The Social Security Cost of Smoking

Our paper is an examination of the Social Security cost of smoking from an individual point of view. It is well known that smokers have a shorter life expectancy than nonsmokers. This means that by smoking they are giving up potential Social Security benefits. We estimate this cost and consider the effects on the system as a whole. We use mortality ratios, which relate the annual death probabilities of smokers and nonsmokers, and the percentage of smokers in each age group to break down the life tables for men and women born in 1920 into the approximate life tables for smokers and nonsmokers. We then calculate expected Social Security taxes and benefits for each group, using median earnings as a base. We find that smoking costs men about $20,000 and women about$10,000 in expected net benefits. The implication of this for the system as a whole is that the prevalence of smoking has a direct effect on the financial viability of the system; every decrease in the number of smokers in society increases the system's liability. Changes in smoking behavior should be recognized as affecting the system.

Climate change, loss of (bio)diversity, natural ressource depletion, social marginalization etc: Our adaptation and mitigation contribution

The environmental and social challenges of the planet are a sad reality. Organic Agriculture advocates often espouse its contributions to mitigating the negative effects of farming. But mitigation alone is not enough. Farmers also need to adapt to a changed climate, reduced biodiversity and depleted resources as well as to an ever-changing socio-cultural environment

Caustic formation in a non-Gaussian model for turbulent aerosols

Caustics in the dynamics of heavy particles in turbulence accelerate particle collisions. The rate $\mathscr{J}$ at which these singularities form depends sensitively on the Stokes number St, the non-dimensional inertia parameter. Exact results for this sensitive dependence have been obtained using Gaussian statistical models for turbulent aerosols. However, direct numerical simulations of heavy particles in turbulence yield much larger caustic-formation rates than predicted by the Gaussian theory. In order to understand possible mechanisms explaining this difference, we analyse a non-Gaussian statistical model for caustic formation in the limit of small St. We show that at small St, $\mathscr{J}$ depends sensitively on the tails of the distribution of Lagrangian fluid-velocity gradients. This explains why different authors obtained different St-dependencies of $\mathscr{J}$ in numerical-simulation studies. The most-likely gradient fluctuation that induces caustics at small St, by contrast, is the same in the non-Gaussian and Gaussian models. Direct-numerical simulation results for particles in turbulence show that the optimal fluctuation is similar, but not identical, to that obtained by the model calculations.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Cancer Biology Data Curation at the Mouse Tumor Biology Database (MTB)

Many advances in the field of cancer biology have been made using mouse models of human cancer. The Mouse Tumor Biology (MTB, "http://tumor.informatics.jax.org":http://tumor.informatics.jax.org) database provides web-based access to data on spontaneous and induced tumors from genetically defined mice (inbred, hybrid, mutant, and genetically engineered strains of mice). These data include standardized tumor names and classifications, pathology reports and images, mouse genetics, genomic and cytogenetic changes occurring in the tumor, strain names, tumor frequency and latency, and literature citations.

Although primary source for the data represented in MTB is peer-reviewed scientific literature an increasing amount of data is derived from disparate sources. MTB includes annotated histopathology images and cytogenetic assay images for mouse tumors where these data are available from The Jackson Laboratory’s mouse colonies and from outside contributors. MTB encourages direct submission of mouse tumor data and images from the cancer research community and provides investigators with a web-accessible tool for image submission and annotation. 

Integrated searches of the data in MTB are facilitated by the use of several controlled vocabularies and by adherence to standard nomenclature. MTB also provides links to other related online resources such as the Mouse Genome Database, Mouse Phenome Database, the Biology of the Mammary Gland Web Site, Festing's Listing of Inbred Strains of Mice, the JAX® Mice Web Site, and the Mouse Models of Human Cancers Consortium's Mouse Repository. 

MTB provides access to data on mouse models of cancer via the internet and has been designed to facilitate the selection of experimental models for cancer research, the evaluation of mouse genetic models of human cancer, the review of patterns of mutations in specific cancers, and the identification of genes that are commonly mutated across a spectrum of cancers.

MTB is supported by NCI grant CA089713

The Sensitivity of Auditory-Motor Representations to Subtle Changes in Auditory Feedback While Singing

Singing requires accurate control of the fundamental frequency (F0) of the voice. This study examined trained singers’ and untrained singers’ (nonsingers’) sensitivity to subtle manipulations in auditory feedback and the subsequent effect on the mapping between F0 feedback and vocal control. Participants produced the consonant-vowel /ta/ while receiving auditory feedback that was shifted up and down in frequency. Results showed that singers and nonsingers compensated to a similar degree when presented with frequency-altered feedback (FAF); however, singers’ F0 values were consistently closer to the intended pitch target. Moreover, singers initiated their compensatory responses when auditory feedback was shifted up or down 6 cents or more, compared to nonsingers who began compensating when feedback was shifted up 26 cents and down 22 cents. Additionally, examination of the first 50 ms of vocalization indicated that participants commenced subsequent vocal utterances, during FAF, near the F0 value on previous shift trials. Interestingly, nonsingers commenced F0 productions below the pitch target and increased their F0 until they matched the note. Thus, singers and nonsingers rely on an internal model to regulate voice F0, but singers’ models appear to be more sensitive in response to subtle discrepancies in auditory feedback

Small-molecule control of cytokine function: new opportunities for treating immune disorders

Manipulating cytokine function with protein-based drugs has proven effective for treating a wide variety of autoimmune and autoinflammatory disorders. However, the limited ability of protein-based drugs to modulate intracellular targets, including many implicated by studies of the genetics and physiology of these diseases, and to coordinately neutralize redundant inflammatory cytokines, suggests an important and complementary role for small molecules in immunomodulatory drug development. The recent clinical approval of Janus kinase and phosphodiesterase inhibitors, along with emerging evidence from other compound classes, firmly establish small molecules as effective tools for modulating therapeutically relevant proteins that give rise to aberrant cytokine signaling or mediate its downstream consequences

Biomechanical determination of distal level for fusions across the cervicothoracic junction

Study Design In vitro testing. Objective To determine whether long cervical and cervicothoracic fusions increase the intradiscal pressure at the adjacent caudal disk and to determine which thoracic end vertebra causes the least increase in the adjacent-level intradiscal pressure. Methods A bending moment was applied to six cadaveric cervicothoracic spine specimens with intact rib cages. Intradiscal pressures were recorded from C7–T1 to T9–10 before and after simulated fusion by anterior cervical plating and posterior thoracic pedicle screw constructs. The changes in the intradiscal pressure from baseline were calculated and compared. Results No significant differences where found when the changes of the juxtafusion intradiscal pressure at each level were compared for the flexion, extension, and left and right bending simulations. However, combining the pressures for all directions of bending at each level demonstrated a decrease in the pressures at the T2–T3 level. Exploratory analysis comparing changes in the pressure at T2–T3 to other levels showed a significant decrease in the pressures at this level (p = 0.005). Conclusions Based on the combined intradiscal pressures alone it may be advantageous to end long constructs spanning the cervicothoracic junction at the T2 level if there are no other mitigating factors