The Importance of Family-Centered Professional Behaviors to Parents of Children Receiving Day Treatment Services

Although many agencies and professionals identify their services as family-centered very few have evaluated their practice to determine the legitimacy of this claim. This exploratory quantitative study elicited survey responses from a random sample of 75 parents and/or guardians of children with severe emotional disturbances who have received family services through Catholic Charities Day Programs. Parents and/or guardians used the Family-Centered Behavior Scale to evaluate the professional behaviors of the family service providers, and rate the importance of these behaviors in the service process. The results indicate that the level of satisfaction with the family practitioner directly correlates with the family-centered professional behaviors of encouraging parental involvement, listening to the family, and identifying family strengths. The study concludes with an overview of the professional behaviors that these parents found most important to them in the service process. This study is particularly important for day treatment programming as the literature identifies effective family services as the strongest predictor of a successful outcome for children receiving this level of services

The Dark Side of the Boom: The Peculiar Dilemma of Modern False Claims Act Litigation

Spurred by treble damages, substantial penalties, and lucrative relator awards, litigation under federal and state False Claims Act (“FCA”) statutes has exploded in recent years. Much of that explosion stems from aggressive and creative legal theories that challenge controversial industry practices or even well-known loopholes or waste in government policy. Evidence from governmental entities can be critically important in litigating these FCA claims. Unique aspects of False Claims Act actions, however, can aggravate the risk of losing this important evidence, leaving the parties, judges, and juries without the evidentiary record necessary to equitably adjudicate these disputes. Defendants can face the risk of treble damages, substantial penalties, or worse without the opportunity to build their defense before evidence is destroyed. Calling on his first-hand experience litigating FCA cases, the author highlights the risk of government spoliation in FCA cases and provides recommendations for courts and counsel to address this escalating problem

The Dark Side of the Boom: The Peculiar Dilemma of Modern False Claims Act Litigation

Spurred by treble damages, substantial penalties, and lucrative relator awards, litigation under federal and state False Claims Act (“FCA”) statutes has exploded in recent years. Much of that explosion stems from aggressive and creative legal theories that challenge controversial industry practices or even well-known loopholes or waste in government policy. Evidence from governmental entities can be critically important in litigating these FCA claims. Unique aspects of False Claims Act actions, however, can aggravate the risk of losing this important evidence, leaving the parties, judges, and juries without the evidentiary record necessary to equitably adjudicate these disputes. Defendants can face the risk of treble damages, substantial penalties, or worse without the opportunity to build their defense before evidence is destroyed. Calling on his first-hand experience litigating FCA cases, the author highlights the risk of government spoliation in FCA cases and provides recommendations for courts and counsel to address this escalating problem

Application of Novel Phosphine Ligands in Palladium-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling Reactions

This thesis describes the application of 2-phosphino-N-aryl-heterocycles as ligands in Pd-catalyzed C–C, C–N and C–O bond forming reactions. Based on prior studies, 2-phosphino-N-arylindoles and -pyrrols were found to form efficient catalysts with Pd-salts in the Sonogashira coupling of (hetero)aryl bromides and the Pd-catalyzed monoarylation of ammonia. The novel imidazole-based phosphines were prepared after a modular synthesis and are stable towards air. They were employed in the Pd-catalyzed phenol synthesis, the Heck-Cassar coupling, and the Pd-catalyzed monoarylation of ammonia. Furthermore, mechanistic studies in the Pd-catalyzed hydroxylation were undertaken.In der vorliegenden Dissertation wird die Anwendung von Dialkyl-heteroarylphosphinen als Liganden in palladiumkatalysierten Bindungsknüpfungen beschrieben. Die zuvor beschriebenen Indol- und Pyrrolphosphine wurden erfolgreich in der Sonogashira-Kupplung von Arylbromiden und in der Anilinsynthese eingesetzt. Die neuartigen Imidazolderivate konnten mit einer modularen Synthesemethode dargestellt werden. Mit auf ihnen basierenden Palladium-Katalysatoren konnten Arylhalide effizient sowohl mit Alkinen, als auch mit Wasser und Ammoniak umgesetzt werden. Des weiterten wurden mechanistische Untersuchungen in der palladiumkatalysierten Phenolsynthese durchgeführt

Editorial: Collaborative paediatric research in South Africa and beyond

No Abstrac

Deriving glacier surface velocities from repeat optical images

The velocity of glaciers is important for many aspects in glaciology. Mass accumulated in the accumulation area is transported down to the ablation area by deformation and sliding due to the gravitational force, and hence gla­cier velocity is connected to the mass balance of glaciers. It also contributes directly to the mass balance of calving glaciers because it is an important control of the ice discharge rate for such glaciers. Changing glacier velocities is an indicator of instable glaciers, and monitoring velocity over time can make people aware of possible hazards that may arise from instable glaciers. The movement of glaciers is also important for transporting material and for eroding the landscape. The focus of this thesis is to further develop image matching within glaciology. In image matching, images from two di.erent times are compared us­ing correlation techniques to derive glacier displacement over the time period. Most studies have concentrated on using image matching to derive glacier velocities instead of developing this method further. To be able to derive the densest possible velocity grids for all glaciers in the world, image matching methods over glacier surfaces have to be explored further. So far all images that have been used to derive velocity in glaciology have been high or medium spatial resolution images. Low resolution images cover large sections in one image, and this makes them suited for investigating the velocity of large areas such as Antarctic ice shelves. We derive velocities for Antarctic ice shelves using MODIS images with a spatial resolution of 250 m to test whether these images are suited for deriving ice shelf velocity. Because the accuracy is about one fourth of a pixel, and it is possible to use images acquired several years apart due to the low surface transformation, MODIS images are well suited for deriving velocity of Antarctic ice shelves and also to monitor their changes over time. We found when comparing di.erent image matching methods over dif­ferent glacier surfaces that the most commonly used method, normalized cross-correlation, generally performs worse compared to orientation correla­tion and the matching part of the program COSI-Corr. The only situation where normalized cross-correlation outperforms the two other methods are on narrow glaciers where small window sizes are needed. COSI-Corr per­forms best overall, but orientation correlation performs almost as well. In addition orientation correlation is the only method that manages to match striped Landsat images after the failure of the Scan Line Corrector. Both orientation correlation and COSI-Corr are considered to be methods well suited for global glacier velocity mapping. Normalized cross-correlation can supplement these two methods on narrow glaciers. The effort that has been put into developing image matching in glaciology since the start of this study, both in this study and in other studies, makes it possible to derive glacier velocities over large regions, and only computer processing time hinders automatic matching of glacier velocities worldwide. Global glacier velocities can give valuable insights. We show in this thesis that it can give information about how glaciers respond to climate change. Glacier velocity of .ve regions of the world with negative mass balance is derived, and in all regions the general glacier speed is decreasing over the last decades. In addition global glacier velocities can be used to understand glacier dynamics, and predict glacier hazards. It can be tested against gla­cier inventory parameters, and it can be used to estimate erosion rates and transport times

The pharmacoeconomics of routine postoperative troponin surveillance to prevent and treat myocardial infarction after non-cardiac surgery

BACKGROUND: A postoperative troponin leak that was previously considered clinically insignificant has been independently associated with 30-day mortality in unselected surgical patients 45 years of age following non-cardiac surgery. OBJECTIVES: To determine whether routine troponin surveillance following non-cardiac surgery and initiation of aspirin and statin therapy in troponin-positive patients is cost-effective. METHODS: Pharmacoeconomic analysis to determine the cost-effectiveness of routine postoperative surveillance for patients aged 45 years undergoing non-cardiac surgery. We compared the total expected cost of hospital care of patients who received routine troponin surveillance and subsequent introduction of statin and aspirin therapy for 30 days in troponin-positive patients with the cost of hospital care of patients who did not receive troponin surveillance. We estimated a 25% relative risk reduction following statin and aspirin therapy for postoperative vascular mortality and non-fatal myocardial infarction. RESULTS: Routine troponin surveillance with initiation of aspirin and statin therapy was cost-effective, with an incremental cost of -R16 724 per event avoided. CONCLUSION: Routine postoperative troponin surveillance in non-cardiac surgical patients 45 years of age requiring a postoperative night in hospital is potentially cost-effective

Postoperative atrial fibrillation in patients on statins undergoing isolated cardiac valve surgery: a meta-analysis

Introduction: The efficacy of perioperative statin therapy in decreasing postoperative morbidity in patients undergoing valve replacements and repairs is unknown. The aim of our study was to determine whether or not the literature supports the hypothesis that statins decrease postoperative atrial fibrillation (AF), and hence improve short-term postoperative outcomes in patients undergoing isolated cardiac valve surgery.Method: We conducted a meta-analysis of studies on postoperative outcomes associated with statin therapy following isolated valve replacement or repair. The data was taken from published studies on valvular heart surgery patients. Participants were patients who underwent either isolated cardiac valve replacement or repair. Patients in the intervention group received statins prior to their surgery. Three databases were searched: Ovid Healthstar, 1966 to April 2012; Ovid Medline, 1946 to 31 May 2012; and Embase, 1974 to 30 May 2012. The meta-analysis was conducted using Review Manager® version 5.1.Results: Statins did not decrease the incidence of postoperative AF in patients undergoing isolated cardiac valve surgery [odds ratio (OR) 1.19, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.80– 1.77)], although there was significant heterogeneity for the outcome of postoperative AF (I2 55%, 95% CI: 27–72). Statins were associated with a decrease in 30-day mortality (OR 0.43, 95% CI: 0.24–0.75).Conclusion: Although this meta-analysis suggests that chronic statin therapy did not prevent postoperative AF in unselected valvular heart surgical patients, the heterogeneity indicates that this outcome should be viewed with caution and further research is recommended.Keywords: atrial fibrillation, cardiac surgery, statin

Bleksanger Hippolais pallida – ny for Norges fauna

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler - Hippolais pallida - new to NorwayNorway’s first Eastern Olivaceous Warbler Hippolais pallida was recorded on 12th September 2004. An adult of this species was caught in a mist-net at Titran in the island municipality of Frøya, off the coast of Sør-Trøndelag county in Central Norway. Hippolais pallida was previously on the list of birds recorded in Norway, but due to uncertainty about the identification of grey species of Hippolais, the record was changed in 1994 to that of unidentified H. rama/H. pallida. The Titran bird was of the eastern race H. p. elaeica, which occurs regularly in south-eastern Europe and central Asia. It does not breed west of Slovakia, and winters in East Africa, north of Lake Victoria, and on the Arabian Peninsula. Only a few countries in central and northern Europe have records of the Eastern Olivaceous Warbler. The majority of these are from Britain, but it has also been observed in Ireland, Austria, Finland, Sweden and Denmark, and now in Norway. Though several south-eastern European countries have reported a decrease in their populations, Greece and Turkey still hold populations of 100 000-150 000 and 500 000-5 million breeding pairs respectively. It is therefore natural to assume a large number of records in northern and western Europe resulting from prolonged spring migration or reversed autumn migration. However, the Alps and the Carpathians seem to make an effective barrier, and in Germany only three records have been reported from 1883-2000. Despite the Eastern Olivaceous Warbler breeding in Austria’s neighbouring countries of Slovakia and Hungary, there is only one confirmed record in Austria itself. Britain had 11 records up to 2003, while Ireland had 4 up to 1999. In the Nordic countries a total of eight records have been reported. The two latest records, from autumn 2004, in Norway and Sweden respectively, have not yet been treated by their countries’ rarities committees. However, they were both convincingly documented. The Eastern Olivaceous Warbler is a pale and insignificant warbler with few distinct characters. It is easily confused with other Hippolais species like H. rama, H. opaca and H. caligata. It can even be confused with H. languida and Acrocephalus dumetorum. As shown in the photos, P1 was about 4- 5 mm longer than the secondaries of the Titran bird. The tail was relatively narrow and straight with long outer tail feathers. The edge of the wing was also straight, excluding Acrocephalus dumetorum, and the shape of the bill excluded H. opaca. The bird’s plumage was without olive green, resulting in a rather light grey impression, also from above. A general identification of the Eastern Olivaceous Warbler is discussed further in comparison with the possible confusion species mentioned above