Synthesizing U.S. River Restoration Efforts Bernhardt, E. S.; Palmer, M. A.; Allan, J. D. ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
04/2005, Letnik:
308, Številka:
5722
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The importance of rivers and streams for fresh water, food, and recreation is well known, yet there is increasing evidence that degradation of running waters is at an all-time high. However, most ...restoration projects are small scale, and information on their implementation and outcome is not readily accessible. Here, Bernhardt et al report a synthesis of information on 37,099 projects in the National River Restoration Science Synthesis database.
This study aimed to synthesize the evidence from randomized clinical trials in people with nontraumatic degenerative meniscal pathology by comparing physical therapist interventions versus or ...combined with arthroscopic partial meniscectomy (APM).
Seven electronic databases were searched. Methodological quality was evaluated using the Physiotherapy Evidence Database scale. Data synthesis was performed with random-effects network meta-analysis, and results were summarized using the standardized mean differences.
From 2103 studies, 10 randomized clinical trials comprising 1411 individuals were included. Ninety percent of the selected randomized clinical trials were classified as good quality according to the Physiotherapy Evidence Database scale. All interventions (physical therapist interventions, APM, and APM plus physical therapist interventions) showed reduced pain and physical impairments at 3-month follow-up. However, when a physical therapist intervention was included, greater reductions in pain at rest (APM vs physical therapist interventions: 0.73 95% CI = 0.20 to 1.26; APM vs APM plus physical therapist interventions: 0.59 95% CI = 0.15 to 1.03) and greater increases in the strength of knee extensor muscles (APM vs physical therapist interventions: 0.44 95% CI = 0.07 to 0.80; APM vs APM plus physical therapist interventions: 0.73 95% CI = 0.29 to 1.16) were observed at 3 months. By contrast, no differences were found between treatments beyond 3 months.
Physical therapist interventions based on exercise programs demonstrate superior short-term outcomes in pain reduction and knee extensor strength compared to surgical treatment.
For nontraumatic degenerative meniscal pathology, conservative treatment utilizing a physical therapist intervention approach should be prioritized as the first choice over surgical treatment. It offers comparable or superior short-term pain reduction and strength improvements, with a lower risk of side effects. In cases where surgery is deemed necessary, including postsurgical, physical therapist interventions are highly recommended to enhance muscle strength and alleviate pain.
Research summary: The experience of Encyclopaedia Britannica provides the canonical example of the decline of an established firm at the outset of the digital age. Competition from Microsoft's ...Encarta in 1993 led to sharp declines in the sales of books, which led to the distressed sale of the firm in 1996. This article offers new source material about the actions at both Encarta and Britannica, and it offers a novel interpretation of events. Britannica's management did not misperceive the opportunities and threats, and Britannica did not lack technical prowess. This narrative stresses that Britannica's management faced organizational diseconomies of scope between supporting lines of business in the old and new markets, which generated internal conflicts. These conflicts hindered the commercialization of new technology and hastened its decline. Managerial summary: An established and leading firm, such as Encyclopaedia Britannica, would seem to have enormous advantages over its competitors in a new market. Why would a successful firm come to have severe difficulties organizing for a new market? Of particular importance for explaining Britannica's decline are theories that stress its inherited capabilities, especially inherited technological (in)abilities and inherited (mis)perceptions about the potential for new market opportunities. This article argues that Britannica's management did not misperceive the opportunities and threats, and Britannica did not lack technical prowess. This narrative stresses that Britannica's management faced organizational diseconomies of scope between supporting lines of business in the old and new markets, which generated internal conflicts. The narrative directs attention at managing commercialization activity around new products using new technologies.
Understanding the magnitude and cause of variation in tree growth and forest productivity is central to sustainable forest management. Measurements of annual growth rings allow assessments of ...individual-tree, tree population, and forest ecosystem vulnerabilities to drought stress or other changing forest disturbance regimes (insects, diseases, fire), which can be used to identify areas at greatest risk of forest losses. Given a heightened demand for tree-ring data, we consolidated and synthesized tree-ring studies and datasets gathered over the past 30 years in Canada by scientists with the Canadian Forest Service and research partners. We incorporated these datasets into a data repository that currently contains tree-ring measurements from 40 206 tree samples from 4594 sites and 62 tree species from all Canadian provinces and territories. Through our synthesis, we demonstrate the value of such large ensembles of tree-ring data for identifying patterns in tree growth over large spatial scales by mapping pan-Canadian drought sensitivity. Overall, we found high coherence in the samples analyzed; low coherence was generally limited to data-poor regions and species. Drought sensitivity was widespread across species and regions: 34% of sampled trees displayed a significant positive relationship between annual growth increment and summer soil moisture index. Dependence upon water availability in species Picea mariana (Mill.) BSP, Pinus banksiana Lamb., Pinus contorta Douglas ex Loudon, and Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco was more strongly expressed in the warmest regions of the species’ range; for species Picea glauca (Moench) Voss and Populus tremuloides Michx., drought sensitivity was stronger in the driest regions. This unprecedented consolidation and synthesis of tree-ring data will enable new research initiatives (e.g., meta-analyses) aimed at improved understanding of the drivers, patterns, and implications of changes in tree growth, as well as facilitating new research collaborations in earth and environmental sciences. Among other things, there is a need for expanding the spatial distribution of sites across Canada’s northern regions, increasing the number of samples collected from older stands and angiosperm species, and integrating datasets from studies that evaluate the effects of silvicultural experiments, including provenance and progeny trials, on tree growth.
Administrative databases may allow true population-based studies and quality improvement endeavors, but the accuracy of billing codes for capturing key risk factors and outcomes needs to be assessed. ...We sought to describe the performance of a statewide administrative database and the clinical database from the California Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative (CPQCC).
This population-based retrospective cohort study linked key perinatal risk factors and outcomes from the 133-unit CPQCC database to relevant billing codes from administrative maternal and newborn inpatient discharge records, for 50 631 infants born from 2006 to 2012. Using the CPQCC record as the gold standard, we calculated the positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and Matthews correlation coefficient for each item, then evaluated comparative performance across units.
The Matthews correlation coefficient was highest (>0.7; strong positive correlation) for multiple delivery, Cesarean delivery, very low birth weight, maternal hypertension, maternal diabetes, patent ductus arteriosus, in-hospital death, patent ductus arteriosus and retinopathy of prematurity surgeries, extracorporeal life support, and intraventricular hemorrhage. Maternal chorioamnionitis, fetal distress, retinopathy of prematurity staging, chronic lung disease, and pneumothorax were the least reliably coded. Maternal factors and delivery details were more reliably coded in the maternal inpatient record than the newborn inpatient record.
Several important perinatal risk factors and outcomes are highly congruent between these administrative and clinical databases. Several subjective risk factors and outcomes are appropriate targets for data improvement initiatives. The ability for timely extraction of administrative inpatient data will be key to their usefulness in quality metrics.
Objective
The aim of this study was to examine rates of killings perpetrated by off‐duty police and news coverage of those killings, by victim race and gender, and to qualitatively evaluate the ...contexts in which those killings occur.
Data Sources and Study Setting
We used the Mapping Police Violence database to curate a dataset of killings perpetrated by off‐duty police (2013–2021, N = 242). We obtained data from Media Cloud to assess news coverage of each off‐duty police‐perpetrated killing.
Study Design
Our study used a convergent mixed‐methods design. We examined off‐duty police‐perpetrated killings by victim race and gender, comparing absolute rates and rates relative to total police‐perpetrated killings. Correction added on 26 June 2023, after first online publication: ‘policy‐perpetrated’ has been changed to ‘police‐perpetrated’ in the preceding sentence. We also conducted race‐gender comparisons of the frequency of news media reporting of these killings, and whether reporting identified the perpetrator as an off‐duty officer. We conducted thematic analysis of the narrative free‐text field that accompanied quantitative data using grounded theory.
Principal Findings
Black men were the most frequent victims killed by off‐duty police (39.3%) followed by white men (25.2%), Hispanic men (11.2%), white women (9.1%), men of unknown race (9.1%), and Black women (4.1%). Black women had the highest rate of off‐duty/total police‐perpetrated killings relative to white men (rate = 12.82%, RR = 8.32, 95% CI: 4.43–15.63). There were threefold higher odds of news reporting of a police‐perpetrated killing and the off‐duty status of the officer for incidents with Black and Hispanic victims. Qualitative analysis revealed that off‐duty officers intervened violently within their own social networks; their presence escalated situations; they intentionally obscured information about their lethal violence; they intervened while impaired; their victims were often in crisis; and their intervention posed harm and potential secondary traumatization to witnesses.
Conclusions
Police perpetrate lethal violence while off duty, compromising public health and safety. Additionally, off‐duty police‐perpetrated killings are reported differentially by the news media depending on the race of the victim.
Objective
To assess the concordance between and benefit of adding prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) data to all‐payer claims database (APCD) data for identifying and classifying opioid ...exposure among insured individuals.
Data Sources and Study Setting
Arkansas APCD and PDMP.
Study Design
Enrollees in APCD were classified as (1) true positives: if they received opioids in both databases, (2) false positives: if they only received opioids in APCD, (3) true negatives: if they had no opioid exposure in both databases, (4) false negatives: if they only received opioids in the PDMP database. Specificity, sensitivity, negative, and positive predictive values were calculated using PDMP as the “gold standard” database source. Subjects were also categorized as those who received any opioid, chronic opioid, high‐dose opioid, or high‐risk opioid therapies.
Data Collection/Extraction Methods
Arkansas residents continuously enrolled with pharmacy coverage in 2016 were included. APCD and PDMP were linked using an encrypted enrollee identifier, gender, and year of birth.
Principal Findings
The degree of concordance in opioid exposure between the two databases among 1,411,565 enrollees was high (sensitivity = 92.67%, specificity = 96.13%, positive predictive value = 91.60%, negative predictive value = 96.65%). Enrollees classified as having any opioid (APCD: 31.64% vs. PDMP: 31.26% vs. APCD+PDMP: 33.93%), chronic opioid (APCD: 7.81% vs. PDMP: 7.54% vs. APCD+PDMP: 8.24%), high‐dose opioid (APCD: 10.60% vs. PDMP: 9.62% vs. APCD+PDMP: 11.33%), or high‐risk opioid (APCD: 5.28% vs. PDMP: 5.33% vs. APCD+PDMP: 6.20%) therapies, were similar using only APCD versus PDMP versus the combined APCD and PDMP data sources.
Conclusions
Claims data sources, such as APCDs, are fairly accurate in identifying opioid exposure and the level of opioid exposure among persons with continuous pharmacy coverage.
Health administrative data offer a vital source of data on maternal prenatal opioid exposure (POE). The impact of different methods to estimate POE, especially combining maternal and newborn records, ...is not known.
This population-based cross-sectional study included 454 746 hospital births with linked administrative data in Ontario, Canada, in 2014-2017. POE ascertainment included 3 sources: (1) prenatal opioid prescriptions, (2) maternal opioid-related hospital records, and (3) newborn hospital records with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). Positive percent agreement was calculated comparing cases identified by source, and a comprehensive method was developed combining all 3 sources. We replicated common definitions of POE and NAS from existing literature and compared both number of cases ascertained and maternal socio-demographics and medical history using the comprehensive method.
Using all 3 data sources, there were 9624 cases with POE (21.2 per 1000 births). Among these, positive percent agreement (95% confidence interval) was 79.0% (78.2-79.8) for prenatal opioid prescriptions, 19.0% (18.2-19.8) for maternal opioid-related hospital records, and 44.7% (43.7-45.7) for newborn NAS. Compared with other definitions, our comprehensive method identified up to 523% additional cases. Contrasting ascertainment with maternal opioid-related hospital records, newborn NAS, and prenatal opioid prescriptions respective rates of maternal low income were 57%, 48%, and 39%; mental health hospitalization history was 33%, 28%, and 17%; and infant discharge to social services was 8%, 13%, and 5%.
Combining prenatal opioid prescriptions and maternal and newborn opioid-related hospital codes improves identification of a broader population of mothers and infants with POE.
Notice is hereby given that, in accordance with article 3 of the Procedure for the Selection of Recommended International Nonproprietary Names for Pharmaceutical Substances, the names given in the ...list on the following pages are under consideration by the World Health Organization as Proposed International Nonproprietary Names. The inclusion of a name in the lists of Proposed International Nonproprietary Names does not imply any recommendation of the use of the substance in medicine or pharmacy. Lists of Proposed (1-117) and Recommended (1-78) International Nonproprietary Names can be found in Cumulative List No. 17, 2017 (available in CD-ROM only). The statements indicating action and use are based largely on information supplied by the manufacturer. This information is merely meant to provide an indication of the potential use of new substances at the time they are accorded Proposed International Nonproprietary Names. WHO is not in a position either to uphold these statements or to comment on the efficacy of the action claimed. Because of their provisional nature, these descriptors will neither be revised nor included in the Cumulative Lists of INNs.
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