Cognitive aspects of childhood asthma

Research was undertaken to improve our knowledge about children’s awareness of respiratory sensations, beliefs about asthma of children with asthma and their parents, the nature and extent of childhood asthma sufferers’ psychological difficulties, and parents’ and children’s reasons for achieving good control of asthma. Recognition and accurate reporting of respiratory sensations have implications for asthma management. Illness beliefs explain differences in adaptation to chronic disease. Childhood asthma is situated within a family context. Asthma severity and the source of information may explain differences in reports of children’s psychological well-being. Low adherence with treatment recommendations has been reported, and chronic disease can influence quality of life. Participants were recruited from a hospital asthma database, primary care patient lists, and through state primary schools. The interviews involved physically healthy children, children with asthma, and the parents of children with asthma. Qualitative and quantitative methods involved the use of storyboards, semi- structured interviews, and questionnaires. The main arguments are that, (i) social interaction, in the context of childhood asthma, is a determinant of children’s sophisticated descriptions of respiratory sensations, (ii) children’s understanding of the different aspects of asthma is determined by their personal salience, and the necessity of acquiring strategies to resolve asthma-related difficulties, (iii) concordance in the beliefs of parents and their child about the child’s asthma is associated with less conflict about the child’s disease and disease-related situations, and the quality of family life mediates the relationship between belief concordance and the child’s psychological well-being, and (iv) participants’ reasons for achieving good control of asthma reflect the aspects of their lives that are most affected by asthma. It was concluded that the personal salience of different aspects of childhood asthma may encourage an awareness of symptoms, prompt discussion of internal states, foster concordance in beliefs, and motivate adherence with treatment recommendations

Resolution of Occlusive Carotid Artery Thrombus Treated with Anticoagulation as Demonstrated on Duplex Ultrasonography.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: While the majority of cerebral ischemic events due to carotid occlusive disease result from atherosclerotic plaque rupture, intraluminal carotid artery thrombus occasionally occurs in patients without preexisting carotid atherosclerosis. Identification of nonatherosclerotic thrombus as the cause of the carotid occlusive disease can obviate the need for an interventional procedure, and resolution of thrombus can be monitored with B-mode duplex ultrasonography. METHODS: We reviewed 3 patients treated on The Mount Sinai Hospital Stroke Unit with anticoagulation for nonatherosclerotic carotid thrombi and followed with serial Doppler ultrasonogrpahy for resolution of thrombus. RESULTS: Occlusive carotid thrombus was successfully treated in all 3 patients with systemic anticoagulation. B-mode duplex ultrasonography allowed for demonstration of resolving thrombus. CONCLUSION: Differentiation between a stenotic plaque and occlusive thrombus can be achieved by ultrasonographic analysis of thrombus morphology, attachment site potential, and characteristics of a resolving thrombus. Systemic anticoagulation can safely and effectively eliminate the risk for future embolization and complete occlusion of the carotid artery in patients who present with transient ischemic events or completed infarcts of small size

Construction and Characterization of a Frequency-Controlled, Picometer-Resolution, Displacement Encoder-Actuator

We have constructed an actuator/encoder whose generated displacement is controlled through the resonance frequency of a microwave cavity. A compact, 10-micrometer-range, digitally-controlled actuator executing frequency-coded displacement with picometer resolution is described. We consider this approach particularly suitable for metrologic-precision scanning probe microscopy.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Policy analysis for sustainable land management and food security in Ethiopia: a bioeconomic model with market imperfections

"Policy Analysis for Sustainable Land Management and Food Security in Ethiopia presents a bioeconomic model of this less- favored area in the Ethiopian highlands. The main reason for selecting this case study area is the unique availability of both biophysical and socioeconomic data covering a period of 15 to 20 years.The data provides a valuable opportunity to analyze the relationships between population pressure, poverty, and land degradation and to test policies for reducing vulnerability and improving sustainable management of the resource base.... Our analysis of the Andit Tid watershed community should be useful to policymakers and others seeking to reduce poverty and improve land management in Ethiopia and other countries where such problems are severe. Beyond this, the bioeconomic modeling approach used in this study can be usefully adapted and applied in many other settings." from TextBioeconomic modeling, Poverty alleviation,

Introduction to papers on astrostatistics

We are pleased to present a Special Section on Statistics and Astronomy in this issue of the The Annals of Applied Statistics. Astronomy is an observational rather than experimental science; as a result, astronomical data sets both small and large present particularly challenging problems to analysts who must make the best of whatever the sky offers their instruments. The resulting statistical problems have enormous diversity. In one problem, one may have to carefully quantify uncertainty in a hard-won, sparse data set; in another, the sheer volume of data may forbid a formally optimal analysis, requiring judicious balancing of model sophistication, approximations, and clever algorithms. Often the data bear a complex relationship to the underlying phenomenon producing them, much in the manner of inverse problems.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/09-AOAS234 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Market imperfections and land productivity in the Ethiopian Highlands:

This study analyzes how market imperfections affect land productivity in a degraded low-potential cereal- livestock economy in the Ethiopian highlands. A wide array of variables is used to control for land quality in the analysis. Results of three different selection models were compared with least squares models using the HC3 heteroskedasticity-consistent covariance matrix estimator. Market imperfections in labor and land markets were found to affect land productivity. Land productivity was positively correlated with household male and female labor force per unit of land. Female-headed households achieved much lower land productivity than male- headed households. Old age of household heads was also correlated with lower land productivity. Imperfections in the rental market for oxen appeared to cause overstocking of oxen by some households. Conservation technologies had no significant positive short-run effect on land productivity. The main results were consistent across the different econometric models. .Livestock productivity Ethiopia., Cereal crops., Labor productivity., Markets.,

Gesture Typing on Virtual Tabletop: Effect of Input Dimensions on Performance

The association of tabletop interaction with gesture typing presents interaction potential for situationally or physically impaired users. In this work, we use depth cameras to create touch surfaces on regular tabletops. We describe our prototype system and report on a supervised learning approach to fingertips touch classification. We follow with a gesture typing study that compares our system with a control tablet scenario and explore the influence of input size and aspect ratio of the virtual surface on the text input performance. We show that novice users perform with the same error rate at half the input rate with our system as compared to the control condition, that an input size between A5 and A4 present the best tradeoff between performance and user preference and that users' indirect tracking ability seems to be the overall performance limiting factor

The Effects of Exercise Intensity on Non-Exercise Physical Activity

Cardiometabolic diseases are some of the leading causes of death in the United States with African Americans being at greater risk of mortality from these diseases. Physical inactivity has been shown to be a risk factor for cardiometabolic diseases. Increased levels of non-exercise physical activity has been shown to influence cardiometabolic risk factors. PURPOSE: The purpose of the present study is to examine the effects of exercise intensity on non-exercise physical activity. As well as examine the effects of increased levels of non-exercise physical activity on cardiometabolic risk factors. METHODS: An all African American sample was recruited and randomized into three groups: control (n=15), moderate-intensity exercise (n=12), high-intensity exercise (n=12). The two exercise groups participated in 24 weeks of aerobic exercise with each group exercising at their assigned intensity. The moderate-intensity group exercised at a HR associated with 50% of their VO2max and the high-intensity group exercised at a HR associated with 75% of their VO2max. Non-exercise physical activity was assessed using a Fitbit Flex that was continuously wore by all participants except during exercise sessions. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine if there were between group differences in steps, light-intensity physical activity, and MVPA. To analyze change in steps, light-intensity physical activity, and MVPA and other cardiometabolic risk factors, a pearson's correlation was utilized RESULTS: There were no significant changes in non-exercise physical activity variables and cardiometabolic risk factors between groups but the change in VO2peak was significantly higher in the high-intensity group compared to the control group (p[less-than-orequal-to]0.05). For the moderate-intensity group, change in fat mass and change in time in vigorous-intensity (r=-0.61 p>.05) and MVPA (r=-0.58 p[less-than].05). For the high-intensity group, change in triglycerides and time in vigorous-intensity (r=0.61 p[less-than].05) and change in glucose and steps (r=0.58 p[less-than].05) and time in light-intensity (r=0.65 p[less-than]0.05) for high intensity. After splitting the data into tertiles based on change in steps, there was significant between group differences change in steps(p[less-than-or-equal-to]0.001), time in light-intensity(p[less-than-or-equal-to]0.001), time in moderate-intensity(p[less-than-or-equal-to]0.01), time in vigorous-intensity(p[less-than-or-equal-to]0.01), time in MVPA(p[less-than-or-equal-to]0.01). As well the between group change in weight (p=0.08) and BMI (p=0.083) approach significant. CONCLUSION: In the present study, no compensatory effect of starting a moderate- or high-intensity aerobic exercise was seen on non-exercise physical activity. Additionally, there were benefits to cardiometabolic risk factors with increased levels of non-exercise physical activity, specifically fat mass. Further examination of the effects of non-exercise physical activity on African Americans and other populations is warranted

Non-commutative Iwasawa theory for modular forms

The aim of the present paper is to give evidence, largely numerical, in support of the non-commutative main conjecture of Iwasawa theory for the motive of a primitive modular form of weight k>2 over the Galois extension of Q obtained by adjoining to Q all p-power roots of unity, and all p-power roots of a fixed integer m>1. The predictions of the main conjecture are rather intricate in this case because there is more than one critical point, and also there is no canonical choice of periods. Nevertheless, our numerical data agrees perfectly with all aspects of the main conjecture, including Kato's mysterious congruence between the cyclotomic Manin p-adic L-function, and the cyclotomic p-adic L-function of a twist of the motive by a certain non-abelian Artin character of the Galois group of this extension.Comment: 40 page