In-hospital fellow coverage reduces communication errors in the surgical intensive care unit.

PubMed

Williams, Mallory; Alban, Rodrigo F; Hardy, James P; Oxman, David A; Garcia, Edward R; Hevelone, Nathanael; Frendl, Gyorgy; Rogers, Selwyn O

2014-06-01

Staff coverage strategies of intensive care units (ICUs) impact clinical outcomes. High-intensity staff coverage strategies are associated with lower morbidity and mortality. Accessible clinical expertise, team work, and effective communication have all been attributed to the success of this coverage strategy. We evaluate the impact of in-hospital fellow coverage (IHFC) on improving communication of cardiorespiratory events. A prospective observational study performed in an academic tertiary care center with high-intensity staff coverage. The main outcome measure was resident to fellow communication of cardiorespiratory events during IHFC vs home coverage (HC) periods. Three hundred twelve cardiorespiratory events were collected in 114 surgical ICU patients in 134 study days. Complete data were available for 306 events. One hundred three communication errors occurred. IHFC was associated with significantly better communication of events compared to HC (P<.0001). Residents communicated 89% of events during IHFC vs 51% of events during HC (P<.001). Communication patterns of junior and midlevel residents were similar. Midlevel residents communicated 68% of all on-call events (87% IHFC vs 50% HC, P<.001). Junior residents communicated 66% of events (94% IHFC vs 52% HC, P<.001). Communication errors were lower in all ICUs during IHFC (P<.001). IHFC reduced communication errors. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Demand for prescription drugs under non-linear pricing in Medicare Part D.

PubMed

Jung, Kyoungrae; Feldman, Roger; McBean, A Marshall

2014-03-01

We estimate the price elasticity of prescription drug use in Medicare Part D, which features a non-linear price schedule due to a coverage gap. We analyze patterns of drug utilization prior to the coverage gap, where the "effective price" is higher than the actual copayment for drugs because consumers anticipate that more spending will make them more likely to reach the gap. We find that enrollees' total pre-gap drug spending is sensitive to their effective prices: the estimated price elasticity of drug spending ranges between [Formula: see text]0.14 and [Formula: see text]0.36. This finding suggests that filling in the coverage gap, as mandated by the health care reform legislation passed in 2010, will influence drug utilization prior to the gap. A simulation analysis indicates that closing the gap could increase Part D spending by a larger amount than projected, with additional pre-gap costs among those who do not hit the gap.

Final Environmental Assessment for Wide Area Coverage Construct Land Mobile Network Communications Infrastructure Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-02-01

FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT February 2008 Malmstrom ® AFB WIDE AREA COVERAGE CONSTRUCT LAND MOBILE NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE...Wide Area Coverage Construct Land Mobile Network Communications Infrastructure Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT...SIGNIFICANT IMPACT WIDE AREA COVERAGE CONSTRUCT LAND MOBILE NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, MONTANA The

Gaps in health insurance: why so many Americans experience breaks in coverage and how the Affordable Care Act will help: findings from the Commonwealth Fund Health Insurance Tracking Survey of U.S. Adults, 2011.

PubMed

Collins, Sara R; Robertson, Ruth; Garber, Tracy; Doty, Michelle M

2012-04-01

The Commonwealth Fund Health Insurance Tracking Survey of U.S. Adults finds that one-quarter of adults ages 19 to 64 experienced a gap in their health insurance in 2011, with a majority remaining uninsured for one year or more. Losing or changing jobs was the primary reason people experienced a gap. Compared with adults who had continuous coverage, those who experienced gaps were less likely to have a regular doctor and less likely to be up to date with recommended preventive care tests, with rates declining as the length of the coverage gap increases. Early provisions of the Affordable Care Act are already helping bridge gaps in coverage among young adults and people with preexisting conditions. Beginning in 2014, new affordable health insurance options through Medicaid and state insurance exchanges will enable adults and their families to remain insured even in the face of job changes and other life disruptions.

State Medicaid Coverage, ESRD Incidence, and Access to Care

PubMed Central

Goldstein, Benjamin A.; Hall, Yoshio N.; Mitani, Aya A.; Winkelmayer, Wolfgang C.

2014-01-01

The proportion of low-income nonelderly adults covered by Medicaid varies widely by state. We sought to determine whether broader state Medicaid coverage, defined as the proportion of each state’s low-income nonelderly adult population covered by Medicaid, associates with lower state-level incidence of ESRD and greater access to care. The main outcomes were incidence of ESRD and five indicators of access to care. We identified 408,535 adults aged 20–64 years, who developed ESRD between January 1, 2001, and December 31, 2008. Medicaid coverage among low-income nonelderly adults ranged from 12.2% to 66.0% (median 32.5%). For each additional 10% of the low-income nonelderly population covered by Medicaid, there was a 1.8% (95% confidence interval, 1.0% to 2.6%) decrease in ESRD incidence. Among nonelderly adults with ESRD, gaps in access to care between those with private insurance and those with Medicaid were narrower in states with broader coverage. For a 50-year-old white woman, the access gap to the kidney transplant waiting list between Medicaid and private insurance decreased by 7.7 percentage points in high (>45%) versus low (<25%) Medicaid coverage states. Similarly, the access gap to transplantation decreased by 4.0 percentage points and the access gap to peritoneal dialysis decreased by 3.8 percentage points in high Medicaid coverage states. In conclusion, states with broader Medicaid coverage had a lower incidence of ESRD and smaller insurance-related access gaps. PMID:24652791

Responding to a cVDPV1 outbreak in Ukraine: Implications, challenges and opportunities.

PubMed

Khetsuriani, Nino; Perehinets, Ihor; Nitzan, Dorit; Popovic, Dragoslav; Moran, Thomas; Allahverdiyeva, Vusala; Huseynov, Shahin; Gavrilin, Eugene; Slobodianyk, Liudmyla; Izhyk, Olha; Sukhodolska, Anna; Hegazi, Sahar; Bulavinova, Katerina; Platov, Sergei; O'Connor, Patrick

2017-08-24

The European Region, certified polio-free in 2002, remains at risk of wild poliovirus reintroduction and emergence of circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV) until global polio eradication is achieved, as demonstrated by the cVDPV1 outbreak in Ukraine in 2015. We reviewed epidemiologic, clinical and virology data on cVDPV cases, surveillance and immunization coverage data, and reports of outbreak-related surveys, country missions, and expert group meetings. In Ukraine, 3-dose polio vaccine coverage declined from 91% in 2008 to 15% by mid-2015. In summer, 2015, two unrelated children from Zakarpattya province were paralyzed by a highly divergent cVDPV1. The isolates were 20 and 26 nucleotide divergent from prototype Sabin strain (with 18 identical mutations) consistent with their common origin and ∼2-year evolution. Outbreak response recommendations developed with international partner support included conducting three nationwide supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) with tOPV, strengthening surveillance and implementing communication interventions. SIAs were conducted during October 2015-February 2016 (officially reported coverage, round 1-64.4%, round 2-71.7%, and round 3-80.7%). Substantial challenges to outbreak response included lack of high-level support, resistance to OPV use, low perceived risk of polio, widespread vaccine hesitancy, anti-vaccine media environment, economic crisis and military conflict. Communication activities improved caregiver awareness of polio and confidence in vaccination. Surveillance was enhanced but did not consistently meet applicable performance standards. Post-outbreak assessments concluded that cVDPV1 transmission in Ukraine has likely stopped following the response, but significant gaps in population immunity and surveillance remained. Chronic under-vaccination in Ukraine resulted in the accumulation of children susceptible to polioviruses and created favorable conditions for VDPV1 emergence and circulation, leading to the outbreak. Until programmatic gaps in immunization and surveillance are addressed, Ukraine will remain at high-risk for VDPV emergence and circulation, as well as at risk for other vaccine-preventable diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Racial gaps in child health insurance coverage in four South American countries: the role of wealth, human capital, and other household characteristics.

PubMed

Wehby, George L; Murray, Jeffrey C; McCarthy, Ann Marie; Castilla, Eduardo E

2011-12-01

OBJECTIVE. To evaluate the extent of racial gaps in child health insurance coverage in South America and study the contribution of wealth, human capital, and other household characteristics to accounting for racial disparities in insurance coverage. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING. Primary data collected between 2005 and 2006 in 30 pediatric practices in Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, and Chile. DESIGN. Country-specific regression models are used to assess differences in insurance coverage by race. A decomposition model is used to quantify the extent to which wealth, human capital, and other household characteristics account for racial disparities in insurance coverage. DATA COLLECTION/EXTRACTION METHODS. In-person interviews were conducted with the mothers of 2,365 children. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS. The majority of children have no insurance coverage except in Chile. Large racial disparities in insurance coverage are observed. Household wealth is the single most important household-level factor accounting for racial disparities in coverage and is significantly and positively associated with coverage, followed by maternal education and employment/occupational status. Geographic differences account for the largest part of racial disparities in insurance coverage in Argentina and Ecuador. CONCLUSIONS. Increasing the coverage of children in less affluent families is important for reducing racial gaps in health insurance coverage in the study countries. © Health Research and Educational Trust.

Changes in drug utilization during a gap in insurance coverage: an examination of the medicare Part D coverage gap.

PubMed

Polinski, Jennifer M; Shrank, William H; Huskamp, Haiden A; Glynn, Robert J; Liberman, Joshua N; Schneeweiss, Sebastian

2011-08-01

Nations are struggling to expand access to essential medications while curbing rising health and drug spending. While the US government's Medicare Part D drug insurance benefit expanded elderly citizens' access to drugs, it also includes a controversial period called the "coverage gap" during which beneficiaries are fully responsible for drug costs. We examined the impact of entering the coverage gap on drug discontinuation, switching to another drug for the same indication, and drug adherence. While increased discontinuation of and adherence to essential medications is a regrettable response, increased switching to less expensive but therapeutically interchangeable medications is a positive response to minimize costs. We followed 663,850 Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Part D or retiree drug plans with prescription and health claims in 2006 and/or 2007 to determine who reached the gap spending threshold, n = 217,131 (33%). In multivariate Cox proportional hazards models, we compared drug discontinuation and switching rates in selected drug classes after reaching the threshold between all 1,993 who had no financial assistance during the coverage gap (exposed) versus 9,965 multivariate propensity score-matched comparators with financial assistance (unexposed). Multivariate logistic regressions compared drug adherence (≤ 80% versus >80% of days covered). Beneficiaries reached the gap spending threshold on average 222 d ±79. At the drug level, exposed beneficiaries were twice as likely to discontinue (hazard ratio [HR]  = 2.00, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.64-2.43) but less likely to switch a drug (HR  = 0.60, 0.46-0.78) after reaching the threshold. Gap-exposed beneficiaries were slightly more likely to have reduced adherence (OR  = 1.07, 0.98-1.18). A lack of financial assistance after reaching the gap spending threshold was associated with a doubling in discontinuing essential medications but not switching drugs in 2006 and 2007. Blunt cost-containment features such as the coverage gap have an adverse impact on drug utilization that may conceivably affect health outcomes.

Deep Space Network and Lunar Network Communication Coverage of the Moon

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, Charles H.; Cheung, Kar-Ming

2006-01-01

In this article, we describe the communication coverage analysis for the lunar network and the Earth ground stations. The first part of this article focuses on the direct communication coverage of the Moon from the Earth's ground stations. In particular, we assess the coverage performance of the Moon based on the existing Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas and the complimentary coverage of other potential stations at Hartebeesthoek, South Africa and at Santiago, Chile. We also address the coverage sensitivity based on different DSN antenna scenarios and their capability to provide single and redundant coverage of the Moon. The second part of this article focuses on the framework of the constrained optimization scheme to seek a stable constellation six relay satellites in two planes that not only can provide continuous communication coverage to any users on the Moon surface, but can also deliver data throughput in a highly efficient manner.

Closing the gap in Australian Aboriginal infant immunisation rates -- the development and review of a pre-call strategy.

PubMed

Cashman, Patrick M; Allan, Natalie A; Clark, Katrina K; Butler, Michelle T; Massey, Peter D; Durrheim, David N

2016-06-16

Improving timely immunisation is key to closing the inequitable gap in immunisation rates between Aboriginal children and non-Indigenous children. Aboriginal Immunisation Officers were employed in Hunter New England Local Health District (HNELHD), New South Wales (NSW), Australia, to telephone the families of all Aboriginal infants prior to the due date for their first scheduled vaccination. Aboriginal Immunisation Officers contacted the families of Aboriginal children born in the Hunter New England Local Health District (HNELHD) by telephone before their due immunisation date (pre-call) to provide the rationale for timely immunisation, and to facilitate contact with culturally safe local immunisation services if this was required. The impact of this strategy on immunisation coverage rates is reviewed. For the period March 2010 to September 2014 there was a significant increase in immunisation coverage rate for Aboriginal children at 12 months of age in HNELHD (p < 0.0001). The coverage in the rest of NSW Aboriginal children also increased but not significantly (p = 0.218). Over the full study period there was a significant decrease in the immunisation coverage gap between Aboriginal children and non-Indigenous children in HNELHD (p < 0.0001) and the rest of NSW (p = 0.004). The immunisation coverage gap between Aboriginal and non-Indigenous infants decreased at a significantly faster rate in HNELHD than the rest of NSW (p = 0.0001). By the end of the study period in 2014, immunisation coverage in HNELHD Aboriginal infants had surpassed that of non-Indigenous infants by 0.8 %. The employment of Aboriginal immunisation officers may be associated with closing of the gap between Aboriginal and non-Indigenous infants' immunisation coverage in HNELHD and NSW. The pre-call telephone strategy provided accelerated benefit in closing this gap in HNELHD.

Association between the Part D coverage gap and adverse health outcomes.

PubMed

Polinski, Jennifer M; Shrank, William H; Glynn, Robert J; Huskamp, Haiden A; Christopher Roebuck, M; Schneeweiss, Sebastian

2012-08-01

To determine whether Part D coverage gap entry is associated with risk of death or hospitalization for cardiovascular outcomes. Prospective cohort study. Beneficiaries entered the study upon reaching the coverage gap spending threshold and were observed until an outcome reaching the threshold for catastrophic coverage occurred or year's end. Nine thousand four hundred thirty-six exposed individuals (those who were responsible for drug costs in the gap) were compared with 9,436 unexposed individuals (those who received financial assistance) based on propensity score (PS) or high-dimensional propensity score (hdPS). Medicare Part D drug insurance. Three hundred three thousand nine hundred seventy-eight Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 and older in 2006 and 2007 with linked prescription and medical claims who enrolled in stand-alone Part D or retiree drug plans and reached the gap spending threshold. Rates of death and hospitalization for any of five cardiovascular outcomes, including acute coronary syndrome with revascularization (ACS), after reaching the coverage gap spending threshold were compared using Cox proportional hazards models. In PS-matched analyses, exposed beneficiaries had higher, albeit not significantly so, hazard of death (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.25, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.98-1.59) and ACS (HR = 1.16, 95% CI = 0.83-1.62) than unexposed beneficiaries. hdPS-matched analyses minimized residual confounding and confirmed results (death: HR = 0.99, 95% CI = 0.78-1.24; ACS: HR = 1.07, 95% CI = 0.81-1.41). Exposed beneficiaries were no more or less likely to experience other outcomes than were those who were unexposed. During the short-term coverage gap period, having no financial assistance to pay for drugs was not associated with greater risk of death or hospitalization for cardiovascular causes, although long-term health consequences remain unclear. © 2012, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation © 2012, The American Geriatrics Society.

Development and formative evaluation of an innovative mHealth intervention for improving coverage of community-based maternal, newborn and child health services in rural areas of India

PubMed Central

Modi, Dhiren; Gopalan, Ravi; Shah, Shobha; Venkatraman, Sethuraman; Desai, Gayatri; Desai, Shrey; Shah, Pankaj

2015-01-01

Background A new cadre of village-based frontline health workers, called Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), was created in India. However, coverage of selected community-based maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) services remains low. Objective This article describes the process of development and formative evaluation of a complex mHealth intervention (ImTeCHO) to increase the coverage of proven MNCH services in rural India by improving the performance of ASHAs. Design The Medical Research Council (MRC) framework for developing complex interventions was used. Gaps were identified in the usual care provided by ASHAs, based on a literature search, and SEWA Rural's1 three decades of grassroots experience. The components of the intervention (mHealth strategies) were designed to overcome the gaps in care. The intervention, in the form of the ImTeCHO mobile phone and web application, along with the delivery model, was developed to incorporate these mHealth strategies. The intervention was piloted through 45 ASHAs among 45 villages in Gujarat (population: 45,000) over 7 months in 2013 to assess the acceptability, feasibility, and usefulness of the intervention and to identify barriers to its delivery. Results Inadequate supervision and support to ASHAs were noted as a gap in usual care, resulting in low coverage of selected MNCH services and care received by complicated cases. Therefore, the ImTeCHO application was developed to integrate mHealth strategies in the form of job aid to ASHAs to assist with scheduling, behavior change communication, diagnosis, and patient management, along with supervision and support of ASHAs. During the pilot, the intervention and its delivery were found to be largely acceptable, feasible, and useful. A few changes were made to the intervention and its delivery, including 1) a new helpline for ASHAs, 2) further simplification of processes within the ImTeCHO incentive management system and 3) additional web-based features for enhancing value and supervision of Primary Health Center (PHC) staff. Conclusions The effectiveness of the improved ImTeCHO intervention will be now tested through a cluster randomized trial. PMID:25697233

A quantitative analysis of the mass media coverage of genomics medicine in China: a call for science journalism in the developing world.

PubMed

Zhao, Feifei; Chen, Yan; Ge, Siqi; Yu, Xinwei; Shao, Shuang; Black, Michael; Wang, Youxin; Zhang, Jie; Song, Manshu; Wang, Wei

2014-04-01

Science journalism is a previously neglected but rapidly growing area of scholarship in postgenomics medicine and socio-technical studies of knowledge-based innovations. Science journalism can help evaluate the quantity and quality of information flux between traditional scientific expert communities and the broader public, for example, in personalized medicine education. Newspapers can play a crucial role in science and health communication, and more importantly, in framing public engagement. However, research on the role of newspaper coverage of genomics-related articles has not been readily available in resource-limited settings. As genomics is rapidly expanding worldwide, this gap in newspaper reportage in China is therefore an important issue. In order to bridge this gap, we investigated the coverage of genomics medicine in eight major Chinese national newspapers, using the China Core Newspapers Full-text Database (CCND) and articles in scientific journals in PubMed from 2000 to 2011. Coverage of genomics medicine in these eight official government Chinese newspapers has remained low, with only 12 articles published per newspaper per year between 2000 and 2011. Between 2000 and 2011, over a 40-fold difference was observed in the number of genomics medicine-related articles in PubMed, as compared to that in newspapers. The numbers of genomics-related articles among the eight major newspapers from 2000 to 2011 were significantly different (p=0.001). Commentary/mini reviews and articles about gene therapy for specific diseases were most frequently published in 2006 and 2011. In parallel, we observed that "cancer gene therapy," "new susceptibility gene locus," and "gene technology revolution" were the top three thematic strands addressed in the newspapers, even though their volume remained low. This study reports on the under-representation of newspaper coverage of genomics medicine in China, despite the vast growth of scientific articles in journals in this knowledge domain. This underscores the need to enhance collaboration between scientists, medical professionals, and journalists as an important strand of overall communications efforts in disseminating genomic medicine knowledge to larger audiences. Yet a substantive question remains to be examined: would traditional journalism, alone, be adequate to address the advances and challenges in genomics medicine in the media? Conversely, should we invest in science journalism programs as a subspecialty in biomedicine so scientists and clinicians acquire the twin scholarship of science/clinical medicine and journalism in their formative education?

A Quantitative Analysis of the Mass Media Coverage of Genomics Medicine in China: A Call for Science Journalism in the Developing World

PubMed Central

Zhao, Feifei; Chen, Yan; Ge, Siqi; Yu, Xinwei; Shao, Shuang; Black, Michael; Wang, Youxin; Zhang, Jie; Wang, Wei

2014-01-01

Abstract Science journalism is a previously neglected but rapidly growing area of scholarship in postgenomics medicine and socio-technical studies of knowledge-based innovations. Science journalism can help evaluate the quantity and quality of information flux between traditional scientific expert communities and the broader public, for example, in personalized medicine education. Newspapers can play a crucial role in science and health communication, and more importantly, in framing public engagement. However, research on the role of newspaper coverage of genomics-related articles has not been readily available in resource-limited settings. As genomics is rapidly expanding worldwide, this gap in newspaper reportage in China is therefore an important issue. In order to bridge this gap, we investigated the coverage of genomics medicine in eight major Chinese national newspapers, using the China Core Newspapers Full-text Database (CCND) and articles in scientific journals in PubMed from 2000 to 2011. Coverage of genomics medicine in these eight official government Chinese newspapers has remained low, with only 12 articles published per newspaper per year between 2000 and 2011. Between 2000 and 2011, over a 40-fold difference was observed in the number of genomics medicine-related articles in PubMed, as compared to that in newspapers. The numbers of genomics-related articles among the eight major newspapers from 2000 to 2011 were significantly different (p=0.001). Commentary/mini reviews and articles about gene therapy for specific diseases were most frequently published in 2006 and 2011. In parallel, we observed that “cancer gene therapy,” “new susceptibility gene locus,” and “gene technology revolution” were the top three thematic strands addressed in the newspapers, even though their volume remained low. This study reports on the under-representation of newspaper coverage of genomics medicine in China, despite the vast growth of scientific articles in journals in this knowledge domain. This underscores the need to enhance collaboration between scientists, medical professionals, and journalists as an important strand of overall communications efforts in disseminating genomic medicine knowledge to larger audiences. Yet a substantive question remains to be examined: would traditional journalism, alone, be adequate to address the advances and challenges in genomics medicine in the media? Conversely, should we invest in science journalism programs as a subspecialty in biomedicine so scientists and clinicians acquire the twin scholarship of science/clinical medicine and journalism in their formative education? PMID:24512309

Computer Techniques for Studying Coverage, Overlaps, and Gaps in Collections.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, Howard D.

1987-01-01

Describes techniques for using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SSPS) to create tables for cooperative collection development across a number of libraries. Specific commands are given to generate holdings profiles focusing on collection coverage, overlaps, gaps, or other areas of interest, from a master bibliographic list. (CLB)

Nonlinear Pricing in Drug Benefits and Medication Use: The Case of Statin Compliance in Medicare Part D

PubMed Central

Jung, Kyoungrae; Feldman, Roger; McBean, A Marshall

2014-01-01

Objective To examine how enrollees' statin compliance responds to expected prices in Medicare Part D, which features a nonlinear price schedule due to a coverage gap. Data Sources/Study Setting Prescription Drug Event data for a 5 percent random sample of Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug Plan enrollees in 2008 who did not receive a low-income subsidy. Study Design We analyze statin compliance prior to the coverage gap, where the “effective price” is higher than the actual copayment for drugs because consumers anticipate that more spending will make them more likely to reach the gap. We construct each enrollee's effective price as her expected price at the end of the year, which is the weighted average between pre-gap and in-gap copayments with the weight being the predicted probability of hitting the gap. Compliance is defined as at least 80 percent of days covered. Principal Findings Part D enrollees' pre-gap statin compliance decreases by 3.7–4.7 percentage points for a $10 increase in the effective price. Conclusion The presence of a coverage gap decreases statin compliance prior to the gap, suggesting that incorporating expected future prices is important to assess the full impact of cost sharing on drug compliance under nonlinear price schedules. PMID:24354765

Communication strategies to promote the uptake of childhood vaccination in Nigeria: a systematic map

PubMed Central

Oku, Afiong; Oyo-Ita, Angela; Glenton, Claire; Fretheim, Atle; Ames, Heather; Muloliwa, Artur; Kaufman, Jessica; Hill, Sophie; Cliff, Julie; Cartier, Yuri; Bosch-Capblanch, Xavier; Rada, Gabriel; Lewin, Simon

2016-01-01

Background Effective communication is a critical component in ensuring that children are fully vaccinated. Although numerous communication interventions have been proposed and implemented in various parts of Nigeria, the range of communication strategies used has not yet been mapped systematically. This study forms part of the ‘Communicate to vaccinate’ (COMMVAC) project, an initiative aimed at building research evidence for improving communication with parents and communities about childhood vaccinations in low- and middle-income countries. Objective This study aims to: 1) identify the communication strategies used in two states in Nigeria; 2) map these strategies against the existing COMMVAC taxonomy, a global taxonomy of vaccination communication interventions; 3) create a specific Nigerian country map of interventions organised by purpose and target; and 4) analyse gaps between the COMMVAC taxonomy and the Nigerian map. Design We conducted the study in two Nigerian states: Bauchi State in Northern Nigeria and Cross River State in Southern Nigeria. We identified vaccination communication interventions through interviews carried out among purposively selected stakeholders in the health services and relevant agencies involved in vaccination information delivery; through observations and through relevant documents. We used the COMMVAC taxonomy to organise the interventions we identified based on the intended purpose of the communication and the group to which the intervention was targeted. Results The Nigerian map revealed that most of the communication strategies identified aimed to inform and educate and remind or recall. Few aimed to teach skills, enhance community ownership, and enable communication. We did not identify any intervention that aimed to provide support or facilitate decision-making. Many interventions had more than one purpose. The main targets for most interventions were caregivers and community members, with few interventions directed at health workers. Most interventions identified were used in the context of campaigns rather than routine immunisation programmes. Conclusions The identification and development of the Nigerian vaccination communication interventions map could assist programme managers to identify gaps in vaccination communication. The map may be a useful tool as part of efforts to address vaccine hesitancy and improve vaccination coverage in Nigeria and similar settings. PMID:26880154

Communication strategies to promote the uptake of childhood vaccination in Nigeria: a systematic map.

PubMed

Oku, Afiong; Oyo-Ita, Angela; Glenton, Claire; Fretheim, Atle; Ames, Heather; Muloliwa, Artur; Kaufman, Jessica; Hill, Sophie; Cliff, Julie; Cartier, Yuri; Bosch-Capblanch, Xavier; Rada, Gabriel; Lewin, Simon

2016-01-01

Effective communication is a critical component in ensuring that children are fully vaccinated. Although numerous communication interventions have been proposed and implemented in various parts of Nigeria, the range of communication strategies used has not yet been mapped systematically. This study forms part of the 'Communicate to vaccinate' (COMMVAC) project, an initiative aimed at building research evidence for improving communication with parents and communities about childhood vaccinations in low- and middle-income countries. This study aims to: 1) identify the communication strategies used in two states in Nigeria; 2) map these strategies against the existing COMMVAC taxonomy, a global taxonomy of vaccination communication interventions; 3) create a specific Nigerian country map of interventions organised by purpose and target; and 4) analyse gaps between the COMMVAC taxonomy and the Nigerian map. We conducted the study in two Nigerian states: Bauchi State in Northern Nigeria and Cross River State in Southern Nigeria. We identified vaccination communication interventions through interviews carried out among purposively selected stakeholders in the health services and relevant agencies involved in vaccination information delivery; through observations and through relevant documents. We used the COMMVAC taxonomy to organise the interventions we identified based on the intended purpose of the communication and the group to which the intervention was targeted. The Nigerian map revealed that most of the communication strategies identified aimed to inform and educate and remind or recall. Few aimed to teach skills, enhance community ownership, and enable communication. We did not identify any intervention that aimed to provide support or facilitate decision-making. Many interventions had more than one purpose. The main targets for most interventions were caregivers and community members, with few interventions directed at health workers. Most interventions identified were used in the context of campaigns rather than routine immunisation programmes. The identification and development of the Nigerian vaccination communication interventions map could assist programme managers to identify gaps in vaccination communication. The map may be a useful tool as part of efforts to address vaccine hesitancy and improve vaccination coverage in Nigeria and similar settings.

Implanted neural progenitor cells regulate glial reaction to brain injury and establish gap junctions with host glial cells.

PubMed

Talaverón, Rocío; Matarredona, Esperanza R; de la Cruz, Rosa R; Macías, David; Gálvez, Victoria; Pastor, Angel M

2014-04-01

Transplantation of neural stem/progenitor cells (NPCs) in the lesioned brain is able to restore morphological and physiological alterations induced by different injuries. The local microenvironment created at the site of grafting and the communication between grafted and host cells are crucial in the beneficial effects attributed to the NPC implants. We have previously described that NPC transplantation in an animal model of central axotomy restores firing properties and synaptic coverage of lesioned neurons and modulates their trophic factor content. In this study, we aim to explore anatomical relationships between implanted NPCs and host glia that might account for the implant-induced neuroprotective effects. Postnatal rat subventricular zone NPCs were isolated and grafted in adult rats after transection of the medial longitudinal fascicle. Brains were removed and analyzed eight weeks later. Immunohistochemistry for different glial markers revealed that NPC-grafted animals displayed significantly greater microglial activation than animals that received only vehicle injections. Implanted NPCs were located in close apposition to activated microglia and reactive astrocytes. The gap junction protein connexin43 was present in NPCs and glial cells at the lesion site and was often found interposed within adjacent implanted and glial cells. Gap junctions were identified between implanted NPCs and host astrocytes and less frequently between NPCs and microglia. Our results show that implanted NPCs modulate the glial reaction to lesion and establish the possibility of communication through gap junctions between grafted and host glial cells which might be involved in the restorative effects of NPC implants. Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Closing the Gap Between Formal and Material Health Care Coverage in Colombia

PubMed Central

García, Johnattan

2016-01-01

Abstract This paper explores Colombia’s road toward universal health care coverage. Using a policy-based approach, we show how, in Colombia, the legal expansion of health coverage is not sufficient and requires the development of appropriate and effective institutions. We distinguish between formal and material health coverage in order to underscore that, despite the rapid legal expansion of health care coverage, a considerable number of Colombians—especially those living in poor regions of the country—still lack material access to health care services. As a result of this gap between formal and material coverage, an individual living in a rich region has a much better chance of accessing basic health care than an inhabitant of a poor region. This gap between formal and material health coverage has also resulted in hundreds of thousands of citizens filing lawsuits—tutelas—demanding access to medications and treatments that are covered by the health system, but that health insurance companies—also known as EPS— refuse to provide. We explore why part of the population that is formally insured is still unable to gain material access to health care and has to litigate in order to access mandatory health services. We conclude by discussing the current policy efforts to reform the health sector in order to achieve material, universal health care coverage. PMID:28559676

Gaps in universal health coverage in Malawi: A qualitative study in rural communities

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background In sub-Saharan Africa, universal health coverage (UHC) reforms have often adopted a technocratic top-down approach, with little attention being paid to the rural communities’ perspective in identifying context specific gaps to inform the design of such reforms. This approach might shape reforms that are not sufficiently responsive to local needs. Our study explored how rural communities experience and define gaps in universal health coverage in Malawi, a country which endorses free access to an Essential Health Package (EHP) as a means towards universal health coverage. Methods We conducted a qualitative cross-sectional study in six rural communities in Malawi. Data was collected from 12 Focus Group Discussions with community residents and triangulated with 8 key informant interviews with health care providers. All respondents were selected through stratified purposive sampling. The material was tape-recorded, fully transcribed, and coded by three independent researchers. Results The results showed that the EHP has created a universal sense of entitlements to free health care at the point of use. However, respondents reported uneven distribution of health facilities and poor implementation of public-private service level agreements, which have led to geographical inequities in population coverage and financial protection. Most respondents reported affordability of medical costs at private facilities and transport costs as the main barriers to universal financial protection. From the perspective of rural Malawians, gaps in financial protection are mainly triggered by supply-side access-related barriers in the public health sector such as: shortages of medicines, emergency services, shortage of health personnel and facilities, poor health workers’ attitudes, distance and transportation difficulties, and perceived poor quality of health services. Conclusions Moving towards UHC in Malawi, therefore, implies the introduction of appropriate interventions to fill the financial protection gaps in the private sector and the access-related gaps in the public sector and/or an effective public-private partnership that completely integrates both sectors. Current universal health coverage reforms need to address context specific gaps and be carefully crafted to avoid creating a sense of universal entitlements in principle, which may not be effectively received by beneficiaries due to contextual and operational bottlenecks. PMID:24884788

Out-of-pocket drug costs and drug utilization patterns of postmenopausal Medicare beneficiaries with osteoporosis.

PubMed

Conwell, Leslie Jackson; Esposito, Dominick; Garavaglia, Susan; Meadows, Eric S; Colby, Margaret; Herrera, Vivian; Goldfarb, Seth; Ball, Daniel; Marciniak, Martin

2011-08-01

The Medicare Part D coverage gap has been associated with lower adherence and drug utilization and higher discontinuation. Because osteoporosis has a relatively high prevalence among Medicare-eligible postmenopausal women, we examined changes in utilization of osteoporosis medications during this coverage gap. The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in out-of-pocket (OOP) drug costs and utilization associated with the Medicare Part D coverage gap among postmenopausal beneficiaries with osteoporosis. This retrospective analysis of 2007 pharmacy claims focuses on postmenopausal female Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in full-, partial-, or no-gap exposure standard or Medicare Advantage prescription drug plans (PDPs), retiree drug subsidy (RDS) plans, or the low-income subsidy program. We compared beneficiaries with osteoporosis who were taking teriparatide (Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, Indiana) (n = 5657) with matched samples of beneficiaries who were taking nonteriparatide osteoporosis medications (NTO; n = 16,971) or who had other chronic conditions (OCC; n = 16,971). We measured average monthly prescription drug fills and OOP costs, medication discontinuation, and skipping. More than half the sample reached the coverage gap; OOP costs then rose for teriparatide users enrolled in partial- or full-gap exposure plans (increase of 121% and 186%; $300 and $349) but fell for those in no-gap exposure PDPs or RDS plans (decrease of 49% and 30%; $131 and $40). OOP costs for beneficiaries in partial- or full-gap exposure PDPs increased >120% (increase of $144 and $176) in the NTO group and nearly doubled for the OCC group (increase of $124 and $151); these OOP costs were substantially lower than those for teriparatide users. Both teriparatide users and NTO group members discontinued or skipped medications more often than persons in the OCC group, regardless of plan or benefit design. Medication discontinuation and OOP costs among beneficiaries with osteoporosis were highest for those enrolled in Part D plans with a coverage gap. Providers should be aware of potential cost-related nonadherence among Medicare beneficiaries taking osteoporosis medications. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier HS Journals, Inc. All rights reserved.

Saturn's Misbegotten Moonlets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spitale, Joseph N.

2017-06-01

Saturn's rings are interspersed with numerous narrow (tens of km wide) gaps. Two of the largest of these gaps -- Encke and Keeler -- contain satellites -- Pan and Daphnis -- that maintain their respective gaps via the classical Goldreich/Tremaine-style shepherding mechanism wherein angular momentum is transferred across the essentially empty gap via torques acting between the satellites and the ring. Other prominent gaps are shepherded by resonances with external satellites or planetary modes: Mimas shepherds the outer edge of the B ring, clearing the inner part of the Cassini Division, Titan shepherds the Columbo ringlet / gap, and the Maxwell ringlet / gap is likely maintained by a resonance with a planetary mode. Prior to Cassini, it was expected that all of the gaps would be shepherded in a similar manner.However, many small gaps do not correspond with known resonances, and no satellites were spotted within those gaps during Cassini's prime and extended mission. To address this issue, a series of Cassini imaging observations were planned to examine 11 gaps in the C ring and Cassini division at a resolution and longitudinal coverage sufficient to either discover the shepherds or rule out their presence. The survey discovered no embedded satellites. Longitudinal coverage was incomplete, but within longitudes covered by the survey, satellites are ruled out to sizes in the 100-m range, far too small keep the observed gaps open. It is possible (about even odds) that there could be a larger satellite residing at a longitude not covered in the survey, but the probability that the survey was unfortunate enough to miss significant satellites in all 11 gaps is exceedingly small (~0.002%). Moreover, these gaps appear in earlier imaging sequences, with some high-resolution coverage, so the true probability is smaller yet. Therefore, a new theory is likely needed to explain the presence of the gaps.

Something fishy? News media presentation of complex health issues related to fish consumption guidelines.

PubMed

Greiner, Amelia; Clegg Smith, Katherine; Guallar, Eliseo

2010-11-01

The news media are an important source of dietary information. Understanding news content, particularly the portrayal of risks and benefits of certain foods, is relevant for effective public health communication. Fish consumption may reduce risk for CVD and aid neonatal development, but recent work shows public confusion about the benefits of fish, challenged by the evidence of mercury and other contaminants in fish. We present an analysis of the messages about fish in US news media over 15 years, identifying trends in coverage and highlighting implications of current messaging. We conducted a descriptive text analysis and coded for manifest content: locality of focus, story frame, reference to studies, inclusion of government guidelines and portrayal of uncertainty. We identified chronological patterns and analysed the data for statistically significant relationships between media source and content. News stories were selected from five daily newspapers and five television networks (1993-2007). We analysed 310 health-related news stories on fish. Risk messages outweighed benefit messages four to one, and health benefits only became prominent after 2002. No difference existed in coverage topic by news source. Fish consumption has increasingly become a national issue. With the bulk of messages about fish consumption focused on risk, the benefits may be lost to consumers. This gap creates a need for public health to work with news media to more effectively communicate benefits and risks around fish consumption and health and to consider options for communicating tailored information where it can be more readily utilised.

Local newspapers, drinking water pathways, and dimensions of knowledge: Public awareness amid the hydrofracking debate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berg, Weston

Studies on determinants of pro-environmental behavior have found environmental knowledge to be a prerequisite for public participation. While much has been written on correlations between media coverage and environmental knowledge in general, a gap exists concerning the linkages between media coverage and knowledge of an individual's local environment. This study measures public awareness of local drinking water supplies in urban communities, using a face-to-face survey of 90 respondents in three upstate New York cities. The findings show no significant correlation between newspaper coverage of local water issues and awareness of one's drinking water source; however, the surveys revealed high correlations between such awareness and home ownership (as opposed to renting) and between awareness and receiving a water bill. In addition, there was a positive correlation between reading about a local water-related issue (in this case, hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale) in a local newspaper and possessing basic knowledge of that issue. These findings contribute to previous research on environmental knowledge, and have practical applications in efforts addressing: civic engagement, public understanding of science, citizen participation, and democratic practices. Keywords: Public understanding, environmental communication, water resources management, hydraulic fracturing, schema theory

12 CFR 334.20 - Coverage and definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... public. A solicitation does not include marketing communications that are directed at the general public... FAIR CREDIT REPORTING Affiliate Marketing § 334.20 Coverage and definitions. (a) Coverage. Subpart C of... information” means any information the communication of which would be a consumer report if the exclusions...

12 CFR 571.20 - Coverage and definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... public. A solicitation does not include marketing communications that are directed at the general public... Affiliate Marketing § 571.20 Coverage and definitions. (a) Coverage. Subpart C of this part applies to... information” means any information the communication of which would be a consumer report if the exclusions...

12 CFR 717.20 - Coverage and definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

..., direct mail, e-mail, or other form of marketing communication directed to a particular consumer that is... REPORTING Affiliate Marketing § 717.20 Coverage and definitions. (a) Coverage. Subpart C of this part...) Eligibility information. The term “eligibility information” means any information the communication of which...

3 CFR 8544 - Proclamation 8544 of July 30, 2010. 45th Anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... disabilities in Medicare who fall in the Part D coverage gap for prescription drug costs, or the “donut hole.... Additionally, beneficiaries will see 50 percent discounts on brand name drugs in the coverage gap starting next... services, like certain colorectal cancer screenings and mammograms, with no co-pays or deductibles. Through...

"Communicate to vaccinate": the development of a taxonomy of communication interventions to improve routine childhood vaccination.

PubMed

Willis, Natalie; Hill, Sophie; Kaufman, Jessica; Lewin, Simon; Kis-Rigo, John; De Castro Freire, Sara Bensaude; Bosch-Capblanch, Xavier; Glenton, Claire; Lin, Vivian; Robinson, Priscilla; Wiysonge, Charles S

2013-05-11

Vaccination is a cost-effective public health measure and is central to the Millennium Development Goal of reducing child mortality. However, childhood vaccination coverage remains sub-optimal in many settings. While communication is a key feature of vaccination programmes, we are not aware of any comprehensive approach to organising the broad range of communication interventions that can be delivered to parents and communities to improve vaccination coverage. Developing a classification system (taxonomy) organised into conceptually similar categories will aid in: understanding the relationships between different types of communication interventions; facilitating conceptual mapping of these interventions; clarifying the key purposes and features of interventions to aid implementation and evaluation; and identifying areas where evidence is strong and where there are gaps. This paper reports on the development of the 'Communicate to vaccinate' taxonomy. The taxonomy was developed in two stages. Stage 1 included: 1) forming an advisory group; 2) searching for descriptions of interventions in trials (CENTRAL database) and general health literature (Medline); 3) developing a sampling strategy; 4) screening the search results; 5) developing a data extraction form; and 6) extracting intervention data. Stage 2 included: 1) grouping the interventions according to purpose; 2) holding deliberative forums in English and French with key vaccination stakeholders to gather feedback; 3) conducting a targeted search of grey literature to supplement the taxonomy; 4) finalising the taxonomy based on the input provided. The taxonomy includes seven main categories of communication interventions: inform or educate, remind or recall, teach skills, provide support, facilitate decision making, enable communication and enhance community ownership. These categories are broken down into 43 intervention types across three target groups: parents or soon-to-be-parents; communities, community members or volunteers; and health care providers. Our taxonomy illuminates and organises this field and identifies the range of available communication interventions to increase routine childhood vaccination uptake. We have utilised a variety of data sources, capturing information from rigorous evaluations such as randomised trials as well as experiences and knowledge of practitioners and vaccination stakeholders. The taxonomy reflects current public health practice and can guide the future development of vaccination programmes.

“Communicate to vaccinate”: the development of a taxonomy of communication interventions to improve routine childhood vaccination

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Vaccination is a cost-effective public health measure and is central to the Millennium Development Goal of reducing child mortality. However, childhood vaccination coverage remains sub-optimal in many settings. While communication is a key feature of vaccination programmes, we are not aware of any comprehensive approach to organising the broad range of communication interventions that can be delivered to parents and communities to improve vaccination coverage. Developing a classification system (taxonomy) organised into conceptually similar categories will aid in: understanding the relationships between different types of communication interventions; facilitating conceptual mapping of these interventions; clarifying the key purposes and features of interventions to aid implementation and evaluation; and identifying areas where evidence is strong and where there are gaps. This paper reports on the development of the ‘Communicate to vaccinate’ taxonomy. Methods The taxonomy was developed in two stages. Stage 1 included: 1) forming an advisory group; 2) searching for descriptions of interventions in trials (CENTRAL database) and general health literature (Medline); 3) developing a sampling strategy; 4) screening the search results; 5) developing a data extraction form; and 6) extracting intervention data. Stage 2 included: 1) grouping the interventions according to purpose; 2) holding deliberative forums in English and French with key vaccination stakeholders to gather feedback; 3) conducting a targeted search of grey literature to supplement the taxonomy; 4) finalising the taxonomy based on the input provided. Results The taxonomy includes seven main categories of communication interventions: inform or educate, remind or recall, teach skills, provide support, facilitate decision making, enable communication and enhance community ownership. These categories are broken down into 43 intervention types across three target groups: parents or soon-to-be-parents; communities, community members or volunteers; and health care providers. Conclusions Our taxonomy illuminates and organises this field and identifies the range of available communication interventions to increase routine childhood vaccination uptake. We have utilised a variety of data sources, capturing information from rigorous evaluations such as randomised trials as well as experiences and knowledge of practitioners and vaccination stakeholders. The taxonomy reflects current public health practice and can guide the future development of vaccination programmes. PMID:23663327

Translating access into utilization: lessons from the design and evaluation of a health insurance Web site to promote reproductive health care for young women in Massachusetts.

PubMed

Janiak, Elizabeth; Rhodes, Elizabeth; Foster, Angel M

2013-12-01

Following state-level health care reform in Massachusetts, young women reported confusion over coverage of contraception and other sexual and reproductive health services under newly available health insurance products. To address this gap, a plain-language Web site titled "My Little Black Book for Sexual Health" was developed by a statewide network of reproductive health stakeholders. The purpose of this evaluation was to assess the health literacy demands and usability of the site among its target audience, women ages 18-26 years. We performed an evaluation of the literacy demands of the Web site's written content and tested the Web site's usability in a health communications laboratory. Participants found the Web site visually appealing and its overall design concept accessible. However, the Web site's literacy demands were high, and all participants encountered problems navigating through the Web site. Following this evaluation, the Web site was modified to be more usable and more comprehensible to women of all health literacy levels. To avail themselves of sexual and reproductive health services newly available under expanded health insurance coverage, young women require customized educational resources that are rigorously evaluated to ensure accessibility. To maximize utilization of reproductive health services under expanded health insurance coverage, US women require customized educational resources commensurate with their literacy skills. The application of established research methods from the field of health communications will enable advocates to evaluate and adapt these resources to best serve their targeted audiences. © 2013.

And young child feeding practices in different country settings.

PubMed

Sanghvi, Tina; Jimerson, Ann; Hajeebhoy, Nemat; Zewale, Medhanit; Nguyen, Giang Huong

2013-09-01

Alive & Thrive aims to increase exclusive breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Vietnam. To develop and execute comprehensive communication strategies adapted to each context. We documented how three countries followed an established iterative planning process, with research steps followed by key decisions, to develop a communication strategy in each country. Secondary analysis and formative research identified the priority practices to focus on, and locally specific constraints to proper infant and young child feeding (IYCF). Communication strategies were then developed based on the social, cultural, economic, epidemiological, media use, and programmatic contexts of each country. There were widespread gaps between recommended and actual feeding practices, and these varied by country. Gaps were identified in household, community, and institutional levels of awareness and skills. Strategies were designed that would enable mothers in each specific setting to adopt practices. To improve priority behaviors, messaging and media strategies addressed the most salient behavioral determinants through face-to-face communication, social mobilization, and mass media. Trials of improved practices (TIPs), concept testing, and pretesting of materials proved useful to verify the relevance and likely effectiveness of communication messages and materials tailored for different audiences in each setting. Coordination and collaboration with multiple stakeholders from the start was important to harmonize messages and approaches, expand geographic coverage to national scale, and sustain the interventions. Our experience with designing large-scale communication strategies for behavior change confirms that systematic analysis and local planning cannot be omitted from the critical process of strategic design tailored to each context. Multiple communication channels matched to media habits in each setting can reach a substantial proportion of mothers and others who influence their IYCF practices. Preliminary data suggest that exposure to mass media plays a critical role in rapidly reaching mothers, household members, community influentials, and health workers on a large scale. Combining face-to-face interventions for mothers with social mobilization and mass media was effective in improving IYCF practices.

Changing Coverage of Domestic Violence Murders: A Longitudinal Experiment in Participatory Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ryan, Charlotte; Anastario, Mike; DaCunha, Alfredo

2006-01-01

Stressing relation-building and participatory communication approaches, the Rhode Island Coalition against Domestic Violence worked with journalists to develop a best practices handbook on news coverage of domestic violence murders. This study compares print coverage of domestic violence murders prehandbook (1996-1999) and posthandbook…

The Significant Impact of Different Insurance Enrollment Criteria on the HEDIS Chlamydia Screening Measure for Young Women Enrolled in Medicaid and Commercial Insurance Plans.

PubMed

Patel, Chirag G; Tao, Guoyu

2015-10-01

The impact of length of enrollment in a health plan on eligibility of women under the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) chlamydia screening measure is not fully understood. We assessed the representativeness of the measure among the proportion of women aged 15 to 24 years with a gap in coverage for Medicaid and commercial health insurance. Truven Health Marketscan Medicaid and commercial health insurance data from 2006 to 2012 were used to make comparisons between proportions of women with a gap in coverage to those enrolled in insurance plans for different numbers of months. Approximately 48% of Medicaid-insured women and 31% of commercially insured women had an at least 2-month gap that disqualified them from eligibility for inclusion in the HEDIS chlamydia screening measure. Extending eligibility to women with at least 6 months of coverage, regardless of gap, would increase the proportion of insured women included in the HEDIS measure to 76% (from 52%) for Medicaid and 83% (from 69%) for commercial insurance, without much effect on chlamydia testing rate. This would make the measure more representative of all insured women. The large proportion of young women who had a 2-month or greater gap in coverage in Medicaid had a significant impact on the overall representativeness of the current HEDIS chlamydia screening measure.

Fifty years of immunisation in Australia (1964-2014): the increasing opportunity to prevent diseases.

PubMed

Royle, Jenny; Lambert, Stephen B

2015-01-01

Medicine has seen dramatic changes in the last 50 years, and vaccinology is no different. Australia has made a significant contribution to world knowledge on vaccine-preventable diseases. Certain deadly diseases have disappeared or become rare in Australia following successful introduction of vaccines. As diseases become rarer, public knowledge about the diseases and their serious consequences has decreased, and concerns about potential vaccine side effects have increased. To maintain confidence in immunisations, sharing of detailed information about the vaccines and the diseases we are trying to prevent is integral to the continued success of our public health programme. Modern quality immunisation programmes need to communicate complex information to immunisation providers and also to the general community. Improving immunisation coverage rates and eliminating the gap in coverage and timeliness between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous people has become a high priority. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health © 2015 Paediatrics and Child Health Division (Royal Australasian College of Physicians).

Space Shuttle Communications Coverage Analysis for Thermal Tile Inspection

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kroll, Quin D.; Hwu, Shian U.; Upanavage, Matthew; Boster, John P.; Chavez, Mark A.

2009-01-01

The space shuttle ultra-high frequency Space-to-Space Communication System has to provide adequate communication coverage for astronauts who are performing thermal tile inspection and repair on the underside of the space shuttle orbiter (SSO). Careful planning and quantitative assessment are necessary to ensure successful system operations and mission safety in this work environment. This study assesses communication systems performance for astronauts who are working in the underside, non-line-of-sight shadow region on the space shuttle. All of the space shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) transmitting antennas are blocked by the SSO structure. To ensure communication coverage at planned inspection worksites, the signal strength and link margin between the SSO/ISS antennas and the extravehicular activity astronauts, whose line-of-sight is blocked by vehicle structure, was analyzed. Investigations were performed using rigorous computational electromagnetic modeling techniques. Signal strength was obtained by computing the reflected and diffracted fields along the signal propagation paths between transmitting and receiving antennas. Radio frequency (RF) coverage was determined for thermal tile inspection and repair missions using the results of this computation. Analysis results from this paper are important in formulating the limits on reliable communication range and RF coverage at planned underside inspection and repair worksites.

How End-Stage Renal Disease Patients Manage the Medicare Part D Coverage Gap

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kovacs, Pamela J.; Perkins, Nathan; Nuschke, Elizabeth; Carroll, Norman

2012-01-01

Medicare Part D was enacted to help elderly and disabled individuals pay for prescription drugs, but it was structured with a gap providing no coverage in 2010 between $2,830 and $6,440. Patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) are especially likely to be affected due to high costs of dialysis-related drugs and the importance of adherence for…

Incorporating shrub and snag specific LiDAR data into GAP wildlife models

Treesearch

Teresa J Lorenz; Kerri T Vierling; Jody Vogeler; Jeffrey Lonneker; Jocelyn Aycrigg

2015-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey’s Gap Analysis Program (hereafter, GAP) is a nationally based program that uses land cover, vertebrate distributions, and land ownership to identify locations where gaps in conservation coverage exist, and GAP products are commonly used by government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and private citizens. The GAP land-cover...

Leading US nano-scientists' perceptions about media coverage and the public communication of scientific research findings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Corley, Elizabeth A.; Kim, Youngjae; Scheufele, Dietram A.

2011-12-01

Despite the significant increase in the use of nanotechnology in academic research and commercial products over the past decade, there have been few studies that have explored scientists' perceptions and attitudes about the technology. In this article, we use survey data from the leading U.S. nano-scientists to explore their perceptions about two issues: the public communication of research findings and media coverage of nanotechnology, which serves as one relatively rapid outlet for public communication. We find that leading U.S. nano-scientists do see an important connection between the public communication of research findings and public attitudes about science. Also, there is a connection between the scientists' perceptions about media coverage and their views on the timing of public communication; scientists with positive attitudes about the media are more likely to support immediate public communication of research findings, while others believe that communication should take place only after research findings have been published through a peer-review process. We also demonstrate that journalists might have a more challenging time getting scientists to talk with them about nanotechnology news stories because nano-scientists tend to view media coverage of nanotechnology as less credible and less accurate than general science media coverage. We conclude that leading U.S. nano-scientists do feel a sense of responsibility for communicating their research findings to the public, but attitudes about the timing and the pathway of that communication vary across the group.

PI3K/Akt signaling is involved in the disruption of gap junctional communication caused by v-Src and TNF-α.

PubMed

Ito, Satoko; Hyodo, Toshinori; Hasegawa, Hitoki; Yuan, Hong; Hamaguchi, Michinari; Senga, Takeshi

2010-09-17

Gap junctional communication, which is mediated by the connexin protein family, is essential for the maintenance of normal tissue function and homeostasis. Loss of intercellular communication results in a failure to coordinately regulate cellular functions, and it can facilitate tumorigenesis. Expression of oncogenes and stimulation with cytokines has been shown to suppress intercellular communication; however, the exact mechanism by which intercellular communication is disrupted by these factors remains uncertain. In this report, we show that Akt is essential for the disruption of gap junctional communication in v-Src-transformed cells. In addition, inhibition of Akt restores gap junctional communication after it is suppressed by TNF-α signaling. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the expression of a constitutively active form of Akt1, but not of Akt2 or Akt3, is sufficient to suppress gap junctional communication. Our results clearly define Akt1 as one of the critical regulators of gap junctional communication. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Delaunay Triangulation as a New Coverage Measurement Method in Wireless Sensor Network

PubMed Central

Chizari, Hassan; Hosseini, Majid; Poston, Timothy; Razak, Shukor Abd; Abdullah, Abdul Hanan

2011-01-01

Sensing and communication coverage are among the most important trade-offs in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) design. A minimum bound of sensing coverage is vital in scheduling, target tracking and redeployment phases, as well as providing communication coverage. Some methods measure the coverage as a percentage value, but detailed information has been missing. Two scenarios with equal coverage percentage may not have the same Quality of Coverage (QoC). In this paper, we propose a new coverage measurement method using Delaunay Triangulation (DT). This can provide the value for all coverage measurement tools. Moreover, it categorizes sensors as ‘fat’, ‘healthy’ or ‘thin’ to show the dense, optimal and scattered areas. It can also yield the largest empty area of sensors in the field. Simulation results show that the proposed DT method can achieve accurate coverage information, and provides many tools to compare QoC between different scenarios. PMID:22163792

Impact of low altitude coverage requirements on air-ground communications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Magenheim, B.

1981-03-01

A representative area of Appalachia surrounding Charleston, West Virginia is analyzed in terms of existing helicopter traffic patterns and communications facilities. Traffic patterns were established from telephone interviews with pilots flying this area regularly. Communications coverage was established from computer generated coverage contours obtained from the Electromagnetic Compatibility Analysis Center (ECAC) and verified by pilot interviews and one flight test (as reported by the FAA Technical Center). Techniques for improving coverage are discussed. These include two new remote communication outlets located in the mountains west and south of Beckley, W. Va., a high gain antenna at Charleston pointed in a southerly direction, the use of mobile radio telephone to permit pilots to access nearby telephone facilities when on the ground at a remote site, short range less than 150 miles, hf radio, and a discrete frequency for exclusive use by low-flying aircraft. FAA activities directed at improving communications to helicopter flying to and from offshore oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico is presented in an Appendix.

Taking the Pulse of a Large Marine Ecosystem: An Inventory and Gap Analysis of Long-Term Recovery Monitoring Efforts in the Gulf of Mexico

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robbins, C.; Baldera, A.; Spies, R.; Love, M. S.

2016-02-01

Discharges of hydrocarbons into a large marine ecosystem can cause acute and sub-lethal effects, resulting in a recovery of populations or habitats that could take years, even decades. Recovery from oil spill impacts is complicated by the vagaries of a dynamic marine ecosystem. A major challenge and need is establishing and sustaining an interdisciplinary monitoring and research program capable of tracking oil spill impacts and resource recovery within the context of an ever changing, chronically stressed ecosystem. Ocean Conservancy undertook an assessment to identify and prioritize data collection activities for tracking the recovery of species and habitats impacted by the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. We inventoried more than 700 discrete monitoring efforts in the Gulf, identified gaps in coverage for priority species, habitats and ecosystem drivers in space and time and mapped the footprints of active monitoring activities for ease of communication. We will present an overview of our methods and findings from the inventory and gap analysis and discuss how scientists and resource managers can integrate these tools into study plans or adapt restoration decisions based on recovery trajectories or changes in ocean conditions.

Vaccine exemptions and the kindergarten vaccination coverage gap.

PubMed

Smith, Philip J; Shaw, Jana; Seither, Ranee; Lopez, Adriana; Hill, Holly A; Underwood, Mike; Knighton, Cynthia; Zhao, Zhen; Ravanam, Megha Shah; Greby, Stacie; Orenstein, Walter A

2017-09-25

Vaccination requirements for kindergarten entry vary by state, but all states require 2 doses of measles containing vaccine (MCV) at kindergarten entry. To assess (i) national MCV vaccination coverage for children who had attended kindergarten; (ii) the extent to which undervaccination after kindergarten entry is attributable to parents' requests for an exemption; (iii) the extent to which undervaccinated children had missed opportunities to be administered missing vaccine doses among children whose parent did not request an exemption; and (iv) the vaccination coverage gap between the "highest achievable" MCV coverage and actual MCV coverage among children who had attended kindergarten. A national survey of 1465 parents of 5-7year-old children was conducted during October 2013 through March 2014. Vaccination coverage estimates are based provider-reported vaccination histories. Children have a "missed opportunity" for MCV if they were not up-to-date and if there were dates on which other vaccines were administered but not MCV. The "highest achievable" MCV vaccination coverage rate is 100% minus the sum of the percentages of (i) undervaccinated children with parents who requested an exemption; and (ii) undervaccinated children with parents who did not request an exemption and whose vaccination statuses were assessed during a kindergarten grace period or period when they were provisionally enrolled in kindergarten. Among all children undervaccinated for MCV, 2.7% were attributable to having a parent who requested an exemption. Among children who were undervaccinated for MCV and whose parent did not request an exemption, 41.6% had a missed opportunity for MCV. The highest achievable MCV coverage was 98.6%, actual MCV coverage was 90.9%, and the kindergarten vaccination gap was 7.7%. Vaccination coverage may be increased by schools fully implementing state kindergarten vaccination laws, and by providers assessing children's vaccination status at every clinic visit, and administering missed vaccine doses. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Obesity coverage gap: Consumers perceive low coverage for obesity treatments even when workplace wellness programs target BMI.

PubMed

Wilson, Elizabeth Ruth; Kyle, Theodore K; Nadglowski, Joseph F; Stanford, Fatima Cody

2017-02-01

Evidence-based obesity treatments, such as bariatric surgery, are not considered essential health benefits under the Affordable Care Act. Employer-sponsored wellness programs with incentives based on biometric outcomes are allowed and often used despite mixed evidence regarding their effectiveness. This study examines consumers' perceptions of their coverage for obesity treatments and exposure to workplace wellness programs. A total of 7,378 participants completed an online survey during 2015-2016. Respondents answered questions regarding their health coverage for seven medical services and exposure to employer wellness programs that target weight or body mass index (BMI). Using χ 2 tests, associations between perceptions of exposure to employer wellness programs and coverage for medical services were examined. Differences between survey years were also assessed. Most respondents reported they did not have health coverage for obesity treatments, but more of the respondents with employer wellness programs reported having coverage. Neither the perception of coverage for obesity treatments nor exposure to wellness programs increased between 2015 and 2016. Even when consumers have exposure to employer wellness programs that target BMI, their health insurance often excludes obesity treatments. Given the clinical and cost-effectiveness of such treatments, reducing that coverage gap may mitigate obesity's individual- and population-level effects. © 2017 The Obesity Society.

Tools for Communication: Novel infrastructure to address patient-perceived gaps in oncology care
.

PubMed

McMullen, Suzanne; Szabo, Shelagh; Halbert, Ronald J; Lai, Catherine; Parikh, Aparna; Bunce, Mikele; Khoury, Raya; Small, Art; Masaquel, Anthony

2017-04-01

Healthcare providers (HCPs) and patient communication are integral to high-quality oncology care. The patient and HCP perspectives are needed to identify gaps in care and develop communication tools.
. This study aimed to understand patient- and HCP-perceived elements of and gaps in high-quality care to develop novel communication tools to improve care. 
. Qualitative interviews were conducted among 16 patients with cancer and 10 HCPs in the United States. Trained interviewers elicited patients' and HCPs' concerns, views, and perceived needs for communication tools. A thematic analysis was used to identify four quality of care domains, depicted in a conceptual model, and two draft communication tools were developed to address identified gaps.
. No patients reported previously using a communication tool, and gaps in communication regarding treatment aims and education were evident. Two tools were developed to assess patients' life and treatment goals and the importance of ongoing education.

Assessment of eight HPV vaccination programs implemented in lowest income countries.

PubMed

Ladner, Joël; Besson, Marie-Hélène; Hampshire, Rachel; Tapert, Lisa; Chirenje, Mike; Saba, Joseph

2012-05-23

Cervix cancer, preventable, continues to be the third most common cancer in women worldwide, especially in lowest income countries. Prophylactic HPV vaccination should help to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with cervical cancer. The purpose of the study was to describe the results of and key concerns in eight HPV vaccination programs conducted in seven lowest income countries through the Gardasil Access Program (GAP). The GAP provides free HPV vaccine to organizations and institutions in lowest income countries. The HPV vaccination programs were entirely developed, implemented and managed by local institutions. Institutions submitted application forms with institution characteristics, target population, communication delivery strategies. After completion of the vaccination campaign (3 doses), institutions provided a final project report with data on doses administered and vaccination models. Two indicators were calculated, the program vaccination coverage and adherence. Qualitative data were also collected in the following areas: government and community involvement; communication, and sensitization; training and logistics resources, and challenges. A total of eight programs were implemented in seven countries. The eight programs initially targeted a total of 87,580 girls, of which 76,983 received the full 3-dose vaccine course, with mean program vaccination coverage of 87.8%; the mean adherence between the first and third doses of vaccine was 90.9%. Three programs used school-based delivery models, 2 used health facility-based models, and 3 used mixed models that included schools and health facilities. Models that included school-based vaccination were most effective at reaching girls aged 9-13 years. Mixed models comprising school and health facility-based vaccination had better overall performance compared with models using just one of the methods. Increased rates of program coverage and adherence were positively correlated with the number of vaccination sites. Qualitative key insights from the school models showed a high level of coordination and logistics to facilitate vaccination administration, a lower risk of girls being lost to follow-up and vaccinations conducted within the academic year limit the number of girls lost to follow-up. Mixed models that incorporate both schools and health facilities appear to be the most effective at delivering HPV vaccine. This study provides lessons for development of public health programs and policies as countries go forward in national decision-making for HPV vaccination.

Assessment of eight HPV vaccination programs implemented in lowest income countries

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Cervix cancer, preventable, continues to be the third most common cancer in women worldwide, especially in lowest income countries. Prophylactic HPV vaccination should help to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with cervical cancer. The purpose of the study was to describe the results of and key concerns in eight HPV vaccination programs conducted in seven lowest income countries through the Gardasil Access Program (GAP). Methods The GAP provides free HPV vaccine to organizations and institutions in lowest income countries. The HPV vaccination programs were entirely developed, implemented and managed by local institutions. Institutions submitted application forms with institution characteristics, target population, communication delivery strategies. After completion of the vaccination campaign (3 doses), institutions provided a final project report with data on doses administered and vaccination models. Two indicators were calculated, the program vaccination coverage and adherence. Qualitative data were also collected in the following areas: government and community involvement; communication, and sensitization; training and logistics resources, and challenges. Results A total of eight programs were implemented in seven countries. The eight programs initially targeted a total of 87,580 girls, of which 76,983 received the full 3-dose vaccine course, with mean program vaccination coverage of 87.8%; the mean adherence between the first and third doses of vaccine was 90.9%. Three programs used school-based delivery models, 2 used health facility-based models, and 3 used mixed models that included schools and health facilities. Models that included school-based vaccination were most effective at reaching girls aged 9-13 years. Mixed models comprising school and health facility-based vaccination had better overall performance compared with models using just one of the methods. Increased rates of program coverage and adherence were positively correlated with the number of vaccination sites. Qualitative key insights from the school models showed a high level of coordination and logistics to facilitate vaccination administration, a lower risk of girls being lost to follow-up and vaccinations conducted within the academic year limit the number of girls lost to follow-up. Conclusion Mixed models that incorporate both schools and health facilities appear to be the most effective at delivering HPV vaccine. This study provides lessons for development of public health programs and policies as countries go forward in national decision-making for HPV vaccination. PMID:22621342

Variations in gap junctional intercellular communication and connexin expression in fibroblasts derived from keloid and hypertrophic scars.

PubMed

Lu, Feng; Gao, JianHua; Ogawa, Rei; Hyakusoku, Hiko

2007-03-01

Expression of connexins and other constituent proteins of gap junctions along with gap junctional intercellular communication are involved in cellular development and differentiation processes. In addition, an increasing number of hereditary skin disorders appear to be linked to connexins. Therefore, in this report, the authors studied in vitro gap junctional intercellular communication function and connexin expression in fibroblasts derived from keloid and hypertrophic scar patients. Fibroblasts harvested from each of six keloid and hypertrophic scar patients were used for this study. Gap junctional intercellular communication function was investigated using the gap fluorescence recovery after photobleaching method, and expression of connexin proteins was studied using quantitative confocal microscopic analyses. Compared with normal skin, a decreased level of gap junctional intercellular communication was seen in fibroblasts derived from hypertrophic scar tissue, whereas an extremely low gap junctional intercellular communication level was detected in fibroblasts derived from keloid tissue. We also detected little connexin 43 (Cx43) protein localized in fibroblasts derived from keloids. Moreover, Cx43 protein levels were much lower in fibroblasts derived from hypertrophic scars than in those derived from normal skin. The authors' data suggest that the loss of gap junctional intercellular communication and connexin expression may affect intercellular recognition and thus break the proliferation and apoptosis balance in fibroblasts derived from keloid and hypertrophic scar tissue.

Interferon-gamma inhibits intestinal restitution by preventing gap junction communication between enterocytes.

PubMed

Leaphart, Cynthia L; Qureshi, Faisal; Cetin, Selma; Li, Jun; Dubowski, Theresa; Baty, Catherine; Batey, Catherine; Beer-Stolz, Donna; Guo, Fengli; Murray, Sandra A; Hackam, David J

2007-06-01

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is characterized by interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) release and inadequate intestinal restitution. Because enterocytes migrate together, mucosal healing may require interenterocyte communication via connexin 43-mediated gap junctions. We hypothesize that enterocyte migration requires interenterocyte communication, that IFN impairs migration by impairing connexin 43, and that impaired healing during NEC is associated with reduced gap junctions. NEC was induced in Swiss-Webster or IFN(-/-) mice, and restitution was determined in the presence of the gap junction inhibitor oleamide, or via time-lapse microscopy of IEC-6 cells. Connexin 43 expression, trafficking, and localization were detected in cultured or primary enterocytes or mouse or human intestine by confocal microscopy and (35)S-labeling, and gap junction communication was assessed using live microscopy with oleamide or connexin 43 siRNA. Enterocytes expressed connexin 43 in vitro and in vivo, and exchanged fluorescent dye via gap junctions. Gap junction inhibition significantly reduced enterocyte migration in vitro and in vivo. NEC was associated with IFN release and loss of enterocyte connexin 43 expression. IFN inhibited enterocyte migration by reducing gap junction communication through the dephosphorylation and internalization of connexin 43. Gap junction inhibition significantly increased NEC severity, whereas reversal of the inhibitory effects of IFN on gap junction communication restored enterocyte migration after IFN exposure. Strikingly, IFN(-/-) mice were protected from the development of NEC, and showed restored connexin 43 expression and intestinal restitution. IFN inhibits enterocyte migration by preventing interenterocyte gap junction communication. Connexin 43 loss may provide insights into the development of NEC, in which restitution is impaired.

Disparity in maternal, newborn and child health services in high focus states in India: a district-level cross-sectional analysis.

PubMed

Awasthi, Ashish; Pandey, C M; Chauhan, Rajesh K; Singh, Uttam

2016-08-05

To examine the level and trend in the coverage gap of a set of interventions of maternal and child health services using a summary index and to assess the disparity in usage of maternal and child health services in the districts of high focus states of India. Data for the present study are taken from the Annual Health Survey (AHS), 2010-2013 and Census of India, 2011. This study used secondary data from states having higher mortality and fertility rates, termed as high focus states in India. District-level information regarding children aged 12-23 months and ever married women aged 15-49 years has been extracted from the AHS (2010-2013), and household amenities, female literacy and main workforce information has been obtained from the Census of India 2011. 2 summary indexes were calculated first for maternal and child health services and another for socioeconomic and development status, using data from AHS and Census. Cronbach's α was used to assess the internal consistency of the items used in the index. The result shows that the coverage gap is highest in Uttar Pradesh (37%) and lowest in Madhya Pradesh (21%). Converge gap and socioeconomic development are negatively correlated (r=-0.49, p=0.01). The average coverage gap was highest in the lowest quintile of socioeconomic development. There was an absolute change of 1.5% per year in coverage gap during 2009-2013. In regression analysis, the coefficient of determination was 0.24, β=-30.05, p=0.01 for a negative relationship between socioeconomic development and coverage gap. There is a significant disparity in the usage of maternal and child healthcare services in the districts of India. Resource-rich people (urban residents and richest quintile) are way ahead of marginalised people (rural residents and poorest quintile) in the usage of healthcare services. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

Patient-centered communication and health assessment with youth.

PubMed

Martyn, Kristy K; Munro, Michelle L; Darling-Fisher, Cynthia S; Ronis, David L; Villarruel, Antonia M; Pardee, Michelle; Faleer, Hannah E; Fava, Nicole M

2013-01-01

Patient-centered communication is fundamental to individualizing healthcare, but there has been limited evaluation of provider communication with youth. The aim was to compare communication outcomes after use of an event history calendar (EHC) and Guidelines for Adolescent Preventive Services (GAPS) to structure interactions during a clinic visit. Patient and provider descriptions of EHC and GAPS communication experiences were also obtained. This is a secondary analysis of data obtained during a randomized controlled trial. A sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach was used. A split-plot design with one between factor (EHC, GAPS) and one within factor (pretest, posttest) was used for the quantitative portion. Qualitative data were collected from open-ended questions, audiotaped visits, and exit interviews. Providers (n = 9) at three clinics were assigned at random and trained to implement either the EHC or GAPS protocol. Male and female youth (n = 186) were randomly assigned to the EHC or GAPS intervention. Before their clinic visit, youth completed assessments of past communication experiences with healthcare providers (pretest); communication during the current visit was assessed immediately after the visit (posttest). Communication outcomes from pretest to posttest improved for youth in both the EHC and GAPS groups. Post hoc subgroup analysis suggested that men and Arab Americans derived more benefit from the EHC intervention in some aspects of communication. Qualitatively, the EHC group identified improved outcomes in validating patient perspective, being viewed in context, reaching a shared understanding of needs and preferences, and being helped to share power in the healthcare interaction. EHC and GAPS provided effective frameworks for structuring communication during a clinic visit. Compared with GAPS, the integrated time-linked assessment captured by the EHC enhanced patient-centered communication in select groups.

Adherence to hormonal contraception among women veterans: differences by race/ethnicity and contraceptive supply.

PubMed

Borrero, Sonya; Zhao, Xinhua; Mor, Maria K; Schwarz, Eleanor B; Good, Chester B; Gellad, Walid F

2013-08-01

The objective of the study was to assess the adherence to hormonal contraception (pill, patch, ring, or injectable) among women veterans and examine the relationships between race/ethnicity and the months of contraceptive supply dispensed with contraceptive adherence. We conducted a retrospective analysis of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) national databases to examine the adherence to hormonal contraception over 12 months among women aged 18-45 years who had hormonal contraceptive coverage during the first week of fiscal year 2008. We examined several adherence indicators including gaps between refills and months of contraceptive coverage. Descriptive statistics and multivariable models were used to examine the associations between race/ethnicity and contraceptive supply dispensed with adherence. Our cohort included 6946 women: 47% were white, 6% were Hispanic, 22% were black, and 25% were other race or had missing race information. Most women (83%) received a 3 month supply of contraception at each fill. More than 64% of women had at least 1 gap in coverage of 7 days or longer. Only 22% of women received a full 12 months of contraception without any gaps (perfect adherence). Compared with whites, Hispanics were significantly more likely to experience gaps (64% vs 70%; P = .02), and Hispanics and blacks received fewer months of contraceptive coverage (9.3 vs 8.9 and 9.0, P < .001). Compared with women receiving 3 month supplies, those receiving 1 month supplies had a higher likelihood of a gap (63% vs 72%, P < .001), fewer months of coverage (9.3 vs 6.9, P < .001), and a lower likelihood of perfect adherence (22% vs 11%, P < .001). Adherence to hormonal contraception among women veterans is poor. Efforts to improve contraceptive adherence and lower risk of unintended pregnancy are needed; dispensing more months of supply for hormonal contraception may be a promising strategy. Copyright © 2013 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Efficacy of Environmental Health E-Training for Journalists

PubMed Central

Parin, Megan L.; Yancey, Elissa; Beidler, Caroline; Haynes, Erin N.

2015-01-01

Communities report a low level of trust in environmental health media coverage. In order to support risk communication objectives, the goals of the research study were to identify whether or not there is a gap in environmental reporting training for journalists, to outline journalists’ methods for gathering environmental health news, to observe journalists’ attitudes toward environmental health training and communication, and to determine if electronic training (online/e-training) can effectively train journalists in environmental health topics. The results indicated that environmental journalists have very little to no formal environmental journalism training. In addition, a significant percentage of journalists do not have any formal journalism education. Respondents most preferred to receive continuing environmental journalism training online. Online instruction was also perceived as effective in increasing knowledge and providing necessary reporting tools, even among participants adverse to online instructional methods. Our findings highlight the changing media climate’s need for an increase in electronic journalism education opportunities to support environmental health journalism competencies among working professional journalists. PMID:26998499

Reconfigurable antenna options for 2.45/5 GHz wireless body area networks in healthcare applications.

PubMed

Abbas, Syed Muzahir; Ranga, Yogesh; Esselle, Karu P

2015-01-01

This paper presents electronically reconfigurable antenna options in healthcare applications. They are suitable for wireless body area network devices operating in the industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band at 2.45 GHz and IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) band at 5 GHz (5.15-5.35 GHz, 5.25-5.35 GHz). Two types of antennas are investigated: Antenna-I has a full ground plane and Antenna-II has a partial ground plane. The proposed antennas provide ISM operation in one mode while in another mode they support 5 GHz WLAN band. Their performance is assessed for body centric wireless communication using a simplified human body model. Antenna sensitivity to the gap between the antenna and the human body is investigated for both modes of each antenna. The proposed antennas exhibit a wide radiation pattern along the body surface to provide wide coverage and their small width (14 mm) makes them suitable for on-body communication in healthcare applications.

Measuring the Impact of the Home Health Nursing Shortage on Family Caregivers of Children Receiving Palliative Care.

PubMed

Weaver, Meaghann S; Wichman, Brittany; Bace, Sue; Schroeder, Denice; Vail, Catherine; Wichman, Chris; Macfadyen, Andrew

2018-06-01

The national nursing shortage translates into a gap in home nursing care available to children with complex, chronic medical conditions and their family caregivers receiving palliative care consultations. A total of 38 home health nursing surveys were completed by families receiving pediatric palliative care consultation services at a freestanding children's hospital in the Midwest. The gap in the average number of nursing hours allotted versus received was 40 h/wk per family, primarily during evening hours. Parents missed an average of 23 hours of employment per week to provide hands-on nursing care at home, ranking stress regarding personal employment due to nursing shortage at 6.2/10. Families invested an average of 10 h/mo searching for additional nursing coverage and often resorted to utilizing more than 6 different home nurse coverage personnel per month. Families reported multiple delays to hospital discharges (mean, 15 days per delay) due to inability to find home nursing coverage. Respiratory technology and lack of Medicaid coverage ( P < .02) correlated with the gap in home nursing access. This study examines how the pediatric home nursing shortage translates into a lived experience for families with children with complex medical conditions receiving palliative care.

Coverage of, and compliance with, mass drug administration under the programme to eliminate lymphatic filariasis in India: a systematic review.

PubMed

Babu, Bontha V; Babu, Gopalan R

2014-09-01

India's mass drug administration (MDA) programme to eliminate lymphatic filariasis (PELF) covers all 250 endemic districts, but compliance with treatment is not adequate for the programme to succeed in eradicating this neglected tropical disease. The objective of our study was to systematically review published studies on the coverage of and compliance with MDA under the PELF in India. We searched several databases-PubMed/Medline, Google Scholar, CINAHL/EBSCO, Web of Knowledge (including Web of Science) and OVID-and by applying selection criteria identified a total of 36 papers to include in the review. Overall MDA coverage rates varied between 48.8% and 98.8%, while compliance rates ranged from 20.8% to 93.7%. The coverage-compliance gap is large in many MDA programmes. The effective level of compliance, ≥65%, was reported in only 10 of a total of 31 MDAs (5 of 20 MDAs in rural areas and 2 of 12 MDAs in urban areas). The review has identified a gap between coverage and compliance, and potentially correctable causes of this gap. These causes need to be addressed if the Indian programme is to advance towards elimination of lymphatic filariasis. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

CHLORAL HYDRATE DECREASES GAP JUNCTION COMMUNICATION IN RAT LIVER EPITHELIAL CELLS

EPA Science Inventory

Chloral hydrate decreases gap junction communication in rat liver epithelial cells

Gap junction communication (GJC) is involved in controlling cell proliferation and differentiation. Connexins (Cx) that make up these junctions are composed of a closely related group of m...

Improving coverage measurement for reproductive, maternal, neonatal and child health: gaps and opportunities.

PubMed

Munos, Melinda K; Stanton, Cynthia K; Bryce, Jennifer

2017-06-01

Regular monitoring of coverage for reproductive, maternal, neonatal, and child health (RMNCH) is central to assessing progress toward health goals. The objectives of this review were to describe the current state of coverage measurement for RMNCH, assess the extent to which current approaches to coverage measurement cover the spectrum of RMNCH interventions, and prioritize interventions for a novel approach to coverage measurement linking household surveys with provider assessments. We included 58 interventions along the RMNCH continuum of care for which there is evidence of effectiveness against cause-specific mortality and stillbirth. We reviewed household surveys and provider assessments used in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to determine whether these tools generate measures of intervention coverage, readiness, or quality. For facility-based interventions, we assessed the feasibility of linking provider assessments to household surveys to provide estimates of intervention coverage. Fewer than half (24 of 58) of included RMNCH interventions are measured in standard household surveys. The periconceptional, antenatal, and intrapartum periods were poorly represented. All but one of the interventions not measured in household surveys are facility-based, and 13 of these would be highly feasible to measure by linking provider assessments to household surveys. We found important gaps in coverage measurement for proven RMNCH interventions, particularly around the time of birth. Based on our findings, we propose three sets of actions to improve coverage measurement for RMNCH, focused on validation of coverage measures and development of new measurement approaches feasible for use at scale in LMICs.

Integrating environmental gap analysis with spatial conservation prioritization: a case study from Victoria, Australia.

PubMed

Sharafi, Seyedeh Mahdieh; Moilanen, Atte; White, Matt; Burgman, Mark

2012-12-15

Gap analysis is used to analyse reserve networks and their coverage of biodiversity, thus identifying gaps in biodiversity representation that may be filled by additional conservation measures. Gap analysis has been used to identify priorities for species and habitat types. When it is applied to identify gaps in the coverage of environmental variables, it embodies the assumption that combinations of environmental variables are effective surrogates for biodiversity attributes. The question remains of how to fill gaps in conservation systems efficiently. Conservation prioritization software can identify those areas outside existing conservation areas that contribute to the efficient covering of gaps in biodiversity features. We show how environmental gap analysis can be implemented using high-resolution information about environmental variables and ecosystem condition with the publicly available conservation prioritization software, Zonation. Our method is based on the conversion of combinations of environmental variables into biodiversity features. We also replicated the analysis by using Species Distribution Models (SDMs) as biodiversity features to evaluate the robustness and utility of our environment-based analysis. We apply the technique to a planning case study of the state of Victoria, Australia. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Specialist availability in emergencies: contributions of response times and the use of ad hoc coverage in New York State.

PubMed

Rabin, Elaine; Patrick, Lisa

2016-04-01

Nationwide, hospitals struggle to maintain specialist on-call coverage for emergencies. We seek to further understand the issue by examining reliability of scheduled coverage and the role of ad hoc coverage when none is scheduled. An anonymous electronic survey of all emergency department (ED) directors of a large state. Overall and for 10 specialties, respondents were asked to estimate on-call coverage extent and "reliability" (frequency of emergency response in a clinically useful time frame: 2 hours), and use and effect of ad hoc emergency coverage to fill gaps. Descriptive statistics were performed using Fisher exact and Wilcoxon sign rank tests for significance. Contact information was obtained for 125 of 167 ED directors. Sixty responded (48%), representing 36% of EDs. Forty-six percent reported full on-call coverage scheduled for all specialties. Forty-six percent reported consistent reliability. Coverage and reliability were strongly related (P<.01; 33% reported both), and larger ED volume correlated with both (P<.01). Ninety percent of hospitals that had gaps in either employed ad hoc coverage, significantly improving coverage for 8 of 10 specialties. For all but 1 specialty, more than 20% of hospitals reported that specialists are "Never", "Rarely" or "Sometimes" reliable (more than 50% for cardiovascular surgery, hand surgery and ophthalmology). Significant holes in scheduled on-call specialist coverage are compounded by frequent unreliability of on-call specialists, but partially ameliorated by ad hoc specialist coverage. Regionalization may help because a 2-tiered system may exist: larger hospitals have more complete, reliable coverage. Better understanding of specialists' willingness to treat emergencies ad hoc without taking formal call will suggest additional remedies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

ORIENTATION REQUIREMENT TO DETECT MAGNETIC FIELD-INDUCTED ALTERATION OF GAP JUNCTION COMMUNICATION IN EPITHELIAL CELLS

EPA Science Inventory

ORIENTATION REQUIREMENT TO DETECT MAGNETIC FIELD-INDUCED ALTERATION OF GAP JUNCTION COMMUNICATION IN EPITHELIAL CELLS.
OBJECTIVE: We have shown that functional gap junction communication as measured by Lucifer yellow dye transfer (DT) in Clone-9 rat liver epithelial cells, c...

The Sleep-inducing Lipid Oleamide Deconvolutes Gap Junction Communication and Calcium Wave Transmission in Glial Cells

PubMed Central

Guan, Xiaojun; Cravatt, Benjamin F.; Ehring, George R.; Hall, James E.; Boger, Dale L.; Lerner, Richard A.; Gilula, Norton B.

1997-01-01

Oleamide is a sleep-inducing lipid originally isolated from the cerebrospinal fluid of sleep-deprived cats. Oleamide was found to potently and selectively inactivate gap junction–mediated communication between rat glial cells. In contrast, oleamide had no effect on mechanically stimulated calcium wave transmission in this same cell type. Other chemical compounds traditionally used as inhibitors of gap junctional communication, like heptanol and 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid, blocked not only gap junctional communication but also intercellular calcium signaling. Given the central role for intercellular small molecule and electrical signaling in central nervous system function, oleamide- induced inactivation of glial cell gap junction channels may serve to regulate communication between brain cells, and in doing so, may influence higher order neuronal events like sleep induction. PMID:9412472

12 CFR 222.20 - Coverage and definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... public. A solicitation does not include marketing communications that are directed at the general public... FAIR CREDIT REPORTING (REGULATION V) Affiliate Marketing § 222.20 Coverage and definitions. (a... communication of which would be a consumer report if the exclusions from the definition of “consumer report” in...

Communication choices of the uninsured: implications for health marketing.

PubMed

Dutta, Mohan Jyoti; King, Andy J

2008-01-01

According to published scholarship on health services usage, an increasing number of Americans do not have health insurance coverage. The strong relationship between insurance coverage and health services utilization highlights the importance of reaching out to the uninsured via prevention campaigns and communication messages. This article examines the communication choices of the uninsured, documenting that the uninsured are more likely to consume entertainment-based television and are less likely to read, watch, and listen to information-based media. It further documents the positive relationship between interpersonal communication, community participation, and health insurance coverage. The entertainment-heavy media consumption patterns of the uninsured suggests the relevance of developing health marketing strategies that consider entertainment programming as an avenue for reaching out to this underserved segment of the population.

A Research Agenda for Bridging the Gap Between Climate Science, Media and Public

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Strauss, B.

2012-12-01

A large and widely noted gap exists between the urgent threats indicated by climate science, and the general lack of priority being assigned to climate change by the broader public, media and policy-makers in the United States. This gap has motivated many climate scientists to try to engage more with lay audiences. One pathway for doing so is to speak or write directly for these audiences—for example, via blogs. To succeed, however, this route generally demands development of entirely new and deceptively difficult skill sets, navigation of common important pitfalls, and a significant dedication of time outside of research. A second pathway instead builds on scientists' traditional strength in research: orienting and extending research to increase its interest and accessibility for wider audiences. A trivially simple but relevant example is using U.S. instead of metric units, even to the point of doing separate additional analyses based on round U.S. unit variable values. More fundamentally, scientists can (and increasingly do) resolve research results to the finest spatial and temporal scales possible, in order to deliver information that is of local and immediate interest. But for maximum effectiveness, research products must go beyond, for example, color scale maps—whatever their resolution—to summarizing and communicating findings for the units that people care about, such as individual states, counties or cities, whenever this is a legitimate and feasible exercise. In this talk, I will develop these and related themes, and draw heavily on my experience and lessons learned from Climate Central's Surging Seas project, a conceptually integrated research and communications program on sea level rise that has stimulated over 800 news stories, from small-town independent reporting to major national coverage, since its launch in March 2012.

Networked sensors for the combat forces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klager, Gene

2004-11-01

Real-time and detailed information is critical to the success of ground combat forces. Current manned reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition (RSTA) capabilities are not sufficient to cover battlefield intelligence gaps, provide Beyond-Line-of-Sight (BLOS) targeting, and the ambush avoidance information necessary for combat forces operating in hostile situations, complex terrain, and conducting military operations in urban terrain. This paper describes a current US Army program developing advanced networked unmanned/unattended sensor systems to survey these gaps and provide the Commander with real-time, pertinent information. Networked Sensors for the Combat Forces plans to develop and demonstrate a new generation of low cost distributed unmanned sensor systems organic to the RSTA Element. Networked unmanned sensors will provide remote monitoring of gaps, will increase a unit"s area of coverage, and will provide the commander organic assets to complete his Battlefield Situational Awareness (BSA) picture for direct and indirect fire weapons, early warning, and threat avoidance. Current efforts include developing sensor packages for unmanned ground vehicles, small unmanned aerial vehicles, and unattended ground sensors using advanced sensor technologies. These sensors will be integrated with robust networked communications and Battle Command tools for mission planning, intelligence "reachback", and sensor data management. The network architecture design is based on a model that identifies a three-part modular design: 1) standardized sensor message protocols, 2) Sensor Data Management, and 3) Service Oriented Architecture. This simple model provides maximum flexibility for data exchange, information management and distribution. Products include: Sensor suites optimized for unmanned platforms, stationary and mobile versions of the Sensor Data Management Center, Battle Command planning tools, networked communications, and sensor management software. Details of these products and recent test results will be presented.

76 FR 37049 - Improving Wireless Coverage Through the Use of Signal Boosters

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-24

... FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 47 CFR Parts 1, 2, 22, 24, 27, 90 and 95 [WT Docket No. 10-4; DA 11-1078] Improving Wireless Coverage Through the Use of Signal Boosters AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Proposed rule; extension of comment period. SUMMARY: The Federal...

Text Mining to inform construction of Earth and Environmental Science Ontologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schildhauer, M.; Adams, B.; Rebich Hespanha, S.

2013-12-01

There is a clear need for better semantic representation of Earth and environmental concepts, to facilitate more effective discovery and re-use of information resources relevant to scientists doing integrative research. In order to develop general-purpose Earth and environmental science ontologies, however, it is necessary to represent concepts and relationships that span usage across multiple disciplines and scientific specialties. Traditional knowledge modeling through ontologies utilizes expert knowledge but inevitably favors the particular perspectives of the ontology engineers, as well as the domain experts who interacted with them. This often leads to ontologies that lack robust coverage of synonymy, while also missing important relationships among concepts that can be extremely useful for working scientists to be aware of. In this presentation we will discuss methods we have developed that utilize statistical topic modeling on a large corpus of Earth and environmental science articles, to expand coverage and disclose relationships among concepts in the Earth sciences. For our work we collected a corpus of over 121,000 abstracts from many of the top Earth and environmental science journals. We performed latent Dirichlet allocation topic modeling on this corpus to discover a set of latent topics, which consist of terms that commonly co-occur in abstracts. We match terms in the topics to concept labels in existing ontologies to reveal gaps, and we examine which terms are commonly associated in natural language discourse, to identify relationships that are important to formally model in ontologies. Our text mining methodology uncovers significant gaps in the content of some popular existing ontologies, and we show how, through a workflow involving human interpretation of topic models, we can bootstrap ontologies to have much better coverage and richer semantics. Because we base our methods directly on what working scientists are communicating about their research, it gives us an alternative bottom-up approach to populating and enriching ontologies, that complements more traditional knowledge modeling endeavors.

The Role of Epidemiology in Disaster Response Policy Development

PubMed Central

Thorpe, Lorna E; Assari, Shervin; Deppen, Stephen; Glied, Sherry; Lurie, Nicole; Mauer, Matthew P; Mays, Vickie M.; Trapido, Edward

2015-01-01

Purpose Disasters expose the general population and responders to a range of potential contaminants and stressors which may harm physical and mental health. This article addresses the role of epidemiology in informing policies after a disaster to mitigate ongoing exposures, provide care and compensation, and improve preparedness for future disasters. Methods The World Trade Center (WTC) disaster response is used as a case study. We examine how epidemiologic evidence was used to shape post-disaster policy and identify important gaps in early research. Results In the wake of WTC attacks, epidemiologic research played a key role in identifying and characterizing affected populations, assessing environmental exposures, quantifying physical and mental health impacts, and producing evidence to ascribe causation. However, most studies suffered from methodological challenges, including delays, selection biases, poor exposure measurement, and nonstandardized outcomes. Gaps included measuring unmet health needs and financing coverage, as well as coordination across longitudinal cohorts of studies for rare conditions with long latency, such as cancer. Conclusions Epidemiologists can increase their impact on evidence-based policymaking by ensuring core mechanisms are in place prior to a disaster to mount monitoring of responders and other affected populations, improve early exposure assessment efforts, identify critical gaps in scientific knowledge, and coordinate communication of scientific findings to policymakers and the public. PMID:25150446

Internet health information in the patient-provider dialogue.

PubMed

Hong, Traci

2008-10-01

A patient discussing Internet health information with a health care provider (referred to as "patient-provider communication about Internet health information") can contribute positively to health outcomes. Although research has found that once Internet access is achieved, there are no ethnic differences in Internet health information seeking, it is unclear if there are ethnic differences in patient-provider communication about Internet health information. To help fill this gap in the literature, the National Cancer Institute's Health Information National Trends Survey 2005 was analyzed with Stata 9. Two sets of logistic regression analyses were conducted, one for a subsample of Internet users (n = 3,244) and one for a subsample of Internet users who are first-generation immigrants (n = 563). The dependent variable was patient-provider communication about Internet health information, which assessed whether survey participants had discussed online health information with a health care provider. The predictor variables included trust of health care provider, trust of online health information, Internet use, health care coverage, frequency of visits to health care provider, health status, and demographics. Among all Internet users, Whites had higher levels of patient-provider communication about Internet health information than Blacks and Asians. Similarly, among Internet users who are immigrants, Whites had higher levels of patient-provider communication about Internet health information than Blacks and Asians. While the digital divide is narrowing in terms of Internet access, racial differences in patient-provider communication about Internet health information may undermine the potential benefits of the information age.

A Case Study into Microbial Genome Assembly Gap Sequences and Finishing Strategies.

PubMed

Utturkar, Sagar M; Klingeman, Dawn M; Hurt, Richard A; Brown, Steven D

2017-01-01

This study characterized regions of DNA which remained unassembled by either PacBio and Illumina sequencing technologies for seven bacterial genomes. Two genomes were manually finished using bioinformatics and PCR/Sanger sequencing approaches and regions not assembled by automated software were analyzed. Gaps present within Illumina assemblies mostly correspond to repetitive DNA regions such as multiple rRNA operon sequences. PacBio gap sequences were evaluated for several properties such as GC content, read coverage, gap length, ability to form strong secondary structures, and corresponding annotations. Our hypothesis that strong secondary DNA structures blocked DNA polymerases and contributed to gap sequences was not accepted. PacBio assemblies had few limitations overall and gaps were explained as cumulative effect of lower than average sequence coverage and repetitive sequences at contig termini. An important aspect of the present study is the compilation of biological features that interfered with assembly and included active transposons, multiple plasmid sequences, phage DNA integration, and large sequence duplication. Our targeted genome finishing approach and systematic evaluation of the unassembled DNA will be useful for others looking to close, finish, and polish microbial genome sequences.

Transforming Global Health by Improving the Science of Scale-Up

PubMed Central

Kruk, Margaret E.; Yamey, Gavin; Angell, Sonia Y.; Beith, Alix; Cotlear, Daniel; Guanais, Frederico; Jacobs, Lisa; Saxenian, Helen; Victora, Cesar; Goosby, Eric

2016-01-01

In its report Global Health 2035, the Commission on Investing in Health proposed that health investments can reduce mortality in nearly all low- and middle-income countries to very low levels, thereby averting 10 million deaths per year from 2035 onward. Many of these gains could be achieved through scale-up of existing technologies and health services. A key instrument to close this gap is policy and implementation research (PIR) that aims to produce generalizable evidence on what works to implement successful interventions at scale. Rigorously designed PIR promotes global learning and local accountability. Much greater national and global investments in PIR capacity will be required to enable the scaling of effective approaches and to prevent the recycling of failed ideas. Sample questions for the PIR research agenda include how to close the gap in the delivery of essential services to the poor, which population interventions for non-communicable diseases are most applicable in different contexts, and how to engage non-state actors in equitable provision of health services in the context of universal health coverage. PMID:26934704

Immigrants and Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance

PubMed Central

Buchmueller, Thomas C; Lo Sasso, Anthony T; Lurie, Ithai; Dolfin, Sarah

2007-01-01

Objective To investigate the factors underlying the lower rate of employer-sponsored health insurance coverage for foreign-born workers. Data Sources 2001 Survey of Income and Program Participation. Study Design We estimate probit regressions to determine the effect of immigrant status on employer-sponsored health insurance coverage, including the probabilities of working for a firm that offers coverage, being eligible for coverage, and taking up coverage. Data Extraction Methods We identified native born citizens, naturalized citizens, and noncitizen residents between the ages of 18 and 65, in the year 2002. Principal Findings First, we find that the large difference in coverage rates for immigrants and native-born Americans is driven by the very low rates of coverage for noncitizen immigrants. Differences between native-born and naturalized citizens are quite small and for some outcomes are statistically insignificant when we control for observable characteristics. Second, our results indicate that the gap between natives and noncitizens is explained mainly by differences in the probability of working for a firm that offers insurance. Conditional on working for such a firm, noncitizens are only slightly less likely to be eligible for coverage and, when eligible, are only slightly less likely to take up coverage. Third, roughly two-thirds of the native/noncitizen gap in coverage overall and in the probability of working for an insurance-providing employer is explained by characteristics of the individual and differences in the types of jobs they hold. Conclusions The substantially higher rate of uninsurance among immigrants is driven by the lower rate of health insurance offers by the employers of immigrants. PMID:17355593

Leveraging Big Data for Exploring Occupational Diseases-Related Interest at the Level of Scientific Community, Media Coverage and Novel Data Streams: The Example of Silicosis as a Pilot Study

PubMed Central

Bragazzi, Nicola Luigi; Toletone, Alessandra; Brigo, Francesco; Durando, Paolo

2016-01-01

Objective Silicosis is an untreatable but preventable occupational disease, caused by exposure to silica. It can progressively evolve to lung impairment, respiratory failure and death, even after exposure has ceased. However, little is known about occupational diseases-related interest at the level of scientific community, media coverage and web behavior. This article aims at filling in this gap of knowledge, taking the silicosis as a case study. Methods We investigated silicosis-related web-activities using Google Trends (GT) for capturing the Internet behavior worldwide in the years 2004–2015. GT-generated data were, then, compared with the silicosis-related scientific production (i.e., PubMed and Google Scholar), the media coverage (i.e., Google news), the Wikipedia traffic (i.e, Wikitrends) and the usage of new media (i.e., YouTube and Twitter). Results A peak in silicosis-related web searches was noticed in 2010–2011: interestingly, both scientific articles production and media coverage markedly increased after these years in a statistically significant way. The public interest and the level of the public engagement were witnessed by an increase in likes, comments, hashtags, and re-tweets. However, it was found that only a small fraction of the posted/uploaded material contained accurate scientific information. Conclusions GT could be useful to assess the reaction of the public and the level of public engagement both to novel risk-factors associated to occupational diseases, and possibly related changes in disease natural history, and to the effectiveness of preventive workplace practices and legislative measures adopted to improve occupational health. Further, occupational clinicians should become aware of the topics most frequently searched by patients and proactively address these concerns during the medical examination. Institutional bodies and organisms should be more present and active in digital tools and media to disseminate and communicate scientifically accurate information. This manuscript should be intended as preliminary, exploratory communication, paving the way for further studies. PMID:27806115

Changing coverage of domestic violence murders: a longitudinal experiment in participatory communication.

PubMed

Ryan, Charlotte; Anastario, Mike; DaCunha, Alfredo

2006-02-01

Stressing relation-building and participatory communication approaches, the Rhode Island Coalition against Domestic Violence worked with journalists to develop a best practices handbook on news coverage of domestic violence murders. This study compares print coverage of domestic violence murders prehandbook (1996-1999) and posthandbook (2000-2002). Significant changes include increased labeling of the murder of intimates as domestic violence and doubled usage of advocates as sources. As a result, domestic violence murders, previously framed as unpredictable private tragedies, are more commonly framed posthandbook as social problems warranting public intervention. The authors conclude that relation-building approaches can affect news cultures and public discourse when conducted in conjunction with comprehensive participatory communications strategies.

Homotypic gap junctional communication associated with metastasis increases suppression increases with PKA kinase activity and is unaffected by P13K inhibition

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Loss of gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) between cancer cells is a common characteristic of malignant transformation. This communication is mediated by connexin proteins that make up the functional units of gap junctions. Connexins are highly regulated at the protein level and phosp...

Improving travel information products via robust estimation techniques : final report, March 2009.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-03-01

Traffic-monitoring systems, such as those using loop detectors, are prone to coverage gaps, arising from sensor noise, processing errors and : transmission problems. Such gaps adversely affect the accuracy of Advanced Traveler Information Systems. Th...

AN APPROACH FOR DETERMINING REGIONAL LAND COVER AND SPECIES HABITAT DISTRIBUTIONS IN THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST: THE SOUTHWEST REGIONAL GAP ANALYSIS PROJECT

EPA Science Inventory

The Southwest Regional Gap Analysis Project (SWReGAP) is developing seamless digital coverages for land cover, vertebrate animal habitat, and land management status for the 5-state region of Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado. The project is a second generation effor...

Potential impact of pharmacist interventions to reduce cost for Medicare Part D beneficiaries.

PubMed

Thatcher, Erin E; Vanwert, Elizabeth M; Erickson, Steven R

2013-06-01

The objective was to determine the impact of simulated pharmacist interventions on out-of-pocket cost, time to coverage gap, and cost per patient to the Medicare Part D program using actual patient cases from an adult general medicine clinic. Medication profiles of 100 randomly selected Medicare-eligible patients from a university-affiliated general internal medicine clinic were reviewed by a pharmacist to identify opportunities to cost-maximize the patients' therapies based on the plan. An online Part-D calculator, Aetna Medicare Rx Essentials, was used as the standard plan to determine medication cost and time to gap. The primary analysis was comparison of the patients' pre-review and post-review out-of-pocket cost, time to coverage gap, and cost to Medicare. A total of 65 patients had at least 1 simulated pharmacist cost intervention. The most common intervention was substituting for a less costly generic, followed by substituting a generic for a brand name. Projected patient cost savings was $476 per year. The average time to coverage gap was increased by 0.7 ±1.2 months. This study illustrates that the pharmacists may be able to reduce cost to some patients as well as to the Medicare Part D program.

A vorticity transport model to restore spatial gaps in velocity data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ameli, Siavash; Shadden, Shawn

2017-11-01

Often measurements of velocity data do not have full spatial coverage in the probed domain or near boundaries. These gaps can be due to missing measurements or masked regions of corrupted data. These gaps confound interpretation, and are problematic when the data is used to compute Lagrangian or trajectory-based analyses. Various techniques have been proposed to overcome coverage limitations in velocity data such as unweighted least square fitting, empirical orthogonal function analysis, variational interpolation as well as boundary modal analysis. In this talk, we present a vorticity transport PDE to reconstruct regions of missing velocity vectors. The transport model involves both nonlinear anisotropic diffusion and advection. This approach is shown to preserve the main features of the flow even in cases of large gaps, and the reconstructed regions are continuous up to second order. We illustrate results for high-frequency radar (HFR) measurements of the ocean surface currents as this is a common application of limited coverage. We demonstrate that the error of the method is on the same order of the error of the original velocity data. In addition, we have developed a web-based gateway for data restoration, and we will demonstrate a practical application using available data. This work is supported by the NSF Grant No. 1520825.

Rising Prices of Targeted Oral Anticancer Medications and Associated Financial Burden on Medicare Beneficiaries.

PubMed

Shih, Ya-Chen Tina; Xu, Ying; Liu, Lei; Smieliauskas, Fabrice

2017-08-01

Purpose The high cost of oncology drugs threatens the affordability of cancer care. Previous research identified drivers of price growth of targeted oral anticancer medications (TOAMs) in private insurance plans and projected the impact of closing the coverage gap in Medicare Part D in 2020. This study examined trends in TOAM prices and patient out-of-pocket (OOP) payments in Medicare Part D and estimated the actual effects on patient OOP payments of partial filling of the coverage gap by 2012. Methods Using SEER linked to Medicare Part D, 2007 to 2012, we identified patients who take TOAMs via National Drug Codes in Part D claims. We calculated total drug costs (prices) and OOP payments per patient per month and compared their rates of inflation with general health care prices. Results The study cohort included 42,111 patients who received TOAMs between 2007 and 2012. Although the general prescription drug consumer price index grew at 3% per year over 2007 to 2012, mean TOAM prices increased by nearly 12% per year, reaching $7,719 per patient per month in 2012. Prices increased over time for newly and previously launched TOAMs. Mean patient OOP payments dropped by 4% per year over the study period, with a 40% drop among patients with a high financial burden in 2011, when the coverage gap began to close. Conclusion Rising TOAM prices threaten the financial relief patients have begun to experience under closure of the coverage gap in Medicare Part D. Policymakers should explore methods of harnessing the surge of novel TOAMs to increase price competition for Medicare beneficiaries.

Similar challenges but different responses: Media coverage of measles vaccination in the UK and China.

PubMed

Ren, Jie; Peters, Hans Peter; Allgaier, Joachim; Lo, Yin-Yueh

2014-05-01

For several decades scholars have studied media reporting on scientific issues that involve controversy. Most studies so far have focused on the western world. This article tries to broaden the perspective by considering China and comparing it to a western country. A content analysis of newspaper coverage of vaccination issues in the UK and China shows, first, that the government-supported 'mainstream position' dominates the Chinese coverage while the British media frequently refer to criticism and controversy. Second, scientific expertise in the British coverage is represented by experts from the health and science sector but by experts from health agencies in the Chinese coverage. These results are discussed with respect to implications for risk communication and scientists' involvement in public communication.

DNA barcoding in the media: does coverage of cool science reflect its social context?

PubMed

Geary, Janis; Camicioli, Emma; Bubela, Tania

2016-09-01

Paul Hebert and colleagues first described DNA barcoding in 2003, which led to international efforts to promote and coordinate its use. Since its inception, DNA barcoding has generated considerable media coverage. We analysed whether this coverage reflected both the scientific and social mandates of international barcoding organizations. We searched newspaper databases to identify 900 English-language articles from 2003 to 2013. Coverage of the science of DNA barcoding was highly positive but lacked context for key topics. Coverage omissions pose challenges for public understanding of the science and applications of DNA barcoding; these included coverage of governance structures and issues related to the sharing of genetic resources across national borders. Our analysis provided insight into how barcoding communication efforts have translated into media coverage; more targeted communication efforts may focus media attention on previously omitted, but important topics. Our analysis is timely as the DNA barcoding community works to establish the International Society for the Barcode of Life.

Investigating the Effects of Mass Media Exposure on the Uptake of Preventive Measures by Hong Kong Residents during the 2015 MERS Outbreak: The Mediating Role of Interpersonal Communication and the Perception of Concern.

PubMed

Ludolph, Ramona; Schulz, Peter J; Chen, Ling

2018-01-01

In 2015, South Korea experienced the largest outbreak to date of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) outside the Middle East. Fears related to a potential spread of the disease led to an increased alert level as well as heightened media coverage in the neighboring Hong Kong. A cross-sectional survey (N = 533) among residents of Hong Kong was conducted to assess the relationships between the effects of outbreak-related mass media coverage, interpersonal communication, the perceived level of concern in one's close environment, and the uptake of preventive measures. A serial multiple mediator model finds that interpersonal communication and higher perceived concern indirectly influence the effects of media coverage on the engagement in preventive actions. These results expand previous research on the mediating role of interpersonal communication and support assumptions about a modified two-step flow of communication in the context of a public health emergency.

Electronic theoretical study of the influences of O adsorption on the electronic structure and optical properties of graphene

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shuang, Zhou; Guili, Liu; Dazhi, Fan

2017-02-01

The electronic structure and optical properties of adsorbing O atoms on graphene with different O coverage are researched using the density functional theory based upon the first-principle study to obtain further insight into properties of graphene. The adsorption energies, band structures, the density of states, light absorption coefficient and reflectivity of each system are calculated theoretically after optimizing structures of each system with different O coverage. Our calculations show that adsorption of O atoms on graphene increases the bond length of C-C which adjacent to the O atoms. When the O coverage is 9.4%, the adsorption energy (3.91 eV) is the maximum, which only increases about 1.6% higher than that of 3.1% O coverage. We find that adsorbed O atoms on pristine graphene opens up indirect gap of about 0.493-0.952 eV. Adsorbing O atoms make pristine graphene from metal into a semiconductor. When the O coverage is 9.4%, the band gap (0.952 eV) is the maximum. Comparing with pristine graphene, we find the density of states at Fermi level of O atoms adsorbing on graphene with different coverage are significantly increased. We also find that light absorption coefficient and reflectivity peaks are significantly reduced, and the larger the coverage, the smaller the absorption coefficient and reflectivity peaks are. And the blue shift phenomenon appears.

Design and methodology of the Geo-social Analysis of Physicians' settlement (GAP-Study) in Germany.

PubMed

Groneberg, David A; Boll, Michael; Bauer, Jan

2016-01-01

Unequally distributed disease burdens within populations are well-known and occur worldwide. They are depending on residents' social status and/or ethnic background. Country-specific health care systems - especially the coverage and distribution of health care providers - are both a potential cause as well as an important solution for health inequalities. Registers are built of all accredited physicians and psychotherapists within the outpatient care system in German metropolises by utilizing the database of the Associations of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians. The physicians' practice neighborhood will be analyzed under socioeconomic and demographic perspectives. Therefore, official city districts' statistics will be assigned to the physicians and psychotherapists according to their practice location. Averages of neighborhood indicators will be calculated for each specialty. Moreover, advanced studies will inspect differences by physicians' gender or practice type. Geo-spatial analyses of the intra-city practices distribution will complete the settlement characteristics of physicians and psychotherapists within the outpatient care system in German metropolises. The project "Geo-social Analysis of Physicians' settlement" (GAP) is designed to elucidate gaps of physician coverage within the outpatient care system, dependent on neighborhood residents' social status or ethnics in German metropolises. The methodology of the GAP-Study enables the standardized investigation of physicians' settlement behavior in German metropolises and their inter-city comparisons. The identification of potential gaps within the physicians' coverage should facilitate the delineation of approaches for solving health care inequality problems.

Comparison of Multiple Beam Coverage to Earth Coverage for a Maritime Satellite System

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1973-12-01

Preliminary tradeoff comparisons were analyzed for a possible baseline L-band maritime communications satellite system. Primary emphasis was given to major shipping routes with secondary coverage elsewhere. A low cost satellite configuration was post...

47 CFR 22.951 - Minimum coverage requirement.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Minimum coverage requirement. 22.951 Section 22.951 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) COMMON CARRIER SERVICES PUBLIC MOBILE SERVICES Cellular Radiotelephone Service § 22.951 Minimum coverage requirement. Applications for...

Monitoring gap junctional communication in astrocytes from acute adult mouse brain slices using the gap-FRAP technique.

PubMed

Yi, Chenju; Teillon, Jérémy; Koulakoff, Annette; Berry, Hugues; Giaume, Christian

2018-06-01

Intercellular communication through gap junction channels plays a key role in cellular homeostasis and in synchronizing physiological functions, a feature that is modified in number of pathological situations. In the brain, astrocytes are the cell population that expresses the highest amount of gap junction proteins, named connexins. Several techniques have been used to assess the level of gap junctional communication in astrocytes, but so far they remain very difficult to apply in adult brain tissue. Here, using specific loading of astrocytes with sulforhodamine 101, we adapted the gap-FRAP (Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching) to acute hippocampal slices from 9 month-old adult mice. We show that gap junctional communication monitored in astrocytes with this technique was inhibited either by pharmacological treatment with a gap junctional blocker or in mice lacking the two main astroglial connexins, while a partial inhibition was measured when only one connexin was knocked-out. We validate this approach using a mathematical model of sulforhodamine 101 diffusion in an elementary astroglial network and a quantitative analysis of the exponential fits to the fluorescence recovery curves. Consequently, we consider that the adaptation of the gap-FRAP technique to acute brain slices from adult mice provides an easy going and valuable approach that allows overpassing this age-dependent obstacle and will facilitate the investigation of gap junctional communication in adult healthy or pathological brain. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

International Issues, Media Coverage and Public Ignorance: or, So, Where Is Africa, Anyway?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alexandre, Laurien

It is commonplace to lament the lack of knowledge about world issues and events exhibited by U.S. citizens. Communication scholars criticize the mass media's poor coverage of world affairs and stereotypic portrayals of distant lands and leaders. Despite sophisticated communications networks, U.S. mass media provide only a limited window on the…

Understanding the Influence of Socioeconomic Environment on Paediatric Antiretroviral Treatment Coverage: Towards Closing Treatment Gaps in Sub-Saharan Africa.

PubMed

Adeyinka, Daniel A; Evans, Meirion R; Ozigbu, Chamberline E; van Woerden, Hugo; Adeyinka, Esther F; Oladimeji, Olanrewaju; Aimakhu, Chris; Odoh, Deborah; Chamla, Dick

2017-03-01

Many sub-Saharan African countries have massively scaled-up their antiretroviral treatment (ART) programmes, but many national programmes still show large gaps in paediatric ART coverage making it challenging to reduce AIDS-related deaths among HIV-infected children. We sought to identify enablers of paediatric ART coverage in Africa by examining the relationship between paediatric ART coverage and socioeconomic parameters measured at the population level so as to accelerate reaching the 90-90-90 targets. Ecological analyses of paediatric ART coverage and socioeconomic indicators were performed. The data were obtained from the United Nations agencies and Forum for a new World Governance reports for the 21 Global Plan priority countries in Africa with highest burden of mother-to-child HIV transmission. Spearman's correlation and median regression were utilized to explore possible enablers of paediatric ART coverage. Factors associated with paediatric ART coverage included adult literacy (r=0.6, p=0.004), effective governance (r=0.6, p=0.003), virology testing by 2 months of age (r=0.9, p=0.001), density of healthcare workers per 10,000 population (r=0.6, p=0.007), and government expenditure on health (r=0.5, p=0.046). The paediatric ART coverage had a significant inverse relationship with the national mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) rate (r=-0.9, p<0.001) and gender inequality index (r=-0.6, p=0.006). Paediatric ART coverage had no relationship with poverty and HIV stigma indices. Low paediatric ART coverage continues to hamper progress towards eliminating AIDS-related deaths in HIV-infected children. Achieving this requires full commitment to a broad range of socioeconomic development goals. Copyright© by the National Institute of Public Health, Prague 2017

GPS Eye-in-the-Sky Software Takes Closer Look Below

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2006-01-01

At NASA, GPS is a vital resource for scientific research aimed at understanding and protecting Earth. The Agency employs the band of GPS satellites for such functions as mapping Earth s ionosphere and developing earthquake-prediction tools. Extending this worldly wisdom beyond Earth, NASA researchers are even discussing the possibility of developing global positioning satellites around Mars, in anticipation of future manned missions. Despite all of its terrestrial accomplishments, traditional GPS still has its limitations. The Space Agency is working to address these with many new advances, including a "Global Differential GPS" technology that instantaneously provides a position to within 4 inches horizontally and 8 inches vertically, anywhere on Earth. According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, no other related system provides the same combination of accuracy and coverage. Furthermore, traditional GPS cannot communicate beyond latitudes of 75deg. That means that most of Greenland and Antarctica cannot receive GPS signals. The Global Differential GPS technology approaches this area of the world using several different GPS signals. These signals overlap to compensate for the gaps in coverage. Now, scientists working in the extreme northernmost and southernmost areas of the world can have access to the same GPS technology that other scientists around the world rely on.

Gender Differences and Leadership: A Study

DTIC Science & Technology

1997-04-01

Verbal Self-Defense (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1993), xvi. 25 Judith Tingley, “Communication: Brdiging the Gender Gap,” Healthcare...Internet, 29 March 1997, available from http://www.primenet.com/~ gender /. 5 Judith Tingley, Ph.D., “Communication: Bridging the Gender Gap...and Men in Conversation, New York, W. Morrow, 1990. Tingley, Judith , Ph.D., “Communication: Bridging the Gender Gap,” Healthcare Administration

Collection of empirical data for assessing 800MHz coverage models

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2004-12-01

Wireless communications plays an important role in KDOT operations. Currently, decisions pertaining to KDOTs : 800MHz radio system are made on the basis of coverage models that rely on antenna and terrain characteristics to model the : coverage. W...

A Case Study into Microbial Genome Assembly Gap Sequences and Finishing Strategies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Utturkar, Sagar M.; Klingeman, Dawn M.; Hurt, Jr., Richard A.

This study characterized regions of DNA which remained unassembled by either PacBio and Illumina sequencing technologies for seven bacterial genomes. Two genomes were manually finished using bioinformatics and PCR/Sanger sequencing approaches and regions not assembled by automated software were analyzed. Gaps present within Illumina assemblies mostly correspond to repetitive DNA regions such as multiple rRNA operon sequences. PacBio gap sequences were evaluated for several properties such as GC content, read coverage, gap length, ability to form strong secondary structures, and corresponding annotations. Our hypothesis that strong secondary DNA structures blocked DNA polymerases and contributed to gap sequences was not accepted.more » PacBio assemblies had few limitations overall and gaps were explained as cumulative effect of lower than average sequence coverage and repetitive sequences at contig termini. An important aspect of the present study is the compilation of biological features that interfered with assembly and included active transposons, multiple plasmid sequences, phage DNA integration, and large sequence duplication. Furthermore, our targeted genome finishing approach and systematic evaluation of the unassembled DNA will be useful for others looking to close, finish, and polish microbial genome sequences.« less

A Case Study into Microbial Genome Assembly Gap Sequences and Finishing Strategies

DOE PAGES

Utturkar, Sagar M.; Klingeman, Dawn M.; Hurt, Jr., Richard A.; ...

2017-07-18

This study characterized regions of DNA which remained unassembled by either PacBio and Illumina sequencing technologies for seven bacterial genomes. Two genomes were manually finished using bioinformatics and PCR/Sanger sequencing approaches and regions not assembled by automated software were analyzed. Gaps present within Illumina assemblies mostly correspond to repetitive DNA regions such as multiple rRNA operon sequences. PacBio gap sequences were evaluated for several properties such as GC content, read coverage, gap length, ability to form strong secondary structures, and corresponding annotations. Our hypothesis that strong secondary DNA structures blocked DNA polymerases and contributed to gap sequences was not accepted.more » PacBio assemblies had few limitations overall and gaps were explained as cumulative effect of lower than average sequence coverage and repetitive sequences at contig termini. An important aspect of the present study is the compilation of biological features that interfered with assembly and included active transposons, multiple plasmid sequences, phage DNA integration, and large sequence duplication. Furthermore, our targeted genome finishing approach and systematic evaluation of the unassembled DNA will be useful for others looking to close, finish, and polish microbial genome sequences.« less

A Case Study into Microbial Genome Assembly Gap Sequences and Finishing Strategies

PubMed Central

Utturkar, Sagar M.; Klingeman, Dawn M.; Hurt, Richard A.; Brown, Steven D.

2017-01-01

This study characterized regions of DNA which remained unassembled by either PacBio and Illumina sequencing technologies for seven bacterial genomes. Two genomes were manually finished using bioinformatics and PCR/Sanger sequencing approaches and regions not assembled by automated software were analyzed. Gaps present within Illumina assemblies mostly correspond to repetitive DNA regions such as multiple rRNA operon sequences. PacBio gap sequences were evaluated for several properties such as GC content, read coverage, gap length, ability to form strong secondary structures, and corresponding annotations. Our hypothesis that strong secondary DNA structures blocked DNA polymerases and contributed to gap sequences was not accepted. PacBio assemblies had few limitations overall and gaps were explained as cumulative effect of lower than average sequence coverage and repetitive sequences at contig termini. An important aspect of the present study is the compilation of biological features that interfered with assembly and included active transposons, multiple plasmid sequences, phage DNA integration, and large sequence duplication. Our targeted genome finishing approach and systematic evaluation of the unassembled DNA will be useful for others looking to close, finish, and polish microbial genome sequences. PMID:28769883

Implications of health reform for retiree health benefits.

PubMed

Fronstin, Paul

2010-01-01

This Issue Brief examines how current health reform legislation being debated in Congress will impact the future of retiree health benefits. In general, the proposals' provisions will have a mixed impact on retiree health benefits: In the short term, the reinsurance provisions would help shore up early retiree coverage and Medicare Part D coverage would become more valuable to retirees. In the longer term, insurance reform combined with new subsidies for individuals enrolling for coverage through insurance exchanges, the maintenance-of-effort provision affecting early retiree benefits, increases to the cost of providing drug benefits to retirees, and enhanced Medicare Part D coverage, would all create significant incentives for employers to drop coverage for early retirees and drug coverage for Medicare-eligible retirees. REINSURANCE PROGRAM FOR EARLY RETIREES: Proposed legislation includes a provision to create a temporary reinsurance program for employers providing health benefits to retirees over age 55 and not yet eligible for Medicare. Given the temporary nature of the program, it is intended to provide employers an incentive to maintain benefits until the health insurance exchange is fully operational. At that point, employers will have less incentive to provide health benefits to early retirees, and retirees will have less need for former employers to maintain a program. MEDICARE DRUG BENEFITS: The House-passed bill would initially reduce the coverage gap (the so-called "doughnut hole") for individuals in the Medicare Part D program by $500 and eliminate it altogether by 2019. The bill currently before the Senate would also reduce the coverage gap by $500, but does not call for eliminating it. Both would also provide a 50 percent discount to brand-name drug coverage in the coverage gap. These provisions increase the value of the Medicare Part D drug program to Medicare-eligible beneficiaries relative to drug benefits provided by employers. TAX TREATMENT OF EMPLOYER SUBSIDIES UNDER MMA: The Medicare Modernization Act provides subsidies to employers that continue to offer prescription drug coverage through a retiree health benefits program. This subsidy is currently not counted as taxable income to the employer receiving it. Both the House and Senate bills would effectively repeal this tax exclusion. This would have two effects: The real cost of providing retiree health benefits to Medicare-eligible retirees would increase, and an employer's FAS 106 liability would increase immediately. The increase in the cost of retiree drug benefits will cause employers to re-evaluate the subsidy, compared with other available options. Moving retirees to Medicare Part D may become even more attractive to employers if the coverage gap is reduced and/or eliminated. POSTRETIREMENT BENEFIT CHANGES: With some exceptions, the House-passed legislation would prohibit employers from changing the benefits offered to retirees and their beneficiaries once a person has retired. This provision could have a number of different effects: More employers may move toward capping their contributions; employers that want to maintain retiree health benefits may react by cutting the health benefits of active workers; employers may eliminate retiree health benefits altogether to avoid being locked into providing a permanent benefit; or they may drop benefits if they think there is no need to provide them.

Experiencing biodiversity as a bridge over the science-society communication gap.

PubMed

Meinard, Yves; Quétier, Fabien

2014-06-01

Drawing on the idea that biodiversity is simply the diversity of living things, and that everyone knows what diversity and living things mean, most conservation professionals eschew the need to explain the many complex ways in which biodiversity is understood in science. On many biodiversity-related issues, this lack of clarity leads to a communication gap between science and the general public, including decision makers who must design and implement biodiversity policies. Closing this communication gap is pivotal to the ability of science to inform sound environmental decision making. To address this communication gap, we propose a surrogate of biodiversity for communication purposes that captures the scientific definition of biodiversity yet can be understood by nonscientists; that is, biodiversity as a learning experience. The prerequisites of this or any other biodiversity communication surrogate are that it should have transdisciplinary relevance; not be measurable; be accessible to a wide audience; be usable to translate biodiversity issues; and understandably encompass biodiversity concepts. Biodiversity as a learning experience satisfies these prerequisites and is philosophically robust. More importantly, it can effectively contribute to closing the communication gap between biodiversity science and society at large. © 2013 Society for Conservation Biology.

Ongoing Coverage for Ongoing Care: Access, Utilization, and Out-of-Pocket Spending Among Uninsured Working-Aged Adults with Chronic Health Care Needs

PubMed Central

Rasch, Elizabeth K.; Chan, Leighton

2011-01-01

Objectives. We sought to determine how part-year and full-year gaps in health insurance coverage affected working-aged persons with chronic health care needs. Methods. We conducted multivariate analyses of the 2002–2004 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to compare access, utilization, and out-of-pocket spending burden among key groups of persons with chronic conditions and disabilities. The results are generalizable to the US community-dwelling population aged 18 to 64 years. Results. Among 92 million adults with chronic conditions, 21% experienced at least 1 month uninsured during the average year (2002–2004). Among the 25 million persons reporting both chronic conditions and disabilities, 23% were uninsured during the average year. These gaps in coverage were associated with significantly higher levels of access problems, lower rates of ambulatory visits and prescription drug use, and higher levels of out-of-pocket spending. Conclusions. Implementation of health care reform must focus not only on the prevention of chronic conditions and the expansion of insurance coverage but also on the long-term stability of the coverage to be offered. PMID:21164090

Equal Opportunity Laws: Topic Paper A.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Council on the Handicapped, Washington, DC.

This paper examines the status of U.S. disability-related equal opportunity laws and identifies gaps in coverage, shortcomings and inconsistencies in interpretation and application, and deficiencies in enforcement. Problems with the scope of coverage result from: (1) laws that are not enforceable in federal courts against states, not co-extensive…

Human resources for treating HIV/AIDS: needs, capacities, and gaps.

PubMed

Bärnighausen, Till; Bloom, David E; Humair, Salal

2007-11-01

Despite recent international efforts to scale-up antiretroviral treatment (ART), more than 5 million people needing ART in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) do not receive it. Limited human resources to treat HIV/AIDS (HRHA) are one of the main constraints to achieving universal ART coverage. We model the gap between needed and available HRHA to quantify the challenge of achieving and sustaining universal ART coverage by 2017. We estimate the HRHA gap in LMIC using recently published estimates of ART coverage, HIV incidence, health-worker emigration rates, mortality rates of people needing ART, and numbers of HRHA needed to treat 1000 ART patients (based on review studies, 2006). We project the HRHA gap in 10 years (2017) using a simple discrete-time model with a health worker pool replenished through education and depleted through emigration/death; a population needing ART replenished with a given HIV incidence rate; and higher survival rates for treated populations. We analyze the effects of varying assumptions about HRHA inflows and outflows and the evolution of the HIV pandemic in three different regional base cases (sub-Saharan Africa, non-sub-Saharan African LMIC, and South Africa). Current ART coverage for LMIC is around 28%-32% and, other things equal, will drop to 16%-19% by 2017 with constant current HRHA production rates. A naive model, ignoring the increased survival probability resulting from ART, suggests that approximately the current number of HRHA in ART services needs to be added every year for the next ten years to achieve universal coverage by 2017. In a model accounting for increased survival of treated patients, outcomes vary by region; sub-Saharan Africa requires two times, non-sub-Saharan African LMIC require 1.5 times and South Africa requires more than three times their respective current HRHA population to be added every year for the next 10 years to achieve universal coverage by 2017. Even if achieved by 2017, sustaining universal coverage requires further HRHA increases until the system reaches steady state. ART coverage is sensitive to HRHA inflow and emigration. Our model quantifies the challenge of closing the HRHA gap in LMIC. It shows that strategies to achieve universal ART coverage must account for feedback due to higher survival probabilities of people receiving ART. It suggests that universal ART coverage is unlikely to be achieved and sustained with increased HRHA inflows alone, but will require decreased HRHA outflows, substantially reduced HIV incidence, or changes in the nature or organization of care. Means to decrease HRHA emigration outflows include scholarships for healthcare education that are conditional on the recipient delivering ART in a country with high ART need for a number of years, training health workers who are not internationally mobile, or changing recruitment policies in countries receiving health workers from the developing world. Effective organizational changes include those that reduce the number of HRHA required to treat a fixed number of patients. Given the large number of health workers that even optimistic assumptions suggest will be needed in ART services in the coming decades, policymakers must ensure that the flow of workers into ART programs does not jeopardize the provision of other important health services.

Prospects for Environmental Communication Based on 25 Years of Newspaper Coverage of Climate Change and Eutrophication in Finland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lyytimäki, Jari

2015-01-01

Research on long-term media coverage of environmental issues has focused predominantly on English-speaking industrialized countries and on single isolated topics. This article presents a comparative analysis of the Finnish newspaper coverage of climate change and eutrophication from 1990-2014. The coverage of eutrophication showed an annual cycle…

Communication During Complex Humanitarian Emergencies: Using Technology to Bridge the Gap

DTIC Science & Technology

2002-09-01

NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL Monterey, California THESIS COMMUNICATION DURING COMPLEX HUMANITARIAN EMERGENCIES: USING TECHNOLOGY TO BRIDGE THE GAP by...Paperwork Reduction Project (0704-0188) Washington DC 20503. 1. AGENCY USE ONLY (Leave blank) 2. REPORT DATE September 2002 3. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED...Master’s Thesis 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Communication During Complex Humanitarian Emergencies: Using Technology to Bridge the Gap 5. FUNDING NUMBERS 6

Impact of Cost Sharing on Therapeutic Substitution: The Story of Statins in 2006.

PubMed

Li, Pengxiang; Schwartz, J Sanford; Doshi, Jalpa A

2016-11-11

Cost sharing is widely used to encourage therapeutic substitution. This study aimed to examine the impact of increases in patient cost-sharing differentials for brand name and generic drugs on statin utilization on entry into the Medicare Part D coverage gap. Using 5% Medicare Chronic Condition Warehouse files from 2006, this quasi-experimental study examined patients with hyperlipidemia who filled prescriptions for atorvastatin or rosuvastatin between January and March 2006. Propensity score matching and difference-in-difference regressions were used to compare changes in statin utilization for the study group (patients who were not eligible for low-income subsidies [non-LIS] and had generic-only gap coverage) to those of a control group (LIS patients who faced the same cost sharing before and during the Part D coverage gap). In the final sample, 801 patients in the study group were matched to 801 patients in the control group. We found that, compared to the control group, the study group had a larger decline in any monthly brand-name statin use (-0.24 30-day fills, P<0.001). This was only partially offset by increased monthly generic statin use (+0.06 30-day fill, P<0.001), with an overall drop in any monthly statin use (-0.18 30-day fills, P<0.001). Overall adherence with statins declined (OR 0.81, P<0.001), and statin discontinuation increased (OR 1.62, P<0.001) in the study group as compared to the control group. Increases in cost-sharing differentials for brand name and generic drugs on coverage gap entry were associated with discontinuation of statins in Medicare Part D patients with hyperlipidemia. © 2016 The Authors. Published on behalf of the American Heart Association, Inc., by Wiley Blackwell.

Public figure announcements about cancer and opportunities for cancer communication: a review and research agenda.

PubMed

Noar, Seth M; Willoughby, Jessica Fitts; Myrick, Jessica Gall; Brown, Jennifer

2014-01-01

Announcements by public figures and celebrities about cancer diagnosis or death represent significant events in public life. But what are the substantive effects of such events, if any? The purpose of this article is to systematically review studies that examined the impact of public figure cancer announcements on cancer-oriented outcomes. Using comprehensive search procedures, we identified k = 19 studies that examined 11 distinct public figures. The most commonly studied public figures were Jade Goody, Kylie Minogue, Nancy Reagan, and Steve Jobs, with the most common cancers studied being breast (53%), cervical (21%), and pancreatic (21%) cancer. Most studies assessed multiple outcome variables, including behavioral outcomes (k = 15), media coverage (k = 10), information seeking (k = 8), cancer incidence (k = 3), and interpersonal communication (k = 2). Results fairly consistently indicated that cancer announcements from public figures had meaningful effects on many, if not most, of these outcome variables. While such events essentially act as naturally occurring interventions, the effects tend to be relatively short term. Gaps in this literature include few contemporary studies of high-profile public figures in the United States and a general lack of theory-based research. Directions for future research as well as implications for cancer communication and prevention are discussed.

Smart Grid Communications System Blueprint

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clark, Adrian; Pavlovski, Chris

2010-10-01

Telecommunications operators are well versed in deploying 2G and 3G wireless networks. These networks presently support the mobile business user and/or retail consumer wishing to place conventional voice calls and data connections. The electrical power industry has recently commenced transformation of its distribution networks by deploying smart monitoring and control devices throughout their networks. This evolution of the network into a `smart grid' has also motivated the need to deploy wireless technologies that bridge the communication gap between the smart devices and information technology systems. The requirements of these networks differ from traditional wireless networks that communications operators have deployed, which have thus far forced energy companies to consider deploying their own wireless networks. We present our experience in deploying wireless networks to support the smart grid and highlight the key properties of these networks. These characteristics include application awareness, support for large numbers of simultaneous cell connections, high service coverage and prioritized routing of data. We also outline our target blueprint architecture that may be useful to the industry in building wireless and fixed networks to support the smart grid. By observing our experiences, telecommunications operators and equipment manufacturers will be able to augment their current networks and products in a way that accommodates the needs of the emerging industry of smart grids and intelligent electrical networks.

Tanning, Skin Cancer Risk, and Prevention: A Content Analysis of Eight Popular Magazines that Target Female Readers, 1997–2006

PubMed Central

Cho, Hyunyi; Hall, Jennifer G.; Kosmoski, Carin; Fox, Rebekah L.; Mastin, Teresa

2008-01-01

The majority of tanning bed users in the U.S. are women. Previous health communication research frequently focused on the risk of skin cancer, but few studies assessed the mediated communication environment that may surround women’s beliefs and behaviors relevant to tanning. A content analysis of articles in eight magazines targeting girls, young women, older women, and women who are interested in fitness during the ten-year period of 1997–2006 was conducted. The amount of coverage of tanning bed use consequences was less than 50% of the coverage of tanning benefits. About 40% of the tanning benefits coverage touted looking healthy. The coverage of prevention methods focused on sunscreen use (55%), while the more important methods (e.g., protective clothing use) were rarely featured. Longitudinally, the coverage of the risk and prevention relevant issues increased between 1997 and 2006. The data indicate that the coverage of tanning benefits also increased during the same period. PMID:20228954

Ischemic preconditioning protects against gap junctional uncoupling in cardiac myofibroblasts.

PubMed

Sundset, Rune; Cooper, Marie; Mikalsen, Svein-Ole; Ytrehus, Kirsti

2004-01-01

Ischemic preconditioning increases the heart's tolerance to a subsequent longer ischemic period. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of gap junction communication in simulated preconditioning in cultured neonatal rat cardiac myofibroblasts. Gap junctional intercellular communication was assessed by Lucifer yellow dye transfer. Preconditioning preserved intercellular coupling after prolonged ischemia. An initial reduction in coupling in response to the preconditioning stimulus was also observed. This may protect neighboring cells from damaging substances produced during subsequent regional ischemia in vivo, and may preserve gap junctional communication required for enhanced functional recovery during subsequent reperfusion.

Functional assessment of gap junctions in monolayer and three-dimensional cultures of human tendon cells using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching

PubMed Central

Kuzma-Kuzniarska, Maria; Yapp, Clarence; Pearson-Jones, Thomas W.; Jones, Andrew K.; Hulley, Philippa A.

2014-01-01

Abstract. Gap junction-mediated intercellular communication influences a variety of cellular activities. In tendons, gap junctions modulate collagen production, are involved in strain-induced cell death, and are involved in the response to mechanical stimulation. The aim of the present study was to investigate gap junction-mediated intercellular communication in healthy human tendon-derived cells using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP). The FRAP is a noninvasive technique that allows quantitative measurement of gap junction function in living cells. It is based on diffusion-dependent redistribution of a gap junction-permeable fluorescent dye. Using FRAP, we showed that human tenocytes form functional gap junctions in monolayer and three-dimensional (3-D) collagen I culture. Fluorescently labeled tenocytes following photobleaching rapidly reacquired the fluorescent dye from neighboring cells, while HeLa cells, which do not communicate by gap junctions, remained bleached. Furthermore, both 18 β-glycyrrhetinic acid and carbenoxolone, standard inhibitors of gap junction activity, impaired fluorescence recovery in tendon cells. In both monolayer and 3-D cultures, intercellular communication in isolated cells was significantly decreased when compared with cells forming many cell-to-cell contacts. In this study, we used FRAP as a tool to quantify and experimentally manipulate the function of gap junctions in human tenocytes in both two-dimensional (2-D) and 3-D cultures. PMID:24390370

Ultra high frequency follow-on communications satellite system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hassien, Michael J.

1992-03-01

The existing constellation of UHF communications satellites (LEASAT and FLTSAT) provide key command and control links for mobile forces of the DoD and other government agencies. The UHF Follow-On satellite program will provide for a new generation of communications satellites to replace the existing ones as they reach the end of their life cycle beginning in 1992. Continued coverage is required for both peacetime and crisis environments, and must be maintained indefinitely. An eight-satellite UFO constellation (two per coverage area) will replenish the existing FLTSATCOM constellation.

47 CFR 80.771 - Method of computing coverage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 5 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Method of computing coverage. 80.771 Section 80.771 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) SAFETY AND SPECIAL RADIO SERVICES STATIONS IN THE MARITIME SERVICES Standards for Computing Public Coast Station VHF Coverage § 80.771 Method...

Can history improve big bang health reform? Commentary.

PubMed

Marchildon, Gregory P

2018-07-01

At present, the professional skills of the historian are rarely relied upon when health policies are being formulated. There are numerous reasons for this, one of which is the natural desire of decision-makers to break with the past when enacting big bang policy change. This article identifies the strengths professional historians bring to bear on policy development using the establishment and subsequent reform of universal health coverage as an example. Historians provide pertinent and historically informed context; isolate the forces that have historically allowed for major reform; and separate the truly novel reforms from those attempted or implemented in the past. In addition, the historian's use of primary sources allows potentially new and highly salient facts to guide the framing of the policy problem and its solution. This paper argues that historians are critical for constructing a viable narrative of the establishment and evolution of universal health coverage policies. The lack of this narrative makes it difficult to achieve an accurate assessment of systemic gaps in coverage and access, and the design or redesign of universal health coverage that can successfully close these gaps.

Socioeconomic inequalities in breast and cervical screening coverage in England: are we closing the gap?

PubMed

Douglas, Elaine; Waller, Jo; Duffy, Stephen W; Wardle, Jane

2016-06-01

Health policy in the UK is committed to tackling inequalities in cancer screening participation. We examined whether socioeconomic inequalities in breast and cervical cancer screening participation in England have reduced over five years. Cross-sectional analyses compared cervical and breast screening coverage between 2007/8 and 2012/13 in Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in England in relation to area-level income deprivation. At the start and the end of this five year period, there were socioeconomic inequalities in screening coverage for breast and cervical screening. Inequalities were highest for breast screening. Over time, the coverage gap between the highest and lowest quintiles of income deprivation significantly reduced for breast screening (from 12.3 to 8.3 percentage points), but not for cervical screening (5.3 to 4.9 percentage points). Efforts to reduce screening inequalities appear to have resulted in a significant improvement in equitable delivery of breast screening, although not of cervical screening. More work is needed to understand the differences, and see whether broader lessons can be learned from the reduction of inequalities in breast screening participation. © The Author(s) 2015.

Peierls instability as the insulating origin of the Na/Si(111)-(3 × 1) surface with a Na coverage of 2/3 monolayers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kang, Myung Ho; Kwon, Se Gab; Jung, Sung Chul

2018-03-01

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations are used to investigate the insulating origin of the Na/Si(111)-(3 × 1) surface with a Na coverage of 2/3 monolayers. In the coverage definition, one monolayer refers to one Na atom per surface Si atom, so this surface contains an odd number of electrons (i.e., three Si dangling-bond electrons plus two Na electrons) per 3 × 1 unit cell. Interestingly, this odd-electron surface has been ascribed to a Mott-Hubbard insulator to account for the measured insulating band structure with a gap of about 0.8 eV. Here, we instead propose a Peierls instability as the origin of the experimental band gap. The concept of Peierls instability is fundamental in one-dimensional metal systems but has not been taken into account in previous studies of this surface. Our DFT calculations demonstrate that the linear chain structure of Si dangling bonds in this surface is energetically unstable with respect to a × 2 buckling modulation, and the buckling-induced band gap of 0.79 eV explains well the measured insulating nature.

Coverage of Large-Scale Food Fortification of Edible Oil, Wheat Flour, and Maize Flour Varies Greatly by Vehicle and Country but Is Consistently Lower among the Most Vulnerable: Results from Coverage Surveys in 8 Countries123

PubMed Central

Aaron, Grant J; Friesen, Valerie M; Jungjohann, Svenja; Garrett, Greg S; Myatt, Mark

2017-01-01

Background: Large-scale food fortification (LSFF) of commonly consumed food vehicles is widely implemented in low- and middle-income countries. Many programs have monitoring information gaps and most countries fail to assess program coverage. Objective: The aim of this work was to present LSFF coverage survey findings (overall and in vulnerable populations) from 18 programs (7 wheat flour, 4 maize flour, and 7 edible oil programs) conducted in 8 countries between 2013 and 2015. Methods: A Fortification Assessment Coverage Toolkit (FACT) was developed to standardize the assessments. Three indicators were used to assess the relations between coverage and vulnerability: 1) poverty, 2) poor dietary diversity, and 3) rural residence. Three measures of coverage were assessed: 1) consumption of the vehicle, 2) consumption of a fortifiable vehicle, and 3) consumption of a fortified vehicle. Individual program performance was assessed based on the following: 1) achieving overall coverage ≥50%, 2) achieving coverage of ≥75% in ≥1 vulnerable group, and 3) achieving equity in coverage for ≥1 vulnerable group. Results: Coverage varied widely by food vehicle and country. Only 2 of the 18 LSFF programs assessed met all 3 program performance criteria. The 2 main program bottlenecks were a poor choice of vehicle and failure to fortify a fortifiable vehicle (i.e., absence of fortification). Conclusions: The results highlight the importance of sound program design and routine monitoring and evaluation. There is strong evidence of the impact and cost-effectiveness of LSFF; however, impact can only be achieved when the necessary activities and processes during program design and implementation are followed. The FACT approach fills an important gap in the availability of standardized tools. The LSFF programs assessed here need to be re-evaluated to determine whether to further invest in the programs, whether other vehicles are appropriate, and whether other approaches are needed. PMID:28404836

Coverage of Large-Scale Food Fortification of Edible Oil, Wheat Flour, and Maize Flour Varies Greatly by Vehicle and Country but Is Consistently Lower among the Most Vulnerable: Results from Coverage Surveys in 8 Countries.

PubMed

Aaron, Grant J; Friesen, Valerie M; Jungjohann, Svenja; Garrett, Greg S; Neufeld, Lynnette M; Myatt, Mark

2017-05-01

Background: Large-scale food fortification (LSFF) of commonly consumed food vehicles is widely implemented in low- and middle-income countries. Many programs have monitoring information gaps and most countries fail to assess program coverage. Objective: The aim of this work was to present LSFF coverage survey findings (overall and in vulnerable populations) from 18 programs (7 wheat flour, 4 maize flour, and 7 edible oil programs) conducted in 8 countries between 2013 and 2015. Methods: A Fortification Assessment Coverage Toolkit (FACT) was developed to standardize the assessments. Three indicators were used to assess the relations between coverage and vulnerability: 1 ) poverty, 2 ) poor dietary diversity, and 3 ) rural residence. Three measures of coverage were assessed: 1 ) consumption of the vehicle, 2 ) consumption of a fortifiable vehicle, and 3 ) consumption of a fortified vehicle. Individual program performance was assessed based on the following: 1 ) achieving overall coverage ≥50%, 2) achieving coverage of ≥75% in ≥1 vulnerable group, and 3 ) achieving equity in coverage for ≥1 vulnerable group. Results: Coverage varied widely by food vehicle and country. Only 2 of the 18 LSFF programs assessed met all 3 program performance criteria. The 2 main program bottlenecks were a poor choice of vehicle and failure to fortify a fortifiable vehicle (i.e., absence of fortification). Conclusions: The results highlight the importance of sound program design and routine monitoring and evaluation. There is strong evidence of the impact and cost-effectiveness of LSFF; however, impact can only be achieved when the necessary activities and processes during program design and implementation are followed. The FACT approach fills an important gap in the availability of standardized tools. The LSFF programs assessed here need to be re-evaluated to determine whether to further invest in the programs, whether other vehicles are appropriate, and whether other approaches are needed.

Efficacy of patient-specific bolus created using three-dimensional printing technique in photon radiotherapy.

PubMed

Fujimoto, Koya; Shiinoki, Takehiro; Yuasa, Yuki; Hanazawa, Hideki; Shibuya, Keiko

2017-06-01

A commercially available bolus ("commercial-bolus") does not make complete contact with the irregularly shaped patient skin. This study aims to customise a patient-specific three-dimensional (3D) bolus using a 3D printing technique ("3D-bolus") and to evaluate its clinical feasibility for photon radiotherapy. The 3D-bolus was designed using a treatment planning system (TPS) in Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine-Radiotherapy (DICOM-RT) format, and converted to stereolithographic format for printing. To evaluate its physical characteristics, treatment plans were created for water-equivalent phantoms that were bolus-free, or had a flat-form printed 3D-bolus, a TPS-designed bolus ("virtual-bolus"), or a commercial-bolus. These plans were compared based on the percentage depth dose (PDD) and target-volume dose volume histogram (DVH) measurements. To evaluate the clinical feasibility, treatment plans were created for head phantoms that were bolus-free or had a 3D-bolus, a virtual-bolus, or a commercial-bolus. These plans were compared based on the target volume DVH. In the physical evaluation, the 3D-bolus provided effective dose coverage in the build-up region, which was equivalent to the commercial-bolus. With regard to the clinical feasibility, the air gaps were lesser with the 3D-bolus when compared to the commercial-bolus. Furthermore, the prescription dose could be delivered appropriately to the target volume. The 3D-bolus has potential use for air-gap reduction compared to the commercial-bolus and facilitates target-volume dose coverage and homogeneity improvement. A 3D-bolus produced using a 3D printing technique is comparable to a commercial-bolus applied to an irregular-shaped skin surface. Copyright © 2017 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mind the Gaps: Wikipedia as an education model and public duty for scientists

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boustead, Greg; Wiki Education Foundation

2016-06-01

Search for almost any scientific term on the Internet, and chances are that a Wikipedia page will be the first result. Wikipedia’s content reaches more than 450 million readers around the world, at a rate of about 8,000 readers a second. That makes Wikipedia one of the most powerful platforms for the dissemination of science information in the world. Although Wikipedia’s coverage of science topics is robust, clear gaps remain — especially with subject matter that requires technical or specialized expertise. Some information is woefully out of date; and, while a minority, some scientific entries on Wikipedia are simply inaccurate. Furthermore, the underrepresentation of women, and diversity in general, remains a real issue. The Wikipedia Year of Science 2016 is an unprecedented targeted initiative designed to improve Wikipedia’s potential for communicating science to the public. The multi-faceted effort is a program conceived by the Wiki Education Foundation, with support from the Simons Foundation and Google. This talk will provide a brief overview of the Wikipedia Year of Science initiative, and ways AAS members can get involved — during the meeting, in the classroom, and beyond.

Off Balance: Youth, Race & Crime in the News. Building Blocks for Youth.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dorfman, Lori; Schiraldi, Vincent

This report assesses findings from content analyses on crime news, investigating whether news coverage reflects actual crime trends; how news coverage depicts minorities and crime; and whether news coverage disproportionately depicts minority youth as perpetrators. Data came from searches of criminal justice and communications databases, which…

"I'm Scared of the Disappointment": Young Adult Smokers' Relational Identity Gaps and Management Strategies as Sites of Communication Intervention.

PubMed

Stanley, Samantha J; Pitts, Margaret Jane

2018-02-22

While cigarette smoking is decreasing among young adults, rates of nicotine consumption through other devices, most notably electronic cigarettes, are on the rise. Framed by communication theory of identity, this study examines young adult smokers' experiences with relational others in regard to their smoking. Focus group discussions and individual interviews convened with 20 young adult cigarette and electronic cigarette smokers revealed identity gaps implicating the relational layer of identity, including personal-relational, enacted-relational, and personal-enacted-relational identity gaps. Participants used communicative and behavioral strategies to manage relational discrepancies. The documented identity gaps and management strategies present opportunities for targeted smoking cessation interventions that amplify dissonance created through identity gaps as a motivational tactic.

Response of reptile and amphibian communities to canopy gaps created by wind disturbance in the Southern Appalachians

Treesearch

Cathryn H. Greenberg

2001-01-01

Reptile and amphibian communities were sampled in intact gaps created by wind disturbance, salvage-logged gaps, and closed canopy mature forest (controls). Sampling was conducted during June–October in 1997 and 1998 using drift fences with pitfall and funnel traps. Basal area of live trees, shade, leaf litter coverage, and litter depth was highest in controls and...

Spacecraft Multiple Array Communication System Performance Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hwu, Shian U.; Desilva, Kanishka; Sham, Catherine C.

2010-01-01

The Communication Systems Simulation Laboratory (CSSL) at the NASA Johnson Space Center is tasked to perform spacecraft and ground network communication system simulations, design validation, and performance verification. The CSSL has developed simulation tools that model spacecraft communication systems and the space and ground environment in which the tools operate. In this paper, a spacecraft communication system with multiple arrays is simulated. Multiple array combined technique is used to increase the radio frequency coverage and data rate performance. The technique is to achieve phase coherence among the phased arrays to combine the signals at the targeting receiver constructively. There are many technical challenges in spacecraft integration with a high transmit power communication system. The array combining technique can improve the communication system data rate and coverage performances without increasing the system transmit power requirements. Example simulation results indicate significant performance improvement can be achieved with phase coherence implementation.

Assessing Program Coverage of Two Approaches to Distributing a Complementary Feeding Supplement to Infants and Young Children in Ghana

PubMed Central

Aaron, Grant J.; Strutt, Nicholas; Boateng, Nathaniel Amoh; Guevarra, Ernest; Siling, Katja; Norris, Alison; Ghosh, Shibani; Nyamikeh, Mercy; Attiogbe, Antoine; Burns, Richard; Foriwa, Esi; Toride, Yasuhiko; Kitamura, Satoshi; Tano-Debrah, Kwaku; Sarpong, Daniel; Myatt, Mark

2016-01-01

The work reported here assesses the coverage achieved by two sales-based approaches to distributing a complementary food supplement (KOKO Plus™) to infants and young children in Ghana. Delivery Model 1 was conducted in the Northern Region of Ghana and used a mixture of health extension workers (delivering behavior change communications and demand creation activities at primary healthcare centers and in the community) and petty traders recruited from among beneficiaries of a local microfinance initiative (responsible for the sale of the complementary food supplement at market stalls and house to house). Delivery Model 2 was conducted in the Eastern Region of Ghana and used a market-based approach, with the product being sold through micro-retail routes (i.e., small shops and roadside stalls) in three districts supported by behavior change communications and demand creation activities led by a local social marketing company. Both delivery models were implemented sub-nationally as 1-year pilot programs, with the aim of informing the design of a scaled-up program. A series of cross-sectional coverage surveys was implemented in each program area. Results from these surveys show that Delivery Model 1 was successful in achieving and sustaining high (i.e., 86%) effective coverage (i.e., the child had been given the product at least once in the previous 7 days) during implementation. Effective coverage fell to 62% within 3 months of the behavior change communications and demand creation activities stopping. Delivery Model 2 was successful in raising awareness of the product (i.e., 90% message coverage), but effective coverage was low (i.e., 9.4%). Future programming efforts should use the health extension / microfinance / petty trader approach in rural settings and consider adapting this approach for use in urban and peri-urban settings. Ongoing behavior change communications and demand creation activities is likely to be essential to the continued success of such programming. PMID:27755554

Assessing Program Coverage of Two Approaches to Distributing a Complementary Feeding Supplement to Infants and Young Children in Ghana.

PubMed

Aaron, Grant J; Strutt, Nicholas; Boateng, Nathaniel Amoh; Guevarra, Ernest; Siling, Katja; Norris, Alison; Ghosh, Shibani; Nyamikeh, Mercy; Attiogbe, Antoine; Burns, Richard; Foriwa, Esi; Toride, Yasuhiko; Kitamura, Satoshi; Tano-Debrah, Kwaku; Sarpong, Daniel; Myatt, Mark

2016-01-01

The work reported here assesses the coverage achieved by two sales-based approaches to distributing a complementary food supplement (KOKO Plus™) to infants and young children in Ghana. Delivery Model 1 was conducted in the Northern Region of Ghana and used a mixture of health extension workers (delivering behavior change communications and demand creation activities at primary healthcare centers and in the community) and petty traders recruited from among beneficiaries of a local microfinance initiative (responsible for the sale of the complementary food supplement at market stalls and house to house). Delivery Model 2 was conducted in the Eastern Region of Ghana and used a market-based approach, with the product being sold through micro-retail routes (i.e., small shops and roadside stalls) in three districts supported by behavior change communications and demand creation activities led by a local social marketing company. Both delivery models were implemented sub-nationally as 1-year pilot programs, with the aim of informing the design of a scaled-up program. A series of cross-sectional coverage surveys was implemented in each program area. Results from these surveys show that Delivery Model 1 was successful in achieving and sustaining high (i.e., 86%) effective coverage (i.e., the child had been given the product at least once in the previous 7 days) during implementation. Effective coverage fell to 62% within 3 months of the behavior change communications and demand creation activities stopping. Delivery Model 2 was successful in raising awareness of the product (i.e., 90% message coverage), but effective coverage was low (i.e., 9.4%). Future programming efforts should use the health extension / microfinance / petty trader approach in rural settings and consider adapting this approach for use in urban and peri-urban settings. Ongoing behavior change communications and demand creation activities is likely to be essential to the continued success of such programming.

Strategies to improve health coverage and narrow the equity gap in child survival, health, and nutrition.

PubMed

Chopra, Mickey; Sharkey, Alyssa; Dalmiya, Nita; Anthony, David; Binkin, Nancy

2012-10-13

Implementation of innovative strategies to improve coverage of evidence-based interventions, especially in the most marginalised populations, is a key focus of policy makers and planners aiming to improve child survival, health, and nutrition. We present a three-step approach to improvement of the effective coverage of essential interventions. First, we identify four different intervention delivery channels--ie, clinical or curative, outreach, community-based preventive or promotional, and legislative or mass media. Second, we classify which interventions' deliveries can be improved or changed within their channel or by switching to another channel. Finally, we do a meta-review of both published and unpublished reviews to examine the evidence for a range of strategies designed to overcome supply and demand bottlenecks to effective coverage of interventions that improve child survival, health, and nutrition. Although knowledge gaps exist, several strategies show promise for improving coverage of effective interventions-and, in some cases, health outcomes in children-including expanded roles for lay health workers, task shifting, reduction of financial barriers, increases in human-resource availability and geographical access, and use of the private sector. Policy makers and planners should be informed of this evidence as they choose strategies in which to invest their scarce resources. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

10 CFR 15.3 - Communications.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 10 Energy 1 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Communications. 15.3 Section 15.3 Energy NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION DEBT COLLECTION PROCEDURES Application and Coverage § 15.3 Communications. Unless otherwise specified, communications concerning the regulations in this part may be addressed to the...

Trends in insurance coverage and source of private coverage among young adults aged 19-25: United States, 2008-2012.

PubMed

Kirzinger, Whitney K; Cohen, Robin A; Gindi, Renee M

2013-12-01

Data from the National Health Interview Survey, 2008-2012. The percentage of young adults with private health insurance coverage increased from the last 6 months of 2010 through the last 6 months of 2012 (52.0% to 57.9%). Except for an increase in the first 6 months of 2011, the percentage of privately insured young adults who had a gap in coverage during the past 12 months decreased from the first 6 months of 2008 through the last 6 months of 2012 (10.5% to 7.8%). The percentage of privately insured young adults with coverage in their own name decreased from 40.8% in the last 6 months of 2010 to 27.2% in the last 6 months of 2012. The percentage of privately insured young adults with employer-sponsored health insurance increased from the last 6 months of 2010 to the last 6 months of 2012 (85.6% to 92.5%). Young adults often experience instability with regard to work, school, residential status, and financial independence. This could contribute to a lack of or gaps in insurance coverage (1,2). In September 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) extended dependent health coverage to young adults up to age 26. This provision was expected to lead to increases in private coverage for young adults aged 19-25 when they became eligible for coverage through their parents' employment (3,4). This report provides estimates describing the previous insurance status and sources of coverage among privately insured young adults aged 19-25, using data from the 2008-2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Comparisons are made with adults aged 26-34, the most similar age group that was not affected by the ACA provision. All material appearing in this report is in the public domain and may be reproduced or copied without permission; citation as to source, however, is appreciated.

Tobacco packaging and mass media campaigns: research needs for Articles 11 and 12 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

PubMed

Hammond, David; Wakefield, Melanie; Durkin, Sarah; Brennan, Emily

2013-04-01

Communicating the health risks of smoking remains a primary objective of tobacco-control policy. Articles 11 and 12 of the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control establish standards for two important forms of communication: packaging regulations (Article 11), and mass media campaigns (Article 12). A narrative review approach was used to identify existing evidence in the areas of package labeling regulations (including health warnings, constituent and emission messages, and prohibitions on misleading information) and communication activities (including mass media campaigns and news media coverage). When available, recent reviews of the literature were used, updated with more recent high-quality studies from published literature. Implementation of Articles 11 and 12 share several important research priorities: (a) identify existing consumer information needs and gaps, (b) research on the message source to identify effective types of content for health warnings and media campaigns, (c) research on how messages are processed and the extent to which the content and form of messages need to be tailored to different cultural and geographic groups, as well as subgroups within countries, and (d) research to identify the most cost-effective mix and best practices for sustaining health communications over time. A unifying theme of effective health communication through tobacco packaging and mass media campaigns is the need to provide salient, timely, and engaging reminders of the consequences of tobacco use in ways that motivate and support tobacco users trying to quit and make tobacco use less appealing for those at risk of taking it up.

Tobacco Packaging and Mass Media Campaigns: Research Needs for Articles 11 and 12 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Introduction: Communicating the health risks of smoking remains a primary objective of tobacco-control policy. Articles 11 and 12 of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control establish standards for two important forms of communication: packaging regulations (Article 11), and mass media campaigns (Article 12). Methods: A narrative review approach was used to identify existing evidence in the areas of package labeling regulations (including health warnings, constituent and emission messages, and prohibitions on misleading information) and communication activities (including mass media campaigns and news media coverage). When available, recent reviews of the literature were used, updated with more recent high-quality studies from published literature. Results: Implementation of Articles 11 and 12 share several important research priorities: (a) identify existing consumer information needs and gaps, (b) research on the message source to identify effective types of content for health warnings and media campaigns, (c) research on how messages are processed and the extent to which the content and form of messages need to be tailored to different cultural and geographic groups, as well as subgroups within countries, and (d) research to identify the most cost-effective mix and best practices for sustaining health communications over time. Conclusion: A unifying theme of effective health communication through tobacco packaging and mass media campaigns is the need to provide salient, timely, and engaging reminders of the consequences of tobacco use in ways that motivate and support tobacco users trying to quit and make tobacco use less appealing for those at risk of taking it up. PMID:23042986

[Influence of Cx26/Cx32 gap junction channel on antineoplastic effect of etoposide in Hela cells].

PubMed

Tong, Xu-Hui; Dong, Shu-Ying; Jiang, Guo-Jun; Fan, Gao-Fu

2012-03-01

To observe the influence of Cx26/Cx32 gap junction channel on the antineoplastic effect of etoposide in Hela cervical cancer cells. Fluorescence trace was used to assay the gap junction intercellular communication mediated by Cx26/Cx32 in Hela cells and its functional modulation by the pharmacological agents (oleamide, retinoid acid). A standard colony-forming assay was applied to determine the cell growth-inhibiting effect of etoposide in Hela cells with functional modulation of the gap junction. Hoechst 33258 staining was used to assess the changes in etoposide-induced apoptosis of Hela cells with altered gap junction functions. Oleamide markedly decreased while retinoid acid obviously increased the gap junction function in Hela cells. Standard colony-forming assay showed that etoposide produced a lowered antiproliferative effect in Hela cells with reduced gap junction and an increased antiproliferative effect in cells with enhanced gap junction function. In cells with a reduced gap junction function, etoposide induced a lowered apoptosis rate, which increased obviously in cells with an enhanced gap junction function. The antineoplastic effect of etoposide is reduced in Hela cells with a decreased gap junction intercellular communication mediated by Cx26/Cx32 and is enhanced in cells with an increased gap junction intercellular communication.

Inequalities in non-communicable diseases between the major population groups in Israel: achievements and challenges.

PubMed

Muhsen, Khitam; Green, Manfred S; Soskolne, Varda; Neumark, Yehuda

2017-06-24

Israel is a high-income country with an advanced health system and universal health-care insurance. Overall, the health status has improved steadily over recent decades. We examined differences in morbidity, mortality, and risk factors for selected non-communicable diseases (NCDs) between subpopulation groups. Between 1975 and 2014, life expectancy in Israel steadily increased and is currently above the average life expectancy for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. Nevertheless, life expectancy has remained lower among Israeli Arabs than Israeli Jews, and this gap has recently widened. Age-adjusted mortality as a result of heart disease, stroke, or diabetes remains higher in Arabs, whereas age-adjusted incidence and mortality of cancer were higher among Jews. The prevalence of obesity and low physical activity in Israel is considerably higher among Arabs than Jews. Smoking prevalence is highest for Arab men and lowest for Arab women. Health inequalities are also evident by the indicators of socioeconomic position and in subpopulations, such as immigrants from the former Soviet Union, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and Bedouin Arabs. Despite universal health coverage and substantial improvements in the overall health of the Israeli population, substantial inequalities in NCDs persist. These differences might be explained, at least in part, by gaps in social determinants of health. The Ministry of Health has developed comprehensive programmes to reduce these inequalities between the major population groups. Sustained coordinated multisectoral efforts are needed to achieve a greater impact and to address other social inequalities. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Disparities in collaborative patient-provider communication about human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination.

PubMed

Moss, Jennifer L; Gilkey, Melissa B; Rimer, Barbara K; Brewer, Noel T

2016-06-02

Healthcare providers may vary their communications with different patients, which could give rise to differences in vaccination coverage. We examined demographic disparities in parental report of collaborative provider communication and implications for human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. Participants were 4,124 parents who completed the National Immunization Survey-Teen about daughters ages 13-17. We analyzed disparities in collaborative communication (mutual information exchange, deliberation, and decision) and whether they mediated the relationship between demographic characteristics and HPV vaccine initiation. Half of parents (53%) in the survey reported collaborative communication. Poor, less educated, Spanish-speaking, Southern, and rural parents, and parents of non-privately insured and Hispanic adolescents, were least likely to report collaborative communication (all p<.05). These disparities in communication accounted for geographic variation in HPV vaccination, specifically, the higher rates of uptake in the Northeast versus the South (mediation z=2.31, p<.01) and in urban/suburban vs. rural areas (mediation z=2.87, p<.01). These disparities were also associated with vaccination among subgroups with relatively high coverage, minimizing what could have been even higher uptake among Hispanic compared to non-Hispanic white adolescents (mediation z=-3.04, p<.01) and non-privately versus privately insured adolescents (mediation z=-3.67, p<.001). Controlling for provider recommendation attenuated some of these associations (but all p<.10). Collaborative communication showed widespread disparities, being least common among underserved groups. Collaborative communication helped account for differences-and lack of differences-in HPV vaccination among some subgroups of adolescent girls. Leveraging patient-provider communication, especially for underserved demographic groups, could improve HPV vaccination coverage.

Gap Junction Intercellular Communication: A Review of a Potential Platform to Modulate Craniofacial Tissue Engineering

PubMed Central

Rossello, Ricardo A.; Kohn, David H.

2009-01-01

Defects in craniofacial tissues, resulting from trauma, congenital abnormalities, oncologic resection or progressive deforming diseases, may result in aesthetic deformity, pain and reduced function. Restoring the structure, function and aesthetics of craniofacial tissues represents a substantial clinical problem in need of new solutions. More biologically-interactive biomaterials could potentially improve the treatment of craniofacial defects, and an understanding of developmental processes may help identify strategies and materials that can be used in tissue engineering. One such strategy that can potentially advance tissue engineering is cell–cell communication. Gap junction intercellular communication is the most direct way of achieving such signaling. Gap junction communication through connexin-mediated junctions, in particular connexin 43 (Cx43), plays a major role bone development. Given the important role of Cx43 in controlling development and differentiation, especially in bone cells, controlling the expression of Cx43 may provide control over cell-to-cell communication and may help overcome some of the challenges in craniofacial tissue engineering. Following a review of gap junctions in bone cells, the ability to enhance cell–cell communication and osteogenic differentiation via control of gap junctions is discussed, as is the potential utility of this approach in craniofacial tissue engineering. PMID:18481782

The gap in scientific knowledge and role of science communication in South Korea.

PubMed

Chang, Jeong-Heon; Kim, Sei-Hill; Kang, Myung-Hyun; Shim, Jae Chul; Ma, Dong Hoon

2017-01-01

Using data from a national survey of South Koreans, this study explores the role of science communication in enhancing three different forms of scientific knowledge ( factual, procedural, and subjective). We first assess learning effects, looking at the extent to which citizens learn science from different channels of communication (interpersonal discussions, traditional newspapers, television, online newspapers, and social media). We then look into the knowledge gap hypothesis, investigating how different communication channels can either widen or narrow the gap in knowledge between social classes. Television was found to function as a "knowledge leveler," narrowing the gap between highly and less educated South Koreans. The role of online newspapers in science learning is pronounced in our research. Reading newspapers online indicated a positive relationship to all three measures of knowledge. Contrary to the knowledge-leveling effect of television viewing, reading online newspapers was found to increase, rather than decrease, the gap in knowledge. Implications of our findings are discussed in detail.

Adrenocortical Gap Junctions and Their Functions

PubMed Central

Bell, Cheryl L.; Murray, Sandra A.

2016-01-01

Adrenal cortical steroidogenesis and proliferation are thought to be modulated by gap junction-mediated direct cell–cell communication of regulatory molecules between cells. Such communication is regulated by the number of gap junction channels between contacting cells, the rate at which information flows between these channels, and the rate of channel turnover. Knowledge of the factors regulating gap junction-mediated communication and the turnover process are critical to an understanding of adrenal cortical cell functions, including development, hormonal response to adrenocorticotropin, and neoplastic dedifferentiation. Here, we review what is known about gap junctions in the adrenal gland, with particular attention to their role in adrenocortical cell steroidogenesis and proliferation. Information and insight gained from electrophysiological, molecular biological, and imaging (immunocytochemical, freeze fracture, transmission electron microscopic, and live cell) techniques will be provided. PMID:27445985

Wisps in the outer edge of the Keeler Gap

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tiscareno, Matthew S.; Arnault, Ethan G.

2015-11-01

Superposed upon the relatively smooth outer edge of the Keeler Gap are a system of "wisps," which appear to be ring material protruding inward into the gap, usually with a sharp trailing edge and a smooth gradation back to the background edge location on the leading side (Porco et al. 2005, Science). The radial amplitude of wisps is usually 0.5 to 1 km, and their azimuthal extent is approximately a degree of longitude (~2400 km). Wisps are likely caused by an interplay between Daphnis (and perhaps other moons) and embedded moonlets within the ring, though the details remain unclear.Aside from the wisps, the Keeler Gap outer edge is the only one of the five sharp edges in the outer part of Saturn's A ring that is reasonably smooth in appearance (Tiscareno et al. 2005, DPS), with occultations indicating residuals less than 1 km upon a possibly non-zero eccentricity (R.G. French, personal communication, 2014). The other four (the inner and outer edges of the Encke Gap, the inner edge of the Keeler Gap, and the outer edge of the A ring itself) are characterized by wavy structure at moderate to high spatial frequencies, with amplitudes ranging from 2 to 30 km (Tiscareno et al. 2005, DPS).We will present a catalogue of wisp detections in Cassini images. We carry out repeated gaussian fits of the radial edge location in order to characterize edge structure and visually scan those fitted edges in order to detect wisps. With extensive coverage in longitude and in time, we will report on how wisps evolve and move, both within an orbit period and on longer timescales. We will also report on the frequency and interpretation of wisps that deviate from the standard morphology. We will discuss the implications of our results for the origin and nature of wisps, and for the larger picture of how masses interact within Saturn's rings.

Wisps in the outer edge of the Keeler Gap

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tiscareno, M. S.; Arnault, E. G.

2014-12-01

The outer part of Saturn's A ring contains five sharp edges: the inner and outer edges of the Encke Gap and of the Keeler Gap (which contain the moons Pan and Daphnis, respectively), and the outer edge of the A ring itself. Four of these five edges are characterized by structure at moderate to high spatial frequencies, with amplitudes ranging from 2 to 30 km (Tiscareno et al. 2005, DPS). Only the outer edge of the Keeler Gap is reasonably smooth in appearance (Tiscareno et al. 2005, DPS), with occultations indicating residuals less than 1 km upon a possibly non-zero eccentricity (R.G. French, personal communication, 2014). Superposed upon the relatively smooth outer edge of the Keeler Gap are a system of "wisps," which appear to be ring material protruding inward into the gap, usually with a sharp trailing edge and a smooth gradation back to the background edge location on the leading side (Porco et al. 2005, Science). The radial amplitude of wisps is usually 0.5 to 1 km, and their azimuthal extent is approximately a degree of longitude (~2400 km). Wisps are likely caused by an interplay between Daphnis (and perhaps other moons) and embedded moonlets within the ring, though the details remain unclear. We will present a catalogue of wisp detections in Cassini images. We carry out repeated gaussian fits of the radial edge location in order to characterize edge structure (see Figure, which compares our fitted edge to the figure presented by Porco et al. 2005) and visually scan those fitted edges in order to detect wisps. With extensive coverage in longitude and in time, we will report on how wisps evolve and move, both within an orbit period and on longer timescales. We will also report on the frequency and interpretation of wisps that deviate from the standard morphology. We will discuss the implications of our results for the origin and nature of wisps, and for the larger picture of how masses interact within Saturn's rings.

Forgive Me Now, Fire Me Later: Mass Communication Students' Ethics Gap Concerning School and Journalism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conway, Mike; Groshek, Jacob

2009-01-01

Survey data on mass communication students' perceptions of plagiarism and fabrication indicate an ethics gap in which students are more concerned about ethical breaches in journalism than in academics. Further analyses found that the ethics gap increases among students near graduation who had higher levels of concern and suggested harsher…

DSH abstract: coverage of the world communicative disorders literature.

PubMed

Seaton, W H; Williams, D M

1982-06-01

The percentage of journal articles covered by dsh Abstracts and the time it took these articles to appear as abstracts in this secondary publication were analyzed. Articles were obtained from nineteen communicative disorders journals every other year for the years from 1968 to 1976. Then the author index of dsh Abstracts was searched each year for up to five years following journal publication to determine whether each article was included in this abstracting service's coverage of the world literature. Of the 5548 articles included in the study, 3270 (59%) were covered by this abstracting service within a mean time of 9 months; however, time lag and coverage varied considerably for individual journals on a year by year basis. It was concluded that for historical searches and current awareness needs this secondary publication may not be meeting the information needs of communicative disorders specialists.

Beyond the political model of reporting: nonspecific symptoms in media communication about AIDS.

PubMed

Check, W A

1987-01-01

Mass media have functioned well in transmitting much of the basic information about the AIDS epidemic; however, media coverage of AIDS has been flawed. In many ways these flaws have resulted from the limitations and conventions of traditional journalism, especially the need to appeal to a large mainstream audience and a reliance on authorities as sources and validators of information. News stories typically rely on a single articulate authority, and articles that involve conspiracy or controversy or have a high entertainment value are favored. Although coverage of politics and social issues is not distorted by these journalistic conventions, coverage of science suffers. Analysis of news coverage of AIDS shows that mass media often respond to sensationalism rather than to important scientific developments. In addition, scientific disagreements are better adjudicated by evidence than by appeals to authority. As a result, media coverage often obscures the process of scientific deliberation. Public health officials need to consider setting up a special channel of communications to clarify information about AIDS.

1992 census of transportation, communications, and utilities : nonemployer statistic series summary

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1995-04-01

The 1992 Census of Transportation, Communications, : and Utilities for the first time collected data for the communications, : electric, gas, and sanitary service industries. : In addition, the 1992 census expanded coverage of transportation : indust...

1992 census of transportation, communications, and utilities : geographic area series summary

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1995-03-01

The 1992 Census of Transportation, Communications, and Utilities for the first time collected data for the communications, electric, gas, and sanitary service industries. In addition, the 1992 census expanded coverage of transportation industries to ...

An Energy Efficient Simultaneous-Node Repositioning Algorithm for Mobile Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Hasbullah, Halabi; Nazir, Babar; Khan, Imran Ali

2014-01-01

Recently, wireless sensor network (WSN) applications have seen an increase in interest. In search and rescue, battlefield reconnaissance, and some other such applications, so that a survey of the area of interest can be made collectively, a set of mobile nodes is deployed. Keeping the network nodes connected is vital for WSNs to be effective. The provision of connectivity can be made at the time of startup and can be maintained by carefully coordinating the nodes when they move. However, if a node suddenly fails, the network could be partitioned to cause communication problems. Recently, several methods that use the relocation of nodes for connectivity restoration have been proposed. However, these methods have the tendency to not consider the potential coverage loss in some locations. This paper addresses the concerns of both connectivity and coverage in an integrated way so that this gap can be filled. A novel algorithm for simultaneous-node repositioning is introduced. In this approach, each neighbour of the failed node, one by one, moves in for a certain amount of time to take the place of the failed node, after which it returns to its original location in the network. The effectiveness of this algorithm has been verified by the simulation results. PMID:25152924

Bridging the communication gap: successes and challenges of mobile phone technology in a health and demographic surveillance system in northern Nigeria.

PubMed

Doctor, Henry V; Olatunji, Alabi; Jumare, Abdul'azeez

2012-01-01

Maternal and child health indicators are generally poor in Nigeria with the northern part of the country having the worst indicators than the southern part. Efforts to address maternal and health challenges in Nigeria include, among others, improvement in health and management information systems. We report on the experience of mobile phone technology in supporting the activities of a health and demographic surveillance system in northern Nigeria. Our experience calls for the need for the Nigerian Government, the mobile network companies, and the international community at large to consolidate their efforts in addressing the mobile network coverage and power supply challenges in order to create an enabling environment for socio-economic development particularly in rural and disadvantaged areas. Unless power and mobile network challenges are addressed, health interventions that rely on mobile phone technology will not have a significant impact in improving maternal and child health.

Dental Use and Expenditures for Older Uninsured Americans: The Simulated Impact of Expanded Coverage

PubMed Central

Manski, Richard J; Moeller, John F; Chen, Haiyan; Schimmel, Jody; Pepper, John V; St Clair, Patricia A

2015-01-01

Objective To determine if providing dental insurance to older Americans would close the current gaps in dental use and expenditure between insured and uninsured older Americans. Data Sources/Study Setting We used data from the 2008 Health and Retirement Survey (HRS) supplemented by data from the 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). Study Design We compared the simulated dental use and expenditures rates of newly insured persons against the corresponding rates for those previously insured. Data Collection/Extraction Methods The HRS is a nationally representative survey administered by the Institute for Social Research (ISR). The MEPS is a nationally representative household survey sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Principal Findings We found that expanding dental coverage to older uninsured Americans would close previous gaps in dental use and expense between uninsured and insured noninstitutionalized Americans 55 years and older. Conclusions Providing dental coverage to previously uninsured older adults would produce estimated monthly costs net of markups for administrative costs that comport closely to current market rates. Estimates also suggest that the total cost of providing dental coverage targeted specifically to nonusers of dental care may be less than similar costs for prior users. PMID:25040355

Coverage of genomic medicine: information gap between lay public and scientists.

PubMed

Sugawara, Yuya; Narimatsu, Hiroto; Fukao, Akira

2012-01-01

The sharing of information between the lay public and medical professionals is crucial to the conduct of personalized medicine using genomic information in the near future. Mass media, such as newspapers, can play an important role in disseminating scientific information. However, studies on the role of newspaper coverage of genome-related articles are highly limited. We investigated the coverage of genomic medicine in five major Japanese newspapers (Asahi, Mainichi, Yomiuri, Sankei, and Nikkei) using Nikkei Telecom and articles in scientific journals in PubMed from 1995 to 2009. The number of genome-related articles in all five newspapers temporarily increased in 2000, and began continuously decreasing thereafter from 2001 to 2009. Conversely, there was a continuous increasing trend in the number of genome-related articles in PubMed during this period. The numbers of genome-related articles among the five major newspapers from 1995 to 2009 were significantly different (P = 0.002). Commentaries, research articles, and articles about companies were the most frequent in 2001 and 2003, when the number of genome-related articles transiently increased in the five newspapers. This study highlights the significant gap between newspaper coverage and scientific articles in scientific journals.

Socioeconomic inequalities in breast and cervical screening coverage in England: are we closing the gap?

PubMed Central

Douglas, Elaine; Waller, Jo; Duffy, Stephen W

2015-01-01

Objective Health policy in the UK is committed to tackling inequalities in cancer screening participation. We examined whether socioeconomic inequalities in breast and cervical cancer screening participation in England have reduced over five years. Methods Cross-sectional analyses compared cervical and breast screening coverage between 2007/8 and 2012/13 in Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in England in relation to area-level income deprivation. Results At the start and the end of this five year period, there were socioeconomic inequalities in screening coverage for breast and cervical screening. Inequalities were highest for breast screening. Over time, the coverage gap between the highest and lowest quintiles of income deprivation significantly reduced for breast screening (from 12.3 to 8.3 percentage points), but not for cervical screening (5.3 to 4.9 percentage points). Conclusions Efforts to reduce screening inequalities appear to have resulted in a significant improvement in equitable delivery of breast screening, although not of cervical screening. More work is needed to understand the differences, and see whether broader lessons can be learned from the reduction of inequalities in breast screening participation. PMID:26377810

Concepts for 20/30 GHz satcom systems for direct-to-user applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jorasch, R.; Davies, R.; Baker, M.

1980-01-01

A baseline technique is described for implementing a direct-to-user (DTU) satcom communications system at 20/30 GHz transmission frequency. The purpose of this application is to utilize the high capacity frequency spectrum at K(A) band for communications among thousands of small terminals located at or close to a customer's facility. The baseline DTU system utilizes a TDMA method of communications with QPSK modulation. Twenty-five coverage beams from a geosynchronous orbit spacecraft provide full coverage of CONUS. Low cost terminals are limited to less than 4.5 meters diameter. The impact of rain attenuation on communications availability is examined. Other techniques including satellite switched antenna beams are outlined and critical K(A)-band technology developments are identified.

United States societal experiments via the Communications Technology Satellite. [antenna coverage

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Donoughe, P. L.

1976-01-01

The Communications Technology Satellite (CTS) is a cooperative experimental program of the United States and Canadian governments. The CTS uses a high-power transponder at the frequencies of 14/12 GHz for two-way television and voice communication. The United States and Canada have agreed to share equally in the use of CTS. The U.S. program includes a variety of societal experiments. The ground stations for these experiments are located from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The satellite communications capabilities and the antenna coverage for the U.S. are summarized. Emphasis is placed on the U.S. societal experiments in the areas of education, health care, and community and special services; nine separate experiments are discussed.

Space Shuttle Underside Astronaut Communications Performance Evaluation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hwu, Shian U.; Dobbins, Justin A.; Loh, Yin-Chung; Kroll, Quin D.; Sham, Catherine C.

2005-01-01

The Space Shuttle Ultra High Frequency (UHF) communications system is planned to provide Radio Frequency (RF) coverage for astronauts working underside of the Space Shuttle Orbiter (SSO) for thermal tile inspection and repairing. This study is to assess the Space Shuttle UHF communication performance for astronauts in the shadow region without line-of-sight (LOS) to the Space Shuttle and Space Station UHF antennas. To insure the RF coverage performance at anticipated astronaut worksites, the link margin between the UHF antennas and Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Astronauts with significant vehicle structure blockage was analyzed. A series of near-field measurements were performed using the NASA/JSC Anechoic Chamber Antenna test facilities. Computational investigations were also performed using the electromagnetic modeling techniques. The computer simulation tool based on the Geometrical Theory of Diffraction (GTD) was used to compute the signal strengths. The signal strength was obtained by computing the reflected and diffracted fields along the propagation paths between the transmitting and receiving antennas. Based on the results obtained in this study, RF coverage for UHF communication links was determined for the anticipated astronaut worksite in the shadow region underneath the Space Shuttle.

The Communication Skills of Accountants: What We Know and the Gaps in Our Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Siriwardane, Harshini P.; Durden, Chris H.

2014-01-01

This paper critically reviews 19 studies published between 1972 and 2012 that investigated the written and/or oral communication skills of practicing accountants. The core aim of the review was to identify skills considered important and highlight gaps regarding what is known about existing and desired communication skills in the accounting…

Evaluating patient care communication in integrated care settings: application of a mixed method approach in cerebral palsy programs.

PubMed

Gulmans, J; Vollenbroek-Hutten, M M R; Van Gemert-Pijnen, J E W C; Van Harten, W H

2009-02-01

In this study, we evaluated patient care communication in the integrated care setting of children with cerebral palsy in three Dutch regions in order to identify relevant communication gaps experienced by both parents and involved professionals. A three-step mixed method approach was used starting with a questionnaire to identify communication links in which parents experienced gaps. In subsequent in-depth interviews with parents and focus group meetings with professionals underlying factors were evaluated. In total, 197 parents completed the questionnaire (response 67%); 6% scored negative on parent-professional communication, whereas 17% scored negative on inter-professional communication, especially between the rehabilitation physician and primary care physiotherapy (16%) and (special) education/day care (15%). In-depth interviews among a subset of 20 parents revealed various sources of dissatisfaction such as lack of cooperation and patient centeredness, inappropriate amount of information exchange and professional use of parents as messenger of information. Focus group meetings revealed that professionals recognized these gaps. They attributed them to capacity problems, lack of interdisciplinary guidelines and clear definition of roles, but also a certain hesitance for contact due to unfamiliarity with involved professionals in the care network. Parents particularly identified gaps in inter-professional communication between (rehabilitation) hospitals and primary care settings. Involved professionals recognized these gaps and primarily attributed them to organizational factors. Improvement initiatives should focus on these factors as well as facilitation of low-threshold contact across the patient's care network.

Chloral hydrate decreases gap junction communications in rat liver epithelial cells

EPA Science Inventory

Gap junction communication (GJC) is involved in controlling cell proliferation and differentiation. Alterations in GJC are associated with carcinogenesis, but the mechanisms involvedareunknown.Chloralhydrate(CH), a by-productofchlorinedisinfection ofwater,is carcinogenic in mice,...

Automated ultrasound scanning on a dual-modality breast imaging system: coverage and motion issues and solutions.

PubMed

Sinha, Sumedha P; Goodsitt, Mitchell M; Roubidoux, Marilyn A; Booi, Rebecca C; LeCarpentier, Gerald L; Lashbrook, Christine R; Thomenius, Kai E; Chalek, Carl L; Carson, Paul L

2007-05-01

We are developing an automated ultrasound imaging-mammography system wherein a digital mammography unit has been augmented with a motorized ultrasound transducer carriage above a special compression paddle. Challenges of this system are acquiring complete coverage of the breast and minimizing motion. We assessed these problems and investigated methods to increase coverage and stabilize the compressed breast. Visual tracings of the breast-to-paddle contact area and breast periphery were made for 10 patients to estimate coverage area. Various motion artifacts were evaluated in 6 patients. Nine materials were tested for coupling the paddle to the breast. Fourteen substances were tested for coupling the transducer to the paddle in lateral-to-medial and medial-to-lateral views and filling the gap between the peripheral breast and paddle. In-house image registration software was used to register adjacent ultrasound sweeps. The average breast contact area was 56%. The average percentage of the peripheral air gap filled with ultrasound gel was 61%. Shallow patient breathing proved equivalent to breath holding, whereas speech and sudden breathing caused unacceptable artifacts. An adhesive spray that preserves image quality was found to be best for coupling the breast to the paddle and minimizing motion. A highly viscous ultrasound gel proved most effective for coupling the transducer to the paddle for lateral-to-medial and medial-to-lateral views and for edge fill-in. The challenges of automated ultrasound scanning in a multimodality breast imaging system have been addressed by developing methods to fill in peripheral gaps, minimize patient motion, and register and reconstruct multisweep ultrasound image volumes.

Historical record of Landsat global coverage

USGS Publications Warehouse

Goward, Samuel; Arvidson, Terry; Williams, Darrel; Faundeen, John; Irons, James; Franks, Shannon

2006-01-01

The long-term, 34+ year record of global Landsat remote sensing data is a critical resource to study the Earth system and human impacts on this system. The National Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive (NSLRSDA) is charged by public law to: “maintain a permanent, comprehensive Government archive of global Landsat and other land remote sensing data for long-term monitoring and study of the changing global environment” (U.S. Congress, 1992). The advisory committee for NSLRSDA requested a detailed analysis of observation coverage within the U.S. Landsat holdings, as well as that acquired and held by International Cooperator (IC) stations. Our analyses, to date, have found gaps of varying magnitude in U.S. holdings of Landsat global coverage data, which appear to reflect technical or administrative variations in mission operations. In many cases it may be possible to partially fill these gaps in U.S. holdings through observations that were acquired and are now being held at International Cooperator stations.

Human and Robotic Mission to Small Bodies: Mapping, Planning and Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Neffian, Ara V.; Bellerose, Julie; Beyer, Ross A.; Archinal, Brent; Edwards, Laurence; Lee, Pascal; Colaprete, Anthony; Fong, Terry

2013-01-01

This study investigates the requirements, performs a gap analysis and makes a set of recommendations for mapping products and exploration tools required to support operations and scientific discovery for near- term and future NASA missions to small bodies. The mapping products and their requirements are based on the analysis of current mission scenarios (rendezvous, docking, and sample return) and recommendations made by the NEA Users Team (NUT) in the framework of human exploration. The mapping products that sat- isfy operational, scienti c, and public outreach goals include topography, images, albedo, gravity, mass, density, subsurface radar, mineralogical and thermal maps. The gap analysis points to a need for incremental generation of mapping products from low (flyby) to high-resolution data needed for anchoring and docking, real-time spatial data processing for hazard avoidance and astronaut or robot localization in low gravity, high dynamic environments, and motivates a standard for coordinate reference systems capable of describing irregular body shapes. Another aspect investigated in this study is the set of requirements and the gap analysis for exploration tools that support visualization and simulation of operational conditions including soil interactions, environment dynamics, and communications coverage. Building robust, usable data sets and visualisation/simulation tools is the best way for mission designers and simulators to make correct decisions for future missions. In the near term, it is the most useful way to begin building capabilities for small body exploration without needing to commit to specific mission architectures.

The State of Business Communication Classes: A National Survey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moshiri, Farrokh; Cardon, Peter

2014-01-01

This nationwide study of 169 business communication instructors examines the following issues: (a) ideal and actual class sizes in business communication courses, (b) delivery modes of business communication courses, (c) types of written and oral assignments, and (d) topics covered and depth of coverage. Findings suggest that business…

Digital, Satellite-Based Aeronautical Communication

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davarian, F.

1989-01-01

Satellite system relays communication between aircraft and stations on ground. System offers better coverage with direct communication between air and ground, costs less and makes possible new communication services. Carries both voice and data. Because many data exchanged between aircraft and ground contain safety-related information, probability of bit errors essential.

Interpersonal communication as an indirect pathway for the effect of antismoking media content on smoking cessation.

PubMed

van den Putte, Bas; Yzer, Marco; Southwell, Brian G; de Bruijn, Gert-Jan; Willemsen, Marc C

2011-05-01

In the context of health campaigns, interpersonal communication can serve at least 2 functions: (a) to stimulate change through social interaction and (b) in a secondary diffusion process, to further disseminate message content. In a 3-wave prospective study of 1,079 smokers, the authors demonstrate that mass media messages (antismoking campaigns and news coverage relevant to smoking cessation) have an indirect effect on smoking cessation intention and behavior via interpersonal communication. Exposure to campaigns and news coverage prompts discussion about the campaigns, and, in turn, about smoking cessation. Interpersonal communication regarding smoking cessation then influences intention to quit smoking and attempts to quit smoking. The study finds evidence not only for the social interaction function of interpersonal communication, but also for the secondary diffusion function. A substantial number of smokers who are not directly exposed to the antismoking campaigns are nevertheless indirectly exposed via communication with people who have seen these campaigns. These results imply that encouragement of interpersonal communication can be an important campaign objective.

Educational Gaps in Medical Care and Health Behavior: Evidence from US Natality Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Price, Joseph; Price, Joshua; Simon, Kosali

2011-01-01

The US Natality files provide information on medical procedures and health related behavior during pregnancy and childbirth. The data set represents nearly the universe of mothers who give birth in the US, providing the most complete coverage possible of medical care and health behavior among a specific patient population. We document gaps in…

Communicating Science from the Inside Out

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clark, C.

2006-12-01

Communicating relevant science to the outside world is becoming more critical to the science research community. Now part of many institution's mission statements, communicating the broader impacts of scientific exploration and discovery has become increasingly important in informing the public, providing information to policy makers, and obtaining research funding. Although some critics say traditional coverage of science news is shrinking, media coverage of newsworthy science will always exist in today's news-hungry world. The key is access, access to media outlets by scientists and access to scientists by media representatives. Getting the word out through traditional and new media in a timely and effective manner can be daunting and time consuming to many scientists. Yet, these are the challenges being tackled on a daily basis by science communicators residing in most research and academic organizations, universities, and institutions. Professional science communicators are valuable resources who can provide crucial input on dealing with, and coping with, the media. In return, effective science communicators serve as important liaisons who efficiently connect science media with appropriate researchers. Wise use of internal science communicators can make the difference in getting news out and getting it right. For more than a decade, a national network of science communicators from institutions, organizations, and funding agencies has existed to collaborate on science news in a concerted effort to improve science coverage at all levels. This network provides collaborative resources to improve the efficiency in getting science news disseminated to the broader public. Although the media is only one audience scientists must interface with today, it is still the most far- reaching outlet for reaching and impacting the broad public by conveying the excitement, importance, and value of today's scientific research. And science communications specialists are the most valuable tool a scientist can utilize in getting relevant science communicated to the outside world.

Resource allocation for multichannel broadcasting visible light communication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Le, Nam-Tuan; Jang, Yeong Min

2015-11-01

Visible light communication (VLC), which offers the possibility of using light sources for both illumination and data communications simultaneously, will be a promising incorporation technique with lighting applications. However, it still remains some challenges especially coverage because of field-of-view limitation. In this paper, we focus on this issue by suggesting a resource allocation scheme for VLC broadcasting system. By using frame synchronization and a network calculus QoS approximation, as well as diversity technology, the proposed VLC architecture and QoS resource allocation for the multichannel-broadcasting MAC (medium access control) protocol can solve the coverage limitation problem and the link switching problem of exhibition service.

Young Adults' Selection and Use of Dependent Coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

PubMed

Chen, Weiwei

2018-01-01

The dependent coverage expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) required health insurance policies that cover dependents to offer coverage for policyholder' children up to age 26. It has been well documented that the provision successfully reduced the uninsured rate among the young adults. However, less is known about whether dependent coverage crowded out other insurance types and whether young adults used dependent coverage as a fill-in-the-gap short-term option. Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation 2008 Panel, the paper assesses dependent coverage uptake and duration before and after the ACA provision among young adults aged 19-26 versus those aged 27-30. Regressions for additional coverage outcomes were also performed to estimate the crowd-out rate. It was found that the ACA provision had a significant positive impact on dependent coverage uptake and duration. The estimated crowd-out rate ranges from 27 to 42%, depending on the definition. Most dependent coverage enrollees used the coverage for 1 or 2 years. Differences in dependent coverage uptake and duration remained among racial groups. Less healthy individuals were also less likely to make use of dependent coverage.

Young Adults’ Selection and Use of Dependent Coverage under the Affordable Care Act

PubMed Central

Chen, Weiwei

2018-01-01

The dependent coverage expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) required health insurance policies that cover dependents to offer coverage for policyholder’ children up to age 26. It has been well documented that the provision successfully reduced the uninsured rate among the young adults. However, less is known about whether dependent coverage crowded out other insurance types and whether young adults used dependent coverage as a fill-in-the-gap short-term option. Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation 2008 Panel, the paper assesses dependent coverage uptake and duration before and after the ACA provision among young adults aged 19–26 versus those aged 27–30. Regressions for additional coverage outcomes were also performed to estimate the crowd-out rate. It was found that the ACA provision had a significant positive impact on dependent coverage uptake and duration. The estimated crowd-out rate ranges from 27 to 42%, depending on the definition. Most dependent coverage enrollees used the coverage for 1 or 2 years. Differences in dependent coverage uptake and duration remained among racial groups. Less healthy individuals were also less likely to make use of dependent coverage. PMID:29445721

47 CFR 1.946 - Construction and coverage requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... Wireless Radio Services, requirements for construction and commencement of service or commencement of... certain Wireless Radio Services, licensees must comply with geographic coverage requirements or... Section 1.946 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE Wireless...

47 CFR 1.946 - Construction and coverage requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... Wireless Radio Services, requirements for construction and commencement of service or commencement of... certain Wireless Radio Services, licensees must comply with geographic coverage requirements or... Section 1.946 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE Wireless...

The Roles of Technology in Primary HIV Prevention for Men Who Have Sex with Men.

PubMed

Sullivan, Patrick S; Jones, Jeb; Kishore, Nishant; Stephenson, Rob

2015-12-01

Men who have sex with men (MSM) are at disproportionate risk for HIV infection globally. The past 5 years have seen considerable advances in biomedical interventions to reduce the risk of HIV infection. To be impactful in reducing HIV incidence requires the rapid and expansive scale-up of prevention. One mechanism for achieving this is technology-based tools to improve knowledge, acceptability, and coverage of interventions and services. This review provides a summary of the current gap in coverage of primary prevention services, how technology-based interventions and services can address gaps in coverage, and the current trends in the development and availability of technology-based primary prevention tools for use by MSM. Results from agent-based models of HIV epidemics of MSM suggest that 40-50 % coverage of multiple primary HIV prevention interventions and services, including biomedical interventions like preexposure prophylaxis, will be needed to reduce HIV incidence among MSM. In the USA, current levels of coverage for all interventions, except HIV testing and condom distribution, fall well short of this target. Recent findings illustrate how technology-based HIV prevention tools can be used to provide certain kinds of services at much larger scale, with marginal incremental costs. A review of mobile apps for primary HIV prevention revealed that most are designed by nonacademic, nonpublic health developers, and only a small proportion of available mobile apps specifically address MSM populations. We are unlikely to reach the required scale of HIV prevention intervention coverage for MSM unless we can leverage technologies to bring key services to broad coverage for MSM. Despite an exciting pipeline of technology-based prevention tools, there are broader challenges with funding structures and sustainability that need to be addressed to realize the full potential of this emerging public health field.

Interactive computation of coverage regions for indoor wireless communication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abbott, A. Lynn; Bhat, Nitin; Rappaport, Theodore S.

1995-12-01

This paper describes a system which assists in the strategic placement of rf base stations within buildings. Known as the site modeling tool (SMT), this system allows the user to display graphical floor plans and to select base station transceiver parameters, including location and orientation, interactively. The system then computes and highlights estimated coverage regions for each transceiver, enabling the user to assess the total coverage within the building. For single-floor operation, the user can choose between distance-dependent and partition- dependent path-loss models. Similar path-loss models are also available for the case of multiple floors. This paper describes the method used by the system to estimate coverage for both directional and omnidirectional antennas. The site modeling tool is intended to be simple to use by individuals who are not experts at wireless communication system design, and is expected to be very useful in the specification of indoor wireless systems.

United States societal experiments via the Communications Technology Satellite

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Donoughe, P. L.

1976-01-01

After a brief description of the Communication Technology Satellite and its U.S. coverage, the U.S. societal experiments via the CTS are discussed. These include education (college curriculum sharing, and project interchange), health care (biomedical communications, health communications, and communication support for decentralized education), and community and special experiments (satellite library information network, and transportable earth terminal).

[Between evidence and negligence: coverage and invisibilityof health topics in the Portuguese printed media].

PubMed

Cavaca, Aline Guio; Vasconcellos-Silva, Paulo Roberto; Ferreira, Patrícia; Nunes, João Arriscado

2015-11-01

The scope of this study is to conduct an assessment of the media coverage and dissemination of health issues in Portugal in order to problematize the aspects of coverage and invisibility of health topics and establish the themes neglected in media coverage. To achieve this, the coverage on health issues in the Portuguese daily newspaper Público was compared with the epidemiological context regarding health priorities and the perceptions of key players on media dissemination and the themes that are relevant to the Portuguese population. The results showed that the recurrent health-associated themes do not deal with diseases per se, but with the politics and economics of health and medication. The themes neglected in media coverage identified in the Portuguese context include: communicable diseases, such as hepatitis and tuberculosis; issues related to mental health and suicide; and ailments and social consequences associated with the economic crisis that has beset Portugal recently. From the standpoint of the people interviewed, other neglected diseases include hemochromatosis and other rare diseases. In tandem with this, the study highlights the well covered media themes that revolve around the lives and activities of celebrities, which are exhaustively aired in the communication media in the country.

Understanding Adherence and Prescription Patterns Using Large-Scale Claims Data.

PubMed

Bjarnadóttir, Margrét V; Malik, Sana; Onukwugha, Eberechukwu; Gooden, Tanisha; Plaisant, Catherine

2016-02-01

Advanced computing capabilities and novel visual analytics tools now allow us to move beyond the traditional cross-sectional summaries to analyze longitudinal prescription patterns and the impact of study design decisions. For example, design decisions regarding gaps and overlaps in prescription fill data are necessary for measuring adherence using prescription claims data. However, little is known regarding the impact of these decisions on measures of medication possession (e.g., medication possession ratio). The goal of the study was to demonstrate the use of visualization tools for pattern discovery, hypothesis generation, and study design. We utilized EventFlow, a novel discrete event sequence visualization software, to investigate patterns of prescription fills, including gaps and overlaps, utilizing large-scale healthcare claims data. The study analyzes data of individuals who had at least two prescriptions for one of five hypertension medication classes: ACE inhibitors, angiotensin II receptor blockers, beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, and diuretics. We focused on those members initiating therapy with diuretics (19.2%) who may have concurrently or subsequently take drugs in other classes as well. We identified longitudinal patterns in prescription fills for antihypertensive medications, investigated the implications of decisions regarding gap length and overlaps, and examined the impact on the average cost and adherence of the initial treatment episode. A total of 790,609 individuals are included in the study sample, 19.2% (N = 151,566) of whom started on diuretics first during the study period. The average age was 52.4 years and 53.1% of the population was female. When the allowable gap was zero, 34% of the population had continuous coverage and the average length of continuous coverage was 2 months. In contrast, when the allowable gap was 30 days, 69% of the population showed a single continuous prescription period with an average length of 5 months. The average prescription cost of the period of continuous coverage ranged from US$3.44 (when the maximum gap was 0 day) to US$9.08 (when the maximum gap was 30 days). Results were less impactful when considering overlaps. This proof-of-concept study illustrates the use of visual analytics tools in characterizing longitudinal medication possession. We find that prescription patterns and associated prescription costs are more influenced by allowable gap lengths than by definitions and treatment of overlap. Research using medication gaps and overlaps to define medication possession in prescription claims data should pay particular attention to the definition and use of gap lengths.

Women and health coverage: the affordability gap.

PubMed

Patchias, Elizabeth M; Waxman, Judy

2007-04-01

Although men and women have some similar challenges with regard to health insurance, women face unique barriers to becoming insured. More significantly, women have greater difficulty affording health care services even once they are insured. On average, women have lower incomes than men and therefore have greater difficulty paying premiums. Women also are less likely than men to have coverage through their own employer and more likely to obtain coverage through their spouses; are more likely than men to have higher out-of-pocket health care expenses; and use more healthcare services than men and consequently are in greater need of comprehensive coverage. Proposals for improving health policy need to address these disparities.

Coverage gaps for Medicaid-eligible children in the wake of federal welfare reform.

PubMed

Haley, Jennifer; Kenney, Genevieve

2003-01-01

Using data from the National Survey of America's Families, this paper examines insurance coverage changes for Medicaid-eligible citizen children between 1997 and 1999, early in the implementation of federal welfare reform. More than 20 million children qualified for Medicaid, but many were uninsured. Insurance coverage deteriorated for eligible children between 1997 and 1999, particularly for those who also qualified for cash assistance; this deterioration in coverage was largely due to dramatic declines in cash assistance participation. This paper shows that following federal welfare reform, states have faced new challenges reaching and enrolling the growing numbers of eligible children who are not connected with the welfare system.

A satellite system for multimedia personal communications at Ka-band and beyond

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vatalaro, F.; Losquadro, G.

1995-01-01

The main characteristics of the satellite extremely high frequency (EHF) communication of multimedia mobile services (SECOMS) system are given and the results of the preliminary analysis are included. The SECOMS provides a first generation Ka band system with coverage over Western Europe, in order to satisfy business user needs of very large bandwidths and terminal mobility. The satellite system also provides a second generation EHF enhanced system with increased capacity and enlarged coverage, to serve all of Europe and the nearby countries.

INTEGRIN-MEDIATED CELL ATTACHMENT SHOWS TIME-DEPENDENT UPREGULATION OF GAP JUNCTION COMMUNICATION.

EPA Science Inventory

Integrin-mediated Cell Attachment Shows Time-Dependent Upregulation of Gap Junction
Communication

Rachel Grindstaff and Carl Blackman, National Health & Environmental Effects Research
Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, US EPA, Research Triang...

Testing the Moderating Effect of Parent–Adolescent Communication on the Acculturation Gap–Distress Relation in Korean American Families

PubMed Central

Kim, May

2011-01-01

Although the acculturation gap generally has been associated with poor mental health outcomes among Asian American children, some studies have failed to find a significant relationship between the gap and distress. Using two different methods of operationalizing the gap between mothers and their children, the current study addressed this tension in the literature by testing the following hypotheses in a sample of Korean American families. It was hypothesized that mother–adolescent discrepancies in acculturation and enculturation levels would be associated with youth internalizing and externalizing symptoms and that parent–adolescent communication would moderate the gap–distress relationship. Multi-informant questionnaires were administered to 77 Korean American mother–adolescent dyads from the Midwest. Surprisingly, results indicated that consonance in low levels of mother–adolescent enculturation was associated with the highest levels of externalizing symptoms (interaction term method). Adolescents’ perception of communication with their fathers significantly moderated the relationship between the enculturation gap and internalizing symptoms, such that in dyads with a greater enculturation gap, less perceived open communication with fathers was associated with more internalizing symptoms (difference score method). Clinically, the findings indicate a potential target (i.e., parent–adolescent communication) for treatment programs that aim to improve family relations and youth adjustment in immigrant families. PMID:21404109

Effect of temporal and spectral noise features on gap detection behavior by calling green treefrogs.

PubMed

Höbel, Gerlinde

2014-10-01

Communication plays a central role in the behavioral ecology of many animals, yet the background noise generated by large breeding aggregations may impair effective communication. A common behavioral strategy to ameliorate noise interference is gap detection, where signalers display primarily during lulls in the background noise. When attempting gap detection, signalers have to deal with the fact that the spacing and duration of silent gaps is often unpredictable, and that noise varies in its spectral composition and may thus vary in the degree in which it impacts communication. I conducted playback experiments to examine how male treefrogs deal with the problem that refraining from calling while waiting for a gap to appear limits a male's ability to attract females, yet producing calls during noise also interferes with effective sexual communication. I found that the temporal structure of noise (i.e., duration of noise and silent gap segments) had a stronger effect on male calling behavior than the spectral composition. Males placed calls predominantly during silent gaps and avoided call production during short, but not long, noise segments. This suggests that male treefrogs use a calling strategy that maximizes the production of calls without interference, yet allows for calling to persist if lulls in the background noise are infrequent. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Count every newborn; a measurement improvement roadmap for coverage data.

PubMed

Moxon, Sarah G; Ruysen, Harriet; Kerber, Kate J; Amouzou, Agbessi; Fournier, Suzanne; Grove, John; Moran, Allisyn C; Vaz, Lara M E; Blencowe, Hannah; Conroy, Niall; Gülmezoglu, A; Vogel, Joshua P; Rawlins, Barbara; Sayed, Rubayet; Hill, Kathleen; Vivio, Donna; Qazi, Shamim A; Sitrin, Deborah; Seale, Anna C; Wall, Steve; Jacobs, Troy; Ruiz Peláez, Juan; Guenther, Tanya; Coffey, Patricia S; Dawson, Penny; Marchant, Tanya; Waiswa, Peter; Deorari, Ashok; Enweronu-Laryea, Christabel; Arifeen, Shams; Lee, Anne C C; Mathai, Matthews; Lawn, Joy E

2015-01-01

The Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP), launched in 2014, aims to end preventable newborn deaths and stillbirths, with national targets of ≤12 neonatal deaths per 1000 live births and ≤12 stillbirths per 1000 total births by 2030. This requires ambitious improvement of the data on care at birth and of small and sick newborns, particularly to track coverage, quality and equity. In a multistage process, a matrix of 70 indicators were assessed by the Every Newborn steering group. Indicators were graded based on their availability and importance to ENAP, resulting in 10 core and 10 additional indicators. A consultation process was undertaken to assess the status of each ENAP core indicator definition, data availability and measurement feasibility. Coverage indicators for the specific ENAP treatment interventions were assigned task teams and given priority as they were identified as requiring the most technical work. Consultations were held throughout. ENAP published 10 core indicators plus 10 additional indicators. Three core impact indicators (neonatal mortality rate, maternal mortality ratio, stillbirth rate) are well defined, with future efforts needed to focus on improving data quantity and quality. Three core indicators on coverage of care for all mothers and newborns (intrapartum/skilled birth attendance, early postnatal care, essential newborn care) have defined contact points, but gaps exist in measuring content and quality of the interventions. Four core (antenatal corticosteroids, neonatal resuscitation, treatment of serious neonatal infections, kangaroo mother care) and one additional coverage indicator for newborns at risk or with complications (chlorhexidine cord cleansing) lack indicator definitions or data, especially for denominators (population in need). To address these gaps, feasible coverage indicator definitions are presented for validity testing. Measurable process indicators to help monitor health service readiness are also presented. A major measurement gap exists to monitor care of small and sick babies, yet signal functions could be tracked similarly to emergency obstetric care. The ENAP Measurement Improvement Roadmap (2015-2020) outlines tools to be developed (e.g., improved birth and death registration, audit, and minimum perinatal dataset) and actions to test, validate and institutionalise proposed coverage indicators. The roadmap presents a unique opportunity to strengthen routine health information systems, crosslinking these data with civil registration and vital statistics and population-based surveys. Real measurement change requires intentional transfer of leadership to countries with the greatest disease burden and will be achieved by working with centres of excellence and existing networks.

Architecture Study on Telemetry Coverage for Immediate Post-Separation Phase

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cheung, Kar-Ming; Lee, Charles H.; Kellogg, Kent H.; Stocklin, Frank J.; Zillig, David J.; Fielhauer, Karl B.

2008-01-01

This paper presents the preliminary results of an architecture study that provides continuous telemetry coverage for NASA missions for immediate post-separation phase. This study is a collaboration effort between Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), and Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). After launch when the spacecraft separated from the upper stage, the spacecraft typically executes a number of mission-critical operations prior to the deployment of solar panels and the activation of the primary communication subsystem. JPL, GSFC, and APL have similar design principle statements that require continuous coverage of mission-critical telemetry during the immediate post-separation phase. To conform to these design principles, an architecture that consists of a separate spacecraft transmitter and a robust communication network capable of tracking the spacecraft signals is needed.This paper presents the preliminary results of an architecture study that provides continuous telemetry coverage for NASA missions for immediate post-separation phase. This study is a collaboration effort between Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), and Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). After launch when the spacecraft separated from the upper stage, the spacecraft typically executes a number of mission-critical operations prior to the deployment of solar panels and the activation of the primary communication subsystem. JPL, GSFC, and APL have similar design principle statements that require continuous coverage of mission-critical telemetry during the immediate post-separation phase. To conform to these design principles, an architecture that consists of a separate spacecraft transmitter and a robust communication network capable of tracking the spacecraft signals is needed. The main results of this study are as follows: 1) At low altitude (< 10000 km) when most post-separation critical operations are executed, Earth-based network (e.g. Deep Space Network (DSN)) can only provide limited coverage, whereas space-based network (e.g. Space Network (SN)) can provide continuous coverage. 2) Commercial-off-the-shelf SN compatible transmitters are available for small satellite applications. In this paper we present the detailed coverage analysis of Earth-based and Space-based networks. We identify the key functional and performance requirements of the architecture, and describe the proposed selection criteria of the spacecraft transmitter. We conclude the paper with a proposed forward plan.

Implementing the communication for development strategy to improve knowledge and coverage of measles vaccination in western Chinese immunization programs: a before-and-after evaluation.

PubMed

Lu, Ming; Chu, Yao-Zhu; Yu, Wen-Zhou; Scherpbier, Robert; Zhou, Yu-Qing; Zhu, Xu; Su, Qi-Ru; Duan, Meng-Juan; Zhang, Xuan; Cui, Fu-Qiang; Wang, Hua-Qing; Zhou, Yi-Biao; Jiang, Qing-Wu

2017-04-24

Communication for Development (C4D) is a strategy promoted by the United Nations Children's Fund to foster positive and measurable changes at the individual, family, community, social, and policy levels of society. In western China, C4D activities have previously been conducted as part of province-level immunization programs. In this study, we evaluated the association of C4D with changes in parental knowledge of immunization services, measles disease, and measles vaccine, and changes in their children's measles vaccine coverage. From April 2013 to April 2014, C4D activities were implemented as part of provincial immunization programs in the Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Chongqing, Guizhou, Tibet, Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, and Qinghai provinces. We used a before-and-after study design and employed face-to-face interviews to assess changes in parental knowledge and vaccination coverage. We surveyed 2 107 households at baseline and 2 070 households after 1 year of C4D activities. Following C4D, 95% of caregivers were aware of the vaccination record check requirement for entry into kindergarten and primary school; 80% of caregivers were aware that migrant children were eligible for free vaccination; more than 70% of caregivers knew that measles is a respiratory infectious disease; and 90% of caregivers knew the symptoms of measles. Caregivers' willingness to take their children to the clinic for vaccination increased from 51.3% at baseline to 67.4% in the post-C4D survey. Coverage of one-dose measles-containing vaccine (MCV) increased from 83.8% at baseline to 90.1% after C4D. One-dose MCV coverage was greater than 95% in the Guangxi, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces. Two-dose MCV coverage increased from 68.5 to 77.6%. House-to-house communication was the most popular C4D activity among caregivers (91.6% favoring), followed by posters and educational talks (64.8 and 49.9% favoring). C4D is associated with increased caregiver knowledge about measles, increased willingness to seek immunization services for their children, and increased measles vaccination coverage. Tailored communication strategies based on insights gained from these analyses may be able to increase vaccination coverage in hard-to-reach areas. C4D should be considered for larger scale implementation in China.

Spin asymmetric band gap opening in graphene by Fe adsorption

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

del Castillo, E.; Cargnoni, F.; Achilli, S.; Tantardini, G. F.; Trioni, M. I.

2015-04-01

The adsorption of Fe atom on graphene is studied by first-principles Density Functional Theory. The structural, electronic, and magnetic properties are analyzed at different coverages, all preserving C6v symmetry for the Fe adatom. We observed that binding energies, magnetic moments, and adsorption distances rapidly converge as the size of the supercell increases. Among the considered supercells, those constituted by 3n graphene unit cells show a very peculiar behavior: the adsorption of a Fe atom induces the opening of a spin-dependent gap in the band structure. In particular, the gap amounts to tenths of eV in the majority spin component, while in the minority one it has a width of about 1 eV for the 3 × 3 supercell and remains significant even at very low coverages (0.25 eV for θ ≃ 2%). The charge redistribution upon Fe adsorption has also been analyzed according to state of the art formalisms indicating an appreciable charge transfer from Fe to the graphene layer.

Statewide Cellular Coverage Map

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2002-02-01

The role of wireless communications in transportation is becoming increasingly important. Wireless communications are critical for many applications of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) such as Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) and Automated Co...

A Historical Review of "Business Communication Quarterly."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewis, Stephen D.

2001-01-01

Presents a brief history of the "Business Communication Quarterly" and its predecessors from 1936-2000. Investigates trends in topic coverage, and lists the journal's editors and most prolific authors. (SR)

Bridging the Gap: From Ivory to Corporate Tower. Proceedings of the ABCA Midwest Regional Conference (Ames, Iowa, April 19-20, 1984).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pearson, Patricia, Ed.

Proceedings drawn from a conference on business communication, the 21 papers in this collection are grouped under the headings Corporate Tower Views, Bridging the Gap, and Ivory Tower Views to better reflect the joint concerns of professional communicators on the job as well as the concerns of those who teach business communication. Among the…

Insurance Coverage for Rehabilitation Therapies and Association with Social Participation Outcomes among Low-Income Children.

PubMed

Mirza, Mansha; Kim, Yoonsang

2016-01-01

(1) To profile children's health insurance coverage rates for specific rehabilitation therapies; (2) to determine whether coverage for rehabilitation therapies is associated with social participation outcomes after adjusting for child and household characteristics; (3) to assess whether rehabilitation insurance differentially affects social participation of children with and without disabilities. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of secondary survey data on 756 children (ages 3-17) from 370 households living in low-income neighborhoods in a Midwestern U.S. city. Multivariate mixed effects logistic regression models were estimated. Significantly higher proportions of children with disabilities had coverage for physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech and language pathology, yet gaps in coverage were noted. Multivariate analysis indicated that rehabilitation insurance coverage was significantly associated with social participation (OR = 1.67, 95% CI: 1.013-2.75). This trend was sustained in subgroup analysis. Findings support the need for comprehensive coverage of all essential services under children's health insurance programs.

California's “Bridge to Reform”: Identifying Challenges and Defining Strategies for Providers and Policymakers Implementing the Affordable Care Act in Low-Income HIV/AIDS Care and Treatment Settings

PubMed Central

Hazelton, Patrick T.; Steward, Wayne T.; Collins, Shane P.; Gaffney, Stuart; Morin, Stephen F.; Arnold, Emily A.

2014-01-01

Background In preparation for full Affordable Care Act implementation, California has instituted two healthcare initiatives that provide comprehensive coverage for previously uninsured or underinsured individuals. For many people living with HIV, this has required transition either from the HIV-specific coverage of the Ryan White program to the more comprehensive coverage provided by the county-run Low-Income Health Programs or from Medicaid fee-for-service to Medicaid managed care. Patient advocates have expressed concern that these transitions may present implementation challenges that will need to be addressed if ambitious HIV prevention and treatment goals are to be achieved. Methods 30 semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted between October, 2012, and February, 2013, with policymakers and providers in 10 urban, suburban, and rural California counties. Interview topics included: continuity of patient care, capacity to handle payer source transitions, and preparations for healthcare reform implementation. Study team members reviewed interview transcripts to produce emergent themes, develop a codebook, build inter-rater reliability, and conduct analyses. Results Respondents supported the goals of the ACA, but reported clinic and policy-level challenges to maintaining patient continuity of care during the payer source transitions. They also identified strategies for addressing these challenges. Areas of focus included: gaps in communication to reach patients and develop partnerships between providers and policymakers, perceived inadequacy in new provider networks for delivering quality HIV care, the potential for clinics to become financially insolvent due to lower reimbursement rates, and increased administrative burdens for clinic staff and patients. Conclusions California's new healthcare initiatives represent ambitious attempts to expand and improve health coverage for low-income individuals. The state's challenges in maintaining quality care and treatment for people living with HIV experiencing these transitions demonstrate the importance of setting effective policies in anticipation of full ACA implementation in 2014. PMID:24599337

California's "Bridge to Reform": identifying challenges and defining strategies for providers and policymakers implementing the Affordable Care Act in low-income HIV/AIDS care and treatment settings.

PubMed

Hazelton, Patrick T; Steward, Wayne T; Collins, Shane P; Gaffney, Stuart; Morin, Stephen F; Arnold, Emily A

2014-01-01

In preparation for full Affordable Care Act implementation, California has instituted two healthcare initiatives that provide comprehensive coverage for previously uninsured or underinsured individuals. For many people living with HIV, this has required transition either from the HIV-specific coverage of the Ryan White program to the more comprehensive coverage provided by the county-run Low-Income Health Programs or from Medicaid fee-for-service to Medicaid managed care. Patient advocates have expressed concern that these transitions may present implementation challenges that will need to be addressed if ambitious HIV prevention and treatment goals are to be achieved. 30 semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted between October, 2012, and February, 2013, with policymakers and providers in 10 urban, suburban, and rural California counties. Interview topics included: continuity of patient care, capacity to handle payer source transitions, and preparations for healthcare reform implementation. Study team members reviewed interview transcripts to produce emergent themes, develop a codebook, build inter-rater reliability, and conduct analyses. Respondents supported the goals of the ACA, but reported clinic and policy-level challenges to maintaining patient continuity of care during the payer source transitions. They also identified strategies for addressing these challenges. Areas of focus included: gaps in communication to reach patients and develop partnerships between providers and policymakers, perceived inadequacy in new provider networks for delivering quality HIV care, the potential for clinics to become financially insolvent due to lower reimbursement rates, and increased administrative burdens for clinic staff and patients. California's new healthcare initiatives represent ambitious attempts to expand and improve health coverage for low-income individuals. The state's challenges in maintaining quality care and treatment for people living with HIV experiencing these transitions demonstrate the importance of setting effective policies in anticipation of full ACA implementation in 2014.

Focus on Communications: Communicating the Message: Clarifying the Controversies About Caffeine.

PubMed

Hogan, Edith Howard; Hornick, Betsy A.; Bouchoux, Ann

2002-01-01

Today's "coffee culture" and the widespread availability of caffeine-containing foods and beverages fuel the ongoing study of caffeine and its subsequent coverage by the media. Although the media has become influential in communicating health and nutrition information to the public, coverage of emerging science, such as the study of caffeine, does not necessarily bring clarity or improved understanding for consumers. This article highlights the current knowledge of caffeine's effects on health, with emphasis on the most common areas of interest and confusion. To address persistent misperceptions about caffeine, this article also accentuates the need for nutrition professionals to help put the findings of caffeine research into perspective and suggests practical ways to do this.

Exploring Characteristics and Health Care Utilization Trends Among Individuals Who Fall in the Health Insurance Assistance Gap in a Medicaid Nonexpansion State.

PubMed

Edward, Jean; Mir, Nageen; Monti, Denise; Shacham, Enbal; Politi, Mary C

2017-11-01

States that did not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the United States have seen a growth in the number of individuals who fall in the assistance gap, defined as having incomes above the Medicaid eligibility limit (≥44% of the federal poverty level) but below the lower limit (<100%) to be eligible for tax credits for premium subsidies or cost-sharing reductions in the marketplace. The purpose of this article is to present findings from a secondary data analysis examining the characteristics of those who fell in the assistance gap ( n = 166) in Missouri, a Medicaid nonexpansion state, by comparing them with those who did not fall in the assistance gap ( n = 157). Participants completed online demographic questionnaires and self-reported measures of health and insurance status, health literacy, numeracy, and health insurance literacy. A select group completed a 1-year follow-up survey about health insurance enrollment and health care utilization. Compared with the nonassistance gap group, individuals in the assistance gap were more likely to have lower levels of education, have at least one chronic condition, be uninsured at baseline, and be seeking health care coverage for additional dependents. Individuals in the assistance gap had significantly lower annual incomes and higher annual premiums when compared with the nonassistance gap group and were less likely to be insured through the marketplace or other private insurance at the 1-year follow-up. Findings provide several practice and policy implications for expanding health insurance coverage, reducing costs, and improving access to care for underserved populations.

ISS Mini AERCam Radio Frequency (RF) Coverage Analysis Using iCAT Development Tool

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bolen, Steve; Vazquez, Luis; Sham, Catherine; Fredrickson, Steven; Fink, Patrick; Cox, Jan; Phan, Chau; Panneton, Robert

2003-01-01

The long-term goals of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Human Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS) enterprise may require the development of autonomous free-flier (FF) robotic devices to operate within the vicinity of low-Earth orbiting spacecraft to supplement human extravehicular activities (EVAs) in space. Future missions could require external visual inspection of the spacecraft that would be difficult, or dangerous, for humans to perform. Under some circumstance, it may be necessary to employ an un-tethered communications link between the FF and the users. The interactive coverage analysis tool (ICAT) is a software tool that has been developed to perform critical analysis of the communications link performance for a FF operating in the vicinity of the International Space Station (ISS) external environment. The tool allows users to interactively change multiple parameters of the communications link parameters to efficiently perform systems engineering trades on network performance. These trades can be directly translated into design and requirements specifications. This tool significantly reduces the development time in determining a communications network topology by allowing multiple parameters to be changed, and the results of link coverage to be statistically characterized and plotted interactively.

Experience of targeting subsidies on insecticide-treated nets: what do we know and what are the knowledge gaps?

PubMed

Worrall, Eve; Hill, Jenny; Webster, Jayne; Mortimer, Julia

2005-01-01

Widespread coverage of vulnerable populations with insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) constitutes an important component of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) strategy to control malaria. The Abuja Targets call for 60% coverage of children under 5 years of age and pregnant women by 2005; but current coverage in Africa is unacceptably low. The RBM 'Strategic Framework for Coordinated National Action in Scaling-up Insecticide-Treated Netting Programmes in Africa' promotes coordinated national action and advocates sustained public provision of targeted subsidies to maximise public health benefits, alongside support and stimulation of the private sector. Several countries have already planned or initiated targeted subsidy schemes either on a pilot scale or on a national scale, and have valuable experience which can inform future interventions. The WHO RBM 'Workshop on mapping models for delivering ITNs through targeted subsidies' held in Zambia in 2003 provided an opportunity to share and document these country experiences. This paper brings together experiences presented at the workshop with other information on experiences of targeting subsidies on ITNs, net treatment kits and retreatment services (ITN products) in order to describe alternative approaches, highlight their similarities and differences, outline lessons learnt, and identify gaps in knowledge. We find that while there is a growing body of knowledge on different approaches to targeting ITN subsidies, there are significant gaps in knowledge in crucial areas. Key questions regarding how best to target, how much it will cost and what outcomes (levels of coverage) to expect remain unanswered. High quality, well-funded monitoring and evaluation of alternative approaches to targeting ITN subsidies is vital to develop a knowledge base so that countries can design and implement effective strategies to target ITN subsidies.

Staff-related access deficit and antenatal care coverage across the NUTS level 1 regions of Turkey.

PubMed

Yardim, Mahmut S

2010-01-01

At the heart of each health system, the workforce is central to advancing health. The World Health Organization has identified a threshold in workforce density below which high coverage of essential interventions, including those necessary to meet the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), is very unlikely. The International Labor Organization (ILO) has launched a similar indicator -staff related access deficit- using Thailand's health care professional density as a benchmark. The aim of this study is to assess the staff-related access deficit of the population across the 12 NUTS 1 level regions of Turkey. The main hypothesis is that staff-related access deficit has a correlation with and predicts the gap in antenatal care coverage (percentage of women unable to access to antenatal care) across different regions. Staff-related access deficit, as a threshold indicator, seems to have a linear relationship with the antenatal care coverage gap. The known inequalities in the distribution of the health care workforce among different regions of Turkey were put forward once more in this study using the SRA indicator. The staff-related access deficit indicator can be easily used to monitor the status of distributional inequalities of the health care workforce at different sub-national levels in the future.

Gap junctions and other mechanisms of cell-cell communication regulate basal insulin secretion in the pancreatic islet.

PubMed

Benninger, R K P; Head, W Steven; Zhang, Min; Satin, Leslie S; Piston, David W

2011-11-15

Cell-cell communication in the islet of Langerhans is important for the regulation of insulin secretion. Gap-junctions coordinate oscillations in intracellular free-calcium ([Ca(2+)](i)) and insulin secretion in the islet following elevated glucose. Gap-junctions can also ensure that oscillatory [Ca(2+)](i) ceases when glucose is at a basal levels. We determine the roles of gap-junctions and other cell-cell communication pathways in the suppression of insulin secretion under basal conditions. Metabolic, electrical and insulin secretion levels were measured from islets lacking gap-junction coupling following deletion of connexion36 (Cx36(-/-)), and these results were compared to those obtained using fully isolated β-cells. K(ATP) loss-of-function islets provide a further experimental model to specifically study gap-junction mediated suppression of electrical activity. In isolated β-cells or Cx36(-/-) islets, elevations in [Ca(2+)](i) persisted in a subset of cells even at basal glucose. Isolated β-cells showed elevated insulin secretion at basal glucose; however, insulin secretion from Cx36(-/-) islets was minimally altered. [Ca(2+)](i) was further elevated under basal conditions, but insulin release still suppressed in K(ATP) loss-of-function islets. Forced elevation of cAMP led to PKA-mediated increases in insulin secretion from islets lacking gap-junctions, but not from islets expressing Cx36 gap junctions. We conclude there is a redundancy in how cell-cell communication in the islet suppresses insulin release. Gap junctions suppress cellular heterogeneity and spontaneous [Ca(2+)](i) signals, while other juxtacrine mechanisms, regulated by PKA and glucose, suppress more distal steps in exocytosis. Each mechanism is sufficiently robust to compensate for a loss of the other and still suppress basal insulin secretion.

Utilisation of health services and geography: deconstructing regional differences in barriers to facility-based delivery in Nepal.

PubMed

Hodge, Andrew; Byrne, Abbey; Morgan, Alison; Jimenez-Soto, Eliana

2015-03-01

While established that geographical inaccessibility is a key barrier to the utilisation of health services, it remains unknown whether disparities are driven only by limited access to these services, or are also attributable to health behaviour. Significant disparities exist in health outcomes and the coverage of many critical health services between the mountains region of Nepal and the rest of the country, yet the principal factors driving these regional disparities are not well understood. Using national representative data from the 2011 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey, we examine the extent to which observable factors explain the overall differences in the utilisation of maternal health services. We apply nonlinear Blinder-Oaxaca-type decomposition methods to quantify the effect that differences in measurable characteristics have on the regional coverage gap in facility-based delivery. The mean coverage of facility-based deliveries was 18.6 and 36.3 % in the mountains region and the rest of Nepal, respectively. Between 54.8 and 74.1 % of the regional coverage gap was explained by differences in observed characteristics. Factors influencing health behaviours (proxied by mothers' education, TV viewership and tobacco use, and household wealth) and subjective distance to the health facility were the major factors, contributing between 52.9 and 62.5 % of the disparity. Mothers' birth history was also noteworthy. Policies simultaneously addressing access and health behaviours appear necessary to achieve greater coverage and better health outcomes for women and children in isolated areas.

LIMITATIONS IN THE USE OF MAGNETIC FIELDS TO EXAMINE GAP JUNCTION COMMUNICATION

EPA Science Inventory

OBJECTIVE: We have previously shown that gap junction communication (GJC) in mouse primary hepatocytes can be enhanced by treatment with physiological levels of melatonin, and that 45-Hz magnetic fields can eliminate this enhancement in a time-dependent manner. The objective of t...

INFLUENCE OF SODIUM ARSENITE ON GAP JUNCTION COMMUNICATION IN RAT LIVER EPITHELIAL CELLS

EPA Science Inventory

Influence of sodium arsenite on gap junction communication in rat-Iiver epitheiial cells.

Arsenic is known to cause certain types of cancers, hepatitis, cirrhosis and neurological disorders as well as cardiovascular and reproductive effects and skin lesions. The mechanism...

Women In The United States Experience High Rates Of Coverage 'Churn' In Months Before And After Childbirth.

PubMed

Daw, Jamie R; Hatfield, Laura A; Swartz, Katherine; Sommers, Benjamin D

2017-04-01

Insurance transitions-sometimes referred to as "churn"-before and after childbirth can adversely affect the continuity and quality of care. Yet little is known about coverage patterns and changes for women giving birth in the United States. Using nationally representative survey data for the period 2005-13, we found high rates of insurance transitions before and after delivery. Half of women who were uninsured nine months before delivery had acquired Medicaid or CHIP coverage by the month of delivery, but 55 percent of women with that coverage at delivery experienced a coverage gap in the ensuing six months. Risk factors associated with insurance loss after delivery include not speaking English at home, being unmarried, having Medicaid or CHIP coverage at delivery, living in the South, and having a family income of 100-185 percent of the poverty level. To minimize the adverse effects of coverage disruptions, states should consider policies that promote the continuity of coverage for childbearing women, particularly those with pregnancy-related Medicaid eligibility. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

Confronting ‘confounding by health system use’ in Medicare Part D: Comparative effectiveness of propensity score approaches to confounding adjustment

PubMed Central

Polinski, Jennifer M.; Schneeweiss, Sebastian; Glynn, Robert J.; Lii, Joyce; Rassen, Jeremy

2012-01-01

Purpose Under Medicare Part D, patient characteristics influence plan choice, which in turn influences Part D coverage gap entry. We compared pre-defined propensity score (PS) and high-dimensional propensity score (hdPS) approaches to address such ‘confounding by health system use’ in assessing whether coverage gap entry is associated with cardiovascular events or death. Methods We followed 243,079 Medicare patients aged 65+ with linked prescription, medical, and plan-specific data in 2005–2007. Patients reached the coverage gap and were followed until an event or year’s end. Exposed patients were responsible for drug costs in the gap; unexposed patients (patients with non-Part D drug insurance and Part D patients receiving a low-income subsidy (LIS)) received financial assistance. Exposed patients were 1:1 PS- or hdPS-matched to unexposed patients. The PS model included 52 predefined covariates; the hdPS model added 400 empirically identified covariates. Hazard ratios for death and any of five cardiovascular outcomes were compared. In sensitivity analyses, we explored residual confounding using only LIS patients in the unexposed group. Results In unadjusted analyses, exposed patients had no greater hazard of death (HR=1.00; 95% CI, 0.84–1.20) or other outcomes. PS- (HR=1.29;0.99–1.66) and hdPS- (HR=1.11;0.86–1.42) matched analyses showed elevated but non-significant hazards of death. In sensitivity analyses, the PS analysis showed a protective effect (HR=0.78;0.61–0.98), while the hdPS analysis (HR=1.06;0.82–1.37) confirmed the main hdPS findings. Conclusion Although the PS-matched analysis suggested elevated though non-significant hazards of death among patients with no financial assistance during the gap, the hdPS analysis produced lower estimates that were stable across sensitivity analyses. PMID:22552984

Operational evaluation of a DGPS / SATCOM VTS : final report

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1996-09-01

Satellite communications (SATCOM) using code division multiple access(CDMA) modulation and burst messaging, provided a new dimension to communication channel capacity, operating dependability, and area of coverage. This technology, together with diff...

Automatic Road Gap Detection Using Fuzzy Inference System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hashemi, S.; Valadan Zoej, M. J.; Mokhtarzadeh, M.

2011-09-01

Automatic feature extraction from aerial and satellite images is a high-level data processing which is still one of the most important research topics of the field. In this area, most of the researches are focused on the early step of road detection, where road tracking methods, morphological analysis, dynamic programming and snakes, multi-scale and multi-resolution methods, stereoscopic and multi-temporal analysis, hyper spectral experiments, are some of the mature methods in this field. Although most researches are focused on detection algorithms, none of them can extract road network perfectly. On the other hand, post processing algorithms accentuated on the refining of road detection results, are not developed as well. In this article, the main is to design an intelligent method to detect and compensate road gaps remained on the early result of road detection algorithms. The proposed algorithm consists of five main steps as follow: 1) Short gap coverage: In this step, a multi-scale morphological is designed that covers short gaps in a hierarchical scheme. 2) Long gap detection: In this step, the long gaps, could not be covered in the previous stage, are detected using a fuzzy inference system. for this reason, a knowledge base consisting of some expert rules are designed which are fired on some gap candidates of the road detection results. 3) Long gap coverage: In this stage, detected long gaps are compensated by two strategies of linear and polynomials for this reason, shorter gaps are filled by line fitting while longer ones are compensated by polynomials.4) Accuracy assessment: In order to evaluate the obtained results, some accuracy assessment criteria are proposed. These criteria are obtained by comparing the obtained results with truly compensated ones produced by a human expert. The complete evaluation of the obtained results whit their technical discussions are the materials of the full paper.

EULER-PCR: finishing experiments for repeat resolution.

PubMed

Mulyukov, Zufar; Pevzner, Pavel A

2002-01-01

Genomic sequencing typically generates a large collection of unordered contigs or scaffolds. Contig ordering (also known as gap closure) is a non-trivial algorithmic and experimental problem since even relatively simple-to-assemble bacterial genomes typically result in large set of contigs. Neighboring contigs maybe separated either by gaps in read coverage or by repeats. In the later case we say that the contigs are separated by pseudogaps, and we emphasize the important difference between gap closure and pseudogap closure. The existing gap closure approaches do not distinguish between gaps and pseudogaps and treat them in the same way. We describe a new fast strategy for closing pseudogaps (repeat resolution). Since in highly repetitive genomes, the number of pseudogaps may exceed the number of gaps by an order of magnitude, this approach provides a significant advantage over the existing gap closure methods.

Tunable and sizable band gap in silicene by surface adsorption

PubMed Central

Quhe, Ruge; Fei, Ruixiang; Liu, Qihang; Zheng, Jiaxin; Li, Hong; Xu, Chengyong; Ni, Zeyuan; Wang, Yangyang; Yu, Dapeng; Gao, Zhengxiang; Lu, Jing

2012-01-01

Opening a sizable band gap without degrading its high carrier mobility is as vital for silicene as for graphene to its application as a high-performance field effect transistor (FET). Our density functional theory calculations predict that a band gap is opened in silicene by single-side adsorption of alkali atom as a result of sublattice or bond symmetry breaking. The band gap size is controllable by changing the adsorption coverage, with an impressive maximum band gap up to 0.50 eV. The ab initio quantum transport simulation of a bottom-gated FET based on a sodium-covered silicene reveals a transport gap, which is consistent with the band gap, and the resulting on/off current ratio is up to 108. Therefore, a way is paved for silicene as the channel of a high-performance FET. PMID:23152944

Gap junctional communication modulates gene transcription by altering the recruitment of Sp1 and Sp3 to connexin-response elements in osteoblast promoters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stains, Joseph P.; Lecanda, Fernando; Screen, Joanne; Towler, Dwight A.; Civitelli, Roberto

2003-01-01

Loss-of-function mutations of gap junction proteins, connexins, represent a mechanism of disease in a variety of tissues. We have shown that recessive (gene deletion) or dominant (connexin45 overexpression) disruption of connexin43 function results in osteoblast dysfunction and abnormal expression of osteoblast genes, including down-regulation of osteocalcin transcription. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms of gap junction-sensitive transcriptional regulation, we systematically analyzed the rat osteocalcin promoter for sensitivity to gap junctional intercellular communication. We identified an Sp1/Sp3 containing complex that assembles on a minimal element in the -70 to -57 region of the osteocalcin promoter in a gap junction-dependent manner. This CT-rich connexin-response element is necessary and sufficient to confer gap junction sensitivity to the osteocalcin proximal promoter. Repression of osteocalcin transcription occurs as a result of displacement of the stimulatory Sp1 by the inhibitory Sp3 on the promoter when gap junctional communication is perturbed. Modulation of Sp1/Sp3 recruitment also occurs on the collagen Ialpha1 promoter and translates into gap junction-sensitive transcriptional control of collagen Ialpha1 gene expression. Thus, regulation of Sp1/Sp3 recruitment to the promoter may represent a potential general mechanism for transcriptional control of target genes by signals passing through gap junctions.

Smad ubiquitination regulatory factor-2 controls gap junction intercellular communication by modulating endocytosis and degradation of connexin43.

PubMed

Fykerud, Tone Aase; Kjenseth, Ane; Schink, Kay Oliver; Sirnes, Solveig; Bruun, Jarle; Omori, Yasufumi; Brech, Andreas; Rivedal, Edgar; Leithe, Edward

2012-09-01

Gap junctions consist of arrays of intercellular channels that enable adjacent cells to communicate both electrically and metabolically. Gap junction channels are made of a family of integral membrane proteins called connexins, of which the best-studied member is connexin43. Gap junctions are dynamic plasma membrane domains, and connexin43 has a high turnover rate in most tissue types. However, the mechanisms involved in the regulation of connexin43 endocytosis and transport to lysosomes are still poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate by live-cell imaging analysis that treatment of cells with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA) induces endocytosis of subdomains of connexin43 gap junctions. The internalized, connexin43-enriched vesicles were found to fuse with early endosomes, which was followed by transport of connexin43 to the lumen of early endosomes. The HECT E3 ubiquitin ligase smad ubiquitination regulatory factor-2 (Smurf2) was found to be recruited to connexin43 gap junctions in response to TPA treatment. Depletion of Smurf2 by small interfering RNA resulted in enhanced levels of connexin43 gap junctions between adjacent cells and increased gap junction intercellular communication. Smurf2 depletion also counteracted the TPA-induced endocytosis and degradation of connexin43. Collectively, these data identify Smurf2 as a novel regulator of connexin43 gap junctions.

GapFiller: a de novo assembly approach to fill the gap within paired reads

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Next Generation Sequencing technologies are able to provide high genome coverages at a relatively low cost. However, due to limited reads' length (from 30 bp up to 200 bp), specific bioinformatics problems have become even more difficult to solve. De novo assembly with short reads, for example, is more complicated at least for two reasons: first, the overall amount of "noisy" data to cope with increased and, second, as the reads' length decreases the number of unsolvable repeats grows. Our work's aim is to go at the root of the problem by providing a pre-processing tool capable to produce (in-silico) longer and highly accurate sequences from a collection of Next Generation Sequencing reads. Results In this paper a seed-and-extend local assembler is presented. The kernel algorithm is a loop that, starting from a read used as seed, keeps extending it using heuristics whose main goal is to produce a collection of error-free and longer sequences. In particular, GapFiller carefully detects reliable overlaps and operates clustering similar reads in order to reconstruct the missing part between the two ends of the same insert. Our tool's output has been validated on 24 experiments using both simulated and real paired reads datasets. The output sequences are declared correct when the seed-mate is found. In the experiments performed, GapFiller was able to extend high percentages of the processed seeds and find their mates, with a false positives rate that turned out to be nearly negligible. Conclusions GapFiller, starting from a sufficiently high short reads coverage, is able to produce high coverages of accurate longer sequences (from 300 bp up to 3500 bp). The procedure to perform safe extensions, together with the mate-found check, turned out to be a powerful criterion to guarantee contigs' correctness. GapFiller has further potential, as it could be applied in a number of different scenarios, including the post-processing validation of insertions/deletions detection pipelines, pre-processing routines on datasets for de novo assembly pipelines, or in any hierarchical approach designed to assemble, analyse or validate pools of sequences. PMID:23095524

More About Lens Antenna For Mobile/Satellite Communication

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rahmat-Samii, Y.; Bodnar, D. G.; Rainer, B. K.

1990-01-01

Report presents additional details of design of proposed phased-array antenna described in "Lens Antenna for Mobile/Satellite Communication" (NPO-16948). Intended to be compact and to lie flat on top of vehicle on ground. Transmits and receives circularly polarized radiation in frequency ranges of 821 to 825 MHz and 860 to 870 MHz. Transmitting and receiving beams electronically steerable to any of 48 evenly spaced directions to provide complete azimuth coverage, and would be fixed, but wide, in elevation, to provide coverage at elevation angles from 20 degrees to 60 degrees.

--No Title--

Science.gov Websites

using mesonet visbility observations and CLARUS QC'd obs; Add ceiling height and sky cover analysis to precipitation coverage gaps near CONUS coastlines; Add significant wave height analysis to OCONUS domains

Formation of functional gap junctions in amniotic fluid-derived stem cells induced by transmembrane co-culture with neonatal rat cardiomyocytes

PubMed Central

Connell, Jennifer Petsche; Augustini, Emily; Moise, Kenneth J; Johnson, Anthony; Jacot, Jeffrey G

2013-01-01

Amniotic fluid-derived stem cells (AFSC) have been reported to differentiate into cardiomyocyte-like cells and form gap junctions when directly mixed and cultured with neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVM). This study investigated whether or not culture of AFSC on the opposite side of a Transwell membrane from NRVM, allowing for contact and communication without confounding factors such as cell fusion, could direct cardiac differentiation and enhance gap junction formation. Results were compared to shared media (Transwell), conditioned media and monoculture media controls. After a 2-week culture period, AFSC did not express cardiac myosin heavy chain or troponin T in any co-culture group. Protein expression of cardiac calsequestrin 2 was up-regulated in direct transmembrane co-cultures and media control cultures compared to the other experimental groups, but all groups were up-regulated compared with undifferentiated AFSC cultures. Gap junction communication, assessed with a scrape-loading dye transfer assay, was significantly increased in direct transmembrane co-cultures compared to all other conditions. Gap junction communication corresponded with increased connexin 43 gene expression and decreased phosphorylation of connexin 43. Our results suggest that direct transmembrane co-culture does not induce cardiomyocyte differentiation of AFSC, though calsequestrin expression is increased. However, direct transmembrane co-culture does enhance connexin-43-mediated gap junction communication between AFSC. PMID:23634988

Global yellow fever vaccination coverage from 1970 to 2016: an adjusted retrospective analysis.

PubMed

Shearer, Freya M; Moyes, Catherine L; Pigott, David M; Brady, Oliver J; Marinho, Fatima; Deshpande, Aniruddha; Longbottom, Joshua; Browne, Annie J; Kraemer, Moritz U G; O'Reilly, Kathleen M; Hombach, Joachim; Yactayo, Sergio; de Araújo, Valdelaine E M; da Nóbrega, Aglaêr A; Mosser, Jonathan F; Stanaway, Jeffrey D; Lim, Stephen S; Hay, Simon I; Golding, Nick; Reiner, Robert C

2017-11-01

Substantial outbreaks of yellow fever in Angola and Brazil in the past 2 years, combined with global shortages in vaccine stockpiles, highlight a pressing need to assess present control strategies. The aims of this study were to estimate global yellow fever vaccination coverage from 1970 through to 2016 at high spatial resolution and to calculate the number of individuals still requiring vaccination to reach population coverage thresholds for outbreak prevention. For this adjusted retrospective analysis, we compiled data from a range of sources (eg, WHO reports and health-service-provider registeries) reporting on yellow fever vaccination activities between May 1, 1939, and Oct 29, 2016. To account for uncertainty in how vaccine campaigns were targeted, we calculated three population coverage values to encompass alternative scenarios. We combined these data with demographic information and tracked vaccination coverage through time to estimate the proportion of the population who had ever received a yellow fever vaccine for each second level administrative division across countries at risk of yellow fever virus transmission from 1970 to 2016. Overall, substantial increases in vaccine coverage have occurred since 1970, but notable gaps still exist in contemporary coverage within yellow fever risk zones. We estimate that between 393·7 million and 472·9 million people still require vaccination in areas at risk of yellow fever virus transmission to achieve the 80% population coverage threshold recommended by WHO; this represents between 43% and 52% of the population within yellow fever risk zones, compared with between 66% and 76% of the population who would have required vaccination in 1970. Our results highlight important gaps in yellow fever vaccination coverage, can contribute to improved quantification of outbreak risk, and help to guide planning of future vaccination efforts and emergency stockpiling. The Rhodes Trust, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health, the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 license. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Critical maternal health knowledge gaps in low- and middle-income countries for the post-2015 era.

PubMed

Kendall, Tamil; Langer, Ana

2015-06-05

Effective interventions to promote maternal health and address obstetric complications exist, however 800 women die every day during pregnancy and childbirth from largely preventable causes and more than 90% of these deaths occur in low and middle income countries (LMIC). In 2014, the Maternal Health Task Force consulted 26 global maternal health researchers to identify persistent and critical knowledge gaps to be filled to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality and improve maternal health. The vision of maternal health articulated was comprehensive and priorities for knowledge generation encompassed improving the availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality of institutional labor and delivery services and other effective interventions, such as contraception and safe abortion services. Respondents emphasized the need for health systems research to identify models that can deliver what is known to be effective to prevent and treat the main causes of maternal death at scale in different contexts and to sustain coverage and quality over time. Researchers also emphasized the development of tools to measure quality of care and promote ongoing quality improvement at the facility, district, and national level. Knowledge generation to improve distribution and retention of healthcare workers, facilitate task shifting, develop and evaluate training models to improve "hands-on" skills and promote evidence-based practice, and increase managerial capacity at different levels of the health system were also prioritized. Interviewees noted that attitudes, behavior, and power relationships between health professionals and within institutions must be transformed to achieve coverage of high-quality maternal health services in LMIC. The increasing burden of non-communicable diseases, urbanization, and the persistence of social and economic inequality were identified as emerging challenges that require knowledge generation to improve health system responses and evaluate progress. Respondents emphasized evaluating effectiveness, feasibility, and equity impacts of health system interventions. A prominent role for implementation science, evidence for policy advocacy, and interdisciplinary collaboration were identified as critical areas for knowledge generation to improve maternal health in the post-2015 era.

The reliability of a modified Kalamazoo Consensus Statement Checklist for assessing the communication skills of multidisciplinary clinicians in the simulated environment.

PubMed

Peterson, Eleanor B; Calhoun, Aaron W; Rider, Elizabeth A

2014-09-01

With increased recognition of the importance of sound communication skills and communication skills education, reliable assessment tools are essential. This study reports on the psychometric properties of an assessment tool based on the Kalamazoo Consensus Statement Essential Elements Communication Checklist. The Gap-Kalamazoo Communication Skills Assessment Form (GKCSAF), a modified version of an existing communication skills assessment tool, the Kalamazoo Essential Elements Communication Checklist-Adapted, was used to assess learners in a multidisciplinary, simulation-based communication skills educational program using multiple raters. 118 simulated conversations were available for analysis. Internal consistency and inter-rater reliability were determined by calculating a Cronbach's alpha score and intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC), respectively. The GKCSAF demonstrated high internal consistency with a Cronbach's alpha score of 0.844 (faculty raters) and 0.880 (peer observer raters), and high inter-rater reliability with an ICC of 0.830 (faculty raters) and 0.89 (peer observer raters). The Gap-Kalamazoo Communication Skills Assessment Form is a reliable method of assessing the communication skills of multidisciplinary learners using multi-rater methods within the learning environment. The Gap-Kalamazoo Communication Skills Assessment Form can be used by educational programs that wish to implement a reliable assessment and feedback system for a variety of learners. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

42 CFR 416.51 - Conditions for coverage-Infection control.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... communicable diseases. In addition, the infection control and prevention program must include documentation... 42 Public Health 3 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Conditions for coverage-Infection control. 416.51 Section 416.51 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN...

42 CFR 416.51 - Conditions for coverage-Infection control.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... communicable diseases. In addition, the infection control and prevention program must include documentation... 42 Public Health 3 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Conditions for coverage-Infection control. 416.51 Section 416.51 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN...

42 CFR 416.51 - Conditions for coverage-Infection control.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... communicable diseases. In addition, the infection control and prevention program must include documentation... 42 Public Health 3 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Conditions for coverage-Infection control. 416.51 Section 416.51 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN...

42 CFR 416.51 - Conditions for coverage-Infection control.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... an ongoing program designed to prevent, control, and investigate infections and communicable diseases... 42 Public Health 3 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Conditions for coverage-Infection control. 416.51 Section 416.51 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN...

42 CFR 416.51 - Conditions for coverage-Infection control.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... an ongoing program designed to prevent, control, and investigate infections and communicable diseases... 42 Public Health 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Conditions for coverage-Infection control. 416.51 Section 416.51 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN...

Coverage That Counts.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moss, Nancy

1990-01-01

As the shrinking pool of applicants forces colleges to adapt new approaches to recruiting, media campaigns are emerging as an effective way to send key messages to target audiences. Media relations can lend credibility (news coverage is considered more credible than advertising); save money; reach targeted areas; and communicate key themes. (MLW)

Four barriers to the global understanding of biodiversity conservation: wealth, language, geographical location and security.

PubMed

Amano, Tatsuya; Sutherland, William J

2013-04-07

Global biodiversity conservation is seriously challenged by gaps and heterogeneity in the geographical coverage of existing information. Nevertheless, the key barriers to the collection and compilation of biodiversity information at a global scale have yet to be identified. We show that wealth, language, geographical location and security each play an important role in explaining spatial variations in data availability in four different types of biodiversity databases. The number of records per square kilometre is high in countries with high per capita gross domestic product (GDP), high proportion of English speakers and high security levels, and those located close to the country hosting the database; but these are not necessarily countries with high biodiversity. These factors are considered to affect data availability by impeding either the activities of scientific research or active international communications. Our results demonstrate that efforts to solve environmental problems at a global scale will gain significantly by focusing scientific education, communication, research and collaboration in low-GDP countries with fewer English speakers and located far from Western countries that host the global databases; countries that have experienced conflict may also benefit. Findings of this study may be broadly applicable to other fields that require the compilation of scientific knowledge at a global level.

Moderate Effects of Same-Sex Legislation on Dependent Employer-Based Insurance Coverage among Sexual Minorities

PubMed Central

Tran, Linda Diem

2016-01-01

A difference-in-difference approach was used to compare the effects of same-sex domestic partnership, civil union, and marriage policies on same- and different-sex partners who could have benefitted from their partners’ employer-based insurance (EBI) coverage. Same-sex partners had 78% lower odds (ME=-21%) of having EBI compared to different-sex partners, adjusting for socioeconomic and health-related factors. Same-sex partners living in states that recognized same-sex marriage or domestic partnership had 89% greater odds of having EBI compared to those in states that did not recognize same-sex unions (ME=5%). The impact of same-sex legislation on increasing take-up of dependent EBI coverage among lesbians, gay men, and bisexual individuals (LGBs) was modest, and domestic partnership legislation was equally as effective as same-sex marriage in increasing same-sex partner EBI coverage. Extending dependent EBI coverage to same-sex partners can mitigate gaps in coverage for a segment of the LGB population but will not eliminate them. PMID:26762647

Accelerating progress towards universal health coverage in Asia and Pacific: improving the future for women and children

PubMed Central

Beattie, Allison; Yates, Robert; Noble, Douglas J

2016-01-01

Universal health coverage generates significant health and economic benefits and enables governments to reduce inequity. Where universal health coverage has been implemented well, it can contribute to nation-building. This analysis reviews evidence from Asia and Pacific drawing out determinants of successful systems and barriers to progress with a focus on women and children. Access to healthcare is important for women and children and contributes to early childhood development. Universal health coverage is a political process from the start, and public financing is critical and directly related to more equitable health systems. Closing primary healthcare gaps should be the foundation of universal health coverage reforms. Recommendations for policy for national governments to improve universal health coverage are identified, including countries spending < 3% of gross domestic product in public expenditure on health committing to increasing funding by at least 0.3%/year to reach a minimum expenditure threshold of 3%. PMID:28588989

An Assessment of Media Coverage of the B-2 Stealth Bomber

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-01-01

15 Sharon M. Friedman, Carole M. Gorney, and Brenda P. Egolf, "Reporting on Radiation: A Content Analysis of Chernobyl Coverage," Journal of...Mitterrand," Political Science Quarterly, 39 (1987): 103-122. 1 29 Jane Blankenship, Serefa Mendez - Mendez , Jong Guen King and Joseph Giodan, "Initial... Carole M. Gorney and Brenda P. Egolf, "Reporting on Radiation: A Content Analysis of Chernobyl Coverage," Journal of Communication, Summer3 (1987

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (74th, Boston, Massachusetts, August 7-10, 1991). Part X: United States Coverage of International News.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

The United States Coverage of International News section of the proceedings contains the following 15 papers: "TV News and U.S. Public Opinion about Foreign Countries: The Impact of Exposure and Attention" (Holli A. Semetko and others); "The World of U.S. Network Television News: Eighteen Years of Foreign News Coverage"…

Analysis of error in TOMS total ozone as a function of orbit and attitude parameters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gregg, W. W.; Ardanuy, P. E.; Braun, W. C.; Vallette, B. J.; Bhartia, P. K.; Ray, S. N.

1991-01-01

Computer simulations of orbital scenarios were performed to examine the effects of orbital altitude, equator crossing time, attitude uncertainty, and orbital eccentricity on ozone observations by future satellites. These effects were assessed by determining changes in solar and viewing geometry and earth daytime coverage loss. The importance of these changes on ozone retrieval was determined by simulating uncertainties in the TOMS ozone retrieval algorithm. The major findings are as follows: (1) Drift of equator crossing time from local noon would have the largest effect on the quality of ozone derived from TOMS. The most significant effect of this drift is the loss of earth daytime coverage in the winter hemisphere. The loss in coverage increases from 1 degree latitude for + or - 1 hour from noon, 6 degrees for + or - 3 hours from noon, to 53 degrees for + or - 6 hours from noon. An additional effect is the increase in ozone retrieval errors due to high solar zenith angles. (2) To maintain contiguous earth coverage, the maximum scan angle of the sensor must be increased with decreasing orbital altitude. The maximum scan angle required for full coverage at the equator varies from 60 degrees at 600 km altitude to 45 degrees at 1200 km. This produces an increase in spacecraft zenith angle, theta, which decreases the ozone retrieval accuracy. The range in theta was approximately 72 degrees for 600 km to approximately 57 degrees at 1200 km. (3) The effect of elliptical orbits is to create gaps in coverage along the subsatellite track. An elliptical orbit with a 200 km perigee and 1200 km apogee produced a maximum earth coverage gap of about 45 km at the perigee at nadir. (4) An attitude uncertainty of 0.1 degree in each axis (pitch, roll, yaw) produced a maximum scan angle to view the pole, and maximum solar zenith angle).

Monitoring intervention coverage in the context of universal health coverage.

PubMed

Boerma, Ties; AbouZahr, Carla; Evans, David; Evans, Tim

2014-09-01

Monitoring universal health coverage (UHC) focuses on information on health intervention coverage and financial protection. This paper addresses monitoring intervention coverage, related to the full spectrum of UHC, including health promotion and disease prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliation. A comprehensive core set of indicators most relevant to the country situation should be monitored on a regular basis as part of health progress and systems performance assessment for all countries. UHC monitoring should be embedded in a broad results framework for the country health system, but focus on indicators related to the coverage of interventions that most directly reflect the results of UHC investments and strategies in each country. A set of tracer coverage indicators can be selected, divided into two groups-promotion/prevention, and treatment/care-as illustrated in this paper. Disaggregation of the indicators by the main equity stratifiers is critical to monitor progress in all population groups. Targets need to be set in accordance with baselines, historical rate of progress, and measurement considerations. Critical measurement gaps also exist, especially for treatment indicators, covering issues such as mental health, injuries, chronic conditions, surgical interventions, rehabilitation, and palliation. Consequently, further research and proxy indicators need to be used in the interim. Ideally, indicators should include a quality of intervention dimension. For some interventions, use of a single indicator is feasible, such as management of hypertension; but in many areas additional indicators are needed to capture quality of service provision. The monitoring of UHC has significant implications for health information systems. Major data gaps will need to be filled. At a minimum, countries will need to administer regular household health surveys with biological and clinical data collection. Countries will also need to improve the production of reliable, comprehensive, and timely health facility data. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary.

Monitoring Intervention Coverage in the Context of Universal Health Coverage

PubMed Central

Boerma, Ties; AbouZahr, Carla; Evans, David; Evans, Tim

2014-01-01

Monitoring universal health coverage (UHC) focuses on information on health intervention coverage and financial protection. This paper addresses monitoring intervention coverage, related to the full spectrum of UHC, including health promotion and disease prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliation. A comprehensive core set of indicators most relevant to the country situation should be monitored on a regular basis as part of health progress and systems performance assessment for all countries. UHC monitoring should be embedded in a broad results framework for the country health system, but focus on indicators related to the coverage of interventions that most directly reflect the results of UHC investments and strategies in each country. A set of tracer coverage indicators can be selected, divided into two groups—promotion/prevention, and treatment/care—as illustrated in this paper. Disaggregation of the indicators by the main equity stratifiers is critical to monitor progress in all population groups. Targets need to be set in accordance with baselines, historical rate of progress, and measurement considerations. Critical measurement gaps also exist, especially for treatment indicators, covering issues such as mental health, injuries, chronic conditions, surgical interventions, rehabilitation, and palliation. Consequently, further research and proxy indicators need to be used in the interim. Ideally, indicators should include a quality of intervention dimension. For some interventions, use of a single indicator is feasible, such as management of hypertension; but in many areas additional indicators are needed to capture quality of service provision. The monitoring of UHC has significant implications for health information systems. Major data gaps will need to be filled. At a minimum, countries will need to administer regular household health surveys with biological and clinical data collection. Countries will also need to improve the production of reliable, comprehensive, and timely health facility data. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary PMID:25243586

High Throughput Transcriptomics @ USEPA (Toxicology ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The ideal chemical testing approach will provide complete coverage of all relevant toxicological responses. It should be sensitive and specific It should identify the mechanism/mode-of-action (with dose-dependence). It should identify responses relevant to the species of interest. Responses should ideally be translated into tissue-, organ-, and organism-level effects. It must be economical and scalable. Using a High Throughput Transcriptomics platform within US EPA provides broader coverage of biological activity space and toxicological MOAs and helps fill the toxicological data gap. Slide presentation at the 2016 ToxForum on using High Throughput Transcriptomics at US EPA for broader coverage biological activity space and toxicological MOAs.

Use of qualitative methods and user-centered design to develop customized health information technology tools within federally qualified health centers to keep children insured.

PubMed

DeVoe, Jennifer; Angier, Heather; Likumahuwa, Sonja; Hall, Jennifer; Nelson, Christine; Dickerson, Kay; Keller, Sara; Burdick, Tim; Cohen, Deborah

2014-01-01

Lack of health insurance negatively impacts children's health. Despite federal initiatives to expand children's coverage and accelerate state outreach efforts, millions of US children remain uninsured or experience frequent gaps in coverage. Most current efforts to enroll and retain eligible children in public insurance programs take place outside of the health care system. This study is a partnership between patients' families, medical informaticists, federally qualified health center (FQHC) staff, and researchers to build and test information technology tools to help FQHCs reach uninsured children and those at risk for losing coverage.

Count every newborn; a measurement improvement roadmap for coverage data

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Background The Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP), launched in 2014, aims to end preventable newborn deaths and stillbirths, with national targets of ≤12 neonatal deaths per 1000 live births and ≤12 stillbirths per 1000 total births by 2030. This requires ambitious improvement of the data on care at birth and of small and sick newborns, particularly to track coverage, quality and equity. Methods In a multistage process, a matrix of 70 indicators were assessed by the Every Newborn steering group. Indicators were graded based on their availability and importance to ENAP, resulting in 10 core and 10 additional indicators. A consultation process was undertaken to assess the status of each ENAP core indicator definition, data availability and measurement feasibility. Coverage indicators for the specific ENAP treatment interventions were assigned task teams and given priority as they were identified as requiring the most technical work. Consultations were held throughout. Results ENAP published 10 core indicators plus 10 additional indicators. Three core impact indicators (neonatal mortality rate, maternal mortality ratio, stillbirth rate) are well defined, with future efforts needed to focus on improving data quantity and quality. Three core indicators on coverage of care for all mothers and newborns (intrapartum/skilled birth attendance, early postnatal care, essential newborn care) have defined contact points, but gaps exist in measuring content and quality of the interventions. Four core (antenatal corticosteroids, neonatal resuscitation, treatment of serious neonatal infections, kangaroo mother care) and one additional coverage indicator for newborns at risk or with complications (chlorhexidine cord cleansing) lack indicator definitions or data, especially for denominators (population in need). To address these gaps, feasible coverage indicator definitions are presented for validity testing. Measurable process indicators to help monitor health service readiness are also presented. A major measurement gap exists to monitor care of small and sick babies, yet signal functions could be tracked similarly to emergency obstetric care. Conclusions The ENAP Measurement Improvement Roadmap (2015-2020) outlines tools to be developed (e.g., improved birth and death registration, audit, and minimum perinatal dataset) and actions to test, validate and institutionalise proposed coverage indicators. The roadmap presents a unique opportunity to strengthen routine health information systems, crosslinking these data with civil registration and vital statistics and population-based surveys. Real measurement change requires intentional transfer of leadership to countries with the greatest disease burden and will be achieved by working with centres of excellence and existing networks. PMID:26391444

Defining moments in risk communication research: 1996-2005.

PubMed

McComas, Katherine A

2006-01-01

Ten years ago, scholars suggested that risk communication was embarking on a new phase that would give increased attention to the social contexts that surround and encroach on public responses to risk information. A decade later, many researchers have answered the call, with several defining studies examining the social and psychological influences on risk communication. This article reviews risk communication research appearing in the published literature since 1996. Among studies, social trust, the social amplification of risk framework, and the affect heuristic figured prominently. Also common were studies examining the influence of risk in the mass media. Among these were content analyses of media coverage of risk, as well as investigations of possible effects resulting from coverage. The use of mental models was a dominant method for developing risk message content. Other studies examined the use of risk comparisons, narratives, and visuals in the production of risk messages. Research also examined how providing information about a risk's severity, social norms, and efficacy influenced communication behaviors and intentions to follow risk reduction measures. Methods for conducting public outreach in health risk communication rounded out the literature.

Influenza Vaccination Coverage and Its Associated Factors among North Korean Defectors Living in the Republic of Korea.

PubMed

Song, In Gyu; Lee, Haewon; Yi, Jinseon; Kim, Min Sun; Park, Sang Min

2015-09-01

This study aimed to examine influenza vaccination coverage of North Korean defectors (NKD) in the Republic of Korea (Korea) and explore the factors affected the vaccination coverage. Total 378 NKD were analyzed. Four Korean control subjects were randomly matched by age and gender from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey V (n = 1,500). The adjusted vaccination coverage revealed no statistical difference between the defectors group and indigenous group (29.1% vs. 29.5%, P = 0.915). In the aged under 50 group, the vaccination coverage of NKD was higher than that of Korean natives (37.8% vs. 25.8%, P = 0.016). However in the aged 50 yr and over group, the vaccination coverage of North Korean defectors was lower than that of the natives (28.0% vs. 37.6%, P = 0.189). Even the gap was wider in the aged 65 yr and over group (36.4% vs. 77.8%, P = 0.007). Gender and medical check-up experience within 2 yr showed association with the vaccination coverage of NKD. Influenza vaccination coverage of aged defectors' group (aged 50 yr and over) was lower than indigenous people though overall vaccination coverage was similar. Further efforts to increase influenza vaccination coverage of this group are needed.

Patient-centered communication of community treatment assistants in Tanzania predicts coverage of future mass drug administration for trachoma.

PubMed

Jenson, Alexander; Roter, Debra L; Mkocha, Harran; Munoz, Beatriz; West, Sheila

2018-06-01

Prevention of Trachoma, the leading cause of infectious blindness, requires community treatment assistants (CTAs) to perform mass drug administration (MDA) of azithromycin. Previous research has shown that female CTAs have higher MDA coverage, but no studies have focused on the content of conversation. We hypothesize that female CTAs had more patient-centered communication and higher MDA coverage. In 2011, CTAs from 23 distribution sites undergoing MDA as part of the Partnership for Rapid Elimination of Trachoma were selected. CTA - villager interactions were audio recorded. Audio was analyzed using an adaptation of the Roter Interaction Analysis System. The outcome of interest was the proportion of adults receiving MDA in 2011 who returned in 2012. 58 CTAs and 3122 interactions were included. Sites with female CTAs had significantly higher patient-centeredness ratio (0.548 vs 0.400) when compared to sites with male CTAs. Sites with more patient-centered interactions had higher proportion of patients return (p = 0.009). Female CTAs had higher proportion of patient-centered communication. Patient centered communication was associated with higher rates of return for MDA. Greater patient-centered connection with health care providers affects participation in public health efforts, even when those providers are lay health workers. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Generation Gap: Age or Issues?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Borelli, Kenneth

1971-01-01

The author examines the breakdown in family communication, the parent youth ideological gap, and the issues affecting family polarization. He suggests that the generation gap may be an issues gap and briefly explores the possible role of the social worker in dealing with such differences. (Author)

Bridging the Communication Gap: Successes and Challenges of Mobile Phone Technology in a Health and Demographic Surveillance System in Northern Nigeria

PubMed Central

Doctor, Henry V.; Olatunji, Alabi; Jumare, Abdul’Azeez

2012-01-01

Maternal and child health indicators are generally poor in Nigeria with the northern part of the country having the worst indicators than the southern part. Efforts to address maternal and health challenges in Nigeria include, among others, improvement in health and management information systems. We report on the experience of mobile phone technology in supporting the activities of a health and demographic surveillance system in northern Nigeria. Our experience calls for the need for the Nigerian Government, the mobile network companies, and the international community at large to consolidate their efforts in addressing the mobile network coverage and power supply challenges in order to create an enabling environment for socio-economic development particularly in rural and disadvantaged areas. Unless power and mobile network challenges are addressed, health interventions that rely on mobile phone technology will not have a significant impact in improving maternal and child health. PMID:23569650

Informal m-health: How are young people using mobile phones to bridge healthcare gaps in Sub-Saharan Africa?

PubMed

Hampshire, Kate; Porter, Gina; Owusu, Samuel Asiedu; Mariwah, Simon; Abane, Albert; Robson, Elsbeth; Munthali, Alister; DeLannoy, Ariane; Bango, Andisiwe; Gunguluza, Nwabisa; Milner, James

2015-10-01

The African communications 'revolution' has generated optimism that mobile phones might help overcome infrastructural barriers to healthcare provision in resource-poor contexts. However, while formal m-health programmes remain limited in coverage and scope, young people are using mobile phones creatively and strategically in an attempt to secure effective healthcare. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data collected in 2012-2014 from over 4500 young people (aged 8-25 y) in Ghana, Malawi and South Africa, this paper documents these practices and the new therapeutic opportunities they create, alongside the constraints, contingencies and risks. We argue that young people are endeavouring to lay claim to a digitally-mediated form of therapeutic citizenship, but that a lack of appropriate resources, social networks and skills ('digital capital'), combined with ongoing shortcomings in healthcare delivery, can compromise their ability to do this effectively. The paper concludes by offering tentative suggestions for remedying this situation. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Gap-junction-mediated communication in human periodontal ligament cells.

PubMed

Kato, R; Ishihara, Y; Kawanabe, N; Sumiyoshi, K; Yoshikawa, Y; Nakamura, M; Imai, Y; Yanagita, T; Fukushima, H; Kamioka, H; Takano-Yamamoto, T; Yamashiro, T

2013-07-01

Periodontal tissue homeostasis depends on a complex cellular network that conveys cell-cell communication. Gap junctions (GJs), one of the intercellular communication systems, are found between adjacent human periodontal ligament (hPDL) cells; however, the functional GJ coupling between hPDL cells has not yet been elucidated. In this study, we investigated functional gap-junction-mediated intercellular communication in isolated primary hPDL cells. SEM images indicated that the cells were in contact with each other via dendritic processes, and also showed high anti-connexin43 (Cx43) immunoreactivity on these processes. Gap-junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) among hPDL cells was assessed by fluorescence recovery after a photobleaching (FRAP) analysis, which exhibited dye coupling between hPDL cells, and was remarkably down-regulated when the cells were treated with a GJ blocker. Additionally, we examined GJs under hypoxic stress. The fluorescence recovery and expression levels of Cx43 decreased time-dependently under the hypoxic condition. Exposure to GJ inhibitor or hypoxia increased RANKL expression, and decreased OPG expression. This study shows that GJIC is responsible for hPDL cells and that its activity is reduced under hypoxia. This is consistent with the possible role of hPDL cells in regulating the biochemical reactions in response to changes in the hypoxic environment.

Development of a Brazilian Portuguese adapted version of the Gap-Kalamazoo communication skills assessment form.

PubMed

Amaral, Anna Beatriz C N; Rider, Elizabeth A; Lajolo, Paula P; Tone, Luiz G; Pinto, Rogerio M C; Lajolo, Marisa P; Calhoun, Aaron W

2016-12-11

The goal of this study was to translate, adapt and validate the items of the Gap-Kalamazoo Communication Skills Assessment Form for use in the Brazilian cultural setting. The Gap-Kalamazoo Communication Skills Assessment Form was translated into Portuguese by two independent bilingual Brazilian translators and was reconciled by a third bilingual healthcare professional. The translated text was then assessed for content using a modified Delphi technique and adjusted as needed to assure content validity. A total of nine phrases in the completed tool were adjusted. The final tool was then used to assess videotaped simulations as a means of validation.  Response process was assessed using exploratory factor analysis and internal structure was assessed via Cronbach's Alpha (internal consistency) and Intraclass Correlation (test-retest reliability and inter-rater reliability). One hundred and four (104) videotaped communication skills simulations were assessed by 38 subjects (6 staff physicians, 4 faculty physicians, 8 resident physicians, 4 professional actors with experience in simulation, and 16 other allied healthcare professionals). Measures of Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.818) and test-retest reliability (intra-class correlation coefficient = 0.942) were high.  Exploratory factor analysis confirmed the uni-dimensionality of the instrument. Our results support the validity and reliability of the Brazilian Gap-Kalamazoo Communication Skills Assessment Form when used among Brazilian medical residents.  The Brazilian version of Gap-Kalamazoo Communication Skills Assessment Form was found to be adequate both in the linguistic and technical aspects.  The use of this instrument in Brazilian medical education can enhance the assessment of physician-patient-team relationships on an ongoing basis.

Implementation of a Multi-Robot Coverage Algorithm on a Two-Dimensional, Grid-Based Environment

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-06-01

two planar laser range finders with a 180-degree field of view , color camera, vision beacons, and wireless communicator. In their system, the robots...Master’s thesis 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE IMPLEMENTATION OF A MULTI -ROBOT COVERAGE ALGORITHM ON A TWO -DIMENSIONAL, GRID-BASED ENVIRONMENT 5. FUNDING NUMBERS...path planning coverage algorithm for a multi -robot system in a two -dimensional, grid-based environment. We assess the applicability of a topology

Architecture Study on Telemetry Coverage for Immediate Post-Separation Phase

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cheung, Kar-Ming; Lee, Charles; Kellogg, Kent; Stocklin, Frank; Zillig, David; Fielhauer, Karl

2008-01-01

This document is the viewgraphs that accompanies a paper that presents the preliminary results of an architecture study that provides continuous telemetry coverage for NASA missions for immediate post-separation phase. After launch when the spacecraft separated from the upper stage, the spacecraft typically executes a number of mission-critical operations prior to the deployment of solar panels and the activation of the primary communication subsystem. JPL, GSFC, and APL have similar design principle statements that require continuous coverage of mission-critical telemetry during the immediate post-separation phase. To conform to these design principles, an architecture that consists of a separate spacecraft transmitter and a robust communication network capable of tracking the spacecraft signals is needed. The main results of this study are as follows: 1) At low altitude (< 10000 km) when most post-separation critical operations are executed, Earth-based network (e.g. Deep Space Network (DSN)) can only provide limited coverage, whereas space-based network (e.g. Space Network (SN)) can provide continuous coverage. 2) Commercial-off-the-shelf SN compatible transmitters are available for small satellite applications. In this paper we present the detailed coverage analysis of Earth-based and Space-based networks. We identify the key functional and performance requirements of the architecture, and describe the proposed selection criteria of the spacecraft transmitter. We conclude the paper with a proposed forward plan.

INHIBITION OF GAP JUNCTIONAL INTERCELLULAR COMMUNICATION BY PERFLUORINATED COMPOUNDS IN RAT LIVER AND DOLPHIN KIDNEY EPITHELIAL CELL LINES IN VITRO AND SPRAGUE-DAWLEY RATS IN VIVO

EPA Science Inventory

Abstract

Gap Junctional Intercellular Communication (GJIC) is the major pathway of intercellular signal transduction, and is, thus, important for normal cell growth and function. Recent studies have revealed a global distribution of some perfluorinated organic compounds e...

Optimal placement of multiple types of communicating sensors with availability and coverage redundancy constraints

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vecherin, Sergey N.; Wilson, D. Keith; Pettit, Chris L.

2010-04-01

Determination of an optimal configuration (numbers, types, and locations) of a sensor network is an important practical problem. In most applications, complex signal propagation effects and inhomogeneous coverage preferences lead to an optimal solution that is highly irregular and nonintuitive. The general optimization problem can be strictly formulated as a binary linear programming problem. Due to the combinatorial nature of this problem, however, its strict solution requires significant computational resources (NP-complete class of complexity) and is unobtainable for large spatial grids of candidate sensor locations. For this reason, a greedy algorithm for approximate solution was recently introduced [S. N. Vecherin, D. K. Wilson, and C. L. Pettit, "Optimal sensor placement with terrain-based constraints and signal propagation effects," Unattended Ground, Sea, and Air Sensor Technologies and Applications XI, SPIE Proc. Vol. 7333, paper 73330S (2009)]. Here further extensions to the developed algorithm are presented to include such practical needs and constraints as sensor availability, coverage by multiple sensors, and wireless communication of the sensor information. Both communication and detection are considered in a probabilistic framework. Communication signal and signature propagation effects are taken into account when calculating probabilities of communication and detection. Comparison of approximate and strict solutions on reduced-size problems suggests that the approximate algorithm yields quick and good solutions, which thus justifies using that algorithm for full-size problems. Examples of three-dimensional outdoor sensor placement are provided using a terrain-based software analysis tool.

Estimating the coverage of mental health programmes: a systematic review.

PubMed

De Silva, Mary J; Lee, Lucy; Fuhr, Daniela C; Rathod, Sujit; Chisholm, Dan; Schellenberg, Joanna; Patel, Vikram

2014-04-01

The large treatment gap for people suffering from mental disorders has led to initiatives to scale up mental health services. In order to track progress, estimates of programme coverage, and changes in coverage over time, are needed. Systematic review of mental health programme evaluations that assess coverage, measured either as the proportion of the target population in contact with services (contact coverage) or as the proportion of the target population who receive appropriate and effective care (effective coverage). We performed a search of electronic databases and grey literature up to March 2013 and contacted experts in the field. Methods to estimate the numerator (service utilization) and the denominator (target population) were reviewed to explore methods which could be used in programme evaluations. We identified 15 735 unique records of which only seven met the inclusion criteria. All studies reported contact coverage. No study explicitly measured effective coverage, but it was possible to estimate this for one study. In six studies the numerator of coverage, service utilization, was estimated using routine clinical information, whereas one study used a national community survey. The methods for estimating the denominator, the population in need of services, were more varied and included national prevalence surveys case registers, and estimates from the literature. Very few coverage estimates are available. Coverage could be estimated at low cost by combining routine programme data with population prevalence estimates from national surveys.

Molecular mechanisms regulating formation, trafficking and processing of annular gap junctions.

PubMed

Falk, Matthias M; Bell, Cheryl L; Kells Andrews, Rachael M; Murray, Sandra A

2016-05-24

Internalization of gap junction plaques results in the formation of annular gap junction vesicles. The factors that regulate the coordinated internalization of the gap junction plaques to form annular gap junction vesicles, and the subsequent events involved in annular gap junction processing have only relatively recently been investigated in detail. However it is becoming clear that while annular gap junction vesicles have been demonstrated to be degraded by autophagosomal and endo-lysosomal pathways, they undergo a number of additional processing events. Here, we characterize the morphology of the annular gap junction vesicle and review the current knowledge of the processes involved in their formation, fission, fusion, and degradation. In addition, we address the possibility for connexin protein recycling back to the plasma membrane to contribute to gap junction formation and intercellular communication. Information on gap junction plaque removal from the plasma membrane and the subsequent processing of annular gap junction vesicles is critical to our understanding of cell-cell communication as it relates to events regulating development, cell homeostasis, unstable proliferation of cancer cells, wound healing, changes in the ischemic heart, and many other physiological and pathological cellular phenomena.

Cut-loading: a useful tool for examining the extent of gap junction tracer coupling between retinal neurons.

PubMed

Choi, Hee Joo; Ribelayga, Christophe P; Mangel, Stuart C

2012-01-12

In addition to chemical synaptic transmission, neurons that are connected by gap junctions can also communicate rapidly via electrical synaptic transmission. Increasing evidence indicates that gap junctions not only permit electrical current flow and synchronous activity between interconnected or coupled cells, but that the strength or effectiveness of electrical communication between coupled cells can be modulated to a great extent(1,2). In addition, the large internal diameter (~1.2 nm) of many gap junction channels permits not only electric current flow, but also the diffusion of intracellular signaling molecules and small metabolites between interconnected cells, so that gap junctions may also mediate metabolic and chemical communication. The strength of gap junctional communication between neurons and its modulation by neurotransmitters and other factors can be studied by simultaneously electrically recording from coupled cells and by determining the extent of diffusion of tracer molecules, which are gap junction permeable, but not membrane permeable, following iontophoretic injection into single cells. However, these procedures can be extremely difficult to perform on neurons with small somata in intact neural tissue. Numerous studies on electrical synapses and the modulation of electrical communication have been conducted in the vertebrate retina, since each of the five retinal neuron types is electrically connected by gap junctions(3,4). Increasing evidence has shown that the circadian (24-hour) clock in the retina and changes in light stimulation regulate gap junction coupling(3-8). For example, recent work has demonstrated that the retinal circadian clock decreases gap junction coupling between rod and cone photoreceptor cells during the day by increasing dopamine D2 receptor activation, and dramatically increases rod-cone coupling at night by reducing D2 receptor activation(7,8). However, not only are these studies extremely difficult to perform on neurons with small somata in intact neural retinal tissue, but it can be difficult to adequately control the illumination conditions during the electrophysiological study of single retinal neurons to avoid light-induced changes in gap junction conductance. Here, we present a straightforward method of determining the extent of gap junction tracer coupling between retinal neurons under different illumination conditions and at different times of the day and night. This cut-loading technique is a modification of scrape loading(9-12), which is based on dye loading and diffusion through open gap junction channels. Scrape loading works well in cultured cells, but not in thick slices such as intact retinas. The cut-loading technique has been used to study photoreceptor coupling in intact fish and mammalian retinas(7, 8,13), and can be used to study coupling between other retinal neurons, as described here.

42 CFR 423.2315 - Medicare Coverage Gap Discount Program Agreement.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

...) Maintain up-to-date NDC listings with the electronic database vendors for which the manufacturer provides... under this subpart must comply with the requirements imposed by CMS or the third party administrator (as...

42 CFR 423.2315 - Medicare Coverage Gap Discount Program Agreement.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

...) Maintain up-to-date NDC listings with the electronic database vendors for which the manufacturer provides... under this subpart must comply with the requirements imposed by CMS or the third party administrator (as...

42 CFR 423.2315 - Medicare Coverage Gap Discount Program Agreement.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

...) Maintain up-to-date NDC listings with the electronic database vendors for which the manufacturer provides... under this subpart must comply with the requirements imposed by CMS or the third party administrator (as...

Communication Competence among Teachers: The Ohio Solution.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeWine, Sue; Pearson, Judy C.

1989-01-01

Describes a summer instructional program for elementary and secondary teachers involving a set of workshops on basic communication concepts, nonverbal communication, organizational communication, listening, and small group communication. Discusses issues of marketing the program, defending its academic validity, and decreasing the gap between the…

A Mass Communication Research Failure: Deriving Unsubstantiated Conclusions from Misleading Data.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reppert, James E.

This paper contends that teaching students about the dangers of weak communication methodology allows them the opportunity to not accept such studies at face value. The paper details the use in an introductory mass communication course of a study of newspaper coverage concerning the 1969 Santa Barbara, California, oil spill. The paper's close…

A Novel Deployment Scheme Based on Three-Dimensional Coverage Model for Wireless Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Xiao, Fu; Yang, Yang; Wang, Ruchuan; Sun, Lijuan

2014-01-01

Coverage pattern and deployment strategy are directly related to the optimum allocation of limited resources for wireless sensor networks, such as energy of nodes, communication bandwidth, and computing power, and quality improvement is largely determined by these for wireless sensor networks. A three-dimensional coverage pattern and deployment scheme are proposed in this paper. Firstly, by analyzing the regular polyhedron models in three-dimensional scene, a coverage pattern based on cuboids is proposed, and then relationship between coverage and sensor nodes' radius is deduced; also the minimum number of sensor nodes to maintain network area's full coverage is calculated. At last, sensor nodes are deployed according to the coverage pattern after the monitor area is subdivided into finite 3D grid. Experimental results show that, compared with traditional random method, sensor nodes number is reduced effectively while coverage rate of monitor area is ensured using our coverage pattern and deterministic deployment scheme. PMID:25045747

MmWave Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Communication :Analysis of Urban Microcellular Networks

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2017-05-01

Vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication may provide high data rates to vehicles via millimeterwave (mmWave) microcellular networks. This report uses stochastic geometry to analyze the coverage of urban mmWave microcellular networks. Prior work ...

Mind the gap: Neural coding of species identity in birdsong prosody.

PubMed

Araki, Makoto; Bandi, M M; Yazaki-Sugiyama, Yoko

2016-12-09

Juvenile songbirds learn vocal communication from adult tutors of the same species but not from adults of other species. How species-specific learning emerges from the basic features of song prosody remains unknown. In the zebra finch auditory cortex, we discovered a class of neurons that register the silent temporal gaps between song syllables and are distinct from neurons encoding syllable morphology. Behavioral learning and neuronal coding of temporal gap structure resisted song tutoring from other species: Zebra finches fostered by Bengalese finch parents learned Bengalese finch song morphology transposed onto zebra finch temporal gaps. During the vocal learning period, temporal gap neurons fired selectively to zebra finch song. The innate temporal coding of intersyllable silent gaps suggests a neuronal barcode for conspecific vocal learning and social communication in acoustically diverse environments. Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Tactical Satellites, High-Altitude Long-Endurance Airships, and High and Medium Altitude Unmanned Aerial Systems for ISR and Communication Missions

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-09-01

greatest coverage. Coverage rates will vary depending on the type of orbit. Orbits are generally optimized for the spacecraft mission. Imaging ... DETERMINING MEASURES OF EFFECTIVENESS (MOE) ............. 46 1. MOE Attributes...101 A. DETERMINING COST ALTERNATIVES ......................................... 101 1. All

Optical beamforming based on microwave photonic signal processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anzalchi, J.; Perrott, R.; Latunde-Dada, K.; Oldenbeuving, R. M.; Roeloffzen, C. G. H.; Van Dijk, P. W. L.; Hoekman, M.; Leeuwis, H.; Leinse, A.

2017-09-01

Over the past few years considerable attention has been focussed on the inclusion of flexibility in communication satellite payloads. The purpose of this flexibility is to enable a given satellite on command to support different frequency plans, re-configure coverage in response to changing traffic demands and re-configure interconnectivity between coverages.

Patient-Centered Communication and Health Assessment with Youth

PubMed Central

Munro, Michelle L.; Darling-Fisher, Cynthia S.; Ronis, David L.; Villarruel, Antonia M.; Pardee, Michelle; Faleer, Hannah; Fava, Nicole M.

2014-01-01

Background Patient-centered communication is the hallmark of care that incorporates the perspective of patients to provide tailored care that meets their needs and desires. However, at this time there has been limited evaluation of patient-provider communication involving youth. Objectives This manuscript will report on results from secondary analysis of data obtained during a participatory research-based randomized control trial designed to test a sexual risk event history calendar intervention with youth to address the following research questions: (a) Based on the event history calendar’s (EHC) inclusion of contextual factors, does the EHC demonstrate improved communication outcomes (i.e., amount, satisfaction, mutuality, client involvement, client satisfaction, patient-provider interaction, and patient-centeredness) when compared to the Guidelines for Adolescent Preventive Services (GAPS) tool? and (b) How do patients and providers describe the characteristics of each tool in regards to patient-centered communication? Method This report will utilize a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach to evaluate communication. A split plot design with one between factor (i.e., communication structure between EHC and GAPS) and one within factor (i.e., time between pretest and posttest) was used for analyses of data collection from male and female youth (n=186) and providers (n=9). Quantitative analysis of survey data evaluated changes in communication from pre-test to post-test. Qualitative data collected from open-ended questions, audio-taped visits, and exit interviews was employed to enhance interpretation of quantitative findings. Results Patient-centered communication using assessment tools (EHC and GAPS) with youth demonstrated improved communication outcomes both quantitatively and qualitatively. Additional analyses with subgroups of males and Arab-Americans demonstrated better post-intervention scores among the EHC group in certain aspects of communication. Qualitative results revealed that the EHC demonstrated improved outcomes in the four components of patient-centered communication including: validation of the patient’s perspective; viewing the patient within context; reaching a shared understanding on needs and preferences; and helping the patient share power in the healthcare interaction. Discussion Though both tools provided a framework from which to conduct a clinical visit, the integrated time-linked assessment captured by the EHC enhanced the patient-centered communication in select groups compared to GAPS. PMID:24165214

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (79th, Anaheim, CA, August 10-13, 1996). Mass Communication and Society Division.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

The mass communication and society section of the Proceedings contains the following 17 papers: "Deviance in News Coverage of On-Line Communications: A Print Media Comparison" (Lisa M. Weidman); "Political Tolerance of Environmental Protest: The Roles of Generalized and Specialized Information" (Catherine A. Steele and Carol M.…

Measuring Progress Toward Universal Health Coverage: Does the Monitoring Framework of Bangladesh Need Further Improvement?

PubMed

Gupta, Rajat Das; Shahabuddin, Asm

2018-01-08

This review aimed to compare Bangladesh's Universal Health Coverage (UHC) monitoring framework with the global-level recommendations and to find out the existing gaps of Bangladesh's UHC monitoring framework compared to the global recommendations. In order to reach the aims of the review, we systematically searched two electronic databases - PubMed and Google Scholar - by using appropriate keywords to select articles that describe issues related to UHC and the monitoring framework of UHC applied globally and particularly in Bangladesh. Four relevant documents were found and synthesized. The review found that Bangladesh incorporated all of the recommendations suggested by the global monitoring framework regarding mentoring the financial risk protection and equity perspective. However, a significant gap in the monitoring framework related to service coverage was observed. Although Bangladesh has a significant burden of mental illnesses, cataract, and neglected tropical diseases, indicators related to these issues were absent in Bangladesh's UHC framework. Moreover, palliative-care-related indicators were completely missing in the framework. The results of this review suggest that Bangladesh should incorporate these indicators in their UHC monitoring framework in order to track the progress of the country toward UHC more efficiently and in a robust way.

Connexin 43 expression on peripheral blood eosinophils: role of gap junctions in transendothelial migration.

PubMed

Vliagoftis, Harissios; Ebeling, Cory; Ilarraza, Ramses; Mahmudi-Azer, Salahaddin; Abel, Melanie; Adamko, Darryl; Befus, A Dean; Moqbel, Redwan

2014-01-01

Eosinophils circulate in the blood and are recruited in tissues during allergic inflammation. Gap junctions mediate direct communication between adjacent cells and may represent a new way of communication between immune cells distinct from communication through cytokines and chemokines. We characterized the expression of connexin (Cx)43 by eosinophils isolated from atopic individuals using RT-PCR, Western blotting, and confocal microscopy and studied the biological functions of gap junctions on eosinophils. The formation of functional gap junctions was evaluated measuring dye transfer using flow cytometry. The role of gap junctions on eosinophil transendothelial migration was studied using the inhibitor 18-a-glycyrrhetinic acid. Peripheral blood eosinophils express Cx43 mRNA and protein. Cx43 is localized not only in the cytoplasm but also on the plasma membrane. The membrane impermeable dye BCECF transferred from eosinophils to epithelial or endothelial cells following coculture in a dose and time dependent fashion. The gap junction inhibitors 18-a-glycyrrhetinic acid and octanol did not have a significant effect on dye transfer but reduced dye exit from eosinophils. The gap junction inhibitor 18-a-glycyrrhetinic acid inhibited eosinophil transendothelial migration in a dose dependent manner. Thus, eosinophils from atopic individuals express Cx43 constitutively and Cx43 may play an important role in eosinophil transendothelial migration and function in sites of inflammation.

Public Resistance is Waste-Based and What to Do About That - 13412

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ford, Laurie

2013-07-01

'Nuclear Communicators' connect a highly advanced sci-tech world with the world of everyday living. One challenge is helping stakeholders fit together three Big Ideas: (1) the valuable nuclear energy resource, (2) nuclear energy's invisible mortal dangers and potential bad-guy threats, and (3) critical scientific and engineering knowledge that is far over the heads of average (grade 8) USA reading levels. This article provides an overview of what does - and does not - work in our public communications. What does not work: 1. Going off topic. Address what concerns people most: how to manage nuclear wastes. 2. Underestimating public intelligence.more » What works: 1. Doing your homework on community history regarding nuclear materials. 2. Having discussion forums and public meetings with special guests from industry, government, and local leaders. 3. Regular cycles of communication with community groups to build a long-term dialogue. Solutions to some communication challenges require handling four gaps and one jungle: 1. Facts gap - Honest information about waste disposition. 2. Time gap - The timelines associated with waste management include 300 years, 10,000 years, and 703.8 million years. How do we talk about this? 3. Money gap - Who pays for new waste management challenges and technologies? 4. Confidence gap - Link local options to regional, national, and global knowledge. 5. Decision jungle - How can we make waste management rules and infrastructure more logical and transparent? Public communication needs to be grounded in facts for people who want to be credible actors in the new nuclear world. (authors)« less

The Coverage Problem in Video-Based Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey

PubMed Central

Costa, Daniel G.; Guedes, Luiz Affonso

2010-01-01

Wireless sensor networks typically consist of a great number of tiny low-cost electronic devices with limited sensing and computing capabilities which cooperatively communicate to collect some kind of information from an area of interest. When wireless nodes of such networks are equipped with a low-power camera, visual data can be retrieved, facilitating a new set of novel applications. The nature of video-based wireless sensor networks demands new algorithms and solutions, since traditional wireless sensor networks approaches are not feasible or even efficient for that specialized communication scenario. The coverage problem is a crucial issue of wireless sensor networks, requiring specific solutions when video-based sensors are employed. In this paper, it is surveyed the state of the art of this particular issue, regarding strategies, algorithms and general computational solutions. Open research areas are also discussed, envisaging promising investigation considering coverage in video-based wireless sensor networks. PMID:22163651

"Prince Charming Syndrome?" Gender gap in preferences for defined contribution pensions in Japan.

PubMed

Watanabe, Satoshi P

2017-01-01

Using survey data collected by the Japan Institute of Life Insurance in 2002, this study finds that a significant gender gap existed in defined contribution (DC) pension knowledge among workers employed at small- to medium-sized private firms in Japan. Even with similar DC knowledge, however, men and women reveal different preferences for DC pensions, indicating that their perceptional responses may widely differ from actual behaviors. Apart from the knowledge gap, the result shows evidence of the Prince Charming Syndrome among female employees as a significant source of the gender gap in DC participation rates. Among corporate pension-covered employees, the gender difference in the efficacy of DC portability is a more significant gap-generating factor. DC tax advantage is particularly favored by pension-covered female employees over male counterparts, reducing the DC preference gap. No similar evidence is found for employees with no corporate pension coverage.

Multi-rater feedback with gap analysis: an innovative means to assess communication skill and self-insight.

PubMed

Calhoun, Aaron W; Rider, Elizabeth A; Peterson, Eleanor; Meyer, Elaine C

2010-09-01

Multi-rater assessment with gap analysis is a powerful method for assessing communication skills and self-insight, and enhancing self-reflection. We demonstrate the use of this methodology. The Program for the Approach to Complex Encounters (PACE) is an interdisciplinary simulation-based communication skills program. Encounters are assessed using an expanded Kalamazoo Consensus Statement Essential Elements Checklist adapted for multi-rater feedback and gap analysis. Data from a representative conversation were analyzed. Likert and forced-choice data with gap analysis are used to assess performance. Participants were strong in Demonstrating Empathy and Providing Closure, and needed to improve Relationship Building, Gathering Information, and understanding the Patient's/Family's Perspective. Participants under-appraised their abilities in Relationship Building, Providing Closure, and Demonstrating Empathy, as well as their overall performance. The conversion of these results into verbal feedback is discussed. We describe an evaluation methodology using multi-rater assessment with gap analysis to assess communication skills and self-insight. This methodology enables faculty to identify undervalued skills and perceptual blind spots, provide comprehensive, data driven, feedback, and encourage reflection. Implementation of graphical feedback forms coupled with one-on-one discussion using the above methodology has the potential to enhance trainee self-awareness and reflection, improving the impact of educational programs. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Role of the gut endoderm in relaying left-right patterning in mice.

PubMed

Viotti, Manuel; Niu, Lei; Shi, Song-Hai; Hadjantonakis, Anna-Katerina

2012-01-01

Establishment of left-right (LR) asymmetry occurs after gastrulation commences and utilizes a conserved cascade of events. In the mouse, LR symmetry is broken at a midline structure, the node, and involves signal relay to the lateral plate, where it results in asymmetric organ morphogenesis. How information transmits from the node to the distantly situated lateral plate remains unclear. Noting that embryos lacking Sox17 exhibit defects in both gut endoderm formation and LR patterning, we investigated a potential connection between these two processes. We observed an endoderm-specific absence of the critical gap junction component, Connexin43 (Cx43), in Sox17 mutants. Iontophoretic dye injection experiments revealed planar gap junction coupling across the gut endoderm in wild-type but not Sox17 mutant embryos. They also revealed uncoupling of left and right sides of the gut endoderm in an isolated domain of gap junction intercellular communication at the midline, which in principle could function as a barrier to communication between the left and right sides of the embryo. The role for gap junction communication in LR patterning was confirmed by pharmacological inhibition, which molecularly recapitulated the mutant phenotype. Collectively, our data demonstrate that Cx43-mediated communication across gap junctions within the gut endoderm serves as a mechanism for information relay between node and lateral plate in a process that is critical for the establishment of LR asymmetry in mice.

1992 Census of transportation, communications, and utilities : 1993 commodity flow survey : United States

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1996-10-01

The 1992 Economic Census covers more of the economy : than any previous census. New for 1992 are data on : communications, utilities, financial, insurance, and real : estate, as well as coverage of more transportation industries. : The economic, agri...

Subsets of ATP-sensitive potassium channel (KATP) inhibitors increase gap junctional intercellular communication in metastatic cancer cell lines independent of SUR expression

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) is a process whereby cells share molecules and nutrients with each other by physical contact through cell membrane pores. In tumor cells, GJIC is often altered, suggesting that this process may be important in the context of cancer. Certain ion chan...

Reconstruction of Arctic surface temperature in past 100 years using DINEOF

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Qiyi; Huang, Jianbin; Luo, Yong

2015-04-01

Global annual mean surface temperature has not risen apparently since 1998, which is described as global warming hiatus in recent years. However, measuring of temperature variability in Arctic is difficult because of large gaps in coverage of Arctic region in most observed gridded datasets. Since Arctic has experienced a rapid temperature change in recent years that called polar amplification, and temperature risen in Arctic is faster than global mean, the unobserved temperature in central Arctic will result in cold bias in both global and Arctic temperature measurement compared with model simulations and reanalysis datasets. Moreover, some datasets that have complete coverage in Arctic but short temporal scale cannot show Arctic temperature variability for long time. Data Interpolating Empirical Orthogonal Function (DINEOF) were applied to fill the coverage gap of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies Surface Temperature Analysis (GISTEMP 250km smooth) product in Arctic with IABP dataset which covers entire Arctic region between 1979 and 1998, and to reconstruct Arctic temperature in 1900-2012. This method provided temperature reconstruction in central Arctic and precise estimation of both global and Arctic temperature variability with a long temporal scale. Results have been verified by extra independent station records in Arctic by statistical analysis, such as variance and standard deviation. The result of reconstruction shows significant warming trend in Arctic in recent 30 years, as the temperature trend in Arctic since 1997 is 0.76°C per decade, compared with 0.48°C and 0.67°C per decade from 250km smooth and 1200km smooth of GISTEMP. And global temperature trend is two times greater after using DINEOF. The discrepancies above stress the importance of fully consideration of temperature variance in Arctic because gaps of coverage in Arctic cause apparent cold bias in temperature estimation. The result of global surface temperature also proves that global warming in recent years is not as slow as thought.

Rhea North Polar Maps - January 2011

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-02

The northern and southern hemispheres of Rhea are seen in these polar stereographic maps, mosaicked from the best-available NASA Cassini and Voyager images. Six Voyager images fill in gaps in Cassini coverage of the moon north pole.

Rhea South Polar Map - January 2011

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-02

The northern and southern hemispheres of Rhea are seen in these polar stereographic maps, mosaicked from the best-available NASA Cassini and Voyager images. Six Voyager images fill in gaps in Cassini coverage of the moon north pole.

Analysis of gap junctional intercellular communications using a dielectrophoresis-based microchip.

PubMed

Tellez-Gabriel, Marta; Charrier, Céline; Brounais-Le Royer, Bénédicte; Mullard, Mathilde; Brown, Hannah K; Verrecchia, Franck; Heymann, Dominique

2017-03-01

Gap junctions are transmembrane structures that directly connect the cytoplasm of adjacent cells, making intercellular communications possible. It has been shown that the behaviour of several tumours - such as bone tumours - is related to gap junction intercellular communications (GJIC). Several methodologies are available for studying GJIC, based on measuring different parameters that are useful for multiple applications, such as the study of carcinogenesis for example. These methods nevertheless have several limitations. The present manuscript describes the setting up of a dielectrophoresis (DEP)-based lab-on-a-chip platform for the real-time study of Gap Junctional Intercellular Communication between osteosarcoma cells and the main cells accessible to their microenvironment. We conclude that using the DEParray technology for the GJIC assessment has several advantages comparing to current techniques. This methodology is less harmful for cells integrity; cells can be recovered after interaction to make further molecular analysis; it is possible to study GJIC in real time; we can promote cell interactions using up to five different populations. The setting up of this new methodology overcomes several difficulties to perform experiments for solving questions about GJIC process that we are not able to do with current technics. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Further observations on comparison of immunization coverage by lot quality assurance sampling and 30 cluster sampling.

PubMed

Singh, J; Jain, D C; Sharma, R S; Verghese, T

1996-06-01

Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) and standard EPI methodology (30 cluster sampling) were used to evaluate immunization coverage in a Primary Health Center (PHC) where coverage levels were reported to be more than 85%. Of 27 sub-centers (lots) evaluated by LQAS, only 2 were accepted for child coverage, whereas none was accepted for tetanus toxoid (TT) coverage in mothers. LQAS data were combined to obtain an estimate of coverage in the entire population; 41% (95% CI 36-46) infants were immunized appropriately for their ages, while 42% (95% CI 37-47) of their mothers had received a second/ booster dose of TT. TT coverage in 149 contemporary mothers sampled in EPI survey was also 42% (95% CI 31-52). Although results by the two sampling methods were consistent with each other, a big gap was evident between reported coverage (in children as well as mothers) and survey results. LQAS was found to be operationally feasible, but it cost 40% more and required 2.5 times more time than the EPI survey. LQAS therefore, is not a good substitute for current EPI methodology to evaluate immunization coverage in a large administrative area. However, LQAS has potential as method to monitor health programs on a routine basis in small population sub-units, especially in areas with high and heterogeneously distributed immunization coverage.

A comparative study of two communication models in HIV/AIDS coverage in selected Nigerian newspapers

PubMed Central

Okidu, Onjefu

2013-01-01

The current overriding thought in HIV/AIDS communication in developing countries is the need for a shift from the cognitive model, which emphasises the decision-making of the individual, to the activity model, which emphasises the context of the individual. In spite of the acknowledged media shift from the cognitive to the activity model in some developing countries, some HIV/AIDS communication scholars have felt otherwise. It was against this background that this study examined the content of some selected Nigerian newspapers to ascertain the attention paid to HIV/AIDS cognitive and activity information. Generally, the study found that Nigerian newspapers had shifted from the cognitive to the activity model of communication in their coverage of HIV/AIDS issues. The findings of the study seem inconsistent with the theoretical argument of some scholars that insufficient attention has been paid by mass media in developing countries to the activity model of HIV/AIDS communication. It is suggested that future research replicate the study for Nigerian and other developing countries’ mass media. PMID:23394854

A comparative study of two communication models in HIV/AIDS coverage in selected Nigerian newspapers.

PubMed

Okidu, Onjefu

2013-01-30

The current overriding thought in HIV/AIDS communication in developing countries is the need for a shift from the cognitive model, which emphasises the decision-making of the individual, to the activity model, which emphasises the context of the individual. In spite of the acknowledged media shift from the cognitive to the activity model in some developing countries, some HIV/AIDS communication scholars have felt otherwise. It was against this background that this study examined the content of some selected Nigerian newspapers to ascertain the attention paid to HIV/AIDS cognitive and activity information. Generally, the study found that Nigerian newspapers had shifted from the cognitive to the activity model of communication in their coverage of HIV/AIDS issues. The findings of the study seem inconsistent with the theoretical argument of some scholars that insufficient attention has been paid by mass media in developing countries to the activity model of HIV/AIDS communication. It is suggested that future research replicate the study for Nigerian and other developing countries' mass media.

Collective Calcium Signaling of Defective Multicellular Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Potter, Garrett; Sun, Bo

2015-03-01

A communicating multicellular network processes environmental cues into collective cellular dynamics. We have previously demonstrated that, when excited by extracellular ATP, fibroblast monolayers generate correlated calcium dynamics modulated by both the stimuli and gap junction communication between the cells. However, just as a well-connected neural network may be compromised by abnormal neurons, a tissue monolayer can also be defective with cancer cells, which typically have down regulated gap junctions. To understand the collective cellular dynamics in a defective multicellular network we have studied the calcium signaling of co-cultured breast cancer cells and fibroblast cells in various concentrations of ATP delivered through microfluidic devices. Our results demonstrate that cancer cells respond faster, generate singular spikes, and are more synchronous across all stimuli concentrations. Additionally, fibroblast cells exhibit persistent calcium oscillations that increase in regularity with greater stimuli. To interpret these results we quantitatively analyzed the immunostaining of purigenic receptors and gap junction channels. The results confirm our hypothesis that collective dynamics are mainly determined by the availability of gap junction communications.

Closing the gap between research and management

Treesearch

Deborah M. Finch; Marcia Patton-Mallory

1993-01-01

In this paper, we evaluate the reasons for gaps in communication between researchers and natural resource managers and identify methods to close these gaps. Gaps originate from differing patterns of language use, disparities in organizational culture and values, generation of knowledge that is too narrowly-focused to solve complex problems, failure by managers to relay...

Moderate Effects of Same-Sex Legislation on Dependent Employer-Based Insurance Coverage Among Sexual Minorities.

PubMed

Tran, Linda Diem

2016-12-01

A difference-in-difference approach was used to compare the effects of same-sex domestic partnership, civil union, and marriage policies on same- and different-sex partners who could have benefitted from their partners' employer-based insurance (EBI) coverage. Same-sex partners had 78% lower odds (Marginal Effect = -21%) of having EBI compared with different-sex partners, adjusting for socioeconomic and health-related factors. Same-sex partners living in states that recognized same-sex marriage or domestic partnership had 89% greater odds of having EBI compared with those in states that did not recognize same-sex unions (ME = 5%). The impact of same-sex legislation on increasing take-up of dependent EBI coverage among lesbians, gay men, and bisexual individuals was modest, and domestic partnership legislation was equally as effective as same-sex marriage in increasing same-sex partner EBI coverage. Extending dependent EBI coverage to same-sex partners can mitigate gaps in coverage for a segment of the lesbians, gay men, and bisexual population but will not eliminate them. © The Author(s) 2016.

Disaster Coverage Predication for the Emerging Tethered Balloon Technology: Capability for Preparedness, Detection, Mitigation, and Response.

PubMed

Alsamhi, Saeed H; Samar Ansari, Mohd; Rajput, Navin S

2018-04-01

A disaster is a consequence of natural hazards and terrorist acts, which have significant potential to disrupt the entire wireless communication infrastructure. Therefore, the essential rescue squads and recovery operations during a catastrophic event will be severely debilitated. To provide efficient communication services, and to reduce casualty mortality and morbidity during the catastrophic events, we proposed the Tethered Balloon technology for disaster preparedness, detection, mitigation, and recovery assessment. The proposed Tethered Balloon is applicable to any type of disaster except for storms. The Tethered Balloon is being actively researched and developed as a simple solution to improve the performance of rescues, facilities, and services of emergency medical communication in the disaster area. The most important requirement for rescue and relief teams during or after the disaster is a high quality of service of delivery communication services to save people's lives. Using our proposed technology, we report that the Tethered Balloon has a large disaster coverage area. Therefore, the rescue and research teams are given higher priority, and their performance significantly improved in the particular coverage area. Tethered Balloon features made it suitable for disaster preparedness, mitigation, and recovery. The performance of rescue and relief teams was effective and efficient before and after the disaster as well as can be continued to coordinate the relief teams until disaster recovery. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:222-231).

Advanced Optical Technologies in NASA's Space Communication Program: Status, Challenges, and Future Plans

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pouch, John

2004-01-01

A goal of the NASA Space Communications Project is to enable broad coverage for high-data-rate delivery to the users by means of ground, air, and space-based assets. The NASA Enterprise need will be reviewed. A number of optical space communications technologies being developed by NASA will be described, and the prospective applications will be discussed.

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (78th, Washington, DC, August 9-12, 1995). Science Communications Interest Group.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

The Science Communication Interest Group section of the proceedings contains the following seven papers: "Using Television to Foster Children's Interest in Science" (Marie-Louise Mares and others); "Trends in Newspaper Coverage of Science over Three Decades: A Content Analytic Study" (Marianne G. Pellechia); "Media…

Communication-dependent mineralization of osteoblasts via gap junctions.

PubMed

Hashida, Yukihiko; Nakahama, Ken-ichi; Shimizu, Kaori; Akiyama, Masako; Harada, Kiyoshi; Morita, Ikuo

2014-04-01

Connexin43 (Cx43) is a major gap junction (GJ) protein in bone and plays a critical role in osteoblast differentiation. Several studies show that osteoblast differentiation is delayed by Cx43 ablation. However, the precise mechanism underlying the role of Cx43 in osteoblast differentiation is not fully understood. Firstly, we analyzed the phenotype of a conditional knockout mouse, which was generated by mating of an osterix promoter-driven Cre expressing mouse with a Cx43-floxed mouse. As expected, delayed ossification was observed. Secondly, we demonstrated that the cell communication via gap junctions played an important role in osteoblast differentiation using a tamoxifen-inducible knockout system in vitro. Genetic ablation of Cx43 resulted in both the disruption of cell-communications and the attenuation of osteoblast mineralization induced by BMP-2, but not by ascorbic acid. Moreover, restoring full-length Cx43 (382aa) expression rescued the impairment of osteoblast cell-communication and osteoblast mineralization; however, the expression of the Cx43 N-terminal mutant (382aaG2V) did not rescue either of them. Comparing the gene expression profiles, the genes directly regulated by BMP-2 were attenuated by Cx43 gene ablation. These results suggested that the cell-communication mediated by gap junctions was indispensable for normal differentiation of osteoblast induced by BMP-2. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Toward a more reliable federal survey for tracking health insurance coverage and access.

PubMed

Kenney, Genevieve; Holahan, John; Nichols, Len

2006-06-01

Examination of the extent to which federal surveys provide the data needed to estimate the coverage/cost impacts of policy alternatives to address the problem of uninsurance. Assessment of the major federal household surveys that regularly provide information on health insurance and access to care based on an examination of each survey instrument and related survey documentation and the methodological literature. Identification of the data needed to address key policy questions on insurance coverage, assessment of how well existing surveys meet this need, definition of the critical elements of an ideal survey, and examination of the potential for building on existing surveys. Collection and critical assessment of pertinent survey documentation and methodological studies. While all the federal surveys examined provide valuable information, the information available to guide key policy decisions still has major gaps. Issues include measurement of insurance coverage and critical content gaps, inadequate sample sizes to support precise state and substate estimates, considerable delays between data collection and availability, and concerns about response rates and item nonresponse. Our assessment is that the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the National Health Interview Survey could be most readily modified to address these issues. The vast resources devoted to health care and the magnitude of the uninsurance problem make it critical that we have a reliable source for tracking health care and coverage at the national and state levels and for major local areas. It is plausible that this could be more cost effectively done by building on existing surveys than by designing and fielding a new one, but further research is needed to make a definitive judgment. At a minimum, the health insurance information collected on the CPS should be revised to address existing measurement problems.

Analyzing Radio-Frequency Coverage for the ISS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bolen, Steven M.; Sham, Catherine C.

2007-01-01

The Interactive Coverage Analysis Tool (iCAT) is an interactive desktop computer program serving to (1) support planning of coverage, and management of usage of frequencies, of current and proposed radio communication systems on and near the International Space Station (ISS) and (2) enable definition of requirements for development of future such systems. The iCAT can also be used in design trade studies for other (both outer-space and terrestrial) communication systems. A user can enter the parameters of a communication-system link budget in a table in a worksheet. The nominal (onaxis) link values for the bit-to-noise-energy ratio, received isotropic power (RIP), carrier-to-noise ratio (C/N), power flux density (PFD), and link margin of the system are calculated and displayed in the table. Plots of field gradients for the RIP, C/N, PFD, and link margin are constructed in an ISS coordinate system, at a specified link range, for both the forward and return link parameters, and are displayed in worksheets. The forward and reverse link antenna gain patterns are also constructed and displayed. Line-of-sight (LOS) obstructions can be both incorporated into the gradient plots and displayed on separate plots.

Utilisation of health services and the poor: deconstructing wealth-based differences in facility-based delivery in the Philippines.

PubMed

Hodge, Andrew; Firth, Sonja; Bermejo, Raoul; Zeck, Willibald; Jimenez-Soto, Eliana

2016-07-06

Despite achieving some success, wealth-related disparities in the utilisation of maternal and child health services persist in the Philippines. The aim of this study is to decompose the principal factors driving the wealth-based utilisation gap. Using national representative data from the 2013 Philippines Demographic and Health Survey, we examine the extent overall differences in the utilisation of maternal health services can be explained by observable factors. We apply nonlinear Blinder-Oaxaca-type decomposition methods to quantify the effect of differences in measurable characteristics on the wealth-based coverage gap in facility-based delivery. The mean coverage of facility-based deliveries was respectively 41.1 % and 74.6 % for poor and non-poor households. Between 67 and 69 % of the wealth-based coverage gap was explained by differences in observed characteristics. After controlling for factors characterising the socioeconomic status of the household (i.e. the mothers' and her partners' education and occupation), the birth order of the child was the major factor contributing to the disparity. Mothers' religion and the subjective distance to the health facility were also noteworthy. This study has found moderate wealth-based disparities in the utilisation of institutional delivery in the Philippines. The results confirm the importance of recent efforts made by the Philippine government to implement equitable, pro-poor focused health programs in the most deprived geographic areas of the country. The importance of addressing the social determinants of health, particularly education, as well as developing and implementing effective strategies to encourage institutional delivery for higher order births, should be prioritised.

National red listing beyond the 2010 target.

PubMed

Zamin, Tara J; Baillie, Jonathan E M; Miller, Rebecca M; Rodríguez, Jon Paul; Ardid, Ana; Collen, Ben

2010-08-01

Following creation of the 2010 Biodiversity Target under the Convention on Biological Diversity and adoption of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, information on status and trends of biodiversity at the national level has become increasingly important to both science and policy. National red lists (NRLs) of threatened species may provide suitable data for reporting on progress toward these goals and for informing national conservation priority setting. This information will also become increasingly important for developing species- and ecosystem-based strategies for climate change adaptation. We conducted a thorough global review of NRLs in 109 countries and analyzed gaps in NRL coverage in terms of geography and taxonomy to determine priority regions and taxonomic groups for further investment. We then examined correlations between the NRL data set and gross domestic product (GDP) and vertebrate species richness. The largest geographic gap was in Oceania, followed by middle Africa, the Caribbean, and western Africa, whereas the largest taxonomic gaps were for invertebrates, fungi, and lichens. The comprehensiveness of NRL coverage within a given country was positively correlated with GDP and negatively correlated with total vertebrate richness and threatened vertebrate richness. This supports the assertion that regions with the greatest and most vulnerable biodiversity receive the least conservation attention and indicates that financial resources may be an integral limitation. To improve coverage of NRLs, we propose a combination of projects that target underrepresented taxa or regions and projects that provide the means for countries to create or update NRLs on their own. We recommend improvements in knowledge transfer within and across regions as a priority for future investment.

International News Communication Research: A Meta-Analytic Assessment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsang, Kuo-jen

A survey of "Journalism Quarterly,""Gazette,""Public Opinion Quarterly,""Journal of Broadcasting," and "Journal of Communication" reveals that the early research on international news flow or coverage emphasized two aspects of news: (1) how the United States was portrayed in the media of other…

Space communication link propagation data for selected cities within the multiple beam and steerable antenna coverage areas of the advanced communications technology satellite

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Manning, Robert M.

1988-01-01

Rain attenuation propagation data for 68 cities within the coverage area of the multiple beam and steerable antennas of the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) are presented. These data provide the necessary data base for purposes of communication link power budgeting and rain attenuation mitigation controller design. These propagation parameters are derived by applying the ACTS Rain Attenuation Prediction Model to these 68 locations. The propagation parameters enumerated in tabular form for each location are as follows: (1) physical description of the link and location (e.g., latitude, longitude, antenna elevation angle, etc.), link availability versus attenuation margin (also in graphical form), fading time across fade depths of 3, 5, 8, and 15 dB versus fade duration, and required fade control response time for controller availabilities of 99.999, 99.99, 99.9, and 99 percent versus sub-threshold attenuation levels. The data for these specific locations can be taken to be representative of regions near these locations.

Low Earth orbit communications satellite

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moroney, D.; Lashbrook, D.; Mckibben, B.; Gardener, N.; Rivers, T.; Nottingham, G.; Golden, B.; Barfield, B.; Bruening, J.; Wood, D.

1992-01-01

A current thrust in satellite communication systems considers a low-Earth orbiting constellations of satellites for continuous global coverage. Conceptual design studies have been done at the time of this design project by LORAL Aerospace Corporation under the program name GLOBALSTAR and by Motorola under their IRIDIUM program. This design project concentrates on the spacecraft design of the GLOBALSTAR low-Earth orbiting communication system. Overview information on the program was gained through the Federal Communications Commission licensing request. The GLOBALSTAR system consists of 48 operational satellites positioned in a Walker Delta pattern providing global coverage and redundancy. The operational orbit is 1389 km (750 nmi) altitude with eight planes of six satellites each. The orbital planes are spaced 45 deg., and the spacecraft are separated by 60 deg. within the plane. A Delta 2 launch vehicle is used to carry six spacecraft for orbit establishment. Once in orbit, the spacecraft will utilize code-division multiple access (spread spectrum modulation) for digital relay, voice, and radio determination satellite services (RDSS) yielding position determination with accuracy up to 200 meters.

College/University Presidents and Crisis Communications: Interpretive Content Analysis of Newspaper Coverage in the Northeast

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DiManno, Dorria L.

2010-01-01

Higher education institutions are under increased scrutiny from various constituencies. Frequently, external perceptions of a college or university are based on the image and actions of its president, known to those outside the institution primarily through coverage in the mass media. Support for an institution may depend heavily on these…

Cultivating a Professional Ethic in Covering Marginalized Populations: Learning about the Poor through Service-Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Motley, Phillip; Sturgill, Amanda

2014-01-01

As communications students learn to tell stories, the curriculum should teach them to cover diverse groups accurately. Scholars have studied coverage of diversity in gender, nationality, ethnicity, and race. One area that has seen less attention is economic diversity, in particular, coverage of the poor. This paper examines how service-learning…

How do top cable news websites portray cognition as an aging issue?

PubMed

Vandenberg, Anna E; Price, Anna E; Friedman, Daniela B; Marchman, Graham; Anderson, Lynda A

2012-06-01

We examined messages that the websites of the top cable news companies (MSNBC, FOX, and CNN) conveyed about cognition between January 2007 and March 2010. Drawing on agenda-setting theory, this work assessed the frequency, prominence, and attributes of cognitive topics in messages targeting an aging audience. We used quantitative content analysis to examine the frequency and prominence of cognitive topics and cognitive goals, as well as how the cognitive discussions were framed. Chi-square analyses were conducted to compare cognitive health information discussed in news items that did and did not target an "aging audience." Qualitative analysis of the aging audience subgroup was used to further examine age-associated cognitive messages. Within the 229 cognitive items identified, we found significantly more coverage of cognitive functioning and unspecified dementia and significantly less coverage of cognitive disease not dementia, specified dementia, and accidents or injury for the aging audience. Our qualitative analysis of news items aimed at an aging audience documented a focus on maintaining functioning and avoiding decline through various individual lifestyle behaviors. However, contextual information about level of cognition to be maintained, particular cognitive functions targeted, specific norms about cognitive aging, and how cognitive function is determined was lacking. Our research points to a communication gap in the delivery of academic research findings to a lay audience through online journalism. We suggest more clarity by researchers in defining cognitive concepts and measurement of cognitive function for journalistic translation and public consumption.

Corporate Communication: Building Confidence between the Academic and Business Worlds.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snavely, William B.; Sullivan, Dan

1984-01-01

Describes how business organizations view the purposes and results of communication and the role of the corporate communication professional. Suggests ways to bridge the gap between academic and business worlds. (PD)

An Optimized Hidden Node Detection Paradigm for Improving the Coverage and Network Efficiency in Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Alanazi, Adwan; Elleithy, Khaled

2016-01-01

Successful transmission of online multimedia streams in wireless multimedia sensor networks (WMSNs) is a big challenge due to their limited bandwidth and power resources. The existing WSN protocols are not completely appropriate for multimedia communication. The effectiveness of WMSNs varies, and it depends on the correct location of its sensor nodes in the field. Thus, maximizing the multimedia coverage is the most important issue in the delivery of multimedia contents. The nodes in WMSNs are either static or mobile. Thus, the node connections change continuously due to the mobility in wireless multimedia communication that causes an additional energy consumption, and synchronization loss between neighboring nodes. In this paper, we introduce an Optimized Hidden Node Detection (OHND) paradigm. The OHND consists of three phases: hidden node detection, message exchange, and location detection. These three phases aim to maximize the multimedia node coverage, and improve energy efficiency, hidden node detection capacity, and packet delivery ratio. OHND helps multimedia sensor nodes to compute the directional coverage. Furthermore, an OHND is used to maintain a continuous node– continuous neighbor discovery process in order to handle the mobility of the nodes. We implement our proposed algorithms by using a network simulator (NS2). The simulation results demonstrate that nodes are capable of maintaining direct coverage and detecting hidden nodes in order to maximize coverage and multimedia node mobility. To evaluate the performance of our proposed algorithms, we compared our results with other known approaches. PMID:27618048

An Optimized Hidden Node Detection Paradigm for Improving the Coverage and Network Efficiency in Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks.

PubMed

Alanazi, Adwan; Elleithy, Khaled

2016-09-07

Successful transmission of online multimedia streams in wireless multimedia sensor networks (WMSNs) is a big challenge due to their limited bandwidth and power resources. The existing WSN protocols are not completely appropriate for multimedia communication. The effectiveness of WMSNs varies, and it depends on the correct location of its sensor nodes in the field. Thus, maximizing the multimedia coverage is the most important issue in the delivery of multimedia contents. The nodes in WMSNs are either static or mobile. Thus, the node connections change continuously due to the mobility in wireless multimedia communication that causes an additional energy consumption, and synchronization loss between neighboring nodes. In this paper, we introduce an Optimized Hidden Node Detection (OHND) paradigm. The OHND consists of three phases: hidden node detection, message exchange, and location detection. These three phases aim to maximize the multimedia node coverage, and improve energy efficiency, hidden node detection capacity, and packet delivery ratio. OHND helps multimedia sensor nodes to compute the directional coverage. Furthermore, an OHND is used to maintain a continuous node- continuous neighbor discovery process in order to handle the mobility of the nodes. We implement our proposed algorithms by using a network simulator (NS2). The simulation results demonstrate that nodes are capable of maintaining direct coverage and detecting hidden nodes in order to maximize coverage and multimedia node mobility. To evaluate the performance of our proposed algorithms, we compared our results with other known approaches.

Map of Rhea - January 2011

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-05-02

This global digital map of Rhea was created using data taken during NASA Cassini and Voyager spacecraft flybys. This map contains data from Cassini Jan. 11, 2011, flyby of Rhea. Six Voyager images fill gaps in Cassini coverage of the north pole.

Low-coverage surface diffusion in complex periodic energy landscapes: Analytical solution for systems with symmetric hops and application to intercalation in topological insulators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gosálvez, Miguel A.; Otrokov, Mikhail M.; Ferrando, Nestor; Ryabishchenkova, Anastasia G.; Ayuela, Andres; Echenique, Pedro M.; Chulkov, Evgueni V.

2016-02-01

This is the first of two papers that introduce a general expression for the tracer diffusivity in complex, periodic energy landscapes with M distinct hop rates in one-, two-, and three-dimensional diluted systems (low-coverage, single-tracer limit). The present report focuses on the analysis of diffusion in systems where the end sites of the hops are located symmetrically with respect to the hop origins (symmetric hops), as encountered in many ideal surfaces and bulk materials. For diffusion in two dimensions, a number of formulas are presented for complex combinations of the different hops in systems with triangular, rectangular, and square symmetry. The formulas provide values in excellent agreement with kinetic Monte Carlo simulations, concluding that the diffusion coefficient can be directly determined from the proposed expressions without performing the simulations. Based on the diffusion barriers obtained from first-principles calculations and a physically meaningful estimate of the attempt frequencies, the proposed formulas are used to analyze the diffusion of Cu, Ag, and Rb adatoms on the surface and within the van der Waals (vdW) gap of a model topological insulator, Bi2Se3 . Considering the possibility of adsorbate intercalation from the terraces to the vdW gaps at morphological steps, we infer that, at low coverage and room temperature, (i) a majority of the Rb atoms bounce back at the steps and remain on the terraces, (ii) Cu atoms mostly intercalate into the vdW gap, the remaining fraction staying at the steps, and (iii) Ag atoms essentially accumulate at the steps and gradually intercalate into the vdW gap. These conclusions are in good qualitative agreement with previous experiments. The companion report (M. A. Gosálvez et al., Phys. Rev. B, submitted] extends the present study to the description of systems that contain asymmetric hops.

Newspaper coverage of residential fires: an opportunity for prevention communication.

PubMed

Clegg Smith, Katherine; Cho, Juhee; Gielen, Andrea; Vernick, Jon S

2007-04-01

Worldwide, fire-related burns are a major cause of unintentional injury, morbidity and mortality, with the majority of deaths occurring in developing countries. In the US, as in other countries, most fatal fires occur in the home. Effective prevention strategies for residential fires are, however, currently underutilized. The news media is one available communication channel to promote such strategies, and analyzing current news coverage is a first step towards incorporating media advocacy into injury prevention efforts related to residential fires. Four daily newspapers circulating widely in Maryland were monitored for 1 year. Articles describing residential fires were coded for measures of prominence, content and frame. Analysis focused on measures of issue newsworthiness, reporting of causation and consequences of fires, and inclusion of public health context and conveyance of prevention messages. The data indicate that fires are newsworthy, with 374 relevant news articles in a 1-year period, 32% of which appear on the first page of a section. Coverage generally concerned recent local fire events. Most articles discussed the consequences of fires (88%), and identified a causal factor (58%). Only 36%, however, included prevention information, and less than one-quarter set residential fires in a public health context. The newsworthiness of residential fires provides a clear opportunity for widespread communication around injury prevention. Improving media advocacy will entail framing discussion of recent fire events in such a way as to support inclusion of prevention strategies and a public health context in news coverage.

Newspaper coverage of residential fires: an opportunity for prevention communication

PubMed Central

Smith, Katherine Clegg; Cho, Juhee; Gielen, Andrea; Vernick, Jon S

2007-01-01

Background Worldwide, fire-related burns are a major cause of unintentional injury, morbidity and mortality, with the majority of deaths occurring in developing countries. In the US, as in other countries, most fatal fires occur in the home. Effective prevention strategies for residential fires are, however, currently underutilized. The news media is one available communication channel to promote such strategies, and analyzing current news coverage is a first step towards incorporating media advocacy into injury prevention efforts related to residential fires. Methods Four daily newspapers circulating widely in Maryland were monitored for 1 year. Articles describing residential fires were coded for measures of prominence, content and frame. Analysis focused on measures of issue newsworthiness, reporting of causation and consequences of fires, and inclusion of public health context and conveyance of prevention messages. Results The data indicate that fires are newsworthy, with 374 relevant news articles in a 1-year period, 32% of which appear on the first page of a section. Coverage generally concerned recent local fire events. Most articles discussed the consequences of fires (88%), and identified a causal factor (58%). Only 36%, however, included prevention information, and less than one-quarter set residential fires in a public health context. Conclusion The newsworthiness of residential fires provides a clear opportunity for widespread communication around injury prevention. Improving media advocacy will entail framing discussion of recent fire events in such a way as to support inclusion of prevention strategies and a public health context in news coverage. PMID:17446251

Estimating the coverage of mental health programmes: a systematic review

PubMed Central

De Silva, Mary J; Lee, Lucy; Fuhr, Daniela C; Rathod, Sujit; Chisholm, Dan; Schellenberg, Joanna; Patel, Vikram

2014-01-01

Background The large treatment gap for people suffering from mental disorders has led to initiatives to scale up mental health services. In order to track progress, estimates of programme coverage, and changes in coverage over time, are needed. Methods Systematic review of mental health programme evaluations that assess coverage, measured either as the proportion of the target population in contact with services (contact coverage) or as the proportion of the target population who receive appropriate and effective care (effective coverage). We performed a search of electronic databases and grey literature up to March 2013 and contacted experts in the field. Methods to estimate the numerator (service utilization) and the denominator (target population) were reviewed to explore methods which could be used in programme evaluations. Results We identified 15 735 unique records of which only seven met the inclusion criteria. All studies reported contact coverage. No study explicitly measured effective coverage, but it was possible to estimate this for one study. In six studies the numerator of coverage, service utilization, was estimated using routine clinical information, whereas one study used a national community survey. The methods for estimating the denominator, the population in need of services, were more varied and included national prevalence surveys case registers, and estimates from the literature. Conclusions Very few coverage estimates are available. Coverage could be estimated at low cost by combining routine programme data with population prevalence estimates from national surveys. PMID:24760874

Proposed regulations could limit access to affordable health coverage for workers' children and family members.

PubMed

Jacobs, Ken; Graham-Squire, Dave; Roby, Dylan H; Kominski, Gerald F; Kinane, Christina M; Needleman, Jack; Watson, Greg; Gans, Daphna

2011-12-01

Key Findings. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is designed to offer premium subsidies to help eligible individuals and their families purchase insurance coverage when affordable job-based coverage is not available. However, the law is unclear on how this affordability protection is applied in those instances where self-only coverage offered by an employer is affordable but family coverage is not. Regulations recently proposed by the Department of the Treasury would make family members ineligible for subsidized coverage in the exchange if an employee is offered affordable self-only coverage by an employer, even if family coverage is unaffordable. This could have significant financial consequences for low- and moderate-income families that fall in this gap. Using an alternative interpretation of the law could allow the entire family to enter the exchange when family coverage is unaffordable, which would broaden access to coverage. However, this option has been cited as cost prohibitive. In this brief we consider a middle ground alternative that would base eligibility for the individual worker on the cost of self-only coverage, but would use the additional cost to the employee for family coverage as the basis for determining affordability and eligibility for subsidies for the remaining family members. We find that: Under the middle ground alternative scenario an additional 144,000 Californians would qualify for and use premium subsidies in the California Health Benefit Exchange, half of whom are children. Less than 1 percent of those with employer-based coverage would move to subsidized coverage in the California Health Benefit Exchange as a result of having unaffordable coverage on the job.

Influenza Vaccination Coverage among Adults in Korea: 2008–2009 to 2011–2012 Seasons

PubMed Central

Yang, Hye Jung; Cho, Sung-il

2014-01-01

The aim of this study was to examine seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccination coverage in adults from the 2008–2009 season to the 2011–2012 season, including pandemic and post-pandemic seasons in Korea. We collected data of self-reported vaccine use from the Korean Community Health Survey. We also collected information on socioeconomic status and health behaviors in subpopulations. We tested for linear trends among the data to investigate vaccine coverage before and after the pandemic; and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to identify predictors of obtaining the influenza vaccination. The results revealed a steady increase in vaccination coverage in every subgroup during four consecutive seasons. The highest rate of vaccine coverage (43.6%) occurred two years after the pandemic. Factors associated with vaccine receipt were: older age; lower education level; lower income; and health behaviors such as regular walking and receiving a health check-up. Smoking and drinking alcohol were inversely associated with vaccination. Having a chronic health condition was also a strong predictor of vaccine receipt. Though vaccination coverage rates were high in high-risk groups; disparities in coverage rates were substantial; particularly in young adults. Interventions are needed to minimize the coverage gaps among subgroups and to improve overall vaccination rates. PMID:25429683

Influenza vaccination coverage among adults in Korea: 2008-2009 to 2011-2012 seasons.

PubMed

Yang, Hye Jung; Cho, Sung-Il

2014-11-25

The aim of this study was to examine seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccination coverage in adults from the 2008-2009 season to the 2011-2012 season, including pandemic and post-pandemic seasons in Korea. We collected data of self-reported vaccine use from the Korean Community Health Survey. We also collected information on socioeconomic status and health behaviors in subpopulations. We tested for linear trends among the data to investigate vaccine coverage before and after the pandemic; and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to identify predictors of obtaining the influenza vaccination. The results revealed a steady increase in vaccination coverage in every subgroup during four consecutive seasons. The highest rate of vaccine coverage (43.6%) occurred two years after the pandemic. Factors associated with vaccine receipt were: older age; lower education level; lower income; and health behaviors such as regular walking and receiving a health check-up. Smoking and drinking alcohol were inversely associated with vaccination. Having a chronic health condition was also a strong predictor of vaccine receipt. Though vaccination coverage rates were high in high-risk groups; disparities in coverage rates were substantial; particularly in young adults. Interventions are needed to minimize the coverage gaps among subgroups and to improve overall vaccination rates.

Harnessing Big Data for Communicable Tropical and Sub-Tropical Disorders: Implications From a Systematic Review of the Literature.

PubMed

Gianfredi, Vincenza; Bragazzi, Nicola Luigi; Nucci, Daniele; Martini, Mariano; Rosselli, Roberto; Minelli, Liliana; Moretti, Massimo

2018-01-01

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), communicable tropical and sub-tropical diseases occur solely, or mainly in the tropics, thriving in hot, and humid conditions. Some of these disorders termed as neglected tropical diseases are particularly overlooked. Communicable tropical/sub-tropical diseases represent a diverse group of communicable disorders occurring in 149 countries, favored by tropical and sub-tropical conditions, affecting more than one billion people and imposing a dramatic societal and economic burden. A systematic review of the extant scholarly literature was carried out, searching in PubMed/MEDLINE and Scopus. The search string used included proper keywords, like big data, nontraditional data sources, social media, social networks, infodemiology, infoveillance, novel data streams (NDS), digital epidemiology, digital behavior, Google Trends, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Ebola, Zika, dengue, Chikungunya, Chagas, and the other neglected tropical diseases. 47 original, observational studies were included in the current systematic review: 1 focused on Chikungunya, 6 on dengue, 19 on Ebola, 2 on Malaria, 1 on Mayaro virus, 2 on West Nile virus, and 16 on Zika. Fifteen were dedicated on developing and validating forecasting techniques for real-time monitoring of neglected tropical diseases, while the remaining studies investigated public reaction to infectious outbreaks. Most studies explored a single nontraditional data source, with Twitter being the most exploited tool (25 studies). Even though some studies have shown the feasibility of utilizing NDS as an effective tool for predicting epidemic outbreaks and disseminating accurate, high-quality information concerning neglected tropical diseases, some gaps should be properly underlined. Out of the 47 articles included, only 7 were focusing on neglected tropical diseases, while all the other covered communicable tropical/sub-tropical diseases, and the main determinant of this unbalanced coverage seems to be the media impact and resonance. Furthermore, efforts in integrating diverse NDS should be made. As such, taking into account these limitations, further research in the field is needed.

‘Gap Junctions and Cancer: Communicating for 50 Years’

PubMed Central

Aasen, Trond; Mesnil, Marc; Naus, Christian C.; Lampe, Paul D.; Laird, Dale W.

2017-01-01

Fifty years ago, tumour cells were found to lack electrical coupling, leading to the hypothesis that loss of direct intercellular communication is commonly associated with cancer onset and progression. Subsequent studies linked this phenomenon to gap junctions composed of connexin proteins. While many studies support the notion that connexins are tumour suppressors, recent evidence suggests that, in some tumour types, they may facilitate specific stages of tumour progression through both junctional and non-junctional signalling pathways. This Timeline article highlights the milestones connecting gap junctions to cancer, and underscores important unanswered questions, controversies and therapeutic opportunities in the field. PMID:27782134

Marital status, spousal coverage, and the gender gap in employer-sponsored health insurance.

PubMed

Buchmueller, T C

Not only do men who work full time earn more than women, but they are more likely to receive employer-sponsored health benefits. This paper provides evidence on the gender gap in employer-sponsored health insurance. The results indicate that the gap is driven largely by the tendency of married women to decline employer-sponsored insurance in favor of being covered through their husbands. Indeed, among single workers, women are more likely than men to be offered insurance. These findings call into question the conclusion made by previous researchers that employers discriminate against women in the provision of health insurance.

New estimates of gaps and transitions in health insurance.

PubMed

Short, Pamela Farley; Graefe, Deborah R; Swartz, Katherine; Uberoi, Namrata

2012-12-01

Changes in individual or family circumstances cause many Americans to experience gaps and transitions in public and private health insurance. Using data from the 2004-2007 Survey of Income and Program Participation, this article updates earlier analyses of insurance gaps and transitions. Eighty-nine million people (one third of nonelderly Americans) were uninsured for at least 1 month during those 4 years. Approximately 23 million lost insurance more than once. The analyses call attention to the continuing instability and insecurity of health insurance, can inform implementation of national reforms, and establish a recent baseline that will be helpful in evaluating the reforms' effects on coverage stability.

A bibliometric analysis of childhood immunization research productivity in Africa since the onset of the Expanded Program on Immunization in 1974

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background The implementation of strategic immunization plans whose development is informed by available locally-relevant research evidence should improve immunization coverage and prevent disease, disability and death in Africa. In general, health research helps to answer questions, generate the evidence required to guide policy and identify new tools. However, factors that influence the publication of immunization research in Africa are not known. We, therefore, undertook this study to fill this research gap by providing insights into factors associated with childhood immunization research productivity on the continent. We postulated that research productivity influences immunization coverage. Methods We conducted a bibliometric analysis of childhood immunization research output from Africa, using research articles indexed in PubMed as a surrogate for total research productivity. We used zero-truncated negative binomial regression models to explore the factors associated with research productivity. Results We identified 1,641 articles on childhood immunization indexed in PubMed between 1974 and 2010 with authors from Africa, which represent only 8.9% of the global output. Five countries (South Africa, Nigeria, The Gambia, Egypt and Kenya) contributed 48% of the articles. After controlling for population and gross domestic product, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Sao Tome and Principe were the most productive countries. In univariable analyses, the country's gross domestic product, total health expenditure, private health expenditure, and research and development expenditure had a significant positive association with increased research productivity. Immunization coverage, adult literacy rate, human development index and physician density had no significant association. In the multivarable model, only private health expenditure maintained significant statistical association with the number of immunization articles. Conclusions Immunization research productivity in Africa is highly skewed, with private health expenditure having a significant positive association. However, the current contribution of authors from Africa to global childhood immunization research output is minimal. The lack of association between research productivity and immunization coverage may be an indication of lack of interactive communication between health decision-makers, program managers and researchers; to ensure that immunization policies and plans are always informed by the best available evidence. PMID:23497441

Compassionate Options for Pediatric EMS (COPE): Addressing Communication Skills.

PubMed

Calhoun, Aaron W; Sutton, Erica R H; Barbee, Anita P; McClure, Beth; Bohnert, Carrie; Forest, Richard; Taillac, Peter; Fallat, Mary E

2017-01-01

Each year, 16,000 children suffer cardiopulmonary arrest, and in one urban study, 2% of pediatric EMS calls were attributed to pediatric arrests. This indicates a need for enhanced educational options for prehospital providers that address how to communicate to families in these difficult situations. In response, our team developed a cellular phone digital application (app) designed to assist EMS providers in self-debriefing these events, thereby improving their communication skills. The goal of this study was to pilot the app using a simulation-based investigative methodology. Video and didactic app content was generated using themes developed from a series of EMS focus groups and evaluated using volunteer EMS providers assessed during two identical nonaccidental trauma simulations. Intervention groups interacted with the app as a team between assessments, and control groups debriefed during that period as they normally would. Communication performance and gap analyses were measured using the Gap-Kalamazoo Consensus Statement Assessment Form. A total of 148 subjects divided into 38 subject groups (18 intervention groups and 20 control groups) were assessed. Comparison of initial intervention group and control group scores showed no statistically significant difference in performance (2.9/5 vs. 3.0/5; p = 0.33). Comparisons made during the second assessment revealed a statistically significant improvement in the intervention group scores, with a moderate to large effect size (3.1/5 control vs. 4.0/5 intervention; p < 0.001, r = 0.69, absolute value). Gap analysis data showed a similar pattern, with gaps of -0.6 and -0.5 (values suggesting team self-over-appraisal of communication abilities) present in both control and intervention groups (p = 0.515) at the initial assessment. This gap persisted in the control group at the time of the second assessment (-0.8), but was significantly reduced (0.04) in the intervention group (p = 0.013, r = 0.41, absolute value). These results suggest that an EMS-centric app containing guiding information regarding compassionate communication skills can be effectively used by EMS providers to self-debrief after difficult events in the absence of a live facilitator, significantly altering their near-term communication patterns. Gap analysis data further imply that engaging with the app in a group context positively impacts the accuracy of each team's self-perception.

New Wisdom to Defy an Old Enemy: Summary from a scientific symposium at the 4th Influenza Vaccines for the World (IVW) 2012 Congress, 11 October, Valencia, Spain.

PubMed

Poland, Gregory A; Fleming, Douglas M; Treanor, John J; Maraskovsky, Eugene; Luke, Thomas C; Ball, Emma M A; Poland, Caroline M

2013-04-17

Both seasonal and pandemic influenza cause considerable morbidity and mortality globally. In addition, the ongoing threat of new, unpredictable influenza pandemics from emerging variant strains cannot be underestimated. Recently bioCSL (previously known as CSL Biotherapies) sponsored a symposium 'New Wisdom to Defy an Old Enemy' at the 4th Influenza Vaccines for the World Congress in Valencia, Spain. This symposium brought together a renowned faculty of experts to discuss lessons from past experience, novel influenza vaccine developments, and new methods to increase vaccine acceptance and coverage. Specific topics reviewed and discussed included new vaccine development efforts focused on improving efficacy via alternative administration routes, dose modifications, improved adjuvants, and the use of master donor viruses. Improved safety was also discussed, particularly the new finding of an excess of febrile reactions isolated to children who received the 2010 Southern Hemisphere (SH) trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (TIV). Significant work has been done to both identify the cause and minimize the risk of febrile reactions in children. Other novel prophylactic and therapeutic advances were discussed including immunotherapy. Standard IVIg and hIVIg have been used in ferret studies and human case reports with promising results. New adjuvants, such as ISCOMATRIX™ adjuvant, were noted to provide single-dose, prolonged protection with seasonal vaccine after lethal H5N1 virus challenge in a ferret model of human influenza disease. The data suggest that adjuvanted seasonal influenza vaccines may provide broader protection than unadjuvanted vaccines. The use of an antigen-formulated vaccine to induce broad protection between pandemics that could bridge the gap between pandemic declaration and the production of a homologous vaccine was also discussed. Finally, despite the availability of effective vaccines, most current efforts to increase influenza vaccine coverage rates to higher levels (i.e., above 70-80%) have been ineffective in highly developed countries where the vaccine is used, hindered by the public's skepticism towards vaccines in general. New educational and social media methods to increase vaccine acceptance and coverage were discussed. While the first priority should be the development of improved influenza vaccines, a particular focus on the aging global population is critical. It is also important to draw lessons from other academic disciplines that can help to inform vaccine education programs, policy, and communication. By tailoring communications and patient education using an understanding of cognitive bias and the model of preferred cognitive styles, the likelihood of effecting desirable health decisions can be maximized, leading to improved vaccine coverage and control of influenza and other vaccine-preventable diseases. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluating quality of patient care communication in integrated care settings: a mixed method approach.

PubMed

Gulmans, J; Vollenbroek-Hutten, M M R; Van Gemert-Pijnen, J E W C; Van Harten, W H

2007-10-01

Owing to the involvement of multiple professionals from various institutions, integrated care settings are prone to suboptimal patient care communication. To assure continuity, communication gaps should be identified for targeted improvement initiatives. However, available assessment methods are often one-sided evaluations not appropriate for integrated care settings. We developed an evaluation approach that takes into account the multiple communication links and evaluation perspectives inherent to these settings. In this study, we describe this approach, using the integrated care setting of Cerebral Palsy as illustration. The approach follows a three-step mixed design in which the results of each step are used to mark out the subsequent step's focus. The first step patient questionnaire aims to identify quality gaps experienced by patients, comparing their expectancies and experiences with respect to patient-professional and inter-professional communication. Resulting gaps form the input of in-depth interviews with a subset of patients to evaluate underlying factors of ineffective communication. Resulting factors form the input of the final step's focus group meetings with professionals to corroborate and complete the findings. By combining methods, the presented approach aims to minimize limitations inherent to the application of single methods. The comprehensiveness of the approach enables its applicability in various integrated care settings. Its sequential design allows for in-depth evaluation of relevant quality gaps. Further research is needed to evaluate the approach's feasibility in practice. In our subsequent study, we present the results of the approach in the integrated care setting of children with Cerebral Palsy in three Dutch care regions.

Can investments in health systems strategies lead to changes in immunization coverage?

PubMed

Brenzel, Logan

2014-04-01

National immunization programs in developing countries have made major strides to immunize the world's children, increasing full coverage to 83% of children. However, the World Health Organization estimates that 22 million children less than five years of age are left unvaccinated, and coverage levels have been plateauing for nearly a decade. This paper describes the evidence on factors contributing to low vaccination uptake, and describes the connection between these factors and the documented strategies and interventions that can lead to changes in immunization outcomes. The author suggests that investments in these areas may contribute more effectively to immunization coverage and also have positive spill-over benefits for health systems. The paper concludes that while some good quality evidence exists of what works and may contribute to immunization outcomes, the quality of evidence needs to improve and major gaps need to be addressed.

To close the childhood immunization gap, we need a richer understanding of parents' decision-making.

PubMed

Corben, Paul; Leask, Julie

2016-12-01

Vaccination is widely acknowledged as one of the most successful public health interventions globally and in most high-income countries childhood vaccination coverage rates are moderately high. Yet in many instances, immunisation rates remain below aspirational targets and have shown only modest progress toward those targets in recent years, despite concerted efforts to improve uptake. In part, coverage rates reflect individual parents' vaccination attitudes and decisions and, because vaccination decision-making is complex and context-specific, it remains challenging at individual and community levels to assist parents to make positive decisions. Consequently, in the search for opportunities to improve immunisation coverage, there has been a renewed research focus on parents' decision-making. This review provides an overview of the literature surrounding parents' vaccination decision-making, offering suggestions for where efforts to increase vaccination coverage should be targeted and identifying areas for further research.

Covered today, sick tomorrow? Trends and correlates of children's health insurance instability.

PubMed

Hill, Heather D; Shaefer, H Luke

2011-10-01

Many children with health insurance will experience gaps in coverage over time, potentially reducing their access to and use of preventive health care services. This article uses the Survey of Income and Program Participation to examine how the stability of children's health insurance changed between 1990 and 2005 and to identify dynamic aspects of family life associated with transitions in coverage. Children's health insurance instability has increased since the early 1990s, due to greater movement between insured and uninsured states and between private and public insurance coverage. Changes in the employment and marital status of the family head are highly associated with an increased risk of a child losing and gaining public and private coverage, largely in hypothesized directions. The exception is that marital dissolution and job loss are associated with an increased probability of a child losing public insurance, despite there being no clear policy explanation for such a relationship.

Uterotonic use immediately following birth: using a novel methodology to estimate population coverage in four countries.

PubMed

Ricca, Jim; Dwivedi, Vikas; Varallo, John; Singh, Gajendra; Pallipamula, Suranjeen Prasad; Amade, Nazir; de Luz Vaz, Maria; Bishanga, Dustan; Plotkin, Marya; Al-Makaleh, Bushra; Suhowatsky, Stephanie; Smith, Jeffrey Michael

2015-01-22

Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is the leading cause of maternal mortality in developing countries. While incidence of PPH can be dramatically reduced by uterotonic use immediately following birth (UUIFB) in both community and facility settings, national coverage estimates are rare. Most national health systems have no indicator to track this, and community-based measurements are even more scarce. To fill this information gap, a methodology for estimating national coverage for UUIFB was developed and piloted in four settings. The rapid estimation methodology consisted of convening a group of national technical experts and using the Delphi method to come to consensus on key data elements that were applied to a simple algorithm, generating a non-precise national estimate of coverage of UUIFB. Data elements needed for the calculation were the distribution of births by location and estimates of UUIFB in each of those settings, adjusted to take account of stockout rates and potency of uterotonics. This exercise was conducted in 2013 in Mozambique, Tanzania, the state of Jharkhand in India, and Yemen. Available data showed that deliveries in public health facilities account for approximately half of births in Mozambique and Tanzania, 16% in Jharkhand and 24% of births in Yemen. Significant proportions of births occur in private facilities in Jharkhand and faith-based facilities in Tanzania. Estimated uterotonic use for facility births ranged from 70 to 100%. Uterotonics are not used routinely for PPH prevention at home births in any of the settings. National UUIFB coverage estimates of all births were 43% in Mozambique, 40% in Tanzania, 44% in Jharkhand, and 14% in Yemen. This methodology for estimating coverage of UUIFB was found to be feasible and acceptable. While the exercise produces imprecise estimates whose validity cannot be assessed objectively in the absence of a gold standard estimate, stakeholders felt they were accurate enough to be actionable. The exercise highlighted information and practice gaps and promoted discussion on ways to improve UUIFB measurement and coverage, particularly of home births. Further follow up is needed to verify actions taken. The methodology produces useful data to help accelerate efforts to reduce maternal mortality.

Intercellular communication via gap junctions affected by mechanical load in the bovine annulus fibrosus.

PubMed

Desrochers, Jane; Duncan, Neil A

2014-01-01

Cells in the intervertebral disc, as in other connective tissues including tendon, ligament and bone, form interconnected cellular networks that are linked via functional gap junctions. These cellular networks may be necessary to affect a coordinated response to mechanical and environmental stimuli. Using confocal microscopy with fluorescence recovery after photobleaching methods, we explored the in situ strain environment of the outer annulus of an intact bovine disc and the effect of high-level flexion on gap junction signalling. The in situ strain environment in the extracellular matrix of the outer annulus under high flexion load was observed to be non-uniform with the extensive cellular processes remaining crimped sometimes at flexion angles greater than 25°. A significant transient disruption of intercellular communication via functional gap junctions was measured after 10 and 20 min under high flexion load. This study illustrates that in healthy annulus fibrosus tissue, high mechanical loads can impede the functioning of the gap junctions. Future studies will explore more complex loading conditions to determine whether losses in intercellular communication can be permanent and whether gap junctions in aged and degenerated tissues become more susceptible to load. The current research suggests that cellular structures such as gap junctions and intercellular networks, as well as other cell-cell and cell-matrix interconnections, need to be considered in computational models in order to fully understand how macroscale mechanical signals are transmitted across scales to the microscale and ultimately into a cellular biosynthetic response in collagenous tissues.

75 FR 20608 - Risk Communication Advisory Committee; Notice of Meeting

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-04-20

...] Risk Communication Advisory Committee; Notice of Meeting AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS... Communication Advisory Committee. General Function of the Committee: To provide advice and recommendations to... relevant to improving risk communication at FDA, and discuss applications or gaps for strategic planning of...

Spatio-Temporal Gap Analysis of OBIS-SEAMAP Project Data: Assessment and Way Forward

PubMed Central

Kot, Connie Y.; Fujioka, Ei; Hazen, Lucie J.; Best, Benjamin D.; Read, Andrew J.; Halpin, Patrick N.

2010-01-01

The OBIS-SEAMAP project has acquired and served high-quality marine mammal, seabird, and sea turtle data to the public since its inception in 2002. As data accumulated, spatial and temporal biases resulted and a comprehensive gap analysis was needed in order to assess coverage to direct data acquisition for the OBIS-SEAMAP project and for taxa researchers should true gaps in knowledge exist. All datasets published on OBIS-SEAMAP up to February 2009 were summarized spatially and temporally. Seabirds comprised the greatest number of records, compared to the other two taxa, and most records were from shipboard surveys, compared to the other three platforms. Many of the point observations and polyline tracklines were located in northern and central Atlantic and the northeastern and central-eastern Pacific. The Southern Hemisphere generally had the lowest representation of data, with the least number of records in the southern Atlantic and western Pacific regions. Temporally, records of observations for all taxa were the lowest in fall although the number of animals sighted was lowest in the winter. Oceanographic coverage of observations varied by platform for each taxa, which showed that using two or more platforms represented habitat ranges better than using only one alone. Accessible and published datasets not already incorporated do exist within spatial and temporal gaps identified. Other related open-source data portals also contain data that fill gaps, emphasizing the importance of dedicated data exchange. Temporal and spatial gaps were mostly a result of data acquisition effort, development of regional partnerships and collaborations, and ease of field data collection. Future directions should include fostering partnerships with researchers in the Southern Hemisphere while targeting datasets containing species with limited representation. These results can facilitate prioritizing datasets needed to be represented and for planning research for true gaps in space and time. PMID:20886047

Spatio-temporal gap analysis of OBIS-SEAMAP project data: assessment and way forward.

PubMed

Kot, Connie Y; Fujioka, Ei; Hazen, Lucie J; Best, Benjamin D; Read, Andrew J; Halpin, Patrick N

2010-09-24

The OBIS-SEAMAP project has acquired and served high-quality marine mammal, seabird, and sea turtle data to the public since its inception in 2002. As data accumulated, spatial and temporal biases resulted and a comprehensive gap analysis was needed in order to assess coverage to direct data acquisition for the OBIS-SEAMAP project and for taxa researchers should true gaps in knowledge exist. All datasets published on OBIS-SEAMAP up to February 2009 were summarized spatially and temporally. Seabirds comprised the greatest number of records, compared to the other two taxa, and most records were from shipboard surveys, compared to the other three platforms. Many of the point observations and polyline tracklines were located in northern and central Atlantic and the northeastern and central-eastern Pacific. The Southern Hemisphere generally had the lowest representation of data, with the least number of records in the southern Atlantic and western Pacific regions. Temporally, records of observations for all taxa were the lowest in fall although the number of animals sighted was lowest in the winter. Oceanographic coverage of observations varied by platform for each taxa, which showed that using two or more platforms represented habitat ranges better than using only one alone. Accessible and published datasets not already incorporated do exist within spatial and temporal gaps identified. Other related open-source data portals also contain data that fill gaps, emphasizing the importance of dedicated data exchange. Temporal and spatial gaps were mostly a result of data acquisition effort, development of regional partnerships and collaborations, and ease of field data collection. Future directions should include fostering partnerships with researchers in the Southern Hemisphere while targeting datasets containing species with limited representation. These results can facilitate prioritizing datasets needed to be represented and for planning research for true gaps in space and time.

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (82nd, New Orleans, Louisiana, August 3-8, 1999). Minorities and Communication.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

The Minorities and Communication section of the Proceedings contains the following 15 papers: "An Analysis of Role Portrayal in U.S. Spanish-Language Television Promotional Announcements" (Jami J. Armstrong and Alice Kendrick); "A Critical Analysis of the Newspaper Coverage of Native Americans by 'The Daily Oklahoman' Newspaper for…

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (78th, Washington, DC, August 9-12, 1995). Mass Communication and Society Division.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

The mass communication and society section of the Proceedings contains the following 20 papers: "Media, Bureaucracy and the Success of Social Protest: Media Coverage of Environmental Movement Groups" (Julia B. Corbett); "How People Use Newspaper-Sponsored Community Bulletin Boards: A Field Test of 'The Evansville Courier's' Courier…

TEMPORAL CHANGE IN GAP JUNCTION FUNCTION IN PRIMARY HEPATOCYTES

EPA Science Inventory

TEMPORAL CHANGES IN GAP JUNCTION FUNCTION IN PRIMARY *

The objective of this study was to examine the reduction in gap junction communication (GJC) in primary hepatocytes due to coincident melatonin and magnetic field treatments to determine if these conditions could prov...

Cancer and fertility preservation in Puerto Rico: a qualitative study of healthcare provider perceptions.

PubMed

Dyer, Karen E; Quinn, Gwendolyn P

2016-08-01

This study aims to examine healthcare provider perceptions of cancer-related infertility and fertility preservation (FP) in an underserved population and to highlight cognitive and structural barriers to use. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of 16 healthcare providers participating in a larger ethnographic study on cancer survivorship and cancer-related infertility in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated US territory. Interviews were conducted in-person, audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded using the constant comparative method. Providers identified several barriers to FP in Puerto Rico: high cost in relation to income levels, lack of insurance coverage, gaps in provider knowledge of fertility clinics and financial assistance, lower prioritization of quality-of-life needs leading to inconsistent physician disclosure of fertility risks, geographical location of fertility clinics, and logistical challenges to maintaining FP offerings. Two factors act as facilitators: a high value placed on patient-provider communication and relationships and the formation of local alliances between the oncology and reproductive medicine fields, potentially leading to increased cross-specialty communication and referral. Infertility is a continuing source of distress for cancer patients and survivors, and barriers to FP vary cross-culturally. In Puerto Rico, context-specific factors indicate potential areas of intervention. Greater awareness of fertility risks and options can be fostered through physician training in conjunction with organizational measures targeting cost barriers.

Behavioral consequences of conflict-oriented health news coverage: the 2009 mammography guideline controversy and online information seeking.

PubMed

Weeks, Brian E; Friedenberg, Laura M; Southwell, Brian G; Slater, Jonathan S

2012-01-01

Building on channel complementarity theory and media-system dependency theory, this study explores the impact of conflict-oriented news coverage of health issues on information seeking online. Using Google search data as a measure of behavior, we demonstrate that controversial news coverage of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force's November 2009 recommendations for changes in breast cancer screening guidelines strongly predicted the volume of same-day online searches for information about mammograms. We also found that this relationship did not exist 1 year prior to the coverage, during which mammography news coverage did not focus on the guideline controversy, suggesting that the controversy frame may have driven search behavior. We discuss the implications of these results for health communication scholars and practitioners.

A flexible benefits tax credit for health insurance and more.

PubMed

Etheredge, Lynn

2001-01-01

This essay outlines a concept for a "flexible benefits" tax credit for expanding health insurance coverage and other purposes such as retirement savings plans (with potential withdrawals for higher education, first-home ownership, and catastrophic medical expenses). Two examples are presented. The advantages of a flexible benefits tax credit are considered in terms of efficient use of the budget surplus to help meet the varied (and changing) needs of American families, to eliminate major national gaps in health insurance and pension coverage, and to advance other objectives. If the budget surplus is used wisely, political decisionmakers could achieve health insurance coverage for most uninsured workers and children and assure a future with real economic security for American families.

Quad-Tree Visual-Calculus Analysis of Satellite Coverage

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lo, Martin W.; Hockney, George; Kwan, Bruce

2003-01-01

An improved method of analysis of coverage of areas of the Earth by a constellation of radio-communication or scientific-observation satellites has been developed. This method is intended to supplant an older method in which the global-coverage-analysis problem is solved from a ground-to-satellite perspective. The present method provides for rapid and efficient analysis. This method is derived from a satellite-to-ground perspective and involves a unique combination of two techniques for multiresolution representation of map features on the surface of a sphere.

Bi-directional gap junction-mediated soma-germline communication is essential for spermatogenesis.

PubMed

Smendziuk, Christopher M; Messenberg, Anat; Vogl, A Wayne; Tanentzapf, Guy

2015-08-01

Soma-germline interactions play conserved essential roles in regulating cell proliferation, differentiation, patterning and homeostasis in the gonad. In the Drosophila testis, secreted signalling molecules of the JAK-STAT, Hedgehog, BMP and EGF pathways are used to mediate soma-germline communication. Here, we demonstrate that gap junctions may also mediate direct, bi-directional signalling between the soma and germ line. When gap junctions between the soma and germ line are disrupted, germline differentiation is blocked and germline stem cells are not maintained. In the soma, gap junctions are required to regulate proliferation and differentiation. Localization and RNAi-mediated knockdown studies reveal that gap junctions in the fly testis are heterotypic channels containing Zpg (Inx4) and Inx2 on the germ line and the soma side, respectively. Overall, our results show that bi-directional gap junction-mediated signalling is essential to coordinate the soma and germ line to ensure proper spermatogenesis in Drosophila. Moreover, we show that stem cell maintenance and differentiation in the testis are directed by gap junction-derived cues. © 2015. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Kinase programs spatiotemporally regulate gap junction assembly and disassembly: effects on wound repair

PubMed Central

Solan, Joell L.; Lampe, Paul D.

2016-01-01

Gap junctions are highly ordered plasma membrane domains that are constantly assembled, remodeled and turned over due to the short half-life of connexins, the integral membrane proteins that form gap junctions. Connexin 43 (Cx43), by far the most widely expressed connexin, is phosphorylated at multiple serine residues in the cytoplasmic, C-terminal region allowing for exquisite cellular control over gap junctional communication. This is evident during epidermal wounding where spatiotemporal changes in connexin expression occur as cells are instructed whether to die, proliferate or migrate to promote repair. Early gap junctional communication is required for initiation of keratinocyte migration, but accelerated Cx43 turnover is also critical for proper wound healing at later stages. These events are controlled via a "kinase program" where sequential phosphorylation of Cx43 leads to reductions in Cx43’s half-life and significant depletion of gap junctions from the plasma membrane within several hours. The complex regulation of gap junction assembly and turnover affords several steps where intervention might speed wound healing. PMID:26706150

Kinase programs spatiotemporally regulate gap junction assembly and disassembly: Effects on wound repair.

PubMed

Solan, Joell L; Lampe, Paul D

2016-02-01

Gap junctions are highly ordered plasma membrane domains that are constantly assembled, remodeled and turned over due to the short half-life of connexins, the integral membrane proteins that form gap junctions. Connexin 43 (Cx43), by far the most widely expressed connexin, is phosphorylated at multiple serine residues in the cytoplasmic, C-terminal region allowing for exquisite cellular control over gap junctional communication. This is evident during epidermal wounding where spatiotemporal changes in connexin expression occur as cells are instructed whether to die, proliferate or migrate to promote repair. Early gap junctional communication is required for initiation of keratinocyte migration, but accelerated Cx43 turnover is also critical for proper wound healing at later stages. These events are controlled via a "kinase program" where sequential phosphorylation of Cx43 leads to reductions in Cx43's half-life and significant depletion of gap junctions from the plasma membrane within several hours. The complex regulation of gap junction assembly and turnover affords several steps where intervention might speed wound healing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

HIV-tat alters Connexin43 expression and trafficking in human astrocytes: role in NeuroAIDS.

PubMed

Berman, Joan W; Carvallo, Loreto; Buckner, Clarisa M; Luers, Aimée; Prevedel, Lisa; Bennett, Michael V; Eugenin, Eliseo A

2016-03-02

HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) are a major complication in at least half of the infected population despite effective antiretroviral treatment and immune reconstitution. HIV-associated CNS damage is not correlated with active viral replication but instead is associated with mechanisms that regulate inflammation and neuronal compromise. Our data indicate that one of these mechanisms is mediated by gap junction channels and/or hemichannels. Normally, gap junction channels shutdown under inflammatory conditions, including viral diseases. However, HIV infection upregulates Connexin43 (Cx43) expression and maintains gap junctional communication by unknown mechanism(s). Human primary astrocytes were exposed to several HIV proteins as well as to HIV, and expression and function of Connexin43- and Connexin30-containing channels were determined by western blot, immunofluorescence, microinjection of a fluorescent tracer and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP). Here, we demonstrate that HIV infection increases Cx43 expression in vivo. HIV-tat, the transactivator of the virus, and no other HIV proteins tested, increases Cx43 expression and maintains functional gap junctional communication in human astrocytes. Cx43 upregulation is mediated by binding of the HIV-tat protein to the Cx43 promoter, but not to the Cx30 promoter, resulting in increased Cx43 messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein as well as gap junctional communication. We propose that HIV-tat contributes to the spread of intracellular toxic signals generated in a few HIV-infected cells into surrounding uninfected cells by upregulating gap junctional communication. In the current antiretroviral era, where HIV replication is often completely suppressed, viral factors such as HIV-tat are still produced and released from infected cells. Thus, blocking the effects of HIV-tat could result in new strategies to reduce the damaging consequences of HIV infection of the CNS.

Uncharted Waters: Communicating Health Risks During the 2014 West Virginia Water Crisis.

PubMed

Thomas, Tracey L; Friedman, Daniela B; Brandt, Heather M; Spencer, S Melinda; Tanner, Andrea

2016-09-01

This study is among the first to examine how health risks are communicated through traditional and social media during a public health crisis. Using an innovative research approach, the study combined a content analysis with in-depth interviews to examine and understand how stakeholders involved in crisis response perceived media coverage after a chemical spill contaminated the drinking water of 300,000 West Virginia residents. A content analysis of print, television, and online media stories and tweets revealed that health risk information was largely absent from crisis coverage. Although traditional media stories were significantly more likely to include health information compared to tweets, public health sources were underutilized in traditional media coverage. Instead, traditional media favored the use of government sources outside the public health field, which stakeholders suggested was problematic because of a public distrust of officials and official information during the crisis. Results also indicated that Twitter was not a common or reliable source for health information but was important in the spread of other types of information. Ultimately, the study highlights a need for more deliberate media coverage of health risks and provides insight into how Twitter is used to spread crisis information.

Mind the Gaps: Expert and Non-Expert Differences in Conceptualising the Geological Subsurface.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gibson, H.; Stewart, I. S.; Stokes, A.; Pahl, S.

2017-12-01

In communicating geoscience topics, emphasis is often given to approaches such as the use of narrative to make a message engaging and reducing the use of jargon to ensure that it is understood by as wide a group of people as possible. Whilst these are undeniably important techniques to promote effective communication, an aspect of geoscience communication that is often overlooked is the publics' conceptual frameworks about core geoscience concepts. The consideration of different conceptual frameworks fits with the need to ensure that the framing is appropriate for the message, but it extends beyond simple framing into more complicated issues of addressing and incorporating pre- and mis-conceptions in geoscience. In a study examining expert and non-expert cognitive (mental) models of the geological subsurface in south-west England, several gaps were found between the fundamental ways that experts and non-experts conceptualise this invisible realm. Of these, three gaps were considered to be particularly important and common to many participants: the use of spatial reasoning; the application of surface experiences to subsurface processes; and the connection between the surface and subsurface. This paper will examine the evidence for these three important conceptual gaps between specialists and non-specialists and will address how this type of cognitive study can help improve effective geoscience communication.

Vaccine financing in Nigeria: are we making progress towards self-financing/sustenance?

PubMed

Faniyan, Olumide; Opara, Chidiabere; Oyinade, Akinyede; Botchway, Pamela; Soyemi, Kenneth

2017-01-01

Nigeria has an estimated population of 186 million with 23% of eligible children aged 12-23 months fully immunized. Government spending on routine immunization per surviving infant has declined since 2006 meaning the immunization budget needs to improve. By 2020, Nigeria will be ineligible for additional Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunization (Gavi) grants and will be facing an annual vaccine bill of around US$426.3m. There are several potential revenue sources that could be utilized to fill the potential funding gap, these are however subject to timely legislation and appropriation of funds by the legislative body. Innovative funding sources that should be considered include tiered levies on tele-communications, airline, hotel, alcohol, tobacco, sugar beverage taxes, lottery sales, crowd-sourcing, optimized federal state co-financing etc. To demonstrate monthly income that will be derived from a single tax revenue source, we modelled using Monte Carlo simulation trials the Communication Service Tax that is being introduced by the National Assembly. We used number of active telephone subscribers, penetration ratio, monthly charges, and percent of immunization levy as model scenario inputs and dollars generated monthly as output. The simulation generated a modest mean (SD) monthly amount of $3,649,289.38 ($1,789,651); 88% certainty range $1,282,719.90 to $7,450,906.26. The entire range for the simulation was $528,903.26 to $7,966,287.26 with a standard error of mean of $17,896.52. Sensitivity analysis revealed that percentage of immunization levy contributed 97.9 percent of the variance in the model, number of active subscribers and charges per month contributed 1.5%, and 0.6% respectively. Our modest simulation analysis demonstrated the potential to raise revenue from one possible tax source; when combined, the revenue sources will potentially surpass Nigeria's long-term financing needs. The ROI of vaccine should supersede all other considerations and prompt urgent activities to cover the impending finance coverage gap.

Vaccine financing in Nigeria: are we making progress towards self-financing/sustenance?

PubMed Central

Faniyan, Olumide; Opara, Chidiabere; Oyinade, Akinyede; Botchway, Pamela; Soyemi, Kenneth

2017-01-01

Nigeria has an estimated population of 186 million with 23% of eligible children aged 12-23 months fully immunized. Government spending on routine immunization per surviving infant has declined since 2006 meaning the immunization budget needs to improve. By 2020, Nigeria will be ineligible for additional Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunization (Gavi) grants and will be facing an annual vaccine bill of around US$426.3m. There are several potential revenue sources that could be utilized to fill the potential funding gap, these are however subject to timely legislation and appropriation of funds by the legislative body. Innovative funding sources that should be considered include tiered levies on tele-communications, airline, hotel, alcohol, tobacco, sugar beverage taxes, lottery sales, crowd-sourcing, optimized federal state co-financing etc. To demonstrate monthly income that will be derived from a single tax revenue source, we modelled using Monte Carlo simulation trials the Communication Service Tax that is being introduced by the National Assembly. We used number of active telephone subscribers, penetration ratio, monthly charges, and percent of immunization levy as model scenario inputs and dollars generated monthly as output. The simulation generated a modest mean (SD) monthly amount of $3,649,289.38 ($1,789,651); 88% certainty range $1,282,719.90 to $7,450,906.26. The entire range for the simulation was $528,903.26 to $7,966,287.26 with a standard error of mean of $17,896.52. Sensitivity analysis revealed that percentage of immunization levy contributed 97.9 percent of the variance in the model, number of active subscribers and charges per month contributed 1.5%, and 0.6% respectively. Our modest simulation analysis demonstrated the potential to raise revenue from one possible tax source; when combined, the revenue sources will potentially surpass Nigeria’s long-term financing needs. The ROI of vaccine should supersede all other considerations and prompt urgent activities to cover the impending finance coverage gap. PMID:29296144

Mass Communication: A Guide to Reference Sources.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGill Univ., Montreal (Quebec). McLennan Library.

For the study of mass communication in social, cultural and political contexts, this annotated resource guide presents a list of materials available in the McGill University Libraries in Montreal, Canada. As a select bibliography, the guide concentrates on current sources, although some historical coverage of newspaper and journalism is included.…

Linguistic analysis of IPCC summaries for policymakers and associated coverage

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barkemeyer, Ralf; Dessai, Suraje; Monge-Sanz, Beatriz; Renzi, Barbara Gabriella; Napolitano, Giulio

2016-03-01

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Summary for Policymakers (SPM) is the most widely read section of IPCC reports and the main springboard for the communication of its assessment reports. Previous studies have shown that communicating IPCC findings to a variety of scientific and non-scientific audiences presents significant challenges to both the IPCC and the mass media. Here, we employ widely established sentiment analysis tools and readability metrics to explore the extent to which information published by the IPCC differs from the presentation of respective findings in the popular and scientific media between 1990 and 2014. IPCC SPMs clearly stand out in terms of low readability, which has remained relatively constant despite the IPCC’s efforts to consolidate and readjust its communications policy. In contrast, scientific and quality newspaper coverage has become increasingly readable and emotive. Our findings reveal easy gains that could be achieved in making SPMs more accessible for non-scientific audiences.

Advances in Ka-Band Communication System for CubeSats and SmallSats

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kegege, Obadiah; Wong, Yen F.; Altunc, Serhat

2016-01-01

A study was performed that evaluated the feasibility of Ka-band communication system to provide CubeSat/SmallSat high rate science data downlink with ground antennas ranging from the small portable 1.2m/2.4m to apertures 5.4M, 7.3M, 11M, and 18M, for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to Lunar CubeSat missions. This study included link analysis to determine the data rate requirement, based on the current TRL of Ka-band flight hardware and ground support infrastructure. Recent advances in Ka-band transceivers and antennas, options of portable ground stations, and various coverage distances were included in the analysis. The link/coverage analysis results show that Cubesat/Smallsat missions communication requirements including frequencies and data rates can be met by utilizing Near Earth Network (NEN) Ka-band support with 2 W and high gain (>6 dBi) antennas.

Communicating contentious health policy: lessons from Ireland's workplace smoking ban.

PubMed

Fahy, Declan; Trench, Brian; Clancy, Luke

2012-05-01

The Irish workplace smoking ban has been described as possibly a tipping point for public health worldwide. This article presents the first analysis of the newspaper coverage of the ban over the duration of the policy formation process. It adds to previous studies by analyzing how health communication strategists engaged, over time, with a newsworthy topic, viewed as being culturally controversial. It analyzes a sample of media content (n = 1,154) and firsthand accounts from pro-ban campaigners and journalists (n = 10). The analysis shows that the ban was covered not primarily as a health issue: Economic, political, social, democratic, and technical aspects also received significant attention. It shows how coverage followed controversy and examines how pro-ban campaigners countered effectively the anti-ban communication efforts of influential social actors in the economic and political spheres. The analysis demonstrates that medical-political sources successfully defined the ban's issues as centrally concerned with public health.

The future for domestic communications satellites - Lease or buy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rooney, K. J.

1982-04-01

The demand for leased satellite communications services is growing at such a rate that a dedicated leasing satellite system is envisioned to deal with the demand. The most economical solution would be three similarly designed 24-channel capacity satellites with on-orbit antenna beam reconfiguration offering regional C-band coverage and situated over America, Africa, and Asia. Spatial frequency reuse is not considered necessary until at least the next generation. A two-meter antenna projecting a three dB beamwidth nearly three degrees in diameter at 4 GHz can achieve global coverage with only 19 adjacent beams at the aforementioned locations. Circular polarization will be continued in leasing. It is proposed to operate dual orthogonal polarization frequency reuse for uplink and downlink to increase the available capacity. The communications repeater is discussed in detail together with a glossary of terms and an economic analysis of the competition from dedicated domestic satellites.

Investigating the Equatorial Gaps in Snowball Earth Sea Glaciers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spaulding-Astudillo, F.; Ashkenazy, Y.; Tziperman, E.; Abbot, D. S.

2017-12-01

The way photosynthetic life survived the Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth events is still a matter of debate that has deep implications for planetary habitability. One option is that gaps in thick, semi-global ice coverage (sea glaciers) could be maintained at the equator by ocean-ice-atmosphere dynamics. We investigate this idea by modifying a global ocean-thick-marine-ice model developed for modeling Neoproterozoic Snowball Events to account for gaps in thick ice and interactions with atmospheric dynamics. Our hypothesis is that in the parameter regime that allows for sea glacier flow, ice flow will make gaps in the thick ice, and therefore an open ocean solution, less likely. This would suggest that oases in thick ice are a more viable survival mechanism for photosynthetic life during a Snowball Earth event.

Superconducting Vacuum-Gap Crossovers for High Performance Microwave Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Denis, Kevin L.; Brown, Ari D.; Chang, Meng-Ping; Hu, Ron; U-Yen, Kongpop; Wollack, Edward J.

2016-01-01

The design and fabrication of low-loss wide-bandwidth superconducting vacuum-gap crossovers for high performance millimeter wave applications are described. In order to reduce ohmic and parasitic losses at millimeter wavelengths a vacuum gap is preferred relative to dielectric spacer. Here, vacuum-gap crossovers were realized by using a sacrificial polymer layer followed by niobium sputter deposition optimized for coating coverage over an underlying niobium signal layer. Both coplanar waveguide and microstrip crossover topologies have been explored in detail. The resulting fabrication process is compatible with a bulk micro-machining process for realizing waveguide coupled detectors, which includes sacrificial wax bonding, and wafer backside deep reactive ion etching for creation of leg isolated silicon membrane structures. Release of the vacuum gap structures along with the wax bonded wafer after DRIE is implemented in the same process step used to complete the detector fabrication. ?

Measuring Progress Toward Universal Health Coverage: Does the Monitoring Framework of Bangladesh Need Further Improvement?

PubMed Central

Shahabuddin, ASM

2018-01-01

This review aimed to compare Bangladesh’s Universal Health Coverage (UHC) monitoring framework with the global-level recommendations and to find out the existing gaps of Bangladesh’s UHC monitoring framework compared to the global recommendations. In order to reach the aims of the review, we systematically searched two electronic databases - PubMed and Google Scholar - by using appropriate keywords to select articles that describe issues related to UHC and the monitoring framework of UHC applied globally and particularly in Bangladesh. Four relevant documents were found and synthesized. The review found that Bangladesh incorporated all of the recommendations suggested by the global monitoring framework regarding mentoring the financial risk protection and equity perspective. However, a significant gap in the monitoring framework related to service coverage was observed. Although Bangladesh has a significant burden of mental illnesses, cataract, and neglected tropical diseases, indicators related to these issues were absent in Bangladesh’s UHC framework. Moreover, palliative-care-related indicators were completely missing in the framework. The results of this review suggest that Bangladesh should incorporate these indicators in their UHC monitoring framework in order to track the progress of the country toward UHC more efficiently and in a robust way. PMID:29541562

Integrating evolutionary game theory into an agent-based model of ductal carcinoma in situ: Role of gap junctions in cancer progression.

PubMed

Malekian, Negin; Habibi, Jafar; Zangooei, Mohammad Hossein; Aghakhani, Hojjat

2016-11-01

There are many cells with various phenotypic behaviors in cancer interacting with each other. For example, an apoptotic cell may induce apoptosis in adjacent cells. A living cell can also protect cells from undergoing apoptosis and necrosis. These survival and death signals are propagated through interaction pathways between adjacent cells called gap junctions. The function of these signals depends on the cellular context of the cell receiving them. For instance, a receiver cell experiencing a low level of oxygen may interpret a received survival signal as an apoptosis signal. In this study, we examine the effect of these signals on tumor growth. We make an evolutionary game theory component in order to model the signal propagation through gap junctions. The game payoffs are defined as a function of cellular context. Then, the game theory component is integrated into an agent-based model of tumor growth. After that, the integrated model is applied to ductal carcinoma in situ, a type of early stage breast cancer. Different scenarios are explored to observe the impact of the gap junction communication and parameters of the game theory component on cancer progression. We compare these scenarios by using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test succeeds in proving a significant difference between the tumor growth of the model before and after considering the gap junction communication. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test also proves that the tumor growth significantly depends on the oxygen threshold of turning survival signals into apoptosis. In this study, the gap junction communication is modeled by using evolutionary game theory to illustrate its role at early stage cancers such as ductal carcinoma in situ. This work indicates that the gap junction communication and the oxygen threshold of turning survival signals into apoptosis can notably affect cancer progression. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bridging Gaps in Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Care: Nursing Coordination and Case Management

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wiederholt, Peggy A.; Connor, Nadine P.; Hartig, Gregory K.

Patients with advanced head and neck cancer face not only a life-threatening malignancy, but also a remarkably complex treatment regimen that can affect their cosmetic appearance and ability to speak, breathe, and swallow. These patients benefit from the coordinated interaction of a multidisciplinary team of specialists and a comprehensive plan of care to address their physical and psychosocial concerns, manage treatment-related toxicities, and prevent or limit long-term morbidities affecting health-related quality of life. Although little has been published on patient-provider communication with a multidisciplinary team, evidence has suggested that gaps often occur in communication between patients and providers, as wellmore » as between specialists. These communication gaps can hinder the multidisciplinary group from working toward common patient-centered goals in a coordinated 'interdisciplinary' manner. We discuss the role of a head-and-neck oncology nurse coordinator at a single institution in bridging gaps across the continuum of care, promoting an interdisciplinary team approach, and enhancing the overall quality of patient-centered head-and-neck cancer care.« less

Wireless Communications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

1991-01-01

A technology utilization project led to the commercial adaptation of a Space Shuttle Orbiter wireless infrared voice communications system. The technology was adapted to a LAN system by Wilton Industries, one of the participants. Because the system is cable-free, installation charges are saved, and it can be used where cable is impractical. Resultant products include the IRplex 6000. Transceivers can be located anywhere and can include mobile receivers. The system provides wireless LAN coverage up to 44,000 square feet. applications include stock exchange communications, trade shows, emergency communications, etc.

For Cooperating Teachers Only: How to Avoid the Communication Gap.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Polivka, John B.

1979-01-01

Describes four approaches which cooperating teachers may take in maintaining close communication with student teachers: informal conferences, formal conferences, written comments on lesson plans, and subtle or subliminal communication. Journal availability: see SO 506 831. (AV)

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (85th, Miami, Florida, August 5-8, 2002). Minorities and Communication Division.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

2002

The Minorities and Communication Division of the proceedings contains the following 7 papers: "The Race Card and Ethical Reasoning: The Importance of Race to Journalistic Decision Making" (Renita Coleman); "Jesse Owens, A Black Pearl Amidst an Ocean of Fury: A Case Study of Press Coverage on The 1936 Berlin Olympic Games"…

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (80th, Chicago, Illinois, July 30-August 2, 1997): Mass Communication and Society.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

The Mass Communication and Society section of the Proceedings contains the following 11 papers: "A Cynical Press: Coverage of the 1996 Presidential Campaign" (Sandra H. Dickson, Cynthia Hill, Cara Pilson, and Suzanne Hanners); "JMC Faculty Divided: Majority Finds Dozen Uses for Research" (Fred Fedler, Maria Cristina Santana,…

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (85th, Miami, Florida, August 5-8, 2002). International Communication Division.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

2002

The International Communication Division of the proceedings contains the following 18 papers: "Spy or Scapegoat: A News Framing Study of the 'New York Times'' Coverage of the Wen Ho Lee Case" (Jia Lin & Junhao Hong); "Individual Perceptions of International Correspondents in the Middle East: An Obstacle to Fair News?" (Dina…

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (80th, Chicago, Illinois, July 30-August 2, 1997): Minorities and Communication.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

The Minorities and Communication section of the Proceedings contains the following seven papers: "HIV/AIDS Video Programming for Latino Youth" (Hilary N. Karasz); "Use of Asian American History in the News Media: The Discourse of 'Model Minority'" (Chiung Hwang Chen and Ethan Yorgason); "No Racism Here: News Coverage of…

Odyssey personal communications satellite system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spitzer, Christopher J.

1993-01-01

The spectacular growth of cellular telephone networks has proved the demand for personal communications. Large regions of the world are too sparsely populated to be economically served by terrestrial cellular communications. Since satellites are well suited to this application, TRW filed with the FCC on May 31, 1993 for the Odyssey construction permit. Odyssey will provide high quality wireless communication services worldwide from satellites. These services will include: voice, data, paging, and messaging. Odyssey will be an economical approach to providing communications. A constellation of 12 satellites will be orbited in three, 55 deg. inclined planes at an altitude of 10,354 km to provide continuous coverage of designated regions. Two satellites will be visible anywhere in the world at all times. This dual visibility leads to high line-of-sight elevation angles, minimizing obstructions by terrain, trees and buildings. Each satellite generates a multibeam antenna pattern that divides its coverage area into a set of contiguous cells. The communications system employs spread spectrum CDMA on both the uplinks and downlinks. This signaling method permits band sharing with other systems and applications. Signal processing is accomplished on the ground at the satellite's 'Gateway' stations. The 'bent pipe' transponders accommodates different regional standards, as well as signaling changes over time. The low power Odyssey handset will be cellular compatible. Multipath fade protection is provided in the handset.

Hydrocarbon deposition in gaps of tungsten and graphite tiles in Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak edge plasma parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Qian; Yang, Zhongshi; Luo, Guang-Nan

2015-09-01

The three-dimensional (3D) Monte Carlo code PIC-EDDY has been utilized to investigate the mechanism of hydrocarbon deposition in gaps of tungsten tiles in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), where the sheath potential is calculated by the 2D in space and 3D in velocity particle-in-cell method. The calculated results for graphite tiles using the same method are also presented for comparison. Calculation results show that the amount of carbon deposited in the gaps of carbon tiles is three times larger than that in the gaps of tungsten tiles when the carbon particles from re-erosion on the top surface of monoblocks are taken into account. However, the deposition amount is found to be larger in the gaps of tungsten tiles at the same CH4 flux. When chemical sputtering becomes significant as carbon coverage on tungsten increases with exposure time, the deposition inside the gaps of tungsten tiles would be considerable.

Feasibility of using global system for mobile communication (GSM)-based tracking for vaccinators to improve oral poliomyelitis vaccine campaign coverage in rural Pakistan.

PubMed

Chandir, Subhash; Dharma, Vijay Kumar; Siddiqi, Danya Arif; Khan, Aamir Javed

2017-09-05

Despite multiple rounds of immunization campaigns, it has not been possible to achieve optimum immunization coverage for poliovirus in Pakistan. Supplementary activities to improve coverage of immunization, such as door-to-door campaigns are constrained by several factors including inaccurate hand-drawn maps and a lack of means to objectively monitor field teams in real time, resulting in suboptimal vaccine coverage during campaigns. Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) - based tracking of mobile subscriber identity modules (SIMs) of vaccinators provides a low-cost solution to identify missed areas and ensure effective immunization coverage. We conducted a pilot study to investigate the feasibility of using GSM technology to track vaccinators through observing indicators including acceptability, ease of implementation, costs and scalability as well as the likelihood of ownership by District Health Officials. The real-time location of the field teams was displayed on a GSM tracking web dashboard accessible by supervisors and managers for effective monitoring of workforce attendance including 'time in-time out', and discerning if all target areas - specifically remote and high-risk locations - had been reached. Direct access to this information by supervisors eliminated the possibility of data fudging and inaccurate reporting by workers regarding their mobility. The tracking cost per vaccinator was USD 0.26/month. Our study shows that GSM-based tracking is potentially a cost-efficient approach, results in better monitoring and accountability, is scalable and provides the potential for improved geographic coverage of health services. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Structure and function of gap junction proteins: role of gap junction proteins in embryonic heart development.

PubMed

Ahir, Bhavesh K; Pratten, Margaret K

2014-01-01

Intercellular (cell-to-cell) communication is a crucial and complex mechanism during embryonic heart development. In the cardiovascular system, the beating of the heart is a dynamic and key regulatory process, which is functionally regulated by the coordinated spread of electrical activity through heart muscle cells. Heart tissues are composed of individual cells, each bearing specialized cell surface membrane structures called gap junctions that permit the intercellular exchange of ions and low molecular weight molecules. Gap junction channels are essential in normal heart function and they assist in the mediated spread of electrical impulses that stimulate synchronized contraction (via an electrical syncytium) of cardiac tissues. This present review describes the current knowledge of gap junction biology. In the first part, we summarise some relevant biochemical and physiological properties of gap junction proteins, including their structure and function. In the second part, we review the current evidence demonstrating the role of gap junction proteins in embryonic development with particular reference to those involved in embryonic heart development. Genetics and transgenic animal studies of gap junction protein function in embryonic heart development are considered and the alteration/disruption of gap junction intercellular communication which may lead to abnormal heart development is also discussed.

Bioglass promotes wound healing by affecting gap junction connexin 43 mediated endothelial cell behavior.

PubMed

Li, Haiyan; He, Jin; Yu, Hongfei; Green, Colin R; Chang, Jiang

2016-04-01

It is well known that gap junctions play an important role in wound healing, and bioactive glass (BG) has been shown to help healing when applied as a wound dressing. However, the effects of BG on gap junctional communication between cells involved in wound healing is not well understood. We hypothesized that BG may be able to affect gap junction mediated cell behavior to enhance wound healing. Therefore, we set out to investigate the effects of BG on gap junction related behavior of endothelial cells in order to elucidate the mechanisms through which BG is operating. In in vitro studies, BG ion extracts prevented death of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) following hypoxia in a dose dependent manner, possibly through connexin hemichannel modulation. In addition, BG showed stimulatory effects on gap junction communication between HUVECs and upregulated connexin43 (Cx43) expression. Furthermore, BG prompted expression of vascular endothelial growth factor and basic fibroblast growth factor as well as their receptors, and vascular endothelial cadherin in HUVECs, all of which are beneficial for vascularization. In vivo wound healing results showed that the wound closure of full-thickness excisional wounds of rats was accelerated by BG with reduced inflammation during initial stages of healing and stimulated angiogenesis during the proliferation stage. Therefore, BG can stimulate wound healing through affecting gap junctions and gap junction related endothelial cell behaviors, including prevention of endothelial cell death following hypoxia, stimulation of gap junction communication and upregulation of critical vascular growth factors, which contributes to the enhancement of angiogenesis in the wound bed and finally to accelerate wound healing. Although many studies have reported that BG stimulates angiogenesis and wound healing, this work reveals the relationship between BG and gap junction connexin 43 mediated endothelial cell behavior and elucidates one of the possible mechanisms through which BG stimulates wound healing. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pension coverage among the baby boomers: initial findings from a 1993 survey.

PubMed

Woods, J R

1994-01-01

Using data from a series of supplements to the Current Population Survey, this article presents findings on workers' coverage under employer-sponsored retirement plans in 1993, and recent trends in coverage. The analysis focuses on workers 25-54, a group that includes the baby boom generation. Among all wage and salary workers in this age range (including government employees and part-time workers), 55 percent reported participating in a retirement plan on their current primary jobs, and an additional 3 percent were covered from other jobs. After a modest decline in the early 1980's, the coverage rate has remained essentially unchanged over the past 10 years, and limited data suggest that the baby boomers are doing about as well on pension coverage as older workers at similar points in their careers. Beneath this relative stability in overall coverage, however, at least two important changes have occurred: a significant narrowing of the gender gap in coverage and a shift in types of retirement plans. Increasing numbers of workers are being covered solely by 401(k)-type plans, a development that raises new uncertainties about the form and amount of future benefits. On the other hand, limited data in this study suggest that 401(k) plans may be serving their intended purpose for the majority of workers who have them.

Federally-Assisted Healthcare Coverage among Male State Prisoners with Chronic Health Problems.

PubMed

Rosen, David L; Grodensky, Catherine A; Holley, Tara K

2016-01-01

Prisoners have higher rates of chronic diseases such as substance dependence, mental health conditions and infectious disease, as compared to the general population. We projected the number of male state prisoners with a chronic health condition who at release would be eligible or ineligible for healthcare coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). We used ACA income guidelines in conjunction with reported pre-arrest social security benefits and income from a nationally representative sample of prisoners to estimate the number eligible for healthcare coverage at release. There were 643,290 US male prisoners aged 18-64 with a chronic health condition. At release, 73% in Medicaid-expansion states would qualify for Medicaid or tax credits. In non-expansion states, 54% would qualify for tax credits, but 22% (n = 69,827) had incomes of ≤ 100% the federal poverty limit and thus would be ineligible for ACA-mediated healthcare coverage. These prisoners comprise 11% of all male prisoners with a chronic condition. The ACA was projected to provide coverage to most male state prisoners with a chronic health condition; however, roughly 70,000 fall in the "coverage gap" and may require non-routine care at emergency departments. Mechanisms are needed to secure coverage for this at risk group and address barriers to routine utilization of health services.

Tuning the tunneling magnetoresistance by using fluorinated graphene in graphene based magnetic junctions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meena, Shweta; Choudhary, Sudhanshu

2017-12-01

Spin polarized properties of fluorinated graphene as tunnel barrier with CrO2 as two HMF electrodes are studied using first principle methods based on density functional theory. Fluorinated graphene with different fluorine coverages is explored as tunnel barriers in magnetic tunnel junctions. Density functional computation for different fluorine coverages imply that with increase in fluorine coverages, there is increase in band gap (Eg) of graphene, Eg ˜ 3.466 e V was observed when graphene sheet is fluorine adsorbed on both-side with 100% coverage (CF). The results of CF graphene are compared with C4F (fluorination on one-side of graphene sheet with 25% coverage) and out-of-plane graphene based magnetic tunnel junctions. On comparison of the results it is observed that CF graphene based structure offers high TMR ˜100%, and the transport of carrier is through tunneling as there are no transmission states near Fermi level. This suggests that graphene sheet with both-side fluorination with 100% coverages acts as a perfect insulator and hence a better barrier to the carriers which is due to negligible spin down current (I ↓ ) in both Parallel Configuration (PC) and Antiparallel Configuration (APC).

The Impact of Medicare Part D on the Proportion of Out-of-Pocket Prescription Drug Costs Among Older Adults With Diabetes.

PubMed

Choi, Yoon Jeong; Jia, Haomiao; Gross, Tal; Weinger, Katie; Stone, Patricia W; Smaldone, Arlene M

2017-04-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of Medicare Part D on reducing the financial burden of prescription drugs in older adults with diabetes. Using Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data (2000-2011), interrupted time series and difference-in-difference analyses were used to examine out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs in 4,664 Medicare beneficiaries (≥65 years of age) compared with 2,938 younger, non-Medicare adults (50-60 years) with diabetes and to estimate the causal effects of Medicare Part D. Part D enrollment of Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes gradually increased from 45.7% (2006) to 52.4% (2011). Compared with years 2000-2005, out-of-pocket pharmacy costs decreased by 13.5% (SE 2.1) for all Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes following Part D implementation; on average, Part D beneficiaries had 5.3% (0.8) lower costs compared with those without Part D. Compared with a younger group with diabetes, out-of-pocket pharmacy costs decreased by 19.4% (1.7) for Medicare beneficiaries after Part D. Part D beneficiaries with diabetes who experienced the coverage gap decreased from 60.1% (2006) to 40.9% (2011) over this period. These findings demonstrate that although Medicare Part D has been effective in reducing the out-of-pocket cost burden of prescription drugs, approximately two out of five Part D beneficiaries with diabetes experienced the coverage gap in 2011. Future research is needed to examine the impact of Affordable Care Act provisions to close the coverage gap on the cost burden of prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes. © 2017 by the American Diabetes Association.

Predictors, help-seeking behaviour and treatment coverage for depression in adults in Sehore district, India

PubMed Central

Lyngdoh, Tanica; Murhar, Vaibhav; Samudre, Sandesh; Krafft, Thomas

2017-01-01

Background National Mental Health Survey found that in India, the point prevalence of major depressive disorder (MDD) was 2.7% and the treatment gap was 85.2%, whereas in Madhya Pradesh the point prevalence of MDD was 1.4% and the treatment gap was 80%. Aims To describe the baseline prevalence of depression among adults, association of various demographic and socioeconomic variables with depression and estimation of contact coverage for the same. Method Population-based cross-sectional survey of 3220 adults in Sehore district of Madhya Pradesh, India. The outcome of interest was a probable diagnosis of depression that was measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the proportion of individuals with depression (PHQ-9>9) who sought care for the same. The data were analysed using simple and multiple log-linear regression. Results Low educational attainment, unemployment and indebtedness were associated with both moderate/severe depression (PHQ-9 score >9) and severe depression only (PHQ-9 score >14), whereas age, caste and marital status were associated with only moderate or severe depression. Religion, type of house, land ownership and amount of loan taken were not associated with either moderate/severe or only severe depression. The contact coverage for moderate/severe depression was 13.08% (95% CI 10.2–16.63). Conclusions There is an urgent need to bridge the treatment gap by targeting individuals with social vulnerabilities and integrating evidence-based interventions in primary care. Declaration of interest None. Copyright and usage © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2017. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license. PMID:28904815

A systematic review and meta-analysis of community and facility-based approaches to address gaps in HIV testing and linkage in sub-Saharan Africa

PubMed Central

Sharma, Monisha; Ying, Roger; Tarr, Gillian; Barnabas, Ruanne

2016-01-01

HIV testing and counselling is the first crucial step for linkage to HIV treatment and prevention. However, despite high HIV burden in sub-Saharan Africa, testing coverage is low, particularly among young adults and men. Community-based HIV testing and counselling (testing outside of health facilities) has the potential to reduce coverage gaps, but the relative impact of different modalities is not well assessed. We conducted a systematic review of HIV testing and counselling modalities, characterizing facility and community (home, mobile, index, key populations, campaign, workplace and self-testing) approaches by population reached, HIV-positivity, CD4 count at diagnosis and linkage. Of 2,520 abstracts screened, 126 met eligibility criteria. Community HIV testing had high coverage and uptake and identified HIV-positive individuals at higher CD4 counts than facility testing. Mobile HIV testing reached the highest proportion of men of all modalities examined (50%, 95% CI = 47–54%) and home with self-testing reached the highest proportion of young adults (66%, 95% CI = 65–67%). Few studies evaluated HIV testing and counselling for key populations (commercial sex workers and men who have sex with men), but these interventions yielded high HIV positivity (38%, 95% CI = 19–62%) combined with the highest proportion of first-time testers (78%, 95% CI = 63–88%), indicating service gaps. Facilitated linkage (for example, counsellor follow-up to support linkage) achieved high linkage to care (95%, 95% CI = 87–98%) and ART initiation (75%, 95% CI = 68–82%). Expanding mobile HIV testing, self-testing and outreach to key populations with facilitated linkage can increase the proportion of men, young adults and high-risk individuals linked to HIV treatment and prevention. PMID:26633769

Is there still an immunity gap in high-level national immunization coverage, Iran?

PubMed

Zahraei, Seyed Mohsen; Eshrati, Babak; Gouya, Mohammad Mehdi; Mohammadbeigi, Abolfazl; Kamran, Aziz

2014-10-01

As there is a significant number of Iranian immigrant and illegal refugees living in marginal areas of large cities that might induce immunization gap in these areas.  The aim of this study was to provide reliable information on vaccination status of these people. A cross sectional study was conducted on children 24-47 month old who lived in the suburb areas of five large cities of Iran in 2013. Proportional cluster sampling method was used in each city and standard questionnaire of the World Health Organization applied for the purpose of data collection. The survey counts immunizations based on immunization card plus the history of vaccination according to the mother's memory. All gathered data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 16). Overall, 4502 children (49.2% female) aged 24-47 month participated in this survey among which 88.1% were Iranian and 11.9% were Afghan or other nationalities. Totally, 4479 (99.4%, CI 95%: 99.2%-99.6%) of the children had a vaccination card while 828 (18.5%, CI 95%; 15.8%-21.1%) could not present it to the interviewers. 96.8% of children were fully immunized, 3.2% were partially immunized and 0.1% were not immunized. There was no significant difference in terms of vaccine coverage among males and females. The prevalence of partially immunization in non-Iranian children was six fold of Iranian children (11.9% vs. 2%). Immunization program is implemented appropriately with high coverage rates in suburb areas of the country. However, there is still an immunity gap in non-Iranian immigrants, which should be a health system considered as a high-risk group by the health system.

Short-range communication system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Alhorn, Dean C. (Inventor); Howard, David E. (Inventor); Smith, Dennis A. (Inventor)

2012-01-01

A short-range communication system includes an antenna, a transmitter, and a receiver. The antenna is an electrical conductor formed as a planar coil with rings thereof being uniformly spaced. The transmitter is spaced apart from the plane of the coil by a gap. An amplitude-modulated and asynchronous signal indicative of a data stream of known peak amplitude is transmitted into the gap. The receiver detects the coil's resonance and decodes same to recover the data stream.

An epidemiological assessment towards elimination of rubella and congenital rubella syndrome in Singapore.

PubMed

Chua, Ying Xian; Ang, Li Wei; Low, Constance; James, Lyn; Cutter, Jeffery L; Goh, Kee Tai

2015-06-17

In line with regional and global goals for the elimination of rubella and congenital rubella syndrome (CRS), we reviewed the epidemiological situation in Singapore, based on surveillance reports on rubella and CRS, national immunization coverage and seroprevalence surveys. The aim of our review was to identify current gaps and steps taken to achieve the targets set by the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO). Epidemiological data on clinical and laboratory-confirmed rubella cases, including CRS, notified to the Communicable Diseases Division, Ministry of Health, Singapore, from 2003 to 2013 were collated and analyzed. Vaccination coverage against rubella was obtained from the National Immunization Registry and School Health Services of the Health Promotion Board. The changing prevalence of rubella was determined from periodic serological surveys. The incidence of indigenous rubella cases per million population decreased from 37.2 in 2008 to 7.6 in 2013 and there had been no indigenous case of CRS in 2012 and 2013. Therapeutic abortions performed due to rubella infections had become uncommon. The annual measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccination coverage in childhood population remained high ranging from 93% to 96%. The overall susceptibility to rubella in women aged 18-44 years had reduced significantly from 15.8% in 2004 to 11.0% in 2010. The prevalence of IgG antibody against rubella among Singapore children aged 1-17 years was maintained at 87.3% in 2008-2010. All available data indicated that Singapore has made good progress towards the elimination of rubella and CRS. It has attained the targets set by the WHO WPRO for 2015. In preparation for verification of rubella elimination, an enhanced surveillance system has been implemented to ensure that all reported cases are laboratory confirmed, and genotyping of rubella virus strains isolated is carried out to provide evidence for interruption of endemic transmission. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Net use, care and repair practices following a universal distribution campaign in Mali.

PubMed

Leonard, Lori; Diop, Samba; Doumbia, Seydou; Sadou, Aboubacar; Mihigo, Jules; Koenker, Hannah; Berthe, Sara; Monroe, April; Bertram, Kathryn; Weber, Rachel

2014-11-18

The Government of Mali and the President's Malaria Initiative conducted a long-lasting, insecticidal net (LLIN) distribution campaign in April 2011 in the Sikasso region of Mali, with the aim of universal coverage, defined as one insecticide-treated net for every two persons. This study examines how households in post- and pre-campaign regions value and care for nets. The study was conducted in October 2012 in Sikasso and Kayes in the southeast and western regions of Mali, respectively. The regions were purposively selected to allow for comparison between areas that had already had a mass distribution campaign (Sikasso) and areas that had not yet had a mass distribution campaign (Kayes). Study sites and households were randomly selected. Sleeping space questionnaires and structured interviews with household heads were conducted to obtain information on net use, perceived value of free nets in relation to other malaria prevention activities, and net care and repair practices. The study included 40 households, split evenly across the two regions. Forty interviews were conducted with household heads and 151 sleeping spaces were inventoried using the sleeping space questionnaire. Nets obtained through the free distribution were reported to be highly valued in comparison to other malaria prevention strategies. Overall, net ownership and use were higher among households in areas that had already experienced a mass distribution. While participants reported using and valuing these nets, care and repair practices varied. National net use is high in Mali, and comparatively higher in the region covered by the universal distribution campaign than in the region not yet covered. While the Government of Mali and implementing partners have made strides to ensure high net coverage, some gaps remain related to communication messaging of correct and consistent net use throughout the year, and on improving net care and repair behaviour. By focusing on these areas as well as improved access to nets, coverage and use rates should continue to increase, contributing to improvements in malaria control.

Information Sources as Explanatory Variables for the Belgian Health-Related Risk Perception of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident.

PubMed

Vyncke, Bart; Perko, Tanja; Van Gorp, Baldwin

2017-03-01

The media play an important role in risk communication, providing information about accidents, both nearby and far away. Each media source has its own presentation style, which could influence how the audience perceives the presented risk. This study investigates the explanatory power of 12 information sources (traditional media, new media, social media, and interpersonal communication) for the perceived risk posed by radiation released from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant on respondents' own health and that of the population in general. The analysis controlled for attitude toward nuclear energy, gender, education, satisfaction with the media coverage, and duration of attention paid to the coverage. The study uses a large empirical data set from a public opinion survey, which is representative for the Belgian population with respect to six sociodemographic variables. Results show that three information sources are significant regressors of perceived health-related risk of the nuclear accident: television, interpersonal communication, and the category of miscellaneous online sources. More favorable attitudes toward nuclear power, longer attention to the coverage, and higher satisfaction with the provided information lead to lower risk perception. Taken together, the results suggest that the media can indeed have a modest influence on how the audience perceives a risk. © 2016 Society for Risk Analysis.

Reduction of racial/ethnic disparities in vaccination coverage, 1995-2011.

PubMed

Walker, Allison T; Smith, Philip J; Kolasa, Maureen

2014-04-18

The Presidential Childhood Immunization Initiative was developed in 1993 to address major gaps in childhood vaccination coverage in the United States. Eliminating the cost of vaccines as a barrier to vaccination was one strategy of the Childhood Immunization Initiative; it led to Congressional legislation that authorized creation of the Vaccines for Children program (VFC) in 1994. CDC analyzed National Immunization Survey data for 1995-2011 to evaluate trends in disparities in vaccination coverage rates between non-Hispanic white children and children of other racial/ethnic groups. VFC has been effective in ireducing disparities in vaccination coverage among U.S. children. CDC's Office of Minority Health and Health Equity selected the intervention analysis and discussion that follows to provide an example of a program that has been effective in reducing childhood vaccination coverage-related disparities in the United States. At its inception in 1994, VFC was implemented in 78 Immunization Action Plan areas that covered the entire United States; within each area, concerted efforts were made to improve childhood vaccination coverage. The findings in this report demonstrate that there have been no racial/ethnic disparities in vaccine coverage for measles-mumps-rubella and poliovirus in the United States since 2005. Disparities in coverage for the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis/diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis vaccine were absent, declining, or inconsistent during this period, depending on the racial/ethnic group examined. The results in this report highlight the effectiveness of VFC.

Effectiveness of interventions that apply new media to improve vaccine uptake and vaccine coverage.

PubMed

Odone, Anna; Ferrari, Antonio; Spagnoli, Francesca; Visciarelli, Sara; Shefer, Abigail; Pasquarella, Cesira; Signorelli, Carlo

2015-01-01

Vaccine-preventable diseases (VPD) are still a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In high and middle-income settings, immunization coverage is relatively high. However, in many countries coverage rates of routinely recommended vaccines are still below the targets established by international and national advisory committees. Progress in the field of communication technology might provide useful tools to enhance immunization strategies. To systematically collect and summarize the available evidence on the effectiveness of interventions that apply new media to promote vaccination uptake and increase vaccination coverage. We conducted a systematic literature review. Studies published from January 1999 to September 2013 were identified by searching electronic resources (Pubmed, Embase), manual searches of references and expert consultation. Study setting We focused on interventions that targeted recommended vaccinations for children, adolescents and adults and: (1) aimed at increasing community demand for immunizations, or (2) were provider-based interventions. We limited the study setting to countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The primary outcome was a measure of vaccination (vaccine uptake or vaccine coverage). Considered secondary outcomes included willingness to receive immunization, attitudes and perceptions toward vaccination, and perceived helpfulness of the intervention. Nineteen studies were included in the systematic review. The majority of the studies were conducted in the US (74%, n = 14); 68% (n = 13) of the studies were experimental, the rest having an observational study design. Eleven (58%) reported results on the primary outcome. Retrieved studies explored the role of: text messaging (n.7, 37%), smartphone applications (n.1, 5%), Youtube videos (n.1, 5%), Facebook (n.1, 5%), targeted websites and portals (n.4, 21%), software for physicians and health professionals (n.4, 21%), and email communication (n.1, 5%). There is some evidence that text messaging, accessing immunization campaign websites, using patient-held web-based portals and computerized reminders increase immunization coverage rates. Insufficient evidence is available on the use of social networks, email communication and smartphone applications. Although there is great potential for improving vaccine uptake and vaccine coverage by implementing programs and interventions that apply new media, scant data are available and further rigorous research - including cost-effectiveness assessments - is needed.

Effectiveness of interventions that apply new media to improve vaccine uptake and vaccine coverage

PubMed Central

Odone, Anna; Ferrari, Antonio; Spagnoli, Francesca; Visciarelli, Sara; Shefer, Abigail; Pasquarella, Cesira; Signorelli, Carlo

2014-01-01

Background Vaccine-preventable diseases (VPD) are still a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In high and middle-income settings, immunization coverage is relatively high. However, in many countries coverage rates of routinely recommended vaccines are still below the targets established by international and national advisory committees. Progress in the field of communication technology might provide useful tools to enhance immunization strategies. Objective To systematically collect and summarize the available evidence on the effectiveness of interventions that apply new media to promote vaccination uptake and increase vaccination coverage. Design We conducted a systematic literature review. Studies published from January 1999 to September 2013 were identified by searching electronic resources (Pubmed, Embase), manual searches of references and expert consultation. Study setting We focused on interventions that targeted recommended vaccinations for children, adolescents and adults and: (1) aimed at increasing community demand for immunizations, or (2) were provider-based interventions. We limited the study setting to countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Main outcome measures The primary outcome was a measure of vaccination (vaccine uptake or vaccine coverage). Considered secondary outcomes included willingness to receive immunization, attitudes and perceptions toward vaccination, and perceived helpfulness of the intervention. Results Nineteen studies were included in the systematic review. The majority of the studies were conducted in the US (74%, n = 14); 68% (n = 13) of the studies were experimental, the rest having an observational study design. Eleven (58%) reported results on the primary outcome. Retrieved studies explored the role of: text messaging (n.7, 37%), smartphone applications (n.1, 5%), Youtube videos (n.1, 5%), Facebook (n.1, 5%), targeted websites and portals (n.4, 21%), software for physicians and health professionals (n.4, 21%), and email communication (n.1, 5%). There is some evidence that text messaging, accessing immunization campaign websites, using patient-held web-based portals and computerized reminders increase immunization coverage rates. Insufficient evidence is available on the use of social networks, email communication and smartphone applications. Conclusion Although there is great potential for improving vaccine uptake and vaccine coverage by implementing programs and interventions that apply new media, scant data are available and further rigorous research - including cost-effectiveness assessments - is needed. PMID:25483518

New Estimates of Gaps and Transitions in Health Insurance

PubMed Central

Short, Pamela Farley; Graefe, Deborah R.; Swartz, Katherine; Uberoi, Namrata

2014-01-01

Changes in individual or family circumstances cause many Americans to experience gaps and transitions in public and private health insurance. Using data from the 2004–2007 Survey of Income and Program Participation, this article updates earlier analyses of insurance gaps and transitions. Eighty-nine million people (one third of non-elderly Americans) were uninsured for at least one month during those four years. Approximately twenty-three million lost insurance more than once. The analyses call attention to the continuing instability and insecurity of health insurance, can inform implementation of national reforms, and establish a recent baseline that will be helpful in evaluating the reforms’ effects on coverage stability. PMID:22833452

TDRS-M Live Launch Coverage

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-08-18

Live launch coverage of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-M, liftoff at 8:39am EDT from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. TDRS-M is the latest spacecraft destined for the agency's constellation of communications satellites that allows nearly continuous contact with orbiting spacecraft ranging from the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope to the array of scientific observatories.

The magnitude of and health system responses to the mental health treatment gap in adults in India and China.

PubMed

Patel, Vikram; Xiao, Shuiyuan; Chen, Hanhui; Hanna, Fahmy; Jotheeswaran, A T; Luo, Dan; Parikh, Rachana; Sharma, Eesha; Usmani, Shamaila; Yu, Yu; Druss, Benjamin G; Saxena, Shekhar

2016-12-17

This Series paper describes the first systematic effort to review the unmet mental health needs of adults in China and India. The evidence shows that contact coverage for the most common mental and substance use disorders is very low. Effective coverage is even lower, even for severe disorders such as psychotic disorders and epilepsy. There are vast variations across the regions of both countries, with the highest treatment gaps in rural regions because of inequities in the distribution of mental health resources, and variable implementation of mental health policies across states and provinces. Human and financial resources for mental health are grossly inadequate with less than 1% of the national health-care budget allocated to mental health in either country. Although China and India have both shown renewed commitment through national programmes for community-oriented mental health care, progress in achieving coverage is far more substantial in China. Improvement of coverage will need to address both supply-side barriers and demand-side barriers related to stigma and varying explanatory models of mental disorders. Sharing tasks with community-based workers in a collaborative stepped-care framework is an approach that is ripe to be scaled up, in particular through integration within national priority health programmes. India and China need to invest in increasing demand for services through active engagement with the community, to strengthen service user leadership and ensure that the content and delivery of mental health programmes are culturally and contextually appropriate. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Coverage of Nutrition Interventions Intended for Infants and Young Children Varies Greatly across Programs: Results from Coverage Surveys in 5 Countries.

PubMed

Leyvraz, Magali; Aaron, Grant J; Poonawala, Alia; van Liere, Marti J; Schofield, Dominic; Myatt, Mark; Neufeld, Lynnette M

2017-05-01

Background: The efficacy of a number of interventions that include fortified complementary foods (FCFs) or other products to improve infant and young child feeding (IYCF) is well established. Programs that provide such products free or at a subsidized price are implemented in many countries around the world. Demonstrating the impact at scale of these programs has been challenging, and rigorous information on coverage and utilization is lacking. Objective: The objective of this article is to review key findings from 11 coverage surveys of IYCF programs distributing or selling FCFs or micronutrient powders in 5 countries. Methods: Programs were implemented in Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam. Surveys were implemented at different stages of program implementation between 2013 and 2015. The Fortification Assessment Coverage Toolkit (FACT) was developed to assess 3 levels of coverage (message: awareness of the product; contact: use of the product ≥1 time; and effective: regular use aligned with program-specific goals), as well as barriers and factors that facilitate coverage. Analyses included the coverage estimates, as well as an assessment of equity of coverage between the poor and nonpoor, and between those with poor and adequate child feeding practices. Results: Coverage varied greatly between countries and program models. Message coverage ranged from 29.0% to 99.7%, contact coverage from 22.6% to 94.4%, and effective coverage from 0.8% to 88.3%. Beyond creating awareness, programs that achieved high coverage were those with effective mechanisms in place to overcome barriers for both supply and demand. Conclusions: Variability in coverage was likely due to the program design, delivery model, quality of implementation, and product type. Measuring program coverage and understanding its determinants is essential for program improvement and to estimate the potential for impact of programs at scale. Use of the FACT can help overcome this evidence gap.

Coverage of Nutrition Interventions Intended for Infants and Young Children Varies Greatly across Programs: Results from Coverage Surveys in 5 Countries123

PubMed Central

Aaron, Grant J; Poonawala, Alia; van Liere, Marti J; Schofield, Dominic; Myatt, Mark

2017-01-01

Background: The efficacy of a number of interventions that include fortified complementary foods (FCFs) or other products to improve infant and young child feeding (IYCF) is well established. Programs that provide such products free or at a subsidized price are implemented in many countries around the world. Demonstrating the impact at scale of these programs has been challenging, and rigorous information on coverage and utilization is lacking. Objective: The objective of this article is to review key findings from 11 coverage surveys of IYCF programs distributing or selling FCFs or micronutrient powders in 5 countries. Methods: Programs were implemented in Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam. Surveys were implemented at different stages of program implementation between 2013 and 2015. The Fortification Assessment Coverage Toolkit (FACT) was developed to assess 3 levels of coverage (message: awareness of the product; contact: use of the product ≥1 time; and effective: regular use aligned with program-specific goals), as well as barriers and factors that facilitate coverage. Analyses included the coverage estimates, as well as an assessment of equity of coverage between the poor and nonpoor, and between those with poor and adequate child feeding practices. Results: Coverage varied greatly between countries and program models. Message coverage ranged from 29.0% to 99.7%, contact coverage from 22.6% to 94.4%, and effective coverage from 0.8% to 88.3%. Beyond creating awareness, programs that achieved high coverage were those with effective mechanisms in place to overcome barriers for both supply and demand. Conclusions: Variability in coverage was likely due to the program design, delivery model, quality of implementation, and product type. Measuring program coverage and understanding its determinants is essential for program improvement and to estimate the potential for impact of programs at scale. Use of the FACT can help overcome this evidence gap. PMID:28404839

Routine Vaccination Coverage in Northern Nigeria: Results from 40 District-Level Cluster Surveys, 2014-2015

PubMed Central

Ogbuanu, Ikechukwu U.; Adegoke, Oluwasegun J.; Scobie, Heather M.; Uba, Belinda V.; Wannemuehler, Kathleen A.; Ruiz, Alicia; Elmousaad, Hashim; Ohuabunwo, Chima J.; Mustafa, Mahmud; Nguku, Patrick; Waziri, Ndadilnasiya Endie; Vertefeuille, John F.

2016-01-01

Background Despite recent success towards controlling poliovirus transmission, Nigeria has struggled to achieve uniformly high routine vaccination coverage. A lack of reliable vaccination coverage data at the operational level makes it challenging to target program improvement. To reliably estimate vaccination coverage, we conducted district-level vaccine coverage surveys using a pre-existing infrastructure of polio technical staff in northern Nigeria. Methods Household-level cluster surveys were conducted in 40 polio high risk districts of Nigeria during 2014–2015. Global positioning system technology and intensive supervision by a pool of qualified technical staff were used to ensure high survey quality. Vaccination status of children aged 12–23 months was documented based on vaccination card or caretaker’s recall. District-level coverage estimates were calculated using survey methods. Results Data from 7,815 children across 40 districts were analyzed. District-level coverage with the third dose of diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine (DPT3) ranged widely from 1–63%, with all districts having DPT3 coverage below the target of 80%. Median coverage across all districts for each of eight vaccine doses (1 Bacille Calmette-Guérin dose, 3 DPT doses, 3 oral poliovirus vaccine doses, and 1 measles vaccine dose) was <50%. DPT3 coverage by survey was substantially lower (range: 28%–139%) than the 2013 administrative coverage reported among children aged <12 months. Common reported reasons for non-vaccination included lack of knowledge about vaccines and vaccination services (50%) and factors related to access to routine immunization services (15%). Conclusions Survey results highlighted vaccine coverage gaps that were systematically underestimated by administrative reporting across 40 polio high risk districts in northern Nigeria. Given the limitations of administrative coverage data, our approach to conducting quality district-level coverage surveys and providing data to assess and remediate issues contributing to poor vaccination coverage could serve as an example in countries with sub-optimal vaccination coverage, similar to Nigeria. PMID:27936077

Routine Vaccination Coverage in Northern Nigeria: Results from 40 District-Level Cluster Surveys, 2014-2015.

PubMed

Gunnala, Rajni; Ogbuanu, Ikechukwu U; Adegoke, Oluwasegun J; Scobie, Heather M; Uba, Belinda V; Wannemuehler, Kathleen A; Ruiz, Alicia; Elmousaad, Hashim; Ohuabunwo, Chima J; Mustafa, Mahmud; Nguku, Patrick; Waziri, Ndadilnasiya Endie; Vertefeuille, John F

2016-01-01

Despite recent success towards controlling poliovirus transmission, Nigeria has struggled to achieve uniformly high routine vaccination coverage. A lack of reliable vaccination coverage data at the operational level makes it challenging to target program improvement. To reliably estimate vaccination coverage, we conducted district-level vaccine coverage surveys using a pre-existing infrastructure of polio technical staff in northern Nigeria. Household-level cluster surveys were conducted in 40 polio high risk districts of Nigeria during 2014-2015. Global positioning system technology and intensive supervision by a pool of qualified technical staff were used to ensure high survey quality. Vaccination status of children aged 12-23 months was documented based on vaccination card or caretaker's recall. District-level coverage estimates were calculated using survey methods. Data from 7,815 children across 40 districts were analyzed. District-level coverage with the third dose of diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine (DPT3) ranged widely from 1-63%, with all districts having DPT3 coverage below the target of 80%. Median coverage across all districts for each of eight vaccine doses (1 Bacille Calmette-Guérin dose, 3 DPT doses, 3 oral poliovirus vaccine doses, and 1 measles vaccine dose) was <50%. DPT3 coverage by survey was substantially lower (range: 28%-139%) than the 2013 administrative coverage reported among children aged <12 months. Common reported reasons for non-vaccination included lack of knowledge about vaccines and vaccination services (50%) and factors related to access to routine immunization services (15%). Survey results highlighted vaccine coverage gaps that were systematically underestimated by administrative reporting across 40 polio high risk districts in northern Nigeria. Given the limitations of administrative coverage data, our approach to conducting quality district-level coverage surveys and providing data to assess and remediate issues contributing to poor vaccination coverage could serve as an example in countries with sub-optimal vaccination coverage, similar to Nigeria.

Addressing Medicaid/marketplace churn through multimarket plans: assessing the current state of play.

PubMed

Rosenbaum, Sara

2015-02-01

Both before and after the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the US health insurance system is characterized by fragmentation. Pre-ACA, this fragmentation included major coverage gaps, causing significant periods of coverage interruption, especially for lower-income people. The ACA does not end the problem of churning among sources of public financing, but it does hold the potential for enabling people to move among sources of coverage rather than go without insurance. Several strategies for reducing coverage churn exist, but none is foolproof and all are in their early stages. Thus the ability of issuers to participate across multiple public financing arrangements and to offer stable provider networks becomes crucial to achieving continuity of care. Interviews with nine companies involved in developing or operating multimarket strategies confirm the feasibility of this approach while revealing major challenges, especially the challenge of finding providers willing to treat members regardless of the source of coverage. Strategies for increasing multimarket plans and networks represent one of the great areas of future policy and operational focus. Copyright © 2015 by Duke University Press.

Immunization of Health-Care Providers: Necessity and Public Health Policies

PubMed Central

Maltezou, Helena C.; Poland, Gregory A.

2016-01-01

Health-care providers (HCPs) are at increased risk for exposure to vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) in the workplace. The rationale for immunization of HCPs relies on the need to protect them and, indirectly, their patients from health-care-associated VPDs. Published evidence indicates significant immunity gaps for VPDs of HCPs globally. Deficits in knowledge and false perceptions about VPDs and vaccines are the most common barriers for vaccine uptake and may also influence communication about vaccines between HCPs and their patients. Most countries have immunization recommendations for HCPs; however, there are no universal policies and significant heterogeneity exists between countries in terms of vaccines, schedules, frame of implementation (recommendation or mandatory), and target categories of HCPs. Mandatory influenza immunization policies for HCPs have been implemented with high vaccine uptake rates. Stronger recommendations for HCP immunization and commitment at the level of the health-care facility are critical in order to achieve high vaccine coverage rates. Given the importance to health, mandatory immunization policies for VPDs that can cause serious morbidity and mortality to vulnerable patients should be considered. PMID:27490580

Gap junction coupling is required for tumor cell migration through lymphatic endothelium.

PubMed

Karpinich, Natalie O; Caron, Kathleen M

2015-05-01

The lymphatic vasculature is a well-established conduit for metastasis, but the mechanisms by which tumor cells interact with lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) to facilitate escape remain poorly understood. Elevated levels of the lymphangiogenic peptide adrenomedullin are found in many tumors, and we previously characterized that its expression is necessary for lymphatic vessel growth within both tumors and sentinel lymph nodes and for distant metastasis. This study used a tumor cell-LEC coculture system to identify a series of adrenomedullin-induced events that facilitated transendothelial migration of the tumor cells through a lymphatic monolayer. High levels of adrenomedullin expression enhanced adhesion of tumor cells to LECs, and further analysis revealed that adrenomedullin promoted gap junction coupling between LECs as evidenced by spread of Lucifer yellow dye. Adrenomedullin also enhanced heterocellular gap junction coupling as demonstrated by Calcein dye transfer from tumor cells into LECs. This connexin-mediated gap junction intercellular communication was necessary for tumor cells to undergo transendothelial migration because pharmacological blockade of this heterocellular communication prevented the ability of tumor cells to transmigrate through the lymphatic monolayer. In addition, treatment of LECs with adrenomedullin caused nuclear translocation of β-catenin, a component of endothelial cell junctions, causing an increase in transcription of the downstream target gene C-MYC. Importantly, blockade of gap junction intercellular communication prevented β-catenin nuclear translocation. Our findings indicate that maintenance of cell-cell communication is necessary to facilitate a cascade of events that lead to tumor cell migration through the lymphatic endothelium. © 2015 American Heart Association, Inc.

Realizing Universal Health Coverage in East Africa: the relevance of human rights.

PubMed

Yamin, Alicia Ely; Maleche, Allan

2017-08-03

Applying a robust human rights framework would change thinking and decision-making in efforts to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC), and advance efforts to promote women's, children's, and adolescents' health in East Africa, which is a priority under the Sustainable Development Agenda. Nevertheless, there is a gap between global rhetoric of human rights and ongoing health reform efforts. This debate article seeks to fill part of that gap by setting out principles of human rights-based approaches (HRBAs), and then applying those principles to questions that countries undertaking efforts toward UHC and promoting women's, children's and adolescents' health, will need to face, focusing in particular on ensuring enabling legal and policy frameworks, establishing fair financing; priority-setting processes, and meaningful oversight and accountability mechanisms. In a region where democratic institutions are notoriously weak, we argue that the explicit application of a meaningful human rights framework could enhance equity, participation and accountability, and in turn the democratic legitimacy of health reform initiatives being undertaken in the region.

ScanIndel: a hybrid framework for indel detection via gapped alignment, split reads and de novo assembly.

PubMed

Yang, Rendong; Nelson, Andrew C; Henzler, Christine; Thyagarajan, Bharat; Silverstein, Kevin A T

2015-12-07

Comprehensive identification of insertions/deletions (indels) across the full size spectrum from second generation sequencing is challenging due to the relatively short read length inherent in the technology. Different indel calling methods exist but are limited in detection to specific sizes with varying accuracy and resolution. We present ScanIndel, an integrated framework for detecting indels with multiple heuristics including gapped alignment, split reads and de novo assembly. Using simulation data, we demonstrate ScanIndel's superior sensitivity and specificity relative to several state-of-the-art indel callers across various coverage levels and indel sizes. ScanIndel yields higher predictive accuracy with lower computational cost compared with existing tools for both targeted resequencing data from tumor specimens and high coverage whole-genome sequencing data from the human NIST standard NA12878. Thus, we anticipate ScanIndel will improve indel analysis in both clinical and research settings. ScanIndel is implemented in Python, and is freely available for academic use at https://github.com/cauyrd/ScanIndel.

A method for the estimate of the wall diffusion for non-axisymmetric fields using rotating external fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frassinetti, L.; Olofsson, K. E. J.; Fridström, R.; Setiadi, A. C.; Brunsell, P. R.; Volpe, F. A.; Drake, J.

2013-08-01

A new method for the estimate of the wall diffusion time of non-axisymmetric fields is developed. The method based on rotating external fields and on the measurement of the wall frequency response is developed and tested in EXTRAP T2R. The method allows the experimental estimate of the wall diffusion time for each Fourier harmonic and the estimate of the wall diffusion toroidal asymmetries. The method intrinsically considers the effects of three-dimensional structures and of the shell gaps. Far from the gaps, experimental results are in good agreement with the diffusion time estimated with a simple cylindrical model that assumes a homogeneous wall. The method is also applied with non-standard configurations of the coil array, in order to mimic tokamak-relevant settings with a partial wall coverage and active coils of large toroidal extent. The comparison with the full coverage results shows good agreement if the effects of the relevant sidebands are considered.

Wildfire Smoke and Health Risk Communication Workshop and Report

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This workshop piloted an interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder research problem formulation approach to improve understanding of knowledge gaps in health risk communication concerning wildfire smoke.

Changes in Health Insurance Coverage and Barriers to Health Care Access Among Individuals with Serious Psychological Distress Following the Affordable Care Act.

PubMed

Novak, Priscilla; Anderson, Andrew C; Chen, Jie

2018-05-12

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) aims to expand health insurance coverage and minimize financial barriers to receiving health care services for individuals. However, little is known about how the ACA has impacted individuals with mental health conditions. This study finds that the implementation of the ACA is associated with an increase in rate of health insurance coverage among nonelderly adults with serious psychological distress (SPD) and a reduction in delaying and forgoing necessary care. The ACA also reduced the odds of an individual with SPD not being able to afford mental health care. Mental health care access among racial and ethnic minority populations and people with low income has improved during 2014-2016, but gaps remain.

Anomalous Elasticity of 4He Films at the Quantum Phase Transition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shirahama, Keiya; Takahashi, Daisuke; Kogure, Takayuki; Yoshimura, Hitomi; Higashino, Rama

4 He films on solid substrates exhibit a quantum phase transition between localized (nonsuperfluid) and superfluid states by changing coverage n. We have made torsional oscillator (TO) studies for 4He films adsorbed on nanoporous glasses. A TO with localized films showed an apparent ''supersolid'' behavior, an increase in TO frequency f with broad peak in Q-1. Combining with FEM analyses for TO's with different designs, we conclude that the behavior results from the softening of adsorbed 4He films at high temperatures. The features in f and Q-1 are fitted well to a Debye-like activation with a distributed energy gap Δ, so the elasticity is accounted by thermal excitation of localized atoms to an ''extended'' state. As the critical coverage nc approaches the gap decreases to zero with a powerlaw Δ ~(n -nc) 1 . 2 . Assuming that the 4He chemical potential μ (n) is located in the middle of the gap, we can estimate the elastic constant κ-1 =n2 ∂μ / ∂n . The elasticity agrees with shear moduli of 4He films obtained from the FEM analysis within factor of three. The energetics proposed from the elastic behavior naturally explains other properties of He films adsorbed on disordered substrates.

Research in Mass Media and Face-to-Face Communication: Bridging the Gap.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Avery, Robert K.; McCain, Thomas A.

Taking the viewpoint of the receiver, this paper explores some differences between interpersonal transactions people have with each other and with the mass media. After addressing an orientation held by many communication scholars that the process of mass communication and interpersonal communication differ only in degree, the paper focuses on a…

COMPASS Final Report: Lunar Network Satellite-High Rate (LNS-HR)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

oleson, Steven R.; McGuire, Melissa L.

2012-01-01

Two design options were explored to address the requirement to provide lunar piloted missions with continuous communications for outpost and sortie missions. Two unique orbits were assessed, along with the appropriate spacecraft (S/C) to address these requirements. Both constellations (with only two S/C each) provide full time coverage (24 hr/7 d) for a south polar base and also provide continuous 7 day coverage for sorties for specified sites and periodic windows. Thus a two-satellite system can provide full coverage for sorties for selected windows of opportunity without reconfiguring the constellation.

Involvement of connexin 43 phosphorylation and gap junctional communication between smooth muscle cells in vasopressin-induced ROCK-dependent vasoconstriction after hemorrhagic shock.

PubMed

Yang, Guangming; Peng, Xiaoyong; Wu, Yue; Li, Tao; Liu, Liangming

2017-10-01

We examined the roles played by gap junctions (GJs) and the GJ channel protein connexin 43 (Cx43) in arginine vasopressin (AVP)-induced vasoconstriction after hemorrhagic shock and their relationship to Rho kinase (ROCK) and protein kinase C (PKC). The results showed that AVP induced an endothelium-independent contraction in rat superior mesenteric arteries (SMAs). Blocking the GJs significantly decreased the contractile response of SMAs and vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) to AVP after shock and hypoxia. The selective Cx43-mimetic peptide inhibited the vascular contractile effect of AVP after shock and hypoxia. AVP restored hypoxia-induced decrease of Cx43 phosphorylation at Ser 262 and gap junctional communication in VSMCs. Activation of RhoA with U-46619 increased the contractile effect of AVP. This effect was antagonized by the ROCK inhibitor Y27632 and the Cx43-mimetic peptide. In contrast, neither an agonist nor an inhibitor of PKC had significant effects on AVP-induced contraction after hemorrhagic shock. In addition, silencing of Cx43 with siRNA blocked the AVP-induced increase of ROCK activity in hypoxic VSMCs. In conclusion, AVP-mediated vascular contractile effects are endothelium and myoendothelial gap junction independent. Gap junctions between VSMCs, gap junctional communication, and Cx43 phosphorylation at Ser 262 play important roles in the vascular effects of AVP. RhoA/ROCK, but not PKC, is involved in this process. Copyright © 2017 the American Physiological Society.

Global stability of a two-mediums rumor spreading model with media coverage

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huo, Liang'an; Wang, Li; Song, Guoxiang

2017-09-01

Rumor spreading is a typical form of social communication and plays a significant role in social life, and media coverage has a great influence on the spread of rumor. In this paper, we present a new model with two media coverage to investigate the impact of the different mediums on rumor spreading. Then, we calculate the equilibria of the model and construct the reproduction number ℜ0. And we prove the global asymptotic stability of equilibria by using Lyapunov functions. Finally, we can conclude that the transition rate of the ignorants between two mediums has a direct effect on the scale of spreaders, and different media coverage has significant effects on the dynamics behaviors of rumor spreading.

GAP JUNCTION COMMUNICATON IN A TRANSFECTED HUMAN CELL LINE: ACTION OF MELATONIN AND MAGNETIC FIELDS

EPA Science Inventory

GAP JUNCTION COMMUNICTION IN TRANSFECTED HUMAN CELL LINE: ACTION OF MELATONIN AND MAGNETIC FIELDS.

OBJECTIVE: We previously showed that functional gap junction communication (GJC), as monitored by dye transfer (DT), could be enhanced in mouse C3H 10T112 cells and in mouse...

Meclofenamic acid blocks the gap junction communication between the retinal pigment epithelial cells.

PubMed

Ning, N; Wen, Y; Li, Y; Li, J

2013-11-01

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are commonly used to manage the pain and inflammation. NSAIDs can cause serious side effects, including vision problems. However, the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effect of meclofenamic acid (MFA) on retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). In our study, we applied image analysis and whole-cell patch clamp recording to directly measure the effect of MFA on the gap junctional coupling between RPE cells. Analysis of Lucifer yellow (LY) transfer revealed that the gap junction communication existed between RPE cells. Functional experiments using the whole-cell configuration of the patch clamp technique showed that a gap junction conductance also existed between this kind of cells. Importantly, MFA largely inhibited the gap junction conductance and induced the uncoupling of RPE cells. Other NSAIDs, like aspirin and flufenamic acid (FFA), had the same effect. The gap junction functionally existed in RPE cells, which can be blocked by MFA. These findings may explain, at least partially, the vision problems with certain clinically used NSAIDs.

Practices of depression care in home health care: Home health clinician perspectives

PubMed Central

Bao, Yuhua; Eggman, Ashley A.; Richardson, Joshua E.; Sheeran, Thomas; Bruce, Martha L.

2015-01-01

Objective To assess any gaps between published best practices and real-world practices of treating depression in home health care (HHC), and barriers to closing any gaps. Methods A qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with HHC nurses and administrators from five home health agencies in five states (n=20). Audio-recorded interviews were transcribed and analyzed by a multi-disciplinary team using grounded theory method to identify themes. Results Routine home health nursing care overlapped with all functional areas of depression care. However, there were reported gaps between best practices and real-world practices. Gaps were associated with perceived scope of practice by HHC nurses, knowledge gaps and low self-efficacy in depression treatment, stigma attached to depression, poor quality of antidepressant management in primary care, and poor communication between HHC and primary care. Conclusions Strategies to close gaps between typical and best practices need to enhance HHC clinician knowledge and self-efficacy with depression treatment and improve the quality of antidepressant management and communication with primary care. PMID:26423098

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (79th, Anaheim, CA, August 10-13, 1996). Status of Women and Minorities and Communication Division.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

The Status of Women and Minorities and Communication section of the proceedings contains the following 14 papers: "Who Harasses Women Journalists? A Qualitative Look at Sexual Harassment among U.S. Newswomen" (Kim Walsh-Childers and others); "Not There Yet--Coverage of Women in Foreign News: A 1995 Multi-National Study" (Anat…

Changes in health insurance for US children and their parents: comparing 2003 to 2008.

PubMed

Angier, Heather; DeVoe, Jennifer E; Tillotson, Carrie; Wallace, Lorraine

2013-01-01

Recent policy changes have affected access to health insurance for families in the United States. Private health insurance premiums have increased, and state Medicaid programs have cut back coverage for adults. Concurrently, the Children's Health Insurance Program has made public insurance available to more children. We aimed to better understand how child and parent health insurance coverage patterns may have changed as a result of these policies. We analyzed data from the nationally representative Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, comparing cohorts from 2003 and 2008. We assessed cross-sectional and full-year coverage patterns for child/parent pairs, stratified by income. We conducted chi-square tests to assess significant differences in coverage over time. Middle-income child/parent pairs had the most significant changes in their coverage patterns. For example, those with full-year health insurance coverage significantly decreased from 85.4% in 2003 to 80.6% in 2008. There was also an increase in uninsured middle-income child/parent pairs for the full year (5.6% in 2003 to 8.3% in 2008) and an increase in pairs who had a gap in coverage (9.7% in 2003 to 13.0% in 2008). The percentage of middle-income child/parent pairs who were lacking insurance, for part or all of the year, has risen, suggesting that these families may be caught between affording private coverage and being eligible for public coverage. Unless private coverage becomes more affordable, insurance instability among middle-income families may persist despite the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

A global survey on occupational health services in selected international commission on occupational health (ICOH) member countries.

PubMed

Rantanen, Jorma; Lehtinen, Suvi; Valenti, Antonio; Iavicoli, Sergio

2017-10-05

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH), and the European Union (EU) have encouraged countries to organize occupational health services (OHS) for all working people irrespective of the sector of economy, size of enterprise or mode of employment of the worker. The objective of this study was to survey the status of OHS in a sample of countries from all continents. A questionnaire focusing on the main aspects of OHS was developed on the basis of ILO Convention No. 161 and several other questionnaire surveys used in various target groups of OHS. The questionnaire was sent to 58 key informants: ICOH National Secretaries. A total of 49 National Secretaries responded (response rate 84.5%), from countries that employ 70% of the total world labour force. The majority of the respondent countries, 67%, had drawn up an OHS policy and implement it with the help of national occupational safety and health (OSH) authorities, institutes of occupational health or respective bodies, universities, and professional associations. Multidisciplinary expert OHS resources were available in the majority (82%) of countries, but varied widely in quantitative terms. The average OHS coverage of workers was 24.8%, with wide variation between countries. In over two thirds (69%) of the countries, the content of services was mixed, consisting of preventive and curative services, and in 29% preventive only. OHS financing was organized according to a mixed model among 63% and by employers only among 33% of the respondents. The majority of countries have drawn up policies, strategies and programmes for OHS. The infrastructures and institutional and human resources for the implementation of strategies, however, remain insufficient in the majority of countries (implementation gap). Qualitatively, the content and multidisciplinary nature of OHS corresponds to international guidance, but the coverage, comprehensiveness and content of services remain largely incomplete due to a lack of infrastructure and shortage of multiprofessional human resources (capacity gap). The estimated coverage of services in the study group was low; only a quarter of the total employed population (coverage gap).

Full-Coverage High-Resolution Daily PM(sub 2.5) Estimation using MAIAC AOD in the Yangtze River Delta of China

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Xiao, Qingyang; Wang, Yujie; Chang, Howard H.; Meng, Xia; Geng, Guannan; Lyapustin, Alexei Ivanovich; Liu, Yang

2017-01-01

Satellite aerosol optical depth (AOD) has been used to assess population exposure to fine particulate matter (PM (sub 2.5)). The emerging high-resolution satellite aerosol product, Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction(MAIAC), provides a valuable opportunity to characterize local-scale PM(sub 2.5) at 1-km resolution. However, non-random missing AOD due to cloud snow cover or high surface reflectance makes this task challenging. Previous studies filled the data gap by spatially interpolating neighboring PM(sub 2.5) measurements or predictions. This strategy ignored the effect of cloud cover on aerosol loadings and has been shown to exhibit poor performance when monitoring stations are sparse or when there is seasonal large-scale missngness. Using the Yangtze River Delta of China as an example, we present a Multiple Imputation (MI) method that combines the MAIAC high-resolution satellite retrievals with chemical transport model (CTM) simulations to fill missing AOD. A two-stage statistical model driven by gap-filled AOD, meteorology and land use information was then fitted to estimate daily ground PM(sub 2.5) concentrations in 2013 and 2014 at 1 km resolution with complete coverage in space and time. The daily MI models have an average R(exp 2) of 0.77, with an inter-quartile range of 0.71 to 0.82 across days. The overall Ml model 10-fold cross-validation R(exp 2) (root mean square error) were 0.81 (25 gm(exp 3)) and 0.73 (18 gm(exp 3)) for year 2013 and 2014, respectively. Predictions with only observational AOD or only imputed AOD showed similar accuracy.Comparing with previous gap-filling methods, our MI method presented in this study performed bette rwith higher coverage, higher accuracy, and the ability to fill missing PM(sub 2.5) predictions without ground PM(sub 2.5) measurements. This method can provide reliable PM(sub 2.5)predictions with complete coverage that can reduce biasin exposure assessment in air pollution and health studies.

Gaps and opportunities for the World Heritage Convention to contribute to global wilderness conservation.

PubMed

Allan, James R; Kormos, Cyril; Jaeger, Tilman; Venter, Oscar; Bertzky, Bastian; Shi, Yichuan; Mackey, Brendan; van Merm, Remco; Osipova, Elena; Watson, James E M

2018-02-01

Wilderness areas are ecologically intact landscapes predominantly free of human uses, especially industrial-scale activities that result in substantial biophysical disturbance. This definition does not exclude land and resource use by local communities who depend on such areas for subsistence and bio-cultural connections. Wilderness areas are important for biodiversity conservation and sustain key ecological processes and ecosystem services that underpin planetary life-support systems. Despite these widely recognized benefits and values of wilderness, they are insufficiently protected and are consequently being rapidly eroded. There are increasing calls for multilateral environmental agreements to make a greater and more systematic contribution to wilderness conservation before it is too late. We created a global map of remaining terrestrial wilderness following the established last-of-the-wild method, which identifies the 10% of areas with the lowest human pressure within each of Earth's 62 biogeographic realms and identifies the 10 largest contiguous areas and all contiguous areas >10,000 km 2 . We used our map to assess wilderness coverage by the World Heritage Convention and to identify gaps in coverage. We then identified large nationally designated protected areas with good wilderness coverage within these gaps. One-quarter of natural and mixed (i.e., sites of both natural and cultural value) World Heritage Sites (WHS) contained wilderness (total of 545,307 km 2 ), which is approximately 1.8% of the world's wilderness extent. Many WHS had excellent wilderness coverage, for example, the Okavango Delta in Botswana (11,914 km 2 ) and the Central Suriname Nature Reserve (16,029 km 2 ). However, 22 (35%) of the world's terrestrial biorealms had no wilderness representation within WHS. We identified 840 protected areas of >500 km 2 that were predominantly wilderness (>50% of their area) and represented 18 of the 22 missing biorealms. These areas offer a starting point for assessing the potential for the designation of new WHSs that could help increase wilderness representation on the World Heritage list. We urge the World Heritage Convention to ensure that the ecological integrity and outstanding universal value of existing WHS with wilderness values are preserved. © 2017 Society for Conservation Biology.

Japan's telecommunications - New initiatives in space communications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iida, T.

1992-04-01

Despite recent advances in optical transmission technology, intensive R&D work in the field of satellite communications is now being undertaken in Japan. It is believed that satellites offer advantages in several important areas, including wide coverage broadcasting, immediacy of service, suitability for the implementation of HDTV, and advantages in disaster communications and other social services. Here, some experimental projects in the field of satellite communications planned in Japan for the 1990s are summarized. In particular, attention is given to broadcast satellite development, intersatellite links, advanced mobile communication concepts, large antenna assembly experiment, small satellite R&D, and Pan-Pacific information network experiment.

Implementing shared decision making in federally qualified health centers, a quasi-experimental design study: the Office-Guidelines Applied to Practice (Office-GAP) program.

PubMed

Olomu, Adesuwa; Hart-Davidson, William; Luo, Zhehui; Kelly-Blake, Karen; Holmes-Rovner, Margaret

2016-08-02

Use of Shared Decision-Making (SDM) and Decision Aids (DAs) has been encouraged but is not regularly implemented in primary care. The Office-Guidelines Applied to Practice (Office-GAP) intervention is an application of a previous model revised to address guidelines based care for low-income populations with diabetes and coronary heart disease (CHD). To evaluate Office-GAP Program feasibility and preliminary efficacy on medication use, patient satisfaction with physician communication and confidence in decision in low-income population with diabetes and coronary heart disease (CHD) in a Federally Qualified Healthcare Center (FQHC). Ninety-five patients participated in an Office-GAP program. A quasi-experimental design study, over 6 months with 12-month follow-up. Office-GAP program integrates health literacy, communication skills education for patients and physicians, patient/physician decision support tools and SDM into routine care. 1) Implementation rates of planned program elements 2) Patient satisfaction with communication and confidence in decision, and 3) Medication prescription rates. We used the GEE method for hierarchical logistic models, controlling for confounding. Feasibility of the Office-GAP program in the FQHC setting was established. We found significant increase in use of Aspirin/Plavix, statin and beta-blocker during follow-up compared to baseline: Aspirin OR 1.5 (95 % CI: 1.1, 2.2) at 3-months, 1.9 (1.3, 2.9) at 6-months, and 1.8 (1.2, 2.8) at 12-months. Statin OR 1.1 (1.0, 1.3) at 3-months and 1.5 (1.1, 2.2) at 12-months; beta-blocker 1.8 (1.1, 2.9) at 6-months and 12-months. Program elements were consistently used (≥ 98 % clinic attendance at training and tool used). Patient satisfaction with communication and confidence in decision increased. The use of Office-GAP program to teach SDM and use of DAs in real time was demonstrated to be feasible in FQHCs. It has the potential to improve satisfaction with physician communication and confidence in decisions and to improve medication use. The Office-GAP program is a brief, efficient platform for delivering patient and provider education in SDM and could serve as a model for implementing guideline based care for all chronic diseases in outpatient clinical settings. Further evaluation is needed to establish feasibility outside clinical study, reach, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of this approach.

Towards the 75th Anniversary

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Slingsby, David

2016-01-01

The "Journal of Biological Education" is firmly established as the authoritative voice in the world of biological education. The journal aims to bridge the gap between research and practice, providing information, ideas and opinion, in addition to critical examinations of advances in biology research and teaching. Through the coverage of…

Conceptual Gaps in Circuits Textbooks: A Comparative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sangam, Deepika; Jesiek, Brent K.

2015-01-01

Many university-level electrical engineering courses continue to use textbooks as curriculum scaffolds, prescribed texts, and/or reference volumes. Textbook reliance is even more pronounced in courses that teach foundational principles of the discipline, such as introductory circuit theory. This paper reports on the conceptual coverage of…

Data rate enhancement of optical camera communications by compensating inter-frame gaps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nguyen, Duy Thong; Park, Youngil

2017-07-01

Optical camera communications (OCC) is a convenient way of transmitting data between LED lamps and image sensors that are included in most smart devices. Although many schemes have been suggested to increase the data rate of the OCC system, it is still much lower than that of the photodiode-based LiFi system. One major reason of this low data rate is attributed to the inter-frame gap (IFG) of image sensor system, that is, the time gap between consecutive image frames. In this paper, we propose a way to compensate for this IFG efficiently by an interleaved Hamming coding scheme. The proposed scheme is implemented and the performance is measured.

Riding the rollercoaster: the ups and downs in out-of-pocket spending under the standard Medicare drug benefit.

PubMed

Stuart, Bruce; Briesacher, Becky A; Shea, Dennis G; Cooper, Barbara; Baysac, Fatima S; Limcangco, M Rhona

2005-01-01

This study projects how much Medicare beneficiaries who sign up for the standard Part D drug benefit in 2006 will pay in quarterly out-of-pocket payments through 2008. In the first year we estimate that about 38 percent of enrollees will hit the benefit's no-coverage zone, known as the "doughnut hole," and that 14 percent will exceed the catastrophic threshold. Because drug spending is highly persistent over time, beneficiaries who experience the biggest gaps in coverage are likely to do so year after year, with potentially serious financial consequences.

14 CFR 125.203 - Communication and navigation equipment.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... very high frequency communications gap. [Doc. No. FAA-2002-14002, 72 FR 31682, June 7, 2007] ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Communication and navigation equipment. 125.203 Section 125.203 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF...

14 CFR 125.203 - Communication and navigation equipment.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... very high frequency communications gap. [Doc. No. FAA-2002-14002, 72 FR 31682, June 7, 2007] ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Communication and navigation equipment. 125.203 Section 125.203 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF...

14 CFR 125.203 - Communication and navigation equipment.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... very high frequency communications gap. [Doc. No. FAA-2002-14002, 72 FR 31682, June 7, 2007] ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Communication and navigation equipment. 125.203 Section 125.203 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF...

14 CFR 125.203 - Communication and navigation equipment.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... very high frequency communications gap. [Doc. No. FAA-2002-14002, 72 FR 31682, June 7, 2007] ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Communication and navigation equipment. 125.203 Section 125.203 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF...

14 CFR 125.203 - Communication and navigation equipment.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... very high frequency communications gap. [Doc. No. FAA-2002-14002, 72 FR 31682, June 7, 2007] ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Communication and navigation equipment. 125.203 Section 125.203 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF...

Communication and Rural Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bordenave, Juan E. Diaz

This volume posits the existence of a gap between theory and practice in rural-development efforts involving communication media and provides suggestions for integrating the efforts of theoreticians and practitioners. Chapter one briefly reviews the development of theoretical concepts about the nature of communication and the use of communication…

State of inequality in malaria intervention coverage in sub-Saharan African countries.

PubMed

Galactionova, Katya; Smith, Thomas A; de Savigny, Don; Penny, Melissa A

2017-10-18

Scale-up of malaria interventions over the last decade have yielded a significant reduction in malaria transmission and disease burden in sub-Saharan Africa. We estimated economic gradients in the distribution of these efforts and of their impacts within and across endemic countries. Using Demographic and Health Surveys we computed equity metrics to characterize the distribution of malaria interventions in 30 endemic countries proxying economic position with an asset-wealth index. Gradients were summarized in a concentration index, tabulated against level of coverage, and compared among interventions, across countries, and against respective trends over the period 2005-2015. There remain broad differences in coverage of malaria interventions and their distribution by wealth within and across countries. In most, economic gradients are lacking or favor the poorest for vector control; malaria services delivered through the formal healthcare sector are much less equitable. Scale-up of interventions in many countries improved access across the wealth continuum; in some, these efforts consistently prioritized the poorest. Expansions in control programs generally narrowed coverage gaps between economic strata; gradients persist in countries where growth was slower in the poorest quintile or where baseline inequality was large. Despite progress, malaria is consistently concentrated in the poorest, with the degree of inequality in burden far surpassing that expected given gradients in the distribution of interventions. Economic gradients in the distribution of interventions persist over time, limiting progress toward equity in malaria control. We found that, in countries with large baseline inequality in the distribution of interventions, even a small bias in expansion favoring the least poor yielded large gradients in intervention coverage while pro-poor growth failed to close the gap between the poorest and least poor. We demonstrated that dimensions of disadvantage compound for the poor; a lack of economic gradients in the distribution of malaria services does not translate to equity in coverage nor can it be interpreted to imply equity in distribution of risk or disease burden. Our analysis testifies to the progress made by countries in narrowing economic gradients in malaria interventions and highlights the scope for continued monitoring of programs with respect to equity.

Filling in the GAPS: evaluating completeness and coverage of open-access biodiversity databases in the United States

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Troia, Matthew J.; McManamay, Ryan A.

Primary biodiversity data constitute observations of particular species at given points in time and space. Open-access electronic databases provide unprecedented access to these data, but their usefulness in characterizing species distributions and patterns in biodiversity depend on how complete species inventories are at a given survey location and how uniformly distributed survey locations are along dimensions of time, space, and environment. Our aim was to compare completeness and coverage among three open-access databases representing ten taxonomic groups (amphibians, birds, freshwater bivalves, crayfish, freshwater fish, fungi, insects, mammals, plants, and reptiles) in the contiguous United States. We compiled occurrence records frommore » the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS), and federally administered fish surveys (FFS). In this study, we aggregated occurrence records by 0.1° × 0.1° grid cells and computed three completeness metrics to classify each grid cell as well-surveyed or not. Next, we compared frequency distributions of surveyed grid cells to background environmental conditions in a GIS and performed Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests to quantify coverage through time, along two spatial gradients, and along eight environmental gradients. The three databases contributed >13.6 million reliable occurrence records distributed among >190,000 grid cells. The percent of well-surveyed grid cells was substantially lower for GBIF (5.2%) than for systematic surveys (BBS and FFS; 82.5%). Still, the large number of GBIF occurrence records produced at least 250 well-surveyed grid cells for six of nine taxonomic groups. Coverages of systematic surveys were less biased across spatial and environmental dimensions but were more biased in temporal coverage compared to GBIF data. GBIF coverages also varied among taxonomic groups, consistent with commonly recognized geographic, environmental, and institutional sampling biases. Lastly, this comprehensive assessment of biodiversity data across the contiguous United States provides a prioritization scheme to fill in the gaps by contributing existing occurrence records to the public domain and planning future surveys.« less

Filling in the GAPS: evaluating completeness and coverage of open-access biodiversity databases in the United States

DOE PAGES

Troia, Matthew J.; McManamay, Ryan A.

2016-06-12

Primary biodiversity data constitute observations of particular species at given points in time and space. Open-access electronic databases provide unprecedented access to these data, but their usefulness in characterizing species distributions and patterns in biodiversity depend on how complete species inventories are at a given survey location and how uniformly distributed survey locations are along dimensions of time, space, and environment. Our aim was to compare completeness and coverage among three open-access databases representing ten taxonomic groups (amphibians, birds, freshwater bivalves, crayfish, freshwater fish, fungi, insects, mammals, plants, and reptiles) in the contiguous United States. We compiled occurrence records frommore » the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS), and federally administered fish surveys (FFS). In this study, we aggregated occurrence records by 0.1° × 0.1° grid cells and computed three completeness metrics to classify each grid cell as well-surveyed or not. Next, we compared frequency distributions of surveyed grid cells to background environmental conditions in a GIS and performed Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests to quantify coverage through time, along two spatial gradients, and along eight environmental gradients. The three databases contributed >13.6 million reliable occurrence records distributed among >190,000 grid cells. The percent of well-surveyed grid cells was substantially lower for GBIF (5.2%) than for systematic surveys (BBS and FFS; 82.5%). Still, the large number of GBIF occurrence records produced at least 250 well-surveyed grid cells for six of nine taxonomic groups. Coverages of systematic surveys were less biased across spatial and environmental dimensions but were more biased in temporal coverage compared to GBIF data. GBIF coverages also varied among taxonomic groups, consistent with commonly recognized geographic, environmental, and institutional sampling biases. Lastly, this comprehensive assessment of biodiversity data across the contiguous United States provides a prioritization scheme to fill in the gaps by contributing existing occurrence records to the public domain and planning future surveys.« less

A Coral Reef Algorithm Based on Learning Automata for the Coverage Control Problem of Heterogeneous Directional Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Li, Ming; Miao, Chunyan; Leung, Cyril

2015-01-01

Coverage control is one of the most fundamental issues in directional sensor networks. In this paper, the coverage optimization problem in a directional sensor network is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem. It takes into account the coverage rate of the network, the number of working sensor nodes and the connectivity of the network. The coverage problem considered in this paper is characterized by the geographical irregularity of the sensed events and heterogeneity of the sensor nodes in terms of sensing radius, field of angle and communication radius. To solve this multi-objective problem, we introduce a learning automata-based coral reef algorithm for adaptive parameter selection and use a novel Tchebycheff decomposition method to decompose the multi-objective problem into a single-objective problem. Simulation results show the consistent superiority of the proposed algorithm over alternative approaches. PMID:26690162

A Coral Reef Algorithm Based on Learning Automata for the Coverage Control Problem of Heterogeneous Directional Sensor Networks.

PubMed

Li, Ming; Miao, Chunyan; Leung, Cyril

2015-12-04

Coverage control is one of the most fundamental issues in directional sensor networks. In this paper, the coverage optimization problem in a directional sensor network is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem. It takes into account the coverage rate of the network, the number of working sensor nodes and the connectivity of the network. The coverage problem considered in this paper is characterized by the geographical irregularity of the sensed events and heterogeneity of the sensor nodes in terms of sensing radius, field of angle and communication radius. To solve this multi-objective problem, we introduce a learning automata-based coral reef algorithm for adaptive parameter selection and use a novel Tchebycheff decomposition method to decompose the multi-objective problem into a single-objective problem. Simulation results show the consistent superiority of the proposed algorithm over alternative approaches.

Dominant frames in legacy and social media coverage of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Neill, Saffron; Williams, Hywel T. P.; Kurz, Tim; Wiersma, Bouke; Boykoff, Maxwell

2015-04-01

The media are powerful agents that translate information across the science-policy interface, framing it for audiences. Yet frames are never neutral: they define an issue, identify causes, make moral judgements and shape proposed solutions. Here, we show how the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) was framed in UK and US broadcast and print coverage, and on Twitter. Coverage of IPCC Working Group I (WGI) was contested and politicized, employing the `Settled Science, Uncertain Science, Political or Ideological Struggle and Role of Science’ frames. WGII coverage commonly used Disaster or Security. More diverse frames were employed for WGII and WGIII, including Economics and Morality and Ethics. Framing also varied by media institution: for example, the BBC used Uncertain Science, whereas Channel 4 did not. Coverage varied by working group, with WGIII gaining far less coverage than WGI or WGII. We suggest that media coverage and framing of AR5 was influenced by its sequential three-part structure and by the availability of accessible narratives and visuals. We recommend that these communication lessons be applied to future climate science reports.

Node Deployment Algorithm Based on Connected Tree for Underwater Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Jiang, Peng; Wang, Xingmin; Jiang, Lurong

2015-01-01

Designing an efficient deployment method to guarantee optimal monitoring quality is one of the key topics in underwater sensor networks. At present, a realistic approach of deployment involves adjusting the depths of nodes in water. One of the typical algorithms used in such process is the self-deployment depth adjustment algorithm (SDDA). This algorithm mainly focuses on maximizing network coverage by constantly adjusting node depths to reduce coverage overlaps between two neighboring nodes, and thus, achieves good performance. However, the connectivity performance of SDDA is irresolute. In this paper, we propose a depth adjustment algorithm based on connected tree (CTDA). In CTDA, the sink node is used as the first root node to start building a connected tree. Finally, the network can be organized as a forest to maintain network connectivity. Coverage overlaps between the parent node and the child node are then reduced within each sub-tree to optimize coverage. The hierarchical strategy is used to adjust the distance between the parent node and the child node to reduce node movement. Furthermore, the silent mode is adopted to reduce communication cost. Simulations show that compared with SDDA, CTDA can achieve high connectivity with various communication ranges and different numbers of nodes. Moreover, it can realize coverage as high as that of SDDA with various sensing ranges and numbers of nodes but with less energy consumption. Simulations under sparse environments show that the connectivity and energy consumption performances of CTDA are considerably better than those of SDDA. Meanwhile, the connectivity and coverage performances of CTDA are close to those depth adjustment algorithms base on connected dominating set (CDA), which is an algorithm similar to CTDA. However, the energy consumption of CTDA is less than that of CDA, particularly in sparse underwater environments. PMID:26184209

Mapping how information about childhood vaccination is communicated in two regions of Cameroon: What is done and where are the gaps?

PubMed

Ames, Heather; Njang, Diangha Mabel; Glenton, Claire; Fretheim, Atle; Kaufman, Jessica; Hill, Sophie; Oku, Afiong; Cliff, Julie; Cartier, Yuri; Bosch-Capblanch, Xavier; Rada, Gabriel; Muloliwa, Artur; Oyo-Ita, Angela; Lewin, Simon

2015-12-21

The 'Communicate to vaccinate' (COMMVAC) project builds research evidence for improving communication with parents and communities about childhood vaccinations in low- and middle-income countries. Understanding and mapping the range of vaccination communication strategies used in different settings is an important component of this work. In this part of the COMMVAC project, our objectives were: (1) to identify the vaccination communication interventions used in two regions of Cameroon; (2) to apply the COMMVAC taxonomy, a global taxonomy of vaccination communication interventions, to these communication interventions to help us classify these interventions, including their purposes and target audiences; and identify whether gaps in purpose or target audiences exist; (3) to assess the COMMVAC taxonomy as a research tool for data collection and analysis. We used the following qualitative methods to identify communication strategies in the Central and North West Regions of Cameroon in the first half of 2014: interviews with program managers, non-governmental organizations, vaccinators, parents and community members; observations and informal conversations during routine immunization clinics and three rounds of the National Polio Immunization Campaign; and document analysis of reports and mass media communications about vaccination. A survey of parents and caregivers was also done. We organised the strategies using the COMMVAC taxonomy and produced a map of Cameroon-specific interventions, which we presented to local stakeholders for feedback. Our map of the interventions used in Cameroon suggests that most childhood vaccination communication interventions focus on national campaigns against polio rather than routine immunisation. The map also indicates that most communication interventions target communities more broadly, rather than parents, and that very few interventions target health workers. The majority of the communication interventions aimed to inform or educate or remind or recall members of the community about vaccination. The COMMVAC taxonomy provided a useful framework for quickly and simply mapping existing vaccination communication strategies. By identifying the interventions used in Cameroon and developing an intervention map, we allowed stakeholders to see where they were concentrating their communication efforts and where gaps exist, allowing them to reflect on whether changes are needed to the communication strategies they are using.

Near Earth Network (NEN) CubeSat Communications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schaire, Scott

2017-01-01

The NASA Near Earth Network (NEN) consists of globally distributed tracking stations, including NASA, commercial, and partner ground stations, that are strategically located to maximize the coverage provided to a variety of orbital and suborbital missions, including those in LEO (Low Earth Orbit), GEO (Geosynchronous Earth Orbit), HEO (Highly Elliptical Orbit), lunar and L1-L2 orbits. The NEN's future mission set includes and will continue to include CubeSat missions. The first NEN-supported CubeSat mission will be the Cubesat Proximity Operations Demonstration (CPOD) launching into LEO in 2017. The majority of the CubeSat missions destined to fly on EM-1, launching in late 2018, many in a lunar orbit, will communicate with ground-based stations via X-band and will utilize the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)-developed IRIS (Satellite Communication for Air Traffic Management) radio. The NEN recognizes the important role CubeSats are beginning to play in carrying out NASAs mission and is therefore investigating the modifications needed to provide IRIS radio compatibility. With modification, the NEN could potentially expand support to the EM-1 (Exploration Mission-1) lunar CubeSats. The NEN could begin providing significant coverage to lunar CubeSat missions utilizing three to four of the NEN's mid-latitude sites. This coverage would supplement coverage provided by the JPL Deep Space Network (DSN). The NEN, with smaller apertures than DSN, provides the benefit of a larger beamwidth that could be beneficial in the event of uncertain ephemeris data. In order to realize these benefits the NEN would need to upgrade stations targeted based on coverage ability and current configuration ease of upgrade, to ensure compatibility with the IRIS radio. In addition, the NEN is working with CubeSat radio developers to ensure NEN compatibility with alternative CubeSat radios for Lunar and L1-L2 CubeSats. The NEN has provided NEN compatibility requirements to several radio developers who are developing radios that offer lower cost and, in some cases, more capabilities with fewer constraints. The NEN is ready to begin supporting CubeSat missions. The NEN is considering network upgrades to broaden the types of CubeSat missions that can be supported and is supporting both the CubeSat community and radio developers to ensure future CubeSat missions have multiple options when choosing a network for their communications support.

Developing a Communication Strategy for Protecting Children. Report on Problem Definition Analysis Presented to: The Stuart Foundations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brandon, Richard N.; Gordon, Andrew; Gordon, Margaret T.; Messerschmidt, David; Mitchell, Lorelei

The Human Services Policy Center of Washington undertook a study of communication strategies for protecting children because of the perception among many leading child protection professionals that a distorted pattern of media coverage is driving child protection policies toward responding to the small proportion of atypical cases which the media…

The Effects of Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency on Communicative Adequacy in Oral Task Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Révész, Andrea; Ekiert, Monika; Torgersen, Eivind Nessa

2016-01-01

Communicative adequacy is a key construct in second language research, as the primary goal of most language learners is to communicate successfully in real-world situations. Nevertheless, little is known about what linguistic features contribute to communicatively adequate speech. This study fills this gap by investigating the extent to which…

Evaluating MyPlate: An Expanded Framework Using Traditional and Nontraditional Metrics for Assessing Health Communication Campaigns

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levine, Elyse; Abbatangelo-Gray, Jodie; Mobley, Amy R.; McLaughlin, Grant R.; Herzog, Jill

2012-01-01

MyPlate, the icon and multimodal communication plan developed for the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA), provides an opportunity to consider new approaches to evaluating the effectiveness of communication initiatives. A review of indicators used in assessments for previous DGA communication initiatives finds gaps in accounting for…

Bridging the Gap between Second Language Researchers and Teachers: Lessons Learned

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mady, Callie

2012-01-01

With a view to bridging the gap between elementary (primary) and secondary school second language teachers and researchers, the study reported in this paper identified differences in language register, educators' lack of access to research articles and lack of shared space for researchers and educators to communicate as causes of the gap. There is…

Connexin43 synthesis, phosphorylation, and degradation in regulation of transient inhibition of gap junction intercellular communication by the phorbol ester TPA in rat liver epithelial cells.

PubMed

Rivedal, Edgar; Leithe, Edward

2005-01-15

The tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) induces transient inhibition of gap junction intercellular communication (GJIC) in several cell types. The initial block in GJIC has been attributed to protein kinase C (PKC) mediated phosphorylation of connexin gap junction proteins, including connexin43 (Cx43). Restoration of GJIC, associated with normalization of the Cx43 phosphorylation status, has been ascribed to different events, including dephosphorylation of Cx43 and de novo synthesis of Cx43 or other, non-gap junctional, proteins. The data presented suggest that restoration of GJIC during continuous TPA exposure in normal and transformed rat liver epithelial cells is dependent on synthesis of Cx43 protein, as well as the transport of already synthesized Cx43 from intracellular pools to the plasma membrane. Reactivation of inactivated Cx43 by dephosphorylation does not appear to be involved in the recovery of GJIC. Both PKC and MAP kinase is involved in TPA-induced degradation of Cx43 and inhibition of GJIC. We show that coincubation of TPA with the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide or the transcription inhibitor actinomycin D results in synergistic enhancement of the level of activated ERK1/2. Together, the present data highlight Cx43 degradation and synthesis as critical determinants in TPA-induced modifications of cell-cell communication via gap junctions.

Secure Military Communications on 3G, 4G and WiMAX

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-09-01

per bit, low latency, good quality of service, good coverage and support for mobility at high speeds. Thus, 4G wireless technologies are based on 3G ...security for military communications. 87 LIST OF REFERENCES [1] C. Blanchard, “Security for the third generation ( 3G ) mobile system,” Elsevier Science...COMMUNICATIONS ON 3G , 4G AND WIMAX by Panagiotis Schoinas September 2013 Thesis Advisor: Gurminder Singh Co-Advisor: John H. Gibson

Science-Journalism Collaboration: An Experiment in Closing the Communication Gap

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Canan, Penelope; Hartman, Melanie

2007-01-01

Barriers that impede effective communication between scientists and journalists include communication styles and skills, professional jargon, mistrust, time constraints, and orientation to knowledge types and "facts." Here we describe an experiment in building bridges between journalists and scientists in Southeast Asia and Japan in a…

42 CFR 423.2340 - Compliance monitoring and civil money penalties.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 42 Public Health 3 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Compliance monitoring and civil money penalties. 423.2340 Section 423.2340 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH... BENEFIT Medicare Coverage Gap Discount Program § 423.2340 Compliance monitoring and civil money penalties...

42 CFR 423.2340 - Compliance monitoring and civil money penalties.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 42 Public Health 3 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Compliance monitoring and civil money penalties... BENEFIT Medicare Coverage Gap Discount Program § 423.2340 Compliance monitoring and civil money penalties... Agreement. (b) Basis for imposing civil money penalties. CMS imposes a civil money penalty (CMP) on a...

42 CFR 423.2340 - Compliance monitoring and civil money penalties.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 42 Public Health 3 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Compliance monitoring and civil money penalties... BENEFIT Medicare Coverage Gap Discount Program § 423.2340 Compliance monitoring and civil money penalties... Agreement. (b) Basis for imposing civil money penalties. CMS imposes a civil money penalty (CMP) on a...

Neighborhood Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Access to Health Care

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kirby, James B.; Kaneda, Toshiko

2005-01-01

Most research on access to health care focuses on individual-level determinants such as income and insurance coverage. The role of community-level factors in helping or hindering individuals in obtaining needed care, however, has not received much attention. We address this gap in the literature by examining how neighborhood socioeconomic…

Myopic and Forward Looking Behavior in Branded Oral Anti-Diabetic Medication Consumption: An Example from Medicare Part D.

PubMed

Sacks, Naomi C; Burgess, James F; Cabral, Howard J; Pizer, Steven D

2017-06-01

We evaluate consumption responses to the non-linear Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit. We compare propensity-matched older patients with diabetes and Part D Standard or low-income-subsidy (LIS) coverage. We evaluate monthly adherence to branded oral anti-diabetics, with high end-of-year donut hole prices (>$200) for Standard patients and consistent, low (≤$6) prices for LIS. As an additional control, we examine adherence to generic anti-diabetics, with relatively low, consistent prices for Standard patients. If Standard patients are forward looking, they will reduce branded adherence in January, and LIS-Standard differences will be constant through the year. Contrary to this expectation, branded adherence is lower for Standard patients in January and diverges from LIS as the coverage year progresses. Standard-LIS generic adherence differences are minimal. Our findings suggest that seniors with chronic conditions respond myopically to the nonlinear Part D benefit, reducing consumption in response to high deductible, initial coverage and gap prices. Thus, when the gap is fully phased out in 2020, cost-related nonadherence will likely remain in the face of higher spot prices for more costly branded medications. These results contribute to studies of Part D plan choice and medication adherence that suggest that seniors may not make optimal healthcare decisions. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Child health security in China: a survey of child health insurance coverage in diverse areas of the country.

PubMed

Xiong, Juyang; Hipgrave, David; Myklebust, Karoline; Guo, Sufang; Scherpbier, Robert W; Tong, Xuetao; Yao, Lan; Moran, Andrew E

2013-11-01

China embarked on an ambitious health system reform in 2009, and pledged to achieve universal health insurance coverage by 2020. However, there are gaps in access to healthcare for some children in China. We assessed health insurance status and associated variables among children under five in twelve communities in 2010: two urban community health centers and two rural township health centers in each of three municipalities located in China's distinctly different East, Central and Western regions. Information on demographic and socio-economic variables and children's insurance status was gathered from parents or caregivers of all children enrolled in local health programs, and others recruited from the local communities. Only 62% of 1131 children assessed were insured. This figure did not vary across geographic regions, but urban children were less likely to be insured than rural children. In multivariate analysis, infants were 2.44 times more likely to be uninsured than older children and children having at least one migrant parent were 1.90 times more likely to be uninsured than those living with non-migrant parents. Low maternal education was also associated with being uninsured. Gaps in China's child health insurance coverage might be bridged if newborns are automatically covered from birth, and if insurance is extended to all urban migrant children, regardless of the family's residential registration status and size. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Coordination of health coverage for Medicare enrollees: living with HIV/AIDS in California.

PubMed

Eichner, J; Kahn, J G

2001-08-01

Because Medicare does not cover a large part of the health care that its enrollees living with HIV/AIDS require, they need other coverage to supplement Medicare. Medicaid is a major source of that supplemental coverage. In California, Medicare enrollees with HIV/AIDS who were also enrolled in Medi-Cal (California's Medicaid program) had total payments from both programs of $177 million, or an average of $28,956 per person in the fee-for-service-system in 1998. Of that total, Medicare paid for 38 percent, mainly for inpatient visits and ambulatory care, while Medi-Cal paid 62 percent, mainly for prescription drugs. For these dual enrollees, many of Medicare's benefit gaps--including a large share of prescription drugs, nursing facility services and home care--are being filled by Medi-Cal. Data in this Medicare Brief indicate that the incremental cost to the federal government of filling gaps in the Medicare benefits package would be considerably less than the full cost of the additional benefits. Through Medicaid and other programs, the federal government is already paying a substantial part of public program expenditures for dual enrollees with HIV/AIDS. Other issues to consider are how the dual Medicare-Medicaid funding streams affect the programs' cost efficiency, and from the perspective of Medicare enrollees and providers, how well the dual programs coordinate to meet the needs of people with HIV/AIDS and other chronic conditions.

Surface alloy engineering in 2D trigonal lattice: giant Rashba spin splitting and two large topological gaps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Zhao; Jin, Yingdi; Yang, Yuchen; Wang, Z. F.; Yang, Jinlong

2018-02-01

We demonstrate that sp 2 based trigonal lattice can exhibit giant Rashba splitting and two large topological gaps simultaneously. First, an effective tight binding model is developed to describe the Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) on a real surface and give a topological phase diagram based on two independent SOC parameters. Second, based on density functional theory calculations, it is proposed that Au/Si(111)-\\sqrt{3}× \\sqrt{3} surface with 1/3 monolayer Bi coverage is a good material candidate to realize both giant Rashba splitting and two large topological gaps. These results would inspire great research interests for searching two-dimensional topological insulator and manipulating Rashba spin splitting through surface alloy engineering.

Multi-Agent Cooperative Target Search

PubMed Central

Hu, Jinwen; Xie, Lihua; Xu, Jun; Xu, Zhao

2014-01-01

This paper addresses a vision-based cooperative search for multiple mobile ground targets by a group of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with limited sensing and communication capabilities. The airborne camera on each UAV has a limited field of view and its target discriminability varies as a function of altitude. First, by dividing the whole surveillance region into cells, a probability map can be formed for each UAV indicating the probability of target existence within each cell. Then, we propose a distributed probability map updating model which includes the fusion of measurement information, information sharing among neighboring agents, information decay and transmission due to environmental changes such as the target movement. Furthermore, we formulate the target search problem as a multi-agent cooperative coverage control problem by optimizing the collective coverage area and the detection performance. The proposed map updating model and the cooperative control scheme are distributed, i.e., assuming that each agent only communicates with its neighbors within its communication range. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms is illustrated by simulation. PMID:24865884

Transplant recipients are vulnerable to coverage denial under Medicare Part D.

PubMed

Potter, Lisa M; Maldonado, Angela Q; Lentine, Krista L; Schnitzler, Mark A; Zhang, Zidong; Hess, Gregory P; Garrity, Edward; Kasiske, Bertram L; Axelrod, David A

2018-02-15

Transplant immunosuppressants are often used off-label because of insufficient randomized prospective trial data to achieve organ-specific US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. Transplant recipients who rely on Medicare Part D for immunosuppressant drug coverage are vulnerable to coverage denial for off-label prescriptions, unless use is supported by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)-approved compendia. An integrated dataset including national transplant registry data and 3 years of dispensed pharmacy records was used to identify the prevalence of immunosuppression use that is both off-label and not supported by CMS-approved compendia. Numbers of potentially vulnerable transplant recipients were identified. Off-label and off-compendia immunosuppression regimens are frequently prescribed (3-year mean: lung 66.5%, intestine 34.2%, pancreas 33.4%, heart 21.8%, liver 16.5%, kidney 0%). The annual retail cost of these at-risk medications exceeds $30 million. This population-based study of transplant immunosuppressants vulnerable to claim denials under Medicare Part D coverage demonstrates a substantial gap between clinical practice, current FDA approval processes, and policy mandates for pharmaceutical coverage. This coverage barrier reduces access to life-saving medications for patients without alternative resources and may increase the risk of graft loss and death from medication nonadherence. © 2018 The American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons.

"More Closeted Than Gayness Itself": The Depiction of Same-Sex Couple Violence in Newspaper Media.

PubMed

Estes, Michelle L; Webber, Gretchen R

2017-10-01

Same-sex intimate partner violence (IPV) lacks mainstream news media coverage. News media report on those stories that are most prominent, and these stories are often shaped and presented within a White, heterosexual, upper-class, male framework. This framework largely ignores or misrepresents those that do not fit these characteristics, resulting in a gap in research and coverage of same-sex IPV. This article explores whether U.S. newspapers cover same-sex IPV, how often, and how same-sex couple violence is portrayed in newspapers when covered. Twenty-five newspaper articles published from 2005 to 2015, 10 years prior to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage, were located and analyzed. Findings indicate sparse newspaper coverage of IPV in same-sex couples. Ten articles highlight the lack of coverage and knowledge related to same-sex couple IPV. Eighteen articles address same-sex IPV as a social issue and highlight resource concerns, police involvement, and heteronormativity and heterosexism. Sixteen articles depict specific instances of IPV in same-sex couples. The overall lack of coverage and how same-sex IPV is covered remains problematic and limited. More mainstream and accurate coverage is needed to effectively address this social issue. Limitations and directions for future research are also discussed.

Less than Expected? How Media Cover Demonstration Turnout

PubMed Central

Wouters, Ruud; Van Camp, Kirsten

2017-01-01

Demonstration turnout is a crucial political resource for social movements. In this article, we investigate how mass media cover demonstration size. We develop a typology of turnout coverage and scrutinize the factors that drive turnout coverage. In addition, we test whether media coverage underestimates, reflects, or exaggerates “guesstimates” by organizers and police forces. Together, these analyses shed light on whether turnout coverage fits a logic of normalization or marginalization. We rely on a unique dataset of 428 demonstrations organized in Brussels (2003–2010). For these demonstrations, we have information on the turnout as reported in national television news, as counted by the police, and as expected by the organizers. We find that media present turnout most often as a fact, rarely as contentious (10 percent). Although few demonstrations pass the media gates, our study yields little to no evidence for a logic of turnout marginalization. Media coverage does not systematically underestimate demonstration size, nor does it blindly follow police counts. Rather, turnout coverage attests of a logic of normalization, following standard news-making practices. The more important the demonstration (size, lead item) and the larger the gap between police and organizer guesstimates, the more attention is paid to turnout in the news. Discussion centers on the generalizability and normative interpretation of the results. PMID:29081881

Coverage and inequalities in maternal and child health interventions in Afghanistan.

PubMed

Akseer, Nadia; Bhatti, Zaid; Rizvi, Arjumand; Salehi, Ahmad S; Mashal, Taufiq; Bhutta, Zulfiqar A

2016-09-12

Afghanistan has made considerable gains in improving maternal and child health and survival since 2001. However, socioeconomic and regional inequities may pose a threat to reaching universal coverage of health interventions and further health progress. We explored coverage and socioeconomic inequalities in key life-saving reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) interventions at the national level and by region in Afghanistan. We also assessed gains in child survival through scaling up effective community-based interventions across wealth groups. Using data from the Afghanistan Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2010/11, we explored 11 interventions that spanned all stages of the continuum of care, including indicators of composite coverage. Asset-based wealth quintiles were constructed using standardised methods, and absolute inequalities were explored using wealth quintile (Q) gaps (Q5-Q1) and the slope index of inequality (SII), while relative inequalities were assessed with ratios (Q5/Q1) and the concentration index (CIX). The lives saved tool (LiST) modeling used to estimate neonatal and post-neonatal deaths averted from scaling up essential community-based interventions by 90 % coverage by 2025. Analyses considered the survey design characteristics and were conducted via STATA version 12.0 and SAS version 9.4. Our results underscore significant pro-rich socioeconomic absolute and relative inequalities, and mass population deprivation across most all RMNCH interventions studied. The most inequitable are antenatal care with a skilled attendant (ANCS), skilled birth attendance (SBA), and 4 or more antenatal care visits (ANC4) where the richest have between 3.0 and 5.6 times higher coverage relative to the poor, and Q5-Q1 gaps range from 32 % - 65 %. Treatment of sick children and breastfeeding interventions are the most equitably distributed. Across regions, inequalities were highest in the more urbanised East, West and Central regions of the country, while they were lowest in the South and Southeast. About 7700 newborns and 26,000 post-neonates could be saved by scaling up coverage of community outreach interventions to 90 %, with the most gains in the poorest quintiles. Afghanistan is a pervasively poor and conflict-prone nation that has only recently experienced a decade of relative stability. Though donor investments during this period have been plentiful and have contributed to rebuilding of health infrastructure in the country, glaring inequities remain. A resolution to scaling up health coverage in insecure and isolated regions, and improving accessibility for the poorest and marginalised populations, should be at the forefront of national policy and programming efforts.

The Take-Up of Employer-Sponsored Insurance Among Americans with Mental Disorders: Implications for Health Care Reform.

PubMed

Zuvekas, Samuel H

2015-07-01

Little is known about how take-up of private health insurance coverage differs between those with and without mental disorders. This study seeks to fill this gap by using data from the 2004-2008 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to examine differences in offers and take-up of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) among adults aged 27-54. Little evidence that mental disorders are associated with take-up of offers of ESI coverage was found. This suggests that take-up rates in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces by those with and without mental disorders may be similar. The ACA is especially important to Americans with mental disorders, many of whom lack access to ESI coverage to pay for mental health treatment either through their own job or through a spouse's job.

The NUONCE engine for LEO networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lo, Martin W.; Estabrook, Polly

1995-01-01

Typical LEO networks use constellations which provide a uniform coverage. However, the demand for telecom service is dynamic and unevenly distributed around the world. We examine a more efficient and cost effective design by matching the satellite coverage with the cyclical demand for service around the world. Our approach is to use a non-uniform satellite distribution for the network. We have named this constellation design NUONCE for Non Uniform Optimal Network Communications Engine.

General anesthetics have differential inhibitory effects on gap junction channels and hemichannels in astrocytes and neurons.

PubMed

Liu, Xinhe; Gangoso, Ester; Yi, Chenju; Jeanson, Tiffany; Kandelman, Stanislas; Mantz, Jean; Giaume, Christian

2016-04-01

Astrocytes represent a major non-neuronal cell population actively involved in brain functions and pathologies. They express a large amount of gap junction proteins that allow communication between adjacent glial cells and the formation of glial networks. In addition, these membrane proteins can also operate as hemichannels, through which "gliotransmitters" are released, and thus contribute to neuroglial interaction. There are now reports demonstrating that alterations of astroglial gap junction communication and/or hemichannel activity impact neuronal and synaptic activity. Two decades ago we reported that several general anesthetics inhibited gap junctions in primary cultures of astrocytes (Mantz et al., (1993) Anesthesiology 78(5):892-901). As there are increasing studies investigating neuroglial interactions in anesthetized mice, we here updated this previous study by employing acute cortical slices and by characterizing the effects of general anesthetics on both astroglial gap junctions and hemichannels. As hemichannel activity is not detected in cortical astrocytes under basal conditions, we treated acute slices with the endotoxin LPS or proinflammatory cytokines to induce hemichannel activity in astrocytes, which in turn activated neuronal hemichannels. We studied two extensively used anesthetics, propofol and ketamine, and the more recently developed dexmedetomidine. We report that these drugs have differential inhibitory effects on gap junctional communication and hemichannel activity in astrocytes when used in their respective, clinically relevant concentrations, and that dexmedetomidine appears to be the least effective on both channel functions. In addition, the three anesthetics have similar effects on neuronal hemichannels. Altogether, our observations may contribute to optimizing the selection of anesthetics for in vivo animal studies. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kurt Derr

Mobile Ad hoc NETworks (MANETs) are distributed self-organizing networks that can change locations and configure themselves on the fly. This paper focuses on an algorithmic approach for the deployment of a MANET within an enclosed area, such as a building in a disaster scenario, which can provide a robust communication infrastructure for search and rescue operations. While a virtual spring mesh (VSM) algorithm provides scalable, self-organizing, and fault-tolerant capabilities required by aMANET, the VSM lacks the MANET's capabilities of deployment mechanisms for blanket coverage of an area and does not provide an obstacle avoidance mechanism. This paper presents a newmore » technique, an extended VSM (EVSM) algorithm that provides the following novelties: (1) new control laws for exploration and expansion to provide blanket coverage, (2) virtual adaptive springs enabling the mesh to expand as necessary, (3) adapts to communications disturbances by varying the density and movement of mobile nodes, and (4) new metrics to assess the performance of the EVSM algorithm. Simulation results show that EVSM provides up to 16% more coverage and is 3.5 times faster than VSM in environments with eight obstacles.« less

A Classroom-Field Model of Inter-Ethnic Communication.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nielsen, Keith E.

The BLBC (bilingual-bicultural) model of inter-ethnic communication is an effective method for bridging the instructional "gap" between classroom education and field experiences. These two learning experiences are distinct; yet each should complement the other. The BLBC model of inter-ethnic communication attempts to interface the student's…

Does rat granulation tissue maturation involve gap junction communications?

PubMed

Au, Katherine; Ehrlich, H Paul

2007-07-01

Wound healing, a coordinated process, proceeds by sequential changes in cell differentiation and terminates with the deposition of a new connective tissue matrix, a scar. Initially, there is the migratory fibroblast, followed by the proliferative fibroblast, then the synthetic fibroblast, which transforms into the myofibroblast, and finally the apoptotic fibroblast. Gap junction intercellular communications are proposed to coordinate the stringent control of fibroblast phenotypic changes. Does added oleamide, a natural fatty acid that blocks gap junction intercellular communications, alter the phenotypic progression of wound fibroblasts? Pairs of polyvinyl alcohol sponges attached to Alzet pumps, which constantly pumped either oleamide or vehicle solvent, were implanted subcutaneously into three rats. On day 8, implants were harvested and evaluated histologically and biochemically. The capsule of oleamide-treated sponge contained closely packed fibroblasts with little connective tissue between them. The birefringence intensity of that connective tissue was reduced, indicating a reduced density of collagen fiber bundles. Myofibroblasts, identified immunohistologically by alpha-smooth muscle actin-stained stress fibers, were reduced in oleamide-treated implants. Western blot analysis showing less alpha-smooth muscle actin confirmed the reduced density of myofibroblasts. It appears that oleamide retards the progression of wound repair, where less connective tissue is deposited, the collagen is less organized, and the appearance of myofibroblasts is impaired. These findings support the hypothesis that gap junction intercellular communications between wound fibroblasts in granulation tissue play a role in the progression of repair and the maturation of granulation tissue into scar.

Coupling efficiency of laser beam to multimode fiber for free space optical communication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arisa, Suguru; Takayama, Yoshihisa; Endo, Hiroyuki; Shimizu, Ryosuke; Fujiwara, Mikio; Sasaki, Masahide

2017-11-01

Recently, the free space optical (FSO) communications have been widely studied as an alternative for large capacity communications and its possible implementation in satellite and terrestrial laser links. In satellite communications, clouds can strongly attenuate the laser signal that would lead to high bit-error rates or temporal unavailability of the link. To overcome the cloud coverage effects, often site diversity technique is implemented. When using multiple ground stations though, simplified optical system is required to allow the usage of more flexible approaches. In terrestrial laser communications, several methods for optical system simplification by using a multimode fiber (MMF) have been proposed.

Gap junction blockage promotes cadmium-induced apoptosis in BRL 3A derived from Buffalo rat liver cells.

PubMed

Hu, Di; Zou, Hui; Han, Tao; Xie, Junze; Dai, Nannan; Zhuo, Liling; Gu, Jianhong; Bian, Jianchun; Yuan, Yan; Liu, Xuezhong; Liu, Zongping

2016-03-01

Gap junctions mediate direct communication between cells; however, toxicological cascade triggered by nonessential metals can abrogate cellular signaling mediated by gap junctions. Although cadmium (Cd) is known to induce apoptosis in organs and tissues, the mechanisms that underlie gap junction activity in Cd-induced apoptosis in BRL 3A rat liver cells has yet to be established. In this study, we showed that Cd treatment decreased the cell index (a measure of cellular electrical impedance) in BRL 3A cells. Mechanistically, we found that Cd exposure decreased expression of connexin 43 (Cx43), increased expression of p-Cx43 and elevated intracellular free Ca(2+) concentration, corresponding to a decrease in gap junctional intercellular communication. Gap junction blockage pretreatment with 18β-glycyrrhizic acid (GA) promoted Cd-induced apoptosis, involving changes in expression of Bax, Bcl-2, caspase-3 and the mitochondrial transmembrane electrical potential (Δψm). Additionally, GA was found to enhance ERK and p38 activation during Cd-induced activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases, but had no significant effect on JNK activation. Our results indicated the apoptosis-related proteins and the ERK and p38 signaling pathways may participate in gap junction blockage promoting Cd-induced apoptosis in BRL 3A cells.

Teaching Speaking Skills from Role-play to Communicative Competence via Information-gap and Opinion-gap Activities. One Teacher's Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scullard, Sue

1986-01-01

The task of the teacher of foreign languages is to enable the students to progress gradually from teacher/coursebook controlled utterances to complete linguistic autonomy. Role play and a progression of information-gap activities are discussed in terms of developing students' personal autonomy at each level of linguistic competence. (Author/LMO)

A review of measles supplementary immunization activities and the implications for Pacific Island countries and territories.

PubMed

Clements, C John; Soakai, Taniela Sunia; Sadr-Azodi, Nahad

2017-02-01

Standard measles control strategies include achieving high levels of measles vaccine coverage using routine delivery systems, supplemented by mass immunization campaigns as needed to close population immunity gaps. Areas covered: This review looks at how supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) have contributed to measles control globally, and asks whether such a strategy has a place in Pacific Islands today. Expert commentary: Very high coverage with two doses of measles vaccine seems to be the optimal strategy for controlling measles. By 2015, all but two Pacific Islands had introduced a second dose in the routine schedule; however, a number of countries have not yet reached high coverage with their second dose. The literature and the country reviews reported here suggest that a high coverage SIA combined with one dose of measles vaccine given in the routine system will also do the job. The arguments for and against the use of SIAs are complex, but it is clear that to be effective, SIAs need to be well designed to meet specific needs, must be carried out effectively and safely with very high coverage, and should, when possible, carry with them other public health interventions to make them even more cost-effective.

Analysis and simulation of wireless signal propagation applying geostatistical interpolation techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kolyaie, S.; Yaghooti, M.; Majidi, G.

2011-12-01

This paper is a part of an ongoing research to examine the capability of geostatistical analysis for mobile networks coverage prediction, simulation and tuning. Mobile network coverage predictions are used to find network coverage gaps and areas with poor serviceability. They are essential data for engineering and management in order to make better decision regarding rollout, planning and optimisation of mobile networks.The objective of this research is to evaluate different interpolation techniques in coverage prediction. In method presented here, raw data collected from drive testing a sample of roads in study area is analysed and various continuous surfaces are created using different interpolation methods. Two general interpolation methods are used in this paper with different variables; first, Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) with various powers and number of neighbours and second, ordinary kriging with Gaussian, spherical, circular and exponential semivariogram models with different number of neighbours. For the result comparison, we have used check points coming from the same drive test data. Prediction values for check points are extracted from each surface and the differences with actual value are computed. The output of this research helps finding an optimised and accurate model for coverage prediction.

The 5As: A practical taxonomy for the determinants of vaccine uptake.

PubMed

Thomson, Angus; Robinson, Karis; Vallée-Tourangeau, Gaëlle

2016-02-17

Suboptimal vaccine uptake in both childhood and adult immunisation programs limits their full potential impact on global health. A recent progress review of the Global Vaccine Action Plan stated that "countries should urgently identify barriers and bottlenecks and implement targeted approaches to increase and sustain coverage". However, vaccination coverage may be determined by a complex mix of demographic, structural, social and behavioral factors. To develop a practical taxonomy to organise the myriad possible root causes of a gap in vaccination coverage rates, we performed a narrative review of the literature and tested whether all non-socio-demographic determinants of coverage could be organised into 4 dimensions: Access, Affordability, Awareness and Acceptance. Forty-three studies were reviewed, from which we identified 23 primary determinants of vaccination uptake. We identified a fifth domain, Activation, which captured interventions such as SMS reminders which effectively nudge people towards getting vaccinated. The 5As taxonomy captured all identified determinants of vaccine uptake. This intuitive taxonomy has already facilitated mutual understanding of the primary determinants of suboptimal coverage within inter-sectorial working groups, a first step towards them developing targeted and effective solutions. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Making the audience a key participant in the science communication process.

PubMed

Rogers, C L

2000-10-01

The public communication of science and technology has become increasingly important over the last several decades. However, understanding the audience that receives this information remains the weak link in the science communication process. This essay provides a brief review of some of the issues involved, discusses results from an audience-based study, and suggests some strategies that both scientists and journalists can use to modify media coverage in ways that can help audiences better understand major public issues that involve science and technology.

Performance simulation in high altitude platforms (HAPs) communications systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ulloa-Vásquez, Fernando; Delgado-Penin, J. A.

2002-07-01

This paper considers the analysis by simulation of a digital narrowband communication system for an scenario which consists of a High-Altitude aeronautical Platform (HAP) and fixed/mobile terrestrial transceivers. The aeronautical channel is modelled considering geometrical (angle of elevation vs. horizontal distance of the terrestrial reflectors) and statistical arguments and under these circumstances a serial concatenated coded digital transmission is analysed for several hypothesis related to radio-electric coverage areas. The results indicate a good feasibility for the communication system proposed and analysed.

Role of gap junction intercellular communication in testicular leydig cell apoptosis induced by oxaliplatin via the mitochondrial pathway.

PubMed

Tong, Xuhui; Han, Xi; Yu, Binbin; Yu, Meiling; Jiang, Guojun; Ji, Jie; Dong, Shuying

2015-01-01

Platinum agents are widely used in the chemotherapy of testicular cancer. However, adverse reactions and resistance to such agents have limited their application in antineoplastic treatment. The aim of the present study was to determine the role of gap junction intercellular communication (GJIC) composed of Cx43 on oxaliplatin‑induced survival/apoptosis in mouse leydig normal and cancer cells using MTT, Annexin V/PI double staining assays and western blot analysis. The results showed that GJIC exerted opposite effects on the mouse leydig cancer (I-10) and normal (TM3) cell apoptosis induced by oxaliplatin. In leydig cancer cells, survival of cells exposed to oxaliplatin was substantially reduced when gap junctions formed as compared to no gap junctions. Pharmacological inhibition of gap junctions by oleamide and 18-α-glycyrrhetinic acid resulted in enhanced survival/decreased apoptosis while enhancement of gap junctions by retinoic acid led to decreased survival/increased apoptosis. These effects occurred only in high‑density cultures (gap junction formed), while the pharmacological modulations had no effects when there was no opportunity for gap junction formation. Notably, GJIC played an opposite (protective) role in normal leydig cells survival/apoptosis following exposure to oxaliplatin. Furthermore, this converse oxaliplatin‑inducing apoptosis exerted through the functional gap junction was correlated with the mitochondrial pathway‑related protein Bcl-2/Bax and caspase‑3/9. These results suggested that in testicular leydig normal/cancer cells, GJIC plays an opposite role in oxaliplatin‑induced apoptosis via the mitochondrial pathway.

Innovations in adult influenza vaccination in China, 2014-2015: Leveraging a chronic disease management system in a community-based intervention.

PubMed

Yi, Bo; Zhou, Suizan; Song, Ying; Chen, Enfu; Lao, Xuyin; Cai, Jian; Greene, Carolyn M; Feng, Luzhao; Zheng, Jiandong; Yu, Hongjie; Dong, Hongjun

2018-04-03

To evaluate a community-based intervention that leveraged the non-communicable disease management system to increase seasonal influenza vaccination coverage among older adults in Ningbo, China. From October 2014 - March 2015, we piloted the following on one street in Ningbo, China: educating community healthcare workers (C-HCWs) about influenza and vaccination; requiring C-HCWs to recommend influenza vaccination to older adults during routine chronic disease follow-up; and opening 14 additional temporary vaccination clinics. We selected a non-intervention street for comparison pre- and post-intervention vaccine coverage. In April 2016, we interviewed a random sample of unvaccinated older adults on the intervention street to ask why they remained unvaccinated. Pre-intervention influenza vaccine coverage among adults aged 60 years and older on both streets was 0.3%. Post-intervention, coverage among adults 60 years and older was 19% (1338/7013) on the intervention street and 0.4% (20/5500) on the non-intervention street (p<0.01). Among vaccinated older adults, 98% reported their main reason for vaccination was receiving a C-HCW's recommendation, 90% were vaccinated at temporary vaccination clinics, and 53% paid for vaccine (10 USD) out-of-pocket. Reasons for not getting vaccinated among 150 unvaccinated adults (response rate = 75%) included: good health (39%); not trusting C-HCWs' recommendations (24%); not knowing where to get vaccinated (17%); and not wanting to pay (9%). Recommending influenza vaccination within a non-communicable disease management system, combined with adding vaccination sites, increased vaccine coverage among older adults in Ningbo, China.

The use of mediation analysis to assess the effects of a behaviour change communication strategy on bed net ideation and household universal coverage in Tanzania.

PubMed

Ricotta, Emily E; Boulay, Marc; Ainslie, Robert; Babalola, Stella; Fotheringham, Megan; Koenker, Hannah; Lynch, Matthew

2015-01-21

SBCC campaigns are designed to act on cognitive, social and emotional factors at the individual or community level. The combination of these factors, referred to as 'ideation', play a role in determining behaviour by reinforcing and confirming decisions about a particular health topic. This study introduces ideation theory and mediation analysis as a way to evaluate the impact of a malaria SBCC campaign in Tanzania, to determine whether exposure to a communication programme influenced universal coverage through mediating ideational variables. A household survey in three districts where community change agents (CCAs) were active was conducted to collect information on ITN use, number of ITNs in the household, and perceptions about ITN use and ownership. Variables relating to attitudes and beliefs were combined to make 'net ideation'. Using an ideational framework, a mediation analysis was conducted to see the impact exposure to a CCA only, mass media and community (M & C) messaging only, or exposure to both, had on household universal coverage, through the mediating variable net ideation. All three levels of exposure (CCA, M & C messaging, or exposure to both) were significantly associated with increased net ideation (CCA: 0.283, 95% CI: 0.136-0.429, p-value: <0.001; M & C: 0.128, 95% CI: 0.032-0.334, p-value: 0.018; both: 0.376, 95% CI: 0.170-0.580, p-value: <0.001). Net ideation also significantly increased the odds of having universal coverage (CCAOR: 1.265, 95% CI: 1.118-1.433, p-value: <0.001; M & COR: 1.264, 95% CI: 1.117-1.432, p-value: <0.001, bothOR: 1.260, 95% CI: 1.114-1.428, p-value: <0.001). There were no significant direct effects between any exposure and universal coverage when controlling for net ideation. The results of this study indicate that mediation analysis is an applicable new tool to assess SBCC campaigns. Ideation as a mediator of the effects of communication exposure on household universal coverage has implications for designing SBCC to support both mass and continuous distribution efforts, since both heavily rely on consumer participation to obtain and maintain ITNs. Such systems can be strengthened by SBCC programming, generating demand through improving social norms about net ownership and use, perceived benefits of nets, and other behavioural constructs.

Issues in Data Fusion for Satellite Aerosol Measurements for Applications with GIOVANNI System at NASA GES DISC

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gopalan, Arun; Zubko, Viktor; Leptoukh, Gregory G.

2008-01-01

We look at issues, barriers and approaches for Data Fusion of satellite aerosol data as available from the GES DISC GIOVANNI Web Service. Daily Global Maps of AOT from a single satellite sensor alone contain gaps that arise due to various sources (sun glint regions, clouds, orbital swath gaps at low latitudes, bright underlying surfaces etc.). The goal is to develop a fast, accurate and efficient method to improve the spatial coverage of the Daily AOT data to facilitate comparisons with Global Models. Data Fusion may be supplemented by Optimal Interpolation (OI) as needed.

Decision Making Under Uncertainty - Bridging the Gap Between End User Needs and Science Capability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Verdon-Kidd, D. C.; Kiem, A.; Austin, E. K.

2012-12-01

Successful adaptation outcomes depend on decision making based on the best available climate science information. However, a fundamental barrier exists, namely the 'gap' between information that climate science can currently provide and the information that is practically useful for end users and decision makers. This study identifies the major contributing factors to the 'gap' from an Australian perspective and provides recommendations as to ways in which the 'gap' may be narrowed. This was achieved via a literature review, online survey (targeted to providers of climate information and end users of that information), workshop (where both climate scientists and end users came together to discuss key issues) and focus group. The study confirmed that uncertainty in climate science is a key barrier to adaptation. The issue of uncertainty was found to be multi-faceted, with issues identified in terms of communication of uncertainty, misunderstanding of uncertainty and the lack of tools/methods to deal with uncertainty. There were also key differences in terms of expectations for the future - most end users were of the belief that uncertainty associated with future climate projections would reduce within the next five to 10 years, however producers of climate science information were well aware that this would most likely not be the case. This is a concerning finding as end users may delay taking action on adaptation and risk planning until the uncertainties are reduced - a situation which may never eventuate or may occur after the optimal time for action. Improved communication and packaging of climate information was another key theme that was highlighted in this study. Importantly, it was made clear that improved communication is not just about more glossy brochures and presentations by climate scientists, rather there is a role for a program or group to fill this role (coined a 'knowledge broker' during the workshop and focus group). The role of the 'knowledge broker' would be to package, translate (both from end user to scientist and scientist to end user) and transform climate information. Importantly communication of uncertainty needs to be improved so that end users are aware of all the caveats and what can realistically be expected from climate science now and in the near future. Overall this study confirmed that there is indeed a 'gap' between end user's needs and science capability, particularly with respect to uncertainty, communication and packaging of climate information. This 'gap' has been a barrier to successful climate change adaptation in the past. While it is unrealistic to think we could ever close the 'gap' completely, based on the recommendations provided in this paper, it may be possible to bridge the 'gap' (or at least improve people's awareness of the 'gap'). Furthermore, the insights gained and recommendations provided from this study, while based on an Australian context, are likely to be applicable to many other regions of the world, grappling with similar issues.

Challenges to Effective Primary Care-Specialty Communication and Coordination in the Mental Health Referral and Care Process for Publicly Insured Children.

PubMed

Porras-Javier, Lorena; Bromley, Elizabeth; Lopez, Maria; Coker, Tumaini R

2018-03-26

Publicly insured children needing referral to mental health (MH) services often do not access or receive services. The objective of this study was to identify gaps in communication and coordination between primary care providers (PCPs) and MH providers during the MH referral and care process for publicly insured children. Thirteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 PCPs and staff from a federally qualified health center (FQHC) and 6 MH providers and staff from two local MH clinics. Interview participants identified multiple gaps in communication throughout the care process and different phases as priorities for improvement. PCPs described primary care-MH communication challenges during early phases, while MH providers described coordination challenges in transferring patients back to primary care for ongoing mental health management. Strategies are needed to improve primary care-specialty MH communication and coordination throughout all phases of the referral and care process, particularly at initial referral and transfer back to primary care.

20 CFR 703.202 - Identification of significant gaps in State guaranty fund coverage for LHWCA obligations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... STATUTES INSURANCE REGULATIONS Insurance Carrier Security Deposit Requirements § 703.202 Identification of... carrier's required security deposit, the Office will consider the extent to which a State guaranty fund... fully and immediately secure LHWCA obligations and will post its findings on the Internet at http://www...

20 CFR 703.202 - Identification of significant gaps in State guaranty fund coverage for LHWCA obligations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... STATUTES INSURANCE REGULATIONS Insurance Carrier Security Deposit Requirements § 703.202 Identification of... carrier's required security deposit, the Office will consider the extent to which a State guaranty fund... fully and immediately secure LHWCA obligations and will post its findings on the Internet at http://www...

20 CFR 703.202 - Identification of significant gaps in State guaranty fund coverage for LHWCA obligations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... STATUTES INSURANCE REGULATIONS Insurance Carrier Security Deposit Requirements § 703.202 Identification of... carrier's required security deposit, the Office will consider the extent to which a State guaranty fund... fully and immediately secure LHWCA obligations and will post its findings on the Internet at http://www...

20 CFR 703.202 - Identification of significant gaps in State guaranty fund coverage for LHWCA obligations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... STATUTES INSURANCE REGULATIONS Insurance Carrier Security Deposit Requirements § 703.202 Identification of... carrier's required security deposit, the Office will consider the extent to which a State guaranty fund... fully and immediately secure LHWCA obligations and will post its findings on the Internet at http://www...

The Employed Uninsured and the Role of Public Policy. National Health Care Expenditures Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Monheit, Alan C.; And Others

1985-01-01

This paper notes that, although most private health insurance is obtained through the workplace, important gaps remain in the present system of employment-related coverage. National survey data are presented which revealed that more than 9 million persons with employment experience were uninsured, who, with their uninsured dependents, accounted…

Ex situ conservation priorities for the wild relatives of potato (Solanum L. section Petota)

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

We analyzed the contemporary ex situ conservation coverage of the wild relatives of cultivated potato (Solanum section Petota) to set priorities and guide future collections and conservation. We conducted a gap analysis for 73 taxa involving seven, 63 and three species from the primary, secondary an...

Evaluating Gaps in Care of Malnourished Patients on General Medicine Floors in an Acute Care Setting.

PubMed

Chambers, Rachel; Bryan, Joanna; Jannat-Khah, Deanna; Russo, Emily; Merriman, Louise; Gupta, Renuka

2018-04-27

As described in detail in the literature, patients identified with malnutrition are at increased risk for poor clinical outcomes. Despite this knowledge, malnourished patients do not always receive optimal nutrition management while admitted into a hospital because of what we describe as gaps in care throughout their admission. We hypothesized that the 3 main gaps in care were poor dietitian-doctor communication, excessive time spent nil per os (NPO) for procedures and testing, and/or inaccurate or incomplete dietary discharge instructions. The objectives of this study were to determine and to characterize gaps in nutrition care after a malnutrition diagnosis. This retrospective study involved postdischarge chart reviews of malnourished adult medicine patients admitted to an acute care facility from September 1, 2014, to November 30, 2014 (n = 242). Of the malnourished patients, 76% had at least 1 gap in care. The most prevalent gap (68%) involved discharge diet instructions, most often because of the omission of the dietitian recommendation for oral supplementation. Thirty-five percent of malnourished patients had a gap in care because of procedures or testing extending the period held NPO, and 13% had a gap in care because of poor communication, thus delaying orders and/or interventions. This is the first study to evaluate gaps in care of patients diagnosed with malnutrition. Identification of these gaps allows us the opportunity to develop strategies for this vulnerable population to improve areas such as discharge documentation and time spent NPO to provide the best and safest nutrition care. © 2018 American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition.

Responsible conduct of research in communication sciences and disorders: faculty and student perceptions.

PubMed

Minifie, Fred D; Robey, Randall R; Horner, Jennifer; Ingham, Janis C; Lansing, Charissa; McCartney, James H; Alldredge, Elham-Eid; Slater, Sarah C; Moss, Sharon E

2011-02-01

Two Web-based surveys (Surveys I and II) were used to assess perceptions of faculty and students in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) regarding the responsible conduct of research (RCR). Survey questions addressed 9 RCR domains thought important to the responsible conduct of research: (a) human subjects protections; (b) research involving animals; (c) publication practices and responsible authorship; (d) mentor/trainee responsibilities; (e) collaborative science; (f) peer review; (g) data acquisition, management, sharing, and ownership; (h) conflicts of interest; and (i) research misconduct. Respondents rated each of 37 topics for importance and for sufficiency of instructional coverage. Respondents to Survey I were 137 faculty members from 68 (26%) of the 261 graduate programs in CSD. By comparison, 237 students from 39 (15%) programs responded to Survey II. Data about the importance and sufficiency of coverage of each of the 37 items were transformed into z scores to reveal relative ratings among the 37 topics. Data presentations were grouped for topics in each of the 9 RCR domains. Ratings indicated the relatively high importance assigned among the 37 topics by CSD faculty and students. Sufficiency of coverage of those same topics received lower ratings. The results of these surveys support the notion that students in CSD perceive that they are receiving information about RCR. The data pertaining to sufficiency of coverage provide a basis for improving instruction in this important aspect of research education.

Media Coverage of FDA Drug Safety Communications about Zolpidem: A Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis.

PubMed

Woloshin, Steve; Schwartz, Lisa M; Dejene, Sara; Rausch, Paula; Dal Pan, Gerald J; Zhou, Esther H; Kesselheim, Aaron S

2017-05-01

FDA issues Drug Safety Communications (DSCs) to alert health care professionals and the public about emerging safety information affecting prescription and over-the-counter drugs. News media may amplify DSCs, but it is unclear how DSC messaging is transmitted through the media. We conducted a content analysis of the lay media coverage reaching the broadest audience to characterize the amount and content of media coverage of two zolpidem DSCs from 2013. After the first DSC, zolpidem news stories increased from 19 stories/week in the preceding 3 months to 153 following its release. Most (81%) appeared in the lay media, and 64% focused on the DSC content. After the second DSC, news stories increased from 24 stories/week in the preceding 3 months to 39 following. Among the 100 unique lay media news stories, at least half correctly reported three key DSC messages: next-day impairment and drowsiness as common safety hazards, lower doses for some but not all zolpidem products, and women's higher risk for impairment. Other DSC messages were reported in fewer than one-third of stories, such as the warning that impairment can happen even when people feel fully awake. The first-but not the second-zolpidem DSC generated high-profile news coverage. The finding that some messages were widely reported but others were not emphasizes the importance of ensuring translation of key DSC content.

Identification and Instruction of Important Business Communication Skills for Graduate Business Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conrad, David; Newberry, Robert

2012-01-01

Despite academia's best efforts there still remains a gap in communication skills desired by business practitioners and those delivered by new graduates. The authors suggest that this may be the result of practitioners demanding outcome-based skills and academia teaching basic non-business-specific fundamentals of communications. An examination of…

14 CFR 135.165 - Communication and navigation equipment: Extended over-water or IFR operations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Communication and navigation equipment: Extended over-water or IFR operations. 135.165 Section 135.165 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION... frequency communications gap. [Doc. No. FAA-2002-14002, 72 FR 31684, June 7, 2007] ...

14 CFR 135.165 - Communication and navigation equipment: Extended over-water or IFR operations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Communication and navigation equipment: Extended over-water or IFR operations. 135.165 Section 135.165 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION... frequency communications gap. [Doc. No. FAA-2002-14002, 72 FR 31684, June 7, 2007] ...

14 CFR 121.351 - Communication and navigation equipment for extended over-water operations and for certain other...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... route being flown, and (3) The duration of the very high frequency communications gap. [Doc. No. 6258... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Communication and navigation equipment for... Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (CONTINUED) AIR CARRIERS AND...

14 CFR 135.165 - Communication and navigation equipment: Extended over-water or IFR operations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Communication and navigation equipment: Extended over-water or IFR operations. 135.165 Section 135.165 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION... frequency communications gap. [Doc. No. FAA-2002-14002, 72 FR 31684, June 7, 2007] ...

14 CFR 121.351 - Communication and navigation equipment for extended over-water operations and for certain other...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... route being flown, and (3) The duration of the very high frequency communications gap. [Doc. No. 6258... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Communication and navigation equipment for... Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (CONTINUED) AIR CARRIERS AND...

14 CFR 121.351 - Communication and navigation equipment for extended over-water operations and for certain other...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... route being flown, and (3) The duration of the very high frequency communications gap. [Doc. No. 6258... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Communication and navigation equipment for... Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (CONTINUED) AIR CARRIERS AND...

14 CFR 121.351 - Communication and navigation equipment for extended over-water operations and for certain other...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... route being flown, and (3) The duration of the very high frequency communications gap. [Doc. No. 6258... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Communication and navigation equipment for... Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (CONTINUED) AIR CARRIERS AND...

14 CFR 135.165 - Communication and navigation equipment: Extended over-water or IFR operations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Communication and navigation equipment: Extended over-water or IFR operations. 135.165 Section 135.165 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION... frequency communications gap. [Doc. No. FAA-2002-14002, 72 FR 31684, June 7, 2007] ...

14 CFR 121.351 - Communication and navigation equipment for extended over-water operations and for certain other...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... route being flown, and (3) The duration of the very high frequency communications gap. [Doc. No. 6258... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Communication and navigation equipment for... Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (CONTINUED) AIR CARRIERS AND...

14 CFR 135.165 - Communication and navigation equipment: Extended over-water or IFR operations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Communication and navigation equipment: Extended over-water or IFR operations. 135.165 Section 135.165 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION... frequency communications gap. [Doc. No. FAA-2002-14002, 72 FR 31684, June 7, 2007] ...

Characterizing Employers' Expectations of the Communication Abilities of New Engineering Graduates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ruff, Susan; Carter, Michael

2015-01-01

To better understand the gap between recent graduates' communication abilities and employers' expectations, the authors surveyed software engineering professionals. They asked which of 67 communication abilities are unimportant for software engineers, which ones are learned on the job, which ones recent graduates are expected to have but lack, and…

Integrating Micro-Macro Organizational Communication Research: Rationale, Issues, and Mechanisms.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Vernon; And Others

The integration of micro-macro variables is critical to the development of organizational communication as an academic field. Mixed-level analysis is inherent in organizational phenomena, and its neglect perpetuates the gap in and fragmentation of organizational communication theories. Three of the many ways to design mixed-level analyses are…

Factors Affecting the Implementation of Communicative Language Teaching in Taiwanese College English Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Ming; Goswami, Jaya S.

2011-01-01

Foreign language teaching in many Asian-Pacific countries in recent decades has shifted toward communicative-focused instruction. However, researchers have reported a gap between policy and practice. To incorporate teachers' voices in adopting the communicative approach in the curriculum, this study explores factors that promote or hinder EFL…