3,806 research outputs found
Navigating the Health Care Labyrinth: Portraits of the Socioeconomically Disadvantaged
In 2010, an estimated population of the 311,212,863 Americans generated approximately 1,014,688,290 physician office encounters (Moore, 2010). The frequency and number of professional interactions between caregivers and patients/family members in medical office settings equated to a staggering 1,931 visits per minute. Based on the massive volume of interactions that occurred between patients of different races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic standings that generated an average household income of 190,000 per year in personal income (Hyden, 2011), a paradigm for potential discrimination is created through heterogeneous customers seeking health care services from a mostly affluent homogeneous workforce. What are the experiences of the underinsured in attempting to obtain routine and emergent medical care in the United States? Based on the identified void in the current body of scholarship that leaves silent the voices of millions of underserved and socioeconomically disadvantaged patients, this dissertation will extend the muted voices and, thus, create a platform to learn through the patients\u27 personal contexts and unique health stories. The electronic version of this Dissertation is at OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/et
Navigating the Health Care Labyrinth: Portraits of the Socioeconomically Disadvantaged
In 2010, an estimated population of the 311,212,863 Americans generated approximately 1,014,688,290 physician office encounters (Moore, 2010). The frequency and number of professional interactions between caregivers and patients/family members in medical office settings equated to a staggering 1,931 visits per minute. Based on the massive volume of interactions that occurred between patients of different races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic standings that generated an average household income of 190,000 per year in personal income (Hyden, 2011), a paradigm for potential discrimination is created through heterogeneous customers seeking health care services from a mostly affluent homogeneous workforce. What are the experiences of the underinsured in attempting to obtain routine and emergent medical care in the United States? Based on the identified void in the current body of scholarship that leaves silent the voices of millions of underserved and socioeconomically disadvantaged patients, this dissertation will extend the muted voices and, thus, create a platform to learn through the patients\u27 personal contexts and unique health stories. The electronic version of this Dissertation is at OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/et
Determinants of Farm Productivity in Africa: A Synthesis of Four Case Studies
Productivity Analysis, Downloads July 2008 - July 2009: 20,
The Properties of Poor Groups of Galaxies: II. X-ray and Optical Comparisons
We use ROSAT PSPC data to study the X-ray properties of a sample of twelve
poor groups that have extensive membership information (Zabludoff and Mulchaey
1997; Paper I). Diffuse X-ray emission is detected in nine of these groups. In
all but one of the X-ray detected groups, the X-ray emission is centered on a
luminous elliptical galaxy. Fits to the surface brightness profiles of the
X-ray emission suggest the presence of two X-ray components in these groups.
The first component is centered on the central elliptical galaxy. The location
and extent of this component, combined with its X-ray temperature and
luminosity, favor an origin in the interstellar medium of the central galaxy.
Alternatively, the central component may be the result of a large-scale cooling
flow. The second X-ray component is detected out to a radius of at least
100-300 kpc. This component follows the same relationships found among the
X-ray temperature, X-ray luminosity and optical velocity dispersion of rich
clusters. This result suggests that the X-ray detected groups are low-mass
versions of clusters and that the extended gas component can properly be called
the intragroup medium, in analogy to the intracluster medium in clusters. We
also find a trend for the position angle of the optical light in the central
elliptical galaxy to align with the position angle of the large-scale X-ray
emission. (Abridged)Comment: 38 pages, AASLaTeX with 16 PS figures. Figure 1a-1l available in
gzipped postscript format at ftp://corvus.ociw.edu/pub/mulchae
The Extended Blue Continuum and Line Emission around the Central Radio Galaxy in Abell 2597
We present results from detailed imaging of the centrally dominant radio
elliptical galaxy in the cooling flow cluster Abell 2597, using data obtained
with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on the Hubble Space
Telescope (HST). This object is one of the archetypal "blue-lobed" cooling flow
radio elliptical galaxies, also displaying a luminous emission-line nebula, a
compact radio source, and a significant dust lane and evidence of molecular gas
in its center. We show that the radio source is surrounded by a complex network
of emission-line filaments, some of which display a close spatial association
with the outer boundary of the radio lobes. We present a detailed analysis of
the physical properties of ionized and neutral gas associated with the radio
lobes, and show that their properties are strongly suggestive of direct
interactions between the radio plasma and ambient gas. We resolve the blue
continuum emission into a series of knots and clumps, and present evidence that
these are most likely due to regions of recent star formation. We investigate
several possible triggering mechanisms for the star formation, including direct
interactions with the radio source, filaments condensing from the cooling flow,
or the result of an interaction with a gas-rich galaxy, which may also have
been responsible for fueling the active nucleus. We propose that the properties
of the source are plausibly explained in terms of accretion of gas by the cD
during an interaction with a gas-rich galaxy, which combined with the fact that
this object is located at the center of a dense, high-pressure ICM can account
for the high rates of star formation and the strong confinement of the radio
source.Comment: Astrophysical Journal, in press, 34 pages, includes 6 PostScript
figures. Latex format, uses aaspp4.sty and epsf.sty file
Cold gas in the Intra Cluster Medium: implications for flow dynamics and powering optical nebulae
We show that the mechanical energy injection rate generated as the
intra-cluster medium (ICM) flows around cold clouds may be sufficient to power
the optical and near infra-red emission of nebulae observed in the central
regions of a sample of seven galaxy clusters. The energy injection rate is
extremely sensitive to the velocity difference between the ICM and cold clouds,
which may help to explain why optical and infra-red luminosity is often larger
than expected in systems containing AGNs. We also find that mass recycling is
likely to be important for the dynamics of the ICM. This effect will be
strongest in the central regions of clusters where there is more than enough
cold gas for its evaporation to contribute significantly to the density of the
hot phase.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Prevalence and distribution of regional scar in dysfunctional myocardial segments in Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Quality Control Methods for Optimal BCR-ABL1 Clinical Testing in Human Whole Blood Samples
Reliable breakpoint cluster region (BCR)–Abelson (ABL) 1 measurement is essential for optimal management of chronic myelogenous leukemia. There is a need to optimize quality control, sensitivity, and reliability of methods used to measure a major molecular response and/or treatment failure. The effects of room temperature storage time, different primers, and RNA input in the reverse transcription (RT) reaction on BCR-ABL1 and β-glucuronidase (GUSB) cDNA yield were assessed in whole blood samples mixed with K562 cells. BCR-ABL1 was measured relative to GUSB to control for sample loading, and each gene was measured relative to known numbers of respective internal standard molecules to control for variation in quality and quantity of reagents, thermal cycler conditions, and presence of PCR inhibitors. Clinical sample and reference material measurements with this test were concordant with results reported by other laboratories. BCR-ABL1 per 103 GUSB values were significantly reduced (P = 0.004) after 48-hour storage. Gene-specific primers yielded more BCR-ABL1 cDNA than random hexamers at each RNA input. In addition, increasing RNA inhibited the RT reaction with random hexamers but not with gene-specific primers. Consequently, the yield of BCR-ABL1 was higher with gene-specific RT primers at all RNA inputs tested, increasing to as much as 158-fold. We conclude that optimal measurement of BCR-ABL1 per 103 GUSB in whole blood is obtained when gene-specific primers are used in RT and samples are analyzed within 24 hours after blood collection
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