Children Served by MaineCare, 2007: Survey Findings

This report presents findings from a telephone survey of children currently enrolled in or recently disenrolled from MaineCare, the State‘s Medicaid and State Children‘s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The sample was randomly selected, and stratified to include children enrolled in MaineCare through the Medicaid eligibility category, and through two SCHIP eligibility categories, Medicaid Expansion and the Separate Child Health Program (CHP). 1 These three eligibility categories include children ages 18 or under living in households with income up to 200% of the Federal Poverty Level. Income eligibility limits are lowest for the Medicaid eligibility category, followed by the Medicaid Expansion and the Separate Child Health Program categories.2 Between May and September 2007 telephone interviews were completed with 1,531 parents of enrolled children and 259 parents of disenrolled children

Children served by MaineCare, 2012: Survey findings

The purpose of the annual Survey of Children Served by MaineCare is to monitor the quality of services delivered by MaineCare, the State\u27s Medicaid and CHIP program. The 2012 survey examines the experiences of families with children. ages 0-17, who are enrolled in MaineCare using a standardized survey instrument (Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems--CAHPS--4.0H Child Medicaid Health Plan Survey). MaineCare scores very favorably compared with national benchmarks on CAHPS measures of Getting Needed Care, Getting Care Quickly, and How Well the Child\u27s Doctors Community, with ratings at or above the 75th percentile on all the composites and individual items. Overall ratings of the child\u27s personal doctor, ratings of the child\u27s specialist, and ratings of all the child\u27s health care are also among the highest nationally. Areas for improvement included MaineCare customer service and care coordination. Continued administration of the CAHPS 4.0H Child Medicaid Health Plan Survey is recommended for 2013 and beyond to allow for ongoing monitoring of patient experience with and computation of trend results of the MaineCare program as well as ensuring that the MaineCare program complies with federal CHIPRA measure reporting requirements

Communications Biophysics

Contains research objectives and reports on eight research projects split into three sections.National Institutes of Health (Grant 2 PO1 NS13126)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 RO1 NS18682)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 RO1 NS20322)National Institutes of Health (Grant 1 RO1 NS 20269)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 T32 NS 07047)Symbion, Inc.National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 R01 NS10916)National Institutes of Health (Grant 1 RO NS 16917)National Science Foundation (Grant BNS83-19874)National Science Foundation (Grant BNS83-19887)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 RO1 NS12846)National Institutes of Health (Grant 1 RO1 NS21322-01)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 T32-NS07099-07)National Institutes of Health (Grant 1 RO1 NS14092-06)National Science Foundation (Grant BNS77-21751)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 RO1 NS11080

Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Long-lived asymmetrically retained proteins and approaches to identify modulators of lifespan and age-associated phenotypes of budding yeast

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-03The budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is an excellent model for studying aging because it is a highly tractable, unicellular eukaryote that experiences a short, finite, replicative lifespan (RLS). Despite these advantages, genome-wide and unbiased approaches for studying aging in yeast have been hindered by technical difficulties in observing cells of any significant age. Using the previously described Mother Enrichment Program (MEP), our lab has recently been able to identify several age- associated phenotypes. In this dissertation, I will present three projects in which I adapted the MEP to study the replicative aging process and age-associated phenotypes. In the first project, I will present the identification and characterization of a novel type of protein that we have termed Long-lived Asymmetrically Retained Proteins (LARPs). Some of the proteins identified likely contribute to the aging process. In the second project, I will present a lifespan assay that was designed to monitor the lifespan of aging yeast cells and require minimal experimentalist intervention during the aging process. The assay presented here should be amenable to high-throughput screening and allow unbiased screens for novel modulators of lifespan. In the third project, I will present an unbiased genome-wide screen for genetic suppressors of the age- associated loss of mitochondrial membrane potential. This screening strategy identified several effectors of this process and should be adaptable to study the genetic regulators of other age-associated processes