A 10-year Study of Factors Associated with Alcohol Treatment Use and Non-use in a U.S. Population Sample

Background This study seeks to identify changes in perceived barriers to alcohol treatment and predictors of treatment use between 1991–92 and 2001–02, to potentially help understand reported reductions in treatment use at this time. Social, economic, and health trends during these 10 years provide a context for the study. Methods Subjects were Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics. The data were from the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey (NLAES) and the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC). We conducted two analyses that compared the surveys on: 1) perceived treatment barriers for subjects who thought they should get help for their drinking, and 2) variables predicting past-year treatment use in an alcohol use disorder subsample using a multi-group multivariate regression model. Results In the first analysis, those barriers that reflected negative beliefs and fears about seeking treatment as well as perceptions about the lack of need for treatment were more prevalent in 2001–02. The second analysis showed that survey year moderated the relationship between public insurance coverage and treatment use. This relationship was not statistically significant in 1991–92 but was significant and positive in 2001–02, although the effect of this change on treatment use was small. Conclusions Use of alcohol treatment in the U.S. may be affected by a number of factors, such as trends in public knowledge about treatment, social pressures to reduce drinking, and changes in the public financing of treatment

Fitting isochrones to open cluster photometric data III. Estimating metallicities from UBV photometry

The metallicity is a critical parameter that affects the correct determination fundamental characteristics stellar cluster and has important implications in Galactic and Stellar evolution research. Fewer than 10 % of the 2174 currently catalog open clusters have their metallicity determined in the literature. In this work we present a method for estimating the metallicity of open clusters via non-subjective isochrone fitting using the cross-entropy global optimization algorithm applied to UBV photometric data. The free parameters distance, reddening, age, and metallicity simultaneously determined by the fitting method. The fitting procedure uses weights for the observational data based on the estimation of membership likelihood for each star, which considers the observational magnitude limit, the density profile of stars as a function of radius from the center of the cluster, and the density of stars in multi-dimensional magnitude space. We present results of [Fe/H] for nine well-studied open clusters based on 15 distinct UBV data sets. The [Fe/H] values obtained in the ten cases for which spectroscopic determinations were available in the literature agree, indicating that our method provides a good alternative to determining [Fe/H] by using an objective isochrone fitting. Our results show that the typical precision is about 0.1 dex

Characterizing Attention Cascades in WhatsApp Groups

An important political and social phenomena discussed in several countries, like India and Brazil, is the use of WhatsApp to spread false or misleading content. However, little is known about the information dissemination process in WhatsApp groups. Attention affects the dissemination of information in WhatsApp groups, determining what topics or subjects are more attractive to participants of a group. In this paper, we characterize and analyze how attention propagates among the participants of a WhatsApp group. An attention cascade begins when a user asserts a topic in a message to the group, which could include written text, photos, or links to articles online. Others then propagate the information by responding to it. We analyzed attention cascades in more than 1.7 million messages posted in 120 groups over one year. Our analysis focused on the structural and temporal evolution of attention cascades as well as on the behavior of users that participate in them. We found specific characteristics in cascades associated with groups that discuss political subjects and false information. For instance, we observe that cascades with false information tend to be deeper, reach more users, and last longer in political groups than in non-political groups.Comment: Accepted as a full paper at the 11th International ACM Web Science Conference (WebSci 2019). Please cite the WebSci versio

Combining type I and type II seesaw mechanisms in the minimal 3-3-1 model

The minimal 3-3-1 model is perturbative until energies around 4-5TeV, posing a challenge to generate neutrino masses at eV scale, mainly if one aims to take advantage of the seesaw mechanism. As a means to circumvent this problem we propose a modification of the model such that it accommodates the type I and type II seesaw mechanisms altogether. We show that the conjunction of both mechanisms yield a neutrino mass expression suppressed by a high power of the cutoff scale, $M^5$, in its denominator. With such a suppression term we naturally obtain neutrino masses at eV scale when $M$ is around few TeV. We also investigate the size of lepton flavor violation through the process $\mu \rightarrow e\gamma$.Comment: about 15 pages, no figure

EurOcean 2014. Connecting Science, Policy and People. Conference report and Rome Declaration 7-9 October 2014, Rome, Italy

This publication presents the Conference Report from EurOCEAN 2014 – a major European marine science policy conference which took place on 7-9 October 2014 in Rome, Italy. The report provides the key messages from the Conference including the Rome Declaration, a consensus view of some 340 participants spanning science, policy and industry. The Declaration sets a vision for seas and ocean science to achieve an ecosystem approach to the management of Europe’s marine resources as a fundamental requirement for sustainable Blue Growth whilst driving European leadership in marine science and technology. EurOCEAN 2014 was an official event of the Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, co-organized by the European Marine Board (EMB), the European Commission (Directorate-General for Research and Innovation), the Italian National Research Council (CNR), National Inter-university Consortium for Ocean Science (CoNISMa), and the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (OGS

Cutaneous manifestations of antiphospholipid syndrome: a review of the clinical features, diagnosis and management

Antiphospholipid syndrome is a relatively recent systemic autoimmune disorder defined by thrombotic events and/or obstetric complications in the presence of persistent elevated antiphospholipid antibodies. It is characterized by a wide spectrum of clinical presentations and virtually any organ system or tissue may be affected by the consequences of vascular occlusion. Diagnosis is sometimes difficult and although classification criteria have been published and revised there remain ongoing issues regarding nomenclature, expanding clinical features, laboratory tests and management and much still has to be done. Cutaneous manifestations are common and frequently the first sign of the disease. Although extremely diverse it’s important to know which dermatological findings should prompt consideration of antiphospholipid syndrome and the appropriate management for those patients. Much has been debated about when to consider antiphospholipid syndrome and consensus still does not exist, however in spite of being a diagnostic challenge clinicians should know when to look for antiphospholipid antibodies since an early diagnosis is important to prevent further and serious complications. In this article we focus on the cutaneous features that should raise suspicion on the presence of antiphospholipid syndrome and on the complex management of such patients. Many other dermatological signs related to this syndrome have been described in the literature but only occasionally and without consistency or statistic impact and therefore will not be considered hereO síndrome antifosfolipidico é uma patologia auto-imune relativamente recente definida por eventos trombóticos e/ou complicações obstétricas na presença de anticorpos antifosfolípido elevados persistentes. Caracteriza-se por um vasto leque de apresentações clínicas e virtualmente qualquer sistema orgânico ou tecido pode ser afectado por oclusão vascular. O diagnóstico é por vezes difícil e, apesar de critérios de classificação terem sido publicados e revistos, muitas dúvidas persistem relativamente à nomenclatura, características clínicas, testes laboratoriais e abordagem destes doentes. As manifestações cutâneas são comuns e, frequentemente, o primeiro sinal da doença. Apesar da grande variabilidade, é importante reconhecer os achados dermatológicos que devem levantar a suspeita de um síndrome antifosfolipidico, assim como a abordagem adequada destes doentes. Muito tem sido debatido sobre quando considerar o diagnóstico desta entidade, não havendo ainda consenso neste assunto; no entanto, apesar de ser um desafio diagnóstico, é importante saber quando investigar a presença de anticorpos antifosfolípidos, uma vez que um diagnóstico precoce é crucial para prevenir complicações futuras graves. No presente artigo os autores descrevem as manifestações dermatológicas que devem fazer considerar o diagnóstico com enfoque na abordagem complexa destes doentes. Têm sido descritas na literatura muitas outras alterações cutâneas relacionadas com esta entidade, no entanto, apenas de forma ocasional e sem consistência ou impacto estatístico, pelo que não serão consideradas

Ashy Dermatosis - Treatment with Clofazimine

A Ashy dermatosis, ou erythema dyscromicum perstans, é uma dermatose rara de etiologia desconhecida. Os autores descrevem o caso de um homem de 46 anos saudável, com história de lesões cutâneas cinzentas assintomáticas no tronco com 1 ano de evolução. A constelação dos achados clínicos, histológicos e laboratoriais permitiu efectuar o diagnóstico de Ashy dermatosis. O doente iniciou tratamento com clofazimina oral, verificando-se resolução completa do quadro clínico e mantendo-se sem lesões cutâneas ao fim de 6 meses de vigilância. Estão descritas inúmeras opções terapêuticas para a Ashy dermatosis, no entanto nenhuma eficaz de forma consistente. O tratamento com clofazimina tem sido defendido devido ao seu efeito cosmético e a uma possível acção anti-inflamatória e imunomoduladora. Este caso documenta a eficácia terapêutica da clofazimina num doente com Ashy dermatosi

Dermatofibroma múltiplo agrupado congênito e dermatofibromas múltiplos eruptivos - apresentações singulares de uma entidade comum

Dermatofibroma is one of the most common entities seen in dermatology clinical practice. Several clinical subtypes have nevertheless been described, all of them of uncommon occurrence. The authors present two rare clinical variants of dermatofibromas: congenital multiple clustered dermatofibroma (the presented case is the 4th congenital case to be reported so far) and multiple eruptive dermatofibromas developing in the setting of a Sjögren's syndrome. Since the uncommon subtypes may not be clinically evident, dermatologists should familiarize themselves with their main features and we advise a high level of clinical suspicion in order to reach the correct diagnosis

Dynamics of Dengue epidemics using optimal control

We present an application of optimal control theory to Dengue epidemics. This epidemiologic disease is an important theme in tropical countries due to the growing number of infected individuals. The dynamic model is described by a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations, that depend on the dynamic of the Dengue mosquito, the number of infected individuals, and the people's motivation to combat the mosquito. The cost functional depends not only on the costs of medical treatment of the infected people but also on the costs related to educational and sanitary campaigns. Two approaches to solve the problem are considered: one using optimal control theory, another one by discretizing first the problem and then solving it with nonlinear programming. The results obtained with OC-ODE and IPOPT solvers are given and discussed. We observe that with current computational tools it is easy to obtain, in an efficient way, better solutions to Dengue problems, leading to a decrease of infected mosquitoes and individuals in less time and with lower costs.Comment: Submitted to Mathematical and Computer Modelling 25/Oct/2009; accepted for publication, after revision, 22/June/201