Attributing Benefits to Voluntary Programs in EPA’s Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery: Challenges and Options

This paper reviews the economic justification for voluntary environmental programs to derive defensible measures of their positive social outcomes. We consider ideal experimental and statistical designs to detect and attribute benefits. We also explore a set of more practical approaches to benefit attribution that take into account the data gaps and statistical challenges that often make more rigorous approaches infeasible.voluntary programs, cost–benefit assessment, program evaluation

The relationship of chronic infections to mental disorders

In dealing with such a subject i t would not be out of place to begin with a very brief resume of the history of its development.The importance of auto-infection or autointoxication in it s relation to the aetiology of mental disorders has long been recognised, but it is only comparatively recently that the study of this has been put on a scientific basis

Tai Chi for Older Adults: Improving Physical and Psychological Health Through a Community-Based Tai Chi Program and Identifying Barriers to Participation

Older adults face aging challenges that occur naturally or are precipitated early in the aging cycle by physical inactivity. Using three prospective cohorts of ethnically diverse low-income older adults, this dissertation aimed to: i) assess the promoters and barriers of low-income older adults in terms of their enrollment in a locally-offered TC program, ii) examine the TC intervention effects in terms of physiological outcomes, iii), examine the TC intervention effects in terms of psychological outcomes, and, iv) assess the promoters and barriers of low-income older adults in terms of their adherence in a locally-offered TC program, with special sensitivity to ethno-cultural based issues. Results of the first objective uncovered six categories relating to enrollment with no clear barriers or promoters that related to gender and specific cultural limitations. Categories included physical and mental health, time of day, socialization, program pairing, accessibility and appropriate leadership/teacher. Results of the second objective showed significant improvements in both upper and lower body strength, low back flexibility, and the Short-Form Health Survey (SF 36) physical health scores (p < 0.05). Based on multiple linear regression analyses, no common health determinants explained a significant portion of the variation in percent changes of the musculoskeletal fitness and SF 36 measures. Results of the third objective did not find significant improvements when looking at SF 36 summary mental health scale, subjective happiness scale and the expectations regarding aging summary measure; however, there were significant improvements in two sub scales of the SF 36 of vitality (VT) and mental health (MH) in the combined cohorts and expectations regarding aging in the third of three cohorts (p < 0.05). Finally in the last objective there were ten categories found relating to adherence with no clear barriers or promoters that related to specific cultural limitations. Categories included common barriers/promoters that embraced biological, psychological, social and environmental influences. Overall, the results demonstrated that TC has the ability to be used as a good health-related PA program in a multi-ethnic, low-income, older adult population with possible potential for psychological health improvement and with key categories to help enrollment and maintain attendance

The transformation of Moiloa's Reserve in the Western Transvaal: politics, production and resistance in a rural setting, 1919 - 1986

Paper presented at the Wits History Workshop: Structure and Experience in the Making of Apartheid, 6-10 February, 199

Human stem cell-derived astrocytes replicate human prions in a PRNP genotype-dependent manner.

Prions are infectious agents that cause neurodegenerative diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). The absence of a human cell culture model that replicates human prions has hampered prion disease research for decades. In this paper, we show that astrocytes derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) support the replication of prions from brain samples of CJD patients. For experimental exposure of astrocytes to variant CJD (vCJD), the kinetics of prion replication occur in a prion protein codon 129 genotype-dependent manner, reflecting the genotype-dependent susceptibility to clinical vCJD found in patients. Furthermore, iPSC-derived astrocytes can replicate prions associated with the major sporadic CJD strains found in human patients. Lastly, we demonstrate the subpassage of prions from infected to naive astrocyte cultures, indicating the generation of prion infectivity in vitro. Our study addresses a long-standing gap in the repertoire of human prion disease research, providing a new in vitro system for accelerated mechanistic studies and drug discovery

Mechanisms of Cell Death in the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies

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