155 research outputs found
A Quantitative Methodology for Determining the Need for Exposure-Prompted Medical Monitoring
Some toxic exposures to drugs or other environmental chemicals may create an increased risk of future disease for which periodic preventive medical screening might be desirable. However, many of these risks, even if unacceptable as a matter of public health policy, might still not be significant enough for medical monitoring (periodic diagnostic screening for latent illnesses or medical conditions) to be an appropriate medical intervention. This somewhat unintuitive, but statistically certain, conclusion can be demonstrated in relatively simple mathematical terms. Accordingly, we introduce Bayes\u27s Rule and decision analysis, a quantitative methodology commonly employed by medical practitioners. A review of current medical practices indicates that physicians decide whether to recommend monitoring for a particular exposed population by knowing the natural history of the disease and by first calculating the predictive value of a positive test ( PPV ), which will be one to five percent or greater for an endorsable monitoring exercise, absent exceptional circumstances. Rather than simply relying on the opinions of retained medical experts, this accessible quantitative method permits judges, jurists, and policymakers to more confidently and objectively decide whether medical monitoring is appropriate and necessary as a result of a specific chemical exposure
A Quantitative Methodology for Determining the Need for Exposure-Prompted Medical Monitoring
Some toxic exposures to drugs or other environmental chemicals may create an increased risk of future disease for which periodic preventive medical screening might be desirable. However, many of these risks, even if unacceptable as a matter of public health policy, might still not be significant enough for medical monitoring (periodic diagnostic screening for latent illnesses or medical conditions) to be an appropriate medical intervention. This somewhat unintuitive, but statistically certain, conclusion can be demonstrated in relatively simple mathematical terms. Accordingly, we introduce Bayes\u27s Rule and decision analysis, a quantitative methodology commonly employed by medical practitioners. A review of current medical practices indicates that physicians decide whether to recommend monitoring for a particular exposed population by knowing the natural history of the disease and by first calculating the predictive value of a positive test ( PPV ), which will be one to five percent or greater for an endorsable monitoring exercise, absent exceptional circumstances. Rather than simply relying on the opinions of retained medical experts, this accessible quantitative method permits judges, jurists, and policymakers to more confidently and objectively decide whether medical monitoring is appropriate and necessary as a result of a specific chemical exposure
Credit scores, lending, and psychosocial disability
Credit scores have become a near-universal financial passport for
Americans to meet common personal needs including employment, loans, insurance, and home and car purchases or leases. At the same time, Elizabeth
Warren and others have documented the horrific economic, emotional, and
health consequences of low creditworthiness for score-bearers and their
families. Individuals with psychosocial disabilities (previously called mental
disabilities or mental illnesses) can make disastrously poor financial decisions
during the active phases of their conditions; during inactive phases they are as
capable as others of making sound or poor financial decisions. Yet, in
computing credit scores and selling credit reports, national and transnational
credit-reporting agencies (like Equifax) do not account for the implications of
psychosocial disability. Worse, evidence shows that businesses rely on these
reports to predatorily target borrowers with psychosocial disabilities—and
especially those who are also women and racial minorities—in deciding terms
of lending, employment, and housing. In theory but not in practice, the
Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Act each prohibit
discriminatory financial decisions arising from disability status, while also
requiring reasonable accommodations to equalize opportunities for disabled
persons. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities (which the United States has signed) further mandates enabling
the financial decision making of these individuals, but does not provide
guidance on achieving this obligation. Further, despite the crucial and direct
implications this situation also raises for vast numbers of Americans without
psychosocial disabilities who likewise make poor credit decisions, it has not
undergone legal analysis. We engage this significant gap by suggesting
schemes drawn from historical and comparative contexts that could enable the
creditworthiness of persons with psychosocial disabilities, and then critiquing the costs and benefits of each. In doing so, we proffer the first analysis of this
issue in the legal literature and seek to stimulate future dialogue among academics
and policymakers. The Article concludes with thoughts on the implications of its
analyses for the broader issue of credit scoring.http://www.bu.edu/bulawreviewam2016Centre for Human Right
Evolution of the electronic structure with size in II-VI semiconductor nanocrystals
In order to provide a quantitatively accurate description of the band gap
variation with sizes in various II-VI semiconductor nanocrystals, we make use
of the recently reported tight-binding parametrization of the corresponding
bulk systems. Using the same tight-binding scheme and parameters, we calculate
the electronic structure of II-VI nanocrystals in real space with sizes ranging
between 5 and 80 {\AA} in diameter. A comparison with available experimental
results from the literature shows an excellent agreement over the entire range
of sizes.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, accepted in Phys. Rev.
Multiband tight-binding theory of disordered ABC semiconductor quantum dots: Application to the optical properties of alloyed CdZnSe nanocrystals
Zero-dimensional nanocrystals, as obtained by chemical synthesis, offer a
broad range of applications, as their spectrum and thus their excitation gap
can be tailored by variation of their size. Additionally, nanocrystals of the
type ABC can be realized by alloying of two pure compound semiconductor
materials AC and BC, which allows for a continuous tuning of their absorption
and emission spectrum with the concentration x. We use the single-particle
energies and wave functions calculated from a multiband sp^3 empirical
tight-binding model in combination with the configuration interaction scheme to
calculate the optical properties of CdZnSe nanocrystals with a spherical shape.
In contrast to common mean-field approaches like the virtual crystal
approximation (VCA), we treat the disorder on a microscopic level by taking
into account a finite number of realizations for each size and concentration.
We then compare the results for the optical properties with recent experimental
data and calculate the optical bowing coefficient for further sizes
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