Broadcasting Flu Messages – Citywide Transmission and Community Reception: An Evaluation of Ready New York’s pandemic influenza outreach campaign

Public health risk communication is a central feature of New York City’s pandemic flu preparedness plan. Particularly in the early stages of a pandemic, before effective therapeutic measures are available, non-pharmaceutical interventions such as social distancing, personal protective hygiene, and voluntary isolation are critical strategies for suppressing the spread of a novel viral strain. New York City health and emergency management officials have decided to use the city’s risk communication structure – the Office of Emergency Management’s Ready New York outreach and dissemination capacities – as one of the primary means to communicate pandemic flu health messages. In October 2008, NCDP contracted with Public Health Solutions and the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) to evaluate the reach and effectiveness of its planned Ready NY Pandemic Flu community outreach campaign

Breastfeeding, infant formula supplementation, and Autistic Disorder: the results of a parent survey

BACKGROUND: Although Autistic Disorder is associated with several congenital conditions, the cause for most cases is unknown. The present study was undertaken to determine whether breastfeeding or the use of infant formula supplemented with docosahexaenoic acid and arachidonic acid is associated with Autistic Disorder. The hypothesis is that breastfeeding and use of infant formula supplemented with docosahexaenoic acid/arachidonic acid are protective for Autistic Disorder. METHODS: This is a case-control study using data from the Autism Internet Research Survey, an online parental survey conducted from February to April 2005 with results for 861 children with Autistic Disorder and 123 control children. The analyses were performed using logistic regression. RESULTS: Absence of breastfeeding when compared to breastfeeding for more than six months was significantly associated with an increase in the odds of having autistic disorder when all cases were considered (OR 2.48, 95% CI 1.42, 4.35) and after limiting cases to children with regression in development (OR 1.95, 95% CI 1.01, 3.78). Use of infant formula without docosahexaenoic acid and arachidonic acid supplementation versus exclusive breastfeeding was associated with a significant increase in the odds of autistic disorder when all cases were considered (OR 4.41, 95% CI 1.24, 15.7) and after limiting cases to children with regression in development (OR 12.96, 95% CI 1.27, 132). CONCLUSION: The results of this preliminary study indicate that children who were not breastfed or were fed infant formula without docosahexaenoic acid/arachidonic acid supplementation were significantly more likely to have autistic disorder

Where are they now? tracking the longitudinal evolution of environmental businesses from the 1990s

In 1991 Steven Bennett published one of the first major publications on the concept of ecopreneurship, business opportunities resulting from the emerging environmental agenda of the late 1980s and early 1990s (Ecopreneuring: the Complete Guide to Small Business Opportunities From the Environmental Revolution. Wiley: New York). Since then a body of literature has developed that explores the idea of the intersection of entrepreneurship with environmentally and socially responsible behaviour. Many of the business cases presented by Bennett represent early adopters of green products, services and emerging eco-markets. Given the current emphasis on the transformation of business practices towards a more sustainable paradigm it is timely to review these 94 early ecopreneurial examples and consider their status two decades on from the original publication. This paper explores the definitions of environmental and social enterprise, and considers the longitudinal survival of these companies and the emerging trends in consolidation and failure of the sampled companies. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

The Grizzly, February 24, 2011

Greek Recruitment Week Underway • Collegiate Learning Assessment for Graduating Students • Kwesi Koomson Talks About Heritage Academy in Ghana • Sexy Talk with a Twist of Love and Revolution • Birthright Provides Unique Experience • The Women of Whitians Honor Society Make Moves • WeCan Attempts to Bring Change to UC Dining Services • Relay for Life Recruits for a Strong Turnout • Internship Profile: Chris Michael • Positive Changes Made to SPINT • Diversity Column: Language of Race • Opinions: Egypt President Falls, Other Countries Hopeful • Men\u27s Basketball Season Ends on Sour Note • Men\u27s Club Soccer Team Seeks New Membershttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1831/thumbnail.jp

Probability distribution of arrival times in quantum mechanics

In a previous paper [V. Delgado and J. G. Muga, Phys. Rev. A 56, 3425 (1997)] we introduced a self-adjoint operator $\hat {{\cal T}}(X)$ whose eigenstates can be used to define consistently a probability distribution of the time of arrival at a given spatial point. In the present work we show that the probability distribution previously proposed can be well understood on classical grounds in the sense that it is given by the expectation value of a certain positive definite operator $\hat J^{(+)}(X)$ which is nothing but a straightforward quantum version of the modulus of the classical current. For quantum states highly localized in momentum space about a certain momentum $p_0 \neq 0$, the expectation value of $\hat J^{(+)}(X)$ becomes indistinguishable from the quantum probability current. This fact may provide a justification for the common practice of using the latter quantity as a probability distribution of arrival times.Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX, no figures; A Note added; To be published in Phys. Rev.

Quantum probability distribution of arrival times and probability current density

This paper compares the proposal made in previous papers for a quantum probability distribution of the time of arrival at a certain point with the corresponding proposal based on the probability current density. Quantitative differences between the two formulations are examined analytically and numerically with the aim of establishing conditions under which the proposals might be tested by experiment. It is found that quantum regime conditions produce the biggest differences between the formulations which are otherwise near indistinguishable. These results indicate that in order to discriminate conclusively among the different alternatives, the corresponding experimental test should be performed in the quantum regime and with sufficiently high resolution so as to resolve small quantum efects.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, LaTeX; Revised version to appear in Phys. Rev. A (many small changes

Standard‐space atlas of the viscoelastic properties of the human brain

Standard anatomical atlases are common in neuroimaging because they facilitate data analyses and comparisons across subjects and studies. The purpose of this study was to develop a standardized human brain atlas based on the physical mechanical properties (i.e., tissue viscoelasticity) of brain tissue using magnetic resonance elastography (MRE). MRE is a phase contrast-based MRI method that quantifies tissue viscoelasticity noninvasively and in vivo thus providing a macroscopic representation of the microstructural constituents of soft biological tissue. The development of standardized brain MRE atlases are therefore beneficial for comparing neural tissue integrity across populations. Data from a large number of healthy, young adults from multiple studies collected using common MRE acquisition and analysis protocols were assembled (N = 134; 78F/ 56 M; 18–35 years). Nonlinear image registration methods were applied to normalize viscoelastic property maps (shear stiffness, μ, and damping ratio, ξ) to the MNI152 standard structural template within the spatial coordinates of the ICBM-152. We find that average MRE brain templates contain emerging and symmetrized anatomical detail. Leveraging the substantial amount of data assembled, we illustrate that subcortical gray matter structures, white matter tracts, and regions of the cerebral cortex exhibit differing mechanical characteristics. Moreover, we report sex differences in viscoelasticity for specific neuroanatomical structures, which has implications for understanding patterns of individual differences in health and disease. These atlases provide reference values for clinical investigations as well as novel biophysical signatures of neuroanatomy. The templates are made openly available (github.com/mechneurolab/mre134) to foster collaboration across research institutions and to support robust cross-center comparisons