Adolescent Health Services: Missing Opportunities

Examines the status of adolescents' health and health services, including critical needs, promising models, and components for improving disease prevention and health promotion. Recommends better primary care, coordinated policy, and expanded coverage

The Agriculture - Public Health Connection

This PowerPoint presentation on food and human health was given for the 2007 Dennis Keeney Distinguished Lecture at Iowa State University.</p

Short and Intermediate Term Outcomes of the Convergent Procedure: Initial Experience in a Tertiary Referral Center

PURPOSE: The Convergent procedure is a hybrid, multidisciplinary treatment for symptomatic atrial fibrillation (AF) consisting of minimally invasive surgical epicardial ablation and percutaneous/catheter endocardial ablation. We investigated outcomes following introduction of the Convergent procedure at our institution. METHODS: Retrospective study examining single-center outcomes. Demographic, procedural, and post-procedural variables were collected with follow-up data obtained at 3, 6, and 12 months. RESULTS: In all, 36 patients with paroxysmal (11%) or persistent/long-standing persistent (89%) AF underwent the Convergent procedure. 36% also underwent concomitant left atrial appendage (LAA) exclusion by thoracoscopic placement of an epicardial clip. Mean age 60.6 ± 8.0 years with mean arrhythmia burden of 3.9 ± 2.7 years. All patients had failed prior attempts at medical management, 81% had failed prior cardioversion, and 17% had failed prior catheter ablation. Convergent was performed successfully in all patients with no peri-procedural deaths or major complications. At 3 and 12 months, 77.8% and 77.3% of patients, respectively, were free from symptomatic arrhythmia. 65.8% were off anti-arrhythmic medication at 12 months. CONCLUSIONS: The Convergent procedure is safe and has good short- and intermediate-term clinical success rates. This unique hybrid approach combines strengths of surgical and catheter ablation and should be part of any comprehensive AF treatment program

How sustainable agriculture can address the environmental and human health harms of industrial agriculture.

The industrial agriculture system consumes fossil fuel, water, and topsoil at unsustainable rates. It contributes to numerous forms of environmental degradation, including air and water pollution, soil depletion, diminishing biodiversity, and fish die-offs. Meat production contributes disproportionately to these problems, in part because feeding grain to livestock to produce meat--instead of feeding it directly to humans--involves a large energy loss, making animal agriculture more resource intensive than other forms of food production. The proliferation of factory-style animal agriculture creates environmental and public health concerns, including pollution from the high concentration of animal wastes and the extensive use of antibiotics, which may compromise their effectiveness in medical use. At the consumption end, animal fat is implicated in many of the chronic degenerative diseases that afflict industrial and newly industrializing societies, particularly cardiovascular disease and some cancers. In terms of human health, both affluent and poor countries could benefit from policies that more equitably distribute high-protein foods. The pesticides used heavily in industrial agriculture are associated with elevated cancer risks for workers and consumers and are coming under greater scrutiny for their links to endocrine disruption and reproductive dysfunction. In this article we outline the environmental and human health problems associated with current food production practices and discuss how these systems could be made more sustainable

Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure in Relation to Family Characteristics, Stressors and Chemical Co-Exposures in California Girls.

Childhood environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure is a risk factor for adverse health outcomes and may disproportionately burden lower socioeconomic status groups, exacerbating health disparities. We explored associations of demographic factors, stressful life events, and chemical co-exposures, with cotinine levels, among girls in the CYGNET Study. Data were collected from families of girls aged 6-8 years old in Northern California, through clinic exams, questionnaires and biospecimens (n = 421). Linear regression and factor analysis were conducted to explore predictors of urinary cotinine and co-exposure body burdens, respectively. In unadjusted models, geometric mean cotinine concentrations were higher among Black (0.59 ug/g creatinine) than non-Hispanic white (0.27), Asian (0.32), or Hispanic (0.34) participants. Following adjustment, living in a rented home, lower primary caregiver education, and lack of two biologic parents in the home were associated with higher cotinine concentrations. Girls who experienced parental separation or unemployment in the family had higher unadjusted cotinine concentrations. Higher cotinine was also associated with higher polybrominated diphenyl ether and metals concentrations. Our findings have environmental justice implications as Black and socio-economically disadvantaged young girls experienced higher ETS exposure, also associated with higher exposure to other chemicals. Efforts to reduce ETS and co-exposures should account for other disparity-related factors

Molecular orbital investigation of chemisorption. I. Hydrogen on tungsten (100) surface

The relative bonding energies of hydrogen chemisorbed at three symmetric sites on a W(100) surface were obtained by means of the extended Hückel molecular orbital theory (EHMO). The preferred site for hydrogen chemisorption was found to be the single coordination number (1 CN) site or the site above a surface tungsten atom. The W(100) surface was represented by finite arrays of tungsten atoms which were shown to be adequate for obtaining semiquantitative results. The basis set for the calculations contained the valence orbitals of tungsten and, initially, the 5p orbitals which were nonbonding but provided the necessary repulsion at small internuclear separation. The repulsive energy provided by these orbitals was replaced by an analytical exponential repulsive energy term. This allowed the 5p orbitals to be omitted from the basis set to simplify computation. Functionally, the energy change for the reaction Wn + H → Wn H was calculated for various assumed configurations of the Wn H ``molecule.'' The bonding between tungsten atoms was found to be changed as a result of Wn H formation, and the change varied with hydrogen position. Energy barriers to surface diffusion were also calculated and found to agree reasonably with experimental values.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/71349/2/JCPSA6-59-10-5277-1.pd

Multiband processing of multimode light: combining 3D photonic lanterns with waveguide Bragg gratings

The first demonstration of narrowband spectral filtering of multimode light on a 3D integrated photonic chip using photonic lanterns and waveguide Bragg gratings is reported. The photonic lanterns with multi-notch waveguide Bragg gratings were fabricated using the femtosecond direct-write technique in boro-aluminosilicate glass (Corning, Eagle 2000). Transmission dips of up to 5 dB were measured in both photonic lanterns and reference single-mode waveguides with 10.4-mm-long gratings. The result demonstrates efficient and symmetrical performance of each of the gratings in the photonic lantern. Such devices will be beneficial to space-division multiplexed communication systems as well as for units for astronomical instrumentation for suppression of the atmospheric telluric emission from OH lines.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted to Laser & Photonics Review

Communications-Inspired Projection Design with Application to Compressive Sensing

We consider the recovery of an underlying signal x \in C^m based on projection measurements of the form y=Mx+w, where y \in C^l and w is measurement noise; we are interested in the case l < m. It is assumed that the signal model p(x) is known, and w CN(w;0,S_w), for known S_W. The objective is to design a projection matrix M \in C^(l x m) to maximize key information-theoretic quantities with operational significance, including the mutual information between the signal and the projections I(x;y) or the Renyi entropy of the projections h_a(y) (Shannon entropy is a special case). By capitalizing on explicit characterizations of the gradients of the information measures with respect to the projections matrix, where we also partially extend the well-known results of Palomar and Verdu from the mutual information to the Renyi entropy domain, we unveil the key operations carried out by the optimal projections designs: mode exposure and mode alignment. Experiments are considered for the case of compressive sensing (CS) applied to imagery. In this context, we provide a demonstration of the performance improvement possible through the application of the novel projection designs in relation to conventional ones, as well as justification for a fast online projections design method with which state-of-the-art adaptive CS signal recovery is achieved.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures, parts of material published in IEEE ICASSP 2012, submitted to SIIM

Synthesis and Reactivity of Neutral and Cationic Ruthenium(II) Tris(pyrazolyl)borate Alkylidenes

A series of neutral and cationic ruthenium(II) alkylidenes containing the hydrotris(pyrazolyl)borate (Tp) ligand have been prepared. The complex Tp(PCy_3)(Cl)Ru=CHPh (2) was obtained by the reaction of (PCy_3)_2(Cl)_2Ru=CHPh (1) and KTp. Treatment of 2 with AgBF_4 or AgSbF_6 in the presence of a variety of coordinating solvents afforded [Tp(PCy_3)(L)Ru=CHPh]^+ (L = H_2O, CH_3CN, pyridine) in high yield. The dynamic NMR behavior of these new complexes is discussed, and the X-ray crystal structure of [Tp(PCy_3)(H_2O)Ru=CHPh]BF_4 (3) is reported. Alkylidenes 2−5 alone do not catalyze olefin metathesis reactions. However, complex 2 is activated for ring-closing metathesis by the addition of HCl, CuCl, and AlCl_3

The VISTA Science Archive

We describe the VISTA Science Archive (VSA) and its first public release of data from five of the six VISTA Public Surveys. The VSA exists to support the VISTA Surveys through their lifecycle: the VISTA Public Survey consortia can use it during their quality control assessment of survey data products before submission to the ESO Science Archive Facility (ESO SAF); it supports their exploitation of survey data prior to its publication through the ESO SAF; and, subsequently, it provides the wider community with survey science exploitation tools that complement the data product repository functionality of the ESO SAF. This paper has been written in conjunction with the first public release of public survey data through the VSA and is designed to help its users understand the data products available and how the functionality of the VSA supports their varied science goals. We describe the design of the database and outline the database-driven curation processes that take data from nightly pipeline-processed and calibrated FITS files to create science-ready survey datasets. Much of this design, and the codebase implementing it, derives from our earlier WFCAM Science Archive (WSA), so this paper concentrates on the VISTA-specific aspects and on improvements made to the system in the light of experience gained in operating the WSA.Comment: 22 pages, 16 figures. Minor edits to fonts and typos after sub-editting. Published in A&