7,359 research outputs found
Monetary benefits of preventing childhood lead poisoning with lead-safe window replacement
Previous estimates of childhood lead poisoning prevention benefits have quantified the present value of some health benefits, but not the costs of lead paint hazard control or the benefits associated with housing and energy markets. Because older housing with lead paint constitutes the main exposure source today in the U.S., we quantify health benefits, costs, market value benefits, energy savings, and net economic benefits of lead-safe window replacement (which includes paint stabilization and other measures). The benefit per resident child from improved lifetime earnings alone is 8,685 in 1940-59 housing (in 2005 dollars). Annual energy savings are 486 per housing unit, with or without young resident children, with an associated increase in housing market value of 14,300 per housing unit, depending on home size and number of windows replaced. Net benefits are 5,629 for each housing unit built before 1940, and 1,629 for each unit built from 1940-1959, depending on home size and number of windows replaced. Lead-safe window replacement in all pre-1960 U.S. housing would yield net benefits of at least $67 billion, which does not include many other benefits. These other benefits, which are shown in this paper, include avoided Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, other medical costs of childhood lead exposure, avoided special education, and reduced crime and juvenile delinquency in later life. In addition, such a window replacement effort would reduce peak demand for electricity, carbon emissions from power plants, and associated long-term costs of climate change.Lead Poisoning, IQ, Energy Efficiency, Cost Benefit Analysis, Housing, Climate Change
Previously Unidentified Changes in Renal Cell Carcinoma Gene Expression Identified by Parametric Analysis of Microarray Data
BACKGROUND. Renal cell carcinoma is a common malignancy that often presents as a metastatic-disease for which there are no effective treatments. To gain insights into the mechanism of renal cell carcinogenesis, a number of genome-wide expression profiling studies have been performed. Surprisingly, there is very poor agreement among these studies as to which genes are differentially regulated. To better understand this lack of agreement we profiled renal cell tumor gene expression using genome-wide microarrays (45,000 probe sets) and compare our analysis to previous microarray studies. METHODS. We hybridized total RNA isolated from renal cell tumors and adjacent normal tissue to Affymetrix U133A and U133B arrays. We removed samples with technical defects and removed probesets that failed to exhibit sequence-specific hybridization in any of the samples. We detected differential gene expression in the resulting dataset with parametric methods and identified keywords that are overrepresented in the differentially expressed genes with the Fisher-exact test. RESULTS. We identify 1,234 genes that are more than three-fold changed in renal tumors by t-test, 800 of which have not been previously reported to be altered in renal cell tumors. Of the only 37 genes that have been identified as being differentially expressed in three or more of five previous microarray studies of renal tumor gene expression, our analysis finds 33 of these genes (89%). A key to the sensitivity and power of our analysis is filtering out defective samples and genes that are not reliably detected. CONCLUSIONS. The widespread use of sample-wise voting schemes for detecting differential expression that do not control for false positives likely account for the poor overlap among previous studies. Among the many genes we identified using parametric methods that were not previously reported as being differentially expressed in renal cell tumors are several oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes that likely play important roles in renal cell carcinogenesis. This highlights the need for rigorous statistical approaches in microarray studies.National Institutes of Healt
Introduction: Bringing Jobs Back In: Toward a New Multi-Level Approach to the Study of Work and Organizations
In this paper, we call for renewed attention to the structure and structuring of work within and between organizations. We argue that a multi-level approach, with jobs as a core analytic construct, is a way to draw connections among economic sociology, organizational sociology, the sociology of work and occupations, labor studies and stratification and address the important problems of both increasing inequality and declining economic productivity
Analytical Solution for Pressure-Coupled Combustion Response Functions of Composite Solid Propellants
This paper extends the classical analytical solution for small perturbation analysis of the pressure-coupled response of a homogeneous propellant to any two-component composite propellant. The solution obtained is general and can be used with any particular model for propellant combustion. As an example, the Cohen and Strand ammonium perchlorate propellant model for a single ammonium perchlorate particle size was used in this work. The results and their mechanistic significance are presented and discussed. It is shown that, for a two-component composite propellant, two forms of pressure exponents arise from the analysis. The significance of the second exponent is that it enables the composite propellant to be viewed as a homogeneous propellant with a frequency-dependent exponent via the coupling coefficients. It is found that the ammonium perchlorate is the main source of instability because of its condensed phase exothermicity and monopropellant flame kinetics. This will be a problem with energetic materials in general. The inert binder provides a stabilizing influence because of its endothermicity and the diffusion flame formed with the ammonium perchlorate. Effects of ammonium perchlorate particle size and pressure stem from the changing flame structure and its effect on burning rate
Physical characterization and origin of binary near-Earth asteroid (175706) 1996 FG3
The near-Earth asteroid (NEA) (175706) 1996 FG3 is a particularly interesting
spacecraft target: a binary asteroid with a low-DeltaV heliocentric orbit. The
orbit of its satellite has provided valuable information about its mass density
while its albedo and colors suggest it is primitive or part of the C-complex
taxonomic grouping. We extend the physical characterization of this object with
new observations of its emission at mid-Infrared (IR) wavelengths and with
near-IR reflection spectroscopy. We derive an area-equivalent system diameter
of 1.90 \pm 0.28 km (corresponding to approximate component diameters of 1.83
km and 0.51 km, respectively) and a geometric albedo of 0.039 \pm 0.012.
1996 FG3 was previously classified as a C-type asteroid, though the combined
0.4--2.5 micron spectrum with thermal correction indicates classification as
B-type; both are consistent with the low measured albedo. Dynamical studies
show that 1996 FG3 has most probably originated in the inner main asteroid
belt. Recent work has suggested the inner Main Belt (142) Polana family as the
possible origin of another low-DeltaV B-type NEA, (101955) 1999 RQ36. A similar
origin for 1996 FG3 would require delivery by the overlapping Jupiter 7:2 and
Mars 5:9 mean motion resonances rather than the nu-6 resonance, and we find
this to be a low probability, but possible, origin.Comment: Published in Ap
Theory of Umklapp-assisted recombination of bound excitons in Si:P
We present the calculations for the oscillator strength of the recombination
of excitons bound to phosphorous donors in silicon. We show that the direct
recombination of the bound exciton cannot account for the experimentally
measured oscillator strength of the no-phonon line. Instead, the recombination
process is assisted by an umklapp process of the donor electron state. We make
use of the empirical pseudopotential method to evaluate the Umklapp-assisted
recombination matrix element in second-order perturbation theory. Our result is
in excellent agreement with the experiment. We also present two methods to
improve the optical resolution of the optical detection of the spin state of a
single nucleus in silicon.Comment: 9 pages, 6 EPS figures, Revtex
Ecological Impacts of the 2015/16 El Niño in the Central Equatorial Pacific
The authors thank Cisco Werner (NOAA/NMFS) for proposing this special issue and encouraging our submission. We thank each of the editors, Stephanie Herring, Peter Stott, and Nikos Christidis, for helpful guidance and support throughout the submittal process. We also thank each of the anonymous external reviewers for thoughtful guidance and suggestions to improve the manuscript. REB, TO, RV, AH, and BVA are grateful for support from the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program. AC acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation for the following awards: OCE 1537338, OCE 1605365, and OCE 1031971. This is PMEL contribution no. 4698. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. government. The views expressed in the article are not necessarily those of the U.S. government. (NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program; OCE 1537338 - National Science Foundation; OCE 1605365 - National Science Foundation; OCE 1031971 - National Science Foundation
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