Five-Hundred Life-Saving Interventions and Their Cost-Effectiveness

We gathered information on the cost-effectiveness of life-saving interventions in the United States from publicly available economic analyses. "Life-saving interventions" were defined as any behavioral and/or technological strategy that reduces the probability of premature death among a specified target population. We defined cost-effectiveness as the net resource costs of an intervention per year of life saved. To improve the comparability of cost-effectiveness ratios arrived at with diverse methods, we established fixed definitional goals and revised published estimates, when necessary and feasible, to meet these goals. The 587 interventions identified ranged from those that save more resources than they cost, to those costing more than 10 billion dollars per year of life saved. Overall, the median intervention costs $42,000 per life-year saved. The median medical intervention costs $19,000/life-year; injury reduction $48,000/life-year; and toxin control $2,800,000/life-year. Cost/life-year ratios and bibliographic references for more than 500 life-saving interventions are provided.     

A Simulated Annealing Approach to Communication Network Design

This paper explores the use of the meta-heuristic search algorithm Simulated Annealing for solving a minimum cost network synthesis problem. This problem is a common one in the design of telecommunication networks. The formulation we use models a number of practical problems with hop-limit, degree and capacity constraints. Emphasis is placed on a new approach that uses a knapsack polytope to select amongst a number of pre-computed traffic routes in order to synthesise the network. The advantage of this approach is that a subset of the best routes can be used instead of the whole set, thereby making the process of designing large networks practicable. Using simulated annealing, we solve moderately large networks (up to 30 nodes) efficiently.     

Volunteer Support for Mothers with New Babies: Perceptions of Need and Support Received

Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 55 mothers of infants. Some had received Home‐Start during their infant’s first year, others were offered the support but declined and the remainder were not offered Home‐Start. Most of their support had come from informal sources, such as family and friends with less from professionals. Mothers who received Home‐Start described beneficial aspects, in particular, the extent of practical support provided, preferable to calling on close relatives or friends. Difficulties related to volunteer characteristics and administrative problems. Overall volunteer support can be important to complement informal and formal support, but needs careful management.     

The Race and Class Privilege of Motherhood: TheNew York Times Presentations of Pregnant Drug‐Using Women1

Prior research has examined race and class bias embedded in media presentations of pregnant drug users; however, this past research is limited in identifying biases because it focuses on single substances—primarily crack cocaine. I build on this work by conducting a comparative analysis of more than 15 years worth of New York Times articles on three drugs (crack cocaine, alcohol, and tobacco) used during pregnancy. These three drugs have varying levels of deleterious effects on fetal development and infant health, as well as varying levels of use by poor and minority women. Because of this variation, I am able to assess whether media coverage of pregnant drug‐using women is proportional to the documented adverse consequences of specific drugs or, rather, whether media coverage is higher and more negative for poor and minority pregnant women regardless of the degree of adverse health consequences associated with the specific drug used. Through this analysis, I demonstrate that the prevalence and framing of news stories about pregnant drug‐using women has little to do with protecting the health of children. Rather, concern for children is a rhetorical tool used to define poor and minority women as bad mothers and blame them for contemporary changes in families.     

Attempted suicide among transgender persons: The influence of gender-based discrimination and victimization

To determine the independent predictors of attempted suicide among transgender persons we interviewed 392 male-to-female (MTF) and 123 female-to-male (FTM) individuals. Participants were recruited through targeted sampling, respondent-driven sampling, and agency referrals in San Francisco. The prevalence of attempted suicide was 32% (95% CI = 28% to 36%). In multivariate logistic regression analysis younger age (<25 years), depression, a history of substance abuse treatment, a history of forced sex, gender-based discrimination, and gender-based victimization were independently associated with attempted suicide. Suicide prevention interventions for transgender persons are urgently needed, particularly for young people. Medical, mental health, and social service providers should address depression, substance abuse, and forced sex in an attempt to reduce suicidal behaviors among transgender persons. In addition, increasing societal acceptance of the transgender community and decreasing gender-based prejudice may help prevent suicide in this highly stigmatized population.     

Sensitive topics in social research involving children

While there is broad consensus that involving children in research is critically important for understanding their lives, there is considerable caution around their participation in social research on ‘sensitive’ issues. Such caution is further amplified by a lack of agreement about what constitutes a ‘sensitive topic’. This article draws on data from interviews with a range of Australian stakeholders, including children, parents, researchers, ethics committee members, government and non-government organisation representatives, and other decision-makers, specifically related to the question of ‘what is a sensitive topic?’. While participants identified a range of sensitive topics, findings point to sensitivities being closely linked with the contexts of children’s lives and experiences. This requires researchers to approach research in ways that reflect more nuanced understandings of these sensitivities, help address potential concerns and facilitate the development of research relationships that promote ethical conduct of research with children.     

Resisting and Reinforcing Neoliberalism: Youth Activist Organizations and Youth Participation in the Contemporary Canadian Context

This critical qualitative research focused on a group of youth engaged in social justice and critical education activities in a youth activist organization. This article explains how neoliberalism as governmentality provides insight into the ways in which the interrelated macro, local, and micro contextual layers mediate youth activist organizations and youth participation. Three participation narratives are woven together with two key themes: the ethos of individualism and market-focused discourse. This work aims to provide insight into how youth activist organizations can effectively engage youth in social practices and relationships toward social justice in an increasingly neoliberal era.     

Urban environments are associated with earlier clutches and faster nestling feather growth compared to natural habitats

Urbanization creates new habitats with novel benefits and challenges not found in natural systems. How a species fares in urban habitats is largely dependent on its life history, yet predicting the response of individual species to urbanization remains a challenge. While some species thrive in urban areas, others do poorly or are not present at all. Mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli) are year-round residents of montane regions of western North America. Commonly found in higher-elevation coniferous forests, these birds can also be found in urban areas where they will regularly visit bird feeders and nest in nest boxes. We monitored mountain chickadees nesting along a habitat gradient, from natural habitat to suburban areas, to determine if the degree of urbanization was associated with: clutch size and success; nestling growth rates; or variation in parental size and age. Females nesting in urbanized areas initiated clutches earlier in the breeding season than those in natural areas, but neither fledging success nor the rate of nestling mass-change differed between habitats. Nestling feather growth-rate increased with later first egg dates in both habitats, and the magnitude of this increase was greatest in urban habitats. We found no difference in the proportion of first-time breeders versus experienced breeders between habitat types, nor any differences in male or female mass or size. Our results indicate no detriment to nesting in urban habitats, suggesting mountain chickadees are able to adapt to moderate urbanization much like other members of the Paridae family.