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Rates of suicide among veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) rose significantly from 2005 to 2007, adding to existing concerns about veteran suicide risk by the Department of Veterans Affairs. This paper summarizes the available data about risk and rates of suicide in veterans, including the choice of appropriate comparison groups and the identification of risk factors. The data suggest that taking into account the selection bias of who enters the military (known as the healthy soldier effect), rates of suicide in veterans are higher than expected, especially among activity duty OEF/OIF veterans and even more so among those who experienced injuries and trauma. Thus, the experiences of war and the downstream sequelae, in particular the individuals' psychological reactions and societal responses, lead to suicide risk. This paper describes the VA's response to these data in developing and implementing suicide prevention interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corn masa flour, used to make products such as corn tortillas, is a staple food for Hispanic populations residing in the United States, particularly among Mexican Americans and Central Americans. Research has indicated that Hispanic women in the United States continue to be at a higher risk of having a neural tube defect-affected pregnancy than women of other races/ethnicities, even after the introduction of folic acid fortification of cereal grain products labeled as 'enriched.' Corn masa flour has, therefore, been suggested as a potential food vehicle for folic acid in the United States. This paper explores the potential impact that folic acid fortification of corn masa flour could have on the Hispanic population in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heart failure (HF) is a major cause of mortality and morbidity, representing a leading cause of death and hospitalization among U.S. Medicare beneficiaries. Advances in science have generated effective interventions to reduce adverse outcomes in HF, particularly in patients with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction. Unfortunately, effective therapies for heart failure are often not utilized in an effective, safe, timely, equitable, patient-centered, and efficient manner. Further, the risk of adverse outcomes for HF remains high. The last decades have witnessed the growth of efforts to measure and improve the care and outcomes of patients with HF. This paper will review the evolution of quality measurement for HF, including a brief history of quality measurement in medicine; the measures that have been employed to characterize quality in heart failure; how the measures are obtained; how measures are employed; and present and future challenges surrounding quality measurement in heart failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1951, the first reference to the antibacterial substance pleuromutilin was made in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers had identified several species of the mold genus Pleurotus that inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus aureus. The elucidation of the structure in 1962 led to the initiation of a development program at Sandoz, which was followed by the approval of tiamulin in 1979 for use in veterinary medicine. Although in 2007 retapamulin became the first pleuromutilin approved for topical use in humans, it was not until 2011, exactly 60 years after the first mention of the class, that a pleuromutilin antibiotic, BC-3781, could be tested successfully in a clinical phase II trial for systemic use in patients. This review will discuss key aspects of this antibacterial class and provide some insight into the question of why it took half a century to develop a systemic pleuromutilin for human use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of the nation's most significant and most controversial environmental laws. Over three-and-a-half decades, it has profoundly influenced both private and federal agency behavior. As the scope of that influence has come to be recognized, a law that is ostensibly to be guided by science has inevitably become entangled in politics. The generality of many of the law's key provisions has produced continuing uncertainty and conflict over some basic issues. Among these are what species or other taxa are potentially subject to the Act's protections, what the extent of those protections is, and whether the Act's ultimate goal of recovery is one that is being effectively achieved. New challenges face the administrators of this law, including that of incorporating climate change considerations into the decisions made under the Act, and responding to the information made available by recent advances in genetics. This paper provides a brief overview of the Endangered Species Act's history and its key provisions, and a more in-depth look at some of the current and recurrent controversies that have attended its implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty affects a child's development and educational outcomes beginning in the earliest years of life, both directly and indirectly through mediated, moderated, and transactional processes. School readiness, or the child's ability to use and profit from school, has been recognized as playing a unique role in escape from poverty in the United States and increasingly in developing countries. It is a critical element but needs to be supported by many other components of a poverty-alleviation strategy, such as improved opportunity structures and empowerment of families. The paper reviews evidence from interventions to improve school readiness of children in poverty, both in the United States and in developing countries, and provides recommendations for future research and action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]