Evaluation of the Program Delivery of Every Women\u27s Life in Virginia

Introduction: Among women, breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death. Although technology advances have improved survival rates for breast cancer overall, improvements have not been universally experienced by all socioeconomic and racial groups. Known determinants of breast cancer care disparities include socioeconomic status, race, age, and social support. As a part of the Breast and Cervical Cancer Mortality Prevention Act of 1990 and with the help of CDC funding, the Virginia Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (BCCEDP) or Every Woman’s Life (EWL) was created. EWL provides breast cancer screening to female VA residents between the ages of 18 and 64 who lack health insurance and fall at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level. Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine if delays in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, within the VDH program EWL, differs based on sociodemographic characteristics and/ or regional location. Methods: From its inception to July 2008, 705 women received a breast cancer diagnosis through the EWL program. For these 705 cases prevalence and crude odds ratios were calculated for both diagnosis and treatment delays for all of the demographic variables along with 95% confidence intervals. Adjusted odds ratios were calculated for sociodemographic variables against screening to diagnosis delays and diagnosis to treatment disparities along with 95% confidence intervals. Results: According to the crude odds ratios more women who fall into the other category of race experienced diagnosis delays (OR=2.28 [1.11, 4.67]), but they were more likely to receive treatment in a timely manner (OR=0.29 [0.11, 0.79]). Women living alone were also more likely to experience diagnosis delays (OR=1.49 [1.10, 3.02]). Hispanic women were more likely to receive treatment in a more timely manner than non-Hispanic women (OR=0.21 [0.05, 0.81]). Also, women being treated in any other region than northern VA were more likely to experience treatment delays. However, according to the adjusted odds ratios, the only significant timing delay was the one experienced more often by women in the other race category. Conclusion: The research indicates known indicators of disparities within cancer care as socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, age, and social support. The findings of this study indicate that the only significant indicator of disparity within the Every Women’s Life program is race. Although, African-American women were just as likely to receive timely diagnosis and treatment as white women in the program, it was the combined groups of Asian, American Indian, and other women that were more likely to experience diagnosis, but not treatment, delays. The fact that no other significant indicators of disparities were found within EWL indicates a success of the program, as EWL is targeting those women that would have otherwise been missed by the system

Standardization work for the calibration of intensities of celestial objects

Observations of celestial phenomena need to be calibrated, to be related, to some measurable quantity. There continues to be a long-term need for accurate photometric standard stars, those with known intensities and colors, so that brightness and color measurements made of various celestial phenomena by different observers can be integrated and compared with one another. Toward this end, the author has been emphasizing data collection in recent years for stars of 'intermediate' brightness, those approximately in the magnitude range 11.5 is less than V is less than 16.0. Photoelectric data were obtained at the Cerro Tololo InterAmerican Observatory's (CTIO) telescopes for stars in certain selected areas near the celestial equator. Stars of extreme color outside the selected areas, but near the equator, also were selected to provide a more broad and complete range in color index. It was proposed to complete the photoelectric phase of the program. The author proposed developing extremely faint sequences of photometric standard stars useful for both large space-based detectors and for land-based detectors. These data were to be collected via charge-coupled devices (CCD's) at telescopes located at CTIO and at the Las Campanas Observatory (LCO), both observatories being located in Chile. It was hoped that accurate data could be collected down to the 21st or 22nd magnitude

The CALSPEC Stars P177D and P330E

Multicolor photometric data are presented for the CALSPEC stars P177D and P330E. Together with previously published photometry for nine other CALSPEC standards, the photometric observations and synthetic photometry from HST/STIS spectrophotometry agree in the B, V, R, and I bands to better than $\sim$1\% (10 mmag).Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Trap Response of Michigan Social Wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) to the Feeding Attractants Acetic Acid, Isobutanol, and Heptyl Butyrate.

Nine species of social wasps were captured in traps baited with acetic acid, isobutanol, heptyl butyrate and combinations of acetic acid and either isobutanol or heptyl butyrate. Three yellowjacket species in the Vespula rufa species group were captured in traps (Vespula acadica (Sladen), Vespula consobrina (Saussure), Vespula vidua (Saussure)). They responded similarly, with attraction only to heptyl butyrate. Three yellowjacket species in the Vespula vulgaris species group were also captured in traps (Vespula vulgaris (L.), Vespula flavorpilosa Jacobson, Vespula maculifrons (Buyyson)). They responded similarly, with attraction primarily to the combination of acetic acid and isobutanol. The bald-faced hornet, Dolichovespula maculata (L.), was attracted to acetic acid and was more strongly attracted to the combination of acetic acid and isobutanol. The aerial yellowjacket, Dolichovespula arenaria (Fabr.), was attracted to isobutanol, and was more strongly attracted to the combination of acetic acid and isobutanol. These results add to our understanding of how to target various species of social wasps with chemical lures

Is KR Cygni a Triple Star System?

New multi-color UBVR light curves of the eclipsing binary KR Cyg were obtained in 2005. Photometric solutions were derived using the Wilson- Devinney method. The result shows that KR Cyg is a near-contact binary system with a large effective temperature difference between the components, approximately 5230 K. All the times of minimum light were collected and combined with our observations obtained in 2010 and 2011. Analysing all the times of mid-eclipse, we found for the first time a possible periodic oscillation with an amplitude of 0.001 days and a period of ~76 years. The periodic oscillation could be explained by the light-time effect due to a presumed third component.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figure

NGC 6738: not a real open cluster

A photometric, astrometric and spectroscopic investigation of the poorly studied open cluster NGC 6738 has been performed in order to ascertain its real nature. NGC 6738 is definitely not a physical stellar ensemble: photometry does not show a defined mean sequence, proper motions and radial velocities are randomly distributed, spectro-photometric parallaxes range between 10 and 1600 pc, and the apparent luminosity function is identical to that of the surrounding field. NGC 6738 therefore appears to be an apparent concentration of a few bright stars projected on patchy background absorption.Comment: A&A, in press (compared with first submission to astro-ph, now Table 2 and Figure 4 are replaced with corrected versions

Neutrinos and Energetics of the Earth

We estimate terrestrial antineutrino and neutrino fluxes according to different models of Earth composition. We find large variations, corresponding to uncertainties on the estimated $U$, $Th$ and $K$ abundances in the mantle. Information on the mantle composition can be derived from antineutrino flux measurements after subtracting the crust contribution. This requires a good description of the crust composition in the region of the detector site. Measurements of terrestrial antineutrinos will provide a direct insight on the main sources of Earth's heat flow.Comment: 11 pages, RevTeX file. To appear on Phys. Lett. B. Addendum contains comparison with KamLAND result

The Stink Bugs (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) of Washington State

Froeschner (1988) recorded 23 species of stink bugs (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) from Washington State. Based on material primarily housed in the M. T. James Entomological Collection at Washington State University, the number of species is increased to 51. Three species recorded by Froeschner (1988) were not found in our collections: Apateticus crocatus (Uhler), Chlorochroa rossiana Buxton and Thomas, and Tepa rugulosa (Say). Species recorded from Washington State for the first time are: Apoecilus bracteatus (Fitch), Perillus bioculatus (Fabricius), Podisus maculiventris (Say), P. pallens (Stål), P. placidus Uhler, P. serieventris Uhler, Zicrona caerulea (Linnaeus), Halyomorpha halys (Stål), Brochymena quadripustulata (Fabricius), B. sulcata Van Duzee, Acrosternum hilare (Say), Aelia americana Dallas, Banasa euchlora Stål, B. tumidifrons Thomas and Yonke, Chlorochroa congrua Uhler, Coenus delius (Say), Cosmopepla uhleri Montandon, Dendrocoris pini Montandon, Euschistus servus (Say), E. tristigmus (Say), E. variolarius (Palisot), Holcostethus limbolarius (Say), Neottiglossa sulcifrons Stål, N. undata (Say), Prionosoma podopioides (Uhler), Tepa yerma (Rolston), Trichopepla grossa (Van Duzee), and Amaurochrous vanduzeei Barber and Sailer

Photometric Calibration of the Supernova Legacy Survey Fields

We present the photometric calibration of the Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS) fields. The SNLS aims at measuring the distances to SNe Ia at (0.3<z<1) using MegaCam, the 1 deg^2 imager on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). The uncertainty affecting the photometric calibration of the survey dominates the systematic uncertainty of the key measurement of the survey, namely the dark energy equation of state. The photometric calibration of the SNLS requires obtaining a uniform response across the imager, calibrating the science field stars in each survey band (SDSS-like ugriz bands) with respect to standards with known flux in the same bands, and binding the calibration to the UBVRI Landolt standards used to calibrate the nearby SNe from the literature necessary to produce cosmological constraints. The spatial non-uniformities of the imager photometric response are mapped using dithered observations of dense stellar fields. Photometric zero-points against Landolt standards are obtained. The linearity of the instrument is studied. We show that the imager filters and photometric response are not uniform and publish correction maps. We present models of the effective passbands of the instrument as a function of the position on the focal plane. We define a natural magnitude system for MegaCam. We show that the systematics affecting the magnitude-to-flux relations can be reduced if we use the spectrophotometric standard star BD +17 4708 instead of Vega as a fundamental flux standard. We publish ugriz catalogs of tertiary standards for all the SNLS fields.Comment: 46 pages, 23 figures. Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysics. Online material available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/ or alternatively from: http://supernovae.in2p3.fr/snls3/regnault09_cds.tar.g

Zur Kenntnis der Taxonomie und Verbreitung der Alpenpflanzen

Abstract.: Landolt E. 2006. Remarks on the present taxonomic and chorological knowledge of the Alpine flora. Bot. Helv. 116: 79-90. Recently published Floras of the Alps or of parts of the Alps show that our taxonomic and chorological knowledge of the Alpine flora is still incomplete regarding the morphology, delimitation and distribution of many taxa. The situation is demonstrated and discussed by different examples. Compared to Floras of the 20th century only few of the many critical aggregates of taxa have been clarified despite new study methods. A proposal is given to survey and improve our information on Alpine plant tax