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Reduced defense against large herbivores has been suggested to be part of the "island syndrome" in plants. However, empirical evidence for this pattern is mixed. In this paper, we present two studies that compare putative physical and chemical defense traits from plants on the California Channel Islands and nearby mainland based on sampling of both field and common garden plants. In the first study, we focus on five pairs of woody shrubs from three island and three mainland locations and find evidence for increased leaf area, decreased marginal leaf spines, and decreased concentrations of cyanogenic glycosides in island plants. We observed similar increases in leaf area and decreases in defense traits when comparing island and mainland genotypes grown together in botanic gardens, suggesting that trait differences are not solely driven by abiotic differences between island and mainland sites. In the second study, we conducted a common garden experiment with a perennial herb—Stachys bullata (Lamiaceae)—collected from two island and four mainland locations. Compared to their mainland relatives, island genotypes show highly reduced glandular trichomes and a nearly 100-fold reduction in mono- and sesquiterpene compounds from leaf surfaces. Island genotypes also had significantly higher specific leaf area, somewhat lower rates of gas exchange, and greater aboveground biomass than mainland genotypes across two years of study, potentially reflecting a broader shift in growth habit. Together, our results provide evidence for reduced expression of putative defense traits in island plants, though these results may reflect adaptation to both biotic (i.e., the historical absence of large herbivores) and climatic conditions on islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Increased posterior tibial slope (PTS) is a risk factor for primary anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear and graft failure, but PTS has not been well-defined in those who have experienced bilateral ACL injuries. We aimed to compare PTS angles, as well as the rate of elevated PTS (>12° on lateral radiograph; >7° on MRI), between patients who underwent bilateral ACL reconstruction (ACLR) vs unilateral ACLR. A secondary purpose was to examine whether these associations remained consistent on both plain radiographs and MRIs. Methods: We retrospectively identified patients who underwent primary ACLR at our institution from the years 2012 to 2020. Patients with non-simultaneous bilateral ACLR (n=53) were propensity matched to those with unilateral ACLR (n=53) by age, sex, and BMI. Exclusion criteria were: rotated lateral radiographs, inadequate quality MRI, concomitant ligament injury or fracture. Unilateral ACLRs with less than 5-year follow-up were further excluded. Three blinded readers measured PTS on lateral radiographs, while medial (MPTS) and lateral PTS (LPTS) were measured on MRI. Bivariate regression was performed to determine correlation between radiograph and MRI measurements. Results: A final cohort of 106 patients was analyzed (mean age: 27.4 ± 10.5 years, 49.1% male, BMI: 25.5 ± 4.3). PTS in the bilateral ACLR cohort was significantly greater than the unilateral ACLR cohort on radiographs (11.26° vs 10.13°, p=0.044) and LPTS (7.32° vs 6.08°, p=0.012), but not MPTS (4.55° vs 4.17°, p=0.467). The percentage of bilateral patients with radiograph PTS >12° was 41.0%, compared to 13.2% in unilateral cohort (p=0.012). The bilateral cohort had a significantly greater rate of LPTS >7° compared to unilateral patients (53.8% vs 32.1%, p=0.016), but not MPTS (p=0.467). On MRI, LPTS (5.93° ± 3.20°) was significantly greater than MPTS (5.12° ± 2.78°, p<0.001). There was weak correlation between MPTS-radiograph (R =0.24, p=0.02) and LPTS-radiograph was not significantly correlated (R =0.03, p=0.810). Conclusions: Patients who underwent bilateral ACLR had significantly greater PTS on radiographs and LPTS on MRI compared to those with unilateral ACLR. The rate of PTS >12° was 3.1x greater among bilateral ACLR compared to unilateral ACLR. PTS measurements on radiographs demonstrated weak-to-negligible correlation with MRI measurements, suggesting future normative PTS values should be reported specific to the imaging modality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of the connectionist model of leadership, we examined perceptions of leadership as a function of the contextual factors of race (Asian American, Caucasian American) and occupation (engineering, sales) in 3 experiments (1 student sample and 2 industry samples). Race and occupation exhibited differential effects for within- and between-race comparisons. With regard to within-race comparisons, leadership perceptions of Asian Americans were higher when race-occupation was a good fit (engineer position) than when race-occupation was a poor fit (sales position) for the two industry samples. With regard to between-race comparisons, leadership perceptions of Asian Americans were low relative to those of Caucasian Americans. Additionally, when race-occupation was a good fit for Asian Americans, such individuals were evaluated higher on perceptions of technical competence than were Caucasian Americans, whereas they were evaluated lower when race-occupation was a poor fit. Furthermore, our results demonstrated that race affects leadership perceptions through the activation of prototypic leadership attributes (i.e., implicit leadership theories). Implications for the findings are discussed in terms of the connectionist model of leadership and leadership opportunities for Asian Americans. (Contains 4 tables and 6 figures.)

This study aimed to determine the probability that a child with cerebral palsy (CP) will lose or gain ambulatory ability through adolescence and young adulthood. We analyzed retrospectively data from 1987 to 2002 on Californians with CP initially aged 10 years (SD 0.9y; n=7550 [4304 males, 3246 females]) and 25 years (SD 0.8y; n=5721 [3261 males, 2460 females]) who had varying levels of ambulatory ability (initial Gross Motor Function Classification System Levels I-IV). We used the Aalen-Johansen estimator to estimate probabilities of transition to other levels of ambulatory ability in the future. Those who walked and climbed stairs without difficulty at age 10 had only a 23% chance of decline (to requiring a handrail to manage stairs, or worse) 15 years later. Those who ambulated with some difficulty but did not use a wheelchair had a significant chance (33%) of improvement (to being able to walk unsteadily alone at least 3m or better) and only a small chance (11%) of becoming non-ambulatory. Those who used a wheelchair were more likely to lose ambulatory ability (34%) or die (6%). Those who walked and climbed stairs well at age 25 were likely to maintain that ability 15 years later (76%), while those needing support to climb stairs were more likely to lose ability. Improvement in ambulation after age 25 was unlikely. Children and young adults with CP are likely to maintain their ambulatory ability during their next 15 years. Some who ambulate with difficulty at age 10 may improve through adolescence, but those who use a wheelchair are more likely to decline. By age 25 improvement in ambulation is unlikely and decline more likely. Most, however, will not change over the next 15 years.

A study investigated the mortality rates of 1,812 California clients with developmental disabilities transferred from institutions into community care in 1996. Results indicate there were 36 deaths, an 88% increase in risk-adjusted mortality over that expected in institutions. Mortality was greatest among the highest-functioning persons. (Author/CR)

A study of 1,878 persons with developmental disabilities who had been transferred from California state institutions into community care found the mortality rates for movers exceeded institutional rates by 51%. The effect was largest shortly after the move and in subjects who had moved most recently. (Author/CR)

Comparison of risk-adjusted odds of mortality of people with mental retardation living either in institutions or in the community in California from 1980 through 1992 estimated that mortality was 72% higher in the community than in institutions. Problems with health care delivery in the community were suggested as a reason for this difference. (Author/DB)

Mortality of people with mental retardation (n=118,653) in California was examined. Up to about age 35, mortality rates of people with Down syndrome (DS) were comparable to those of people with mental retardation due to other causes. Subsequently, mortality for the DS group doubled every 6.4 years compared with 9.6 years for people without DS. (Author/DB)

Competition, niche differences and chance all contribute to community assembly; yet, the role of reproductive interactions between species is often less appreciated. Closely related plant species that share floral form, phenology and habitat often interact through pollination. They potentially facilitate pollinator attraction, compete for pollination services and/or exchange pollen. If reproductive processes are important to co‐occurrence, we predicted that fitness costs of heterospecific pollen transfer or pollen limitation should result in lower rates of co‐occurrence among outcrossing congeners. In contrast, selfers, which may be less exposed to heterospecific pollen, and/or less negatively affected by it, should co‐occur more frequently.Flower size is an excellent proxy for mating system in clovers. Using herbarium records and three independent field datasets, we documented co‐occurrence patterns of Trifolium at 1 m2–1 km2 scales in California. Using a randomization procedure to reshuffle matrices of community membership, we generated null hypotheses for the expected composition of large‐ and small‐flowered species in Trifolium communities of different sizes.Across all spatial scales, large‐flowered outcrossers were over‐represented at sites lacking congeners, but under‐represented in communities with multiple congeners. Conversely, small‐flowered selfers often occupied sites with multiple other Trifolium species. Patterns for plant height and leaf size, which are weakly or strongly correlated with flower size, did not explain co‐occurrence patterns as robustly. Regression analysis and model selection corroborated the null model analyses, indicating that the likelihood of co‐occurrence decreased as flower size, and thus reliance on outcrossing, increased.Synthesis. This study suggests that reproductive traits and processes may be significant contributors to community assembly and co‐occurrence in flowering plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water limitation is a primary driver of plant geographic distributions and individual plant fitness. Drought resistance is the ability to survive and reproduce despite limited water, and numerous studies have explored its physiological basis in plants. However, it is unclear how drought resistance and trade-offs associated with drought resistance evolve within plant clades. We quantified the relationship between water availability and fitness for 13 short-lived plant taxa in the Streptanthus clade that vary in their phenology and the availability of water in the environments where they occur. We derived two parameters from these relationships: plant fitness when water is not limiting and the water inflection point (WIF), the watering level at which additional water is most efficiently turned into fitness. We used phylogenetic comparative methods to explore trade-offs related to drought resistance and trait plasticity and the degree to which water relationship parameters are conserved. Taxa from drier climates produced fruits at the lowest water levels, had a lower WIF, flowered earlier, had shorter life spans, had greater plastic water-use efficiency (WUE), and had lower fitness at nonlimiting water. In contrast, later-flowering Streptanthus taxa from less xeric climates experienced high fitness at nonlimiting water but had no fitness at the lowest water levels. Across the clade, we found a trade-off between drought resistance and fitness at high water, though a single ruderal species was an outlier in this relationship. Our results suggest that drought escape trades off with maximal fitness under nonlimiting water, and both are tied to phenology. We also found that variation in trait plasticity determines how different plant species produce fitness over a water gradient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological theory posits that dispersal among habitat patches links local communities and is a key “regional” process that maintains biological diversity. However, manipulations required to experimentally test regional processes are infeasible for most systems, and thus more work is needed to detect the scales at which regional processes manifest and their overall effect on diversity. In a Californian grassland, a hotspot for global biodiversity, we used a seed vacuum to increase dispersal at spatial scales varying from 1 m to 10 km while maintaining a realistic spatial structure of species pools and environmental conditions. We found that dispersal limitation has a profound influence on diversity; species richness increased with the spatial scale of seed mixing, doubling in plots that received seed from large (≥5 km) compared with small (≤5 m) scales. This increase in diversity corresponded to an increase in how well species distributions were explained by environmental conditions, from modest at small scales (R2 = 0.34) to strong at large scales (R2 = 0.52). Responses to the spatial scale of seed mixing were nonlinear, with no differences below 5 m or above 5 km. Nonlinearities were explained by homogeneity of environmental conditions below 5 m and by a lack of additional variation in the species pool above 5 km. Our approach of manipulating natural communities at different spatial scales reveals (i) nonlinear transitions in the importance of environmental sorting and dispersal, and (ii) the negative effects of dispersal limitation on local diversity, consistent with previous research suggesting that large numbers of species are headed toward regional extinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increased cancer screening and treatment modalities, the number of adult cancer survivors and the survival time after cancer diagnosis continue to increase throughout the world. As adult cancer survivors live longer, it is critical to care for their health comorbidities to improve their life expectancy and quality of life. However, there is limited knowledge on comorbidities in adult cancer survivors and there is no standard cancer survivorship care. We must first determine the prevalence of comorbidities in adult cancer survivors to be able to establish globally acceptable guidelines on their standard of care. The U.S. and Korea are two nations that have an increasing number of adult cancer survivors but lack standardized survivorship care. Using nationally representative data, the purpose of this project was to assess and compare the prevalence of significant health comorbidities in adult cancer survivors in Korea and the U.S. Data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2017-2018 and Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys 2017-2018 were used for the analysis. Adults who had a history of diagnosis with at least one cancer were identified as adult cancer survivors. Adult cancer survivors were compared regarding various comorbidities. SPSS Complex Samples software was used to determine comorbidity prevalence in the two populations. A greater proportion of U.S. adult cancer survivors compared with Korean adult cancer survivors reported most of the comorbidities examined. For example, this was the case for high cholesterol (51.9% vs. 31.8%); asthma (15.6% vs. 2.4%); high blood pressure (48.7% vs. 29.8%), especially for females (47.9% vs. 26.4%); heart attack (7.7% vs. 1.3%), especially for females (7.0% vs. 0.4%); and arthritis (50.3% vs. 19.9%), especially for males (48.3% vs. 8.9%). The proportion reporting osteoporosis was similar between the two populations (15.1% vs. 14.3%), but was more prevalent in females (21.8% vs. 21.0%) than in males (6.8% vs. 1.1%) in both populations. A greater proportion of U.S. adult cancer survivors experience some critical health comorbidities compared to adult cancer survivors in Korea, and gender disparities in some of these conditions between the two populations were observed. Further research is needed to examine the etiology of such country and gender differences in order to best manage health comorbidities in adult cancer survivors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on nurses in California getting organized to save themselves from violence from the patients they treat. Experts say that hospitals, emergency rooms, mental health facilities and nursing homes have all faced increasing levels of workplace violence. At Napa State Hospital in October 2010, the residential mental health treatment facility had to wear personal alarms to trigger a call for security.

BACKGROUND: Much is known about survival after traumatic brain injury (TBI), yet relatively little about survival after anoxic brain injury (ABI). OBJECTIVE: To determine whether long-term survival after ABI is comparable to that after TBI. METHODS: We identified 237 patients with ABI and 1,620 with TBI in California who were aged 15 to 35, survived at least 1 year post injury, and were injured in 1986 or later. We analyzed the long-term follow-up data using the Cox Proportional Hazards Regression Model, controlling for age, sex, and severity of disability. RESULTS: After adjustment for risk factors, no significant differences in long-term survival between ABI and TBI were found (hazard ratio = 0.97; 95% c.i. 0.57-1.65). CONCLUSIONS: In adolescents and young adults, long-term survival after ABI appears to be similar to that after TBI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundCognition is increasingly being recognized as an important aspect of psychotic disorders and a key contributor to functional outcome. In the past, comparative studies have been performed in schizophrenia and schizo-affective disorder with regard to cognitive performance, but the results have been mixed and the cognitive measures used have not always assessed the cognitive deficits found to be specific to psychosis. A set of optimized cognitive paradigms designed by the Cognitive Neuroscience Test Reliability and Clinical Applications for Schizophrenia (CNTRACS) Consortium to assess deficits specific to schizophrenia was used to measure cognition in a large group of individuals with schizophrenia and schizo-affective disorder.MethodA total of 519 participants (188 with schizophrenia, 63 with schizo-affective disorder and 268 controls) were administered three cognitive paradigms assessing the domains of goal maintenance in working memory, relational encoding and retrieval in episodic memory and visual integration.ResultsAcross the three domains, the results showed no major quantitative differences between patient groups, with both groups uniformly performing worse than healthy subjects.ConclusionsThe findings of this study suggests that, with regard to deficits in cognition, considered a major aspect of psychotic disorder, schizophrenia and schizo-affective disorder do not demonstrate major significant distinctions. These results have important implications for our understanding of the nosological structure of major psychopathology, providing evidence consistent with the hypothesis that there is no natural distinction between cognitive functioning in schizophrenia and schizo-affective disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective Examine maternal and infant medical outcomes of prenatal exposure to methamphetamine (MA). Study Design Four hundred and twelve mother-infant pairs (204 MA-exposed and 208 unexposed matched comparisons) were enrolled in the Infant Development, Environment and Lifestyle (IDEAL) study. Exposure was determined by maternal self-report during this pregnancy and/or positive meconium toxicology. Maternal interviews assessed prenatal drug use, pregnancy course, and sociodemographic information. Medical chart reviews provided medical history, obstetric complications, infant outcomes, and discharge placement. Results MA-using mothers were more likely to be poor, to have a psychiatric disorder/emotional illness and less prenatal care, and to be less likely to breast-feed their infant than comparison mothers. After adjusting for covariates, MA-exposed infants were more likely to exhibit poor suck, to have smaller head circumferences and length, to require neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission, and to be referred to child protective services (CPS). Several outcomes previously reported from studies that lacked adequate control groups or adjustment for covariates were not significantly different in this study. Conclusion Prenatal MA exposure is associated with maternal psychiatric disorder/emotional illness, poor suck, NICU admission, and CPS involvement, and MA-exposed infants were less likely to be breast-fed; however, the absence of many serious complications, such as fetal distress, chronic hypertension, preeclampsia, placenta previa, abruptio placentae, and cardiac defects, suggests confounding variables influenced prior studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article cites a research study that focuses on the flow of sulfonamide antibiotics, a commonly used group of compounds in animal husbandry, and how it is effected by pH and manures. Sulfonamide antibiotics are excreted with manure and are collected in animal feeding operations in a storage lagoon. Sulfonamide transport in soils is influenced by two major parameters, namely, manure as cosolute and manure pH. The study performed solute displacement experiments in soil columns with soil and manure from a dairy farm in California. Hydrus-1D was used to model breakthrough of nonreactive tracer and sulfadimethoxine, sulfamethazine and sulfamethoxazole at different pH solutions.

The article discusses the legal process of a court case California-based Chevron Corp. v. Natural Resources Defenses Council. It argues that Chevron should follow a one-step process in spite of the prominence of the court's review of the two-step framework. The author suggests that there are two questions the court should address as it reviews the interpretation of a statue by an agency such as the allowable state on the merits from the agency's structure of the act. It concludes that the Chevron case should not be pushed into adhering to the original text of the legal notions but rather it should simplify as a matter with no guaranteed cost and only with a one-step process.

This study investigated the possibility of improved survival in cerebral palsy (CP) over a 20-year period. Participants were 47 259 persons with CP receiving services from the State of California between 1983 and 2002. The person–year approach was used. This asks whether the probability of dying in a given calendar year changes over the study period after age and severity of disability are taken into account. An appreciable improvement over time was found in children with severe disabilities and in adults who required gastrostomy feeding. In these groups, mortality rates fell by 3.4% per year. Therefore, life expectancies reported in earlier studies should be increased by approximately 5 years if adjustments to 2002 mortality rates are made. For other persons with CP there was, at most, a small improvement over the 20-year period. The results suggest there have been improvements in the treatment and care of the most medically fragile children. Gastrostomy feeding has become much more widespread over the past two decades, and the improved survival of persons with gastrostomies may reflect better understanding of their requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some species introduced into new geographical areas from their native ranges wreak ecological and economic havoc in their new environment. Although many studies have searched for either species or habitat characteristics that predict invasiveness of exotic species, the match between characteristics of the invader and those of members of the existing native community may be essential to understanding invasiveness. Here, we find that one metric, the phylogenetic relatedness of an invader to the native community, provides a predictive tool for invasiveness. Using a phylogenetic supertree of all grass species in California, we show that highly invasive grass species are, on average, significantly less related to native grasses than are introduced but noninvasive grasses. The match between the invader and the existing native community may explain why exotic pest species are not uniformly noxious in all novel habitats. Relatedness of invaders to the native biota may be one useful criterion for prioritizing management efforts of exotic species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated mortality and causes of death between 1988 and 1999 in 14781 persons (6702 female) with Down syndrome in California, comparing age, sex, ethnicity, and other factors. Mean age at the start of follow-up was 14 years 8 months (SD 14y 10mo). During the study period 600 persons died. The standardized mortality ratio (SMR) for the population was 5.5. Blacks were at greater risk than whites, Hispanics, or Asians (relative risk=1.5). Mortality declined during the period, especially for children with congenital heart defects. Leukemia (SMR=17), respiratory illnesses (SMR=27), congenital anomalies (SMR=72), and circulatory diseases (SMR=5.3) accounted for most of the excess mortality. With the exception of leukemia, cancer mortality was not different from that of the general population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Considerable evidence indicates that the Earth's climate has warmed over the past 20 years and most models predict that this process will continue or accelerate. Previous studies involving butterflies and other species have shown that ranges have shifted towards the poles although the mechanisms responsible for these range shifts have not been demonstrated conclusively. 2. Here it is reported that the range of the meadow spittlebug has moved northward along the California coast since 1988. 3. Survival and reproduction of this species in previous laboratory experiments were very sensitive to humidity and temperature. Small deviations from optimal conditions resulted in high mortality. 4. These laboratory results were corroborated by annual field censuses from one location since 1983 in which population densities of spittlebug nymphs were positively correlated with summer humidity and negatively correlated with temperature deviations from the published optimum. Thus it is shown that there are strong links between physiological tolerance and a geographic range shift associated with climatic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. This study compared trends in adult cigarette smoking prevalence in California and the remainder of the United States between 1978 and 1994. Methods. We used data from National Health Interview Surveys and Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System surveys to compare trends in smoking prevalence among persons 18 years and older. Results. In both California and the remainder of the United States, the estimated annual rate of decline in adult smoking prevalence accelerated significantly from 1985 to 1990: to --1.22 percentage points per year (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.51, - 0.93) in California and to -0.93 percentage points per year (95% CI = -1.13, -0.73) in the remainder of the nation. The rate of decline slowed significantly from 1990 to 1994: to -0.39 percentage points per year (95% CI = -0.76. -0.03) in California and to -0.05 percentage points per year (95% CI = -0.34, 0.24) in the remainder of the United States. Conclusions. The presence of an aggressive tobacco control intervention has supported a significant decline in adult smoking prevalence in California from 1985 to 1990 and a slower but still significant decline from 1990 to 1994. a period in which there was no significant decline in the remainder of the nation. To restore nationwide progress in reducing smoking prevalence, other states should consider similar interventions. (Am J Public Health. 2000:90:372-379) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. This study was undertaken to assess the predictors of mortality in severely disabled children with mental retardation, and to compare risk-adjusted mortality rates for those living in institutions with rates for those living in the community. Methods. Statistical analysis was performed on a set of 24 469 person-years, derived from a population of all children with severe mental retardation and a fragile medical condition who are registered with the California Department of Developmental Services. Variables included age, several measures of mobility, the presence or absence of tube feeding, the level of retardation, and certain adaptive skills. Results. Reduced mobility and the use of tube feeding were associated with a large increase in mortality risk. Own home residence and community care facilities have an estimated 25% higher risk-adjusted odds on mortality than institutions and health facilities. Conclusions. The differential mortality in the placements points to a possible effect of quality of care. One consequence of the current trend toward deinstitutionalization may be an increased mortality rate in children with severe developmental disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compares the causes of death in developmentally disabled persons of institutions and the community in California. Average age at death in the community group; Most common cause of death in both the institutional and community groups; Sudden deaths by category.

Presents the results of a study which examined mortality of adults living in California with developmental disabilities between 1985-1994. Methodology used in the study; Statistical information on mortality rate by age group and selected characteristics; Overall risk ratio for community mortality; What the increased risk in community care suggested.

The authors analyzed death rates from external causes (accidents, injuries, homicides, etc.) for persons with developmental disability in California. There were 520 such deaths during the 1981–1995 study period, based on 733,705 person-years of exposure; this represents all persons who received any services from the state. Compared with the general California population, persons with developmental disability were at lower risk of homicide, suicide, and poisonings (standardized mortality ratios, 0.31–0.68), but higher risk of pedestrian accidents, falls, fires, and, especially, drowning (standardized mortality ratio = 6.22). A major focus of the study was comparisons between different residential settings. Persons in semi-independent living had significantly higher risk than did those in their family home or group homes, with homicides rates being three times higher and pedestrian accidents rates being doubled, while persons in institutions had much lower risks with respect to most causes. Of the 28 deaths due to drug and medication overdoses, 79 percent occurred in supported living or small-group homes. Avoidable deaths could be reduced by making direct care staff more aware of the risks and better trained in acute care, along with improved monitoring of special incidents. Am J Epidemiol 1998;147:855-62. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on various labor relation research sponsored by the Institute of Industrial Relations of the University of California at Berkeley as of 1975. The formation of the 1974 Western Assembly of Workers on the Changing World of Work by the Institute's Center for Labor Research and Education was done to include trade unionists in the discussion of job satisfaction research. Another research, done by Raymond Miles, Jeffrey Pfeffer, Charles Snow and Alan Meyer is focused on the patterns of organizational adjustment to environmental changes.

Discusses the perspective on mortality in California of developmentally disabled persons. Reviews of the results of various studies on mortality among developmentally disabled persons; Details on a report by a Congressional subcommittee investigating California and others states.

An abstract on a failure to successfully open a chronic total coronary occlusion associated with preserved global, but impaired regional myocardial function is presented.

An abstract on the effect of distal coronary embolization on infarct size in a porcine acute myocardial infarction model is presented.

An abstract of the article "Left ventricular mechanical dyssynchrony by cardiac magnetic resonance is greater in patients with strict vs. conventional ECG criteria for left bundle branch block," by Linus Andersson and colleagues is presented.

An abstract of the article "Localization of myocardial scar in patients with cardiomyopathy and left bundle branch block using electrocardiographic Selvester QRS scoring-comparison with cardiac magnetic resonance," by Bjorn Wieslander and colleagues is presented.

An abstract of the article "Contribution of reperfusion hemorrhage to T2 and T2* CMR in the quantification of hemorrhage extent and area-at-risk after acute myocardial infarction," by Nilesh R. Ghugre and colleagues is presented.

The author reflects on her role as a literacy coach. She describes her work of facilitating academic progress at a middle school in Los Angeles, California. She offers highlights of her role as a University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Literacy Coach. She relates that working for the UCLA Writing Project helped develop and improve her methods for responding to student writing. She advises teachers to engage in the craft of revision if they want their responses to motivate students to learn from mistakes. She offers strategies for coaches in developing student talent and skill and affecting positive change in student writing.

Reports on the bill proposed in the state of California to build three interdisciplinary research institutes. Purpose of introducing the legislation; Estimated value of each institute; Science and technology in California.