Social Inequalities and Emerging Infectious Diseases

Although many who study emerging infections subscribe to social-production-of-disease theories, few have examined the contribution of social inequalities to disease emergence. Yet such inequalities have powerfully sculpted not only the distribution of infectious diseases, but also the course of disease in those affected. Outbreaks of Ebola, AIDS, and tuberculosis suggest that models of disease emergence need to be dynamic, systemic, and critical. Such models--which strive to incorporate change and complexity, and are global yet alive to local variation--are critical of facile claims of causality, particularly those that scant the pathogenic roles of social inequalities. Critical perspectives on emerging infections ask how large-scale social forces influence unequally positioned individuals in increasingly interconnected populations; a critical epistemology of emerging infectious diseases asks what features of disease emergence are obscured by dominant analytic frameworks. Research questions stemming from such a reexamination of disease emergence would demand close collaboration between basic scientists, clinicians, and the social scientists and epidemiologists who adopt such perspectives

Faster than Flintstone? – Could the Ant Hill Mob beat Fred for speed?

This paper calculates the maximum velocity of the Ant Hill Mob from Wacky Races when employing their ‘getaway’ technique of running while carrying the car. It was found that the Mob were slower than Fred Flintstone, another character famous for powering his car with his feet, by a ratio of over 34 times

Adding injury to insult: pathogen detection and responses

Genomic approaches to the study of the expression of plant genes induced in response to disease and attack are now showing that there is an intimate association between pathogen perception and general stress detection

Investigation of regional flow patterns in the Ash Meadows groundwater basin of Southern Nevada using uranium isotope ratios

Uranium concentrations and {dollar}\rm\sp{234}U/\sp{238}U{dollar} isotope ratios were determined for over 100 springs, wells and surface waters in areas on and surrounding the historical nuclear weapons testing range in southern Nevada, the Nevada Test Site (NTS). Uranium concentrations were less than 2 {dollar}\mu{dollar}g/liter in the Spring Mountains, where ground water enters the system, and between 2.5 and 5 {dollar}\mu{dollar}g/liter in waters discharging from the major springs at Ash Meadows, Nevada and the Death Valley-Furnace Creek area of southeastern California. Slightly higher levels of dissolved uranium (6-15 {dollar}\mu{dollar}g/liter) were associated with the weathering of susceptible rocks and the concentration of ground water by evaporation. The average concentration of uranium in ground water was 3.03 {dollar}\mu{dollar}g/liter (s.d. 2.1) and the highest measurement recorded was 69 {dollar}\pm{dollar} 5.8 {dollar}\mu{dollar}g/liter in water collected from Lower Pahranagat Lake in Lincoln County, Nevada. Uranium isotope ratios, ({dollar}\rm\sp{234}U/\sp{238}U{dollar}), ranged from close to one at NTS Well UE-6E (1.04 {dollar}\pm{dollar} 0.21) to more than seven at NTS Well J-13 (7.58 {dollar}\pm{dollar} 0.24). Isotope mixing diagrams suggest that about 70 percent of the water discharging from the regional springs at Ash Meadows in the southern Amargosa Desert may come from the nearby Spring Mountains, with the remainder possibly coming from the Hiko-Pahranagat region, northeast of the NTS. This is in agreement with earlier findings. Spring discharge in southern Death Valley is also related to regional ground water movement. Using data collected in this study, it is estimated that 80 percent of the water in southern Death Valley is a result of underflow from the Ash Meadows region to the east, while as much as 20 percent may originate from other areas

John Adams and Unitarian Theology

This thesis looks at the religious beliefs of John Adams and argues that the proper definition of Adams\u27s belief system should only be Unitarianism. It goes through the basic history of Unitarianism and the religious context of the Founding Fathers, and it analyzes relevant historiography on Adams\u27s theological system, arguing against terms such as Christian Deist and Theistic Rationalist. Then, the thesis suggests possible applications for Adams\u27s religion, particularly when considering his emphasis on the ethical Jesus in relation to his desire for a moral society brought about by religion. Adams\u27s theology can be applied to political actions he took during his life, including the drafting of the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, the signing of the Treaty of Tripoli of 1797, and the issuing of national days of fasting and prayer during his presidency

Does the Float Whale Pokémon really float? How can Wailord avoid floating off into space?

Wailord, the biggest Pokémon in the franchise, has a mass that implies it is less dense than both water and air. This paper calculates that if Wailord eats approximately 55.36 kg of food, its average density will be sufficient such that it will remain in the water. An unfeasible amount of food would be needed to reach the density of water, however

The Super Bowl of survival – Which North American sports team comes out on top?

This paper creates a hypothetical scenario where animal-based teams from the 4 major North American sports leagues are placed into an ecosystem together. After determining the likely predator/prey interactions between these organisms, the apex predators of this fantasy habitat are established. While 8 teams can claim ecological dominance and feature no natural predation, only the Toronto Maple Leafs are capable of long-term survival

A Normalized Scoring Model for Law School Competitions

Although the focus in this Article is moot court scoring, one can envision many other instances of law school assessment in which such a normalization problem arises. Law review competitions also involve different sets of graders, whose subjective determinations must be reasonably commensurate to make fair comparisons. Even more intriguing, although presenting a more complicated problem, law school grades suffer the same normalization concern. Courses feature material with different degrees of difficulty, attract different pools of students, and are taught by different instructors. Yet, class rank and graduation honors are ultimately calculated under the assumption that all grades are commensurate. In this Article, we propose a statistical method for normalizing scores in the moot court context