A Legislative Proposal for Improving Materials Policymaking: Impacts and Issues

The materials data, forecasting, and analysis system is very important to the future materials policies of this country. Adequate, timely, and reliable data, forecasts, and analyses are not sufficient for effective policy to solve complicated national materials problems, but they are necessary for improving the public policymaking process. Under a contract from Congress’ Office of Technology Assessment, the present authors reviewed the existing repositories of materials information and the possibilities for improvement. We interviewed policymakers in government, private industry, and nonprofit organizations. In this Article we describe our principal recommendation resulting from that research, a proposal for a new Bureau of Materials Statistics and Forecasting, and analyze its probable effects on government, free enterprise, and the general public

Laboratory Focus on Improving the Culture of Biosafety: Statewide Risk Assessment of Clinical Laboratories That Process Specimens for Microbiologic Analysis

The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene challenged Wisconsin laboratories to examine their biosafety practices and improve their culture of biosafety. One hundred three clinical and public health laboratories completed a questionnaire-based, microbiology-focused biosafety risk assessment. Greater than 96% of the respondents performed activities related to specimen processing, direct microscopic examination, and rapid nonmolecular testing, while approximately 60% performed culture interpretation. Although they are important to the assessment of risk, data specific to patient occupation, symptoms, and travel history were often unavailable to the laboratory and, therefore, less contributory to a microbiology-focused biosafety risk assessment than information on the specimen source and test requisition. Over 88% of the respondents complied with more than three-quarters of the mitigation control measures listed in the survey. Facility assessment revealed that subsets of laboratories that claim biosafety level 1, 2, or 3 status did not possess all of the biosafety elements considered minimally standard for their respective classifications. Many laboratories reported being able to quickly correct the minor deficiencies identified. Task assessment identified deficiencies that trended higher within the general (not microbiology-specific) laboratory for core activities, such as packaging and shipping, direct microscopic examination, and culture modalities solely involving screens for organism growth. For traditional microbiology departments, opportunities for improvement in the cultivation and management of highly infectious agents, such as acid-fast bacilli and systemic fungi, were revealed. These results derived from a survey of a large cohort of small- and large-scale laboratories suggest the necessity for continued microbiology-based understanding of biosafety practices, vigilance toward biosafety, and enforcement of biosafety practices throughout the laboratory setting

Associations between Health Effects and Particulate Matter and Black Carbon in Subjects with Respiratory Disease

We measured fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FE(NO)), spirometry, blood pressure, oxygen saturation of the blood (SaO(2)), and pulse rate in 16 older subjects with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Seattle, Washington. Data were collected daily for 12 days. We simultaneously collected PM(10) and PM(2.5) (particulate matter ≤10 μm or ≤2.5 μm, respectively) filter samples at a central outdoor site, as well as outside and inside the subjects’ homes. Personal PM(10) filter samples were also collected. All filters were analyzed for mass and light absorbance. We analyzed within-subject associations between health outcomes and air pollution metrics using a linear mixed-effects model with random intercept, controlling for age, ambient relative humidity, and ambient temperature. For the 7 subjects with asthma, a 10 μg/m(3) increase in 24-hr average outdoor PM(10) and PM(2.5) was associated with a 5.9 [95% confidence interval (CI), 2.9–8.9] and 4.2 ppb (95% CI, 1.3–7.1) increase in FE(NO), respectively. A 1 μg/m(3) increase in outdoor, indoor, and personal black carbon (BC) was associated with increases in FE(NO) of 2.3 ppb (95% CI, 1.1–3.6), 4.0 ppb (95% CI, 2.0–5.9), and 1.2 ppb (95% CI, 0.2–2.2), respectively. No significant association was found between PM or BC measures and changes in spirometry, blood pressure, pulse rate, or SaO(2) in these subjects. Results from this study indicate that FE(NO) may be a more sensitive marker of PM exposure than traditional health outcomes and that particle-associated BC is useful for examining associations between primary combustion constituents of PM and health outcomes

Usefulness of baseline lipids and C-reactive protein in women receiving menopausal hormone therapy as predictors of treatment-related coronary events.

Blood lipids and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) are altered by hormone therapy. The goal of the present study was to determine whether lipids and hs-CRP have predictive value for hormone therapy benefit or risk for coronary heart disease events in postmenopausal women without previous cardiovascular disease. A nested case-control study was performed in the Women\u27s Health Initiative hormone trials. Baseline lipids and hs-CRP were obtained from 271 incident patients with coronary heart disease (cases) and 707 controls. In a combined trial analysis, favorable lipid status at baseline tended to predict better coronary heart disease outcomes when using conjugated equine estrogen (CEE) with or without medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA). Women with a low-density lipoprotein (LDL)/high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol ratioor =2.5 had increased risk of coronary heart disease (odds ratio 1.73, 95% confidence interval 1.18 to 2.53, p for interaction = 0.02). Low hs-CRP added marginally to the value of LDL/HDL rati

Pulmonary Effects of Indoor- and Outdoor-Generated Particles in Children with Asthma

Most particulate matter (PM) health effects studies use outdoor (ambient) PM as a surrogate for personal exposure. However, people spend most of their time indoors exposed to a combination of indoor-generated particles and ambient particles that have infiltrated. Thus, it is important to investigate the differential health effects of indoor- and ambient-generated particles. We combined our recently adapted recursive model and a predictive model for estimating infiltration efficiency to separate personal exposure (E) to PM(2.5) (PM with aerodynamic diameter ≤2.5 μm) into its indoor-generated (E(ig)) and ambient-generated (E(ag)) components for 19 children with asthma. We then compared E(ig) and E(ag) to changes in exhaled nitric oxide (eNO), a marker of airway inflammation. Based on the recursive model with a sample size of eight children, E(ag) was marginally associated with increases in eNO [5.6 ppb per 10-μg/m(3) increase in PM(2.5); 95% confidence interval (CI), −0.6 to 11.9; p = 0.08]. E(ig) was not associated with eNO (−0.19 ppb change per 10μg/m(3)). Our predictive model allowed us to estimate E(ag) and E(ig) for all 19 children. For those combined estimates, only E(ag) was significantly associated with an increase in eNO (E(ag): 5.0 ppb per 10-μg/m(3) increase in PM(2.5;) 95% CI, 0.3 to 9.7; p = 0.04; E(ig): 3.3 ppb per 10-μg/m(3) increase in PM(2.5); 95% CI, −1.1 to 7.7; p = 0.15). Effects were seen only in children who were not using corticosteroid therapy. We conclude that the ambient-generated component of PM(2.5) exposure is consistently associated with increases in eNO and the indoor-generated component is less strongly associated with eNO

Banking from Leeds, not London: regional strategy and structure at the Yorkshire Bank, 1859–1952

Industrial philanthropist Edward Akroyd created the Yorkshire Penny Savings Bank in 1859. Despite competition from the Post Office Savings Bank after 1861 and a serious reserve problem in 1911, it sustained his overall strategy to become a successful regional bank. Using archival and contemporary sources to build on recent scholarship illustrating how savings banks were integrated into local economies and the complementary roles of philanthropy and paternalism, we analyse an English regional bank's strategy, including an assessment of strategic innovation, ownership changes and management structure. This will demonstrate that the founder's vision continued, even though the 1911 crisis radically altered both strategy and structure

Genetic risk prediction of atrial fibrillation

Background—Atrial fibrillation (AF) has a substantial genetic basis. Identification of individuals at greatest AF risk could minimize the incidence of cardioembolic stroke. Methods—To determine whether genetic data can stratify risk for development of AF, we examined associations between AF genetic risk scores and incident AF in five prospective studies comprising 18,919 individuals of European ancestry. We examined associations between AF genetic risk scores and ischemic stroke in a separate study of 509 ischemic stroke cases (202 cardioembolic [40%]) and 3,028 referents. Scores were based on 11 to 719 common variants (≥5%) associated with AF at P-values ranging from <1x10-3 to <1x10-8 in a prior independent genetic association study. Results—Incident AF occurred in 1,032 (5.5%) individuals. AF genetic risk scores were associated with new-onset AF after adjusting for clinical risk factors. The pooled hazard ratio for incident AF for the highest versus lowest quartile of genetic risk scores ranged from 1.28 (719 variants; 95%CI, 1.13-1.46; P=1.5x10-4) to 1.67 (25 variants; 95%CI, 1.47-1.90; P=9.3x10-15). Discrimination of combined clinical and genetic risk scores varied across studies and scores (maximum C statistic, 0.629-0.811; maximum ΔC statistic from clinical score alone, 0.009-0.017). AF genetic risk was associated with stroke in age- and sex-adjusted models. For example, individuals in the highest versus lowest quartile of a 127-variant score had a 2.49-fold increased odds of cardioembolic stroke (95%CI, 1.39-4.58; P=2.7x10-3). The effect persisted after excluding individuals (n=70) with known AF (odds ratio, 2.25; 95%CI, 1.20-4.40; P=0.01). Conclusions—Comprehensive AF genetic risk scores were associated with incident AF beyond associations for clinical AF risk factors, though offered small improvements in discrimination. AF genetic risk was also associated with cardioembolic stroke in age- and sex-adjusted analyses. Efforts are warranted to determine whether AF genetic risk may improve identification of subclinical AF or help distinguish between stroke mechanisms

WISE/NEOWISE observations of Active Bodies in the Main Belt

We report results based on mid-infrared photometry of 5 active main belt objects (AMBOs) detected by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft. Four of these bodies, P/2010 R2 (La Sagra), 133P/Elst-Pizarro, (596) Scheila, and 176P/LINEAR, showed no signs of activity at the time of the observations, allowing the WISE detections to place firm constraints on their diameters and albedos. Geometric albedos were in the range of a few percent, and on the order of other measured comet nuclei. P/2010 A2 was observed on April 2-3, 2010, three months after its peak activity. Photometry of the coma at 12 and 22 {\mu}m combined with ground-based visible-wavelength measurements provides constraints on the dust particle mass distribution (PMD), dlogn/dlogm, yielding power-law slope values of {\alpha} = -0.5 +/- 0.1. This PMD is considerably more shallow than that found for other comets, in particular inbound particle fluence during the Stardust encounter of comet 81P/Wild 2. It is similar to the PMD seen for 9P/Tempel 1 in the immediate aftermath of the Deep Impact experiment. Upper limits for CO2 & CO production are also provided for each AMBO and compared with revised production numbers for WISE observations of 103P/Hartley 2.Comment: 32 Pages, including 5 Figure