Is Real Estate a Fad?

[Excerpt] According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, (Fourth Edition Copyright 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company), a fad is defined as: “A fashion that is taken up with great enthusiasm for a brief period of time; a craze.” Could real estate investors be subject to “a craze”? It sure feels that way. The scene is a crowded market and all around me people feel desperate to purchase at least one of what is being sold. Am I describing my experience of buying a pet rock as a child or today’s world of investing in real estate. The answer is, in fact, both. Don’t misunderstand me, I am not really into fads: No fad diets for me or break dancing in my past. Mohawks were not for me. I don’t get up in the morning on the lookout for the latest craze, but nonetheless, the real estate fad seems to have found me

Using noncognitive assessment to predict academic success for at-risk students

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on March 4, 2013).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Dissertation advisor: Dr. Sandy HutchinsonIncludes bibliographical references.Vita.Ed. D. University of Missouri--Columbia 2012.Dissertations, Academic -- University of Missouri--Columbia -- Educational leadership and policy analysis."December, 2012"The purpose of this study was to determine if noncognitive variables, alone or in combination with standardized test score (ACT or SAT) and/or high school grade point average, can predict student success (first-semester grade point average, first to second year retention and five year graduation rate) for 154 academically at-risk college freshmen admitted into the Conditional Admissions Program (CAP) at the University of Central Missouri for the Fall 2007 semester. In this investigation, student success was defined as a first semester GPA of 2.0 or higher, retaining to the second year and graduating within a five year time frame. Through the six- question short answer-style Insight Resume´, noncognitive attributes were evaluated based on each student's life experiences and what they learned from those experiences. Correlations were calculated measuring the relationship between the Insight Resume´ and the dependent variables. Findings revealed there were only slight correlations between Insight Resume´ score and earning a first semester GPA of 2.0 or greater, retaining from the first to the second year, and graduating in five years. In addition, logistic regression was used to measure the predictive value of the combination of the Insight Resume´ scores, HSGPA and composite ACT scores on predicting first semester GPA of 2.0 or higher, retention from year one to year two, or five year graduation rate. Results indicated that there was no indication any of the predictor variables significantly improved the ability to predict earning a first semester GPA of 2.0 or higher or whether a student would retain or graduate

Routine Activity Theory at the Census Tract-Level

The purpose of this study is to better understand predictors of neighborhood crime in metropolitan areas through a routine activity theory (RAT) lens. This paper examines whether neighborhood-level aspects of RAT have varying explanatory power for different crimes. This is accomplished by drawing on a sample of census tracts from the National Neighborhood Crime Study (NNCS). Using these data, multiple independent variables are regressed on four different types of crime using an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. The results do not suggest that there is a strong degree of variation in the ability of specific measures to predict specific forms of offending. Insofar as these measures truly capture elements of RAT, the findings indicate that RAT is efficient in explaining crime rates in general, and does not do an especially good job in differentiating crime acts in disaggregated scales. However, of the different measures, vacant housing is an especially robust predictor of each type of crime, suggesting that features of the physical environment of a neighborhood contribute to criminal behavior above and beyond shared characteristics of neighborhood residents. This suggests that situational crime prevention can be an effective crime control method by increasing security of an area to dissuade potential offenders and using target hardening

Curcumin as an Aid to Improve Symptoms of Inflammatory or Irritable Bowel Diseases

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a poorly understood process that affects over a million people in the United States alone. The disease typically manifests as recurrent flares of abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea along with periods of remission. Standard therapy has focused around maintenance and remission, rather than a cure. These lifelong diagnoses carry devastating consequences for patients. Modern medical therapy consists primarily of steroids, aminosalicylate anti-inflammatories and immunomodulators. Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is one of the most common diagnoses in gastroenterology practices in the North American hemisphere. IBS shares many of the same symptoms as IBD and despite growing research and compelling data, it’s still unclear if there are genetic components and mucosal changes to explore. Patients are becoming increasingly interested in how to maintain their remission or reverse the disease processes through diet and lifestyle changes. Current research focused on the chemical compound curcumin, found in the Turmeric rhizome, may hold the keys to maintaining remission in mild to moderate ulcerative colitis (UC). Through systematic literature review this article aims to explore existing research regarding natural food-based compounds, namely curcumin, and the potential benefits for patients with IBD and IBS diagnoses

Modifications to student quarantine policies in K-12 schools implementing multiple COVID-19 prevention strategies restores in-person education without increasing SARS-CoV-2 transmission risk, January-March 2021

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether modified K-12 student quarantine policies that allow some students to continue in-person education during their quarantine period increase schoolwide SARS-CoV-2 transmission risk following the increase in cases in winter 2020-2021. METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort study of COVID-19 cases and close contacts among students and staff (n = 65,621) in 103 Missouri public schools. Participants were offered free, saliva-based RT-PCR testing. The projected number of school-based transmission events among untested close contacts was extrapolated from the percentage of events detected among tested asymptomatic close contacts and summed with the number of detected events for a projected total. An adjusted Cox regression model compared hazard rates of school-based SARS-CoV-2 infections between schools with a modified versus standard quarantine policy. RESULTS: From January-March 2021, a projected 23 (1%) school-based transmission events occurred among 1,636 school close contacts. There was no difference in the adjusted hazard rates of school-based SARS-CoV-2 infections between schools with a modified versus standard quarantine policy (hazard ratio = 1.00; 95% confidence interval: 0.97-1.03). DISCUSSION: School-based SARS-CoV-2 transmission was rare in 103 K-12 schools implementing multiple COVID-19 prevention strategies. Modified student quarantine policies were not associated with increased school incidence of COVID-19. Modifications to student quarantine policies may be a useful strategy for K-12 schools to safely reduce disruptions to in-person education during times of increased COVID-19 community incidence

A flexible and efficient template format for circular consensus sequencing and SNP detection

A novel template design for single-molecule sequencing is introduced, a structure we refer to as a SMRTbell™ template. This structure consists of a double-stranded portion, containing the insert of interest, and a single-stranded hairpin loop on either end, which provides a site for primer binding. Structurally, this format resembles a linear double-stranded molecule, and yet it is topologically circular. When placed into a single-molecule sequencing reaction, the SMRTbell template format enables a consensus sequence to be obtained from multiple passes on a single molecule. Furthermore, this consensus sequence is obtained from both the sense and antisense strands of the insert region. In this article, we present a universal method for constructing these templates, as well as an application of their use. We demonstrate the generation of high-quality consensus accuracy from single molecules, as well as the use of SMRTbell templates in the identification of rare sequence variants

Methicillin-Susceptible Staphylococcus aureus as a Predominantly Healthcare-Associated Pathogen: A Possible Reversal of Roles?

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains have become common causes of skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI) among previously healthy people, a role of methicillin-susceptible (MSSA) isolates before the mid-1990s. We hypothesized that, as MRSA infections became more common among S. aureus infections in the community, perhaps MSSA infections had become more important as a cause of healthcare-associated infection.We compared patients, including children and adults, with MRSA and MSSA infections at the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) from all clinical units from July 1, 2004-June 30, 2005; we also compared the genotypes of the MRSA and MSSA infecting bacterial strains.Compared with MRSA patients, MSSA patients were more likely on bivariate analysis to have bacteremia, endocarditis, or sepsis (p = 0.03), to be an adult (p = 0.005), to be in the intensive care unit (21.9% vs. 15.6%) or another inpatient unit (45.6% vs. 40.7%) at the time of culture. MRSA (346/545) and MSSA (76/114) patients did not differ significantly in the proportion classified as HA-S. aureus by the CDC CA-MRSA definition (p = 0.5). The genetic backgrounds of MRSA and MSSA multilocus sequence type (ST) 1, ST5, ST8, ST30, and ST59 comprised in combination 94.5% of MRSA isolates and 50.9% of MSSA isolates. By logistic regression, being cared for in the Emergency Department (OR 4.6, CI 1.5-14.0, p = 0.008) was associated with MRSA infection.Patients with MSSA at UCMC have characteristics consistent with a health-care-associated infection more often than do patients with MRSA; a possible role reversal has occurred for MSSA and MRSA strains. Clinical MSSA and MRSA strains shared genotype backgrounds

Spread of Epidemic MRSA-ST5-IV Clone Encoding PVL as a Major Cause of Community Onset Staphylococcal Infections in Argentinean Children

BACKGROUND: Community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus-(CA-MRSA) strains have emerged in Argentina. We investigated the clinical and molecular evolution of community-onset MRSA infections (CO-MRSA) in children of Córdoba, Argentina, 2005-2008. Additionally, data from 2007 were compared with the epidemiology of these infections in other regions of the country. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Two datasets were used: i) lab-based prospective surveillance of CA-MRSA isolates from 3 Córdoba pediatric hospitals-(CBAH1-H3) in 2007-2008 (compared to previously published data of 2005) and ii) a sampling of CO-MRSA from a study involving both, healthcare-associated community-onset-(HACO) infections in children with risk-factors for healthcare-associated infections-(HRFs), and CA-MRSA infections in patients without HRFs detected in multiple centers of Argentina in 2007. Molecular typing was performed on the CA-MRSA-(n: 99) isolates from the CBAH1-H3-dataset and on the HACO-MRSA-(n: 51) and CA-MRSA-(n: 213) isolates from other regions. Between 2005-2008, the annual proportion of CA-MRSA/CA-S. aureus in Córdoba hospitals increased from 25% to 49%, P<0.01. Total CA-MRSA infections increased 3.6 fold-(5.1 to 18.6 cases/100,000 annual-visits, P<0.0001), associated with an important increase of invasive CA-MRSA infections-(8.5 fold). In all regions analyzed, a single genotype prevailed in both CA-MRSA (82%) and HACO-MRSA(57%), which showed pulsed-field-gel electrophoresis-(PFGE)-type-"I", sequence-type-5-(ST5), SCCmec-type-IVa, spa-t311, and was positive for PVL. The second clone, pulsotype-N/ST30/CC30/SCCmecIVc/t019/PVL(+), accounted for 11.5% of total CA-MRSA infections. Importantly, the first 4 isolates of Argentina belonging to South American-USA300 clone-(USA300/ST8/CC8/SCCmecIVc/t008/PVL(+)/ACME(-)) were detected. We also demonstrated that a HA-MRSA clone-(pulsotype-C/ST100/CC5) caused 2% and 10% of CA-MRSA and HACO-MRSA infections respectively and was associated with a SCCmec type closely related to SCCmecIV(2B&5). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The dissemination of epidemic MRSA clone, ST5-IV-PVL(+) was the main cause of increasing staphylococcal community-onset infections in Argentinean children (2003-2008), conversely to other countries. The predominance of this clone, which has capacity to express the h-VISA phenotype, in healthcare-associated community-onset cases suggests that it has infiltrated into hospital-settings

Bad News Birkins: Counterfeit in Luxury Brands, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 249 (2015)

The luxury fashion industry spends millions of dollars each year fighting counterfeits, yet a fake Louis Vuitton bag is easily purchased on street corners around the world. Proponents of the counterfeits argue that the fakes translate to advertising for the brands, while the luxury brands argue that it damages the future of their brand. The counterfeit market has been linked to child labor, human trafficking, organized crime, and some terrorist groups. The current federal civil and criminal statutes exclude purchasers from prosecution and instead focus on the distributors of the goods. This comment proposes the strengthening of these laws by introducing consumer liability and the likely criticisms this would receive