Hepatitis C risk factors in a Cambodian American population in Lowell, Massachusetts

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis C (HCV) is the most common chronic blood-borne infection in the US5,6 and has life-threatening complications.10,11,18,27,44 HCV rates in Cambodian Americans are as high as national rates,5,11,22,37,41 but the transmission risks for Cambodians in the US are unclear. Rates of drug use, the most common national transmission risk,3,6,21 are not as high in this population.14,21 With the second largest population of Cambodians nationally, Lowell, Massachusetts12,19 provides a unique opportunity to study the risk factors associated with HCV transmission. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to examine the risk factors associated with HCV in Cambodian Americans. The hypothesis is that HCV infected Cambodian Americans will have different rates of the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recognized risk factors compared to HCV infected non-Cambodian Americans.28 METHODS: This is a cross sectional study of HCV infected Cambodian and non-Cambodian Americans. Medical record data were abstracted for adults with reactive HCV antibody or RNA virus testing at Lowell Community Health Center (LCHC) between 2009 and 2012. Information regarding USPSTF-designated HCV risk factors was collected, and a comparison was made of HCV risk factors between infected Cambodian and non-Cambodian Americans. RESULTS: Cambodian Americans with HCV (n=128) were older (mean age 53 vs. 43 years old) and less likely to be male (41%) than the non-Cambodian group (67% male, n=541). Cambodians had far lower rates of overall recreational drug use (2.3% vs. 82.1%) and intravenous drug use (1.6% vs. 33.6%). The predominant HCV risk factor in Cambodians was birth between 1945 and 1965, while that for non-Cambodians was drug use. CONCLUSION: Most HCV infected Cambodian Americans treated at LCHC between 2009 and 2012 lacked any history of drug use. In contrast, the major risk factor for HCV infected non-Cambodian Americans treated at LCHC was drug use, consistent with the major risk factor for HCV transmission nationwide.3,6,21 This suggests that the current major HCV risk factors fail to describe how this virus was transmitted to Cambodian Americans who seek care at LCHC

Ethnomathematics for capacity building in mathematics education

The Mathematics Framework for Philippine Basic Education (MATHTED and SEI, in press), a document that aims to guide the development of curricular contents in mathematics, identifies cultural-rootedness as one of the cognitive values that mathematics education in the Philippines must inculcate. Cultural-rootedness is defined as ?appreciating the cultural value of mathematics and its origins in many cultures, its rich history and how it has grown and continues to evolve?. Ethnomathematics, described as the ?mathematics which is practiced among identifiable cultural groups, such as national tribal societies, labor groups, children of a certain age bracket, professional classes and so on? (D?Ambrosio, 1997, p.16), has rich potentials in increasing a country?s capacity to provide better mathematics education to its people. It is a vehicle for developing the value of cultural-rootedness thus recognizing and valuing the significant mathematical knowledge within the Philippines and how this mathematics has and continues to play a significant role in building capacity within the Philippines and its people. This paper provides examples of ?latent? mathematics that are found in various cultural groups in the Philippines. With these examples, the paper argues for changes in Philippine mathematics education to recognize and include Ethnomathematics encouraging teachers and communities to actively seek ways to include the non-traditional, non-Western mathematics in their teaching of mathematics in schools. These would include the different ways of counting, measuring, patterning, navigating, constructing, creating shapes, computing and other mathematical skills of various cultural groups. By this, Filipino students will learn to both appreciate the many cultures in the country and develop ways to include these cultures into the mainstream Philippine culture, thereby supporting the inclusion of all as being more comprehensively truly a part of the Philippines. The Mathematics Framework for Philippine Basic Education (MATHTED and SEI, in press), a document that aims to guide the development of curricular contents in mathematics, identifies cultural-rootedness as one of the cognitive values that mathematics education in the Philippines must inculcate. Cultural-rootedness is defined as ?appreciating the cultural value of mathematics and its origins in many cultures, its rich history and how it has grown and continues to evolve?. Ethnomathematics, described as the ?mathematics which is practiced among identifiable cultural groups, such as national tribal societies, labor groups, children of a certain age bracket, professional classes and so on? (D?Ambrosio, 1997, p.16), has rich potentials in increasing a country?s capacity to provide better mathematics education to its people. It is a vehicle for developing the value of cultural-rootedness thus recognizing and valuing the significant mathematical knowledge within the Philippines and how this mathematics has and continues to play a significant role in building capacity within the Philippines and its people. This paper provides examples of ?latent? mathematics that are found in various cultural groups in the Philippines. With these examples, the paper argues for changes in Philippine mathematics education to recognize and include Ethnomathematics encouraging teachers and communities to actively seek ways to include the non-traditional, non-Western mathematics in their teaching of mathematics in schools. These would include the different ways of counting, measuring, patterning, navigating, constructing, creating shapes, computing and other mathematical skills of various cultural groups. By this, Filipino students will learn to both appreciate the many cultures in the country and develop ways to include these cultures into the mainstream Philippine culture, thereby supporting the inclusion of all as being more comprehensively truly a part of the Philippines

Guangzhou Buyers Preference for Premium Hawaiian Grown Product Gift Baskets

Guangzhou buyers' preference for premium Hawaiian grown product gift baskets with conjoint analysis was examined. Relative importance of three gift basket attributes: container type, products origin, and price were examined. Expenditure equivalent index to evaluate how much more each of the gift basket attributes is worth to the buyer was estimated. Main conclusions are: products have to be 'made in Hawaii' to receive the premium price; business buyers are generally less willing to pay a high price; and individual buyers are more willing to pay the higher priced Koa gift basket.Chinese survey data, conjoint analysis, buyer preference, Hawaii gift baskets, Demand and Price Analysis,

Modeling Accuracy and Variability of Motor Timing in Treated and Untreated Parkinson’s Disease and Healthy Controls

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized by difficulty with the timing of movements. Data collected using the synchronization–continuation paradigm, an established motor timing paradigm, have produced varying results but with most studies finding impairment. Some of this inconsistency comes from variation in the medication state tested, in the inter-stimulus intervals (ISI) selected, and in changeable focus on either the synchronization (tapping in time with a tone) or continuation (maintaining the rhythm in the absence of the tone) phase. We sought to re-visit the paradigm by testing across four groups of participants: healthy controls, medication naïve de novo PD patients, and treated PD patients both “on” and “off” dopaminergic medication. Four finger tapping intervals (ISI) were used: 250, 500, 1000, and 2000 ms. Categorical predictors (group, ISI, and phase) were used to predict accuracy and variability using a linear mixed model. Accuracy was defined as the relative error of a tap, and variability as the deviation of the participant’s tap from group predicted relative error. Our primary finding is that the treated PD group (PD patients “on” and “off” dopaminergic therapy) showed a significantly different pattern of accuracy compared to the de novo group and the healthy controls at the 250-ms interval. At this interval, the treated PD patients performed “ahead” of the beat whilst the other groups performed “behind” the beat. We speculate that this “hastening” relates to the clinical phenomenon of motor festination. Across all groups, variability was smallest for both phases at the 500-ms interval, suggesting an innate preference for finger tapping within this range. Tapping variability for the two phases became increasingly divergent at the longer intervals, with worse performance in the continuation phase. The data suggest that patients with PD can be best discriminated from healthy controls on measures of motor timing accuracy, rather than variability

Hurricanes Substantially Reduce the Nutrients in Tropical Forested Watersheds in Puerto Rico

Because nutrients including nitrogen and phosphorus are generally limited in tropical forest ecosystems in Puerto Rico, a quantitative understanding of the nutrient budget at a watershed scale is required to assess vegetation growth and predict forest carbon dynamics. Hurricanes are the most frequent disturbance in Puerto Rico and play an important role in regulating lateral nitrogen and phosphorus exports from the forested watershed. In this study, we selected seven watersheds in Puerto Rico to examine the immediate and lagged effects of hurricanes on nitrogen and phosphorous exports. Our results suggest that immediate surges of heavy precipitation associated with hurricanes accelerate nitrogen and phosphorus exports as much as 297 ± 113 and 306 ± 70 times than the long-term average, respectively. In addition, we estimated that it requires approximately one year for post-hurricane riverine nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations to recover to pre-hurricane levels. During the recovery period, the riverine nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations are 30 ± 6% and 28 ± 5% higher than the pre-hurricane concentrations on average

Using a model of family adaptation to examine outcomes of caregivers of individuals with autism spectrum disorder transitioning into adulthood

Background The study examined the burden of caring for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) transitioning from high school and factors associated with burden derived from the Double ABCX model of family adaptation (i.e., autism symptom severity, problem behaviors, pile-up life demands, personality traits, social support, cognitive appraisals, and coping strategies). In particular, we were interested in the potential association between the “big 5” personality traits and burden. Method Participants (N = 105) were caregivers of individuals with ASD within two years pre- or post-graduation from high school. Results Primary caregivers reported moderate levels of burden. As hypothesized, burden was significantly associated with both child (i.e., increased autism symptom severity and problem behaviors) and caregiver characteristics (i.e., greater neuroticism, lower levels of extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and social support, and increased use of threat appraisals and passive-avoidance coping strategies). Using multiple regression, increased child behavior problems and increased caregiver use of passive-avoidance coping were identified as independent predictors of burden. Passive-avoidance coping mediated the relationship between caregiver burden and individual personality traits (i.e., neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness). Conclusions The results suggest that proximal variables, such as caregivers’ use of maladaptive coping strategies, explain the associations between burden and personality. Suggestions for interventions to relieve burden are discussed

Distribution and associated factors of optic disc diameter and cup-to-disc ratio in an elderly Chinese population

AbstractBackgroundGlaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide and East Asian people account for almost half of those affected. Vertical elongation of the optic cup is a characteristic feature of glaucoma. However, there is a significant overlap in the vertical cup-to-disc ratio (VCDR) between normal eyes and eyes affected by glaucoma. The purpose of this study was to determine the distribution of VCDR and vertical disc diameter (VDD) and their predictive factors in a population of elderly Chinese residents in Taiwan.MethodsFour hundred and sixty elderly Chinese residents aged 72 years and older in the Shihpai district, Taipei, Taiwan participated in this study. Slit lamp biomicroscopic measurement of the VCDR and VDD after pupil dilation with a 78 diopter lens was performed by one glaucoma specialist. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to fit the best model for independent variables.ResultsThe VCDR was recorded for 438 right eyes and 430 left eyes. After excluding participants with glaucoma, the mean ± SD VCDR was 0.44 ± 0.17 for both eyes, and the 97.5th percentile was 0.8. A greater VCDR was associated with a longer axial length [VCDR = −0.47 + 0.04(axial length)] under multiple regression analysis. The VDD was obtained for 420 right eyes and 406 left eyes. The mean ± SD VDD for all participants was 1.77 ± 0.22 mm for the right eye and 1.79 ± 0.22 mm for the left eye. A higher body mass index (BMI) and a longer axial length were significantly associated with a larger VDD under multiple regression analysis. [VDD = −0.05 + 0.07 (axial length) + 0.06 (obesity); if BMI <24, then obesity = 0; if BMI ≥24, then obesity = 1]. A larger VDD was associated with a larger VCDR (p < 0.001) and the VCDR could be predicted by the equation VCDR = −0.07 + 0.3VDD.ConclusionA greater VCDR was related to a longer axial length. A greater VDD was related to a higher BMI and a longer axial length

Optimal Strategic Mining Against Cryptographic Self-Selection in Proof-of-Stake

Cryptographic Self-Selection is a subroutine used to select a leader for modern proof-of-stake consensus protocols, such as Algorand. In cryptographic self-selection, each round $r$ has a seed $Q_r$. In round $r$, each account owner is asked to digitally sign $Q_r$, hash their digital signature to produce a credential, and then broadcast this credential to the entire network. A publicly-known function scores each credential in a manner so that the distribution of the lowest scoring credential is identical to the distribution of stake owned by each account. The user who broadcasts the lowest-scoring credential is the leader for round $r$, and their credential becomes the seed $Q_{r+1}$. Such protocols leave open the possibility of a selfish-mining style attack: a user who owns multiple accounts that each produce low-scoring credentials in round $r$ can selectively choose which ones to broadcast in order to influence the seed for round $r+1$. Indeed, the user can pre-compute their credentials for round $r+1$ for each potential seed, and broadcast only the credential (among those with a low enough score to be the leader) that produces the most favorable seed. We consider an adversary who wishes to maximize the expected fraction of rounds in which an account they own is the leader. We show such an adversary always benefits from deviating from the intended protocol, regardless of the fraction of the stake controlled. We characterize the optimal strategy; first by proving the existence of optimal positive recurrent strategies whenever the adversary owns last than $38\%$ of the stake. Then, we provide a Markov Decision Process formulation to compute the optimal strategy.Comment: 31 pages, ACM EC 202