“Contrived”: The Voting Rights Act Pretext for the Trump Administration’s Failed Attempt to Add a Citizenship Question to the 2020 Census

A Pretext . . . For What? In March 2018, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced that the Trump Administration would add a question to the 2020 census asking the citizenship status of all persons in the United States. The question, Secretary Ross asserted, would generate “complete and accurate [citizenship] data” that the Department of Justice (DOJ) could use to better enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA)—a law that sometimes requires states and localities to draw districts in which voters of color make up a majority of the voting age population (so-called “majority-minority” districts)

Using Growth Mixture Modeling to Identify Classes of Sodium Adherence in Adults with Heart Failure

BACKGROUND: The prevention of fluid retention is important to reduce hospitalizations in patients with heart failure (HF). Following a low-sodium diet helps to reduce fluid retention. OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of this study was to use growth mixture modeling to identify distinct classes of sodium adherence-characterized by shared growth trajectories of objectively measured dietary sodium. The secondary objective was to identify patient-level determinants of the nonadherent trajectory. METHODS: This was a secondary analysis of data collected from a prospective longitudinal study of 279 community-dwelling adults with previously or currently symptomatic HF. Growth mixture modeling was used to identify distinct trajectories of change in 24-hour urinary sodium excretion measured at 3 time points over 6 months. Logistic modeling was used to predict membership in observed trajectories. RESULTS: The sample was predominantly male (64%), had a mean age of 62 years, was functionally compromised (59% New York Heart Association class III), and had nonischemic HF etiology. Two distinct trajectories of sodium intake were identified and labeled adherent (66%) and nonadherent (34%) to low-sodium diet recommendations. Three predictors of the nonadherent trajectory were identified, confirming our previous mixed-effect analysis. Compared with being normal weight (body mass index/m2), being overweight and obese was associated with a 4-fold incremental increase in the likelihood of being in the nonadherent trajectory (odds ratio [OR], 4.63; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.66-12.91; P \u3c .002). Being younger than 65 years (OR, 4.66; 95% CI, 1.04-20.81; P = .044) or having diabetes (OR, 4.15; 95% CI, 1.29-13.40; P = .016) were both associated with more than 4 times the odds of being in the nonadherent urine sodium trajectory compared with being older than 65 years or not having diabetes, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Two distinct trajectories of sodium intake were identified in patients with HF. The nonadherent trajectory was characterized by an elevated pattern of dietary sodium intake shown by others to be associated with adverse outcomes in HF. Predictors of the nonadherent trajectory included higher body mass index, younger age, and diabetes

Low x particle spectra in the Modified Leading Logarithm Approximation

We show that the higher moments of the evolution obtained from the Modified Leading Logarithm Approximation may be regarded as spurious higher order terms in perturbation theory, and that neglecting them leads to a good description of the data around and above the peak in $\xi=\ln (1/x)$. Furthermore, we use this study of the moments to show that at high energy the Limiting Spectrum with Local Parton-Hadron Duality may also be derived from the Modified Leading Logarithm Approximation without any non-perturbative assumptions.Comment: Submitted to Eur. Phys. J.,

Identifying Predictors of High Sodium Excretion in Patients with Heart Failure: A Mixed Effect Analysis of Longitudinal Data

BACKGROUND: A low-sodium diet is a core component of heart failure self-care but patients have difficulty following the diet. AIM: The aim of this study was to identify predictors of higher than recommended sodium excretion among patients with heart failure. METHODS: The World Health Organization Five Dimensions of Adherence model was used to guide analysis of existing data collected from a prospective, longitudinal study of 280 community-dwelling adults with previously or currently symptomatic heart failure. Sodium excretion was measured objectively using 24-hour urine sodium measured at three time points over six months. A mixed effect logistic model identified predictors of higher than recommended sodium excretion. RESULTS: The adjusted odds of higher sodium excretion were 2.90, (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.15-4.25, pp=0.007) for patients with diabetes; and 2.22 (95% CI: 1.09-4.53, p=0.028) for patients who were cognitively intact. CONCLUSION: Three factors were associated with excess sodium excretion and two factors, obesity and diabetes, are modifiable by changing dietary food patterns

State Transitions and the Continuum Limit for a 2D Interacting, Self-Propelled Particle System

We study a class of swarming problems wherein particles evolve dynamically via pairwise interaction potentials and a velocity selection mechanism. We find that the swarming system undergoes various changes of state as a function of the self-propulsion and interaction potential parameters. In this paper, we utilize a procedure which, in a definitive way, connects a class of individual-based models to their continuum formulations and determine criteria for the validity of the latter. H-stability of the interaction potential plays a fundamental role in determining both the validity of the continuum approximation and the nature of the aggregation state transitions. We perform a linear stability analysis of the continuum model and compare the results to the simulations of the individual-based one

Newly discovered mutations in the GALNT3 gene causing autosomal recessive hyperostosis-hyperphosphatemia syndrome

Background and purpose Periosteal new bone formation and cortical hyperostosis often suggest an initial diagnosis of bone malignancy or osteomyelitis. In the present study, we investigated the cause of persistent bone hyperostosis in the offspring of two consanguineous parents

Science with a wide-field UV transient explorer

The time-variable electromagnetic sky has been well-explored at a wide range of wavelengths. Numerous high-energy space missions take advantage of the dark Gamma-ray and X-ray sky and utilize very wide field detectors to provide almost continuous monitoring of the entire celestial sphere. In visible light, new wide-field ground-based surveys cover wide patches of sky with ever decreasing cadence, progressing from monthly-weekly time scale surveys to sub-night sampling. In the radio, new powerful instrumentation offers unprecedented sensitivity over wide fields of view, with pathfinder experiments for even more ambitious programs underway. In contrast, the ultra-violet (UV) variable sky is relatively poorly explored, even though it offers exciting scientific prospects. Here, we review the potential scientific impact of a wide-field UV survey on the study of explosive and other transient events, as well as known classes of variable objects, such as active galactic nuclei and variable stars. We quantify our predictions using a fiducial set of observational parameters which are similar to those envisaged for the proposed ULTRASAT mission. We show that such a mission would be able to revolutionize our knowledge about massive star explosions by measuring the early UV emission from hundreds of events, revealing key physical parameters of the exploding progenitor stars. Such a mission would also detect the UV emission from many tens of tidal-disruption events of stars by super massive black holes at galactic nuclei and enable a measurement of the rate of such events. The overlap of such a wide-field UV mission with existing and planned gravitational-wave and high-energy neutrino telescopes makes it especially timely

Pedestrians moving in dark: Balancing measures and playing games on lattices

We present two conceptually new modeling approaches aimed at describing the motion of pedestrians in obscured corridors: * a Becker-D\"{o}ring-type dynamics * a probabilistic cellular automaton model. In both models the group formation is affected by a threshold. The pedestrians are supposed to have very limited knowledge about their current position and their neighborhood; they can form groups up to a certain size and they can leave them. Their main goal is to find the exit of the corridor. Although being of mathematically different character, the discussion of both models shows that it seems to be a disadvantage for the individual to adhere to larger groups. We illustrate this effect numerically by solving both model systems. Finally we list some of our main open questions and conjectures

Identifying Distinct Risk Profiles to Predict Adverse Events among Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Preventing adverse events among chronically ill older adults living in the community is a national health priority. The purpose of this study was to generate distinct risk profiles and compare these profiles in time to: hospitalization, emergency department (ED) visit or death in 371 community-dwelling older adults enrolled in a Medicare demonstration project. Guided by the Behavioral Model of Health Service Use, a secondary analysis was conducted using Latent Class Analysis to generate the risk profiles with Kaplan Meier methodology and log rank statistics to compare risk profiles. The Vuong-Lo-Mendell-Rubin Likelihood Ratio Test demonstrated optimal fit for three risk profiles (High, Medium, and Low Risk). The High Risk profile had significantly shorter time to hospitalization, ED visit, and death (p \u3c 0.001 for each). These findings provide a road map for generating risk profiles that could enable more effective targeting of interventions and be instrumental in reducing health care costs for subgroups of chronically ill community-dwelling older adults

TAUVEX: status in 2011

We present a short history of the TAUVEX instrument, conceived to provide multi-band wide-field imaging in the ultraviolet, emphasizing the lack of sufficient and aggressive support on the part of the different space agencies that dealt with this basic science mission. First conceived in 1985 and selected by the Israel Space Agency in 1989 as its first priority payload, TAUVEX is fast becoming one of the longest-living space project of space astronomy. After being denied a launch on a national Israeli satellite, and then not flying on the Spectrum X-Gamma (SRG) international observatory, it was manifested since 2003 as part of ISRO's GSAT-4 Indian satellite to be launched in the late 2000s. However, two months before the launch, in February 2010, it was dismounted from its agreed-upon platform. This proved to be beneficial, since GSAT-4 and its launcher were lost on April 15 2010 due to the failure of the carrier rocket's 3rd stage. TAUVEX is now stored in ISRO's clean room in Bangalore with no firm indications when or on what platform it might be launched.Comment: Invited contribution presented at the "UV Universe 2010". Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc