Media Coverage of EPA\u27s Draft Dioxin Reassessment Report

Using content analysis, the authors examine the utility of news media in democratic decision making

Injury in Ireland

Injury mortality is the fourth commonest cause of death in Ireland. The treatment of injuries has a major impact on our hospitals and on our budget for health. Long term disability following accidents is a serious problem. The aim of this report is to examine the impact of accidents and injuries on the Irish population by analysing routine mortality and morbidity data, and to identify in turn those areas where preventive measures could have an impact. In Section One the literature review details the advantages and disadvantages of each type of routine data source used in this report. The interpretation of data should take account of the constraints of the available data collected. The usefulness of routine data collection is highlighted, while identifying areas for improvement. In Section Two the methodology employed in the study is detailed. In Section Three data on hospital admissions over a five-year period 1993-1997 are presented. An overview of injury admissions is presented, followed by further analysis of injury data by both cause and by age group. In Section Four data on all accident-related deaths over a 17-year period, 1980-1996, are presented, with overall mortality data and mortality data by age group and by major causes of injury death detailed. In Section Five comparisons are made between the eight health board regions for rates of admissions and deaths due to injury. In presenting the data we use a matrix format devised and recommended by the International Collaborative Effort on Injury Statistics to display injury simultaneously by cause and intent. The use of a common format will also facilitate regional and international comparisons. In Section Six the priority recommendations for injury prevention are outlined. The key findings are then discussed and further recommendations are presented with the aim of injury prevention, reduction of disability and improvement in injury surveillance

Can we evaluate population screening strategies in UK general practice? A pilot randomised controlled trial comparing postal and opportunistic screening for genital chlamydial infection

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To assess whether opportunistic and postal screening strategies for Chlamydia trachomatis can be compared with usual care in a randomised trial in general practice DESIGN: Feasibility study for a randomised controlled trial. SETTING: Three West of Scotland general medical practices: one rural, one urban/deprived and one urban/affluent. PARTICIPANTS: 600 women aged 16-30 years, 200 from each of three participating practices selected at random from a sample of West of Scotland practices that had expressed interest in the study. The women could opt out of the study. Those who did not were randomly assigned to one of three groups: postal screening, opportunistic screening or usual care. MAIN RESULTS: 38% (85/221) of the approached practices expressed interest in the study. Data were collected successfully from the 3 participating practices, although intensive support was required. There were considerable workload implications for staff, both in relation to implementing the screening strategies and managing the research process. 124 of the 600 women opted out of the study. During the four-month study period, 55% (81/146) of the control group attended their practice but none was offered screening. 59% (80/136) women in the opportunistic group attended their practice of whom 55% (44/80) were offered screening. Of those, 64% (28/44) accepted, representing 21% of the opportunistic group. 48% (59/124) of the postal group returned samples. CONCLUSION: A randomised controlled trial comparing postal and opportunistic screening for chlamydial infection in general practice is feasible, though resource intensive. There may be problems with generalising from screening trials in which patients may opt out from the offer of screening

The use of conceptual components in language production: an ERP study

According to frame-theory, concepts can be represented as structured frames that contain conceptual attributes (e.g., "color") and their values (e.g., "red"). A particular color value can be seen as a core conceptual component for (high color-diagnostic; HCD) objects (e.g., bananas) which are strongly associated with a typical color, but less so for (low color-diagnostic; LCD) objects (e.g., bicycles) that exist in many different colors. To investigate whether the availability of a core conceptual component (color) affects lexical access in language production, we conducted two experiments on the naming of visually presented HCD and LCD objects. Experiment 1 showed that, when naming latencies were matched for colored HCD and LCD objects, achromatic HCD objects were named more slowly than achromatic LCD objects. In Experiment 2 we recorded ERPs while participants performed a picture-naming task, in which achromatic target pictures were either preceded by an appropriately colored box (primed condition) or a black and white checkerboard (unprimed condition). We focused on the P2 component, which has been shown to reflect difficulty of lexical access in language production. Results showed that HCD resulted in slower object-naming and a more pronounced P2. Priming also yielded a more positive P2 but did not result in an RT difference. ERP waveforms on the P1, P2 and N300 components showed a priming by color-diagnosticity interaction, the effect of color priming being stronger for HCD objects than for LCD objects. The effect of color-diagnosticity on the P2 component suggests that the slower naming of achromatic HCD objects is (at least in part) due to more difficult lexical retrieval. Hence, the color attribute seems to affect lexical retrieval in HCD words. The interaction between priming and color-diagnosticity indicates that priming with a feature hinders lexical access, especially if the feature is a core feature of the target object

CARETS: A prototype regional environmental information system. Volume 5: Interpretation, compilation and field verification procedures in the CARETS project

The author has identified the following significant results. Level 2 land use mapping from high altitude aircraft photography at a scale of 1:100,000 required production of a photomosaic mapping base for each of the 48, 50 x 50 km sheets, and the interpretation and coding of land use polygons on drafting film overlays. To enhance the value of the land use sheets, a series of overlays was compiled, showing cultural features, county boundaries and census tracts, surface geology, and drainage basins. In producing level 1 land use maps from LANDSAT imagery, at a scale of 1:250,000 drafting film was directly overlaid on LANDSAT color composite transparencies. Numerous areas of change were identified, but extensive areas of false changes were also noted

Antilocalization of Coulomb Blockade in a Ge-Si Nanowire

The distribution of Coulomb blockade peak heights as a function of magnetic field is investigated experimentally in a Ge-Si nanowire quantum dot. Strong spin-orbit coupling in this hole-gas system leads to antilocalization of Coulomb blockade peaks, consistent with theory. In particular, the peak height distribution has its maximum away from zero at zero magnetic field, with an average that decreases with increasing field. Magnetoconductance in the open-wire regime places a bound on the spin-orbit length ($l_{so}$ < 20 nm), consistent with values extracted in the Coulomb blockade regime ($l_{so}$ < 25 nm).Comment: Supplementary Information available at http://bit.ly/19pMpd

Fe VII lines in the spectrum of RR Telescopii

Thirteen transitions within the ground 3d^2 configuration of Fe VII are identified in ultraviolet and optical spectra of the symbiotic star RR Telescopii obtained with the STIS instrument of the Hubble Space Telescope. The line fluxes are compared with theoretical data computed with the recent atomic data of K.A. Berrington et al., and high resolution optical spectra from VLT/UVES are used to identify blends. Seven branching ratios are measured, with three in good agreement with theory and one affected by blending. The lambda5277/lambda4943 branching ratio is discrepant by > 3 sigma, indicating errors in the atomic data for the lambda5277 line. A least-squares minimization scheme is used to simultaneously derive the temperature, T, and density, N_e, of the RR Tel nebula, and the interstellar extinction, E(B-V), towards RR Tel from the complete set of emission lines. The derived values are: log T/K = 4.50 +/- 0.23, log N_e/cm^-3=7.25 +/- 0.05, and E(B-V)<0.27. The extinction is not well-constrained by the Fe VII lines, but is consistent with the more accurate value E(B-V)=0.109^{+0.052}_{-0.059} derived here from the Ne V lambda2974/lambda1574 ratio in the STIS spectrum. Large differences between the K.A. Berrington et al. electron excitation data and the earlier F.P. Keenan & P.H. Norrington data-set are demonstrated, and the latter is shown to give worse agreement with observations.Comment: To be published in Astronomy & Astrophysics; 7 pages, 4 figure

CARETS: A prototype regional environmental information system. Volume 2, parts A and B: Norfolk and environs; a land use perspective

The author has identified the following significant results. The Norfolk-Portsmouth metropolitan statistical area in southeastern Virginia was the site of intensive testing of a number of land resources assessment methods. Land use and land cover data at three levels of detail were derived by manual image interpretation from both aircraft and satellite sources and used to characterize the 1,766 sq km (682 sq mi) area from the perspective of its various resource-related activities and problems. Measurements at level 1 from 1:100, 000 scale maps revealed 42 percent of the test area (excluding bays and estuaries) to be forest, 28 percent agriculture, 23 percent urban and built-up, 4 percent nonforested wetlands, and 2 percent water. At the same scale and level of detail, 10 percent of the area underwent change from one land use category to another in the period 1959-70, 62 percent of which involved the relatively irreversible change from forest or agriculture to urban uses

The Distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud from the Eclipsing Binary HV2274

The distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is crucial for the calibration of the Cosmic Distance Scale. We derive a distance to the LMC based on an analysis of ground-based photometry and HST-based spectroscopy and spectrophotometry of the LMC eclipsing binary system HV2274. Analysis of the optical light curve and HST/GHRS radial velocity curve provides the masses and radii of the binary components. Analysis of the HST/FOS UV/optical spectrophotometry provides the temperatures of the component stars and the interstellar extinction of the system. When combined, these data yield a distance to the binary system. After correcting for the location of HV2274 with respect to the center of the LMC, we find d(LMC) = 45.7 +/- 1.6 kpc or DM(LMC) = 18.30 +/- 0.07 mag. This result, which is immune to the metallicity-induced zero point uncertainties that have plagued other techniques, lends strong support to the ``short'' LMC distance scale as derived from a number of independent methods.Comment: 6 pages, including 2 pages of figures. Newly available optical (B and V) photometry has revealed -- and allowed the elimination of -- a systematic error in the previously reported determination of E(B-V) for HV2274. The new result is E(B-V) = 0.12 mag (as compared to the value of 0.083 reported in the original submission) and produces a DECREASE in the distance modulus of HV2274 by 0.12 mag. ApJ Letters, in pres