The focus of plan quality is on evaluating plans-as-objects against normative characteristics researchers and planning practitioners believe contribute to a high quality plan. This study builds on the established plan quality literature and methods to assess the quality of official (comprehensive) plans from sixty-three of the most populous municipalities in the Ontario-Greater Golden Horseshoe region (Canada). Three key themes emerged from this analysis. First, the provincial government plays a role in municipal official plan quality....

The political and institutional coordinates that appear in official classifications of the victims of the Peruvian armed conflict (1980–2000) affect their subsequent recognition as beneficiaries of reparations programs. A review of the conceptual bases of the Comprehensive Reparations Program calls attention to the tension in the design and implementation of this program between a strictly reparative approach and another that addresses the structural disparities present in the aftermath of the war. Examination of the effects...

There has been a long-lasting debate over whether increasing ethnic diversity undermines support for social welfare, and whether this conflict thesis applies not only to the United States, but also to European welfare states. In their 2016 ASR article, Schmidt-Catran and Spies analyzed a panel (1994 to 2010) of regional units in Germany and concluded that this thesis also holds for Germany. We argue that their analysis suffers from misspecification: their model specification assumes parallel...

IntroductionAlthough many oncology pharmacists are embedded members within the healthcare team, data documenting their contributions to optimal patient outcomes are growing. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the value of the oncology pharmacist within the healthcare team and describe the knowledge, skills, and functions of the oncology pharmacist.MethodsA systematic literature review of articles that were published on PubMed between January 1951 and October 2018 was completed. Identified abstracts were reviewed and included if...

Purpose:Differentiating the underlying pathology of macular edema in patients with diabetic retinopathy following cataract surgery can be challenging. In 2015, Munk and colleagues trained and tested a machine learning classifier which uses optical coherence tomography variables in order to distinguish the underlying pathology of macular edema between diabetic macular edema and pseudophakic cystoid macular edema. It was able to accurately diagnose the underlying pathology in 90%–96% of cases. However, actually using the trained classifier required...

Background:Olanzapine, regarded as one of the most efficacious antipsychotic medications for the treatment of schizophrenia, is associated with a high risk of weight gain and metabolic dysfunction. ALKS 3831, a clinical candidate for treatment of schizophrenia, is a combination of olanzapine and samidorphan, an opioid receptor antagonist. The addition of samidorphan is intended to mitigate weight gain and the metabolic dysregulation associated with the use of olanzapine.Methods:Non-clinical studies were conducted to assess the metabolic effects...

In psychology, researchers are often interested in the predictive classification of individuals. Various models exist for such a purpose, but which model is considered a best practice is conditional on attributes of the data. Under certain conditions, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) has been shown to perform better than other predictive methods, such as logistic regression, multinomial logistic regression, random forests, support-vector machines, and the K-nearest neighbor algorithm. The purpose of this Tutorial is to provide...

In psychology, researchers are often interested in the predictive classification of individuals. Various models exist for such a purpose, but which model is considered a best practice is conditional on attributes of the data. Under certain conditions, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) has been shown to perform better than other predictive methods, such as logistic regression, multinomial logistic regression, random forests, support-vector machines, and the K-nearest neighbor algorithm. The purpose of this Tutorial is to provide...

Early college high schools are small schools designed to increase college and career readiness for groups underrepresented in higher education. While some research has focused on student experiences in the early college environment, few have specifically examined the perceptions of Black male students. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of Black males in an early college high school. Using a qualitative case study design, data were collected using focus groups and...

By applying event history analysis to a unique large sample of more than 300 government affairs managers working for companies active in the European Union (EU), this article investigates whether managers with work experience in the public or nonprofit sector are more likely to progress in their career in their current company and whether career progression depends on when that experience takes place. The findings suggest that managers with experience in the public and nonprofit...

This study reports an independent investigation of the psychometric properties of Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP), a teacher-rated measure of school readiness for preschool-aged children. In a sample of 2,031 low-income, 3- to 5-year-old children attending Head Start, we tested three measurement models: a higher order one-factor model, a seven-factor model, and a five-factor model. To explore the appropriateness of the DRDP for use with diverse populations of young children, we used multiple group and...

This study reports an independent investigation of the psychometric properties of Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP), a teacher-rated measure of school readiness for preschool-aged children. In a sample of 2,031 low-income, 3- to 5-year-old children attending Head Start, we tested three measurement models: a higher order one-factor model, a seven-factor model, and a five-factor model. To explore the appropriateness of the DRDP for use with diverse populations of young children, we used multiple group and...

The Big Five Inventory–2 (BFI-2) is a recently published 60-item questionnaire that measures personality traits within the five-factor model framework. An important aspect of the BFI-2 is that it measures the traits at both the domain and facet levels and also controls acquiescence bias via the balanced number of true- and false-keyed items across the domains and facets. The current research evaluates factorial measurement invariance of a Russian version of the BFI-2 across sex and...

Introduction:Previous studies have evaluated procalcitonin clearance (PCTc) as a marker of sepsis severity but at different time points and cutoffs. We aimed to assess the predictive performance of PCTc at different time points of sepsis management in patients with cancer.Methods:This retrospective cohort study included patients with cancer admitted to an intensive care unit between 2013 and 2016. We calculated PCTc at 24, 48, 72, and 96 hours after admission. Its predictive performance for hospital and...

Introduction:Previous studies have evaluated procalcitonin clearance (PCTc) as a marker of sepsis severity but at different time points and cutoffs. We aimed to assess the predictive performance of PCTc at different time points of sepsis management in patients with cancer.Methods:This retrospective cohort study included patients with cancer admitted to an intensive care unit between 2013 and 2016. We calculated PCTc at 24, 48, 72, and 96 hours after admission. Its predictive performance for hospital and...

Gift giving is an effective means to strengthen interpersonal relationships; it also may initiate and enhance customer–brand relationships. Through a field study conducted with an international monobrand retailer of beauty products, a combination of propensity score matching with difference-in-differences estimations, and two experimental scenario studies, this research demonstrates that gift buyers spend 63% more in the year following a gift purchase than a matched sample of customers who purchase for their personal use. Specifically, gift...

In Canada, the incidence and prevalence of heart failure (HF) is rising. Approximately 600,000 patients are living with HF and 50,000 more are diagnosed each year. The burden of HF is significant. Mortality rate is high (20% in 1 year, 50% in 5 years), and morbidity, such as hospitalizations, is frequent. The cost to the health care system is significant at $2.8 billion per year.1

Recent years have seen an increased emphasis on both protection of civilians and the problem of sexual violence. We explore the impact of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping on the occurrence of wartime sexual violence. Acknowledging the difficulty in reducing sexual violence, we propose two conditions under which peacekeepers are more likely to be successful: when the mission has a protection mandate and when the conflict actors exercise a high level of control over their forces....

Gift giving is an effective means to strengthen interpersonal relationships; it also may initiate and enhance customer–brand relationships. Through a field study conducted with an international monobrand retailer of beauty products, a combination of propensity score matching with difference-in-differences estimations, and two experimental scenario studies, this research demonstrates that gift buyers spend 63% more in the year following a gift purchase than a matched sample of customers who purchase for their personal use. Specifically, gift...

Nonselective β blockers (NSBBs) combined with esophageal variceal ligation (EVL) are recommended for secondary prophylaxis of esophageal variceal bleeding (EVB) in cirrhotic patients according to the current practice guidelines and consensus. However, until now, there is a paucity of recommendations regarding the use of NSBBs in cirrhotic patients who achieved variceal eradication. In this review paper, we firstly introduced a case who achieved variceal eradication after additional use of NSBBs for secondary prophylaxis of EVB...

Heme oxygenases (HOs) have a major role in phytochrome chromophore biosynthesis, and chromophores in turn have anti-oxidant properties. Plant heme oxygenases are divided into the HO1 sub-family comprising HO1, HO3, and HO4, and the HO2 sub-family, which consists of 1 member, HO2. This study identified and characterized 4 heme oxygenase members from Sorghum bicolor. Multiple sequence alignments showed that the heme oxygenase signature motif (QAFICHFYNI/V) is conserved across all SbHO proteins and that they share...

Heme oxygenases (HOs) have a major role in phytochrome chromophore biosynthesis, and chromophores in turn have anti-oxidant properties. Plant heme oxygenases are divided into the HO1 sub-family comprising HO1, HO3, and HO4, and the HO2 sub-family, which consists of 1 member, HO2. This study identified and characterized 4 heme oxygenase members from Sorghum bicolor. Multiple sequence alignments showed that the heme oxygenase signature motif (QAFICHFYNI/V) is conserved across all SbHO proteins and that they share...

Objectives: As the homeless population ages, it is imperative to improve access to advance care planning (ACP) and document preferences in case medical decision-making capacity is lost. Methods: We implemented an ACP Project to discuss and document advance care plans with all patients aged 45 and older who received primary care at our adult Homeless Program clinics. Results: Over 14 months, ACP was discussed with 48% (n = 138) of the population and health care...

Quality improvement (QI) plays a vital role in practice management, patient care, and reimbursement. The authors implemented a 3-year longitudinal curriculum that combined QI didactics, intervention development, and implementation at university-based, community-based, and Veterans Administration–based practices. Highlights included Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle format, team-based collaboration to brainstorm interventions, interdisciplinary QI council to select and plan interventions, system-wide intervention implementation across entire clinic populations with outcome monitoring, and intervention modifications based on challenges. A pre–post survey assessed residents’...

In order to understand the interdependency between intergenerational and adult sibling relationships, a family systems perspective is applied to identify a smaller—empirically analyzable—relational unit of analysis, that is, the sibling–parent–sibling triad. Using balance theory, triadic configurations are derived that represent enhancement, compensation, and loyalty conflicts. The hypotheses are tested for three relational dimensions: support exchange, contact, and conflict. Multilevel analyses of 549 sibling–parent–sibling triads from the Netherlands Kinship Panel data show strong evidence for enhancement,...