Overview of Immigrant Eligibility for Federal Programs

The major federal public benefits programs have long excluded some non–U.S. citizens from eligibility for assistance. Programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program), nonemergency Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and its precursor, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), were largely unavailable to undocumented immigrants and people in the United States on temporary visas.However, the 1996 federal welfare and immigration laws introduced an unprecedented era of restrictionism. Prior to the enactment of these laws, lawful permanent residents of the U.S. generally were eligible for assistance in a manner similar to U.S. citizens. Once the laws were implemented, most lawfully residing immigrants were barred from receiving assistance under the major federal benefits programs for five years or longer.Even where eligibility for immigrants was preserved by the 1996 laws or restored by subsequent legislation, many immigrant families hesitate to enroll in critical health care, job-training, nutrition, and cash assistance programs due to fear and confusion caused by the laws' complexity and other intimidating factors. As a result, the participation of immigrants in public benefits programs decreased sharply after passage of the 1996 laws, causing severe hardship for many low-income immigrant families who lacked the support available to other low-income families.Efforts to address the chilling effects and confusion have continued since that time. The Trump administration's exclusionary policies compounded the problem, making it even more difficult to ensure that eligible immigrants and their family members would secure services.This article focuses on eligibility and other rules governing immigrants' access to federal public benefits programs. Many states have attempted to fill some of the gaps in noncitizen coverage resulting from the 1996 laws, either by electing federal options to cover more eligible noncitizens or by spending state funds to cover at least some of the immigrants who are ineligible for federally funded services.In determining an immigrant's eligibility for benefits, it is necessary to understand the federal rules as well as the rules of the state in which an immigrant resides. Updates on federal and state rules are available on NILC's website

Ending the Discriminatory Pretrial Incarceration of People with Disabilities: Liability under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act

Our federal, state, and local governments lock up hundreds of thousands of people at a time—millions over the course of a year—to ensure their appearance at a pending criminal or immigration proceeding. This type of pretrial incarceration—a term we use to cover both pretrial criminal detention and immigration detention prior to finalization of a removal order—can be very harmful. It disrupts the work and family lives of those detained, harms their health, interferes with their defense, and imposes pressure on them to forego their trial rights and accede to the government’s charges in an effort to abbreviate time behind bars. For people with disabilities, however, pretrial incarceration is often even worse; it can utterly destabilize their physical and mental health and devastate their ability to participate in their proceedings. Set aside whether that would be a justifiable imposition if pretrial incarceration were truly necessary for the criminal or immigration systems to process their cases or if it truly served public safety. We demonstrate in this article that existing antidiscrimination law demands alternatives to pretrial incarceration, when it is demonstrably unnecessary and undermines the equal access of people with disabilities to the criminal or immigration processes that purport to justify it. The argument is somewhat novel but founded firmly on existing law: the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, their regulations, and well-developed interpretive case law

Nurse Practitioner-Led Obstructive Sleep Apnea Screening in Patients with an Implantable Cardiac Monitor, and Confirmed or Suspected Atrial Fibrillation

Background: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has been linked to heart disease and vice versa. Millions of Americans suffer from this chronic sleep condition, and a great number of those affected are unaware they have it. According the American Sleep Apnea Association, 80% of patients who fall in the moderate to severe OSA category are undiagnosed. Evidence suggest that untreated OSA can lead to atrial fibrillation (AF), and other cardiovascular problems. These cardiovascular complications can increase the mortality and morbidity of patients who suffer from this sleep syndrome. Purpose of Project: The goal of the project was to provide OSA screening to patients with implantable cardiac monitors who were observed due to confirmed or suspected AF. The aim of this study was to identify the prevalence of those at high risk. Our overall purpose was to establish early screening protocols, that could potentially lead to early detection and treatment. The screening tool used was the STOP-BANG OSA screening tool due to its high sensitivity and specificity for detecting moderate to severe cases. Methods: Patients were screened for OSA risk by using the STOP-BANG tool. The phone screening calls were conducted between the hours of 9:00 am to 5:00pm on week days over a period of six months. The scores of 100 patients were obtained, and analyzed by using Microsoft Excel software. Evaluation/Results: The results showed that 63% of patients screened, scored as high risk for OSA. Of those who scored as high risk, 61.90% were males, 38.10% were female, 25.39% had previously been diagnosed with OSA, 4.76% were previously referred for sleep studies, and 69.84% have never been screened for OSA or referred for a sleep study. These findings suggested that the majority of patients at high risk for OSA are neither screened nor referred for sleep studies. The patients found to be at highest risk were males, older than 50y/o, obese, with a history of hypertension and syncope. Discussion: This project has the potential to provide information regarding the prevalence of OSA in patients who are diagnosed or are suspected to have AF. The prevalence of OSA in this patient population can give us knowledge regarding their health care needs. It can also help providers focus interventions that can potentially improve health care outcomes. Early screening can lead to early referral and treatment. This in turn may lead to decrease exacerbation of AF, and improved overall quality of life for patients who have coexisting AF and OSA

Early Host Tissue Response to Different Types of Vascular Prostheses Coated with Silver Acetate or Vaporized Metallic Silver

ObjectivesIn vascular surgery, the infection of prosthetic vascular grafts represents a serious life-threatening complication. Due to the increasing resistance of hospital micro-organisms to standard antibiotic therapies, maximum effort should be put in the primary prevention of such infections. For this purpose, grafts may be coated with different antibacterial silver formulations. In the present study the different effects of silver acetate-coating and vaporized metallic silver-coating on the vascularization and perigraft inflammation during the initial phase after implantation of Intergard Silver (IS) and Silver Graft (SG) were compared.MethodsSilver acetate-coated IS and vaporized metallic silver-coated SG were implanted into the dorsal skinfold chamber of C57BL/6 mice (n = 8 per group) to study angiogenesis and leukocyte inflammation at the implantation site by means of repetitive intravital fluorescence microscopy over a 14-day period. At the end of the in vivo experiments, apoptosis and cell proliferation in the newly developed granulation tissue surrounding the implants was analyzed by immunohistochemistry.ResultsIS exhibited an improved vascularization, resulting in a significantly higher functional capillary density when compared to SG. Moreover, the leukocyte inflammatory response to IS was less pronounced, as indicated by a reduced number of adherent leukocytes in perigraft venules. This was associated with a higher proliferative activity of the granulation tissue incorporating the IS when compared to SG. The numbers of apoptotic cells in the perigraft tissue were low and did not differ between the two groups.ConclusionSilver acetate-coated IS exhibits an improved vascularization and reduced perigraft inflammation during the first 14 days after implantation when compared to vaporized metallic silver-coated SG. This may contribute to reducing the risk of early perigraft seroma formation and subsequent infection

In Vitro Photodynamic Therapy with Chlorin e6 Leads to Apoptosis of Human Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells

Percutaneous coronary intervention has become the most common and widely implemented method of heart revascularization. However, the development of restenosis remains the major limitation of this method. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) recently emerged as a new and promising method for the prevention of arterial restenosis. Here the efficacy of chlorin e6 in PDT was investigated in vitro using human vascular smooth muscle cells (TG/HA-VSMCs) as one of the cell types crucial in the development of restenosis. PDT-induced cell death was studied on many levels, including annexin V staining, measurement of the generation reactive oxygen species (ROS) and caspase-3 activity, and assessment of changes in mitochondrial membrane potential and fragmentation of DNA. Photosensitization of TG/HA-VSMCs with a 170 μM of chlorin e6 and subsequent illumination with the light of a 672-nm diode laser (2 J/cm2) resulted in the generation of ROS, a decrease in cell membrane polarization, caspase-3 activation, as well as DNA fragmentation. Interestingly, the latter two apoptotic events could not be observed in photosensitized and illuminated NIH3T3 fibroblasts, suggesting different outcomes of the model of PDT in various types of cells. The results obtained with human VSMCs show that chlorin e6 may be useful in the PDT of aerial restenosis, but its efficacy still needs to be established in an animal model

Coralline Algae in a Changing Mediterranean Sea: How Can We Predict Their Future, if We Do Not Know Their Present?

In this review we assess the state of knowledge for the coralline algae of the Mediterranean Sea, a group of calcareous seaweeds imperfectly known and considered highly vulnerable to long-term climate change. Corallines have occurred in the Mediterranean area for ∼140 My and are well-represented in the subsequent fossil record; for some species currently common the fossil documentation dates back to the Oligocene, with a major role in the sedimentary record of some areas. Some Mediterranean corallines are key ecosystem engineers that produce or consolidate biogenic habitats (e.g., coralligenous concretions, Lithophyllum byssoides rims, rims of articulated corallines, maerl/rhodolith beds). Although bioconstructions built by corallines exist virtually in every sea, in the Mediterranean they reach a particularly high spatial and bathymetric extent (coralligenous concretions alone are estimated to exceed 2,700 km2 in surface). Overall, composition, dynamics and responses to human disturbances of coralline-dominated communities have been well-studied; except for a few species, however, the biology of Mediterranean corallines is poorly known. In terms of diversity, 60 species of corallines are currently reported from the Mediterranean. This number, however, is based on morphological assessments and recent studies incorporating molecular data suggest that the correct estimate is probably much higher. The responses of Mediterranean corallines to climate change have been the subject of several recent studies that documented their tolerance/sensitivity to elevated temperatures and pCO2. These investigations have focused on a few species and should be extended to a wider taxonomic set

Modifying effect of dual antiplatelet therapy on incidence of stent thrombosis according to implanted drug-eluting stent type

Aim To investigate the putative modifying effect of dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) use on the incidence of stent thrombosis at 3 years in patients randomized to Endeavor zotarolimus-eluting stent (E-ZES) or Cypher sirolimus-eluting stent (C-SES). Methods and results Of 8709 patients in PROTECT, 4357 were randomized to E-ZES and 4352 to C-SES. Aspirin was to be given indefinitely, and clopidogrel/ticlopidine for ≥3 months or up to 12 months after implantation. Main outcome measures were definite or probable stent thrombosis at 3 years. Multivariable Cox regression analysis was applied, with stent type, DAPT, and their interaction as the main outcome determinants. Dual antiplatelet therapy adherence remained the same in the E-ZES and C-SES groups (79.6% at 1 year, 32.8% at 2 years, and 21.6% at 3 years). We observed a statistically significant (P = 0.0052) heterogeneity in treatment effect of stent type in relation to DAPT. In the absence of DAPT, stent thrombosis was lower with E-ZES vs. C-SES (adjusted hazard ratio 0.38, 95% confidence interval 0.19, 0.75; P = 0.0056). In the presence of DAPT, no difference was found (1.18; 0.79, 1.77; P = 0.43). Conclusion A strong interaction was observed between drug-eluting stent type and DAPT use, most likely prompted by the vascular healing response induced by the implanted DES system. These results suggest that the incidence of stent thrombosis in DES trials should not be evaluated independently of DAPT use, and the optimal duration of DAPT will likely depend upon stent type (Clinicaltrials.gov number NCT00476957

Telling your story: autobiographical metadata and the semantic web

Given the current explosion of user-generated content driven by the ever-decreasing price of sensing and storage hardware the dream of capturing and archiving the entirety of a human life is slowly being realised. The Semantic Web, a discipline of Computer Science, aims to support the sharing and interoperation of knowledge using the Web’s infrastructure. This thesis aims to roadmap a framework utilising the principles and technologies underpinning the Semantic Web, enabling the vision of global knowledge sharing, in an open and policy aware manner, with the end aim of supporting a network for the exploitation of personal information. This sharing is facilitated through the adoption of a lingua franca, shared conceptualisations for domain knowledge, and some core design principles. The main focus of Semantic Web research has been the development of a web-scale knowledge-base whereby information is stored and exposed in a machine-readable format with the ultimate aim of aggregating information from disparate sources, allowing for statements to be contextualised with respect to others culminating in a web-scale knowledge resource accessible through standard protocols.The current popularity of social computing – Web 2.0 – where users post personal information to online communities is eluding to the fact that information, linked and shared within a social-context presents added value to the end-user. Given the sensitive nature of personal information, one may not wish to expose all of the information about them self to the World Wide Web, but may wish to benefit by linking to knowledge residing on this shared resource. This ability to store personal information privately, in ones own personal web-space and not on a third party server, whilst at the same time connecting to the publicly available information is presented as key challenge facing the Computer Science community today. Specific information pertaining to one aspect of a user’s activities, such as their picture taking habits or their geographic log, may not present a detailed account of a user’s actions, but as more information is pushed into the public domain and aggregation technologies mature individuals and their day-to-day activities will be easier to track. As more and more of our personal lives are pushed into the public domain, the notion of an online-persona is becoming more and more applicable to the average person.This thesis presents an infrastructure for the capturing and archival of autobiographical metadata, whereby information from multiple sensors is aggregated and stored in a personal Lifelog. The surrender of digital identity has become commonplace, for purposes ranging from commerce, marketing, social networking, government, receipt of services, travel or security, Lifelogging has the potential to reaffirm the individual’s control of his or her own digital identity. The Lifelog is a constructed identity that outweighs the others simply by weight of evidence, complexity and comprehensiveness. This thesis presents an infrastructure for the capture and exploitation of personal metadata to drive research into context aware systems. The aim is to expose ongoing research in the areas of capture of personal experiences, context aware systems, multimedia annotation systems, narrative generation, all set in the context of enabling and supporting the Semantic Web Vision. The thesis details the work underway towards the goal of creating a multi-domain contextual log, and is followed by a discussion of how such a log can be used to drive the development of detailed Lifelog and an investigation into the amount of personal information being pushed into the public domain.<br/