2,521 research outputs found
Neither boom nor bust: how Houston's housing market differs from nation's
The ongoing housing downturn has served as a significant headwind for the U.S. economy, subtracting nearly a percentage point from the country's gross domestic product growth in each of the past six quarters. However, this downturn has not been uniform across the country. Houston is an example of a metropolitan area that was seemingly immune to the trend until its housing market began slowing significantly in mid-2007. ; Houston did not share in the rapid price appreciation seen by some large metros in the early 2000s or the sharp downturn of late 2006 and early 2007. But the tightening of credit standards since August has affected Houston disproportionately. Mortgage and housing markets have seen wide variations in performance as a result of the downturn, and this is Houston's story in the context of the national housing market turmoil.Housing ; Texas
Recent data indicate that black women are at greater risk of severe morbidity and mortality from postpartum haemorrhage, both before and after adjusting for comorbidity.
Recent data indicate that black women are at greater risk of severe morbidity and mortality from postpartum haemorrhage, both before and after adjusting for comorbidity. Causes of increased risk of severe morbidity and mortality related to postpartum haemorrhage in black women in the USA are poorly understood and warrant further research.
There is a need for tailored maternity services and improved access to care for women from ethnic minorities
Protocol of a test of hearing health education programs for farm and rural youth
Abstract
Background
Farm and rural youth have frequent exposure to hazardous noise on the farm and recreationally, and have an increased prevalence of noise-induced hearing loss. There is a lack of programs to prepare this high-risk population to use hearing conservation strategies.
Methods
The purpose of this project is to test innovative hearing health education programs delivered to a large target group and to determine the effectiveness and sustainability of these programs in promoting hearing health among farm and rural youth. Specifically, this project includes: a) an interactive face-to-face informational program alone, b) an interactive face-to-face informational program followed by an Internet-based booster, and c) a no-intervention control. Sites will include selected affiliates of a major farm youth safety education organization. Data will be collected at baseline, 3, and 12Â months. A linear mixed model will be used to compare the effectiveness of the three interventions over time. Descriptive statistics will be used to compare program costs and sustainability ratings.
Discussion
Outcomes of this project will provide knowledge necessary to implement quality and cost-effective services to farm and rural youth, a high-risk and underserved population, that can be implemented and sustained after the study is completed.
Trial registration
Clinicaltrials.gov
NCT02472821
Registered 09 Jun, 2015.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/115460/1/12889_2015_Article_2393.pd
Electrochemical Investigation of Doped Titanium Dioxide
Thin films of transition-metal doped (0.2, 1.0, and 5.0 atom%) TiO2 were prepared on titanium foil using a sol-gel route catalyzed by ammonium acetate. Dopants investigated were the fourth-period transition metals. The prepared films were characterised by Raman spectroscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy, and photoelectrochemical methods. The films doped with transition metals showed a lower photocurrent response than undoped samples. No major red shift in the photocurrent response spectra of the doped films was observed. A photocurrent response was observed under visible light irradiation of the samples and was potential dependent peaking around −0.3 V (SCE), which is indicative of electron promotion from a filled defect level. Examination of the defect level potential dependence by analysis of the current-time response under chopped illumination at fixed potential (−0.8 V–+1.07 V) gave a good correlation with the potential dependence observed in the visible light irradiation studies
Longitudinal LASSO: Jointly Learning Features and Temporal Contingency for Outcome Prediction
Longitudinal analysis is important in many disciplines, such as the study of
behavioral transitions in social science. Only very recently, feature selection
has drawn adequate attention in the context of longitudinal modeling. Standard
techniques, such as generalized estimating equations, have been modified to
select features by imposing sparsity-inducing regularizers. However, they do
not explicitly model how a dependent variable relies on features measured at
proximal time points. Recent graphical Granger modeling can select features in
lagged time points but ignores the temporal correlations within an individual's
repeated measurements. We propose an approach to automatically and
simultaneously determine both the relevant features and the relevant temporal
points that impact the current outcome of the dependent variable. Meanwhile,
the proposed model takes into account the non-{\em i.i.d} nature of the data by
estimating the within-individual correlations. This approach decomposes model
parameters into a summation of two components and imposes separate block-wise
LASSO penalties to each component when building a linear model in terms of the
past measurements of features. One component is used to select features
whereas the other is used to select temporal contingent points. An accelerated
gradient descent algorithm is developed to efficiently solve the related
optimization problem with detailed convergence analysis and asymptotic
analysis. Computational results on both synthetic and real world problems
demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed approach over existing
techniques.Comment: Proceedings of the 21th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on
Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining. ACM, 201
Efficacy of hearing conservation education programs for youth and young adults: a systematic review
Abstract
Background
Many youth and young adults experience high noise exposure compounded by lack of access to hearing health education. Although the need for hearing health education programs is evident, the efficacy of these programs for youth is unclear. We evaluated the literature for efficacy of various hearing conservation programs aimed at youth and young adults, and analyzed their strengths and limitations.
Methods
Studies reporting results of hearing conservation or hearing loss prevention programs with youth or young adults, using randomized controlled trials, quasi-experimental designs, experimental design, or qualitative research, and published in peer-reviewed journals in English between 2001 and 2018 were included. Studies were found through searches of selected literature databases (i.e., PubMed, Google Scholar, NIOSH Toxline, and Scopus). Identified publications were assessed for relevance, and data were extracted from the studies deemed relevant.
Results
A total of 10 studies were included. Very little evidence of efficacy of hearing conservation educational programs was found in these studies. Several methodological limitations including lack of rigorous study designs, inadequate power, and application of inappropriate statistical analysis were noted. Some use of technology in programs (e.g., smartphone apps, mobile phone text messages, and computers) was observed, but conclusions as to the effectiveness of these tools were limited by the small number of studies and small sample sizes.
Conclusions
The number of studies of educational hearing conservation programs for youth and young adults was low. The efficacy of the program was not reported in most studies, and it is difficult to draw public health conclusions from these studies due to their multiple methodological limitations. While use of technology in hearing conservation educational programs offers promise, its effectiveness has not been studied.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146515/1/12889_2018_Article_6198.pd
Predictors of use of hearing protection among a representative sample of farmers
Farmers experience higher rates of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) than workers in most other industries. We developed a model of farmers' use of hearing protection, and tested it with a random sample ( n  = 532) of farmers from the upper Midwest. Barriers to using hearing protection (e.g., difficulty communicating; OR  = .44, p  < .003) were negatively related to use. Greater access/availability of hearing protectors ( OR  = 1.75, p  < .010) and male gender ( OR  = .43, p  < .019) were positively related to use. The model correctly predicted use of hearing protection for 74% of the cases. Overall, farmers demonstrated low hearing protector use, and results were similar to those from previous studies of non-farm workers. Findings from this study will be useful in designing interventions to increase farmers' hearing protector use and decrease their rates of NIHL. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Res Nurs Health 33:528–538, 2010Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78292/1/20410_ftp.pd
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