The Media, Risk Assessment and Numbers: They Don\u27t Add Up

Professor Friedman argues that, for risks to be reported accurately, journalism educators must help their students understand science, numbers and statistics

Risk Communication, the Hanford Thyroid Disease Study and Draft Reports

The author reviews the release of the draft Hanford Thyroid Disease Study as a case study in risk communication problems arising from public disclosure of draft reports

Introduction: The Challenge of Risk Communication in a Democratic Society

The symposium editors review key issues concerning the relationship between risk communication and public participation

Media Coverage of EPA\u27s Draft Dioxin Reassessment Report

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

Axial instability of rotating relativistic stars

Perturbations of rotating relativistic stars can be classified by their behavior under parity. For axial perturbations (r-modes), initial data with negative canonical energy is found with angular dependence $e^{im\phi}$ for all values of $m\geq 2$ and for arbitrarily slow rotation. This implies instability (or marginal stability) of such perturbations for rotating perfect fluids. This low $m$-instability is strikingly different from the instability to polar perturbations, which sets in first for large values of $m$. The timescale for the axial instability appears, for small angular velocity $\Omega$, to be proportional to a high power of $\Omega$. As in the case of polar modes, viscosity will again presumably enforce stability except for hot, rapidly rotating neutron stars. This work complements Andersson's numerical investigation of axial modes in slowly rotating stars.Comment: Latex, 18 pages. Equations 84 and 85 are corrected. Discussion of timescales is corrected and update

Hydrostatic Expansion and Spin Changes During Type I X-Ray Bursts

We present calculations of the spin-down of a neutron star atmosphere due to hydrostatic expansion during a Type I X-ray burst. We show that (i) Cumming and Bildsten overestimated the spin-down of rigidly-rotating atmospheres by a factor of two, and (ii) general relativity has a small (5-10%) effect on the angular momentum conservation law. We rescale our results to different neutron star masses, rotation rates and equations of state, and present some detailed rotational profiles. Comparing with recent observations of large frequency shifts in MXB 1658-298 and 4U 1916-053, we find that the spin-down expected if the atmosphere rotates rigidly is a factor of two to three less than the observed values. If differential rotation is allowed to persist, we find that the upper layers of the atmosphere spin down by an amount comparable to the observed values; however, there is no compelling reason to expect the observed spin frequency to be that of only the outermost layers. We conclude that hydrostatic expansion and angular momentum conservation alone cannot account for the largest frequency shifts observed during Type I bursts.Comment: Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal (13 pages, including 4 figures

Short-term and medium-term health effects of 9/11

The New York City terrorist attacks on Sept 11, 2001 (9/11), killed nearly 2800 people and thousands more had subsequent health problems. In this Review of health effects in the short and medium terms, strong evidence is provided for associations between experiencing or witnessing events related to 9/11 and post-traumatic stress disorder and respiratory illness, with a correlation between prolonged, intense exposure and increased overall illness and disability. Rescue and recovery workers, especially those who arrived early at the World Trade Center site or worked for longer periods, were more likely to develop respiratory illness than were other exposed groups. Risk factors for post-traumatic stress disorder included proximity to the site on 9/11, living or working in lower Manhattan, rescue or recovery work at the World Trade Center site, event-related loss of spouse, and low social support. Investigators note associations between 9/11 exposures and additional disorders, such as depression and substance use; however, for some health problems association with exposures related to 9/11 is unclear

Evaluation of real-world mobility in age-related macular degeneration.

BACKGROUND: Previous research has suggested an association between poor vision and decreased mobility, including restricted levels of physical activity and travel away from home. We sought to determine the impact of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) on these measures of mobility. METHODS: Fifty-seven AMD patients with bilateral, or severe unilateral, visual impairment were compared to 59 controls with normal vision. All study subjects were between the ages of 60 and 80. Subjects wore accelerometers and cellular network-based tracking devices over 7 days of normal activity. Number of steps taken, time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), number of excursions from home, and time spent away from home were the primary outcome measures. RESULTS: In multivariate negative binomial regression models adjusted for age, gender, race, comorbidities, and education, AMD participants took fewer steps than controls (18% fewer steps per day, p = 0.01) and spent significantly less time in MVPA (35% fewer minutes, p \u3c 0.001). In multivariate logistic regression models adjusting for age, sex, race, cognition, comorbidities, and grip strength, AMD subjects showed an increased likelihood of not leaving their home on a given day (odds ratio = 1.36, p = 0.04), but did not show a significant difference in the magnitude of time spent away from home (9% fewer minutes, p = 0.11). CONCLUSION: AMD patients with poorer vision engage in significantly less physical activity and take fewer excursions away from the home. Further studies identifying the factors mediating the relationship between vision loss and mobility are needed to better understand how to improve mobility among AMD patients

Developing Partnerships and Recruiting Dyads for a Prostate Cancer Informed Decision Making Program: Lessons Learned From a Community-Academic-Clinical Team

Prostate cancer (PrCA) is the most commonly diagnosed non-skin cancer among men. PrCA mortality in African-American (AA) men in South Carolina is ~50% higher than for AAs in the U.S as a whole. AA men also have low rates of participation in cancer research. This paper describes partnership development and recruitment efforts of a Community-Academic-Clinical research team for a PrCA education intervention with AA men and women that was designed to address the discordance between high rates of PrCA mortality and limited participation in cancer research. Guided by Vesey\u27s framework on recruitment and retention of minority groups in research, recruitment strategies were selected and implemented following multiple brainstorming sessions with partners having established community relationships. Based on findings from these sessions culturally appropriate strategies are recommended for recruiting AA men and women for PrCA education research. Community-based research recruitment challenges and lessons learned are presented

Lactation and neonatal nutrition: defining and refining the critical questions.

This paper resulted from a conference entitled "Lactation and Milk: Defining and refining the critical questions" held at the University of Colorado School of Medicine from January 18-20, 2012. The mission of the conference was to identify unresolved questions and set future goals for research into human milk composition, mammary development and lactation. We first outline the unanswered questions regarding the composition of human milk (Section I) and the mechanisms by which milk components affect neonatal development, growth and health and recommend models for future research. Emerging questions about how milk components affect cognitive development and behavioral phenotype of the offspring are presented in Section II. In Section III we outline the important unanswered questions about regulation of mammary gland development, the heritability of defects, the effects of maternal nutrition, disease, metabolic status, and therapeutic drugs upon the subsequent lactation. Questions surrounding breastfeeding practice are also highlighted. In Section IV we describe the specific nutritional challenges faced by three different populations, namely preterm infants, infants born to obese mothers who may or may not have gestational diabetes, and infants born to undernourished mothers. The recognition that multidisciplinary training is critical to advancing the field led us to formulate specific training recommendations in Section V. Our recommendations for research emphasis are summarized in Section VI. In sum, we present a roadmap for multidisciplinary research into all aspects of human lactation, milk and its role in infant nutrition for the next decade and beyond