Net Cost: How Much Do Students Really Pay for College?

Increasingly, the media, parents and students, and policy-makers are asking how much students must pay to attend college after financial aid is taken into account. We present four ways to calculate net cost and we discuss the merits and drawbacks of each net cost calculation. The results suggest that college remains affordable for most students

A mixed methods study of the factors that influence whether intervention research has policy and practice impacts: perceptions of Australian researchers

Objectives: To investigate researchers’ perceptions about the factors that influenced the policy and practice impacts (or lack of impact) of one of their own funded intervention research studies. Design: Mixed method, cross-sectional study. Setting: Intervention research conducted in Australia and funded by Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council between 2003 and 2007. Participants: The chief investigators from 50 funded intervention research studies were interviewed to determine if their study had achieved policy and practice impacts, how and why these impacts had (or had not) occurred and the approach to dissemination they had employed. Results: We found that statistically significant intervention effects and publication of results influenced whether there were policy and practice impacts, along with factors related to the nature of the intervention itself, the researchers’ experience and connections, their dissemination and translation efforts, and the postresearch context. Conclusions: This study indicates that sophisticated approaches to intervention development, dissemination actions and translational efforts are actually widespread among experienced researches, and can achieve policy and practice impacts. However, it was the links between the intervention results, further dissemination actions by researchers and a variety of postresearch contextual factors that ultimately determined whether a study had policy and practice impacts. Given the complicated interplay between the various factors, there appears to be no simple formula for determining which intervention studies should be funded in order to achieve optimal policy and practice impacts

Tracking funded health intervention research

Objective: To describe the research publication outputs from intervention research funded by Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). Design and setting: Analysis of descriptive data and data on publication outputs collected between 23 July 2012 and 10 December 2013 relating to health intervention research project grants funded between 1 January 2003 and 31 December 2007. Main outcome measures: Stages of development of intervention studies (efficacy, effectiveness, replication, adaptation or dissemination of intervention); types of interventions studied; publication output per NHMRC grant; and whether interventions produced statistically significant changes in primary outcome variables. Results: Most of the identified studies tested intervention efficacy or effectiveness in clinical or community settings, with few testing the later stages of intervention development, such as replication, adaptation or dissemination. Studies focused largely on chronic disease treatment and management, and encompassed various medical and allied health disciplines. Equal numbers of studies had interventions that produced statistically significant results on primary outcomes, (27) and those that did not (27). The mean number of total published articles per grant was 3.3, with 2.0 articles per grant focusing on results, and the remainder covering descriptive, exploratory or methodological aspects of intervention research. Conclusions: Our study provides a benchmark for the publication outputs of NHMRC-funded health intervention research in Australia. Research productivity is particularly important for intervention research, where findings are likely to have more immediate and direct applicability to health policy and practice. Tracking research outputs in this way provides information on whether current research investment patterns match the need for evidence about health care interventions

Perinatal depression in Australian women during the COVID-19 pandemic : the birth in the time of COVID-19 (BITTOC) study

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted perinatal mental health globally. We determined the maternal factors and pandemic-related experiences associated with clinically significant perinatal (pregnant and post-partum) depressive symptoms in Australian women. Participants (n = 2638; pregnant n = 1219, postnatal n = 1419) completed an online survey (August 2020 through February 2021) and self-reported on depression, social support, and COVID-19 related experiences. We found elevated depressive symptoms amongst 26.5% (pregnant) and 19% (postnatal) women. Multiple logistic regression analyses showed higher likelihood of elevated depression associated with residence in Victoria, lower education, past/current mental health problems, greater non-pandemic prenatal stress, age ≥ 35 years (pregnant women) and existing physical health issues or disability in self or others (postnatal women). Greater family stress/discord and lower social support (friends) was associated with higher odds of elevated perinatal depression, while lower social support (family) was significantly associated with elevated depressive symptoms in pregnant women. Greater depression was associated with social distancing, pandemic-related news exposure and changes to prenatal care (pregnant women). Single postnatal women showed lower odds of elevated depression than partnered women. Our findings underscore the importance of universal screening for depression and targeted support during a pandemic for perinatal women displaying vulnerability factors

Combined Report: Aviation Weather Knowledge Assessment & General Aviation (GA) Pilots’ Interpretation of Weather Products

Prior research has indicated that general aviation (GA) pilots may lack adequate knowledge of aviation weather concepts and skill at interpreting aviation weather displays. Therefore, the purpose of the current project was to develop and validate a comprehensive set of aviation weather knowledge and interpretation multiple-choice questions, and in turn, to use the questions to assess pilot understanding of aviation weather concepts and displays. An interdisciplinary research team that included two meteorologists, one Gold Seal Certificated Flight Instructor (CFI), a human factors psychologist, and several human factors graduate students performed this research

Four quasars above redshift 6 discovered by the Canada-France High-z Quasar Survey

The Canada-France High-z Quasar Survey (CFHQS) is an optical survey designed to locate quasars during the epoch of reionization. In this paper we present the discovery of the first four CFHQS quasars at redshift greater than 6, including the most distant known quasar, CFHQS J2329-0301 at z=6.43. We describe the observational method used to identify the quasars and present optical, infrared, and millimeter photometry and optical and near-infrared spectroscopy. We investigate the dust properties of these quasars finding an unusual dust extinction curve for one quasar and a high far-infrared luminosity due to dust emission for another. The mean millimeter continuum flux for CFHQS quasars is substantially lower than that for SDSS quasars at the same redshift, likely due to a correlation with quasar UV luminosity. For two quasars with sufficiently high signal-to-noise optical spectra, we use the spectra to investigate the ionization state of hydrogen at z>5. For CFHQS J1509-1749 at z=6.12, we find significant evolution (beyond a simple extrapolation of lower redshift data) in the Gunn-Peterson optical depth at z>5.4. The line-of-sight to this quasar has one of the highest known optical depths at z~5.8. An analysis of the sizes of the highly-ionized near-zones in the spectra of two quasars at z=6.12 and z=6.43 suggest the IGM surrounding these quasars was substantially ionized before these quasars turned on. Together, these observations point towards an extended reionization process, but we caution that cosmic variance is still a major limitation in z>6 quasar observations.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, AJ, in press, minor changes to previous versio

Comparing Adult Cannabis Treatment-Seekers Enrolled in a Clinical Trial with National Samples of Cannabis Users in the United States

Background—Cannabis use rates are increasing among adults in the United States (US) while the perception of harm is declining. This may result in an increased prevalence of cannabis use disorder and the need for more clinical trials to evaluate efficacious treatment strategies. Clinical trials are the gold standard for evaluating treatment, yet study samples are rarely representative of the target population. This finding has not yet been established for cannabis treatment trials. This study compared demographic and cannabis use characteristics of a cannabis cessation clinical trial sample (run through National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network) with three nationally representative datasets from the US; 1) National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2) National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions-III, and 3) Treatment Episodes Data Set – Admissions. Methods—Comparisons were made between the clinical trial sample and appropriate cannabis using sub-samples from the national datasets, and propensity scores were calculated to determine the degree of similarity between samples. Results—Results showed that the clinical trial sample was significantly different from all three national datasets, with the clinical trial sample having greater representation among older adults, African Americans, Hispanic/Latinos, adults with more education, non-tobacco users, and daily and almost daily cannabis users. Conclusions—These results are consistent with previous studies of other substance use disorder populations and extend sample representation issues to a cannabis use disorder population. This illustrates the need to ensure representative samples within cannabis treatment clinical trials to improve the generalizability of promising findings

Novel mutations support a role for Profilin 1 in the pathogenesis of ALS

AbstractMutations in the gene encoding profilin 1 (PFN1) have recently been shown to cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal neurodegenerative disorder. We sequenced the PFN1 gene in a cohort of ALS patients (n = 485) and detected 2 novel variants (A20T and Q139L), as well as 4 cases with the previously identified E117G rare variant (∼ 1.2%). A case-control meta-analysis of all published E117G ALS+/− frontotemporal dementia cases including those identified in this report was significant p = 0.001, odds ratio = 3.26 (95% confidence interval, 1.6–6.7), demonstrating this variant to be a susceptibility allele. Postmortem tissue from available patients displayed classic TAR DNA-binding protein 43 pathology. In both transient transfections and in fibroblasts from a patient with the A20T change, we showed that this novel PFN1 mutation causes protein aggregation and the formation of insoluble high molecular weight species which is a hallmark of ALS pathology. Our findings show that PFN1 is a rare cause of ALS and adds further weight to the underlying genetic heterogeneity of this disease

Personal Health Budgets: Early experiences of budget holders. Fourth interim report.

Personal health budgets are being piloted in English primary care trusts (PCTs) between 2009 and 2012. This evaluation report looks at the early experiences of a small subsample of budget holders and their representatives. It reports in-depth interviews with 58 people from 17 PCTs, around three months after the offer of a personal health budget, about their experiences of personal health budgets so far

Personal health budgets: experiences and outcomes for budget holders at nine months. Fifth interim report.

Fifty-two people with long-term health problems were interviewed nine months after being offered a personal health budget, as were 13 carers of budget holders three and nine months after the offer of a budget. Together they were drawn from 17 of the Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) that are currently piloting personal health budgets in England. These interviews suggest there is widespread potential for personal health budgets to lead to improvements in health and well-being. However, these benefits risked being reduced by delays and other problems in implementing personal health budgets