Brown University

About: Brown University is a education organization based out in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 35778 authors who have published 90896 publications receiving 4471489 citations. The organization is also known as: brown.edu & Brown.

The home environments of children in the United States part II: relations with behavioral development through age thirteen.

Abstract: This study examined the frequency with which children were exposed to various parental actions, materials, events, and conditions as part of their home environments, and how those exposures related to their well-being. Part 1 focused on variations by age, ethnicity, and poverty status. In Part 2 of the study, relations between major aspects of the home environment (including maternal responsiveness, learning stimulation, and spanking) and developmental outcomes for children from birth through age 13 were investigated. The outcomes examined were early motor and social development, vocabulary development, achievement, and behavior problems. These relations were examined in both poor and nonpoor European American, African American, and Hispanic American families using hierarchical linear modeling. The most consistent relations found were those between learning stimulation and children's developmental status, with relations for parental responsiveness and spanking varying as a function of outcome, age, ethnicity, and poverty status. The evidence indicated slightly stronger relations for younger as compared with older children.

Cancer of the stomach. A patient care study by the American College of Surgeons.

Abstract: Objective The major purpose of this study was to document the modes of presentation, diagnostic methods, clinical management, and outcome of gastric cancer as reported by tumor registries of US hospitals and cancer programs approved by the American College of Surgeons. Summary background data Gastric cancer continues to diminish in the US, but the stage of disease and survival outcome after surgical resection is unchanged despite increased availability and sophistication of diagnostic techniques. This is in contrast to the marked improvement in survival outcome in Japanese and other Eastern series over the last decades. Possible reasons for the improved Japanese results have been earlier detection secondary to active diagnostic surveillance of the population and widespread adoption of aggressive surgical resection emphasizing wide-field node (R2) dissection. Although selected US centers using the Japanese approach report better survival data, the approach has not been widely adapted by US treatment centers. Methods Tumor registries at American College of Surgeons (ACS) approved hospitals were mailed a study protocol in 1987. They were instructed to review 25 consecutive patients with gastric cancer treated in 1982 (long-term study) and 25 patients treated in 1987 (short-term study). A detailed protocol included significant history, diagnostic results, staging, pathology findings, and treatment results. The data forms on 18,365 patients were returned and analyzed (11,264 patients in the long-term study and 7101 patients in the short-term study). Results Of 18,365 patients, 63% were males. The median ages were 68.4 years in males and 71.9 years in females. There was a history of gastric ulcer in 25.5% of the patients. Lesion location was upper third in 31%, middle third in 14%, distal third in 26%, and entire stomach in 10% of patients (and the site was unknown in 19%). Gastric resection was performed for 80% of upper third cancers and 85% of distal third cancers; 50% of patients with total gastric involvement had gastric resection. The extent of gastric resection varied according to location. For lower third lesions, subtotal gastrectomy was done in 55% of the cases, extended resection in 21%, and total gastrectomy in 6%. For proximal lesions, 29% had subtotal, 4.6% had total, and 41% had extended gastrectomies (including esophagus), and 13.6% had dissection of celiac nodes. The operative mortality rate was 7.2%. Staging (American Joint Committee on Cancer [AJCC]) was as follows: I, 17%; II, 17%; III, 36%; and IV, 31%. The overall survival rate reflecting deaths from all causes was 14% among 10,891 patients diagnosed in 1982, and it was 19% in patients having resection. The disease specific survival rate was 26%. The survival rate after resection was 19% and 21% for lower and mid third cancers, 10% for upper third cancers, and 4% if the entire stomach was involved. The stage-related survival rates were 50% (stage I), 29% (stage II), 13% (stage III), and 3% (stage IV). Among patients with pathologically clear margins, the survival rate was 35% versus 13% in those with microscopically involved margins, and it was 3% in those with grossly involved margins. Conclusion This report of gastric cancer treatment by American College of Surgeons approved institutions in the US provides an overview of the disease as commonly treated throughout the US. Although the results are less favorable than those reported by centers with large institutional experiences with this disease and are inferior to those of the Japanese and other Eastern centers, they suggest potential for increasing survival by upstaging through earlier diagnosis and using resectional techniques demonstrated to more adequately control local regional disease.

Risk factors for cerebral edema in children with diabetic ketoacidosis.

Abstract: Background Cerebral edema is an uncommon but devastating complication of diabetic ketoacidosis in children. Risk factors for this complication have not been clearly defined. Methods In this multicenter study, we identified 61 children who had been hospitalized for diabetic ketoacidosis within a 15-year period and in whom cerebral edema had developed. Two additional groups of children with diabetic ketoacidosis but without cerebral edema were also identified: 181 randomly selected children and 174 children matched to those in the cerebral-edema group with respect to age at presentation, onset of diabetes (established vs. newly diagnosed disease), initial serum glucose concentration, and initial venous pH. Using logistic regression, we compared the three groups with respect to demographic characteristics and biochemical variables at presentation and compared the matched groups with respect to therapeutic interventions and changes in biochemical values during treatment. Results A comparison of the children i...

Strongly Interacting Plasmon Nanoparticle Pairs: From Dipole−Dipole Interaction to Conductively Coupled Regime

Abstract: We have investigated the optical response of periodic arrays of metallic (gold) nanoparticles composed of a pair of particles on each lattice site. By varying the interparticle separation within the pairs from dielectric proximity to conductive contact on a nanometer scale, we observe an abrupt, large renormalization as well as a splitting of the surface plasmon polariton energy. These spectral anomalies are ascribed to a transition whereupon the interparticle dipole−dipole interaction is shunted and the plasmon polaritons exhibit multipolar behavior, including a very high local concentration of electromagnetic energy in the vicinity of their conductive contact.

Tobacco Use and Cessation in Psychiatric Disorders: National Institute of Mental Health Report

Abstract: The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) convened a meeting in September 2005 to review tobacco use and dependence and smoking cessation among those with mental disorders, especially individuals with anxiety disorders, depression, or schizophrenia. Smoking rates are exceptionally high among these individuals and contribute to the high rates of medical morbidity and mortality in these individuals. Numerous biological, psychological, and social factors may explain these high smoking rates, including the lack of smoking cessation treatment in mental health settings. Historically, "self-medication" and "individual rights" have been concerns used to rationalize allowing ongoing tobacco use and limited smoking cessation efforts in many mental health treatment settings. Although research has shown that tobacco use can reduce or ameliorate certain psychiatric symptoms, overreliance on the self-medication hypothesis to explain the high rates of tobacco use in psychiatric populations may result in inadequate attention to other potential explanations for this addictive behavior among those with mental disorders. A more complete understanding of nicotine and tobacco use in psychiatric patients also can lead to new psychiatric treatments and a better understanding of mental illness. Greater collaboration between mental health researchers and nicotine and tobacco researchers is needed to better understand and develop new treatments for cooccurring nicotine dependence and mental illness. Despite an accumulating literature for some specific psychiatric disorders and tobacco use and cessation, many unstudied research questions remain and are a focus and an emphasis of this review.