An Analysis of Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program Exercise Results. Volume 2: Preliminary Evaluation and Analysis of CSEPP Exercise Database

This study investigated the quality and usefulness of the information in the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) exercise database. It incorporates the results of two separate analytical efforts. The first effort investigated the process of assigning standardized codes to issues identified in CSEPP exercise reports. A small group of issues was coded independently by each of several individuals, and the results of the individual codings were compared. Considerable differences were found among the individuals` codings. The second effort consisted of a statistical multivariate analysis, to investigate whether exercise issues are evenly distributed among exercise tabs, sites, and objectives. It was found that certain tabs, sites, and objectives were disproportionately associated with problem areas in exercises. In some cases, these problem areas have persisted over time, but in other cases they have undergone significant shifts over the time span of the investigation. The study concludes that the database can be a useful resource for analyzing problem areas and setting priorities for CSEPP program resources. However, some further analyses should be performed in order to more fully explore the data and increase confidence in the results

GIS Modeling of Air Toxics Releases from TRI-Reporting and Non-TRI-Reporting Facilities: Impacts for Environmental Justice

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) requires facilities with 10 or more full-time employees that process > 25,000 pounds in aggregate or use > 10,000 pounds of any one TRI chemical to report releases annually. However, little is known about releases from non-TRI-reporting facilities, nor has attention been given to the very localized equity impacts associated with air toxics releases. Using geographic information systems and industrial source complex dispersion modeling, we developed methods for characterizing air releases from TRI-reporting as well as non-TRI-reporting facilities at four levels of geographic resolution. We characterized the spatial distribution and concentration of air releases from one representative industry in Durham County, North Carolina (USA). Inclusive modeling of all facilities rather than modeling of TRI sites alone significantly alters the magnitude and spatial distribution of modeled air concentrations. Modeling exposure receptors at more refined levels of geographic resolution reveals localized, neighborhood-level exposure hot spots that are not apparent at coarser geographic scales. Multivariate analysis indicates that inclusive facility modeling at fine levels of geographic resolution reveals exposure disparities by income and race. These new methods significantly enhance the ability to model air toxics, perform equity analysis, and clarify conflicts in the literature regarding environmental justice findings. This work has substantial implications for how to structure TRI reporting requirements, as well as methods and types of analysis that will successfully elucidate the spatial distribution of exposure potentials across geographic, income, and racial lines

Ambient air pollution exposure and the incidence of related health effects among racial/ethnic minorities

Differences among racial and ethnic groups in morbidity and mortality rates for diseases, including diseases with environmental causes, have been extensively documented. However, documenting the linkages between environmental contaminants, individual exposures, and disease incidence has been hindered by difficulties in measuring exposure for the population in general and for minority populations in particular. After briefly discussing research findings on associations of common air pollutants with disease incidence, the authors summarize recent studies of radial/ethnic subgroup differences in incidence of these diseases in the US. They then present evidence of both historic and current patterns of disproportionate minority group exposure to air pollution as measured by residence in areas where ambient air quality standards are violated. The current indications of disproportionate potential exposures of minority and low-income populations to air pollutants represent the continuation of a historical trend. The evidence of linkage between disproportionate exposure to air pollution of racial/ethnic minorities and low-income groups and their higher rates of some air pollution-related diseases is largely circumstantial. Differences in disease incidence and mortality rates among racial/ethnic groups are discussed for respiratory diseases, cancers, and lead poisoning. Pollutants of concern include CO, Pb, SO{sub 2}, O{sub 3}, and particulates

Assessment of relative exposure of minority and low-income groups to outdoor air pollution

A diverse research effort, conducted by both federal agencies and scholars in academia, has addressed the issue of environmental justice. Recent environmental justice studies have generally focused on the demographics of areas close to hazardous waste facilities; landfills; Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Information System (CERCLIS) sites; and Superfund sites. Recent efforts at the federal and state levels to determine risk-related priorities in allocating resources for research and remediation have found that hazardous wastes present much lower health effect risks than air pollution does. Past research findings, funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), showed disproportionately high levels of substandard air quality exposure for minority and low-income populations. This study is a continuation of that earlier research

Direct-hydrogen-fueled proton-exchange-membrane fuel cell system for transportation applications: Conceptual vehicle design report pure fuel cell powertrain vehicle

In partial fulfillment of the Department of Energy (DOE) Contract No. DE-AC02-94CE50389, {open_quotes}Direct-Hydrogen-Fueled Proton-Exchange-Membrane (PEM) Fuel Cell for Transportation Applications{close_quotes}, this preliminary report addresses the conceptual design and packaging of a fuel cell-only powered vehicle. Three classes of vehicles are considered in this design and packaging exercise, the Aspire representing the small vehicle class, the Taurus or Aluminum Intensive Vehicle (AIV) Sable representing the mid-size vehicle and the E-150 Econoline representing the van-size class. A fuel cell system spreadsheet model and Ford`s Corporate Vehicle Simulation Program (CVSP) were utilized to determine the size and the weight of the fuel cell required to power a particular size vehicle. The fuel cell power system must meet the required performance criteria for each vehicle. In this vehicle design and packaging exercise, the following assumptions were made: fuel cell power system density of 0.33 kW/kg and 0.33 kg/liter, platinum catalyst loading less than or equal to 0.25 mg/cm{sup 2} total and hydrogen tanks containing gaseous hydrogen under 340 atm (5000 psia) pressure. The fuel cell power system includes gas conditioning, thermal management, humidity control, and blowers or compressors, where appropriate. This conceptual design of a fuel cell-only powered vehicle will help in the determination of the propulsion system requirements for a vehicle powered by a PEMFC engine in lieu of the internal combustion (IC) engine. Only basic performance level requirements are considered for the three classes of vehicles in this report. Each vehicle will contain one or more hydrogen storage tanks and hydrogen fuel for 560 km (350 mi) driving range. Under these circumstances, the packaging of a fuel cell-only powered vehicle is increasingly difficult as the vehicle size diminishes

Labeling poststorm coastal imagery for machine learning: measurement of interrater agreement

© The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Goldstein, E. B., Buscombe, D., Lazarus, E. D., Mohanty, S. D., Rafique, S. N., Anarde, K. A., Ashton, A. D., Beuzen, T., Castagno, K. A., Cohn, N., Conlin, M. P., Ellenson, A., Gillen, M., Hovenga, P. A., Over, J.-S. R., Palermo, R., Ratliff, K. M., Reeves, I. R. B., Sanborn, L. H., Straub, J. A., Taylor, L. A., Wallace E. J., Warrick, J., Wernette, P., Williams, H. E. Labeling poststorm coastal imagery for machine learning: measurement of interrater agreement. Earth and Space Science, 8(9), (2021): e2021EA001896, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EA001896.Classifying images using supervised machine learning (ML) relies on labeled training data—classes or text descriptions, for example, associated with each image. Data-driven models are only as good as the data used for training, and this points to the importance of high-quality labeled data for developing a ML model that has predictive skill. Labeling data is typically a time-consuming, manual process. Here, we investigate the process of labeling data, with a specific focus on coastal aerial imagery captured in the wake of hurricanes that affected the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States. The imagery data set is a rich observational record of storm impacts and coastal change, but the imagery requires labeling to render that information accessible. We created an online interface that served labelers a stream of images and a fixed set of questions. A total of 1,600 images were labeled by at least two or as many as seven coastal scientists. We used the resulting data set to investigate interrater agreement: the extent to which labelers labeled each image similarly. Interrater agreement scores, assessed with percent agreement and Krippendorff's alpha, are higher when the questions posed to labelers are relatively simple, when the labelers are provided with a user manual, and when images are smaller. Experiments in interrater agreement point toward the benefit of multiple labelers for understanding the uncertainty in labeling data for machine learning research.The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the U.S. Geological Survey (G20AC00403 to EBG and SDM), NSF (1953412 to EBG and SDM; 1939954 to EBG), Microsoft AI for Earth (to EBG and SDM), The Leverhulme Trust (RPG-2018-282 to EDL and EBG), and an Early Career Research Fellowship from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (to EBG). U.S. Geological Survey researchers (DB, J-SRO, JW, and PW) were supported by the U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program as part of the response and recovery efforts under congressional appropriations through the Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Act, 2019 (Public Law 116-20; 133 Stat. 871)

Epidemiologic evidence for asthma and exposure to air toxics: linkages between occupational, indoor, and community air pollution research.

Outdoor ambient air pollutant exposures in communities are relevant to the acute exacerbation and possibly the onset of asthma. However, the complexity of pollutant mixtures and etiologic heterogeneity of asthma has made it difficult to identify causal components in those mixtures. Occupational exposures associated with asthma may yield clues to causal components in ambient air pollution because such exposures are often identifiable as single-chemical agents (e.g., metal compounds). However, translating occupational to community exposure-response relationships is limited. Of the air toxics found to cause occupational asthma, only formaldehyde has been frequently investigated in epidemiologic studies of allergic respiratory responses to indoor air, where general consistency can be shown despite lower ambient exposures. The specific volatile organic compounds (VOCs) identified in association with occupational asthma are generally not the same as those in studies showing respiratory effects of VOC mixtures on nonoccupational adult and pediatric asthma. In addition, experimental evidence indicates that airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposures linked to diesel exhaust particles (DEPs) have proinflammatory effects on airways, but there is insufficient supporting evidence from the occupational literature of effects of DEPs on asthma or lung function. In contrast, nonoccupational epidemiologic studies have frequently shown associations between allergic responses or asthma with exposures to ambient air pollutant mixtures with PAH components, including black smoke, high home or school traffic density (particularly truck traffic), and environmental tobacco smoke. Other particle-phase and gaseous co-pollutants are likely causal in these associations as well. Epidemiologic research on the relationship of both asthma onset and exacerbation to air pollution is needed to disentangle effects of air toxics from monitored criteria air pollutants such as particle mass. Community studies should focus on air toxics expected to have adverse respiratory effects based on biological mechanisms, particularly irritant and immunological pathways to asthma onset and exacerbation

Retrotransposons Are the Major Contributors to the Expansion of the \u3ci\u3eDrosophila ananassae\u3c/i\u3e Muller F Element

The discordance between genome size and the complexity of eukaryotes can partly be attributed to differences in repeat density. The Muller F element (∼5.2 Mb) is the smallest chromosome in Drosophila melanogaster, but it is substantially larger (\u3e18.7 Mb) in D. ananassae. To identify the major contributors to the expansion of the F element and to assess their impact, we improved the genome sequence and annotated the genes in a 1.4-Mb region of the D. ananassae F element, and a 1.7-Mb region from the D element for comparison. We find that transposons (particularly LTR and LINE retrotransposons) are major contributors to this expansion (78.6%), while Wolbachia sequences integrated into the D. ananassae genome are minor contributors (0.02%). Both D. melanogaster and D. ananassae F-element genes exhibit distinct characteristics compared to D-element genes (e.g., larger coding spans, larger introns, more coding exons, and lower codon bias), but these differences are exaggerated in D. ananassae. Compared to D. melanogaster, the codon bias observed in D. ananassae F-element genes can primarily be attributed to mutational biases instead of selection. The 5′ ends of F-element genes in both species are enriched in dimethylation of lysine 4 on histone 3 (H3K4me2), while the coding spans are enriched in H3K9me2. Despite differences in repeat density and gene characteristics, D. ananassae F-element genes show a similar range of expression levels compared to genes in euchromatic domains. This study improves our understanding of how transposons can affect genome size and how genes can function within highly repetitive domains

Functional Roles of the N- and C-Terminal Regions of the Human Mitochondrial Single-Stranded DNA-Binding Protein

Biochemical studies of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) replisome demonstrate that the mtDNA polymerase and the mtDNA helicase are stimulated by the mitochondrial single-stranded DNA-binding protein (mtSSB). Unlike Escherichia coli SSB, bacteriophage T7 gp2.5 and bacteriophage T4 gp32, mtSSBs lack a long, negatively charged C-terminal tail. Furthermore, additional residues at the N-terminus (notwithstanding the mitochondrial presequence) are present in the sequence of species across the animal kingdom. We sought to analyze the functional importance of the N- and C-terminal regions of the human mtSSB in the context of mtDNA replication. We produced the mature wild-type human mtSSB and three terminal deletion variants, and examined their physical and biochemical properties. We demonstrate that the recombinant proteins adopt a tetrameric form, and bind single-stranded DNA with similar affinities. They also stimulate similarly the DNA unwinding activity of the human mtDNA helicase (up to 8-fold). Notably, we find that unlike the high level of stimulation that we observed previously in the Drosophila system, stimulation of DNA synthesis catalyzed by human mtDNA polymerase is only moderate, and occurs over a narrow range of salt concentrations. Interestingly, each of the deletion variants of human mtSSB stimulates DNA synthesis at a higher level than the wild-type protein, indicating that the termini modulate negatively functional interactions with the mitochondrial replicase. We discuss our findings in the context of species-specific components of the mtDNA replisome, and in comparison with various prokaryotic DNA replication machineries

Human Flt3L Generates Dendritic Cells from Canine Peripheral Blood Precursors: Implications for a Dog Glioma Clinical Trial

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common primary brain tumor in adults and carries a dismal prognosis. We have developed a conditional cytotoxic/immunotherapeutic approach using adenoviral vectors (Ads) encoding the immunostimulatory cytokine, human soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 ligand (hsFlt3L) and the conditional cytotoxic molecule, i.e., Herpes Simplex Type 1- thymide kinase (TK). This therapy triggers an anti-tumor immune response that leads to tumor regression and anti-tumor immunological memory in intracranial rodent cancer models. We aim to test the efficacy of this immunotherapy in dogs bearing spontaneous GBM. In view of the controversy regarding the effect of human cytokines on dog immune cells, and considering that the efficacy of this treatment depends on hsFlt3L-stimulated dendritic cells (DCs), in the present work we tested the ability of Ad-encoded hsFlt3L to generate DCs from dog peripheral blood and compared its effects with canine IL-4 and GM-CSF.Our results demonstrate that hsFlT3L expressed form an Ad vector, generated DCs from peripheral blood cultures with very similar morphological and phenotypic characteristics to canine IL-4 and GM-CSF-cultured DCs. These include phagocytic activity and expression of CD11c, MHCII, CD80 and CD14. Maturation of DCs cultured under both conditions resulted in increased secretion of IL-6, TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma. Importantly, hsFlt3L-derived antigen presenting cells showed allostimulatory potential highlighting their ability to present antigen to T cells and elicit their proliferation.These results demonstrate that hsFlt3L induces the proliferation of canine DCs and support its use in upcoming clinical trials for canine GBM. Our data further support the translation of hsFlt3L to be used for dendritic cells' vaccination and gene therapeutic approaches from rodent models to canine patients and its future implementation in human clinical trials