The Emerging Crisis of Aged Homelessness

This report summarizes a multi-site study in three localities - Boston, New York City, and Los Angeles County - of the anticipated future of the aged homeless population, its likely impacts on health and shelter systems and resulting costs, and the potential for housing solutions. Specifically, this report summarizes the following analyses:Forecasts of the size of the aged homeless population to 2030Projected costs associated with the use of shelter, health care, and long-term care by this aged homeless populationSegmentation of the forecasted aged population based on the intensity of health and shelter use by various subgroupsPotential service cost reductions associated with housing interventions based on scenarios from prior literatureThe net cost of the proposed housing interventions based on the potential for shelter, health, and nursing home cost offsetsThe report concludes with some considerations regarding how to pay for potential housing solutions, given the complexity of the various funding streams. Absent new housing solutions, substantial public resources will otherwise be spent unnecessarily on excess shelter, health, and long-term care use.Click "Download" to access this resource

Descriptive Epidemiology of Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Injuries: National Collegiate Athletic Association Injury Surveillance System, 2000–2001 Through 2003–2004

Objective: To review 4 years of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) injury surveillance data for women’s ice hockey and to identify potential areas for injury prevention initiatives. Background: The NCAA ISS prospectively collects data on injuries sustained during collegiate participation. Women’s NCAA ice hockey began participation in the ISS during the 2000–2001 season. On average, over the 4 years, 15.6% of the eligible schools elected to send their injury data. Main Results: Over the 4 years of study, the rate of injury in games was more than 5 times higher than the injury rate in practices (12.6 versus 2.5 injuries per 1000 athlete-exposures, rate ratio = 5.0, 95% confidence interval = 4.2, 6.1, P < .01). Preseason practice injury rates were almost twice as high as in-season practice rates (4.2 versus 2.3 injuries per 1000 athlete- exposures, rate ratio = 1.8, 95% confidence interval = 1.7, 2.0, P < .01). Concussions were the most common injury in both games (21.6%) and practices (13.2%). The rate of concussions in games appeared to be trending upward over the study period. The greatest number of game injuries (approximately 50%) resulted from player contact, whereas practice injuries were from either contact with another object or noncontact mechanisms. Recommendations: Women’s ice hockey is an evolving NCAA sport. Only 4 years of ISS data are available and, therefore, data should be interpreted with caution. Women’s ice hockey does not allow for formal body checking; however, approximately 50% of all game injuries were reported to result from contact with another player. Future researchers need to evaluate the effectiveness of the no-checking rule. Additional years of data collection will be required to allow the data to become more stable, and to increase attention to mechanism of- injury issues. We anticipate that the hypothesized inconsistencies in skill level across and within the various women’s teams also will be reduced as more consistently skilled players develop, allowing for more stability in the injury scenario

Analysis of sounding data from Porto Santo island during ASTEX

November 7, 1992.Includes bibliographical references.We present an analysis of the ASTEX radiosonde data obtained on Porto Santo Island during 1-28 June 1992. The data consists of 203 soundings and is available in two forms-Level I and Level II. The Level I data is the raw data produced by the real time software of the AIR radiosonde system. This data is at irregular pressure and height levels. Level II data consists of processed thermodynamic and wind data at a uniform vertical resolution of 10m, which essentially retains the highest possible vertical resolution in the original raw data. Plots of temperature and dew point temperature are presented for each of the 203 soundings taken during ASTEX. Plots of the 28 day means and of the diurnal variations are also presented. Accessibility of this data via anonymous ftp is also discussed

Phenomenology of the Top Mass in Realistic Extended Technicolor Models

Extended technicolor (ETC) theories typically require ETC gauge bosons lighter than of order 1 TeV, to perturbatively generate the $t$ quark mass. We point out that explicit models of $t-b$ mass splitting also typically contain additional TeV scale ETC gauge bosons transforming in the {\it adjoint} of technicolor, leading to large weak-isospin-breaking effects observable in the $\rho$ parameter. Viable ETC models may thus require a lowest ETC scale of order 10 TeV, with relatively strong and finely tuned couplings to generate $m_t$. Such models do not generate observable corrections to the $Zb{\bar b}$ vertex.Comment: LaTex, 12 pages, including 2 EPS figures in 5 file

Lack of Effect of Induction of Hypothermia after Acute Brain Injury

Background Induction of hypothermia in patients with brain injury was shown to improve outcomes in small clinical studies, but the results were not definitive. To study this issue, we conducted a multicenter trial comparing the effects of hypothermia with those of normothermia in patients with acute brain injury. Methods The study subjects were 392 patients 16 to 65 years of age with coma after sustaining closed head injuries who were randomly assigned to be treated with hypothermia (body temperature, 33°C), which was initiated within 6 hours after injury and maintained for 48 hours by means of surface cooling, or normothermia. All patients otherwise received standard treatment. The primary outcome measure was functional status six months after the injury. Results The mean age of the patients and the type and severity of injury in the two treatment groups were similar. The mean (±SD) time from injury to randomization was 4.3±1.1 hours in the hypothermia group and 4.1±1.2 hours in the normothermia group, and the mean time from injury to the achievement of the target temperature of 33°C in the hypothermia group was 8.4±3.0 hours. The outcome was poor (defined as severe disability, a vegetative state, or death) in 57 percent of the patients in both groups. Mortality was 28 percent in the hypothermia group and 27 percent in the normothermia group (P=0.79). The patients in the hypothermia group had more hospital days with complications than the patients in the normothermia group. Fewer patients in the hypothermia group had high intracranial pressure than in the normothermia group. Conclusions Treatment with hypothermia, with the body temperature reaching 33°C within eight hours after injury, is not effective in improving outcomes in patients with severe brain injury. (N Engl J Med 2001; 344:556-63.

Gemini/GMOS Imaging of Globular Cluster Systems in Five Early-type Galaxies

This paper presents deep high quality photometry of globular cluster (GC) systems belonging to five early-type galaxies covering a range of mass and environment. Photometric data were obtained with the Gemini North and Gemini South telescopes in the filter passbands g', r', and i'. The combination of these filters with good seeing conditions allows an excellent separation between GC candidates and unresolved field objects. Bimodal GC colour distributions are found in all five galaxies. Most of the GC systems appear bimodal even in the (g' -r') vs (r' -i') plane. A population of resolved/marginally resolved GC and Ultra Compact Dwarf candidates was found in all the galaxies. A search for the so-called "blue tilt" in the colour-magnitude diagrams reveals that NGC 4649 clearly shows that phenomenon although no conclusive evidence was found for the other galaxies in the sample. This "blue tilt" translates into a mass-metallicity relation given by Z \propto M^0.28\pm0.03 . This dependence was found using a new empirical (g' -i') vs [Z/H] relation which relies on an homogeneous sample of GC colours and metallicities. This paper also explores the radial trends in both colour and surface density for the blue (metal-poor) and red (metal-rich) GC subpopulations. As usual, the red GCs show a steeper radial distribution than the blue ones. Evidence of galactocentric colour gradients is found in some of the GC systems, being more significant for the two S0 galaxies in the sample. Red GC subpopulations show similar colours and gradients to the galaxy halo stars in their inner region. A GC mean colour-galaxy luminosity relation, consistent with [Z/H] \propto L_B ^0.26\pm0.08, is present for the red GCs. An estimate of the total GC populations and specific frequency SN values is presented for NGC 3115, NGC 3379, NGC 3923 and NGC 4649.Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures and 9 tables. Tables A1 and A2 will be published in full online only. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Echoes of the fifth dimension?

In this article we examine the question of whether the highest energy cosmic ray primaries could be ultra relativistic magnetic monopoles. The analysis is performed within the framework of large compact dimensions and TeV scale quantum gravity. Our study indicates that while this hypothesis must be regarded as highly speculative it cannot be ruled out with present data.Comment: Revised version accepted for publication in Physical Review D. The bibliography has been considerably reduced for the journal version due to limited spac

Extensive air showers with TeV-scale quantum gravity

One of the possible consequences of the existence of extra degrees of freedom beyond the electroweak scale is the increase of neutrino-nucleon cross sections ($\sigma_{\nu N}$) beyond Standard Model predictions. At ultra-high energies this may allow the existence of neutrino-initiated extensive air showers. In this paper, we examine the most relevant observables of such showers. Our analysis indicates that the future Pierre Auger Observatory could be potentially powerful in probing models with large compact dimensions.Comment: 7 pages revtex, 5 eps fig