Height in Politics: The Role of Height in Electoral Success in the State of Washington

Throughout the history of American presidential elections, the height of candidates has proven to be a statistically significant factor relative to success. This analysis examines whether the same trend applied to Washington State elections over the period 1994-2014. Ultimately, the data shows that Washington electoral results are not subject to change on the basis of candidate height – Washington elections do not reflect the presidential election trend

Community disadvantage, family socioeconomic status, and racial/ethnic differences in maltreatment reporting risk during infancy

BACKGROUND: Children are reported for maltreatment during infancy at elevated rates; research has established persistent racial/ethnic differences in the likelihood of reporting to the child protection system (CPS). OBJECTIVE: To model the influence of race/ethnicity and community disadvantage in CPS reporting during infancy. PARTICIPANTS/SETTING: A population-based dataset consisting of more than 1.2 million children born in California between 2012 and 2014. Vital birth records were probabilistically linked to administrative CPS records. American Community Survey data were used to measure community disadvantage. METHODS: For each child, we coded sociodemographic information from the birth record, assigned the child to a community using their residential address at birth, and captured maltreatment reports from child protection records. We employed a modified Poisson regression model to examine an infant's likelihood of being reported to CPS by race/ethnicity across levels of community disadvantage and after adjusting for individual-level covariates. RESULTS: Infants born in neighborhoods with the most concentrated disadvantage were reported to CPS at 7 times the rate of children born in the most advantaged neighborhoods (12.3% vs. 1.8%). After adjusting for individual-level covariates, we found that both Black and Hispanic infants born on public insurance were significantly less likely than White infants to be reported for maltreatment overall - and Black and Hispanic infants had a statistically equivalent or lower likelihood of reporting at the two extremes of neighborhood disadvantage. Among privately insured families, Hispanic infants continued to have a lower likelihood of reporting, but Black infants were reported at higher rates than White infants. This Black-White difference persisted in the most advantaged neighborhoods, but disappeared in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods. CONCLUSIONS: Capturing individual-level differences in socioeconomic status and associated risk factors is critical to understanding sources of racial/ethnic differences in CPS reporting, including when there is unwarranted variation or disparate treatment. Our findings suggest an elevated likelihood of maltreatment reporting among privately insured Black infants not explained by differences in observed risk or neighborhood, but no such differences were documented for Black or Hispanic infants on public insurance

Domestic Violence Alleged in California Child Maltreatment Reports During the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, reports to child abuse and neglect hotlines have dropped significantly across the United States. Yet, during this same period, calls to domestic violence hotlines have increased. The purpose of this study was to examine if there have been measurable changes in domestic violence-related reports to child abuse and neglect hotlines. Using administrative child protection records from California, we plotted counts and proportions of child maltreatment reports with and without domestic violence allegations before and through the onset of school closures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. We used an interrupted time series analysis to evaluate whether or not there was a change in domestic violence allegations in child protection reports corresponding to the COVID-19 pandemic. We document that during the first two quarters of 2020 there was a 14.3% drop in the overall number of child protection reports. Despite a decline in maltreatment reporting overall, there was a 25% increase in the proportion of reports with allegations of domestic violence. Our findings suggest both the count and composition of reports to child protection agencies were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The current analyses also showcase the seasonality of CPS reports generally, and reports with DV allegations, specifically

Counts and child protection reports of diagnosed child maltreatment before and after the COVID-19 pandemic onset.

BACKGROUND: Mechanisms for reporting child maltreatment (CM) were affected by changes in service provision immediately following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVE: To examine changes in counts and CPS reporting of CM medical encounters before and after the onset of COVID-19. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: All emergency department and inpatient medical encounters with at least one CM diagnosis during the study period at Rady Childrens Hospital San Diego, the largest pediatric hospital in California between 2016 and November 2021. METHODS: Using linked medical record and CPS administrative data, interrupted time series models tested for changes in monthly counts and percentages of CM medical encounters reported to CPS with the onset of COVID-19. Logistic regression tested for the likelihood of a CPS report being associated with a CM encounter. RESULTS: CM medical encounters totaled 2528, including 793 after the onset of COVID-19. Interrupted time series models indicated with the onset of the pandemic, the counts of CM encounters increased 18 % (RR: 1.18, 95 % CI 1.03-1.34) and the percentages reported to CPS increased 10 % (RR: 1.10, 95 % CI: 1.05-1.17). CM encounters that occurred after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic had increased odds of a CPS report (fully adjusted model: OR: 1.08; 95 % CI: 1.05-1.12). CONCLUSIONS: This study found increases in monthly counts and a higher percentage of CM medical encounters with CPS reports after the pandemic onset

Child Protection System Interactions for Children With Positive Urine Screens for Illicit Drugs

Importance: Young children are ingesting illicit drugs at increased rates, but it is unknown what the associated child protection system (CPS) responses are when a child tests positive. Objective: To document the child protection system involvement and the characteristics of children who test positive for illicit substances. Design, Setting, and Participants: This retrospective cross-sectional study linked medical discharge and child protection system administrative data. The setting was Rady Children's Hospital San Diego, a free-standing pediatric hospital in California. Participants included all emergency department and inpatient medical encounters involving children aged 12 years or younger with a positive urine drug test between 2016 and 2021. Statistical analysis was performed from February 2023 to January 2024. Exposure: Drug type, including amphetamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, cannabis, cocaine, fentanyl, opiates, and phencyclidine. Main Measures and Outcomes: CPS responses associated with the medical encounter including reports, substantiations, case openings, and out-of-home placements. Results: A total of 511 emergency department and inpatient medical encounters involving children had a positive drug test (262 [51.3%] were female; 309 [60.5%] were age 6 years or younger; fewer than 10 [<3.0%] were American Indian or Alaska Native; 252 [49.3%] were Hispanic [any race], 20 [3.9%] were non-Hispanic Asian, 56 [11.0%] were non-Hispanic Black, 143 [28.0%] were non-Hispanic White, 36 [7.0%] had other or unknown race and ethnicity; 233 [43.6%] had a CPS report prior to the medical encounter). Following the positive screen, 244 (47.7%) were reported to child protection, and 61 (11.9%) were placed out-of-home within 30 days. Mean (SD) quarterly counts of encounters with positive drug tests doubled after the COVID-19 pandemic onset (32.9 [9.8]) compared with prior to the pandemic onset (16.5 [4.7]); for encounters positive for cannabis, mean (SD) quarterly counts were 3 times as high after the pandemic onset than prior (16.6 [4.7] vs 5.7 [2.9]). Encounters for children under age 1 were significantly more likely to have associated child protection reports (relative risk [RR], 2.91 [95% CI, 2.21-3.83]) and child protection case openings (RR, 1.71 [95% CI, 1.07-2.72]) than encounters involving older children. Conclusions and Relevance: In this cross-sectional study of emergency department and inpatient medical encounters, less than half of children with positive urine drug screens were reported to CPS; out-of-home placements were uncommon. With increased encounters for positive drug tests, it is unclear what services these children and families are receiving

Mechanisms of Hsp90 regulation

Heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) is a molecular chaperone that is involved in the activation of disparate client proteins. This implicates Hsp90 in diverse biological processes that require a variety of co-ordinated regulatory mechanisms to control its activity. Perhaps the most important regulator is heat shock factor 1 (HSF1), which is primarily responsible for upregulating Hsp90 by binding heat shock elements (HSEs) within Hsp90 promoters. HSF1 is itself subject to a variety of regulatory processes and can directly respond to stress. HSF1 also interacts with a variety of transcriptional factors that help integrate biological signals, which in turn regulate Hsp90 appropriately. Because of the diverse clientele of Hsp90 a whole variety of co-chaperones also regulate its activity and some are directly responsible for delivery of client protein. Consequently, co-chaperones themselves, like Hsp90, are also subject to regulatory mechanisms such as post translational modification. This review, looks at the many different levels by which Hsp90 activity is ultimately regulated

Innovative Abluftreinigung in der Tierhaltung: Machbarkeitsstudie zur Prüfung der Übertragbarkeit von Erkenntnissen der industriellen Abluftreinigung und innovativer Abluftreinigungsverfahren zur Minderung von Bioaerosol- und Geruchsemissionen aus der Geflügelhaltung

Die Studie wendet sich an Tierhalter, die Probleme mit der Reduzierung von Gerüchen und Bioaerosolen beim Betrieb ihrer Anlagen haben sowie an Genehmigungsbehörden und Hersteller von Abluftreinigungsanlagen. Am Beispiel der Geflügelhaltung wurde die Übertragbarkeit von Erkenntnissen der industriellen Abgasreinigung auf Anlagen der Landwirtschaft geprüft. Es wird aufgezeigt, ob und welche Möglichkeiten bestehen, um eine deutliche Minderung von Bioaerosol- und Geruchsemissionen zu erreichen