2008 Farm Bill Decision Tools

This article describes a tool developed by Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service to aid in the decision to enroll in a new commodity program contained in the 2008 Farm Bill. Producers have the option to enroll in the Direct Counter-Cyclical Payment (DCP) program or the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program. The choice between ACRE and DCP is an important decision for farm profitability. The ACRE program is complex, and the calculation of potential ACRE payments can be quite daunting. The ACRE decision tool was developed to perform the calculations necessary to estimate potential ACRE payments for the 2009-2012 crop years

2008 Farm Bill Decision Tools

This article describes a tool developed by Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service to aid in the decision to enroll in a new commodity program contained in the 2008 Farm Bill. Producers have the option to enroll in the Direct Counter-Cyclical Payment (DCP) program or the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program. The choice between ACRE and DCP is an important decision for farm profitability. The ACRE program is complex, and the calculation of potential ACRE payments can be quite daunting. The ACRE decision tool was developed to perform the calculations necessary to estimate potential ACRE payments for the 2009-2012 crop years

Quality improvement program decreases mortality after cardiac surgery

ObjectiveThis study investigated the effects of a quality improvement program and goal-oriented, multidisciplinary protocols on mortality after cardiac surgery.MethodsPatients were divided into two groups: those undergoing surgery (coronary artery bypass grafting, isolated valve surgery, or coronary artery bypass grafting and valve surgery) after establishment of the multidisciplinary quality improvement program (January 2005–December 2006, n = 922) and those undergoing surgery before institution of the program (January 2002–December 2003, n = 1289). Logistic regression and propensity score analysis were used to adjust for imbalances in patients' preoperative characteristics.ResultsOperative mortality was lower in the quality improvement group (2.6% vs 5.0%, P < .01). Unadjusted odds ratio was 0.5 (95% confidence interval 0.3–0.8, P < .01); propensity score–adjusted odds ratio was 0.6 (95% confidence interval 0.4–0.99, P = .04). In multivariable analysis, diabetes (P < .01), chronic renal insufficiency (P = .05), previous cardiovascular operation (P = .04), congestive heart failure (P < .01), unstable angina (P < .01), age older than 75 years (P < .01), prolonged pump time (P < .01), and prolonged operation (P = .05) emerged as independent predictors of higher mortality after cardiac surgery, whereas quality improvement program (P < .01) and male sex (P = .03) were associated with lower mortality. Mortality decline was less pronounced in patients with than without diabetes (P = .04).ConclusionApplication of goal-directed, multidisciplinary protocols and a quality improvement program were associated with lower mortality after cardiac surgery. This decline was less prominent in patients with diabetes, and focused quality improvement protocols may be required for this subset of patients

Working in the Public Interest Law Conference

Entirely student organized, WIPI seeks to bring together eminent practitioners in their respective fields, students, and faculty to discuss practical approaches to lawyering which can best serve the poor. Practical methods of challenging poverty are often not covered in traditional law school courses. This conference seeks to remedy that and provide dynamic, creative ways to combat poverty through the vehicle of the law

Large-Scale Pathway-Based Analysis of Bladder Cancer Genome-Wide Association Data from Five Studies of European Background

Pathway analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) offer a unique opportunity to collectively evaluate genetic variants with effects that are too small to be detected individually. We applied a pathway analysis to a bladder cancer GWAS containing data from 3,532 cases and 5,120 controls of European background (n = 5 studies). Thirteen hundred and ninety-nine pathways were drawn from five publicly available resources (Biocarta, Kegg, NCI-PID, HumanCyc, and Reactome), and we constructed 22 additional candidate pathways previously hypothesized to be related to bladder cancer. In total, 1421 pathways, 5647 genes and ∼90,000 SNPs were included in our study. Logistic regression model adjusting for age, sex, study, DNA source, and smoking status was used to assess the marginal trend effect of SNPs on bladder cancer risk. Two complementary pathway-based methods (gene-set enrichment analysis [GSEA], and adapted rank-truncated product [ARTP]) were used to assess the enrichment of association signals within each pathway. Eighteen pathways were detected by either GSEA or ARTP at P≤0.01. To minimize false positives, we used the I2 statistic to identify SNPs displaying heterogeneous effects across the five studies. After removing these SNPs, seven pathways (‘Aromatic amine metabolism’ [PGSEA = 0.0100, PARTP = 0.0020], ‘NAD biosynthesis’ [PGSEA = 0.0018, PARTP = 0.0086], ‘NAD salvage’ [PARTP = 0.0068], ‘Clathrin derived vesicle budding’ [PARTP = 0.0018], ‘Lysosome vesicle biogenesis’ [PGSEA = 0.0023, PARTP<0.00012], ’Retrograde neurotrophin signaling’ [PGSEA = 0.00840], and ‘Mitotic metaphase/anaphase transition’ [PGSEA = 0.0040]) remained. These pathways seem to belong to three fundamental cellular processes (metabolic detoxification, mitosis, and clathrin-mediated vesicles). Identification of the aromatic amine metabolism pathway provides support for the ability of this approach to identify pathways with established relevance to bladder carcinogenesis

The Science Performance of JWST as Characterized in Commissioning

This paper characterizes the actual science performance of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as determined from the six month commissioning period. We summarize the performance of the spacecraft, telescope, science instruments, and ground system, with an emphasis on differences from pre-launch expectations. Commissioning has made clear that JWST is fully capable of achieving the discoveries for which it was built. Moreover, almost across the board, the science performance of JWST is better than expected; in most cases, JWST will go deeper faster than expected. The telescope and instrument suite have demonstrated the sensitivity, stability, image quality, and spectral range that are necessary to transform our understanding of the cosmos through observations spanning from near-earth asteroids to the most distant galaxies.Comment: 5th version as accepted to PASP; 31 pages, 18 figures; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/acb29