Interdiffusion in InGaAs/GaAs: The effect of growth conditions

Copyright 1998 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. This article appeared in Journal of Applied Physics 84, 232 (1998) and may be found at

Intermixing in GaAsSb/GaAs single quantum wells

Copyright 1998 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. This article appeared in Journal of Applied Physics 84, 4017 (1998) and may be found at

Infrared organic light emitting diodes using neodymium tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline)

Copyright 2000 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. This article appeared in Journal of Applied Physics 88, 777 (2000) and may be found at

Monetizing the Burden of Childhood Asthma Due to Traffic Related Air Pollution in the Contiguous United States in 2010.

BACKGROUND: Traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) refers to the wide range of air pollutants emitted by traffic that are dispersed into the ambient air. Emerging evidence shows that TRAP can increase asthma incidence in children. Living with asthma can carry a huge financial burden for individuals and families due to direct and indirect medical expenses, which can include costs of hospitalization, medical visits, medication, missed school days, and loss of wages from missed workdays for caregivers. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper is to estimate the economic impact of childhood asthma incident cases attributable to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a common traffic-related air pollutant in urban areas, in the United States at the state level. METHODS: We calculate the direct and indirect costs of childhood asthma incident cases attributable to NO2 using previously published burden of disease estimates and per person asthma cost estimates. By multiplying the per person indirect and direct costs for each state with the NO2-attributable asthma incident cases in each state, we were able to estimate the total cost of childhood asthma cases attributable to NO2 in the United States. RESULTS: The cost calculation estimates the total direct and indirect annual cost of childhood asthma cases attributable to NO2 in the year 2010 to be $178,900,138.989 (95$101,019,728.20-$256,980,126.65). The state with the highest cost burden is California with$24,501,859.84 (95% CI: $10,020,182.62-$38,982,261.250), and the state with the lowest cost burden is Montana with $88,880.12 (95$33,491.06-$144,269.18). CONCLUSION: This study estimates the annual costs of childhood asthma incident cases attributable to NO2 and demonstrates the importance of conducting economic impacts studies of TRAP. It is important for policy-making institutions to focus on this problem by advocating and supporting more studies on TRAP's impact on the national economy and health, including these economic impact estimates in the decision-making process, and devising mitigation strategies to reduce TRAP and the population's exposure

Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Childhood Asthma: Recent Advances and Remaining Gaps in the Exposure Assessment Methods

Background: Current levels of traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) are associated with the development of childhood asthma, although some inconsistencies and heterogeneity remain. An important part of the uncertainty in studies of TRAP-associated asthma originates from uncertainties in the TRAP exposure assessment and assignment methods. In this work, we aim to systematically review the exposure assessment methods used in the epidemiology of TRAP and childhood asthma, highlight recent advances, remaining research gaps and make suggestions for further research. Methods: We systematically reviewed epidemiological studies published up until 8 September 2016 and available in Embase, Ovid MEDLINE (R), and “Transport database”. We included studies which examined the association between children’s exposure to TRAP metrics and their risk of “asthma” incidence or lifetime prevalence, from birth to the age of 18 years old. Results: We found 42 studies which examined the associations between TRAP and subsequent childhood asthma incidence or lifetime prevalence, published since 1999. Land-use regression modelling was the most commonly used method and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) was the most commonly used pollutant in the exposure assessments. Most studies estimated TRAP exposure at the residential address and only a few considered the participants’ mobility. TRAP exposure was mostly assessed at the birth year and only a few studies considered different and/or multiple exposure time windows. We recommend that further work is needed including e.g., the use of new exposure metrics such as the composition of particulate matter, oxidative potential and ultra-fine particles, improved modelling e.g., by combining different exposure assessment models, including mobility of the participants, and systematically investigating different exposure time windows. Conclusions: Although our previous meta-analysis found statistically significant associations for various TRAP exposures and subsequent childhood asthma, further refinement of the exposure assessment may improve the risk estimates, and shed light on critical exposure time windows, putative agents, underlying mechanisms and drivers of heterogeneity

Health impacts of urban transport policy measures: A guidance note for practice

Background Urban transport related exposures and practices are associated with a significant burden of morbidity and premature mortality, which could be prevented by changing current practices. Cities now have access to an increasingly wide range of transport policy measures which continue to expand. However, the health impacts of these measures are not always explicitly defined or well understood and therefore may not be sufficiently considered when selecting policy measures. Aims The aim of this paper is to qualitatively review 64 different transport policy measures indexed in the Knowledgebase on Sustainable Urban Land use and Transport (KonSULT), and provide an indication of their potential health impacts, based on expert judgment. Results We report that key health impacts of transport occur via pathways of motor vehicle crashes, traffic-related air pollution, noise, heat islands, lack of green space, physical inactivity, climate change and social exclusion and community severance. We systematically describe the expected health impacts of transport policy measures sourced from KonSULT and find that many, but not all, can have a positive impact on health. The magnitude of both the positive and negative impacts remains largely unknown and warrants further research and synthesis. Conclusions Urban transport is responsible for a large mortality and morbidity burden and policy measures that are beneficial to health need to be implemented to reduce this burden. There are considerable differences between these policy measures in terms of potential health impacts and this should be considered in any transport planning. It is important to monitor the health impacts of all policy measures to provide further evidence on whether they work as expected or not, to ensure that the most cost-effective solutions, with the largest benefits and the smallest health risks, are being adopted

Exposure to Traffic-related Air Pollution and the Onset of Childhood Asthma: A Review of the Literature and the Assement Methods Used

The overall objective of this study is to examine the literature investigating the associations between traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) and the incidence and prevalence of childhood asthma throughout a critical literature review The study examines and demonstrates the association between TRAP and childhood asthma, the literature associated with it, and the gaps in the current state of research. The exposure assessment methods currently in use in the literature are also overviewed and critically discussed for strengths and limitations

Effectiveness of therapeutic Salmonella Typhimurium in selectively targeting human cancer cell lines [abstract]

Abstract only availableStudies indicate that non-virulent strains of Salmonella Typhimurium have tumor-targeting activity. Indeed, S. Typhimurium has been observed to selectively target cancer tissue by a ratio of over 1000:1. Most of these studies focused on the cancer cell selectivity of one strain, the genetically modified S. typhimurium VNP20009. One such study found that a single IV injection of VNP20009 produced tumor growth inhibition of 57 - 95% in mice. Another study conducted by Thamm and associates found that administration of VNP20009 results in dectable bacterial colonization of tumor tissue and partial anti-tumor activity in tumor-bearing dogs. Despite its selectivity, VNP20009 was shown to be too toxic when given to patients in phase I clinical tests. Scientists at Columbia's Cancer Research Center developed a therapeutic strain, CRC2636, an archival strain of S. typhimurium that has been shown to destroy PC-3M without extensive lysis of the cancer cells, a factor thought to contribute to the toxicity of VNP20009. Our research strategy involved analyzing the effectiveness of CRC2636 in selectively targeting prostate, breast, and colon cancer cell lines when incubated with their normal counterparts. In order to track CRC2636 in the attachment and invasion studies, we electroporated pRST plasmids that constitutively expressed the fluorescent mCherry protein into our therapeutic strain. Attachment studies were done on a time course from 10 minutes up to 4 hours and invasion studies were done up to 16 hours. Quantitative results were obtained by counting the number of attached bacterial cells to the cancerous and normal cells at the various time points tested.Cancer Research Cente

Comparative selectivity of various Salmonella typhimurium strains in targeting prostate cancer cells [abstract]

Abstract only availableRecent studies indicate that non-virulent strains of serovar typhimurium () have tumor-targeting activity. Indeed, S. typhimurium has been observed to selectively target cancer tissue by a ratio of over 1000:1. However, most of these studies focused on the cancer cell selectivity of one strain, the genetically modified VNP20009. One such study found that a single IV injection of VNP20009 produced tumor growth inhibition of 57-95% in mice. Another study conducted by Thamm and associates found that administration of VNP20009 results in detectable bacterial colonization of tumor tissue and partial anti-tumor activity in tumor-bearing dogs. However, VNP20009 was shown to be too toxic when given to cancer patients in phase I clinical tests. Scientists at Columbia's Cancer Research Center discovered an archival strain of (CRC1674) that destroys PC-3M prostate cancer cells without extensive lysis of the cancer cells, a factor thought to contribute to the toxicity of VNP20009. This project studies the comparative selectivity of four strains for prostate cancer cells. In order to study attachment to prostate cancer cells, shorter incubation times were used, up to a period of 4 hours. Invasion assays involved incubation periods up to 24 hours. To confirm distinct selectivity towards prostate cancer cells only, the study also included attachment and invasion assays using noncancerous prostate cells. We have discovered attachment after 5 minutes of co-incubation and are currently investigating long-term effects of co-incubation with prostate cancer and normal cell lines.Life Sciences Undergraduate Research Opportunity Progra