Accounting for the Change in Income Disparities between US Central Cities and their Suburbs from 1980 to 1990

Develops a method that uses cluster analysis to group central cities in the United States. Selection of the candidate cluster solutions; Median characteristics of the clusters; Stressed central cities; Healthy central cities

Correlation Index: Document Series and PB Reports

Shortly after World War II, the President created the Publication Board, an interagency committee, and authorized it to distribute government documents bottled up by war-time secrecy as well as documents containing information obtained from World War II enemies. The Publication Board began advertising documents for sale in the Bibliography of Scientific and Industrial Reports (BSIR) in 1946. Those documents were assigned PB numbers which were to be used as order numbers when ordering documents from the Publication Board. The documents distributed by the Publication Board soon came to be known as technical reports. The Publication Board eventually evolved into the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). BSIR evolved into the NTIS online database. This index correlates the report numbers assigned by the issuing agencies with the PB numbers assigned by the Publication Board and its successor agencies. This index is particularly useful because most of the reports issued before 1962 are effectively lost. They are not listed in the NTIS database, and -- as of January 1, 2012 -- most of the reports themselves are not available online and most are not listed in any online database. For further information see The “Lost” U.S. Technical Reports: Obtaining Reports from the 1940s and ‘50s by Robert L. Bolin which is available at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience/15

The public health benefits of insulation retrofits in existing housing in the United States

BACKGROUND: Methodological limitations make it difficult to quantify the public health benefits of energy efficiency programs. To address this issue, we developed a risk-based model to estimate the health benefits associated with marginal energy usage reductions and applied the model to a hypothetical case study of insulation retrofits in single-family homes in the United States. METHODS: We modeled energy savings with a regression model that extrapolated findings from an energy simulation program. Reductions of fine particulate matter (PM(2.5)) emissions and particle precursors (SO(2 )and NOx) were quantified using fuel-specific emission factors and marginal electricity analyses. Estimates of population exposure per unit emissions, varying by location and source type, were extrapolated from past dispersion model runs. Concentration-response functions for morbidity and mortality from PM(2.5 )were derived from the epidemiological literature, and economic values were assigned to health outcomes based on willingness to pay studies. RESULTS: In total, the insulation retrofits would save 800 TBTU (8 × 10(14 )British Thermal Units) per year across 46 million homes, resulting in 3,100 fewer tons of PM(2.5), 100,000 fewer tons of NOx, and 190,000 fewer tons of SO(2 )per year. These emission reductions are associated with outcomes including 240 fewer deaths, 6,500 fewer asthma attacks, and 110,000 fewer restricted activity days per year. At a state level, the health benefits per unit energy savings vary by an order of magnitude, illustrating that multiple factors (including population patterns and energy sources) influence health benefit estimates. The health benefits correspond to $1.3 billion per year in externalities averted, compared with$5.9 billion per year in economic savings. CONCLUSION: In spite of significant uncertainties related to the interpretation of PM(2.5 )health effects and other dimensions of the model, our analysis demonstrates that a risk-based methodology is viable for national-level energy efficiency programs

Planning for a statewide network of dementia assessment services: A survey of geriatric assessment services in Michigan

All 38 geriatric assessment service units identified in Michigan were surveyed and responded as a component of planning a statewide network of diagnostic and assessment services for patients with dementia. Most units were outpatient (71 percent), urban (71 percent), and hospital-based (82 percent). Some provided primarily geropsychiatric services (21 percent), while the rest provided general geriatric services. The staff included physicians (95 percent), nurses (100 percent), social workers (95 percent) and other professionals (SO percent) such as nutritionists, neuro psychologists or clinical pharmacists. Assessments performed by most units included physical (92 percent), psychosocial (95 percent), functional (95 percent), neurological (71 percent) mental (95 percent), and financial (89 percent). Patient referral sources were most frequently self/family, followed by physician, community agencies, and community mental health. Reasons for referral were most often confusion! memory loss, followed by behavior change, caregiver stress, depression, and evaluation for placement. Most patients seen were between 65 and 84 years of age (72 percent), lived within 25 miles of the unit (87 percent), and had dementia (62 percent). Urban sites assessed significantly more persons per month (19 percent) than non-urban sites (4 percent). Community-based services spent significantly more time per month on geriatric assessments (68 hours) than did hospital-based services (26 hours). These survey results will aid the development of a statewide network of dementia diagnostic and assessment services.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67004/2/10.1177_153331759200700606.pd

Water-borne Fluoride and Cortical Bone Mass: A Comparison of Two Communities

This study investigated the relationship between cortical bone mass in an older female population and their ingestion of fluoride from community water supplies. The study was conducted among lifelong female residents in Lordsburg (3.5 ppm fluoride) and Deming (0.7 ppm fluoride), NM. A total of 151 postmenopausal women ranging in age from 39 to 87 years took part; 69 were residents of the optimal-fluoride community, while the remaining 82 were residents of the high-fluoride community. Although bivariate analyses showed no difference in cortical bone mass between women in the two communities, with multiple regression analyses, significant predictors of bone mass (p < 0.05) were weight, years since menopause, current estrogen supplementation, diabetes, and fluoride exposure status. Based on a model containing all of these variables, women living in the high-fluoride community had a bone mass ranging from 0.004 to 0.039 g/cm 2 less than that of similar women living in the optimum-fluoride community. These results suggest that lifelong ingestion of water containing 3.5 ppm fluoride, compared with water containing 0.7 ppm fluoride, does not increase cortical bone mass in women of similar age, weight, and menopausal status. Under the conditions of this study, cortical bone mass might be reduced in a high-fluoride area.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68177/2/10.1177_00220345900690060601.pd

Construction statistics review for Kenya

Construction is a strategic industry in the developing economies like Kenya. In order for construction to ably perform this role, there is need to provide information on its various economic aspects including raw materials, products, processes, finance, and labour. Construction statistics of Kenya have been evaluated in order to ascertain their adequacy in terms of scope, portrait, reliability and responsiveness in their coverage of the construction industry. Official statistics published in the annual Statistical Abstract were reviewed according to these adequacy criteria. The findings are that: the scope of construction statistics is narrowly defined making the statistical portrait of the sector to be incomplete; the statistics are also unreliable in terms of quality and unresponsive to economical challenges of inflation, structural adjustment policies and the decline of public sector's role in the construction industry. A participatory statistical governance framework is recommended in order to improve the scope of statistics and alleviate the attendant problems like incomplete portrait that come with the narrow scope

The globalisation strategies of five Asian tobacco companies : a comparative analysis and implications for global health governance

The global tobacco industry, from the 1960s to mid 1990s, saw consolidation and eventual domination by a small number of transnational tobacco companies (TTC). This paper draws together comparative analysis of five case studies in the special issue on \u27The Emergence of Asian Tobacco Companies: Implications for Global Health Governance.\u27 The cases suggest that tobacco industry globalisation is undergoing a new phase, beginning in the late 1990s, with the adoption of global business strategies by five Asian companies. The strategies were prompted foremost by external factors, notably market liberalisation, competition from TTCs and declining domestic markets. State protection and promotion enabled the industries in Japan, South Korea and China to rationalise their operations ahead of foreign market expansion. The TTM and TTL will likely remain domestic or perhaps regional companies, JTI and KT&amp;G have achieved TTC status, and the CNTC is poised to dwarf all existing companies. This global expansion of Asian tobacco companies will increase competition which, in turn, will intensify marketing, exert downward price pressures along the global value chain, and encourage product innovation. Global tobacco control requires fuller understanding of these emerging changes and the regulatory challenges posed by ongoing globalisation