American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting Report

The American Library Association Midwinter Meeting was held in San Antonio, Texas, January 20–25, 2006. The following are highlights from the meeting. We have a range of coverage and reviewers. Christopher Cox gives us an update on groups discussing digital media such as HD-DVD and Blu-ray, electronic reference books, and RFID issues. Hui Hua Chua writes about a discussion on federated searching. M. Claire Stewart reports on the inaugural meeting of the ALCTS Preservation and Reformatting Section’s Digital Preservation Discussion Group and a whirlwind meeting on standards, which included the discussion of five standards and the overall National Information Standards Organization (NISO) structure. We conclude with a review of the day-long program on OCLC Digitization Standards sponsored by OCLC Digital Collection Services & Preservation Service Center by S.G. Ranti Junus

Morphomics predicts response to ipilimumab in patients with stage IV melanoma

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113727/1/jso24003.pd

Healthcare and Financial Decision Making and Incident Adverse Cognitive Outcomes among Older Adults

OBJECTIVES To determine if poorer healthcare and financial decision making forecasts adverse cognitive outcomes in old age. Specifically, we hypothesized that poorer decision making would be associated with an increased risk of incident Alzheimer's dementia, an increased risk of incident mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and a more rapid decline in cognition. DESIGN An ongoing prospective observational cohort study of aging (the Rush Memory and Aging Project). SETTING The greater Chicago area. PARTICIPANTS A total of 952 community‐based older adults without dementia at baseline. MEASUREMENTS Participants completed a measure of healthcare and financial decision making at baseline and underwent annual standardized evaluations to track clinical status and cognitive functions (global cognition, episodic memory, semantic memory, working memory, perceptual speed, and visuospatial ability). RESULTS During up to 9 years of follow‐up (M  = 5.2 y; standard deviation = 2.7), 156 participants developed Alzheimer's dementia (16.4% of 952), 253 participants developed MCI (33.2% of 760), and each cognitive measure declined (all P s < .001). In Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for age, sex, and education, poorer decision making was associated with an increased risk of incident Alzheimer's dementia (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.17; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.10‐1.24; P  < .001) and incident MCI (HR = 1.16; 95% CI = 1.10‐1.22; P  < .001). Further, in linear mixed‐effects models, poorer decision making among those who were initially free of cognitive impairment was associated with a more rapid decline in global cognition and four of five specific cognitive domains (all P s < .05). CONCLUSION Our results suggest that poorer healthcare and financial decision making heralds adverse cognitive outcomes in old age

Non-global Structure of the O({\alpha}_s^2) Dijet Soft Function

High energy scattering processes involving jets generically involve matrix elements of light- like Wilson lines, known as soft functions. These describe the structure of soft contributions to observables and encode color and kinematic correlations between jets. We compute the dijet soft function to O({\alpha}_s^2) as a function of the two jet invariant masses, focusing on terms not determined by its renormalization group evolution that have a non-separable dependence on these masses. Our results include non-global single and double logarithms, and analytic results for the full set of non-logarithmic contributions as well. Using a recent result for the thrust constant, we present the complete O({\alpha}_s^2) soft function for dijet production in both position and momentum space.Comment: 55 pages, 8 figures. v2: extended discussion of double logs in the hard regime. v3: minor typos corrected, version published in JHEP. v4: typos in Eq. (3.33), (3.39), (3.43) corrected; this does not affect the main result, numerical results, or conclusion

Patient preferences and willingness-to-pay for a home or clinic based program of chronic heart failure management: findings from the which? trial

BACKGROUND Beyond examining their overall cost-effectiveness and mechanisms of effect, it is important to understand patient preferences for the delivery of different modes of chronic heart failure management programs (CHF-MPs). We elicited patient preferences around the characteristics and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a clinic or home-based CHF-MP. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS A Discrete Choice Experiment was completed by a sub-set of patients (n = 91) enrolled in the WHICH? trial comparing home versus clinic-based CHF-MP. Participants provided 5 choices between hypothetical clinic and home-based programs varying by frequency of nurse consultations, nurse continuity, patient costs, and availability of telephone or education support. Participants (aged 71±13 yrs, 72.5% male, 25.3% NYHA class III/IV) displayed two distinct preference classes. A latent class model of the choice data indicated 56% of participants preferred clinic delivery, access to group CHF education classes, and lower cost programs (p<0.05). The remainder preferred home-based CHF-MPs, monthly rather than weekly visits, and access to a phone advice service (p<0.05). Continuity of nurse contact was consistently important. No significant association was observed between program preference and participant allocation in the parent trial. WTP was estimated from the model and a dichotomous bidding technique. For those preferring clinic, estimated WTP was ≈AU$9-20 per visit; however for those preferring home-based programs, WTP varied widely (AU$15-105). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE Patient preferences for CHF-MPs were dichotomised between a home-based model which is more likely to suit older patients, those who live alone, and those with a lower household income; and a clinic-based model which is more likely to suit those who are more socially active and wealthier. To optimise the delivery of CHF-MPs, health care services should consider their patients’ preferences when designing CHF-MPs.Jennifer A. Whitty, Simon Stewart, Melinda J. Carrington, Alicia Calderone, Thomas Marwick, John D. Horowitz, Henry Krum, Patricia M. Davidson, Peter S. Macdonald, Christopher Reid, Paul A. Scuffha

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

Evaluation of acoustic telemetry grids for determining aquatic animal movement and survival

1. Acoustic telemetry studies have frequently prioritized linear configurations of hydrophone receivers, such as perpendicular from shorelines or across rivers, to detect the presence of tagged aquatic animals. This approach introduces unknown bias when receivers are stationed for convenience at geographic bottlenecks (e.g. at the mouth of an embayment or between islands) as opposed to deployments following a statistical sampling design. 2. We evaluated two-dimensional acoustic receiver arrays (grids: receivers spread uniformly across space) as an alternative approach to provide estimates of survival, movement and habitat use. Performance of variably spaced receiver grids (5–25 km spacing) was evaluated by simulating (1) animal tracks as correlated random walks (speed: 0.1–0.9 m/s; turning angle SD: 5–30°); (2) variable tag transmission intervals along each track (nominal delay: 15–300 s); and (3) probability of detection of each transmission based on logistic detection range curves (midpoint: 200–1,500 m). From simulations, we quantified (i) time between successive detections on any receiver (detection time), (ii) time between successive detections on different receivers (transit time), and (iii) distance between successive detections on different receivers (transit distance). 3. In the most restrictive detection range scenario (200 m), the 95th percentile of transit time was 3.2 days at 5 km, 5.7 days at 7 km and 15.2 days at 25 km grid spacing; for the 1,500 m detection range scenario, it was 0.1 days at 5 km, 0.5 days at 7 km and 10.8 days at 25 km. These values represented upper bounds on the expected maximum time that an animal could go undetected. Comparison of the simulations with pilot studies on three fishes (walleye Sander vitreus, common carp Cyprinus carpio and channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus) from two independent large lake ecosystems (lakes Erie and Winnipeg) revealed shorter detection and transit times than what simulations predicted. 4. By spreading effort uniformly across space, grids can improve understanding of fish migration over the commonly employed receiver line approach, but at increased time cost for maintaining grids