Care Patterns and Outcomes for Hospitalized Patients with Diabetes in Nevada

This study demonstrates substantial differences between Nevada and the national average in patterns of hospital based care in patients with type 2 diabetes. Diabetic patients in Nevada are more likely to be hospitalized through the emergency department, and more likely to be admitted for a condition related to diabetes. Moreover, in Nevada, Medicaid and uninsured patients with diabetes are more likely to experience adverse outcomes then their privately insured counterparts. These differences may be primarily reflective of variances in access to ambulatory care, care seeking behavior, and availability of health services and facilities. Policies promoting expansion of health care benefits to include coverage for people at risk for type 2 diabetes and strengthening the ambulatory care services network, and system in the state, is necessary to reduce discrepancies in patterns of hospitalization and improve outcomes

Discovery of a tight correlation between pulse lag/luminosity and jet-break times: a connection between gamma-ray burst and afterglow properties

A correlation is presented between the pulse lag and the jet-break time for seven BATSE gamma-ray bursts with known redshifts. This is, to our best knowledge, the first known direct tight correlation between a property of the gamma-ray burst phase (the pulse lag) and the afterglow phase (the jet-break time). As pulse lag and luminosity have been found to be correlated this also represents a correlation between peak luminosity and jet-break time. Observed timescales (variability or spectral lags) as well as peak luminosity naturally have a strong dependence on the Lorentz factor of the outflow and so we propose that much of the variety among GRBs has a purely kinematic origin (the speed or direction of the outflow). We explore a model in which the variation among GRBs is due to a variation in jet-opening angles, and find that the narrowest jets have the fastest outflows. We also explore models in which the jets have similar morphology and size, and the variation among bursts is caused by variation in viewing angle and/or due to a velocity profile. The relations between luminosity, variability, spectral lag and jet-break time can be qualitatively understood from models in which the Lorentz factor decreases as a function of angle from the jet axis. One expects to see high luminosities, short pulse lags and high variability as well as an early jet-break time for bursts viewed on axis, while higher viewing inclinations will yield lower luminosities, longer pulse lags, smoother bursts and later jet-break times.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, accepted to ApJ (new version contains minor changes

The Constitutional Convention and Court Merger in New York State

In November 2017, voters in New York, for the first time in twenty years, will be asked to decide whether there “[s]hall be a convention to revise the constitution and amend the same?” If it is decided by the electorate to call a convention, “delegates will be elected in November 2018, and the convention will convene in April 2019.” One of the significant goals of a convention would be the achievement of court merger in the Empire State. The purpose of this perspective is to discuss the pros and cons of a constitutional convention with an emphasis on court merger

A domain-specific analysis system for examining nuclear reactor simulation data for light-water and sodium-cooled fast reactors

Building a new generation of fission reactors in the United States presents many technical and regulatory challenges. One important challenge is the need to share and present results from new high-fidelity, high-performance simulations in an easily usable way. Since modern multiscale, multi-physics simulations can generate petabytes of data, they will require the development of new techniques and methods to reduce the data to familiar quantities of interest (e.g., pin powers, temperatures) with a more reasonable resolution and size. Furthermore, some of the results from these simulations may be new quantities for which visualization and analysis techniques are not immediately available in the community and need to be developed. This paper describes a new system for managing high-performance simulation results in a domain-specific way that naturally exposes quantities of interest for light water and sodium-cooled fast reactors. It describes requirements to build such a system and the technical challenges faced in its development at all levels (simulation, user interface, etc.). An example comparing results from two different simulation suites for a single assembly in a light-water reactor is presented, along with a detailed discussion of the system's requirements and design.Comment: Article on NiCE's Reactor Analyzer. 23 pages. Keywords: modeling, simulation, analysis, visualization, input-outpu

Adverse Maternal Outcomes in Nevada: Does Asthma Matter?

Objective. Asthma is a common clinical complication of pregnancy and women with asthma are at greater risk of having complications. This study compared adverse maternal outcomes between women with asthma and women without asthma in Nevada. Methods. A total of 64,664 hospital discharges of delivery were abstracted from the Nevada 2003-2004 hospital discharges and thirteen adverse maternal outcomes were examined. Logistic regression was applied to compare the maternal outcomes between women with and without asthma. Results. Women with asthma were more likely to have pre-eclampsia (OR [CI] 1.73 [1.13, 2.65]), transient hypertension of pregnancy (OR [CI] 1.76 [1.11, 2.78]), pregnancy-induced hypertension (OR [CI] 1.89 [1.42, 2.53]), gestational diabetes (OR [CI] 1.89 [1.32, 2.72]), infection of the amniotic cavity (OR [CI] 2.15 [1.29, 3.58]), and cesarean section (OR [CI] 1.87 [1.56, 2.23] ). Conclusion. Women with asthma experienced a greater risk of having adverse maternal outcomes. Community-based education programs, as well as, services offered in traditional healthcare settings should be supported to educate pregnant women about the potential risk factors and the relationship between asthma and maternal outcomes