Community Health Interventions to Reduce the Burden of Radon-Related Lung Cancer

Exposure to radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States. One in seven homes in Vermont has elevated levels of radon, but most patients are unaware of radon as a risk factor for lung cancer or that radon testing and mitigation services are available to them. To promote increased testing and mitigation of radon we screened patients presenting to a Family Medicine practice in Vermont about whether they had had these services done in their home. We also developed a patient education resource for providers to give to patients who had more questions about radon exposure, how to get it tested, and what can be done to reduce the radon levels within their homes.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fmclerk/1817/thumbnail.jp

Research proposal: Industry convergence - Driving forces, factors and consequences

Industry convergence – the merger of hitherto separate industries – is a phenomenon that has had a profound effect on several industries and received considerable interest among practitioners and business press over the past decades. Despite this, industry con- vergence has only received limited attention from the academic management field, al- though an emergent discussion on convergence can be identified. Prior research is limited by a lack of coherent theoretical definitions of convergence, and a tendency to focus on technological aspects rather than on consequences for industry structure and individ- ual firms. Moreover, there is lack of empirical work in actual convergent industry set- tings. This research proposal reviews some of the literature on convergence to date, in order to develop a theoretical framework of industry convergence that takes drivers, types and consequences on industry and firm level into account. The preliminary frame- work positions industry convergence as being conceptually and causally distinct from technology convergence, although the two are often intrinsically linked. Industry con- vergence is defined as a process whereby two or more industries – made up of producers of substitute products – converge over time, and where the outcome is uncertain with many alternatives. Two main types of industry convergence are proposed, convergence in substitutes and convergence in complements. With a view to increase the understanding of industry convergence, the preliminary theoretical framework will be applied in a longitudinal case study of the electronic security industry. This sector is currently converging with the IT industry, a process mainly driven by the pervasiveness of Internet Protocol (IP) networking technology, that allows the integration of a number of previously separate security and information systems

IP security – a disruptive or sustaining technology shift?

The shift towards IP-based security products and systems is often touted as an example of a disruptive technology that have had – and will continue to have – profound consequences for the electronic security industry as a whole. Based on Clayton Christensen’s theories on disruptive innovation, this document argues that the in- troduction of IP-based technology has different effects depending on the product segment observed. In the case of video surveillance, it is argued that IP has brought about a disruptive change, whereas the effect on access control is found to be more of an incremental, or sustaining character. These conclusions are based partly on an analysis of the impact of IP technology on product platforms, and partly on observations of changes in industry structure that can be observed in the video surveillance and access control sectors

Security industry standards – a research agenda

The security industry has traditionally been highly fragmented and vendors have opted for proprietary standards that induce customer lockin. Several factors – including absence of network effects, end-user heterogeneity and low barriers of entry – have contributed to the dearth of standards. The shift to digital product platforms did not initially change the structural dynamics that inhibit standards within the industry. However, as the security industry breaks away from vertical integration and is coming to resemble the modular IT industry, the need for increased interoperability has become a critical issue

Synthesis, characterization and magnetic properties of AxB1−xV2O4 spinels for A, B = Mg, Co, Zn, Fe, Mn

This work demonstrates the novel synthesis of solid solutions of vanadium spinels A [subscript x] B₁₋ [subscript x] V₂ O₄, where A, B = Mg, Co, Zn, Fe, Mn, and x = 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1. Seventeen samples are synthesized using a microwave-assisted solvothermal (MW-ST) process and annealed in an Ar atmosphere. Materials characterization of samples is carried out by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and inductively coupled plasma (ICP). Magnetic properties of samples are measured by a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM).Materials Science and Engineerin

REGULATORY MECHANISMS OF SLC39A4 (ZIP4) AND SLC39A5 (ZIP5) IN THE ADAPTIVE RESPONSE TO ZINC AVAILABILITY

The aims of this research were to determine how Zip4 and Zip5 are regulated in response to zinc availability and how Zip4 impacts development. Loss of Zip4 resulted in embryonic lethality. Heterozygosity negatively affected eye, heart, and brain development. Excess zinc did not rescue lethality but ameliorated the heterozygous effects. Zip4 and Zip5 had reciprocal regulation in response to zinc availability. Zip4 expression was regulated by stability of the mRNA and protein: both accumulate during zinc deficiency; ZIP4 was rapidly internalized then degraded following zinc repletion. The Zip5 mRNA levels did not change with zinc availability and were polysome-associated. ZIP5 accumulated on the basolateral membranes after zinc repletion. miRNAs predicted to target Zip5 in an accessible region of the conserved 3' UTR were polysome-associated in all tissues that regulate Zip5. Zip4 and Zip5 are both regulated by post-transcriptional mechanisms in response to zinc availability and Zip4 is essential for development

A Molecular Spiral Arm in the Far Outer Galaxy

We have identified a spiral arm lying beyond the Outer Arm in the first Galactic quadrant ~15 kpc from the Galactic center. After tracing the arm in existing 21 cm surveys, we searched for molecular gas using the CfA 1.2 meter telescope and detected CO at 10 of 220 positions. The detections are distributed along the arm from l = 13 deg, v = -21 km/s to l = 55 deg, v = -84 km/s and coincide with most of the main H I concentrations. One of the detections was fully mapped to reveal a large molecular cloud with a radius of 47 pc and a molecular mass of ~50,000 Mo. At a mean distance of 21 kpc, the molecular gas in this arm is the most distant yet detected in the Milky Way. The new arm appears to be the continuation of the Scutum-Centaurus Arm in the outer Galaxy, as a symmetric counterpart of the nearby Perseus Arm.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, 1 Table, ApJ Letters, in pres

Thread-Modular Static Analysis for Relaxed Memory Models

We propose a memory-model-aware static program analysis method for accurately analyzing the behavior of concurrent software running on processors with weak consistency models such as x86-TSO, SPARC-PSO, and SPARC-RMO. At the center of our method is a unified framework for deciding the feasibility of inter-thread interferences to avoid propagating spurious data flows during static analysis and thus boost the performance of the static analyzer. We formulate the checking of interference feasibility as a set of Datalog rules which are both efficiently solvable and general enough to capture a range of hardware-level memory models. Compared to existing techniques, our method can significantly reduce the number of bogus alarms as well as unsound proofs. We implemented the method and evaluated it on a large set of multithreaded C programs. Our experiments showthe method significantly outperforms state-of-the-art techniques in terms of accuracy with only moderate run-time overhead.Comment: revised version of the ESEC/FSE 2017 pape

Regulation of zinc-responsive Slc39a5 (Zip5) translation is mediated by conserved elements in the 3′-untranslated region

Translation of the basolateral zinc transporter ZIP5 is repressed during zinc deficiency but Zip5 mRNA remains associated with polysomes and can be rapidly translated when zinc is repleted. Herein, we examined the mechanisms regulating translation of Zip5. The 3′-untranslated region (UTR) of Zip5 mRNA is well conserved among mammals and is predicted by mFOLD to form a very stable stem-loop structure. Three algorithms predict this structure to be flanked by repeated seed sites for miR-328 and miR-193a. RNAse footprinting supports the notion that a stable stem-loop structure exists in this 3′-UTR and electrophoretic mobility shift assays detect polysomal protein(s) binding specifically to the stem-loop structure in the Zip5 3′-UTR. miR-328 and miR-193a are expressed in tissues known to regulate Zip5 mRNA translation in response to zinc availability and both are polysome-associated consistent with Zip5 mRNA localization. Transient transfection assays using native and mutant Zip5 3′-UTRs cloned 3′ to luciferase cDNA revealed that the miRNA seed sites and the stem-loop function together to augment translation of Zip5 mRNA when zinc is replete