Tumbled Identities: Negotiating Invisible Disabilities and Sexual Orientation

Produced by The Center on Disability Studies, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawai'i, The Frank Sawyer School of Management, Suffolk University, Boston, Massachusetts, and The School of Social Sciences, The University of of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas for The Society for Disability Studies

Retirement Behavior and the Global Financial Crisis

Recent economic conditions have vastly changed the retirement landscape. Declines in assets as well as high unemployment changed the retirement plans of many Americans. Shocks to employment and wealth have likely influenced retirement behavior. This chapter provides a survey of the current literature on the influence of employment and wealth shocks on retirement and then makes use of administrative records on benefit applications to provide a preliminary analysis of changes in early retirement (age 62) claiming resulting from the recent economic downturn and implications. Since early claiming can have long lasting implications for retirement well being, we address how Americans learn about their retirement options

Evaluation of the Wellspring Model for Improving Nursing Home Quality

Examines how successfully the Wellspring model improved the quality of care for residents of eleven nonprofit nursing homes in Wisconsin. Looks at staff turnover, and evaluates the impact on facilities, employees, residents, and cost

Instabilities in Josephson Ladders with Current Induced Magnetic Fields

We report on a theoretical analysis, consisting of both numerical and analytic work, of the stability of synchronization of a ladder array of Josephson junctions under the influence of current induced magnetic fields. Surprisingly, we find that as the ratio of the mutual to self inductance of the cells of the array is increased a region of unstable behavior occurs followed by reentrant stable synchronization. Analytic work tells us that in order to understand fully the cause of the observed instabilities the behavior of the vertical junctions, sometimes ignored in analytic analyses of ladder arrays, must be taken into account.Comment: RevTeX, 4 pages, 3 figure

Sleep Disorders and Medical Conditions in Women

Abstract Sleep disorders affect women differently than they affect men and may have different manifestations and prevalences. With regard to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), variations in symptoms may cause misdiagnoses and delay of appropriate treatment. The prevalence of OSA appears to increase markedly after the time of menopause. Although OSA as defined by the numbers of apneas/hypopneas may be less severe in women, its consequences are similar and perhaps worse. Therapeutic issues related to gender should be factored into the management of OSA. The prevalence of insomnia is significantly greater in women than in men throughout most of the life span. The ratio of insomnia in women to men is approximately 1.4:1.0, but the difference is minimal before puberty and increases steadily with age. Although much of the higher prevalence of insomnia in women may be attributable to the hormonal or psychological changes associated with major life transitions, some of the gender differences may result from the higher prevalence of depression and pain in women. Insomnia's negative impact on quality of life is important to address in women, given the high relative prevalence of insomnia as well as the comorbid disorders in this population. Gender differences in etiology and symptom manifestation in narcolepsy remain understudied in humans. There is little available scientific information to evaluate the clinical significance and specific consequences of the diagnosis of narcolepsy in women. Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is characterized by an urge to move the legs or other limbs during periods of rest or inactivity and may affect as much as 10% of the population. This condition is more likely to afflict women than men, and its risk is increased by pregnancy. Although RLS is associated with impaired quality of life, highly effective treatment is available.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/63103/1/jwh.2007.0561.pd

Increasing dominance of large lianas in Amazonian forests

Ecological orthodoxy suggests that old-growth forests should be close to dynamic equilibrium, but this view has been challenged by recent findings that neotropical forests are accumulating carbon and biomass, possibly in response to the increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. However, it is unclear whether the recent increase in tree biomass has been accompanied by a shift in community composition. Such changes could reduce or enhance the carbon storage potential of old-growth forests in the long term. Here we show that non-fragmented Amazon forests are experiencing a concerted increase in the density, basal area and mean size of woody climbing plants (lianas). Over the last two decades of the twentieth century the dominance of large lianas relative to trees has increased by 1.7–4.6% a year. Lianas enhance tree mortality and suppress tree growth, so their rapid increase implies that the tropical terrestrial carbon sink may shut down sooner than current models suggest. Predictions of future tropical carbon fluxes will need to account for the changing composition and dynamics of supposedly undisturbed forests

Paramagnetic Meissner Effect in Multiply-Connected Superconductors

We have measured a paramagnetic Meissner effect in Nb-Al2O3-Nb Josephson junction arrays using a scanning SQUID microscope. The arrays exhibit diamagnetism for some cooling fields and paramagnetism for other cooling fields. The measured mean magnetization is always less than 0.3 flux quantum (in terms of flux per unit cell of the array) for the range of cooling fields investigated. We demonstrate that a new model of magnetic screening, valid for multiply-connected superconductors, reproduces all of the essential features of paramagnetism that we observe and that no exotic mechanism, such as d-wave superconductivity, is needed for paramagnetism.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, LaTe

Telemonitoring for Patients With Chronic Heart Failure: A Systematic Review

Background Telemonitoring, the use of communication technology to remotely monitor health status, is an appealing strategy for improving disease management. Methods and Results We searched Medline databases, bibliographies, and spoke with experts to review the evidence on telemonitoring in heart failure patients. Interventions included: telephone-based symptom monitoring (n = 5), automated monitoring of signs and symptoms (n = 1), and automated physiologic monitoring (n = 1). Two studies directly compared effectiveness of 2 or more forms of telemonitoring. Study quality and intervention type varied considerably. Six studies suggested reduction in all-cause and heart failure hospitalizations (14% to 55% and 29% to 43%, respectively) or mortality (40% to 56%) with telemonitoring. Of the 3 negative studies, 2 enrolled low-risk patients and patients with access to high quality care, whereas 1 enrolled a very high-risk Hispanic population. Studies comparing forms of telemonitoring demonstrated similar effectiveness. However, intervention costs were higher with more complex programs ($8383 per patient per year) versus less complex programs ($1695 per patient per year). Conclusion The evidence base for telemonitoring in heart failure is currently quite limited. Based on the available data, telemonitoring may be an effective strategy for disease management in high-risk heart failure patients

Environment, Access to Health Care, and Other Factors Affecting Infant and Child Survival Among the African and Coloured Populations of South Africa, 1989–94

Some maintain that environmental factors are unimportant for infant and child survival once mother's education and other characteristics have been taken into account. However, an analysis of survival of African and Coloured children based on the 1994 October Household Survey supports the importance of environmental factors in relatively high mortality populations. Among African households, the source of domestic water is important, but for Coloured households, almost all of which have safe water, the type of sanitation is important. If safe drinking water is available, the type of sanitation influences survival; if safe drinking water is not available, sanitation seems to matter little.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43497/1/11111_2004_Article_368071.pd