Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders: a review of interventions for prevention and management in Indigenous communities

This resource sheet provides estimates on the prevalence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders in the general and Indigenous populations of Australia, and reviews the local and international evidence on the effectiveness of programs that aim to prevent or alleviate this group of disorders. Introduction This resource sheet defines fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and provides currently available estimates of their prevalence in the overall Australian population and in the Indigenous population. The current recommendation of the National Health and Medical Research Council on the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy is also provided. Where appropriate, comparisons are made with other countries. The resource sheet reviews the Australian and international literature published since 1990 on the effectiveness of programs that aim to prevent fetal alcohol spectrum disorders or to alleviate its effects. Evidence on the effectiveness of Australian and Indigenous specific programs is also assessed, including those programs that have been developed and implemented in partnership with Indigenous Australians

Different but equal: equal value a guide to comparing jobs

This is a guide to assist comparison of jobs for determining equal valu

Radioactive Contamination at Dayton Canyon from the Santa Susana Filed Laboratory

Radioactive Contamination at Dayton Canyon from the Santa Susana Filed Laboratory was a report that was deeply flawed as the result of the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) misrepresenting the underlying data , as well as poor protection levels and an a priori assumption that there can\u27t be contamination coming from Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL). It should be rejected. Correspondence and context for this failed study, and the ways the Committee to Bridge the Gap and its researchers were led astray by aforementioned parties, is documented in detail here. This research was completed money allocated during Round 6 of the Citizens’ Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund (MTA Fund). Clark University was named conservator of these works. If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at [email protected]://commons.clarku.edu/bridge_gap/1002/thumbnail.jp

Radioactive Contamination at Runkle Ranch from the Santa Susana Field Laboratory

Runkle Ranch is the site of a proposed residential development in Simi Valley. Because it is located near to, and below, the Santa Susana Field Laboratory ((SFL), a nuclear reactor and rocket testing and development facility with significant radioactive and chemical contamination, the developer arranged for a series of tests of soil and other environmental media. SSFL is operated for the U.S. government by the Rocketdyne Division of the Boeing Company. This report examines the results of the soil testing for radioactivity. The Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that supported the approval of the project briefly addressed the potential for contaminants from SSFL to have impacted the Runkle Ranch land and concluded that this was not an issue. The EIR1 noted that background levels of strontium-90 are “about 0.1 pico Curie per gram (pCi/g)” and went on to describe sampling results for the Runkle property: Previous assessments of strontium-90 and tritium within the vicinity of the [Runkle Canyon] Specific Plan Area included a survey conducted by QST Environmental, Inc. in 1998. This study was conducted to determine if nuclear 1 This and the following two quotes are from pp. 4.6-6 and 4.6-7 of the EIR. 2 reactor operations at the SSFL facility had impacted soil at the site through surface water runoff. Four soil samples at three were collected and analyzed for cesium-137, strontium-90 and tritium. One of the locations was within a natural drainage channel flowing from the locale of the SSFL facility towards the northeastern portion of the Specific Plan Area. The results of the survey indicated that the surface soil contained concentrations of cesium-137 and strontium-90 that exceeded background levels established by the EPA. Because of the initial findings, followup sampling was initiated. As the EIR states: Consequently, further testing was indicated. Tritium was also detected in the samples, but at concentrations below the EPA background levels. A limited radiation survey was conducted during subsequent testing and analysis in the Phase I ESA for the 550-acre parcel referenced in this section. This assessment found that radiation levels were within normal background levels. Tritium and strontium-90 were not detected in any of the soil and groundwater samples at levels above normal background levels or at levels considered to pose a health risk. (emphasis added). This conclusion is puzzling, because the actual measurements being cited for the proposition that none were above background nor above levels considered to pose a health risk show precisely the opposite. Rather than none of the samples being above background or health risk levels, ALL 58 of the 1999 follow-up strontium measurements exceeded the 0.1 pCi/gram background figure cited in the EIR (as we shall see, that figure is actually twice background), and virtually all exceed the EPA’s Preliminary Remediation Goals (PRGs). This research was completed money allocated during Round 6 of the Citizens’ Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund (MTA Fund). Clark University was named conservator of these works. If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at [email protected]://commons.clarku.edu/bridge_gap/1001/thumbnail.jp

On the frequency of permutations containing a long cycle

A general explicit upper bound is obtained for the proportion $P(n,m)$ of elements of order dividing $m$, where $n-1 \le m \le cn$ for some constant $c$, in the finite symmetric group $S_n$. This is used to find lower bounds for the conditional probabilities that an element of $S_n$ or $A_n$ contains an $r$-cycle, given that it satisfies an equation of the form $x^{rs}=1$ where $s\leq3$. For example, the conditional probability that an element $x$ is an $n$-cycle, given that $x^n=1$, is always greater than 2/7, and is greater than 1/2 if $n$ does not divide 24. Our results improve estimates of these conditional probabilities in earlier work of the authors with Beals, Leedham-Green and Seress, and have applications for analysing black-box recognition algorithms for the finite symmetric and alternating groups

Radioactive Contamination of Water At the Santa Susana Field Laboratory

Presentation to SSFL InterAgency Work Group Community Meeting. Contains presentation slides in pdf format. This research was completed money allocated during Round 6 of the Citizens’ Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund (MTA Fund). Clark University was named conservator of these works. If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at [email protected]://commons.clarku.edu/bridge_gap/1003/thumbnail.jp

Nuclear Cleanup: The Standards Conflict

The U.S. Department of Energy has recently violated a longstanding Joint DOE-EPA Policy which commits DOE to clean up all its nuclear facilities nationwide to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund (CERCLA) standards. The focal point of this conflict between DOE and EPA cleanup standards is the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), a 2800- acre facility on the Los Angeles-Ventura County line in Southern California. Ten reactors, a plutonium fuel facility, and a “hot laboratory” for cutting up irradiated nuclear fuel were operated at the facility, which opened in the 1940s when it was remote from populated areas. Now large numbers of people live nearby. One of the reactors suffered a partial meltdown in 1959; two others experienced damage in 1964 and 1969 to 80% and 35% of their fuel, respectively. In 1989, DOE found widespread chemical and radioactive contamination at the site, and a cleanup program commenced. In 1995, DOE and EPA entered into a Joint Policy to assure that all DOE sites, whether or not they were on the National Priority List (Superfund), would be cleaned up consistent with EPA’s CERCLA standards. In March of 2003, DOE reversed course and, while claiming to still follow the 1995 Policy, announced it would not clean the site up to the EPA standards. It would remove only 1% of the contaminated soil and then release the site for unrestricted residential use. In December 2003, EPA issued findings that the site was not being cleaned up consistent with the 1995 Joint Policy and that under the circumstances, so much radioactivity could be left in place that residential use would be unsafe and the only safe use would be restricted dayhikes with limitations on picnicking. To date no detailed study has been done comparing the DOE and EPA cleanup standards. This report, supported by a grant from the Citizens’ Monitoring and Technical Assistance Fund, performs that analysis. The evaluation demonstrates that DOE’s decision not to comply with EPA’s cleanup standards will result in radionuclide concentrations being permitted that are hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, and in some cases, hundreds of thousands of times higher than EPA’s primary cleanup goals. For most radionuclides, the associated risk exceeds even the uppermost permissible risk level of EPA under CERCLA. In some cases, those cancer risks rise to levels on the order of one cancer per ten people exposed, using the federal government’s official radiation risk figures. Should DOE proceed with acting in contravention of the 1995 DOE-EPA Joint Policy on cleaning up DOE sites consistent with CERCLA at SSFL, there would be significant ramifications for the DOE nuclear complex nationwide, and for public health. This research was completed money allocated during Round 4 of the Citizens’ Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund (MTA Fund). Clark University was named conservator of these works. If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at [email protected]://commons.clarku.edu/bridge_gap/1000/thumbnail.jp

Exploiting symmetries in SDP-relaxations for polynomial optimization

In this paper we study various approaches for exploiting symmetries in polynomial optimization problems within the framework of semi definite programming relaxations. Our special focus is on constrained problems especially when the symmetric group is acting on the variables. In particular, we investigate the concept of block decomposition within the framework of constrained polynomial optimization problems, show how the degree principle for the symmetric group can be computationally exploited and also propose some methods to efficiently compute in the geometric quotient.Comment: (v3) Minor revision. To appear in Math. of Operations Researc

Standard isotrivial fibrations with p_g=q=1

A smooth, projective surface $S$ of general type is said to be a \emph{standard isotrivial fibration} if there exist a finite group $G$ which acts faithfully on two smooth projective curves $C$ and $F$ so that $S$ is isomorphic to the minimal desingularization of $T:=(C \times F)/G$. If $T$ is smooth then $S=T$ is called a \emph{quasi-bundle}. In this paper we classify the standard isotrivial fibrations with $p_g=q=1$ which are not quasi-bundles, assuming that all the singularities of $T$ are rational double points. As a by-product, we provide several new examples of minimal surfaces of general type with $p_g=q=1$ and $K_S^2=4,6$.Comment: 31 pages. Final version, to appear in J. Algebr

Koszul incidence algebras, affine semigroups, and Stanley-Reisner ideals

We prove a theorem unifying three results from combinatorial homological and commutative algebra, characterizing the Koszul property for incidence algebras of posets and affine semigroup rings, and characterizing linear resolutions of squarefree monomial ideals. The characterization in the graded setting is via the Cohen-Macaulay property of certain posets or simplicial complexes, and in the more general nongraded setting, via the sequential Cohen-Macaulay property.Comment: 31 pages, 1 figure. Minor changes from previous version. To appear in Advances in Mathematic