Using linked data to calculate summary measures of population health: Health-adjusted life expectancy of people with Diabetes Mellitus

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE) from diabetes mellitus (DM) using a population health survey linked to a population-based DM registry. METHODS: The 1996/97 Ontario Health Survey (N = 35,517) was linked to the Ontario Diabetes Database (N = 487,576). The Health Utilities Index (HUI3) was used to estimate health-related quality of life. HALE was estimated using an adapted Sullivan method. RESULTS: Life expectancy at birth of people with DM was 64.7 and 70.7 years for men and women – 12.8 and 12.2 years less than for men and women without DM. The HUI3 was lower for physician-diagnosed DM compared to self-reported DM (0.799 versus 0.872). HALE at birth was 58.3 and 62.8 years for men and women – 11.9 and 10.7 years less than that of men and women without DM. CONCLUSIONS: The linked data approach demonstrates that DM is an important cause of disease burden. This approach reduces assumptions when estimating the prevalence and severity of disability from DM compared to methods that rely on self-reported disease status or indirect assessment of disability severity

Using the Data Modeling Worksheet to Improve Novice Data Modeler Performance

This research reports on use and evaluation of the data modeling worksheet as a pedagogical tool for improving a student\u27s ability to learn the extended entity-relationship data modeling methodology. A laboratory experiment using a modified posttest only, control group design compared the performance of two student subject groups. One group used the data modeling worksheet as an integral component of their instruction on database design. A second control group did not use the worksheet, but that group received comparable training in every other respect. Subjects were tasked to develop a data model that represented a textual description of a data modeling problem. The data analysis used a one-way ANOVA to evaluate eight hypotheses, each representing a facet of the data modeling methodology. The results indicate that the data modeling worksheet significantly improved student learning with regard to their ability to identify entities, entity identifier attributes, and ternary relationships

Comprehensive EST analysis of Atlantic halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus), a commercially relevant aquaculture species

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>An essential first step in the genomic characterisation of a new species, in this case Atlantic halibut (<it>Hippoglossus hippoglossus</it>), is the generation of EST information. This forms the basis for subsequent microarray design, SNP detection and the placement of novel markers on genetic linkage maps.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Normalised directional cDNA libraries were constructed from five different larval stages (hatching, mouth-opening, midway to metamorphosis, premetamorphosis, and post-metamorphosis) and eight different adult tissues (testis, ovary, liver, head kidney, spleen, skin, gill, and intestine). Recombination efficiency of the libraries ranged from 91–98% and insert size averaged 1.4 kb. Approximately 1000 clones were sequenced from the 5'-end of each library and after trimming, 12675 good sequences were obtained. Redundancy within each library was very low and assembly of the entire EST collection into contigs resulted in 7738 unique sequences of which 6722 (87%) had matches in Genbank. Removal of ESTs and contigs that originated from bacteria or food organisms resulted in a total of 7710 unique halibut sequences.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A Unigene collection of 7710 functionally annotated ESTs has been assembled from Atlantic halibut. These have been incorporated into a publicly available, searchable database and form the basis for an oligonucleotide microarray that can be used as a tool to study gene expression in this economically important aquacultured fish.</p

Kepler Archive Manual

A description of Kepler, its design, performance and operational constraints may be found in the Kepler Instrument Handbook (KIH, Van Cleve Caldwell 2016). A description of Kepler calibration and data processing is described in the Kepler Data Processing Handbook (KDPH, Jenkins et al. 2016; Fanelli et al. 2011). Science users should also consult the special ApJ Letters devoted to early Kepler results and mission design (April 2010, ApJL, Vol. 713 L79-L207). Additional technical details regarding the data processing and data qualities can be found in the Kepler Data Characteristics Handbook (KDCH, Christiansen et al. 2013) and the Data Release Notes (DRN). This archive manual specifically documents the file formats, as they exist for the last data release of Kepler, Data Release 25(KSCI-19065-002). The earlier versions of the archive manual and data release notes act as documentation for the earlier versions of the data files

Tracking Talking: Dual Task Costs of Planning and Producing Speech for Young versus Older Adults

A digital pursuit rotor was used to monitor speech planning and production costs by time-locking tracking performance to the auditory wave form produced as young and older adults were describing someone they admire. The speech sample and time-locked tracking record were segmented at utterance boundaries and multilevel modeling was used to determine how utterance-level predictors such as utterance duration or sentence grammatical complexity and person-level predictors such as speaker age or working memory capacity predicted tracking performance. Three models evaluated the costs of speech planning, the costs of speech production, and the costs of speech output monitoring. The results suggest that planning and producing propositionally dense utterances is more costly for older adults and that older adults experience increased costs as a result of having produced a long, informative, or rapid utterance

Early Holocene Occupation at the West Lost River Site, Klamath County, Oregon

Excavations at the West Lost River Site (35KL972) provide new insights on early Holocene occupation of southwestern Oregon. The article focuses on the artifacts and specimens recovered from the site

Innovation in patient-centered care: lessons from a qualitative study of innovative health care organizations in Washington State

Background Growing interest in the promise of patient-centered care has led to numerous health care innovations, including the patient-centered medical home, shared decision-making, and payment reforms. How best to vet and adopt innovations is an open question. Washington State has been a leader in health care reform and is a rich laboratory for patient-centered innovations. We sought to understand the process of patient-centered care innovation undertaken by innovative health care organizations – from strategic planning to goal selection to implementation to maintenance. Methods We conducted key-informant interviews with executives at five health plans, five provider organizations, and ten primary care clinics in Washington State. At least two readers of each interview transcript identified themes inductively; final themes were determined by consensus. Results Innovation in patient-centered care was a strategic objective chosen by nearly every organization in this study. However, other goals were paramount: cost containment, quality improvement, and organization survival. Organizations commonly perceived effective chronic disease management and integrated health information technology as key elements for successful patient-centered care innovation. Inertia, resource deficits, fee-for-service payment, and regulatory limits on scope of practice were cited as barriers to innovation, while organization leadership, human capital, and adaptive culture facilitated innovation. Conclusions Patient-centered care innovations reflected organizational perspectives: health plans emphasized cost-effectiveness while providers emphasized health care delivery processes. Health plans and providers shared many objectives, yet the two rarely collaborated to achieve them. The process of innovation is heavily dependent on organizational culture and leadership. Policymakers can improve the pace and quality of patient-centered innovation by setting targets and addressing conditions for innovation

Leadership with Grace

A remarkable lady of incredible talent and vision, Dr. Grace Edmondson Harris had a unique experience with Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). A native of rural Halifax County in southern Virginia, she was denied admission to graduate study at VCU (then Richmond Professional Institute), a large public university in Richmond, Virginia. Ironically, later in 1967, Dr. Harris became the first African American female faculty member in the School of Social Work at VCU and ascended the ranks to become Dean of the School of Social Work, Provost, and Acting President prior to her retirement in 1999. Although Dr. Harris has strong ties to the African American community, to situate her contributions to VCU solely in terms of a segregation to integration narrative misses the mark. It fails to capture her success in leading the School of Social Work and her clear vision in her capacity as provost and in developing VCU\u27s First Strategic Plan. She continues to share her leadership talents through the Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute, which was established at VCU in her honor upon her retirement. Most recently, in 2008, an academic building on VCU\u27s campus was named Grace E. Harris Hall. Through a series of interviews with Dr. Harris, as well with as current and former administrators and faculty at VCU, we offer a description and analysis of Dr. Harris\u27 leadership style spanning her 40 year tenure at Virginia Commonwealth University. It is a style that we (and others) find to be uniquely effective, people centered, and decisive

Hacia una interpretación mecanística de la migración de aves en américa del sur

Research to date has demonstrated that bird migration is comprised of highly diverse and plastic behavioural patterns. Our objective is to highlight the importance of studying mechanisms underlying these patterns in austral migrants. We focus on the high incidence of overlap in breeding and non-breeding ranges as a particularly thought-provoking pattern. We then explore the opportunities afforded by partial migration theory to elucidate the mechanisms underlying seasonal range overlap. We propose that a mechanistic understanding of migration in South America will both provide a deeper appreciation of the ecology, physiology and evolution of migratory species in the New World, and improve the scientific foundation for their conservation.La investigación reciente sobre aves migratorias ha demostrado que constituyen un grupo que presenta comportamientos altamente diversos, plásticos y complejos. Nuestro objetivo general es resaltar la importancia de estudiar los mecanismos que generan los patrones que caracterizan la migración de aves en América del Sur. Para ello nos enfocamos en un patrón interesante (la alta incidencia de superposición en la distribución reproductiva y de invernada), analizando las oportunidades ofrecidas por la teoría de migración parcial para dilucidar los mecanismos que producen tal superposición. Proponemos que una comprensión mecanística de la migración de aves en América del Sur no solo proveería una apreciación más profunda sobre la ecología, la fisiología y la evolución de las especies migratorias del Nuevo Mundo, sino que también mejoraría los fundamentos científicos para su conservación

Dual Task Costs of Oral Reading for Young versus Older Adults

A digital pursuit rotor was used to monitor oral reading costs by time-locking tracking performance to the auditory wave form produced as young and older adults were reading out short paragraphs. Multilevel modeling was used to determine how paragraph-level predictors of length, grammatical complexity, and readability and person-level predictors such as speaker age or working memory capacity predicted reading and tracking performance. In addition, sentence-by-sentence variation in tracking performance was examined during the production of individual sentences and during the pauses before upcoming sentences. The results suggest that dual tasking has a greater impact on older adults’ reading comprehension and tracking performance. At the level of individual sentences, young and older adults adopt different strategies to deal with grammatically complex and propositionally dense sentences