BACKGROUND Young children with sickle cell disease (SCD) are at risk for cognitive delay. In addition to biologic risk factors associated with SCD, environmental factors contribute to cognitive dysfunction within this cohort. METHODS We completed a single-arm, prospective cohort study. Children with SCD between the ages of 3 and 36 months and their caregivers were followed between October 201...

The component Allee effect has been defined as 'a positive relationship between any measure of individual fitness and the number or density of conspecifics'. Larger plant populations or large patches have shown a higher pollinator visitation rate, which may give rise to an Allee effect in reproduction of the plants. We experimentally tested the effect of number of conspecifics on reproduction a...

1. While many plant species offer rewards (e.g. nectar) to pollinators, some species, particularly in orchids, do not provide rewards. Ecological factors, such as interactions with rewarding co-flowering species may affect pollinator visitation rates to such deceptive species by influencing pollinator ability to learn to avoid deceptive plants (avoidance learning). 2. We tested the effect of fl...

To date little information has been collected on the pollination biology of Ailanthus altissima (Mill.) Swingle (tree-of-heaven), an invasive exotic in the U.S. This study was conducted to determine the insect pollinator fauna visiting A. altissima and to study general pollinator visitation patterns associated with the tree’s nectar profile. A list of taxa visiting trees within each of three si...

OBJECTIVES The objectives of this study were to determine the rate of use of dental services by independently living older dentate and edentulous adults and the factors affecting utilization. METHODS Data were derived from the cross-sectional Manitoba Study of Health and Aging. A personal interview included over 240 questions addressing sociodemographics, well-being, oral and general health, ...

The parameters of legal visitation rights for grandparents in both biological and adoptive parenting situations are explored. Laws in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia are summarized. Suggestions for improvement in the current system are included.

Some of the most powerful reinforcement learning frameworks use planning for action selection. Interestingly, their horizon is either fixed or determined arbitrarily by state visitation history. Here, we expand beyond naive and propose a theoretically justified strategy adaptive selection as function state-dependent value estimate. We two variants lookahead analyze trade-off between iteration c...

1. Olds D, Henderson CR, Cole R, et al. Long-term effects of nurse home visitation on children’s criminal and antisocial behavior: 15-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 1998;280:1238-1244. 2. The Infant Health Development Program. Enhancing the outcomes of low birth weight, premature infants: a multisite, randomized trial. JAMA. 1990;263:3035-3042. 3. Brooks-Gunn J, McCarton...