Toward a Consensus Model of Cognitive-Reading Achievement Relations Using Meta-Structural Equation Modeling.

Cognitive tests measure psychological constructs that predict the development of academic skills. Research on cognitive-reading achievement relations has primarily been completed with single-test batteries and samples, resulting in inconsistencies across studies. The current study developed a consensus model of cognitive-reading achievement relations using meta-structural equation modeling (meta-SEM) through a cross-sectional analysis of subtest correlations from English-language norm-referenced tests.

General Ability Level Moderates Cognitive-Achievement Relations for Mathematics.

Spearman's Law of Diminishing Returns (SLODR) suggests general intelligence would be a stronger predictor of academic skills at lower general ability levels, and broad cognitive abilities would be stronger predictors of academic skills at higher general ability levels. Few studies have examined how cognitive-mathematics relations may vary for people with different levels of general cognitive ability. Multi-group structural equation modeling tested whether cognitive-mathematics relations differed by general ability levels for school-aged children (grades 1-5 and grades 6-12) using the ( = 4470) and ( = 3891) standardization samples.

Biomimetic Reductive Cleavage of Keto Aryl Ether Bonds by Small-Molecule Thiols.

The nucleophilic and reductive properties of thiolates and thiols make them ideal candidates as redox mediators via the thiol/disulfide couple. One mechanism for biological lignin depolymerization entails reduction of keto aryl ether bonds by an S 2 mechanism with the thiol redox mediator glutathione. In this study, mimicking this chemistry in a simple protein- and metal-free process, several small organic thiols are surveyed for their ability to cleave aryl keto ethers that model the β-O-4 linkages found in partially oxidized lignin.

MEDICARE PAYMENTS AND SYSTEM-LEVEL HEALTH-CARE USE: The Spillover Effects of Medicare Managed Care.

The rapid growth of Medicare managed care over the past decade has the potential to increase the efficiency of health-care delivery. Improvements in care management for some may improve efficiency system-wide, with implications for optimal payment policy in public insurance programs. These system-level effects may depend on local health-care market structure and vary based on patient characteristics.

Pay for Performance in Medicaid: Evidence from Three Natural Experiments.

Objective: To examine the impact of pay for performance in Medicaid on the quality and utilization of care.

Data Sources: Medicaid claims and encounter data in three intervention states (Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Alabama) and three comparison states.

Study Design: Difference-in-difference analysis with propensity score-matched comparison group.

The spillover effects of Medicare managed care: Medicare Advantage and hospital utilization.

More than a quarter of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in Medicare Advantage, which was created in large part to improve the efficiency of health care delivery by promoting competition among private managed care plans. This paper explores the spillover effects of the Medicare Advantage program on the traditional Medicare program and other patients, taking advantage of changes in Medicare Advantage payment policy to isolate exogenous increases in Medicare Advantage enrollment and trace out the effects of greater managed care penetration on hospital utilization and spending throughout the health care system. We find that when more seniors enroll in Medicare managed care, hospital costs decline for all seniors and for commercially insured younger populations.

Recurrence after treatment of micropapillary thyroid cancer.

Background: Despite very low mortality associated with micropapillary thyroid cancer, locoregional recurrence is common and controversy exists regarding optimal surgical treatment and the role of adjunctive radioiodine.

Methods: The National Thyroid Cancer Treatment Cooperative Study Group Registry was analyzed for recurrences in patients with unifocal versus multifocal micropapillary cancer, with or without nodal disease, depending upon the extent of surgery and the use of adjunctive radioiodine. Six hundred eleven patients considered disease-free after initial therapy were followed for 2572 person-years.

Subclinical hypothyroidism after radioiodine exposure: Ukrainian-American cohort study of thyroid cancer and other thyroid diseases after the Chornobyl accident (1998-2000).

Background: Hypothyroidism is the most common thyroid abnormality in patients treated with high doses of iodine-131 (131I). Data on risk of hypothyroidism from low to moderate 131I thyroid doses are limited and inconsistent.

Objective: This study was conducted to quantify the risk of hypothyroidism prevalence in relation to 131I doses received because of the Chornobyl accident.

Differences in sonographic conspicuity according to papillary thyroid cancer subtype: results of the Ukrainian-American cohort study after the Chornobyl accident.

Objective: Over time, the histology of papillary thyroid cancers detected in a repeatedly screened population exposed to radiation at Chornobyl (Chernobyl) has shifted from a more aggressive subtype toward less aggressive subtypes. This change may reflect biologic behavior but could also be influenced by the detectability of different subtypes. The study objective was to identify whether there is any relationship between the conspicuity of sonographically detected papillary cancers and histologic subtype.

Modeling motor connectivity using TMS/PET and structural equation modeling.

Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to positron emission tomographic (PET) images acquired during transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the primary motor cortex (M1(hand)). TMS was applied across a range of intensities, and responses both at the stimulation site and remotely connected brain regions covaried with stimulus intensity. Regions of interest (ROIs) were identified through an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis of TMS studies.

Factors associated with elevated serum concentrations of anti-TPO antibodies in subjects with and without diffuse goitre. Results from the Ukrainian-American Cohort Study of thyroid cancer and other thyroid diseases following the Chornobyl accident.

Objectives: To examine factors associated with the prevalence of elevated anti-thyroid peroxidase antibodies (ATPO) among iodine-deficient adolescents and young adults and test whether associations vary according to the presence of diffuse goitre.

Design: Subjects were members of the Ukrainian-American Cohort Study exposed to the Chornobyl accident whose (131)I thyroid dose estimates were below 0.2 Gy.

A cohort study of thyroid cancer and other thyroid diseases after the Chornobyl accident: dose-response analysis of thyroid follicular adenomas detected during first screening in Ukraine (1998-2000).

The Chornobyl (Chernobyl) accident in 1986 exposed many individuals to radioactive iodines, chiefly (131)I, the effects of which on benign thyroid diseases are largely unknown. To investigate the risk of follicular adenoma in relation to radiation dose after Chornobyl, the authors analyzed the baseline data from a prospective screening cohort study of those exposed as children or adolescents. A stratified random sample was selected from all individuals who were younger than 18 years, had thyroid radioactivity measurements taken within 2 months after the accident, and resided in the three heavily contaminated areas in Ukraine.

Outcomes of patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma following initial therapy.

This analysis was performed to determine the effect of initial therapy on the outcomes of thyroid cancer patients. The study setting was a prospectively followed multi-institutional registry. Patients were stratified as low risk (stages I and II) or high risk (stages III and IV).

Iodine supplementation for pregnancy and lactation-United States and Canada: recommendations of the American Thyroid Association.

The fetus is totally dependent in early pregnancy on maternal thyroxine for normal brain development. Adequate maternal dietary intake of iodine during pregnancy is essential for maternal thyroxine production and later for thyroid function in the fetus. If iodine insufficiency leads to inadequate production of thyroid hormones and hypothyroidism during pregnancy, then irreversible fetal brain damage can result.

A cohort study of thyroid cancer and other thyroid diseases after the Chornobyl accident: objectives, design and methods.

The thyroid gland in children is one of the organs that is most sensitive to external exposure to X and gamma rays. However, data on the risk of thyroid cancer in children after exposure to radioactive iodines are sparse. The Chornobyl accident in Ukraine in 1986 led to the exposure of large populations to radioactive iodines, particularly (131)I.

Transthyretin from discovery to now.

As introduction to the First International Congress on Transthyretin in Health and Disease, this lecture traces the origin of the subjectfrom the discovery in the 1950s that a serum protein migrating ahead of albumin in an electrical field binds the thyroid hormone, thyroxine. Early work defined the molecular and biological properties of thyroxine-binding prealbumin (TBPA). Its tetrameric structure, first recognized from a polymorphism in monkeys, was later elaborated by crystallographic studies, and the very different affinity of its two identical thyroxine-binding sites was explained by an allosteric effect upon occupation of the first site.