Digital Commons Network^™

A Prospective Adaptive Utility Trial To Validate Performance Of A Novel Urine Exosome Gene Expression Assay To Predict High-Grade Prostate Cancer In Patients With Prostate-Specific Antigen 2-10ng/Ml At Initial Biopsy, James Mckiernan, Michael J Donovan, Eric Margolis, Alan Partin, Ballentine Carter, Gordon Brown, Phillipp Torkler, Mikkel Noerholm, Johan Skog, Neal Shore, Gerry Andriole, Ian Thompson, Peter Carroll

Open Access Publications

BACKGROUND: Discriminating indolent from clinically significant prostate cancer (PCa) in the initial biopsy setting remains an important issue. Prospectively evaluated diagnostic assays are necessary to ensure efficacy and clinical adoption.

OBJECTIVE: Performance and utility assessment of ExoDx Prostate (IntelliScore) (EPI) urine exosome gene expression assay versus standard clinical parameters for discriminating Grade Group (GG) ≥2 PCa from GG1 PCa and benign disease on initial biopsy.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A two-phase adaptive clinical utility study (NCT03031418) comparing EPI results with biopsy outcomes in men, with age ≥50 yr and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) 2-10ng/ml, scheduled for initial prostate biopsy. After EPI …

Ethical Cannabis Lawyering In California, Francis J. Mootz Iii

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Cannabis has a long history in the United States. Originally, doctors and pharmacists used cannabis for a variety of purposes. After the Mexican Revolution led to widespread migration from Mexico to the United States, many Americans responded by associating this influx of foreigners with the use of cannabis, and thereby racializing and stigmatizing the drug. After the collapse of prohibition, the federal government repurposed its enormous enforcement bureaucracy to address the perceived problem of cannabis, despite the opposition of the American Medical Association to this new prohibition. Ultimately, both the states and the federal government classified cannabis as a dangerous …

Using Virtual Exchange To Advance Media Literacy Competencies Through Analysis Of Contemporary Propaganda, Renee Hobbs, Christian Seyferth-Zapf, Silke Grafe

Journal of Media Literacy Education

With the rise of so-called fake news as a global phenomenon, interest in propaganda analysis has advanced along with the recognition of the fundamentally social process of interpretation. In this essay, we explore the use of cross-national dialogue among German and American undergraduate students who are seeking to better understand how media messages are interpreted and how they inform and guide the civic actions of citizens. We describe and analyze five lessons that used a virtual exchange using a variety of digital media platforms, texts and technologies to support the cross-national study of contemporary propaganda. We observed that cross-national dialogue …

Financial Incentives For Smoking Treatment: Protocol Of The Fiesta Trial And Fiesta Oral Microbiome Substudy, Katherine M French, Sasha Z Gonzalez, Scott E Sherman, Alissa R Link, Sadozai Zoe Malik, Chi-Hong Tseng, Saahil A Jumkhawala, Briesny Tejada, Andrew White, Joseph A Ladapo

NYMC Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, but evidence-based smoking cessation therapy is underutilized. Financial incentive strategies represent an innovative approach for increasing the use of counseling and pharmacotherapy. If effective, they could supplement or supplant resource-intensive policy options, particularly in populations for whom smoking has substantial societal costs. FIESTA (Financial IncEntives for Smoking TreAtment) will randomize hospitalized smokers to receive usual smoking cessation care alone or usual smoking care augmented with financial incentives. We aim to compare the impact of these two strategies on 1) smoking abstinence, 2) use of counseling and nicotine …

Emergency Collateral Upgrades, Mark Carlson, Marco Macchiavelli

Documents

No abstract provided.

The United States And Canadian System Of Healthcare: A Comparative Study, Mopelola O. Mopelola

University Honors Program

There is a lot to be said about the world of healthcare. The significance of the role our health plays in our lives cannot be overemphasized. The idea of this paper is to explore two of the largest and functional healthcare systems in the world. The purpose of this is because of some key differences between the systems of healthcare that are very important as they relate to the accessibility and availability of healthcare and also the quality of care that is received. The two countries being compared in this paper are the United States and Canada. These countries utilize …

The United States And Canadian System Of Healthcare: A Comparative Study, Mopelola O. Mopelola

University Honors College

here is a lot to be said about the world of healthcare. The significance of the role our health plays in our lives cannot be overemphasized. The idea of this paper is to explore two of the largest and functional healthcare systems in the world. The purpose of this is because of some key differences between the systems of healthcare that are very important as they relate to the accessibility and availability of healthcare and also the quality of care that is received. The two countries being compared in this paper are the United States and Canada. These countries utilize …

The Rescue Of Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac – Module E: The Housing And Economic Recovery Act Of 2008, Dan Thompson

Documents

No abstract provided.

President Trump, The New Chicago School And The Future Of Environmental Law And Scholarship, Sarah B. Schindler

Faculty Publications

Recent presidents including Bill Clinton, G. W. Bush, and Barack Obama have refined how environmental law has been enacted and carried out. Under President Trump, the scope of public environmental law will most certainly narrow. It seems likely that the future of environmental law will depend not upon traditional federal command-and-control legislation or executive branch maneuvering, but instead upon activating environmentalism through expanded substantive areas and innovative regulatory techniques that fall outside the existing, traditional norms of environmental law and legal scholarship. This chapter is an attempt to acknowledge this monumental change, recognizing that these barriers to traditional environmental regulation …

The United States' Nuclear Testing Program In The Marshall Islands, Deborah Herota

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

From 1946 to 1958, the United States conducted top secret nuclear weapons testing in the Marshall Islands that affects its people and its ecology to this day. The United States has done an injustice to the people of the Marshall Islands by forcing them off their native lands in order to procure testing sites, by knowingly exposing the people to radiation from these tests, by withholding information from the people who are most affected by the testing, and by not restoring the people to their health and to their lands. To date, the United States maintains a presence on the …

Changes In The Us Burden Of Chronic Kidney Disease From 2002 To 2016: An Analysis Of The Global Burden Of Disease Study, Benjamin Bowe, Yan Xie, Tingting Li, Ali H. Mokdad, Hong Xian, Yan Yan, Geetha Maddukuri, Ziyad Al-Aly

Open Access Publications

Introduction: Over the past 15 years, changes in demographic, social, and epidemiologic trends occurred in the United States. These changes likely contributed to changes in chronic kidney disease (CKD) epidemiology.

Objective: To describe the change in burden of CKD at the US state level from 2002 to 2016.

Design, Setting, and Participants: This systematic analysis used data and methodologies from the 2016 Global Burden of Disease study in the United States. Data on CKD from 2002 to 2016 were examined at the state level.

Main Outcomes and Measures: Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and death due to CKD.

Results: In this …

Association Between Health Insurance Literacy And Avoidance Of Health Care Services Owing To Cost, Renuka Tipirneni, Mary C. Politi, Jeffrey T. Kullgren, Edith C. Kieffer, Susan D. Goold, Aaron M. Scherer

Open Access Publications

Importance: Navigating health insurance and health care choices requires considerable health insurance literacy. Although recommended preventive services are exempt from out-of-pocket costs under the Affordable Care Act, many people may remain unaware of this provision and its effect on their required payment. Little is known about the association between individuals' health insurance literacy and their use of preventive or nonpreventive health care services.

Objective: To assess the association between health insurance literacy and self-reported avoidance of health care services owing to cost.

Design, Setting, and Participants: In this survey study, a US national, geographically diverse, nonprobability sample of 506 US …

The Shanachie, Volume 30, Number 4, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society

The Shanachie (CTIAHS)

This 16-page issue of our newsletter commemorates the 100th anniversary of the armistice which ended World War I just 100 years ago.

Contents: Connecticut's Irish in World War I --Hartford Red Cross nurse served amid bombardments --Sgt. Stubby and Cpl. Conroy went off to war --With roots in Canada, Lafferty got into the fight early --Picketing White House in wartime: patriotic or treason? --Ansonia native among nation’s first female sailors --Medals and monument honor Fair Haven Irish lads --Daring young men in their flying machines --Knights of Columbus offered soup and solace for friend and foe alike --Sailor from Roscommon …

Safety, Tolerability, And Pharmacokinetics Of Long-Acting Injectable Cabotegravir In Low-Risk Hiv-Uninfected Individuals: Hptn 077, A Phase 2a Randomized Controlled Trial., Raphael J Landovitz, Sue Li, Beatriz Grinsztejn, Halima Dawood, Albert Y Liu, Manya Magnus, Mina C Hosseinipour, Ravindre Panchia, Leslie Cottle, Gordon Chau, Paul Richardson, Mark A Marzinke, Craig W Hendrix, Susan H Eshleman, Yinfeng Zhang, Elizabeth Tolley, Jeremy Sugarman, Ryan Kofron, Adeola Adeyeye, David Burns, Alex R Rinehart, David Margolis, William R Spreen, Myron S Cohen, Marybeth Mccauley, Joseph J Eron

Epidemiology Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Cabotegravir (CAB) is a novel strand-transfer integrase inhibitor being developed for HIV treatment and prevention. CAB is formulated both as an immediate-release oral tablet for daily administration and as a long-acting injectable suspension (long-acting CAB [CAB LA]) for intramuscular (IM) administration, which delivers prolonged plasma exposure to the drug after IM injection. HIV Prevention Trials Network study 077 (HPTN 077) evaluated the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of CAB LA in HIV-uninfected males and females at 8 sites in Brazil, Malawi, South Africa, and the United States.

METHODS AND FINDINGS: HPTN 077 was a double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2a trial. Healthy …

Quality Assurance Plan For Monitoring White-Tailed Deer In The Heartland Inventory And Monitoring Network, United States National Park Service, Heartland Inventory And Monitoring Network

United States National Park Service: Publications

Abstract

In accordance with guidelines set forth by the National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring Division, a quality-assurance plan has been created for use by the Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network in the implementation of the White-tailed Deer Monitoring Protocol (HTLN 2018). This quality-assurance plan documents the standards, policies, and procedures used by the Heartland Network for activities related to the collection, processing, storage, analysis, and publication of monitoring data. The policies and procedures documented in this quality-assurance plan complement the quality-assurance plans for other monitoring activities conducted by the Heartland Network and supplement the National Inventory and Monitoring Division …

Use Of Drug Dependency To Entrap And Control Victims Of Sex Trafficking: A Call For A U.S. Federal Human Rights Response, Jacquelyn C.A. Meshelmiah, Carra Gilson, Athapattu Pathirannelage A. Prasanga

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Survivors of sex trafficking who were forced into drug use as victims are in need of social services to treat their drug dependency and other mental disorders. Access to social services is a human rights issue that must be acted upon by state and federal officials. The law, however, requires approval of the T-Visa for receipt of benefits. Along with the T-visa application process, the applicant (human trafficking survivor) must be willing to assist in every reasonable way in the investigation and prosecution of the trafficker. The authors argue that drug dependency treatment and other social service benefits should be …

Effect Of Aspirin On Cardiovascular Events And Bleeding In The Healthy Elderly, John J Mcneil, Rory Wolfe, Robyn L Woods, Andrew M Tonkin, Geoffrey A Donnan, Mark R Nelson, Christopher M Reid, Jessica E Lockery, Brenda Kirpach, Elsdon Storey, Raj C Shah, Jeff D Williamson, Karen L Margolis, Michael E Ernst, Walter P Abhayaratna, Nigel Stocks, Sharyn M Fitzgerald, Suzanne G Orchard, Ruth E Trevaks, Lawrence J Beilin, Colin I Johnston, Joanne Ryan, Barbara Radziszewska, Michael Jelinek, Mobin Malik, Charles B Eaton, Donna Brauer, Geoff Cloud, Erica M Wood, Suzanne E Mahady, Suzanne Satterfield, Richard Grimm, Anne M Murray

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Aspirin is a well-established therapy for the secondary prevention of cardiovascular events. However, its role in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease is unclear, especially in older persons, who have an increased risk.

METHODS: From 2010 through 2014, we enrolled community-dwelling men and women in Australia and the United States who were 70 years of age or older (or ≥65 years of age among blacks and Hispanics in the United States) and did not have cardiovascular disease, dementia, or disability. Participants were randomly assigned to receive 100 mg of enteric-coated aspirin or placebo. The primary end point was a …

Effect Of Aspirin On All-Cause Mortality In The Healthy Elderly, John J Mcneil, Mark R Nelson, Robyn L Woods, Jessica E Lockery, Rory Wolfe, Christopher M Reid, Brenda Kirpach, Raj C Shah, Diane G Ives, Elsdon Storey, Joanne Ryan, Andrew M Tonkin, Anne B Newman, Jeff D Williamson, Karen L Margolis, Michael E Ernst, Walter P Abhayaratna, Nigel Stocks, Sharyn M Fitzgerald, Suzanne G Orchard, Ruth E Trevaks, Lawrence J Beilin, Geoffrey A Donnan, Peter Gibbs, Colin I Johnston, Barbara Radziszewska, Richard Grimm, Anne M Murray

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: In the primary analysis of the Aspirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) trial, now published in the Journal, we report that the daily use of aspirin did not provide a benefit with regard to the primary end point of disability-free survival among older adults. A numerically higher rate of the secondary end point of death from any cause was observed with aspirin than with placebo.

METHODS: From 2010 through 2014, we enrolled community-dwelling persons in Australia and the United States who were 70 years of age or older (or ≥65 years of age among blacks and Hispanics …

Effect Of Aspirin On Disability-Free Survival In The Healthy Elderly, John J Mcneil, Robyn L Woods, Mark R Nelson, Christopher M Reid, Brenda Kirpach, Rory Wolfe, Elsdon Storey, Raj C Shah, Jessica E Lockery, Andrew M Tonkin, Anne B Newman, Jeff D Williamson, Karen L Margolis, Michael E Ernst, Walter P Abhayaratna, Nigel Stocks, Sharyn M Fitzgerald, Suzanne G Orchard, Ruth E Trevaks, Lawrence J Beilin, Geoffrey A Donnan, Peter Gibbs, Colin I Johnston, Joanne Ryan, Barbara Radziszewska, Richard Grimm, Anne M Murray

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Information on the use of aspirin to increase healthy independent life span in older persons is limited. Whether 5 years of daily low-dose aspirin therapy would extend disability-free life in healthy seniors is unclear.

METHODS: From 2010 through 2014, we enrolled community-dwelling persons in Australia and the United States who were 70 years of age or older (or ≥65 years of age among blacks and Hispanics in the United States) and did not have cardiovascular disease, dementia, or physical disability. Participants were randomly assigned to receive 100 mg per day of enteric-coated aspirin or placebo orally. The primary end …

Droughtscape, Fall 2018, National Drought Mitigation Center

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

Contents

From the director

Drought greatly improves in Southern Plains and South

Texas, Missouri, and Colorado logged late-summer impacts

Memory, remote sensing and a new research methodology

Navigating the U.S. Drought Monitor

Planners discuss the barriers to effective drought mitigation planning

Exploring climate issues from a county management perspective

Strategic Framework for Drought Risk Management and Enhancing Resilience in Africa

Mena global policy forum looks from data to mitigation

About us

State-by-state drought classification table developed by NDMC graduate student

Obamacare In The Trump Era: Where Are We Now, And Where Are We Going?, Daniel Beland, Philip Rocco, Alex Waddan

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, is the most significant US social policy reform in half a century, and the most politically fractious. Since the law was signed by President Obama, Republicans have mobilised against it, using courts and state governments to undermine the implementation of the legislation, which was set to unfold gradually over a nine‐year period. As we describe in this article, however, the beginning of the Trump presidency in January 2017 marked a turning point in the politics of Obamacare. In the absence of Obama's veto, legislative retrenchment became a viable option …

Preventive Care In Rural Areas: A Cross-Examination Of The United States And Germany, Karlie Hinton

Honors Thesis

The purpose of the qualitative self-report study is to further explore the perceptions and practices of German and American recipients of healthcare within rural areas in regard to barriers currently faced in accessing healthcare, possible reform of care practices, the current state of utilization of health system, and representative introduction of innovative methods. If studied, these factors allow healthcare directors, local and national governments, and the patients themselves to access information that supports informed planning and decision making. The sample consisted of 135 Americans and 133 Germans living in rural areas (e.g. south-eastern South Dakota and the Black Forest region …

From Pelican Bay To Palestine: The Legal Normalization Of Force-Feeding Hunger-Strikers, Azadeh Shahshahani, Priya Arvind Patel

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Hunger-strikes present a challenge to state authority and abuse from powerless individuals with limited access to various forms of protest and speech—those in detention. For as long as hunger-strikes have occurred throughout history, governments have force-fed strikers out of a stated obligation to preserve life. Some of the earliest known hunger-strikers, British suffragettes, were force-fed and even died as a result of these invasive procedures during the second half of the 19th century.

This Article examines the rationale and necessity behind hunger strikes for imprisoned individuals, the prevailing issues behind force-feeding, the international public response to force-feeding, and the legal …

Introduction And Geographic Availability Of New Antibiotics Approved Between 1999 And 2014, Cecilia Kållberg, Christine Årdal, Hege Salvesen Blix, Eili Klein, Elena Martinez, Morten Lindbæk, Kevin Outterson, John-Arne Røttingen, Ramanan Laxminarayan

Faculty Scholarship

Despite the urgent need for new, effective antibiotics, few antibiotics of value have entered the market during the past decades. Therefore, incentives have been developed to stimulate antibiotic R&D. For these incentives to be effective, geographic availability for recently approved antibiotics needs to be better understood. In this study, we analyze geographic availability and market introduction of antibiotics approved between 1999 and 2014.

Too Ill To Be Killed: Mental And Physical Competency To Be Executed Pursuant To The Death Penalty, Linda A. Malone

Faculty Publications

Mentally ill individuals are being housed in prisons and jails throughout the country. Due to decreased funding and overpopulation of correctional facilities, individuals with pre-existing illnesses, as well as others who develop illnesses, are in severe need of mental health services and punished for their ailments through the use of solitary confinement, long prison sentences, and lack of care. The stress created by such conditions is amplified for mentally ill prisoners who are awaiting execution or the dismissal of their death row sentences. These individuals must show that they are competent to stand trial, exhibit the mental state required for …

One-Year Analysis Of The Prospective Multicenter Sentry Clinical Trial: Safety And Effectiveness Of The Novate Sentry Bioconvertible Inferior Vena Cava Filter., Michael D Dake, Timothy P Murphy, Albrecht H Krämer, Michael D Darcy, Luke E Sewall, Michael A Curi, Matthew S Johnson, Frank Arena, James L Swischuk, Gary M Ansel, Mitchell J Silver, Souheil Saddekni, Jayson S Brower, Robert Mendes, Sentry Trial Investigators

Heart and Vascular Articles

PURPOSE: To prospectively assess the Sentry bioconvertible inferior vena cava (IVC) filter in patients requiring temporary protection against pulmonary embolism (PE).

MATERIALS AND METHODS: At 23 sites, 129 patients with documented deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or PE, or at temporary risk of developing DVT or PE, unable to use anticoagulation were enrolled. The primary end point was clinical success, including successful filter deployment, freedom from new symptomatic PE through 60 days before filter bioconversion, and 6-month freedom from filter-related complications. Patients were monitored by means of radiography, computerized tomography (CT), and CT venography to assess filtering configuration through 60 days, …

Review Of A Politically Incorrect Feminist By Phyllis Chesler, Robert Brannon

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Phyllis Chesler’s new memoir, A Politically Incorrect Feminist (St. Martin's Press, 2018), spans almost fifty years of second-wave feminism. She names 100s of women, both famous and virtually unknown today who took part in the awakening and growing women’s movement, marching, sitting-in, writing and organizing since the 1960’s. It is the personal life story of one of the earliest feminist authors and political activists of the second-wave, the author of Women and Madness and 17 other books. Chelser discusses major issues of the time and provides an insider’s view of many of the feminism’s most significant public events. This big …

Infectious Complications After Deployment Trauma: Following Wounded Us Military Personnel Into Veterans Affairs Care, Jay R Mcdonald, Stephen Y Liang, Ping Li, Salwa Maalouf, Clinton K Murray, Amy C Weintrob, Elizabeth R Schnaubelt, Janis Kuhn, Anuradha Ganesan, William Bradley, David R Tribble, Infectious Disease Clinical Research Program Trauma Infectious Disease Outcomes Study Group

2010-2019 OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Infectious complications related to deployment trauma significantly contribute to the morbidity and mortality of wounded service members. The Trauma Infectious Disease Outcomes Study (TIDOS) collects data on US military personnel injured in Iraq and Afghanistan in an observational cohort study of infectious complications. Patients enrolled in TIDOS may also consent to follow-up through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). We present data from the first 337 TIDOS enrollees to receive VA healthcare.

METHODS: Data were collected from the Department of Defense (DoD) Trauma Registry, TIDOS infectious disease module, DoD and VA electronic medical records, and telephone interview. Cox proportional …

Labor Market Effects Of U.S. Sick Pay Mandates, Stefan Pichler, Nicolas R. Ziebarth

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This paper exploits temporal and spatial variation in the implementation of nine-city- and four state-level U.S. sick pay mandates to assess their labor market consequences. We use the synthetic control group method and traditional difference-in-differences models along with the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages to estimate the causal effects of mandated sick pay on employment and wages. We do not find much evidence that employment or wages were significantly affected by the mandates that typically allow employees to earn one hour of paid sick leave per work week, up to seven days per year. Employment decreases of 2 percent …

The Chrysler And General Motors Bankruptcies, Todd J. Zywicki

Documents

No abstract provided.