NEW ENGLAND Research Articles

Yield and bias in defining a cohort study baseline from electronic health record data

AimsDespite growing interest in using electronic health records (EHR) to create longitudinal cohort studies, the distribution and missingness of EHR data might introduce selection bias and information bias to such analyses. We aimed to examine the yield and potential for these healthcare process biases in defining a study baseline using EHR data, using the example of cholesterol and blood pressure (BP) measurements. MethodsWe created a virtual cohort study of cardiovascular disease (CVD) from patients with eligible cholesterol profiles in the New England (NE) and Southeast (SE) networks of the Veterans Health Administration in the United States. Using clinical data from the EHR, we plotted the yield of patients with BP measurements within an expanding timeframe around an index date of cholesterol testing. We compared three groups: (1) patients with BP from the exact index date; (2) patients with BP not on the index date but within the network-specific 90th percentile around the index date; and (3) patients with no BP within the network-specific 90th percentile. ResultsAmong 589,361 total patients in the two networks, 146,636 (61.0%) of 240,479 patients from NE and 289,906 (83.1%) of 348,882 patients from SE had BP measurements on the index date. Ninety percent had BP measured within 11 days of the index date in NE and within 5 days of the index date in SE. Group 3 in both networks had fewer available race data, fewer comorbidities and CVD medications, and fewer health system encounters. ConclusionsRequiring same-day risk factor measurement in the creation of a virtual CVD cohort study from EHR data might exclude 40% of eligible patients, but including patients with infrequent visits might introduce bias. Data visualization can inform study-specific strategies to address these challenges for the research use of EHR data.

PRZESTĘPSTWA I KARY W REGULACJACH PRAWNYCH NOWOANGIELSKICH KOLONII W AMERYCE PÓŁNOCNEJ W XVII WIEKU

CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS IN LEGAL REGULATIONS OF NEW ENGLAND COLONIES IN THE 17TH CENTURY Summary The subject of this article pertains to a colonial criminal law of New England colonies in 17th century. There are few studies on this matter, however the dominating aspects relates to a history of constitutional solutions. Comparison between normative aspect and examples of their application undoubtedly confirms some undemocratic background of colonial life. Moreover, contemporary interest in historical sciences seems to be increasing what should be sufficient reason for refreshing the older researches. Although New England colonies were founded under specific circumstances implied by relation between state and religion, they manager to set up a public system of criminal law. Nonetheless, colonists, while mainly focused on constitutional basis for their self-government, they used English and biblical paradigms for criminal regulations. One may find, however, that colonial documents consisted of rules describing a meaning of selected crimes and created relatively systematic catalogues. Detailed problems here analyzed are as following: general features of colonial criminal laws, crimes against a state and a government, against religion, against an individual and a property, against a family, crimes connected to administrative indications and selected instances of penalties.

BARRIERS TO AGING AND THRIVING IN PLACE IN A RURAL NEW ENGLAND COUNTY

BARRIERS TO AGING AND THRIVING IN PLACE IN A RURAL NEW ENGLAND COUNTY

Optimal placement of phasor measurement units with minimum availability of measuring channels in smart power systems

This paper presents a multi-stage method to make the power system complete observability by the optimal placement of phasor measurement units (PMUs) taking into account the availability of PMUs measuring channels. In order to solve the optimization problem, a two stage optimal method is applied. In stage-1, the ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm is used to find the optimal number and locations of PMUs considering measuring channels and maximize the measurement redundancy (MR) at normal operating condition as well as emergency conditions such as any single line or PMU outage. In Stage-2, the minimum number of PMUs measuring channels using the proposed reduction strategy (RS) with keeping the complete observability is achieved. The proposed method is tested on different standard test systems, namely IEEE 14-bus, 30-bus, 57-bus, 118-bus and New England (NE) 39-bus test systems. To prove the robustness of the developed approach, the results are compared with other recent techniques. The application of the proposed method is employed on a real power system of the west delta network (WDN) as a part of the Unified Egyptian Network (UEN) which is considered as a test system. Simulation results show the capability of the proposed method to find the optimal solution for significant saving in the total cost with more accurate and efficient, especially at increasing of the power system sizing.

Toward shared understandings of ecosystem-based fisheries management among fishery management councils and stakeholders in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and New England regions

Ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) is often discussed by fisheries managers and stakeholders as a potential goal. EBFM is based on a multi-species approach, which varies significantly from the single species fisheries management (SSFM) approach currently practiced under the U.S. Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSFCMA). EBFM is “holistic” and considers “all factors,” but it is impossible for management to incorporate all factors into EBFM. This study sought to improve understanding of factors contributing to or preventing progress toward EBFM implementation in the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC) and New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC), focusing on Council member and stakeholder beliefs, attitudes, and mutual understanding. Objectives included determining mutual understanding between MAFMC and NEFMC members and stakeholders about EBFM and identifying MAFMC and NEFMC member and stakeholder preferences for EBFM definitions, practices, and outcomes, and prioritizing which aspects of EBFM managers and stakeholders find most important. Stakeholders included commercial fishermen, recreational anglers, nongovernmental organization (NGO) leaders, and Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) members. Over 1000 survey responses about EBFM from council members and stakeholders in the Mid-Atlantic (MA) and New England (NE) regions were analyzed. The Coorientation Model was used to characterize understanding between the Council and fisheries-related stakeholder groups. For the MA and NE regions, most stakeholders agreed on definitions, practices, and possible outcomes for EBFM. Results suggest that most Council members and stakeholders in the MA and NE regions support a change from SSFM to EBFM at an incremental, intermediate, or complete, gradual (5–10 years) pace. The application of the Coorientation Model to EBFM and the fishery management councils provided insights into how an improved understanding of the attitudes, beliefs, and mutual comprehension of Council members and stakeholder groups could potentially facilitate the implementation of EBFM. Council members and stakeholders responded similarly to, and Council members correctly predicted stakeholder responses about, EBFM definitions, practices, and outcomes. These findings suggest that Council member and stakeholder agreement and understanding are not barriers to MAFMC and NEFMC adoption of EBFM.

Concentrations of hormones, pharmaceuticals and other micropollutants in groundwater affected by septic systems in New England and New York

Septic-system discharges can be an important source of micropollutants (including pharmaceuticals and endocrine active compounds) to adjacent groundwater and surface water systems. Groundwater samples were collected from well networks tapping glacial till in New England (NE) and sandy surficial aquifer New York (NY) during one sampling round in 2011. The NE network assesses the effect of a single large septic system that receives discharge from an extended health care facility for the elderly. The NY network assesses the effect of many small septic systems used seasonally on a densely populated portion of Fire Island. The data collected from these two networks indicate that hydrogeologic and demographic factors affect micropollutant concentrations in these systems.The highest micropollutant concentrations from the NE network were present in samples collected from below the leach beds and in a well downgradient of the leach beds. Total concentrations for personal care/domestic use compounds, pharmaceutical compounds and plasticizer compounds generally ranged from 1 to over 20μg/L in the NE network samples. High tris(2-butoxyethyl phosphate) plasticizer concentrations in wells beneath and downgradient of the leach beds (>20μg/L) may reflect the presence of this compound in cleaning agents at the extended health-care facility.The highest micropollutant concentrations for the NY network were present in the shoreline wells and reflect groundwater that is most affected by septic system discharges. One of the shoreline wells had personal care/domestic use, pharmaceutical, and plasticizer concentrations ranging from 0.4 to 5.7μg/L. Estradiol equivalency quotient concentrations were also highest in a shoreline well sample (3.1ng/L). Most micropollutant concentrations increase with increasing specific conductance and total nitrogen concentrations for shoreline well samples. These findings suggest that septic systems serving institutional settings and densely populated areas in coastal settings may be locally important sources of micropollutants to adjacent aquifer and marine systems.

Optimal location and optimized parameters for robust power system stabilizer using honeybee mating optimization

A honeybee mating optimization technique is used to tune the power system stabilizer (PSS) parameters and find optimal location of PSSs in this article. The PSS parameters and placement are computed to assure maximum damping performance under different operating conditions. One of the main advantages of the proposed approach is its robustness to the initial parameter settings. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated on two case studies as; 10‐machine 39‐buses New England (NE) power system in comparison with Tabu Search (TS) and 16 machines and 68 buses‐modified reduced order model of the NE New York interconnected system by genetic algorithm through some performance indices under different operating condition. The proposed method of tuning the PSS is an attractive alternative to conventional fixed gain stabilizer design as it retains the simplicity of the conventional PSS and at the same time guarantees a robust acceptable performance over a wide range of operating and system condition. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 242–258, 2015

Abstract T P175: Symptoms and Signs of Cerebrovascular Ischemia in the New England Medical Center Patent Foramen Ovale Registry

Objective: To evaluate the frequencies of symptoms and signs in patients with cryptogenic strokes in the setting of patent foramen ovale (PFO). Methods: We conducted a retrospective case series of cryptogenic stroke patients at the NEW England Medical Center, with proven PFO. The patients' records were reviewed for: 1) Activity at time of symptoms, 2) symptoms, 3) physical exam finding. Results: The study included 148 men (58%) and 109 women (42%). The average age was 52 years. The most frequent activity at the time of symptoms onset were lifting weights (30%), bending (34%), coughing/ sneezing/ nose blowing (16%), intercourse (7%), vomiting (5%). A history of prolonged immobility was present in 31% of patients. The most frequent presenting symptoms were unilateral weakness (46%), dysarthria (17%), unilateral numbness (11%), unsteady gait (10%), visual field defect (9%), diplopia (8%), vomiting (6%). The most frequent signs were normal exam (52%), unilateral weakness (14%), visual field deficits (13%), ataxia (4%), neglect/ inattention (2%), Babinski (3%), nystagmus (2%), unsteady gait (1%). Conclusion: We report our experience with cryptogenic stroke in patients with proven PFO. The disparity in frequencies of the signs and symptoms at the time of presentation raises the possibility of including these variables in an algorithm for predicting PFO in the setting of cryptogenic stroke.

ENGLISH LETTERS AND INDIAN LITERACIES: READING, WRITING, AND NEW ENGLAND MISSIONARY SCHOOLS, 1750–1830

ENGLISH LETTERS AND INDIAN LITERACIES: READING, WRITING, AND NEW ENGLAND MISSIONARY SCHOOLS, 1750-1830. By Hilary E. Wyss. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2012. xii + 251 pp. $59.95.Hilary Wyss has emerged as a major force in recovery of early Native American writers. For years, standard anthologies, and a good deal of scholarship, acknowledged only two: seventeenth-century Mohegan missionary Samson Occom and nineteenth-century Pequot minister William Apess. This limiting (abetted by Heath and Norton anthologies' annoying persistence in relegating Native American oral traditions to their pre-literate, pre-1700 sections) helps perpetuate racist myths: that Native Americans vanished; that they had relatively little to contribute to American literature; and that, when they did write, they did so only as tools of colonial order.Alphabetic literacy is certainly a technology of colonial domination, but Wyss's first book, Writing Indians: Literacy, Christianity and Native Community in Early America (2000), argued that indigenous textual production between and preceding Occom and Apess is much more complicated and much more voluminous, if only we are willing to read archives more deeply. Bearing out her claim, last decade and a half have produced a cascade of new work on early Native authors: Abenaki historian Lisa Brooks's widely cited study, The Common Pot: The Recovery of Native Space in Northeast (2008), and Drew Lopenzina's Red Ink: Native Americans Picking up Pen in Colonial Period (2012), as well as brilliant documentary anthology that Wyss coedited with Kristina Bross, Early Native Literacies in New England (2008), and Robert Dale Parker's Changing Is Not Vanishing: A Collection of American Poetry to 1930 (2010). These volumes, and many more, have assiduously illustrated that Native Americans who embraced alphabetic literacy-and even those who had it thrust upon them-exercised their own agency in writing and articulated complex ideals of self-determination and tribal sovereignty.You cannot understand early Native American literature without understanding early education. As Wyss puts it,Indian education is nexus through which social, political, and cultural differences were played out among Native groups, between colonial and indigenous peoples, and between competing colonial figures invested in idea of Native literacy. . . . And under often intensely difficult conditions Native Americans sustained themselves as people with their own history and culture while accepting material artifacts of English life. (35-36)English Letters and Literacies continues to fill in this history with a sustained examination of Congregationalist boarding schools operating within and outside of New England between two Great Awakenings. Evangelical efforts to educate Indians, and thereby to convert them, began almost as soon as Puritans arrived. These projects ranged from John Eliot's famous praying towns to more diffuse, home- and communitybased reading instruction. In mid-eighteenth century, New England authorities began pinning their hopes on boarding schools-precursors to infamous Carlisle School of later nineteenth century, which removed Native children from their home communities in interests of speedier assimilation. Most of these early experiments were short-lived: [N]one of them were able to sustain good relations for more than a few years with various tribes they claimed to serve . . . [revealing] gap between what Natives wanted from such ventures and what missionaries expected of their students (18). Yet schools also left extensive archives, documents that have much to tell us about colonial ideals of literacy and about Native uses of writing.Wyss characterizes former ideal as the Readerly Indian (one imagined as a passive recipient of European missionary message) and latter as the Writerly Indian, a construct that aims, strategically and purposefully, to recover agency of Indians who picked up pen. …

ENGLISH LETTERS AND INDIAN LITERACIES: READING, WRITING, AND NEW ENGLAND MISSIONARY SCHOOLS, 1750–1830

Book Review| January 01 2014 ENGLISH LETTERS AND INDIAN LITERACIES: READING, WRITING, AND NEW ENGLAND MISSIONARY SCHOOLS, 1750–1830 ENGLISH LETTERS AND INDIAN LITERACIES: READING, WRITING, AND NEW ENGLAND MISSIONARY SCHOOLS, 1750–1830Wyss, Hilary E. Siobhan Senier Siobhan Senier Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Resources for American Literary Study (2014) 37: 299–302. https://doi.org/10.2307/26367696 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Siobhan Senier; ENGLISH LETTERS AND INDIAN LITERACIES: READING, WRITING, AND NEW ENGLAND MISSIONARY SCHOOLS, 1750–1830. Resources for American Literary Study 1 January 2014; 37 299–302. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/26367696 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectivePenn State University PressResources for American Literary Study Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright © 2014 AMS Press, Inc.2014AMS Press, Inc. Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Generator Coherency Using the Wavelet Phase Difference Approach

In this paper, the wavelet phase difference (WPD) approach is applied for the identification of power system areas with coherent generator groups. This approach allows observation, at different frequency bands, of movement of low frequency electromechanical oscillations (LFEO), identified at different parts of the power system and the identification of the inter-area components that move or do not move together. An illustration of the applied approach was performed on the New England (NE) 39-bus test system. The interesting results of WPD application are also presented in a real wide-area measurement data from European interconnected power system. By using the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT), the validation of results from WPD approach is also given.

MARCH 2013 PLACEMENT ADS

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Static Security Assessment in Power Systems Using Multi-Class SVM with Parameter Selection Methods

 Abstract—Security assessment is a major concern in real time operation of electric power systems. Traditional method of security assessment performed by continuous load flow analysis involves long computer time and generates voluminous results. This paper presents a practical and feasible Support Vector Machine Based Pattern Classification (SVMBPC) approach for static security assessment in power systems. The proposed approach classifies the security status of any given operating condition in one of the four classes - Secure, Critically Secure, Insecure and Highly Insecure based on the computation of a numeric value called security index. The feature selection stage uses a simple and straightforward forward sequential method to select the best feature set from a large set of variables. The static security classifier is designed by a multi-class SVM with different parameter tuning methods. The proposed approach is implemented in New England 39 bus and IEEE 118 bus systems and the results are validated. techniques and expert systems like fuzzy set theory has been proposed for security assessment problem, overcoming the pitfalls of traditional method. Literatures have reported the use of Artificial Neural Network techniques (4), (5), fuzzy logic combined with neural network (6), genetic based neural network (7) for static security assessment process. The performance of all these existing techniques are highly problem dependent and hence its suitability cannot be generalized. Nowadays, pattern classification is gaining more importance in solving many power system problems. In this approach, main bulk of work is done off-line to generate sufficient dataset. The classification function, designed based on the train set, helps to access the system security level in a short period of time. This paper addresses security assessment as a pattern classification problem with the classifier function designed by Support Vector Machine (SVM). SVM is a new and promising tool for learning separating functions in PR system with the capability of handling non-linear separability. The SVM classifier is designed for multi-classification based on the calculation of a term called Static Security Index (SSI), for each specified contingency. In this paper, four-class logic is used for the definition of system security viz., secure, critically secure, insecure, highly insecure. An operator likes to know exactly the severity level of disturbances for a given system operating condition. On-line security assessment allows the operator to know the security status and helps to determine the corrective actions. This paper also addresses different heuristic optimization techniques like Particle Swarm Optimization (8), Real Coded Genetic Algorithm (9) and Differential Evolution (10) used in the selection of SVM parameters globally. The classification approach is implemented in New England (NE) 39 bus system and IEEE 118 bus system and the results are compared.

A Simple Scheme for Wide Area Detection of Impending Voltage Instability

This paper proposes a synchrophasor-assisted simple scheme suitable for on-line anticipation of the impending long-term voltage instability in the power system. The proposed scheme utilizes the bus voltage magnitude and the consecutive bus voltage deviations in the system. These two criteria are combined by means of their weighted sum, to define a Synchrophasor Based Voltage Instability Monitoring Index (SVIMI). A new algorithm is also developed for updation of the criteria weights. The performance of the proposed scheme is demonstrated on New England (NE) 39-bus system and Northern Regional Power Grid (NRPG) 246-bus Indian system. The test results are also compared with two existing voltage stability monitoring schemes to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

MAY 2012 PLACEMENT ADS

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The business of literary circles in nineteenth-century America

Introduction As Merchants on the 'Change': The Economy of Literary Coteries, 1807-1864 PART I: LITERARY NEW YORKERS 'An Instinct for Gold': Irving's Knickerbockers Staff Bonds: Bonner's New York Ledger PART II: NEW ENGLAND CIRCLES 'The Section to Which We Belong': Emerson's Transcendentalists Boston and Beyond: Elizabeth Peabody's Promotional Practice PART III: POLITICAL ECONOMY: NORTH AND SOUTH Print Warriors: Garrison's Abolitionists Proslavery and the Pen: Fitzhugh's Apologists Conclusion: The Boston Bellamy Club, Rand's Objectivists, and Iowa Writers' Workshop

Coherent Swing Instability of Power Grids

We interpret and explain a phenomenon in short-term swing dynamics of multi-machine power grids that we term the Coherent Swing Instability (CSI). This is an undesirable and emergent phenomenon of synchronous machines in a power grid, in which most of the machines in a sub-grid coherently lose synchronism with the rest of the grid after being subjected to a finite disturbance. We develop a minimal mathematical model of CSI for synchronous machines that are strongly coupled in a loop transmission network and weakly connected to the infinite bus. This model provides a dynamical origin of CSI: it is related to the escape from a potential well, or, more precisely, to exit across a separatrix in the dynamical system for the amplitude of the weak nonlinear mode that governs the collective motion of the machines. The linear oscillations between strongly coupled machines then act as perturbations on the nonlinear mode. Thus we reveal how the three different mode oscillations—local plant, inter-machine, and inter-area modes—interact to destabilize a power grid. Furthermore, we present a phenomenon of short-term swing dynamics in the New England (NE) 39-bus test system, which is a well-known benchmark model for power grid stability studies. Using a partial linearization of the nonlinear swing equations and the proper orthonormal decomposition, we show that CSI occurs in the NE test system, because it is a dynamical system with a nonlinear mode that is weak relative to the linear oscillatory modes.

The current status of follow-up services for childhood cancer survivors, are we meeting goals and expectations: A report from the consortium for New England childhood cancer survivors

National guidelines for follow-up care of childhood cancer survivors have been established. It has not been determined if pediatric oncology programs have successfully incorporated these standards for long term survivor care into clinical practice. To describe survivor services available in a geographically and socio-economically diverse region of the US we surveyed all 12 academic institutions with pediatric oncology programs in the New England (NE) region. Participating sites diagnose a median of 34 (range 10-250) new pediatric cancers annually. The 12 institutions have 11 survivor clinics. Clinics are staffed by: pediatric oncologists (11/11); nurse practitioners (7/11); social workers/psychologists (9/11); RNs (5/11); primary care physicians (3/11); and sub-specialists (3/11). Most clinics recommend annual follow-up for all survivors (7/11); however, point of entry into survivor programs is variable. Treatment summaries and care plans are part of survivor care at each program. Almost all (10/11) refer to sub-specialists to manage late effects. Only 4 programs identified a policy for transitioning survivors to adult care (2 to adult survivor programs, 2 to adult primary-care) and 4 reported this as a problem. Two clinics had no designated funding for survivor services; 8/11 receive institutional support; 5/11 philanthropic. Five institutions conduct research in survivorship (1 government-funded, 2 philanthropy-funded, and 2 both). Pediatric oncology services in the NE region are making progress toward meeting follow-up care goals for childhood cancer survivors. Funding for resource intense programs, transitioning care to adult clinical services, volume of sub-specialty referral, and participation in research are common challenges.

Wavelet transform applications in power system dynamics

This paper proposes the use of the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) to analyze and locate the low frequency oscillations of power systems, which can result in a loss of stability or in a black-out. The proposed DWT applied to active power signal is tested and compared with more conventional approaches of Prony and Eigenvalue analyses. The DWT also enables estimation of the total active power imbalance of a system. Estimation performances of different wavelet families are tested. Based on the proposed DWT of electromechanical transient oscillations, the DWT is also applied to identify the network nodes in the neighbourhood of the original disturbance. The performance of the proposed DWT is evaluated on the New England (NE) 39-bus test system.

Challenges to Sawmill Businesses in New England and New York State: A Survey of Wood Procurement Managers

Abstract Forests and large population centers dominate the landscape of New England (NE) and New York. We investigated factors that may impact the ability of sawmill procurement organizations in the region to obtain wood raw material by surveying mill procurement managers in the region. We found that, although symptoms of population pressures, such as decreasing size of forest parcels and terminal harvesting due to land-use change, were important constraints for many mills and appeared to be increasingly problematic, other factors, such as energy costs, appeared to present far greater challenges to most mills. Results have implications for both near- and long-term procurement strategies and may be relevant to forest products businesses nationwide.