Cumulative incidence and diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection in New York

Purpose New York State (NYS) is an epicenter of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the United States. Reliable estimates of cumulative incidence in the population are critical to tracking the extent of transmission and informing policies. Methods We conducted a statewide seroprevalence study in a 15,101 patron convenience sample at 99 grocery stores in 26 counties throughout NYS. SARS-CoV-2 cumulative incidence was estimated from antibody reactivity by first poststratification weighting and then adjusting by antibody test characteristics. The percent diagnosed was estimated by dividing the number of diagnoses by the number of estimated infection-experienced adults. Results Based on 1887 of 15,101 (12.5%) reactive results, estimated cumulative incidence through March 29 was 14.0% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 13.3%–14.7%), corresponding to 2,139,300 (95% CI: 2,035,800–2,242,800) infection-experienced adults. Cumulative incidence was highest in New York City 22.7% (95% CI: 21.5%–24.0%) and higher among Hispanic/Latino (29.2%), non-Hispanic black/African American (20.2%), and non-Hispanic Asian (12.4%) than non-Hispanic white adults (8.1%, P \u3c .0001). An estimated 8.9% (95% CI: 8.4%–9.3%) of infections in NYS were diagnosed, with diagnosis highest among adults aged 55 years or older (11.3%, 95% CI: 10.4%–12.2%). Conclusions From the largest U.S. serosurvey to date, we estimated \u3e2 million adult New York residents were infected through late March, with substantial disparities, although cumulative incidence remained less than herd immunity thresholds. Monitoring, testing, and contact tracing remain essential public health strategies

U-Compare bio-event meta-service: compatible BioNLP event extraction services

AbstractBackgroundBio-molecular event extraction from literature is recognized as an important task of bio text mining and, as such, many relevant systems have been developed and made available during the last decade. While such systems provide useful services individually, there is a need for a meta-service to enable comparison and ensemble of such services, offering optimal solutions for various purposes.ResultsWe have integrated nine event extraction systems in the U-Compare framework, making them inter-compatible and interoperable with other U-Compare components. The U-Compare event meta-service provides various meta-level features for comparison and ensemble of multiple event extraction systems. Experimental results show that the performance improvements achieved by the ensemble are significant. ConclusionsWhile individual event extraction systems themselves provide useful features for bio text mining, the U-Compare meta-service is expected to improve the accessibility to the individual systems, and to enable meta-level uses over multiple event extraction systems such as comparison and ensemble.This research was partially supported by KAKENHI 18002007 [YK, MM, JDK, SP, TO, JT]; JST PRESTO and KAKENHI 21500130 [YK]; the Academy of Finland and computational resources were provided by CSC -- IT Center for Science Ltd [JB, FG]; the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) [SVL]; UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences, Research Council (BBSRC project BB/G013160/1 Automated Biological Event Extraction from the Literature for Drug Discovery) and JISC, National Centre for Text Mining [SA]; the Spanish grant BIO2010-17527 [MN, APM]; NIH Grant U54 DA021519 [AO, DRR]Peer Reviewe

Surface species formed by the adsorption and dissociation of water molecules on Ru(0001) surface containing a small coverage of carbon atoms studied by scanning tunneling microscopy

The adsorption and dissociation of water on a Ru(0001) surface containing a small amount ({le} 3 %) of carbon impurities was studied by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Various surface species are formed depending on the temperature. These include molecular H{sub 2}O, H{sub 2}O-C complexes, H, O, OH and CH. Clusters of either pure H{sub 2}O or mixed H{sub 2}O-OH species are also formed. Each of these species produces a characteristic contrast in the STM images and can be identified by experiment and by ab initio total energy calculations coupled with STM image simulations. Manipulation of individual species via excitation of vibrational modes with the tunneling electrons has been used as supporting evidence

Bilingual Children In Hawai'i Their Languages, School Lives And Cultural Identity

This study uses a case study approach to understanding the lives of English-Japanese bilingual children in Hawaii, whose parents or mothers are from Japan. It focuses on the main three issues, language, school lives, and cultural identity. To maintain Japanese language and cultural values, all ,the children in this study attend weekend supplemental Japanese school called Hoshuuko, while they attend local English school during weekdays. This study also describes the features ofHoshuuko, and discusses its advantages and disadvantages as expressed by the informants. The focal children are divided into three categories, such as Japan-Focused Returning Students, Japan-Focused Non-Returning Students, and Dual Nationality Students, depending on their family backgrounds. Interviews with mothers are included in order to analyze the results from their point of view. Some suggestions and recommendations are made in the final chapter to help educators relate more sensitively and productively with these children and parents who have dual languages and cultural values. H

Systematic Inequities or Institutional Discrimination

This session will be focusing on these three abstracts: 1.Towards a Framework for Addressing Immigrants’ Social Determinants of Health 2.Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Housing Insecurit

Forward Together: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Mitigating COVID-19 Outbreaks at One of the Nation’s Most Diverse Universities

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, decisions surrounding educational institutions have been a central public concern. In this proof-of-concept case study, we focus on response and mitigation decision-making at the University at Albany, State University of New York (UAlbany)— one of the most diverse public universities in the United States. We first explore the role of best practices and data-driven insights from the emergency management and public health fields in informing key decisions amidst rapidly-shifting science and policies. We then reflect on the health outcomes of UAlbany’s approach in the context of COVID-19’s differential impacts on minority communities. In May of 2020, following a significant surge of cases throughout the spring, NYS and the rest of the U.S. gradually began to reopen. Epidemiological data on SARS-CoV2 indicate an incubation period of up to 14 days and a higher likelihood of asymptomatic spread among children, adolescents, and young adults. Concerns mounted over bringing students back to campuses where they would be more likely to interact in congregated settings while potentially not knowing that they were infected with SARS-CoV2. Institutions of higher education needed to build plans and make decisions that would mitigate the impact on their campuses and surrounding communities. We apply a cognitive-institutional process-tracing methodology to explore key mitigation strategies that have helped support UAlbany’s students, faculty, and staff. The analysis is based on primary source information collected throughout the response, including 201 routine situation reports and minutes from 180+ meetings of key groups of stakeholders and/or decision-makers. We identified six key occasions for decision: 1. Building recommendations on incorporating epidemiological and operational data into decision-making and communication. 2. Overcoming potential barriers to surveillance testing and more flexible decision-making benchmarks. 3. Defining strategies for mitigating the secondary impacts of an aggressive testing and isolation/quarantine policy on students, especially given the potential for an outsized impact on vulnerable populations. 4. Pivoting operations and communications based on emerging State guidance as the fall semester began. 5. Responding to a surge in cases in late fall. 6. Planning for the spring semester given lessons learned from the fall and an anticipated higher rate of community transmission. To examine the potential impact of the University’s response on public health outcomes, we conduct a quantitative analysis of data from 475 responses to the University’s internal contact tracing survey. We focus specifically on the relative impact across racial and ethnic groups. Our results indicate that there may have been a differential impact on minority groups in terms of who contracted the virus. That said, a significantly lower proportion of non-Hispanic Black respondents reported symptoms than did non-Hispanic White or Hispanic students. Our decision analysis reveals a potential model for institutions of higher education to effectively engage experts across disciplines in crisis decision-making. Since we conducted the analysis at the advisory level (rather than the level of the decision-maker), we were also able to explore strategies for enhancing the role of the scientific community in broader emergency response. While there was not significant data to connect decision-making with public health outcomes, an initial analysis indicates interesting trends in health impacts among minority communities that merit further study

Emotional regulation and motivation to drink: gender, negative emotionality, behavioral undercontrol, and family history

Despite support for the effectiveness of alcohol use disorders (AUD) treatment programs and the positive impact of policy changes related to alcohol use, AUD remains a major public health concern in the United States. As part of an effort to encourage transdisciplinary research, the integration of objective biological measures for AUD risk and existing psychosocial-based risk measures (e.g., demographic variables, personality characteristics, comorbid psychological disorders) are emerging as important areas of inquiry, with implications for the prevention and treatment of AUD. Theories of alcohol use emphasize the fundamental role of emotional regulation in drinking behaviors, and multiple psychosocial factors have been identified which influence such motivations for alcohol use. Through three separate, laboratory-based experimental investigations, this dissertation aimed to gain an understanding of the physiological mechanisms underlying the relationship between psychosocial factors (gender, personality, family history) and one’s desire to use alcohol for emotional regulation. In particular, this dissertation focused on examining the applicability of heart rate variability (HRV), an established psychophysiological measure of peripheral and central modulation of emotional arousal, in studying individual differences in emotional regulation. Changes in HRV in response to experimental manipulation of emotion and adaptive responding were linked to gender and personality differences in motivations for alcohol use. Gender differences in emotional reactivity suggest distinctive pathways toward unhealthy use of alcohol in men and women; that is, the pharmacological effects of alcohol appear to directly promote alcohol use in men, whereas cognitive expectancies, such as expectation that alcohol can counteract negative emotions, may underlie alcohol use in women, particularly when they are prone to negative mood states. Further, personality constructs of negative emotionality were associated with physiological dysregulation of emotion, which was linked to tendency to use alcohol for emotional regulation, particularly to suppress negative emotion. As a future direction, identification of malleable biological markers and the translation of these findings into clinical practices may help to better identify individuals at risk and suggest a novel approach for preventing or intervening in the development of AUD, which may in turn contribute to population health.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Tomoko Udo Schalle

Food Insecurity in NY State. Solutions to Address the Multifaceted Problem

Food is an essential determinant of health; the challenges in meeting nutritional needs for all are complex. Food insecurity involves the availability of enough safe and nutritious food, having access to that food, and being able to effectively utilize that food for household consumption. Availability has to do with the supply chain, which is affected directly by the social and physical environment. Access is related to the social and economic factors that determine individuals and households’ socioeconomic opportunities. Utilization has to do with having the ability, storage and tools for food preparation. Food insecurity is a growing social problem with root causes that precede the COVID-19 pandemic and are often beyond the control of individuals. Socioeconomic disadvantages such as concentrated poverty, unemployment, and disabilities are strongly associated with food insecurity, conditions historically much more prevalent in racial/ethnic minorities. Comprehensive assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on prevalence of food insecurity in NYS is difficult due to lack of consistent and continuous surveillance data. However, FeedingNYS.org reported that there was a 50% increase in emergency food distribution through the food banks during the summer of 2020, demonstrating the highest demand for emergency food since the Great Depression. Reduction in food insecurity requires interventions that target food availability and access at neighborhood or regional levels, and address what to do to ensure consumption of healthy food. Households that experience food insecurity may need to make trade-offs between other basic needs and buying nutritionally adequate food. Availability of food at the neighborhood or regional level is often affected by historically racist policies, unfair distribution of food, and food system vulnerabilities. While public health and policy interventions aiming to directly improve access to food, especially healthy food, are crucial, they may not be enough to fundamentally address racial/ethnic disparities in food insecurity. New York State needs to conduct population level surveillance of the availability of and access to food as well as household level hunger and level of food insecurity. This surveillance must consider the effects of race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status as well as city/town and urban/rural differences so that government agencies can target and tailor programs in a way that can address limitations in food access that have the greatest impact on minority communities. The expansion of SNAP and WIC eligibility to more low-income households will help fill some of the gap between eligibility and food security. It is important to expand healthy food access to include culturally appropriate food in areas with concentrated poverty, a history of segregation, and low food access to facilitate the reduction in food insecurity among minority populations. Further, programs should be developed to promote access to and utilization of affordable, healthy, and culturally appropriate foods at food pantries or through SNAP and WIC. Participatory research that engages community members can be particularly useful when developing interventions