Secondary Data Analysis of Informal Caregiving in a Medicare Population

The purpose of the study is to describe the status of informal caregiving within a subset of the Medicare population that is receiving some of its health care in the home and patient outcomes associated with informal caregiving. Rural settings and medication issues will be a particular focus

Social Norms and Risk Perception: Predictors of Distracted Driving Behavior Among Novice Adolescent Drivers

AbstractPurposeAdolescent drivers are at elevated crash risk due to distracted driving behavior (DDB). Understanding parental and peer influences on adolescent DDB may aid future efforts to decrease crash risk. We examined the influence of risk perception, sensation seeking, as well as descriptive and injunctive social norms on adolescent DDB using the theory of normative social behavior.Methods403 adolescents (aged 16–18 years) and their parents were surveyed by telephone. Survey instruments measured self-reported sociodemographics, DDB, sensation seeking, risk perception, descriptive norms (perceived parent DDB, parent self-reported DDB, and perceived peer DDB), and injunctive norms (parent approval of DDB and peer approval of DDB). Hierarchical multiple linear regression was used to predict the influence of descriptive and injunctive social norms, risk perception, and sensation seeking on adolescent DDB.Results92% of adolescents reported regularly engaging in DDB. Adolescents perceived that their parents and peers participated in DDB more frequently than themselves. Adolescent risk perception, parent DDB, perceived parent DDB, and perceived peer DDB were predictive of adolescent DDB in the regression model, but parent approval and peer approval of DDB were not predictive. Risk perception and parental DDB were stronger predictors among males, whereas perceived parental DDB was stronger for female adolescents.ConclusionsAdolescent risk perception and descriptive norms are important predictors of adolescent distracted driving. More study is needed to understand the role of injunctive normative influences on adolescent DDB. Effective public health interventions should address parental role modeling, parental monitoring of adolescent driving, and social marketing techniques that correct misconceptions of norms related to around driver distraction and crash risk

The no-defect conjecture in cosmic crystallography

The topology of space is usually assumed simply connected, but could be multi-connected. We review in the latter case the possibility that topological defects arising at high energy phase transitions might still be present and find that either they are very unlikely to form at all, or space is effectively simply connected on scales up to the horizon size.Comment: LaTeX-REVTeX, 5 pages and 2 figures uuencoded, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Numerical models of irrotational binary neutron stars in general relativity

We report on general relativistic calculations of quasiequilibrium configurations of binary neutron stars in circular orbits with zero vorticity. These configurations are expected to represent realistic situations as opposed to corotating configurations. The Einstein equations are solved under the assumption of a conformally flat spatial 3-metric (Wilson-Mathews approximation). The velocity field inside the stars is computed by solving an elliptical equation for the velocity scalar potential. Results are presented for sequences of constant baryon number (evolutionary sequences). Although the central density decreases much less with the binary separation than in the corotating case, it still decreases. Thus, no tendency is found for the stars to individually collapse to black hole prior to merger.Comment: Minor corrections, improved figure, 5 pages, REVTeX, Phys. Rev. Lett. in pres

Localisation of massive fermions on the brane

We construct an explicit model to describe fermions confined on a four dimensional brane embedded in a five dimensional anti-de Sitter spacetime. We extend previous works to accommodate massive bound states on the brane and exhibit the transverse structure of the fermionic fields. We estimate analytically and calculate numerically the fermion mass spectrum on the brane, which we show to be discrete. The confinement life-time of the bound states is evaluated, and it is shown that existing constraints can be made compatible with the existence of massive fermions trapped on the brane for durations much longer than the age of the Universe.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX-RevTex, 15 figures, submitted to PR