Fingerprints Of Election Theft: Were Competitive Contests Targeted?

In this report, we describe results from a telephone poll conducted the night of the national election of November, 2006. The poll methodology was explicitly designed to detect partisan manipulation of the vote count, and to separate evidence for manipulation from poll sampling bias. Our premise was that politically motivated tampering would target races that were projected to be competitive, while the perpetrators would be less motivated to interfere in races that were not projected to be close. Designing our poll to be maximally sensitive to such a pattern, we selected 16 counties around the country where, of the three most prominent races (Governor, Senator or US House), there was at least one competitive contest and one noncompetitive contest. In our study, the responses of the same group of respondents were compared to official election results for pairs of races, one competitive and one noncompetitive. We used paired data analysis to compare discrepancies between poll and official count for these matched pairs. Our results revealed much larger discrepancies in competitive than in noncompetitive races (

Concentrations of Blood and Hair Mercury and Serum PCBs in an Ojibwa Population that Consumes Fish

OBJECTIVE: This paper describes an exposure assessment of an American Indian population using blood and hair samples as indicators of mercury and polychlorinated biphenyl exposure from the consumption of fish taken from the Great Lakes region. METHODS: Questionnaires regarding fish consumption were completed by 89 Ojibwa tribal members. Mercury concentrations were determined in human hair and blood samples, and polychlorinated biphenyl concentrations were determined in serum. RESULTS: Fish were consumed at the highest rates in April, May, June, and July. Lake trout, whitefish, and walleye were the preferred fish consumed by 91.4% of the respondents. Concentrations of blood mercury were all below 55 micrograms/L (ppb), while concentrations of mercury in hair were all less than 3 mg/L (ppm). Hair mercury concentrations were correlated with the previous year\u27s fish consumption (p = .05). Dental amalgams and blood mercury concentrations were also significantly correlated (p \u3c .002). Serum polychlorinated biphenyl concentrations, determined as the sum of 89 congeners, were all below 9.6 ppb total polychlorinated biphenyls. Subject age and total serum polychlorinated biphenyls were correlated (p \u3c .001). CONCLUSIONS: The concentrations of mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls in this Ojibwa population were relatively low, but several individuals were identified as having elevated concentrations and additional testing may be warranted. Since the accumulation of contaminants was related to fish consumption and age, a long-term monitoring program that assesses chronic exposure to fish diets would be beneficial

TransRadial Education And Therapeutics (TREAT): shifting the balance of safety and efficacy of antithrombotic agents in percutaneous coronary intervention: a report from the Cardiac Safety Research Consortium

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is an integral part of the treatment of coronary artery disease. The most common complication of PCI, bleeding, typically occurs at the vascular access site and is associated with short-term and long-term morbidity and mortality. Periprocedural bleeding also represents the primary safety concern of concomitant antithrombotic therapies essential for PCI success. Use of radial access for PCI reduces procedural bleeding and hence may change the risk profile and net clinical benefit of these drugs. This new drug-device safety interaction creates opportunities to advance the safe and effective use of antithrombotic agents during PCI. In June 2010 and March 2011, leaders from government, academia, professional societies, device manufacturing, and pharmaceutical industries convened for 2 think tank meetings. Titled TREAT I and II, these forums examined approaches to improve the overall safety of PCI by optimizing strategies for antithrombotic drug use and radial artery access. This article summarizes the content and proceedings of these sessions. (Am Heart J 2013;165:344-353.e1.