO3-, O2 and SO42- from discrete depths in the water column of the hypolimnion as initial conditions, it was possible to accurately predict the timing of Fe release after stratification to within 10 days of when Fe accumulation was observed in the field in the same year. Laboratory scale sediment incubations were conducted to observe and ensure that the rate equations for the reduction of the key redox species used in the model are transferable from one system to another even if the specific rates were not. In addition, the potential use of NO3- in changing redox conditions at the SWI of an anoxic system was assessed. It was determined that laboratory incubated sediments show 0th order for the reduction of O2 and Fe and 1st order for the reduction of NO3-. It was also found that while initial NO3- concentration did delay the timing of Fe release, it had no effect on the rate of Fe release from anoxic sediment once NO3- was removed from the system. The first implication of this research is that the release of Fe from hypolimnetic sediments of stratified lakes, that become anoxic, is able to be modeled by a small number of redox equations allowing for affordable, simple monitoring of lakes. The second implication is that, while the release rate of Fe is constant from year to year under anoxic conditions, the concentration of NO3- present at the SWI can affect the timing of Fe release during the stratification period. As a result, the altering of NO3- ¬concentrations of the hypolimnion may be a valid method in reducing the occurrence or duration of cyanobacteria dominated phytoplankton blooms

Modularity functions maximization with nonnegative relaxation facilitates community detection in networks

We show here that the problem of maximizing a family of quantitative functions, encompassing both the modularity (Q-measure) and modularity density (D-measure), for community detection can be uniformly understood as a combinatoric optimization involving the trace of a matrix called modularity Laplacian. Instead of using traditional spectral relaxation, we apply additional nonnegative constraint into this graph clustering problem and design efficient algorithms to optimize the new objective. With the explicit nonnegative constraint, our solutions are very close to the ideal community indicator matrix and can directly assign nodes into communities. The near-orthogonal columns of the solution can be reformulated as the posterior probability of corresponding node belonging to each community. Therefore, the proposed method can be exploited to identify the fuzzy or overlapping communities and thus facilitates the understanding of the intrinsic structure of networks. Experimental results show that our new algorithm consistently, sometimes significantly, outperforms the traditional spectral relaxation approaches