A structured management approach to implementation of health promotion interventions in Head Start.

Improving the health and health literacy of low-income families is a national public health priority in the United States. The federal Head Start program provides a national infrastructure for implementation of health promotion interventions for young children and their families. The Health Care Institute (HCI) at the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles, developed a structured approach to health promotion training for Head Start grantees using business management principles. This article describes the HCI approach and provides examples of implemented programs and selected outcomes, including knowledge and behavior changes among Head Start staff and families. This prevention-focused training platform has reached 60,000 Head Start families in the United States since its inception in 2001. HCI has demonstrated consistent outcomes in diverse settings and cultures, suggesting both scalability and sustainability

The Impact of Failing to Identify Suspect Effort in Patients Undergoing Adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Assessment

This retrospective study examines how many adult patients would plausibly receive a diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) if performance and symptom validity measures were not administered during neuropsychological evaluations. Five hundred fifty-four patients were extracted from an archival clinical dataset. A total of 102 were diagnosed with ADHD based on cognitive testing, behavior rating scales, effort testing, and clinical interview; 115 were identified as putting forth suspect effort in accordance with the Slick, Sherman, and Iverson (1999) criteria. From a clinical decision-making perspective, suspect effort and ADHD groups were nearly indistinguishable on ADHD behavior, executive function, and functional impairment rating scales, as well as on cognitive testing and key clinical interview questions. These results suggest that a significant percentage of those making a suspect effort will be diagnosed with ADHD using the most commonly employed assessment methods: an interview alone (71%); an interview and ADHD behavior rating scales combined (65%); and an interview, behavior rating scales, and most continuous performance tests combined (57%). This research makes clear that it is essential to evaluate task engagement and possible symptom amplification during clinical evaluations

Gaussian Quadratures vs. Monte Carlo Experiments for Systematic Sensitivity Analysis of Computable General Equilibrium Model Results

Citation: Villoria, N. B., & Preckel, P. V. (2017). Gaussian Quadratures vs. Monte Carlo Experiments for Systematic Sensitivity Analysis of Computable General Equilibrium Model Results. Economics Bulletin, 37(1), 480-+. Retrieved from ://WOS:000398860600043Third-order Gaussian quadratures (GQ) approximate the mean and variance of model results allowing for computationally inexpensive sensitivity analysis to uncertainty in exogenous parameters. Unfortunately, commonly used GQ approaches restrict the marginal distributions of both parameters and results sacrificing valuable distributional information. Using higher order quadratures, or incorporating more uncertain exogenous parameters, rapidly increases the sample size, undermining the rationale for using GQ. In contrast, Monte Carlo methods directly approximate the distribution of model outcomes without restrictive distributional assumptions on exogenous parameters. We argue that current computing capabilities allow for wider use of Monte Carlo methods for conducting stochastic simulations

Dates, Caries, and Early Tooth Loss During the Iron Age of Oman

Eine Ernährung aus fermentierbaren Kohlenhydraten ist bekannterweise hoch kariogen, besonders im Falle von zuckerhaltigem Essen wie zum Beispiel Datteln. Diese Ernährung ist bei der späteisenzeitlichen Samad-zeitlichen Bevölkerung Omans zu beobachten. 32 Erwachsene und 5 Jugendliche dienten für diese Studie als Erhebung. Vorzeitiger Zahnverlust war in allen Fällen nachweisbar

Comparative growth and static allometry in the genus Chlorocebus

Characterizing variation in growth across populations is critical to understanding multiple aspects of development in primates, including within-taxon developmental plasticity and the evolution of life history patterns. Growth in wild primates has often been reported and directly compared across larger taxonomic groups and within social groups, but comparisons are rarely investigated across widely dispersed populations of a single taxon. With the Vervet Phenome-Genome Project and the International Vervet Research Consortium, we trapped 936 vervet monkeys of all ages representing three populations (Kenyan pygerythrus, South African pygerythrus, and sabaeus from St. Kitts & Nevis). We gathered 10 different body measurements from each including mass, body breadth and length, segmental limb lengths, and chest circumference. To gain a better understanding of how ontogenetic patterns vary in these populations, we calculated bivariate allometry coefficients, derived using PCA on log-transformed and z-standardized trait values, and compared them to isometric vector coefficients. Within all population samples, around weaning age most traits showed a negative allometric relationship to body length. As each population ages, however, distinct patterns emerge, showing population differences in onset and intensity of growth among traits. In concordance with other analyses on growth in these populations, our results suggest that there exist relative differences in patterns of growth between Chlorocebus populations, further suggesting selection for unique developmental pathways in each

A generalized theory of semiflexible polymers

DNA bending on length scales shorter than a persistence length plays an integral role in the translation of genetic information from DNA to cellular function. Quantitative experimental studies of these biological systems have led to a renewed interest in the polymer mechanics relevant for describing the conformational free energy of DNA bending induced by protein-DNA complexes. Recent experimental results from DNA cyclization studies have cast doubt on the applicability of the canonical semiflexible polymer theory, the wormlike chain (WLC) model, to DNA bending on biological length scales. This paper develops a theory of the chain statistics of a class of generalized semiflexible polymer models. Our focus is on the theoretical development of these models and the calculation of experimental observables. To illustrate our methods, we focus on a specific toy model of DNA bending. We show that the WLC model generically describes the long-length-scale chain statistics of semiflexible polymers, as predicted by the Renormalization Group. In particular, we show that either the WLC or our new model adequate describes force-extension, solution scattering, and long-contour-length cyclization experiments, regardless of the details of DNA bend elasticity. In contrast, experiments sensitive to short-length-scale chain behavior can in principle reveal dramatic departures from the linear elastic behavior assumed in the WLC model. We demonstrate this explicitly by showing that our toy model can reproduce the anomalously large short-contour-length cyclization J factors observed by Cloutier and Widom. Finally, we discuss the applicability of these models to DNA chain statistics in the context of future experiments

Ariel - Volume 5 Number 1

Editors Mark Dembert J.D. Kanofskv Entertainment Editor Robert Breckenridge Gary Kaskey Editor Emeritus David A. Jacoby Photographer Scott Kastner Staff Richard Blutstein Bob Johnson John R. Cohn Joseph Sassani Ken Jaffe Bob Sklarof

Massive Neutrinos and (Heterotic) String Theory

String theories in principle address the origin and values of the quark and lepton masses. Perhaps the small values of neutrino masses could be explained generically in string theory even if it is more difficult to calculate individual values, or perhaps some string constructions could be favored by generating small neutrino masses. We examine this issue in the context of the well-known three-family standard-like Z_3 heterotic orbifolds, where the theory is well enough known to construct the corresponding operators allowed by string selection rules, and analyze the D- and F-flatness conditions. Surprisingly, we find that a simple see-saw mechanism does not arise. It is not clear whether this is a property of this construction, or of orbifolds more generally, or of string theory itself. Extended see-saw mechanisms may be allowed; more analysis will be needed to settle that issue. We briefly speculate on their form if allowed and on the possibility of alternatives, such as small Dirac masses and triplet see-saws. The smallness of neutrino masses may be a powerful probe of string constructions in general. We also find further evidence that there are only 20 inequivalent models in this class, which affects the counting of string vacua.Comment: 18 pages in RevTeX format. Single-column postscript version available at http://sage.hep.upenn.edu/~bnelson/singpre.p

The static allometry of sexual and non-sexual traits in vervet monkeys

Sexual traits vary tremendously in static allometry. This variation may be explained in part by body size-related differences in the strength of selection. We tested this hypothesis in two populations of vervet monkeys, using estimates of the level of condition dependence for different morphological traits as a proxy for body size-related variation in the strength of selection. In support of the hypothesis, we found that the steepness of allometric slopes increased with the level of condition dependence. One trait of particular interest, the penis, had shallow allometric slopes and low levels of condition dependence, in agreement with one of the most consistent patterns yet detected in the study of allometry, namely that of genitalia exhibiting shallow allometries.This research was supported by NIH grant R01RR0163009

An Empirically Derived Three-Dimensional Laplace Resonance in the Gliese 876 Planetary System

We report constraints on the three-dimensional orbital architecture for all four planets known to orbit the nearby M dwarf Gliese 876 based solely on Doppler measurements and demanding long-term orbital stability. Our dataset incorporates publicly available radial velocities taken with the ELODIE and CORALIE spectrographs, HARPS, and Keck HIRES as well as previously unpublished HIRES velocities. We first quantitatively assess the validity of the planets thought to orbit GJ 876 by computing the Bayes factors for a variety of different coplanar models using an importance sampling algorithm. We find that a four-planet model is preferred over a three-planet model. Next, we apply a Newtonian MCMC algorithm to perform a Bayesian analysis of the planet masses and orbits using an n-body model in three-dimensional space. Based on the radial velocities alone, we find that a 99% credible interval provides upper limits on the mutual inclinations for the three resonant planets ($\Phi_{cb}<6.20^\circ$ for the "c" and "b" pair and $\Phi_{be}<28.5^\circ$ for the "b" and "e" pair). Subsequent dynamical integrations of our posterior sample find that the GJ 876 planets must be roughly coplanar ($\Phi_{cb}<2.60^\circ$ and $\Phi_{be}<7.87^\circ$), suggesting the amount of planet-planet scattering in the system has been low. We investigate the distribution of the respective resonant arguments of each planet pair and find that at least one argument for each planet pair and the Laplace argument librate. The libration amplitudes in our three-dimensional orbital model supports the idea of the outer-three planets having undergone significant past disk migration.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures, 8 tables. Accepted to MNRAS. Posterior samples available at https://github.com/benelson/GJ87