GATT and GATS: A Public Morals Attack on Money Laundering

Experts estimate current worldwide profits from organized crime at one trillion dollars.\u27 By comparison, the aggregate profits of the top fifty Fortune 500 companies totaled $33.923 billion in 1993.2 These illegitimate profits derive from a new generation of international organized crime. Perhaps no one better symbolizes this new generation of transnational gangster than the slain leader of the Medellin drug cartel, Pablo Escobar. Mr. Escobar reaped hundreds of millions of dollars from his illicit drug sales. He then laundered his ill-gotten wealth in the world\u27s major financial centers via phones, fax machines, and computers located in his Colombian headquarters

A Peculiar Habit of the Badger

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Generalized subroutine system for file processing in either batch or on-line code

This paper describes the construction and use of the File Processing System designed and implemented on the IBM System 360 with Full Operating System. The File Processing System is a collection of 5 subroutines written in the Fortran programming language which enable a computer user to create and maintain a data file on either tape or diskstorage media and access the file sequentially for tape and either sequentially, index sequentially, or randomly for disk

Using Community-Based Participatory Research to Investigate the Effectiveness of HIV/AIDS Risk Reduction Counseling in an Urban African-American Community

Introduction: Risk reduction counseling is an important component in HIV/AIDS prevention. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) was conducted to determine if a single counseling session was as effective as a two-session intervention in reducing risk behavior. Methods: Community and academic investigators jointly developed the study design. A convenience sample of 242 persons was randomized to receive either a two session intervention with Conventional HIV Testing (CHT) or a one session intervention with HIV Rapid Testing (HRT). Participants completed a risk assessment immediately preceding the test and a risk reduction plan after the test; CHT participants received a second risk reduction session. Results: Of 130 participants completing a one-month follow-up, 86.9% were African American and 72.3% were male. All participants demonstrated a significant decrease in risk behaviors regardless of procedure. Conclusions: Findings suggested that a brief client-centered risk reduction counseling intervention can be equally effective with either CHT or HRT. CBPR allowed the academic partner to answer study questions as the community agency received information to make informed decisions during a transition period from CHT to HRT

Influenza vaccination coverage among an urban pediatric asthma population: Implications for population health

Introduction Asthma is the most common chronic disease in children. Children with asthma are at high risk for complications from influenza; however annual influenza vaccination rates for this population are suboptimal. The overall aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of a high-risk population of children with asthma presenting to an urban pediatric emergency department according to influenza vaccination status. Methods The study was a retrospective chart review of 4355 patients aged 2 to 18 years evaluated in a Michigan pediatric emergency department (PED) between November 1, 2017 and April 30, 2018 with an ICD-10-CM code for asthma (J45.x). Eligible patient PED records were matched with influenza vaccination records for the 2017–2018 influenza season from the Michigan Care Improvement Registry. Geospatial analysis was employed to examine the distribution of influenza vaccination status. Results 1049 patients (30.9%) with asthma seen in the PED had received an influenza vaccine. Influenza vaccination coverage varied by Census Tract, ranging from 10% to \u3e 99%. Most vaccines were administered in a primary care setting (84.3%) and were covered by public insurance (76.8%). The influenza vaccination rate was lowest for children aged 5–11 years (30.0%) and vaccination status was associated with race (p\u3c0.001) and insurance type (p\u3c0.001). Conclusions Identification of neighborhood Census Tract and demographic groups with suboptimal influenza vaccination could guide development of targeted public health interventions to improve vaccination rates in high-risk patients. Given the morbidity and mortality associated with pediatric asthma, a data-driven approach may improve outcomes and reduce healthcare-associated costs for this pediatric population

Simulation of the Backcross Breeding Method. I. Effects of Heritability and Gene Number on Fixation of Desired Alleles

The potential of backcross breeding for improvement of a pure line by addition of favorable alleles from a donor line was investigated by computer simulation coupled with quantitative genetics theory. Attention was focused on the effects of heritability (among individual F2 plants) and of the number of genes of which the allele present in the donor line is more favorable than the one present in the recipient. The specific programs investigated were ones involving a large amount of effort, a minimum of 1,000 pollinations per backcross generation and selection among families in three or more generations. The criterion employed for effectiveness was the probability of fixation in the product of the program of favorable alleles derived from the donor line. Effectiveness was found to be greater when heritability is greater but the effect of increased heritability was not as great as might have been expected. Number of favorable alleles available frcm the donor line had greater impact, particularly when success was defined in terms of probability that all the available favorable alleles would be transferred from donor to recipient. Success, so defined, was limited to one allele in the case of the least laborious of the three programs studied and no more than five in the case of the most costly. On the other hand, when success was measured in terms of percent improvement in the selected trait, it appeared substantial change is possible with heritability as low as 15 percent and favorable alleles available in the range frcm 1 to 16. dditive effects and independent assortment were assumed for genes simulate

Characterization of Adherent Bacteroidales from Intestinal Biopsies of Children and Young Adults with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

There is extensive evidence implicating the intestinal microbiota in inflammatory bowel disease [IBD], but no microbial agent has been identified as a sole causative agent. Bacteroidales are numerically dominant intestinal organisms that associate with the mucosal surface and have properties that both positively and negatively affect the host. To determine precise numbers and species of Bacteroidales adherent to the mucosal surface in IBD patients, we performed a comprehensive culture based analysis of intestinal biopsies from pediatric Crohn's disease [CD], ulcerative colitis [UC], and control subjects. We obtained biopsies from 94 patients and used multiplex PCR or 16S rDNA sequencing of Bacteroidales isolates for species identification. Eighteen different Bacteroidales species were identified in the study group, with up to ten different species per biopsy, a number higher than demonstrated using 16S rRNA gene sequencing methods. Species diversity was decreased in IBD compared to controls and with increasingly inflamed tissue. There were significant differences in predominant Bacteroidales species between biopsies from the three groups and from inflamed and uninflamed sites. Parabacteroides distasonis significantly decreased in inflamed tissue. All 373 Bacteroidales isolates collected in this study grew with mucin as the only utilizable carbon source suggesting this is a non-pathogenic feature of this bacterial order. Bacteroides fragilis isolates with the enterotoxin gene [bft], previously associated with flares of colitis, were not found more often at inflamed colonic sites or within IBD subjects. B. fragilis isolates with the ability to synthesize the immunomodulatory polysaccharide A [PSA], previously shown to be protective in murine models of colitis, were not detected more often from healthy versus inflamed tissue