If Smoking Were Eliminated, Which US Counties Would Still Have High Rates of Smoking-Related Cancers?

Objective: to characterize the county variability of the impact of smoking elimination on rates of smoking-related cancers and explore whether common environmental indices predicted which metropolitan counties would experience high rates of smoking-related cancers even after smoking was eliminated. Methods: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data were obtained. County level cancer rates for 257 metropolitan SEER counties, including the observed rates and those predicted after eliminating smoking, were derived via multilevel regression modeling and age standardized to the 2016 SEER population. Associations between the EPA’s Environmental Quality Index (EQI) scores and “Low Benefit” counties (counties that remain above the top 20th percentile of post-smoking elimination incidence rates) were explored via logistic regression. Results: Reductions in smoking-related cancer incidence ranged from 58.4 to 3.2%. The overall EQI (OR = 1.96, 95% CI [1.34, 2.86]) and the air quality index (OR = 5.99, 95% CI [3.20, 11.22]) scores predicted higher odds of being a “Low Benefit” county. Conclusions: Substantial inequities in the post-smoking elimination cancer rates were observed; air pollution appears to be a primary explanation for this. Cancer prevention in metropolitan counties with high levels of air pollution should prioritize pollution control at least as much as tobacco control

Invited Perspective: Eliminating Toxics to Prevent Disease: Asbestos Leads the Way

Countries that have consumed more asbestos have historically had higher mortality rates from asbestos-related diseases (ARDs) than countries with lower asbestos consumption. A research letter in this issue by Rath et al. provides a 15-y update on evidence for this link and uses this evidence to support calls for a worldwide ban on the use of asbestos. We find their results convincing, and we agree with the urgent need to stop producing and using asbestos. For those who might be skeptical of this conclusion or who are considering how much weight to give this evidence, we offer this perspective as occupational/environmental epidemiologists

IDENTIFYING BUSINESS VALUE LINKAGES FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: AN EXPLORATORY APPLICATION TO TREASURY WORKSTATIONS

Pervasive and costly automation of information handling activities continues to put pressure on senior managers to quantify the contributions of information technology IT to the strategic goals of the firm. This paper proposes the use of "business value linkage BVL" correlation tests to provide evidence that investments in IT create the desired higher order, economic impacts. We argue that managers should carry out econometric tests which are specialized to capturing primal, revenue-enhancing impacts, as opposed to dual, cost-reducing impacts. As an illustration, a sample BVL correlation test is constructed to quantify the impact of a "treasury workstation" system on a large commercial bank's ability to increase demand balances from corporate customers. We conclude with some thoughts about where BVL correlation will provide the bt results for managers.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

MODELING AND MEASURING THE BUSINESS VALUE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Determining the 'business value' of information technology (IT) requires managers to choose performance measures which are well-suited to capturing the economic impacts of the application they are evaluating. In this paper, the authors discuss a promising approach for bridging the gap between a theory for rational decisions and management practice in evaluating investments in IT: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The referent discipline for the discussion is production economics, and the authors review basic concepts concerning performance measurement, efficiency, productivity and economic contribution or value-added from an economist's perspective. DEA's promise lies in its ability to handle multiple input and output production environments and its management action orientation. As an illustration of this potential, DEA is applied to assessing the performance of an automated teller machine (ATM) network, an IT which creates economic impacts at various organizational levels of a commercial bank.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

EVALUATING RESEARCH APPROACHES TO IT BUSINESS VALUE ASSESSMENT WITH THE SENIOR MANAGEMENT AUDIENCE IN MIND

This chapter presents the transcript of a question and answer session that followed a debate on the case study and formal modeling approaches to IT valuation between Benn Konsynski, Harvard University and Charles Kriebel, Carnegie Mellon University. The debate was held in a panel session chaired by Rajiv Banker, University of Minnesota, and it occurred at the 1991 International Conference on Information Systems, December 17, 1991. Konsynski's and Kriebel's formal remarks were directed towards evaluating the case study approach and the formal modeling approach to IT business value assessment, and are presented in separate chapters in this volume. The discussion generated by their remarks is captured here, and will be especially interesting to senior managers who daily must face hard choices about investing in information technology.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

MEASURING BUSINESS VALUE FOR INVESTMENTS IN POINT-OF-SALE TECHNOLOGY

Information Systems Working Papers Serie

A continuous morphological approach to study the evolution of pollen in a phylogenetic context: An example with the order Myrtales

The study of pollen morphology has historically allowed evolutionary biologists to assess phylogenetic relationships among Angiosperms, as well as to better understand the fossil record. During this process, pollen has mainly been studied by discretizing some of its main characteristics such as size, shape, and exine ornamentation. One large plant clade in which pollen has been used this way for phylogenetic inference and character mapping is the order Myrtales, composed by the small families Alzateaceae, Crypteroniaceae, and Penaeaceae (collectively the “CAP clade”), as well as the large families Combretaceae, Lythraceae, Melastomataceae, Myrtaceae, Onagraceae and Vochysiaceae. In this study, we present a novel way to study pollen evolution by using quantitative size and shape variables. We use morphometric and morphospace methods to evaluate pollen change in the order Myrtales using a time-calibrated, supermatrix phylogeny. We then test for conservatism, divergence, and morphological convergence of pollen and for correlation between the latitudinal gradient and pollen size and shape. To obtain an estimate of shape, Myrtales pollen images were extracted from the literature, and their outlines analyzed using elliptic Fourier methods. Shape and size variables were then analyzed in a phylogenetic framework under an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process to test for shifts in size and shape during the evolutionary history of Myrtales. Few shifts in Myrtales pollen morphology were found which indicates morphological conservatism. Heterocolpate, small pollen is ancestral with largest pollen in Onagraceae. Convergent shifts in shape but not size occurred in Myrtaceae and Onagraceae and are correlated to shifts in latitude and biogeography. A quantitative approach was applied for the first time to examine pollen evolution across a large time scale. Using phylogenetic based morphometrics and an OU process, hypotheses of pollen size and shape were tested across Myrtales. Convergent pollen shifts and position in the latitudinal gradient support the selective role of harmomegathy, the mechanism by which pollen grains accommodate their volume in response to water loss

The Cardiorespiratory Response of Qigong Performed at Different Intensities

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The precautionary principle in environmental science.

Environmental scientists play a key role in society's responses to environmental problems, and many of the studies they perform are intended ultimately to affect policy. The precautionary principle, proposed as a new guideline in environmental decision making, has four central components: taking preventive action in the face of uncertainty; shifting the burden of proof to the proponents of an activity; exploring a wide range of alternatives to possibly harmful actions; and increasing public participation in decision making. In this paper we examine the implications of the precautionary principle for environmental scientists, whose work often involves studying highly complex, poorly understood systems, while at the same time facing conflicting pressures from those who seek to balance economic growth and environmental protection. In this complicated and contested terrain, it is useful to examine the methodologies of science and to consider ways that, without compromising integrity and objectivity, research can be more or less helpful to those who would act with precaution. We argue that a shift to more precautionary policies creates opportunities and challenges for scientists to think differently about the ways they conduct studies and communicate results. There is a complicated feedback relation between the discoveries of science and the setting of policy. While maintaining their objectivity and focus on understanding the world, environmental scientists should be aware of the policy uses of their work and of their social responsibility to do science that protects human health and the environment. The precautionary principle highlights this tight, challenging linkage between science and policy