Development of methodology for identifying spatial links between environmental exposure and disease prevalence

The recent increased availability of geographically linked individual level health outcome data and improvements in exposure mapping techniques, which furnish point exposure estimates, motivate the development of spatial statistical methodology that takes full advantage of individual level data. Kernel density estimation is a powerful tool for mapping the risk of a health outcome that uses individual level data. Development of kernel density methodology has provided a global significance test for regions of elevated relative risk and a test for the spatial association between a health outcome and environmental exposure. Comparisons with some existing spatial statistical techniques highlight the strengths of the kernel density based methods. Moreover, simulation exercises indicate that the kernel density test for spatial association is a more powerful testing procedure than the most popular standard test proposed by Stone. Kernel density estimation and the global significance test for regions of elevated relative risk are illustrated for congenital malformations around a landfill site and sex ratios in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. The application of these methodologies revealed that both birth outcomes had a statistically significant heterogeneous spatial pattern over the relevant study regions even after adjustment for known confounders. Good quality, high resolution environmental exposure data was unavailable and prevented a direct application of the kernel density test for spatial association with a health outcome. However, the test can be applied to any two relative risk/density surfaces and was used to compare the spatial patterns of chromosomal and non-chromosomal anomalies in the region of the Nant y Gwyddon landfill site. It was concluded that the spatial patterns for the two sets of anomalies were different. The test was also used to assess the quality of the adjustment for confounders when producing expected risk surfaces and the adjustment was found to be adequate.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Development of methodology for identifying spatial links between environmental exposure and disease prevalence

The recent increased availability of geographically linked individual level health outcome data and improvements in exposure mapping techniques, which furnish point exposure estimates, motivate the development of spatial statistical methodology that takes full advantage of individual level data. Kernel density estimation is a powerful tool for mapping the risk of a health outcome that uses individual level data. Development of kernel density methodology has provided a global significance test for regions of elevated relative risk and a test for the spatial association between a health outcome and environmental exposure. Comparisons with some existing spatial statistical techniques highlight the strengths of the kernel density based methods. Moreover, simulation exercises indicate that the kernel density test for spatial association is a more powerful testing procedure than the most popular standard test proposed by Stone. Kernel density estimation and the global significance test for regions of elevated relative risk are illustrated for congenital malformations around a landfill site and sex ratios in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. The application of these methodologies revealed that both birth outcomes had a statistically significant heterogeneous spatial pattern over the relevant study regions even after adjustment for known confounders. Good quality, high resolution environmental exposure data was unavailable and prevented a direct application of the kernel density test for spatial association with a health outcome. However, the test can be applied to any two relative risk/density surfaces and was used to compare the spatial patterns of chromosomal and non-chromosomal anomalies in the region of the Nant y Gwyddon landfill site. It was concluded that the spatial patterns for the two sets of anomalies were different. The test was also used to assess the quality of the adjustment for confounders when producing expected risk surfaces and the adjustment was found to be adequate

“The Problem from Hell”: Examining the Role of Peace and Conflict Studies for Genocide Intervention and Prevention

Genocide is one of the most challenging problems of our age. In her book, “A Problem from Hell:” America and the Age of Genocide, Samantha Power (2002) argues that the United States, while in a position to intervene in genocide, has lacked the will to do so, and therefore it is incumbent on the U.S. citizenry to pressure their government to act. This article reviews how the topic of genocide raises questions along the fault lines of the field of Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS). In this article, a framework is provided to examine genocide and responses to it. This includes a review of a multiplicity of factors that (a) facilitate genocide, (b) constrain action in the face of it, and (c) facilitate intervention. In this analysis, further consideration is given to the location of the actor either within the region of the conflict or external to it. Our goal is to situate the study of genocide in the PACS field and promote to the articulation of possibilities for intervention by individuals, organizations, and policymakers

Friends-Based Protective Strategies and Unwanted Sexual Experiences: A Daily Diary Examination of First Year College Women

Risk for unwanted sexual experiences can emerge in social contexts—the same contexts that early college women navigate with their friends. Though friends naturally engage in prevention strategies, less is known about how capable guardianship influences risk. Using multilevel structural equation modeling, the present study examined guardianship at the person and situation levels. First-year college women (N = 132) completed eight weekends of daily surveys. We examined whether guardianship (e.g., more friends present, greater proportion of female friends, no intoxicated friends) would reduce unwanted sexual experience risk and if this relation was mediated by friends-based strategy use. An alternative model was also tested with the same predictors, but with unwanted sexual experiences as the mediator and friends-based strategy use as the outcome. Over half (58%) of extended weekend nights with friends involved drinking or using drugs. Friends-based strategies were used on 29% of nights. Across models, being with one or more intoxicated friends was associated with friends-based strategy use and an unwanted sexual experience, but only at the situation level. Parents, educators, and policy makers can encourage college women to draw on their social networks to enhance safety. Interventions could incorporate more universal strategies for responding to risk in social contexts

Social mixing patterns in the UK following the relaxation of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, July to August 2020: a cross-sectional online survey

Objectives: To quantify and characterize non-household contact and to identify the effect of shielding and isolating on contact patterns. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting and participants: Anyone living in the UK was eligible to take part in the study. We recorded 5,143 responses to the online questionnaire between 28 July and 14 August 2020. Outcome measures: Our primary outcome was the daily non-household contact rate of participants. Secondary outcomes were propensity to leave home over a 7 day period, whether contacts had occurred indoors or outdoors locations visited, furthest distance travelled from home, ability to socially distance, and membership of support bubble. Results: The mean rate of non-household contacts per person was 2.9 d-1. Participants attending a workplace (adjusted incidence rate ratio (aIRR) 3.33, 95%CI 3.02 to 3.66), self-employed (aIRR 1.63, 95%CI 1.43 to 1.87) or working in healthcare (aIRR 5.10, 95%CI 4.29 to 6.10) reported significantly higher non-household contact rates than those working from home. Participants self-isolating as a precaution or following Test and Trace instructions had a lower non-household contact rate than those not self-isolating (aIRR 0.58, 95%CI 0.43 to 0.79). We found limited evidence that those shielding had reduced non-household contacts compared to non-shielders. Conclusion: The daily rate of non-household interactions remained lower than pre-pandemic levels measured by other studies, suggesting continued adherence to social distancing guidelines. Individuals attending a workplace in-person or employed as healthcare professionals were less likely to maintain social distance and had a higher non-household contact rate, possibly increasing their infection risk. Shielding and self-isolating individuals required greater support to enable them to follow the government guidelines and reduce non-household contact and therefore their risk of infection

Incidence, prevalence, and clinical course of hepatitis C following liver transplantation

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the agent responsible for posttransfusion hepatitis. The incidence, timing, and clinical course of HCV positive hepatitis in liver transplant recipients are unknown. Three hundred and seventeen donor-recipient liver transplant pairs were grouped on the basis of their pretransplant HCV antibody status. The biopsy findings were examined. Four distinct groups were identified on the basis of HCV serology: group I, both were negative; group II, donor was negative and recipient was positive; group III, donor was positive and recipient was negative; group IV, both were positive. The prevalence of anti-HCV positivity in recipients was 13.6%. The rate of seroconversion was 9.2%. Histologic hepatitis not ascribable to any specific cause other than non-A, non-B (NANB) hepatitis occurred in 13.8%. The incidence of histologic chronic active hepatitis was 1.6%, and none progressed to cirrhosis. The concordance rate for a positive anti-HCV serology and NANB hepatitis was 2.8%. Of the 35 patients (group II and IV) with positive anti-HCV serology pretransplant, only 17 were positive posttransplantation. Based on these data it can be concluded that posttransplant NANB hepatitis occurred in 13.8% of liver recipients. Twenty percent of these were anti-HCV positive. Progression to histologic chronic active hepatitis occurs over a period of 1-5 years in 1.6% of cases. © 1992

Internet Research Ethics: A CSCW Community Discussion

Research ethics continues to be an important topic of conversation within the HCI and social computing communities, especially regarding the specific ethical challenges raised by internet research. Developing a shared understanding of ethical norms is complicated by the diverse disciplinary traditions, evolving technologies and methods, and multiple geographic and cultural settings of researchers in these communities. Drawing on experiences of the SIGCHI Research Ethics Committee as well as empirical work towards developing best ethical practices for internet research, this Special Interest Group will discuss current practices and challenges in studying people and data online, covering the full research life-cycle from the crafting of research ideas, through study design, data collection, analysis, and then dissemination. This conversation will benefit from diverse voices and perspectives to help us all learn from each other and critically engage with our research community’s values and ethical commitments

Designer TGFβ Superfamily Ligands with Diversified Functionality

Transforming Growth Factor – beta (TGFβ) superfamily ligands, including Activins, Growth and Differentiation Factors (GDFs), and Bone Morphogenetic Proteins (BMPs), are excellent targets for protein-based therapeutics because of their pervasiveness in numerous developmental and cellular processes. We developed a strategy termed RASCH (Random Assembly of Segmental Chimera and Heteromer), to engineer chemically-refoldable TGFβ superfamily ligands with unique signaling properties. One of these engineered ligands, AB208, created from Activin-βA and BMP-2 sequences, exhibits the refolding characteristics of BMP-2 while possessing Activin-like signaling attributes. Further, we find several additional ligands, AB204, AB211, and AB215, which initiate the intracellular Smad1-mediated signaling pathways more strongly than BMP-2 but show no sensitivity to the natural BMP antagonist Noggin unlike natural BMP-2. In another design, incorporation of a short N-terminal segment from BMP-2 was sufficient to enable chemical refolding of BMP-9, without which was never produced nor refolded. Our studies show that the RASCH strategy enables us to expand the functional repertoire of TGFβ superfamily ligands through development of novel chimeric TGFβ ligands with diverse biological and clinical values