Validation of Commercial Business Lists as a Proxy for Licensed Alcohol Outlets

Studies of retail alcohol outlets are restricted to regions due to lack of U.S. national data. Commercial business lists (BL) offer a possible solution, but no data exists to determine if BLs could serve as an adequate proxy for license data. This paper compares geospatial measures of alcohol outlets derived from a commercial BL with license data for a large US state

Individualized Absolute Risk Calculations for Persons with Multiple Chronic Conditions: Embracing Heterogeneity, Causality, and Competing Events

Approximately 75% of adults over the age of 65 years are affected by two or more chronic medical conditions. We provide a conceptual justification for individualized absolute risk calculators for competing patient-centered outcomes (PCO) (i.e. outcomes deemed important by patients) and patient reported outcomes (PRO) (i.e. outcomes patients report instead of physiologic test results). The absolute risk of an outcome is the probability that a person receiving a given treatment will experience that outcome within a pre-defined interval of time, during which they are simultaneously at risk for other competing outcomes. This allows for determination of the likelihood of a given outcome with and without a treatment. We posit that there are heterogeneity of treatment effects among patients with multiple chronic conditions (MCC) largely depends on those coexisting conditions. We outline the development of an individualized absolute risk calculator for competing outcomes using propensity score methods that strengthen causal inference for specific treatments. Innovations include the key concept that any given outcome may or may not concur with any other outcome and that these competing outcomes do not necessarily preclude other outcomes. Patient characteristics and MCC will be the primary explanatory factors used in estimating the heterogeneity of treatment effects on PCO and PRO. This innovative method may have wide-spread application for determining individualized absolute risk calculations for competing outcomes. Knowing the probabilities of outcomes in absolute terms may help the burgeoning population of patients with MCC who face complex treatment decisions

Density estimation and adaptive bandwidths: A primer for public health practitioners

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Geographic information systems have advanced the ability to both visualize and analyze point data. While point-based maps can be aggregated to differing areal units and examined at varying resolutions, two problems arise 1) the modifiable areal unit problem and 2) any corresponding data must be available both at the scale of analysis and in the same geographic units. Kernel density estimation (KDE) produces a smooth, continuous surface where each location in the study area is assigned a density value irrespective of arbitrary administrative boundaries. We review KDE, and introduce the technique of utilizing an adaptive bandwidth to address the underlying heterogeneous population distributions common in public health research.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The density of occurrences should not be interpreted without knowledge of the underlying population distribution. When the effect of the background population is successfully accounted for, differences in point patterns in similar population areas are more discernible; it is generally these variations that are of most interest. A static bandwidth KDE does not distinguish the spatial extents of interesting areas, nor does it expose patterns above and beyond those due to geographic variations in the density of the underlying population. An adaptive bandwidth method uses background population data to calculate a kernel of varying size for each individual case. This limits the influence of a single case to a small spatial extent where the population density is high as the bandwidth is small. If the primary concern is distance, a static bandwidth is preferable because it may be better to define the "neighborhood" or exposure risk based on distance. If the primary concern is differences in exposure across the population, a bandwidth adapting to the population is preferred.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Kernel density estimation is a useful way to consider exposure at any point within a spatial frame, irrespective of administrative boundaries. Utilization of an adaptive bandwidth may be particularly useful in comparing two similarly populated areas when studying health disparities or other issues comparing populations in public health.</p

Children\u27s Exposure to Violence and the Intersection Between Delinquency and Victimization.

Presents survey results from the National Survey of Children\u27s Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV) regarding the co-occurrence of victimization and delinquency among children who are exposed to violence. The survey confirms findings of earlier studies that identified three groups of youth: delinquent-victims, primarily delinquent youth, and primarily victim youth. The survey found that the youth identified as delinquent-victims had higher levels of both delinquency and victimization than youth who fell into the other two categories. In addition, youth who had higher levels of delinquency and victimization suffered more adversities, including more mental health symptoms, more inconsistent/harsh parenting and less parental supervision, and less social support. The bulletin further categorizes delinquent youth according to whether they engaged in violence or carried weapons; committed property crimes such as arson, burglary or car theft; or committed minor delinquency such as drug use or truancy. This is the fifth in a series of bulletins that present findings from NatSCEV, the most comprehensive nationwide survey to date of the incidence and prevalence of children’s exposure to violence across all ages, settings, and timeframes

A Comparison of Individual Versus Community Influences on Youth Smoking Behaviours: A Cross-Sectional Observational Study

Objectives: To compare individual with community risk factors for adolescent smoking. Design: A cross-sectional observational study with multivariate analysis.Setting: National telephone survey.Participants: 3646 US adolescents aged 13–18 years in 2007 recruited through a random digit-dial survey

The influence of various regions of the FOXP2 sequence on its structure and DNA binding function

Funding: University of the Witwatersrand, South African National Research Foundation Grant 80681 to S.F., Grant 68898 to H.W.D., the South African Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and National Research Foundation Grant 64788 to H.W.D., the Medical Research Council of South Africa and the Royal Society Grant NAF/R2/180787 to SF.FOX proteins are a superfamily of transcription factors which share a DNA-binding domain referred to as the forkhead domain. Our focus is on the FOXP subfamily members, which are involved in language and cognition amongst other things. The FOXP proteins contain a conserved zinc finger and a leucine zipper motif in addition to the forkhead domain. The remainder of the sequence is predicted to be unstructured and includes an acidic C-terminal tail. In the present study, we aim to investigate how both the structured and unstructured regions of the sequence cooperate so as to enable FOXP proteins to perform their function. We do this by studying the effect of these regions on both oligomerisation and DNA binding. Structurally, the FOXP proteins appear to be comparatively globular with a high proportion of helical structure. The proteins multimerise via the leucine zipper, and the stability of the multimers is controlled by the unstructured interlinking sequence including the acid rich tail. FOXP2 is more compact than FOXP1, has a greater propensity to form higher order oligomers, and binds DNA with stronger affinity. We conclude that while the forkhead domain is necessary for DNA binding, the affinity of the binding event is attributable to the leucine zipper, and the unstructured regions play a significant role in the specificity of binding. The acid rich tail forms specific contacts with the forkhead domain which may influence oligomerisation and DNA binding, and therefore the acid rich tail may play an important regulatory role in FOXP transcription.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

A conceptual model for the integration of social and ecological information to understand human-wildlife interactions

There is growing recognition that interdisciplinary approaches that account for both ecological and social processes are necessary to successfully address human-wildlife interactions. However, such approaches are hindered by challenges in aligning data types, communicating across disciplines, and applying social science information to conservation actions. To meet these challenges, we propose a conceptual model that adopts a social-ecological systems approach and integrates social and ecological theory to identify the multiple, nested levels of influence on both human and animal behavior. By accounting for a diverse array of influences and feedback mechanisms between social and ecological systems, this model fulfills a need for approaches that treat social and ecological processes with equal depth and facilitates a comprehensive understanding of the drivers of human and animal behaviors that perpetuate human-wildlife interactions. We apply this conceptual model to our work on human-black bear conflicts in Colorado, USA to demonstrate its utility. Using this example, we identify key lessons and offer guidance to researchers and conservation practitioners for applying integrated approaches to other human-wildlife systems

Mutant p53R270H drives altered metabolism and increased invasion in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic cancer is characterized by nearly universal activating mutations in KRAS. Among other somatic mutations, TP53 is mutated in more than 75% of human pancreatic tumors. Genetically engineered mice have proven instrumental in studies of the contribution of individual genes to carcinogenesis. Oncogenic Kras mutations occur early during pancreatic carcinogenesis and are considered an initiating event. In contrast, mutations in p53 occur later during tumor progression. In our model, we recapitulated the order of mutations of the human disease, with p53 mutation following expression of oncogenic Kras. Further, using an inducible and reversible expression allele for mutant p53, we inactivated its expression at different stages of carcinogenesis. Notably, the function of mutant p53 changes at different stages of carcinogenesis. Our work establishes a requirement for mutant p53 for the formation and maintenance of pancreatic cancer precursor lesions. In tumors, mutant p53 becomes dispensable for growth. However, it maintains the altered metabolism that characterizes pancreatic cancer and mediates its malignant potential. Further, mutant p53 promotes epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and cancer cell invasion. This work generates new mouse models that mimic human pancreatic cancer and expands our understanding of the role of p53 mutation, common in the majority of human malignancies

Is the Closest Facility the One Actually Used? An Assessment of Travel Time Estimation Based on Mammography Facilities

Characterizing geographic access depends on a broad range of methods available to researchers and the healthcare context to which the method is applied. Globally, travel time is one frequently used measure of geographic access with known limitations associated with data availability. Specifically, due to lack of available utilization data, many travel time studies assume that patients use the closest facility. To examine this assumption, an example using mammography screening data, which is considered a geographically abundant health care service in the United States, is explored. This work makes an important methodological contribution to measuring access--which is a critical component of health care planning and equity almost everywhere. We analyzed one mammogram from each of 646,553 women participating in the US based Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium for years 2005-2012. We geocoded each record to street level address data in order to calculate travel time to the closest and to the actually used mammography facility. Travel time between the closest and the actual facility used was explored by woman-level and facility characteristics