ANALYSIS OF LOCUS OF CONTROL AND EDUCATIONAL LEVEL UTILIZING THE INTERNAL CONTROL INDEX

This study is a comparison of Locus of Control as measured by the Internal Control Index (ICI) between adult subjects of high school education or less and adult subjects attending graduate school or of graduate school education or above. The study was conducted to determine if the Internal Control Index for the graduate level educated population was significantly different from that of the non-college-educated population. The Internal Control Index (ICI), by Patricia Duttweiler was used as the instrument for this study. A sample of 100 male and female subjects was used from the West Virginia and Ohio areas. Each participant received a questionnaire asking his or her age, gender, and education level. Also, a copy of the Internal Locus of Control index survey was distributed to each participant. There were 50 non college-educated subjects with a high school education or less and 50 graduate-level educated subjects with a graduate level education or higher participating in this study. The survey was self-administered and given on a volunteer basis. The results of this particular study indicated that there was a statistically significant difference in locus of control between subjects of high school education or less and graduate level education or higher

Requests for malaria prevention advice to Public Health England, Malaria Reference Laboratory: a retrospective observational study.

BACKGROUND: The Malaria Reference Laboratory (MRL) provides a specialist advisory service for complex queries from healthcare professionals. This study was conducted to examine the types of queries that general practitioners and nurses ask around malaria prophylaxis, to identify issues which are not obvious from existing easily available sources. METHODS: We reviewed all the faxed requests received over a period of 6 months at the MRL. RESULTS: There were a total of 608 queries (104 concerning children) relating to 450 travellers. 98% of requests were from general practice (GP or practice nurse). The most common enquiries were about travellers to multiple destinations (95/529, 17.96%), prolonged duration of travel (70/529, 13.23%), the immunosuppressed (38/529, 7.18%), potential drug interactions (69/529, 13.04%), pregnancy and conception (36, 6.81%). 79/529 queries related to patients with multiple conditions requiring expert advice from the MRL. 27% of the enquiries could have been answered by consulting the UK malaria prophylaxis guidelines available on the MRL site. CONCLUSION: Most queries where practitioners requested help were not easily answered with existing guidelines. Pregnancy and epilepsy are areas where guidance needs strengthening. Difficulties for practitioners were multifactorial, it would be difficult to address all scenarios in guidelines without making them unwieldy

Leaf Anatomy and CO2 Recycling During Crassulacean Acid Metabolism in Twelve Epiphytic Species of Tillandsia (Bromeliaceae)

This is the publisher's official version. It is also available electronically from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2995609.The relationship between leaf anatomy, specifically the percent of leaf volume occupied by waterstorage parenchyma (hydrenchyma), and the contribution of respiratory C02 during Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) was investigated in 12 epiphytic species of Tillandsia. It has been postulated that the hydrenchyma, which contributes to C 0 2 exchange through respiration only, may be causally related to the recently observed phenomenon of C 0 2 recycling during CAM. Among the 12 species of Tillandsia, leaves of T. usneoides and T. bergeri exhibited 0% hydrenchyma, while the hydrenchyma in the other species ranged from 2.9% to 53% of leaf cross-sectional area. Diurnal malate fluctuation and nighttime atmospheric C 0 2 uptake were measured in at least four individuals of each species. A significant excess of diurnal malate fluctuation as compared with atmospheric C 0 2 absorbed overnight was observed only in T. schiedeana. This species had an intermediate proportion (30%) of hydrenchyma in its leaves. Results of this study do not support the hypothesis that C02 recycling during CAM may reflect respiratory contributions of C 0 2 from the tissue hydrenchyma

Choosing Important Health Outcomes for Comparative Effectiveness Research: An Updated Review and Identification of Gaps

<div><p>Background</p><p>The COMET (Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials) Initiative promotes the development and application of core outcome sets (COS), including relevant studies in an online database. In order to keep the database current, an annual search of the literature is undertaken. This study aimed to update a previous systematic review, in order to identify any further studies where a COS has been developed. Furthermore, no prioritization for COS development has previously been undertaken, therefore this study also aimed to identify COS relevant to the world’s most prevalent health conditions.</p><p>Methods</p><p>The methods used in this updated review followed the same approach used in the original review and the previous update. A survey was also sent to the corresponding authors of COS identified for inclusion in this review, to ascertain what lessons they had learnt from developing their COS. Additionally, the COMET database was searched to identify COS that might be relevant to the conditions with the highest global prevalence.</p><p>Results</p><p>Twenty-five reports relating to 22 new studies were eligible for inclusion in the review. Further improvements were identified in relation to the description of the scope of the COS, use of the Delphi technique, and the inclusion of patient participants within the development process. Additionally, 33 published and ongoing COS were identified for 13 of the world’s most prevalent conditions.</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>The development of a reporting guideline and minimum standards should contribute towards future improvements in development and reporting of COS. This study has also described a first approach to identifying gaps in existing COS, and to priority setting in this area. Important gaps have been identified, on the basis of global burden of disease, and the development and application of COS in these areas should be considered a priority.</p></div

Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies in the United States

Brings together four reports commissioned between 1982 and 2000 that examine the history of African American Studies, its impact, and its institutionalization. Reviews Ford's grantmaking to African American Studies programs from 1982 to 2007

A New Method for Searching for Free Fractional Charge Particles in Bulk Matter

We present a new experimental method for searching for free fractional charge in bulk matter; this new method derives from the traditional Millikan liquid drop method, but allows the use of much larger drops, 20 to 100 mm in diameter, compared to the traditional method that uses drops less than 15 mm in diameter. These larger drops provide the substantial advantage that it is then much easier to consistently generate drops containing liquid suspensions of powdered meteorites and other special minerals. These materials are of great importance in bulk searches for fractional charge particles that may have been produced in the early universe.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures in a singl PDF file (created from WORD Doc.). Submitted to Review of Scientific Instrument

Childhood IQ and marriage by mid-life: the Scottish Mental Survey 1932 and the Midspan Studies

The study examined the influence of IQ at age 11 years on marital status by mid-adulthood. The combined databases of the Scottish Mental Survey 1932 and the Midspan studies provided data from 883 subjects. With regard to IQ at age 11, there was an interaction between sex and marital status by mid-adulthood (p &#61; 0.0001). Women who had ever-married achieved mean lower childhood IQ scores than women who had never-married (p &#60; 0.001). Conversely, there was a trend for men who had ever-married to achieve higher childhood IQ scores than men who had never-married (p &#61; 0.07). In men, the odds ratio of ever marrying was 1.35 (95&#37; CI 0.98–1.86&#59; p &#61; 0.07) for each standard deviation increase in childhood IQ. Among women, the odds ratio of ever marrying by mid-life was 0.42 (95&#37; CI 0.27–0.64; p &#61; 0.0001) for each standard deviation increase in childhood IQ. Mid-life social class had a similar association with marriage, with women in more professional jobs and men in more manual jobs being less likely to have ever-married by mid-life. Adjustment for the effects of mid-life social class and height on the association between childhood IQ and later marriage, and vice versa, attenuated the effects somewhat, but suggested that IQ, height and social class acted partly independently

Geographical concentration of falciparum malaria treated in the UK and delay to treatment with artesunate in severe cases: an observational study.

OBJECTIVES: To quantify geographical concentration of falciparum malaria cases in the UK at a hospital level. To assess potential delay-to-treatment associated with hub-and-spoke distribution of artesunate in severe cases. DESIGN: Observational study using national and hospital data. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: 3520 patients notified to the Malaria Reference Laboratory 2008-2010, 34 patients treated with intravenous artesunate from a tropical diseases centre 2002-2010. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Geographical location of falciparum cases notified in the UK. Diagnosis-to-treatment times for intravenous artesunate. RESULTS: Eight centres accounted for 43.9% of the UK's total cases; notifications from 107 centres accounted for 10.2% of cases; 51.5% of hospitals seeing malaria notified 5 or fewer cases in 3 years. Centres that saw <10 cases/year treat 26.3% of malaria cases; 6.1% of cases are treated in hospitals seeing <2 cases/year. Concentration of falciparum malaria was highest in Greater London (1925, 54.7%), South East (515, 14.6%), East of England (402, 11.4%) and North West (192, 5.4%). The North East and Northern Ireland each notified 5 or fewer cases per year. Median diagnosis-to-treatment time was 1 h (range 0.5-5) for patients receiving artesunate in the specialist centre; 7.5 h (range 4-26) for patients receiving it in referring hospitals via the hub-and-spoke system (p=0.02); 25 h (range 9-45) for patients receiving it on transfer to the regional centre from a referring hospital (p=0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Most UK hospitals see few cases of falciparum malaria and geographical distances are significant. Over 25% of cases are seen in hospitals where malaria is rare, although 60% are seen in hospitals seeing over 50 cases over 3 years. A hub-and-spoke system minimises drug wastage and ensures availability in centres seeing most cases but is associated with treatment delays elsewhere. As with all observational studies, there are limitations, which are discussed

An introduction to Elinor Glyn : her life and legacy

This special issue of Women: A Cultural Review re-evaluates an author who was once a household name, beloved by readers of romance, and whose films were distributed widely in Europe and the Americas. Elinor Glyn (1864–1943) was a British author of romantic fiction who went to Hollywood and became famous for her movies. She was a celebrity figure of the 1920s, and wrote constantly in Hearst's press. She wrote racy stories which were turned into films—most famously, Three Weeks (1924) and It (1927). These were viewed by the judiciary as scandalous, but by others—Hollywood and the Spanish Catholic Church—as acceptably conservative. Glyn has become a peripheral figure in histories of this period, marginalized in accounts of the youth-centred ‘flapper era’. Decades on, the idea of the ‘It Girl’ continues to have great pertinence in the post-feminist discourses of the twenty-first century. The 1910s and 1920s saw the development of intermodal networks between print, sound and screen cultures. This introduction to Glyn's life and legacy reviews the cross-disciplinary debate sparked by renewed interest in Glyn by film scholars and literary and feminist historians, and offers a range of views of Glyn's cultural and historical significance and areas for future research

Comparing alternating pressure mattresses and high-specification foam mattresses to prevent pressure ulcers in high-risk patients: the PRESSURE 2 RCT

Background: Pressure ulcers (PUs) are a burden to patients, carers and health-care providers. Specialist mattresses minimise the intensity and duration of pressure on vulnerable skin sites in at-risk patients. Primary objective: Time to developing a new PU of category ≥ 2 in patients using an alternating pressure mattress (APM) compared with a high-specification foam mattress (HSFM). Design: A multicentre, Phase III, open, prospective, planned as an adaptive double-triangular group sequential, parallel-group, randomised controlled trial with an a priori sample size of 2954 participants. Randomisation used minimisation (incorporating a random element). Setting: The trial was set in 42 secondary and community inpatient facilities in the UK. Participants: Adult inpatients with evidence of acute illness and at a high risk of PU development. Interventions and follow-up: APM or HSFM – the treatment phase lasted a maximum of 60 days; the final 30 days were post-treatment follow-up. Main outcome measures: Time to event. Results: From August 2013 to November 2016, 2029 participants were randomised to receive either APM (n = 1016) or HSFM (n = 1013). Primary end point – 30-day final follow-up: of the 2029 participants in the intention-to-treat population, 160 (7.9%) developed a new PU of category ≥ 2. There was insufficient evidence of a difference between groups for time to new PU of category ≥ 2 [Fine and Gray model HR 0.76, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.56 to 1.04; exact p-value of 0.0890 and 2% absolute difference]. Treatment phase sensitivity analysis: 132 (6.5%) participants developed a new PU of category ≥ 2 between randomisation and end of treatment phase. There was a statistically significant difference in the treatment phase time-to-event sensitivity analysis (Fine and Gray model HR 0.66, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.93; p = 0.0176 and 2.6% absolute difference). Secondary end points – 30-day final follow-up: new PUs of category ≥ 1 developed in 350 (17.2%) participants, with no evidence of a difference between mattress groups in time to PU development, (Fine and Gray model HR 0.83, 95% CI 0.67 to 1.02; p-value = 0.0733 and absolute difference 3.1%). New PUs of category ≥ 3 developed in 32 (1.6%) participants with insufficient evidence of a difference between mattress groups in time to PU development (Fine and Gray model HR 0.81, 95% CI 0.40 to 1.62; p = 0.5530 and absolute difference 0.4%). Of the 145 pre-existing PUs of category 2, 89 (61.4%) healed – there was insufficient evidence of a difference in time to healing (Fine and Gray model HR 1.12, 95% CI 0.74 to 1.68; p = 0.6122 and absolute difference 2.9%). Health economics – the within-trial and long-term analysis showed APM to be cost-effective compared with HSFM; however, the difference in costs models are small and the quality-adjusted life-year gains are very small. There were no safety concerns. Blinded photography substudy – the reliability of central blinded review compared with clinical assessment for PUs of category ≥ 2 was ‘very good’ (kappa statistic 0.82, prevalence- and bias-adjusted kappa 0.82). Quality-of-life substudy – the Pressure Ulcer Quality of Life – Prevention (PU-QoL-P) instrument meets the established criteria for reliability, construct validity and responsiveness. Limitations: A lower than anticipated event rate. Conclusions: In acutely ill inpatients who are bedfast/chairfast and/or have a category 1 PU and/or localised skin pain, APMs confer a small treatment phase benefit that is diminished over time. Overall, the APM patient compliance, very low PU incidence rate observed and small differences between mattresses indicate the need for improved indicators for targeting of APMs and individualised decision-making. Decisions should take into account skin status, patient preferences (movement ability and rehabilitation needs) and the presence of factors that may be potentially modifiable through APM allocation, including being completely immobile, having nutritional deficits, lacking capacity and/or having altered skin/category 1 PU. Future work: Explore the relationship between mental capacity, levels of independent movement, repositioning and PU development. Explore ‘what works for whom and in what circumstances’. Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN01151335. Funding: This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 23, No. 52. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information