Search

Background Pre-transplant evaluation is mandated by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, but there is wide institutional variation in implementation, and the family experience of the process is incompletely understood. Current literature largely focuses on adult transplant recipients. Methods This qualitative study begins to fill the knowledge gap about family experience of the pre-transplant evaluation for children through interviews with caregivers at a large pediatric transplant center. Results Prominent themes heard from caregivers include (1) the pre-transplant evaluation is overwhelming and emotional, (2) prior experiences and background knowledge frame the evaluation experience, and (3) frustration with communication among teams is common. Conclusions These findings are relevant to efforts by transplant centers to optimize information delivery, minimize concrete barriers, and address healthcare systems issues. Graphical abstract A higher resolution version of the Graphical abstract is available as Supplementary information, Author(s): Eloise C. Salmon [sup.1] , Laura G. Barr [sup.2] , Douglas L. Hill [sup.3] , Judy A. Shea [sup.4] , Sandra Amaral [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.214458.e, 0000000086837370, University [...]

ABSTRACT. We used satellite telemetry in 2004-06 to describe the annual movements and habitat use of a segment of the Pacific population of Steller's Eiders (Polysticta stelleri) that winters at [...]

New York City, New York (NYC), is extremely vulnerable to coastal flooding; thus, verification and improvements in storm surge models are needed in order to protect both life and property. This paper highlights the Stony Brook Storm Surge (SBSS) modeling system. It utilizes surface winds and sea level pressures from the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University (PSU)-National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Mesoscale Model (MM5) or the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to drive the Advanced Circulation Model for Coastal Ocean Hydrodynamics (ADCIRC). For this study, the MM5 is utilized at 12-kin grid spacing and ADCIRC is run on an unstructured grid down to ~10-m resolution in areas around Long Island and NYC. This paper describes the SBSS and its performance across the NYC region during the 11-12 December 1992 nor'easter and Tropical Storm Floyd on 16-17 September 1999. During the 1992 event, east-northeasterly surface winds of 15-25 m [s.sup.-1] (30-50 kts) persisted for nearly 24 h, while hurricane-force winds (35-40 m [s.sup.-1]) occurred for a few hours just south of western Long Island. This created a 1.0-1.5-m storm surge around NYC and western Long Island Sound over three tidal cycles. ADCIRC successfully simulated the peak water levels to within ~10%, and it realistically simulated some of the flooding across lower Manhattan. The surface winds for Tropical Storm Floyd were only 5-10 m [s.sup.-1] weaker than the 1992 event, but no coastal flooding occurred during Floyd, because the storm approached during a low tide. Additional Floyd simulations were completed by shifting the storm's landfall to the spring high tide the previous week, and by doubling the wind speed to mimic a category-1 hurricane. A combination of the spring high tide and a category-1 hurricane scenario during Floyd would have resulted in moderate flooding at several locations around NYC.

Two annual content analyses of programming from the 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 television seasons (n = 1,276 and 1,439 programs, respectively) were conducted to assess the presence of behaviors and verbal messages related to the sexuality of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. Sexual content associated with nonheterosexuals was found in about 15% of programs overall; however, rates of occurrence within episodes were low. Of 14 genres, only movies and variety/comedy shows had substantial percentages of programs that contained nonheterosexual content. Program on commercial broadcast networks were less likely to have nonheterosexual content than those on cable networks, especially those on premium cable movie networks. Implications of the continued lack of attention to sexual minorities are discussed for both heterosexual and nonheterosexual viewers. KEYWORDS. Content analyses, gays and lesbians, homosexuality, mass media, television, sexuality

Significant changes have to be made in national energy systems to be able to make major reductions in future greenhouse gas emissions. A standard model called MARKAL was used by nine industrialized countries to study the cost-effective technology of reducing future carbon dioxide emissions in the future.

Byline: Young B. Choi, Thomas A. Abbott, Michelle A. Arthur, Douglas N. Hill The use of wireless computers in the classroom has become an increasing trend in the 21st century. This paper explains the roles and effectiveness of computers and the internet in an educational environment, as well as the importance of current technologies used in schools, including Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and tablet PCs. The use of handheld devices will be a valuable asset to students and teachers alike in future classrooms.

This paper reports on a theoretical study of the detection of the 2f and 4f carrier components of phase-shift keying (PSK) signals produced by passing signal and noise through a nonlinear device. Unbalanced quadrature PSK (QPSK) signals, i.e., QPSK signals with unequal power in the two channels, are studied. The complete range of channel power ratio is covered, with equal emphasis on the general unbalanced case and the two limiting cases of binary PSK and (balanced) QPSK. Analytic expressions are derived for the detected SNR of carrier harmonics 2f and 4f as a function of SNR, channel power ratio, and normalized input bandwidth. The results apply equally well to PSK data signals and direct-sequence spread-spectrum signals. Measurements confirm every aspect of the theory. The least detectable signal type is balanced QPSK, which is detectable (at 4f) at a threshold SNR ranging from -2 to - 13 dB as the detection process gain (chip or data rate/detection bandwidth) is varied from 40 to 80 dB. Index Terms--Carrier detection, phase-shift keying, pseudonoise code communication, quadrature phase-shift keying, signal detection.

Joel Kotkin's superb essay on Hurricane Katrina (January/February) brought into focus a far more devastating problem than simply the floodwaters. Thousands of people remained in harm's way during the storm [...]