Previous Calendar Year Research Articles

Impact of sleep on injury risk among rural children.

To examine sleep patterns in a large cohort of rural children and explore the association between sleep patterns and injury occurrence. Cross-sectional analyses of the baseline survey from a prospective cohort study (2012 to 2017) was conducted with 46 rural schools in Saskatchewan, Canada who distributed surveys to parents of 2275 rural dwelling farm and nonfarm children aged 0 to 17 years. Parents reported child sleep characteristics and farm or nonfarm injury in the previous calendar year. Multivariable log-binomial regression examined associations between sleep characteristics and injury risk. There was a significant trend of decreasing sleep duration with increasing age (P-trend < 0.001). Short sleep duration on weekdays (RR: 2.14; 95% CI: 1.25 to 3.66) and sleep debt (RR: 1.89; 95% CI: 1.21 to 2.95) increased injury risk in school-age children (7 to 12 years) but not in teens. A nearly fivefold increase in injury risk was identified among school-age children reporting all sleep problems (RR: 4.99; 95% CI: 1.99 to 12.50). Snoring in teens (13 to 17 years), often a symptom of obstructive sleep apnea, was associated with increased injury risk (RR: 1.98; 95% CI: 1.17 to 3.33). There were no statistically significant associations identified between sleep characteristics and injury risk in preschool children. Injuries to rural children are an important public health concern. This study highlights the impact of sleep problems on risk for injury among rural children. These findings are discussed in light of the recent American Academy of Pediatrics Technical Report on Insufficient Sleep in Adolescents and Young Adults.

Indicators of Non-adherence to Asthma Treatment in Pediatric Primary Care

PurposeChronic disease management represents an ongoing challenge, as many childhood illnesses require complex medical management by primary care providers. Asthma is one such illness, and today there is evidence to support primary care-based management strategies that will benefit patients with asthma throughout a lifetime. This study seeks to find significant indicators of asthma non-adherence in pediatric primary care, with potential for utilization in the medical home model. Design and MethodsPotential indicators included in a chart review process of one large Southeastern U.S. primary care pediatric practice were reviewed from the previous calendar year for asthma patients. The study retroactively looks at the incidence of six indicators in relation to asthma-related emergency department visits and hospitalizations, and number of missed appointments for clinically relevant associations. ResultsStrong associations were found between emergency department visits and hospitalizations and many of the indicators of non-adherence with high statistical significance. No associations were found between number of missed appointments and the selected indicators. ConclusionsThe data analysis performed from the collected patient information can be helpful to guide practices in further discussions on the topic. Results were analyzed and reported to the practice in review as recommendations for a new medical home asthma documentation protocol that is in development. Practical ImplicationsThe indicators of non-adherence to asthma treatments identified may be useful in developing markers of disease severity in primary care pediatrics. Medical home access to knowledge of target populations can lead to better patient outcomes with lower cost to stakeholders.

A roundtable on Myroslav Shkandrij’s Ukrainian Nationalism: Politics, Ideology, and Literature, 1929–1956.

Editor's introductionSince 2015, our journal's publisher, Taylor and Francis, has sponsored the annual Canadian Association of Slavists' Taylor and Francis Book Prize. It is awarded annually for the best academic book in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies published in the previous calendar year by a Canadian author (citizen or permanent resident). The winner of the 2016 prize, to be awarded at the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Slavists at Ryerson University in Toronto in May, is Myroslav Shkandrijof the University of Manitoba for his book Ukrainian Nationalism: Politics, Ideology, and Literature, 1929-1956 (Yale University Press, 2015). To mark Professor Shkandrij's achievement and to further the discussion of his important work, Canadian Slavonic Papers/Revue canadienne des slavistes invited three major Ukrainian scholars of literature and history (and the relationship between the two) to comment on the book. Following interventions from Yaroslav Hrytsak, Tamara Hundorova, and Oleksandr Zaitsev, Professor Shkandrij offers a response.Comment by Yaroslav HrytsakMy review of Myroslav Shkandrij's book is inevitably subjective. He cites me several times in his book and those mentions are always made in a positive context.1 This shows that in many, if not in the majority of aspects our views are very similar.I would like to emphasize one detail. Shkandrij did in his book the same thing I tried to achieve in my biography of Ivan Franko: he demonstrated that Ukrainian nationalism cannot be reduced only to politics or ideology but is also connected to literature. As a result, the main ideological principles are often formed by writers and in the field. As I tried to show, some of Franko's verses are simply rhymed political statements. Franko died one year before the revolution of 1917. The aspect of Ukrainian nationalism, if not strengthened, definitely did not weaken from the time of his death. It is no coincidence that two leaders of the Ukrainian national revolution, Volodymyr Vynnychenko and Semen Petliura, were a writer and journalist and that one of the most influential ideologists of Ukrainian nationalism, Dmytro Dontsov (and, appropriately, one of the main heroes of Shkandrij's book), was a critic. The other six heroes of the book, Olena Teliha, Leonid Mosendz, Oleh Olzhych, Iurii Lypa, Ulas Samchuk, and Iurii Klen, were writers and poets. According to the author, [a]s a group they best represented in literature the authoritarian brand of nationalism, one that is most closely associated with the integral nationalism of the OUN [Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists].2Viacheslav Lypyns'kyi called this phenomenon literary Ukraine. It was obvious to him that the Ukrainian national leaders had a predisposition to develop their political programs based on literary-cultural perceptions.3 Of course, this strong interdependence between nationalism and literature was not an exclusively Ukrainian phenomenon and scholars and theorists of nationalism have drawn attention to it for a long time. What is strange is that scholars of Ukrainian nationalism have studied this aspect so little and so rarely; for them, the intellectual history of Ukrainian nationalism was almost exclusively the history of political texts and military doctrines. Shkandrijhas filled a very important gap and, as a result, he has extensively broadened and changed prospects for research.I will not focus in detail on the book's other achievements such as the incorporation of new sources, for instance, texts that are deposited in Canadian libraries and archives and Dontsov's archive, which remains unexplored. However, I would like to emphasize other aspects that make his book different from other works. First of all, Shkandrijanalyzes in depth the attitudes of the Ukrainian nationalists towards the Jewish question. Secondly, he tries to examine whether this attitude was based on a racial approach and, as a result, whether it is possible to consider interwar Ukrainian nationalism to be a variety of fascism or Nazism. …

Multicentre, non-interventional study to assess the profile of patients with uncontrolled rhinitis prescribed a novel formulation of azelastine hydrochloride and fluticasone propionate in a single spray in routine clinical practice in the UK

ObjectiveThe aims of this study were (1) to characterise the type of patient prescribed MP-AzeFlu (Dymista, a novel formulation of azelastine hydrochloride, fluticasone propionate and excipients in a single spray)...

Wallace E. Oates Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award

Previous articleNext article FreeWallace E. Oates Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation AwardPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreEach spring, AERE invites outstanding doctoral dissertation nominations from dissertation chairs for their students completing the doctoral degree in the previous calendar year. Dissertations are judged by a panel of AERE members who emphasize originality of research, quality of implementation, and expositional clarity, along with intellectual and practical significance of research findings. The winner receives a cash prize plus assistance in travel funding to attend the next AERE luncheon at the January ASSA meetings for public recognition. Finally, the winner’s dissertation abstract appears in JAERE.We are pleased to announce that Casey J. Wichman is the recipient of the 2015 Wallace E. Oates Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award. Wichman graduated in 2015 from the University of Maryland with a PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics. His dissertation committee was cochaired by Roberton Williams and Maureen Cropper.Information and Environmental PolicyCasey J. WichmanAbstract: The role of information in economic policy has evolved drastically in the 50 years since Stigler’s seminal article on “the economics of information” (Stigler 1961). And yet, in the context of consumer behavior, many interesting questions remain unanswered on the value of information, how it is used in decision making, and precisely how it is ignored. Questions of particular interest encompass the degree to which consumers utilize price information in decision making, whether individuals confronted with changes in the frequency of information received behave as economic models predict, and the value of private information in a regulatory context. While these questions are inherently general, the focus of this research is to address the role of information with applications to environmental and resource economics.Within this manuscript, I present three distinct essays linked by the commonality of how information is utilized in decision making and its effect on environmental policy.In the first essay (Wichman 2014), I evaluate the price to which consumers respond under complicated billing structures. I exploit a natural experiment to estimate a causal effect of price for residential water customers during the introduction of increasing block rates for a North Carolina utility. Perceived price is identified through a billing anomaly in which changes in marginal and average prices move in opposite directions. Empirical results contribute evidence that residential water customers respond to average price. Average price elasticity estimates vary from −0.43 to −1.14 across the distribution of consumption in triple-difference models, with an estimate of −0.31 in the tightest bandwidth of regression discontinuity specifications.In the second essay (Wichman 2015), I examine a causal effect of billing frequency on consumer behavior. I exploit a natural experiment in which residential water customers transitioned exogenously from bimonthly to monthly billing. I find that customers increase consumption by approximately 5% in response to more frequent information. This result is reconciled in a model of price and quantity uncertainty, where increases in billing frequency reduce the distortion in consumers’ perceptions. Using treatment effects as sufficient statistics, I calculate gains in consumer surplus equivalent to 0.5%–1% of annual water expenditures. Heterogeneous treatment effects suggest increases in outdoor water use.And, in the final essay (Wichman 2016), I consider the role of heterogeneous green preferences for private provision of environmental public goods in an asymmetric information context. Under varying degrees of information available to a regulator, I characterize equilibrium properties of several mechanisms. I find incentive compatible Nash equilibria that provide socially optimal public goods provision when the regulator can enforce individual consumption contracts, as well as when reported consumption contracts are supplemented with group penalties. The role of budget balancing is recast as a policy intervention for correcting environmental market failures. Notes Casey J. Wichman is at Resources for the Future, 1616 P Street NW, Washington, DC 20036 ([email protected]).ReferencesStigler, George J. 1961. The economics of information. Journal of Political Economy 69 (3): 213–35.First citation in articleLinkGoogle ScholarWichman, Casey J. 2014. Perceived price in residential water demand: Evidence from a natural experiment. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 107:308–23.First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar———. 2015. Information provision and consumer behavior: A natural experiment in billing frequency. Discussion paper 15-35, Resources for the Future, Washington, DC.First citation in articleGoogle Scholar———. 2016. Incentives, green preferences, and private provision of impure public goods. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 79:208–20.First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists Volume 4, Number 1March 2017 Published for the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/690613 © 2017 by The Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Macrohabitat Composition Surrounding Successful and Depredated Northern Bobwhite Nests

Relationships among macrohabitat and depredation of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) nests are poorly understood. Yet, macrohabitat composition may influence the nest predator community and, therefore, the vulnerability of northern bobwhite nests to depredation. We determined if macrohabitat composition surrounding bobwhite nests influenced nest placement, nest success, and which predators were responsible for depredating nests. We characterized macrohabitats at 2 scales, 8 and 16 ha, by surrounding both bobwhite nests, and an equal number of random locations, with a circular buffer. Random points were placed within the area used by bobwhites on our study area. We then determined the acreage of each macrohabitat category within each circular buffer to determine the macrohabitat composition. Macrohabitat categories included hardwood forested drains, upland pine forests burned in March of the same calendar year, upland pine forests burned in March of the previous calendar year, and fields. We documented nest predators using infrared video cameras placed at the nest site. We monitored 104 bobwhite nests on Tall Timbers Research Station (TTRS) during 1999 and 2000. Size of the circular buffer around nests did not qualitatively affect results. Area (ha) of upland pine forests and fields were similar at depredated nests, hatched nests, and random locations. However, there was an average of 81% and 56% more area of hardwood drain in the circular buffers associated with random locations than at successful and depredated nests, respectively. Area of upland pine forests and fields were similar for nests depredated by raccoon (Procyon lotor), armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) and snake (Elaphus spp.). However, there was an average of 6.1 and 3.3 times more area of hardwood drain surrounding nests that were depredated by snakes relative to nests depredated by raccoons and armadillos, respectively. While our sample sizes were low, bobwhites exhibited a tendency to place nests in landscapes with less hardwood drain than were generally available on the study area. Macrohabitat surrounding nests influenced the type of nest predator to depredate nests. To minimize depredation of bobwhite nests by snakes, we suggest nesting cover should be developed away from drain edges.

Hospitalizations within 14 days of vaccination among pediatric recipients of the live attenuated influenza vaccine, United States 2010–2012

BackgroundLive attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) is safe in healthy children ⩾2years. The original clinical trials excluded individuals with underlying conditions; however, post-marketing data suggest LAIV may be safe for these populations. MethodsWe analyzed MarketScan Commercial Claims Databases from 2010 to 2012 to describe hospitalizations within 14days of vaccination among LAIV recipients. We evaluated LAIV recipients aged 2–18years and defined underlying conditions by presence of inpatient or outpatient ICD-9 code during the previous calendar year. We excluded asthma and immunocompromising conditions. We defined risk windows as 1–7days and 8–14days after vaccination; the control period was 12–4days prior to and 15–23days after vaccination. We conducted a self-controlled case series analysis using a conditional Poisson regression model to estimate incidence-rate ratios (IRR). Results1,216,123 children aged 2–18years received LAIV from 2010 to 2012. 634 children met our inclusion criteria and were hospitalized during the observation period (12days prior to vaccination to 23days after vaccination). Of those hospitalized, 72 (11.4%) had non-asthma, non-immunocompromising underlying conditions. Children with non-asthma, non-immunocompromising underlying conditions had an all-cause hospitalization IRR of 1.1 (95% CI 0.6–2.0, p=0.83) in the 1–7day risk period and 0.9 (95% CI 0.4–1.7, p=0.67) in the 8–14day risk period. Children with no underlying conditions had an all-cause hospitalization IRR of 0.9 (0.8–1.2, p=0.60) in the 1–7day risk period and 1.1 (95% CI 0.9–1.3, p=0.53) in the 8–14day risk period. There were no differences in all-cause hospitalization risk in individuals with non-asthma, non-immunocompromising underlying conditions compared to those without underlying conditions in the 1–7day (p=0.88) or 8–14day (p=0.24) risk period. ConclusionsWe found no evidence of differences in post-LAIV hospitalization risk among children with non-asthma, non-immunocompromising underlying conditions compared to healthy children.

The 2015 Gerard W. Ostheimer Lecture: What's New in Labor Analgesia and Cesarean Delivery.

Every year the Board of Directors of the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology selects an individual to review the literature pertinent to obstetric anesthesiology published the previous calendar year. This individual selects the most notable contributions, creates a syllabus of the articles, and then presents his/her overview in an annual lecture named in honor of the late Gerard W. Ostheimer, a pioneering obstetric anesthesiologist from the Brigham and Women's Hospital. This article reviews the literature published in 2014 focusing on the themes of labor analgesia and cesarean delivery. Its contents were presented as the Gerard W. Ostheimer Lecture at the 47th Annual Meeting of the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology, May 16, 2015, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The syllabus is available as Supplemental Digital Content (http://links.lww.com/AA/B397).

Validity of self-reported vitamin D deficiency among midlife Arab women living in Qatar.

This study evaluates the level of agreement between self-reported vitamin D deficiency and serum vitamin D measured within the previous calendar year. In a study in which serum 25(OH)D levels were retrieved from electronic health records, 523 women were asked whether they considered themselves to have vitamin D deficiency. Serum vitamin D levels were categorized as vitamin D deficiency if serum 25(OH)D was <20 ng/ml and as insufficiency if <30 ng/ml. The kappa statistic was computed to assess the level of agreement between serum 25(OH)D level and self-report responses. Agreement between self-reported and measured 25(OH)D levels was poor. The kappa statistic was -0.041 when using a cutpoint of <20 ng/ml and -0.008 using the cutpoint of <30 ng/ml. Among women with levels ≥20 ng/ml, 82.4% believed that they were vitamin D deficient, while 13.3% who were below <20 ng/ml did not self-report deficiency. Among women who did not report vitamin D deficiency, 46.3% (37/80) had levels <20 ng/ml while 82.5% (66/80) had levels <30 ng/ml. These findings suggest that, although the prevalence of 25(OH)D <20 and <30 ng/ml was quite high (53.2% and 84.7%, respectively), there was little agreement between measured levels and self-report of vitamin D deficiency. This may be due to belief in this region that low levels of serum vitamin D is widespread. Better communication is needed between healthcare providers and patients regarding transmission of laboratory results.

Use of blood-sparing surgical techniques and transfusion algorithms: association with decreased blood administration in children undergoing primary open craniosynostosis repair.

OBJECT Craniofacial reconstruction surgery (CFR) is often associated with significant blood loss, coagulopathy, and perioperative blood transfusion. Due to transfusion risks, many different approaches have been used to decrease allogeneic blood transfusion for these patients during the perioperative period. Protocols have decreased blood administration during the perioperative period for many types of surgeries. The object of this study was to determine if a protocol involving blood-sparing surgical techniques and a transfusion algorithm decreased intraoperative blood transfusion and blood loss. METHODS A protocol using transfusion algorithms and implementation of blood-sparing surgical techniques for CFR was implemented at Vanderbilt University on January 1, 2013. Following Institutional Review Board approval, blood loss and transfusion data were gathered retrospectively on all children undergoing primary open CFR, using the protocol, for the calendar year 2013. This postprotocol cohort was compared with a preprotocol cohort, which consisted of all children undergoing primary open CFR during the previous calendar year, 2012. RESULTS There were 41 patients in the preprotocol and 39 in the postprotocol cohort. There was no statistical difference between the demographics of the 2 groups. When compared with the preprotocol cohort, intraoperative packed red blood cell transfusion volume decreased from 36.9 ± 21.2 ml/kg to 19.2 ± 10.9 ml/kg (p = 0.0001), whereas fresh-frozen plasma transfusion decreased from 26.8 ± 25.4 ml/kg to 1.5 ± 5.7 ml/kg (p < 0.0001) following implementation of the protocol. Furthermore, estimated blood loss decreased from 64.2 ± 32.4 ml/kg to 52.3 ± 33.3 ml/kg (p = 0.015). Use of fresh-frozen plasma in the postoperative period also decreased when compared with the period before implementation of the protocol. There was no significant difference in morbidity and mortality between the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study suggested that using a multidisciplinary protocol consisting of transfusion algorithms and implementation of blood-sparing surgical techniques during major CFR in pediatric patients is associated with reduced intraoperative administration of blood product, without shifting the transfusion burden to the postoperative period.

Politikų įtaka kuriant Lietuvos visuomeninio transliuotojo modelį

Audiovisual broadcasting history in Lithuania began in the 20th century. The Lithuanian radio program was launched in 1926, with television appearing in 1957. Lithuanian radio and television history can be divided into four stages: Radio in independent Lithuania (1926–1940), Radio and television in Soviet Lithuania (1940–1988), the Revival period (1988–1990), and Radio and television of the Restored state (since 1990). After the restoration of independence, Lithuania began to develop a Western model of public broadcasting, which is characterized by an independent broadcaster’s management and financing. The Supreme Council-Atkuriamasis Seimas (1990–1992) reorganized the former institution of Soviet propaganda into an independent Lithuanian broadcaster. Lithuanian Radio and television (LRT) has become an institution accountable to the Parliament and is headed by a public authority – the LRT Board. However, significant political influence remains – Board members were delegated for the term of authorisation of the Parliament, thus parliamentarians had exclusive rights in regards to LRT. The 6th Seimas (Parliament) (1992–1996) developed new regulation of the media – the Public Information Act and the LRT statute. The LRT Board was transformed into a Council composed of 13 members (3 were delegated by the President, 4 – by Seimas, 6 members were delegated by public organizations). It was decided to collect a subscription fee and to reduce the amount of advertising, but this idea has not been implemented. The 7th Seimas (1996–2000) changed the formation procedure of the council (all 15 representatives were delegated by public organizations). These changes destabilized LRT’s work. In the beginning of 2000 was decided to return to a mixed constitution of the Council: 4 members appointed by the President for six years, 4 – by Parliament for a four-year term, and 4 – by public organizations for a two-year term. The principle of rotation has been settled (one third of the Council members changes every two years). The 8th Seimas (2000–2004) returned to the idea of the decommercialisation of LRT. The aim was to create a program budgeting system. It was planned that LRT would have to present to the Parliament its financing plan and prove that its programming coincided with the national mission. The 10th Seimas (2008–2012) attempted to radically transform LRT management and that has caused not only local resistance, but also international reverberation. The compliance of the LRT Council members terms and the political calendar was criticized, as was the possibility for institutions to depuose their delegates. The 11th Seimas (2012–2016) created a LRT funding system under which LRT is considered a non-commercial broadcaster (from 2015 there is no more advertising). LRT funding is associated with the previous calendar year‘s Lithuanian budget and excise revenues. Actual legislation of LRT leads to the conclusion that Lithuania perceives the fundamental principles of public broadcasting and understands its value for democracy.

Children’s Literature Reviews: The 2014 Orbis Pictus Award Winners

This column presents the winners of the 2014 Orbis Pictus Book Award. Each year the Orbis Pictus Award Committee selects the best nonfiction children’s books published within the previous calendar year. The award, created by the National Council of Teachers of English in 1989, was named after what is believed to be the very first nonfiction book written especially for children.

Variability in PCB and OH-PCB serum levels in children and their mothers in urban and rural U.S. communities.

Environmental exposures that affect accumulation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in humans are complex and not fully understood. One challenge in linking environmental exposure to accumulation is determining variability of PCB concentrations in samples collected from the same person at different times. We hypothesized that PCBs in human blood serum are consistent from year to year in people who live in the same environment between sampling. We analyzed blood serum from children and their mothers from urban and rural U.S. communities (n = 200) for all 209 PCBs (median ∑PCBs = 45 ng/g lw) and 12 hydroxylated PCBs (median ∑OH-PCBs = 0.09 ng/g fw). A subset of these participants (n = 155) also had blood PCB and OH-PCB concentrations analyzed during the previous calendar year. Although many participants had similar levels of PCBs and OH-PCBs in their blood from one year to the next, some participants had surprisingly different levels. Year-to-year variability in ∑PCBs ranged from −87% to 567% and in ∑OH-PCBs ranged from −51 to 358% (5th–95th percentile). This is the first study to report variability of all PCBs and major metabolites in two generations of people and suggests short-term exposures to PCBs may be a significant component of what is measured in human serum.

New Publications in Greece (2013-2014)

The section New Publications in Greece aims to raise the readership’s awareness of the current Greek literature regarding music therapy, special music education and other related fields. This section includes publications of books, conference proceedings, chapters and articles that have been published in Greece during the current and previous calendar year. It includes texts written in Greek language, as well as English texts which have been published in Greek sources (e.g., Greek books, proceedings and journals). This section is published in the first issue of each volume of the journal. Authors, researchers and any interested parties are welcome to send relevant references to publications to the Editorin-Chief (approaches.editor@gmail.com) so that they can be included in the next journal’s Spring issue.

Surgical practice of UK gynaecological oncologists in the treatment of primary advanced epithelial ovarian cancer (PAEOC): A questionnaire survey

ObjectiveTo assess the routine surgical practices of consultant gynaecological oncologists (CGOs) in the United Kingdom in their management of primary advanced (FIGO stages III and IV) epithelial ovarian cancer (PAEOC). MethodsThe same anonymised questionnaire was sent twice to all consultant gynaecological oncologists (CGOs) working in the UK. The questions enquired about surgical practice of the previous calendar year and the respondents were asked to describe their usual or typical management of patients with PAEOC. Results45 of 85 CGOs responded (53%). The mean number of ovarian cancer cases operated on by an individual surgeon was 47 (range 6–100). 6% of the surgeons never perform pelvic lymphadenectomy, and 22% of the surgeons never perform para-aortic lymphadenectomy in the primary surgery (PS) group, compared to 8% and 30% in the neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) group. In the PS group 17% of the respondents perform pelvic lymphadenectomy routinely (80% or more of patients) compared to 11% of the respondents in the NAC group. The rates of bowel surgery and surgery for upper abdominal disease were highly variable. The average operating time per case was less than 3h in 78% of the respondents. ConclusionsThe mean operating times, caseload, and types of procedure undertaken in the management of advanced ovarian cancer provide compelling evidence that in many UK cancer centres the surgical goal has not been complete cytoreduction. These data have implications for the centralisation of surgical services, subspecialty training, and the lower survival of UK patients compared to other comparable countries.

A review of the Tom Rozwadowski medal

The Tom Rozwadowski (TR) medal is the most prestigious award of the Operations Research Society of South Africa (ORSSA). The award, first presented in 1971, was established in honour of one of ORSSA's founding members. Initially the medal was to be presented to a member of the society for a paper of most outstanding merit, but the rules were subsequently adapted and currently the medal is awarded to the best paper published during the previous calendar year. This review endeavours to present an analysis of all the award winning papers since its inception. The aim is three-fold, namely: to present a historical review, to detect any trends within Operations Research (OR) in South Africa and to present a view of OR in the country. The analysis indicates that these award-winning papers are very diverse in nature, which certainly epitomises OR in South Africa, but the sample is small and thus not representative enough to be used to draw strict conclusions about the evolution of OR in South Africa. The papers, in general, exhibit originality, quality and clarity of exposition while there is clear interaction between theory and practice.

The Arnold Berliner Award 2013

The Arnold Berliner Award is presented for the first time this year, as part of the 100-year birthday celebration of Naturwissenschaften (Fig. 1, Thatje 2013). It is my great pleasure to announce the first recipient of the award, Dr Mark Young (University of Edinburgh), in this editorial. Mark Young (Fig. 2) was nominated for his work on the iconic Diplodocus, which, as a sauropod dinosaur, belonged to the largest terrestrial herbivores to ever have roamed Earth. Their pure size may have pushed them to the evolutionary limits of vertebrate biomechanics. In his paper published in Naturwissenschaften (Young et al. 2012), Mark and his colleagues presented a compelling multidisciplinary approach demonstrating that the gigantic Diplodocus was unlikely to have employed its bizarre dentition for a previously suggested bark-stripping hypothesis feeding strategy, and that the rather unusual (aberrant) dentition of Diplodocus may have, instead, demonstrated an adaptation for food procurement rather than an adaptation to high mechanical bite force. This would suggest that Diplodocus had a skull which was seemingly over-engineered for muscle-driven biting alone; the reason for which may have been related to other behavioral or ecological traits. This paradigmchanging discovery was only possible by making use of modern technology, the computed tomographic scanning of a fossil specimen of a Diplodocus longus skull from museum collection, and subsequent modeling of its biomechanics of feeding. The Arnold Berliner Award was established in recognition of the founding editor of the journal. The award is sponsored by Springer Science+Business Media and is given annually for the best research article published in NAWI during the previous calendar year (Thatje 2012). Criteria are excellence in science, originality, and in particular interdisciplinarity,

Utilizing the Productivity Analysis Module

Utilizing the Productivity Analysis Module

Embracing Technology–Interventional Pulmonology and Palliative Care (SA513)

medical oncology (MO) and palliative care (PC) physicians. The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) recently recommended that palliative care be considered early in the treatment of patients with metastatic cancer. We designed and implemented a fully integrated PC/MO rounding model for the solid tumor inpatient service at Duke University Medical Center. We performed an early analysis of quality metrics data, including length of stay (LOS), readmission rates (RR), and intensive care unit (ICU) transfers, to compare its impact with pre-implementation data. Methods. A fully-integrated inpatient rounding model was created and consisted of two attendings (one MO, one PC), one hematology-oncology fellow, two interns, four physician assistants, and two patient resource managers. All patients were discussed in a multidisciplinary fashion three times a day. Quality metrics and performance services data were assessed from the first 3 months of full implementation (OctoberDecember 2011) and compared to data from the previous calendar year (January-December 2010) with the only difference being the integration of PC. Summary statistics will be reported. Results. The average daily census during postmodel implementation was 24 patients with approximately one-third of patients being directly managed by PC during the first 3 months of implementation. Implementation of the integrated PC/MO rounding model revealed a decrease in the average LOS of 0.5 days. Seven and 30-day RR decreased by 55% (11% to 5%, preand post-implementation) and 30% (33% to 23%, preand post-implementation), respectively. ICU transfer decreased by 28% (4.7% to 3.4%). Final data, including full statistical analyses, will be shared at the formal presentation. Conclusions. Our data highlight a unique and fully integrated inpatient rounding model between PC and MO. Preliminary analyses show significant improvement in several quality metrics and support ongoing investigation into this novel approach.

Celebrating 100 years: Happy Birthday, Naturwissenschaften!

This year, Naturwissenschaften celebrates its 100th anniversary. Springer’s flagship multidisciplinary science journal was founded in 1913, and the first print issue of Naturwissenschaften (NAWI) was published on January 3 of that year (Autrum 1988). Since 2009, the sub-title The Science of Nature has been published alongside the journal title; however, the original title in German remains the official name of the journal, recognizing its origins and strong connection to European history of the twentieth century. NAWI covers all aspects of the natural sciences, focusing on articles in biology, chemistry, geology, and physics. Published monthly, the journal is dedicated to the fast publication of high-quality, peer-reviewed research. Reviews, Original Articles, Concepts and Synthesis, Short Communications, and Comments and Replies are published as onlinefirst articles before appearing in print. From 2013, the print of color is for free. The journal was a reflection of the physical and chemical sciences of its time in its first decades; it then gradually developed to include topics of interest to the broader community in the biological sciences. Today, publications contribute mainly to questions of general biological significance and come from the chemical, biological, geological, and physical sciences. The goal for our second century is to promote the exchange of ideas in all topics related to the biological sciences and beyond. Some changes to the structure of the journal including article types have been implemented in support of this strategy (Thatje 2012a). We look forward to publishing papers in fields especially relevant to the science and society of the Twenty-first century, including areas such as global change, genomics, biorobotics, and neurobiology. In order to support this development, a “Special Article Theme” section will be launched later this year. For the 100th anniversary, the Arnold Berliner Award (Thatje 2012b) will be established in recognition of its founder who guided the development of the journal over the exceptionally long period of 22 years. The award will be given annually for the best research article published in Naturwissenschaften during the previous calendar year, and it is my special honor to announce the first awardee later this year. Honoring the efforts of the journal’s founding editor, Dr. Arnold Berliner, on the occasion of his 70th birthday, Albert Einstein wrote, “His journal cannot be thought away from the life of our time.” (Einstein 1932). Eightyyears on, Naturwissenschaften remains one of the primary multidisciplinary science journals. I invite you to celebrate the journal and science, following our birthday activities throughout the year and into the journal’s second century of existence. Happy birthday, Naturwissenschaften!