Prospective data collection for feeding difficulties and nutrition

INTRODUCTION: The Boston Children’s Hospital Growth and Nutrition Program is a multidisciplinary program focused on assisting babies and children under 6 years of age having problems with feeding and/or weight gain. New patients at the clinic are given questionnaires to complete which provide information on patient demographics, social history, feeding history, etc. The knowledge gained from these questionnaires help identify potential feeding disorders, identify risk factors or causes of malnutrition, and allow for tailored treatment in an individual patient. AIM: To describe the demographic, social, and clinical characteristics of a sample of patients referred to the Boston Children’s Hospital Growth and Nutrition Program while determining whether and how the Growth and Nutrition patient questionnaires should be revised and incorporate validated instruments to track patient feeding, stress, diet and body composition outcomes. METHODS: Examination of 239 patient records from 2015 and 2016 was performed. Data was collected and analyzed from questionnaires completed by guardians or caregivers of the patients, as well as the patients’ electronic medical records. Literature review was performed to assess existing feeding assessments as well as mobile intake tracker applications. A review of the mobile intake tracker applications was also performed. RESULTS: The results of analysis on the patient population at the Boston Children’s Hospital Growth and Nutrition Program showed that a majority of patients were White, Non-Hispanic, with private medical insurance and household income of over $60,000 (>60% of recorded patient population for each item). Similar patterns were observed for the rest of the items, with a few exceptions. The Neonatal Eating Assessment Tool (NeoEAT), Pediatric Eating Assessment Tool (Pedi-EAT), and the Child Oral and Motor Proficiency Scale (ChOMPS) feeding assessments had the most justification for use. The mobile applications Baby Connect and MyFitnessPal had the most desired features for clinical use. CONCLUSION: A few items on more specific portions of the questionnaires were deemed unnecessary for further use in the new patient questionnaires, such as having 4th, 5th, and 6th born choices for birth order of the patient (less than 4% of responses chose one of those answers or ‘Other’). The Neonatal Eating Assessment Tool (NeoEAT), Pediatric Eating Assessment Tool (Pedi-EAT), and the Child Oral and Motor Proficiency Scale (ChOMPS) feeding assessments are recommended for incorporation and use alongside the new patient questionnaires at the BCH GNP. The currently in use “Behavioral Pediatric Feeding Assessment Scale”, or “BPFAS”, is not recommended for continued use over the three assessments mentioned above. The mobile applications Baby Connect and MyFitnessPal are recommended for use in tracking of infant feedings and calories respectively, as the applications possessed the most number of desired features

The Transformative Use Test Fails to Protect Actor-Celebrities’ Rights of Publicity

Videogame technology has reached the point where characters can accurately mimic real-life individuals’ faces, features, and expressions. This has prompted new issues in the conflict between the right of publicity and freedom of expression. While the common-law right of publicity prevents the use of one’s identity or image without consent, the First Amendment limits this doctrine’s reach. Courts agree that the right of publicity must be balanced with freedom of expression, but differ on how to do so. A few recent cases, however, indicate that the issue may soon be resolved. The Third and Ninth Circuit Courts, as well as the State of California, have adopted the “transformative use test.” Under this test, unauthorized use of an identity is permissible if the use adds significant creative elements and sufficiently transforms the likeness or identity into original expression. Courts have thus far only applied this test to football videogames using the likenesses of athletes, and none has found the use of these athletes’ likenesses adequately transformative. The transformative use test, although useful in some instances, is incomplete. The Third and Ninth Circuits have allowed football players to protect their likenesses in the football context because football players are primarily known and recognized for one thing—playing football. Actors, on the other hand, may be famous for playing a wide variety of roles. Although some actors are associated with certain characters, many actors assume various roles stretching across diverse genres. This makes it more difficult to determine which actions and environments are popularly associated with an actor. Videogames exacerbate this difficulty because videogames can put characters in any environment, performing any action imaginable. Because videogame characters can now accurately resemble famous actors, a new question has arisen: how to apply the transformative use test to videogames that employ celebrity likenesses without consent. This Comment explains how this new situation highlights a major flaw in the transformative use test

The Transformative Use Test Fails to Protect Actor-Celebrities’ Rights of Publicity

Videogame technology has reached the point where characters can accurately mimic real-life individuals’ faces, features, and expressions. This has prompted new issues in the conflict between the right of publicity and freedom of expression. While the common-law right of publicity prevents the use of one’s identity or image without consent, the First Amendment limits this doctrine’s reach. Courts agree that the right of publicity must be balanced with freedom of expression, but differ on how to do so. A few recent cases, however, indicate that the issue may soon be resolved. The Third and Ninth Circuit Courts, as well as the State of California, have adopted the “transformative use test.” Under this test, unauthorized use of an identity is permissible if the use adds significant creative elements and sufficiently transforms the likeness or identity into original expression. Courts have thus far only applied this test to football videogames using the likenesses of athletes, and none has found the use of these athletes’ likenesses adequately transformative. The transformative use test, although useful in some instances, is incomplete. The Third and Ninth Circuits have allowed football players to protect their likenesses in the football context because football players are primarily known and recognized for one thing—playing football. Actors, on the other hand, may be famous for playing a wide variety of roles. Although some actors are associated with certain characters, many actors assume various roles stretching across diverse genres. This makes it more difficult to determine which actions and environments are popularly associated with an actor. Videogames exacerbate this difficulty because videogames can put characters in any environment, performing any action imaginable. Because videogame characters can now accurately resemble famous actors, a new question has arisen: how to apply the transformative use test to videogames that employ celebrity likenesses without consent. This Comment explains how this new situation highlights a major flaw in the transformative use test

An Hedonic Analysis of the Effects of Lake Water Clarity on New Hampshire Lakefront Properties

Policy makers often face the problem of evaluating how water quality affects a region's economic well-being. Using water clarity as a measure of the degree of eutrophication levels (as a lake becomes inundated with nutrients, water clarity decreases markedly), analysis is performed on sales data collected over a six-year period. Our results indicate that water clarity has a significant effect on prices paid for residential properties. Effects of a one-meter change in clarity on property value are also estimated for an average lake in four real estate market areas in New Hampshire, with effects differing substantially by area. Our findings provide state and local policy makers a measure of the cost of water quality degradation as measured by changes in water clarity, and demonstrate that protecting water quality may have a positive effect on property tax revenues.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Economic state classification and portfolio optimisation with application to stagflationary environments

Motivated by the current fears of a potentially stagflationary global economic environment, this paper uses new and recently introduced mathematical techniques to study multivariate time series pertaining to country inflation (CPI), economic growth (GDP) and equity index behaviours. We begin by assessing the temporal evolution among various economic phenomena, and complement this analysis with "economic driver analysis", where we decouple country economic trajectories and determine what is most important in their association. Next, we study the temporal self-similarity of global inflation, growth and equity index returns to identify the most anomalous historic periods, and windows in the past that are most similar to current market dynamics. We then introduce a new algorithm to construct economic state classifications and compute an economic state integral, where countries are determined to belong in one of four candidate states based on their inflation and growth behaviours. Finally, we implement a decade-by-decade portfolio optimisation to determine which equity indices and portfolio assets have been most beneficial in maximising portfolio risk-adjusted returns in various market conditions. This could be of great interest to those looking for asset allocation guidance in the current period of high economic uncertainty

Determining the Student Services which Align with Undergraduate Student Expectations A Study of Student Perceptions and University Service Delivery

Extant research demonstrates that student support services are a vital link in the success of students and a major component in student per- sistence to graduation. This paper reports the results of an empirical study examining enrolled undergraduate student attitudes and expec- tations regarding student services at two-similarly-sized universities in a major metropolitan area in the southwestern United States. Using survey data and a sample of several hundred students at each school, it analyzes their knowledge of and attitudes about student services, such as health services, career counseling, computer laboratories, student organizations and clubs, and sporting events. This study compares student perspectives at private versus public universities and further analyzes possible differing student needs and expectations that may occur among various student demographic groups. The results of this study are important for several reasons. First, it compares student and administrator perspectives on university services to see if they are similar or if there are possible differences in their views. Since the data informs universities about student attitudes and expectations, the data can help universities to do a better job in aligning services to student perceived needs. Second, the study tests the view that students at private universities may have higher expectations of services versus public university students, and then we explore possible differences between various student demographic groups, clarifying how the needs and expectations may differ among these demographic groups. Finally, the results can help universities to determine the services that are viewed as most critical and invest in those services which are more successfully attracting and retaining those students

Monte Carlo Hamiltonian - From Statistical Physics to Quantum Theory

Monte Carlo techniques have been widely employed in statistical physics as well as in quantum theory in the Lagrangian formulation. However, in some areas of application to quantum theories computational progress has been slow. Here we present a recently developed approach: the Monte Carlo Hamiltonian method, designed to overcome the difficulties of the conventional approach.Comment: StatPhys-Taiwan-1999, 6 pages, LaTeX using elsart.cl

Postoperative Venous Thromboembolism in Asia: A Critical Appraisal of its Incidence

ObjectivesVenous thromboembolism (VTE) has historically been perceived to be a rare disorder in Asia. However, new evidence has emerged recently that contradicts this perception. The question of routine VTE prophylaxis has been hotly debated in Asia due to disagreement on its incidence. We reviewed and analysed studies on postoperative VTE in Asian patients to determine if the condition was indeed rare and if the routine prophylactic measures as recommended by internationally accepted guidelines should be adopted in Asia.MethodsA review of published reports, from 1966 to December 2002, on deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) in the Asian population was made. A literature search of studies published in English was conducted via a detailed MEDLINE search. Studies had to attain a minimum inclusion and quality criteria to be accepted for the review, including the diagnostic modality used for the diagnosis of VTE. The appraisal was carried out independently and accepted by at least two of the three authors. The study population was classified into orthopaedic and general surgical/colorectal groups.ResultsTwelve orthopaedic publications reviewed revealed an incidence of postoperative DVT of 10% to 63%. Six general and colorectal surgical publications reported an incidence of DVT ranging from 3% to 28%. The incidence was slightly lower than the reported incidence of 40% to 80% following orthopaedic surgery and 28% to 44% following general surgical operations in studies reporting on Caucasian populations.ConclusionWhile there is a wide variation in the incidence of DVT and VTE as reported in the Asian population, these diseases are by no means rare. The wide variation could be due to the study designs, heterogeneity of the procedures performed and the application of different diagnostic criteria. Results based on prospective studies with objective diagnostic criteria confirm the incidence of VTE as common. Routine chemoprophylaxis must be seriously considered in high-risk patients

Sodium Bose-Einstein Condensates in an Optical Lattice

The phase transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator has been observed in a $^{23}$Na Bose-Einstein condensate. A dye laser detuned $\approx 5$nm red of the Na $3^2$S$\to 3^2$P$_{1/2}$ transition was used to form the three dimensional optical lattice. The heating effects of the small detuning as well as the three-body decay processes constrained the timescale of the experiment. Certain lattice detunings were found to induce a large loss of atoms. These loss features were shown to be due to photoassociation of atoms to vibrational levels in the Na$_2$ $(1) ^3\Sigma_g^+$ state.Comment: Figures somewhat compromised due to size reductio