Quantitative systematic review of the associations between short-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide and mortality and hospital admissions.

BACKGROUND: Short-term exposure to NO₂ has been associated with adverse health effects and there is increasing concern that NO₂ is causally related to health effects, not merely a marker of traffic-generated pollution. No comprehensive meta-analysis of the time-series evidence on NO₂ has been published since 2007. OBJECTIVE: To quantitatively assess the evidence from epidemiological time-series studies published worldwide to determine whether and to what extent short-term exposure to NO₂ is associated with increased numbers of daily deaths and hospital admissions. DESIGN: We conducted a quantitative systematic review of 204 time-series studies of NO₂ and daily mortality and hospital admissions for several diagnoses and ages, which were indexed in three bibliographic databases up to May 2011. We calculated random-effects estimates by different geographic regions and globally, and also tested for heterogeneity and small study bias. RESULTS: Sufficient estimates for meta-analysis were available for 43 cause-specific and age-specific combinations of mortality or hospital admissions (25 for 24 h NO₂ and 18 of the same combinations for 1 h measures). For the all-age group, a 10 µg/m(3) increase in 24 h NO₂ was associated with increases in all-cause, cardiovascular and respiratory mortality (0.71% (95% CI 0.43% to 1.00%), 0.88% (0.63% to 1.13%) and 1.09% (0.75% to 1.42%), respectively), and with hospital admissions for respiratory (0.57% (0.33% to 0.82%)) and cardiovascular (0.66% (0.32% to 1.01%)) diseases. Evidence of heterogeneity between geographical region-specific estimates was identified in more than half of the combinations analysed. CONCLUSIONS: Our review provides clear evidence of health effects associated with short-term exposure to NO₂ although further work is required to understand reasons for the regional heterogeneity observed. The growing literature, incorporating large multicentre studies and new evidence from less well-studied regions of the world, supports further quantitative review to assess the independence of NO₂ health effects from other air pollutants

The Regime Change Consensus: Iraq in American Politics, 1990-2003

This study examines the containment policy that the United States and its allies imposed on Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War and argues for a new understanding of why the United States invaded Iraq in 2003. At the core of this story is a political puzzle: Why did a largely successful policy that mostly stripped Iraq of its unconventional weapons lose support in American politics to the point that the policy itself became less effective? I argue that, within intellectual and policymaking circles, a claim steadily emerged that the only solution to the Iraqi threat was regime change and democratization. While this “regime change consensus” was not part of the original containment policy, a cohort of intellectuals and policymakers assembled political support for the idea that Saddam’s personality and the totalitarian nature of the Baathist regime made Iraq uniquely immune to “management” strategies like containment. The entrenchment of this consensus before 9/11 helps explain why so many politicians, policymakers, and intellectuals rejected containment after 9/11 and embraced regime change and invasion. This project makes several important historiographical contributions. First, I challenge arguments that the Bush Administration’s concerns about weapons of mass destruction (WMD) were a disingenuous pretext for war. In fact, regime change advocates from the Gulf War forward articulated a unified strategy in which the threat of WMD and terrorism and the need for political transformation in the Middle East were inseparable planks. Second, I demonstrate that while neoconservatives led the political coalition against containment, this coalition also drew significant support from Democrats, liberals, and humanitarian activists, creating a wider than expected base of support for the 2003 invasion. Finally, while historians have focused on the role of cultural perspectives like Orientalism in shaping U.S. policy in the Middle East, my study stresses the importance of ideas about political regime type in debates about Iraq.Doctor of Philosoph

Personality traits in resident and migratory warbler species.

Animals are often confronted with environmental challenges and the way in which they cope with these challenges can have important fitness consequences. There is increasing evidence that individuals differ consistently in their reaction to the environment (personality traits). However, little is known about whether different life-styles (e.g., resident or migratory) influence personality traits and if so, in what manner. We compared neophobic and exploratory behaviours, both of which play an important role in personality traits, between two closely related species, the resident Sardinian warblers and the migratory garden warblers, at two different times during the year. Neophobia was tested by placing a novel object, a mop, beside the feeding dish and measuring the latency to feed (neophobia score). Exploration was tested by offering another novel object, a tube, attached to a perch at a neutral location and measuring latency to approach and investigate the tube (exploration score). Both tests were carried out at the end of the breeding season and repeated ten months later in spring. The Sardinian warblers showed consistent behavioural reactions over time. Furthermore, neophobia and exploration scores were negatively related. The garden warblers neither behaved consistently over time nor was there a correlation between neophobia and exploration. Overall, Sardinian warblers were less neophobic and more explorative than garden warblers. The different reactivity may be due to a different frequency distribution of the individuals of the two species along a reactivity axis. It can be concluded that the Sardinian warblers have personality traits. The situation is less clear in the garden warblers. Possibly, different life-styles require different organisation of behaviours

A Professional Keeping Shop: The Nineteenth-Century Apothecary

Using the Niagara Apothecary as a focus, the paper explores how pharmacy evolved during the nineteenth century from a profession stressing extemporaneous dispensing of drugs largely of natural origin to one emphasizing scientific knowledge about highly potent agents, usually of chemical origin and usually manufactured in large manufacturing plants. It touches upon the influence of increasing standards of education and professional organizations, as much as the remarkable growth of the sciences and technology that provide the basis for pharmacy. It also analyzes the part that commonly held attitudes of laissez-faire had upon the development of botanico-medical sects, the groivth of proprietary or patent medicines and their blatant advertising, and the involvement of non-health related sidelines in the practice of pharmacy. While trying xvhere possible to make the bridge to the twentieth century, it will focus primarily upon the nineteenth-century world of work from the perspective of pharmacy. Résumé Prenant la boutique d'apothicaire de Niagara comme modèle, cette communication étudie l'évolution de la pharmacie au XIXe siècle: comment cette profession, qui consistait à distribuer au petit bonheur des médicaments faits, pour la plupart, d'ingrédients naturels, est devenue la science de substances extrêmement puissantes, presque toutes d'origine chimique et fabriquées en usine. L'étude relie les effets d'une meilleure instruction et l'influence d'organismes professionnels aux progrès remarquables de la science et de la technologie, qui sont à la base même de la pharmacie. L'auteur analyse également les façons dont une attitude généralisée de laisser faire dans l'exercice de la pharmacie a favorisé l'apparition de sectes botanico-médicales, la multiplication des spécialités pharmaceutiques et des médicaments brevetés, commer-cialisés avec fanfare, de même que l'entrée en jeu de petits métiers connexes sans rapport avec la santé. Tout en essayant dans la mesure du possible de faire le lien avec le XX' siècle, l'auteur met l'accent avant tout sur l'univers du travail au XIX siècle, du point de vue de la pharmacie

Promise and pitfalls in the application of big data to occupational and environmental health

EditorialIs “big data” merely a catchphrase, or does the approach hold real promise in informing occupational and environmental health? Can challenges related to messy and unrepresentative data and spurious findings be overcome

On "bettering humanity" in science and engineering education

Science and Engineering Ethics, 13(2): pp. 265-273.Authors such as Krishnamany Selvan argue that “all human endeavors including engineering and science” have a single primary objective: “bettering humanity.” They favor discussing “the history of science and measurement uncertainty.” This paper respectfully disagrees and argues that “human endeavors including engineering and science” should not pursue “bettering humanity” as their primary objective. Instead these efforts should first pursue individual betterment. One cannot better humanity without knowing what that means. However, there is no one unified theory of what is to the betterment of humanity. Simultaneously, there is no one field (neither science, nor engineering, nor philosophy) entitled to rule univocally. Perhaps if theorists tended their own gardens, the common weal would be tended thereby