203 research outputs found
Killing the Patient to Cure the Disease: Medicare\u27s Jurisdictional Bar Does Not Apply to Bankruptcy Courts
The Social Security Act requires an exhaustion of administrative remedies prior to judicial review through 42 U.S.C. §§ 405(g) & (h). A hospital\u27s appeal from a claim of overpayment by the government can take years, forcing hospital closure due to a lack of continued Medicare payments. Historically, some bankruptcy courts, looking to legislative history, have found that they lack jurisdiction over Medicare claims prior to the exhaustion of administrative remedies. However, in In re Bayou Shores, SNF, LLC and In re Nurses\u27 Registry and Home Health Corp., the bankruptcy court found that under the plain language of § 405(h) it did have jurisdiction of Medicare claims. This Article argues that courts should continue to adopt a plain language interpretation of § 405(h), which is consistent with the purpose of the Code
Breaking new ground in mapping human settlements from space -The Global Urban Footprint-
Today 7.2 billion people inhabit the Earth and by 2050 this number will have
risen to around nine billion, of which about 70 percent will be living in
cities. Hence, it is essential to understand drivers, dynamics, and impacts of
the human settlements development. A key component in this context is the
availability of an up-to-date and spatially consistent map of the location and
distribution of human settlements. It is here that the Global Urban Footprint
(GUF) raster map can make a valuable contribution. The new global GUF binary
settlement mask shows a so far unprecedented spatial resolution of 0.4 arcsec
() that provides - for the first time - a complete picture of the
entirety of urban and rural settlements. The GUF has been derived by means of a
fully automated processing framework - the Urban Footprint Processor (UFP) -
that was used to analyze a global coverage of more than 180,000 TanDEM-X and
TerraSAR-X radar images with 3m ground resolution collected in 2011-2012.
Various quality assessment studies to determine the absolute GUF accuracy based
on ground truth data on the one hand and the relative accuracies compared to
established settlements maps on the other hand, clearly indicate the added
value of the new global GUF layer, in particular with respect to the
representation of rural settlement patterns. Generally, the GUF layer achieves
an overall absolute accuracy of about 85\%, with observed minima around 65\%
and maxima around 98 \%. The GUF will be provided open and free for any
scientific use in the full resolution and for any non-profit (but also
non-scientific) use in a generalized version of 2.8 arcsec ().
Therewith, the new GUF layer can be expected to break new ground with respect
to the analysis of global urbanization and peri-urbanization patterns,
population estimation or vulnerability assessment
Evaluation of a sampling method for Xylella fastidiosa detection in olive trees
To assess the presence of the xylem-limited bacterium Xylella
fastidiosa subsp. pauca strain CoDiRO in olive trees, a specific
sampling method was evaluated. Symptomatic and symptomless
plants were randomly selected in four olive orchards located in the
province of Lecce (Southern Italy). The crown of each plant was
subdivided into a lower and an upper portion; four samples were
collected from each layer in the main four cardinal directions. A
total of eight samples per plant, composed of one- or two-year-old
asymptomatic twigs, were collected next to branches showing leafscorch
symptoms. In this preliminary study, the null hypothesis was
tested. i.e. there is no difference between the lower and the upper
portions of the tree canopy and across the four cardinal directions. Samples (472), collected from 60 plants belonging to 11 different
olive cultivars, were tested by qPCR. Out of 236 samples taken
from the upper and lower parts of the canopy only 38.1% of lower
samples, in contrast to 56.8% taken from the upper crown layer,
were positive to the bacterium,. The McNemar test determined that
there is a statistically significant difference in the proportion of
positive samples between the upper and lower crown (p < 0.001).
The Cochran’s Q test was performed to evaluate differences in the
four cardinal directions. The null hypothesis suggesting there is
no difference across cardinal directions was confirmed (p = 0.097).
Based on these preliminary results, it appears that sampling should
be directed to the upper part of the canopy. However, further studies
are needed to improve the efficiency of the sampling technique
Versatile and non-cytotoxic GelMA-xanthan gum biomaterial ink for extrusion-based 3D bioprinting
Extrusion-based 3D bioprinting allows the 3D printing of bioinks, composed of cells and biomaterials, to mimic the complex 3D hierarchical structure of native tissues. Successful 3D bioprinting requires bioinks with specific properties, such as biocompatibility, printability, and biodegradability according to the desired application. In the present work, we aimed at developing a new versatile blend of gelatin methacryloyl-xanthan gum (GelMA-XG) suitable for extrusion-based 3D bioprinting with a straightforward process. To this end, we first optimized the process of gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) synthesis by investigating the impact of different buffer solutions on the degree of functionalization, swelling degree, and degradation rate. The addition of xanthan gum (XG) enabled further tuning of biodegradability and an improvement of GelMA printability. Specifically, an optimal concentration of XG was found through rheological characterization and printability tests. The optimized blend showed enhanced printability and improved shape fidelity as well as its degradation products turned out to be non-cytotoxic, thus laying the foundation for cell-based applications. In conclusion, our newly developed biomaterial ink is a promising candidate for extrusion-based 3D bioprinting
First international proficiency testing for laboratory performance on Xylella fastidiosa detection
A proficiency test (PT) to evaluate the performance of laboratories involved in molecular
and serological detection of X. fastidiosa was carried out in early 2017; 35 laboratories from EU/non-
EU Countries tested 4 different methods to purify DNA, conventional and qPCR assays, and 2 ELISA
tests. The number of resultant positive agreement/negative agreement/positive deviation/negative
deviation was used to determine the laboratory performance (i.e. accuracy 100%). The overall results
showed that all laboratories were able to correctly diagnose X. fastidiosa in the blind samples containing the highest X. fastidiosa concentrations, whereas the performance of several laboratories
was negatively affected by the lack of detection in the samples with the lowest concentrations, both
through molecular and serological tests. Accuracy level of 100% (laboratory conformed to the PT) was
successfully recovered in the majority of the laboratories performing qPCR and PCR assays on DNA
purified using at least 2 of the 4 tested protocols. The use of automated platform ensured higher
laboratory performance. As expected, results of the ELISA tests generated lower performance values
in the majority of the laboratories, due to the lack of detection of positive samples containing the
lowest the bacterial concentration. This study provides a good overview on the laboratory
performance for the diagnostics currently used in the EPPO countries and indicate useful
improvements that laboratories can adopt to achieve a better performance
Embryo Culture, In Vitro Propagation, and Molecular Identification for Advanced Olive Breeding Programs
The high biodiversity of the olive tree is an important opportunity to develop sustainable plans to control Xylella fastidiosa (X) through breeding programs. Olive tree breeding activities have been limited due to various features of this species including the long time required for seed germination caused by the inhibition effect of the woody endocarp, the seed integument, and the endosperm. Starting from F1 seeds by cross-breeding, the embryo culture was compared with traditional seed germination, evaluating the effectiveness of in vitro multiplication of the plantlets for large-scale production. The isolated embryos were established on a new medium based on Rugini ‘84 macroelements, Murashige & Skoog ‘62 microelements, with Nitsch J. P. & Nitsch C. ‘69 vitamine and subcultured on Leva MSM modified. The results obtained confirmed that in vitro culture of olive embryos is a valid tool for increasing the percentage and speed of germination, helping to reduce the time of the olive breeding programs, offering the possibility to effectively propagate plantlets for further experiments
Effects of Obesity and Thrombophilia on the Risk of Abortion in Women Undergoing In Vitro Fertilization.
Introduction
Obesity is associated with a higher risk of abortion in women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF). Whether thrombophilia amplifies this risk is currently unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of thrombophilia on the risk of abortion in obese women treated with IVF.
Methods
Patient characteristics, presence of inherited or acquired thrombophilia, and comorbidities were prospectively collected before the procedure in consecutive women undergoing IVF. The primary outcome was the incidence of abortion among women who achieved a clinical pregnancy.
Results
A total of 633 non-obese and 49 obese Caucasian women undergoing IVF were included. 204 (32%) women achieved clinical pregnancy, of whom six had an ectopic pregnancy and 63 experienced an abortion. The incidence of abortion was higher in obese women compared to non-obese women after adjusting for age (64.3% vs. 29.3%, odds ratio [OR] 4.41; 95% CI 1.41 to 13.81). Women with one or more thrombophilia were at increased risk of abortion relative to those without thrombophilia (OR 2.70; 95% CI 1.34 to 5.45), and the risk seemed to be higher with hereditary (OR 5.12; 95% CI 1.77 to 14.8) than acquired thrombophilia (OR 1.92; 95% CI 0.52 to 5.12; p for interaction 0.194). Among obese women, the presence of one or more thrombophilia seemed associated with a substantially increased risk of abortion (unadjusted OR 14.00; 95% CI 0.94 to 207.6).
Conclusions
Obese women undergoing IVF have a high risk of abortion which seems further amplified by the concomitant presence of thrombophilia
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