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Background: This study aimed to analyze the trends and burden of occupational exposure to asbestos in the United States (U.S.) from 1990 to 2019, focusing on mortality rates, geographic distribution, age and sex patterns, and causes of death. Methods: Data on the number of deaths attributable to occupational exposure to asbestos were collected from 1990 to 2019 in the U.S. Joinpoint analysis was conducted to assess trends over time, and regression models were applied to calculate annual percentage changes (APC) and annual average percentage changes (AAPC). Geographic distribution was examined using mapping techniques. Age and sex patterns were analyzed, and causes of death were identified based on available data. Results: From 1990 to 2019, the overall number of deaths due to occupational exposure to asbestos in the U.S. increased by 20.2%. However, age-standardized mortality rates (ASMR) and age-standardized disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) rates (ASDR) exhibited a decline over the same period. Geographic analysis revealed differences in the number of deaths across states in 2019, with California reporting the highest number of fatalities. Age-specific mortality and DALYs showed an increase with age, peaking in older age groups. Tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancer were the leading causes of death attributed to asbestos exposure, with increasing trends observed over the past five years. Conclusion: The study highlights significant trends and burden in occupational exposure to asbestos in the U.S., including overall increases in mortality rates, declining ASMR and ASDR, geographic disparities, age and sex patterns, and shifts in causes of death. These findings underscore the importance of continued monitoring and preventive measures to mitigate the burden of asbestos-related diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Global research hotspots and future research trends in the neurobiological mechanisms of late-life depression (LLD) as well as its diagnosis and treatment are not yet clear. Objectives: This study profiled the current state of global research on LLD and predicted future research trends in the field. Methods: Literature with the subject term LLD was retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection, and CiteSpace software was used to perform econometric and co-occurrence analyses. The results were visualized using CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and other software packages. Results: In total, 10,570 publications were included in the analysis. Publications on LLD have shown an increasing trend since 2004. The United States and the University of California had the highest number of publications, followed consecutively by China and England, making these countries and institutions the most influential in the field. Reynolds, Charles F. was the author with the most publications. The International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry was the journal with the most articles and citations. According to the co-occurrence analysis and keyword/citation burst analysis, cognitive impairment, brain network dysfunction, vascular disease, and treatment of LLD were research hotspots. Conclusion: Late-life depression has attracted increasing attention from researchers, with the number of publications increasing annually. However, many questions remain unaddressed in this field, such as the relationship between LLD and cognitive impairment and dementia, or the impact of vascular factors and brain network dysfunction on LLD. Additionally, the treatment of patients with LLD is currently a clinical challenge. The results of this study will help researchers find suitable research partners and journals, as well as predict future hotspots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The study tested the efficacy of providing distance learning with real-time videoconferencing to broaden high school student knowledge of health careers. Methods: A pilot program was tried out and extended over ten years to include other schools in four different time zones and the National Library of Medicine. Survey results, site visits, and continued school participation were used as effectiveness indicators. Student ratings, site visits, and ongoing discussions were used to evaluate critical factors in the program. Results: Nine program factors contributed to success. Conclusions: Synchronous communication can be effective for outreach to special populations given appropriate infrastructure, technology, program design, and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. We assessed how traffic and mobile-source air pollution impacts are distributed across racial/ethnic and socioeconomically diverse groups in port-adjacent communities in southern Los Angeles County, which may experience divergent levels of exposure to port-related heavy-duty diesel truck traffic because of existing residential and land use patterns. Methods. We used spatial regression techniques to assess the association of neighborhood racial/ethnic and socioeconomic composition with residential parcel-level traffic and vehicle-related fine particulate matter exposure after accounting for built environment and land use factors. Results. After controlling for factors associated with traffic generation, we found that a higher percentage of nearby Black and Asian/Pacific Islander residents was associated with higher exposure, a higher percentage of Hispanic residents was associated with higher traffic exposure but lower vehicle particulate matter exposure, and areas with lower socioeconomic status experienced lower exposure. Conclusions. Disparities in traffic and vehicle particulate matter exposure are nuanced depending on the exposure metric used, the distribution of the traffic and emissions, and pollutant dispersal patterns. Future comparative research is needed to assess potential disparities in other transportation and goods movement corridors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of near-surface soil stratigraphy on the amplitude and frequency content of ground motion are accounted for in most modern U.S. seismic design codes for building structures as a function of the soil conditions prevailing in the area of interest. Nonetheless, currently employed site-classification criteria do not adequately describe the nonlinearity susceptibility of soil formations, which prohibits the development of standardized procedures for the computationally efficient integration of nonlinear ground response analyses in broadband ground-motion simulations. In turn, the lack of a unified methodology for nonlinear site-response analyses affects both the prediction accuracy of site-specific ground-motion intensity measures and the evaluation of site-amplification factors when broadband simulations are used for the development of hybrid attenuation relations. In this article, we introduce a set of criteria for quantification of the nonlinearity susceptibility of soil profiles based on the site conditions and incident ground-motion characteristics, and we implement them to identify the least complex ground response prediction methodology required for the simulation of nonlinear site effects at three sites in the Los Angeles basin. The criteria are developed on the basis of a comprehensive nonlinear site-response modeling uncertainty analysis, which includes both detailed soil profile descriptions and statistical adequacy of ground-motion time histories. Approximate and incremental nonlinear models are implemented, and the limited site-response observations are initially compared to the ensemble site-response estimates. A suite of synthetic ground motions for rupture scenarios of weak, medium, and large magnitude events (M 3.5-7.5) is next generated, parametric studies are conducted for each fixed magnitude scenario by varying the source-to-site distance, and the variability introduced in ground-motion predictions is quantified for each nonlinear site-response methodology. A frequency index is developed to describe the frequency content of incident ground motion relative to the resonant frequencies of the soil profile, and this index is used in conjunction with the rock-outcrop acceleration peak amplitude (PGARO) to identify the site conditions and ground-motion characteristics where incremental nonlinear analyses should be employed in lieu of approximate methodologies. We show that the proposed intensity-frequency representation of ground motion may be implemented to describe the nonlinearity susceptibility of soil formations in broadband simulations by accounting both for the magnitude-distance-orientation characteristics of seismic motion and the profile stiffness characteristics. The synthetic ground-motion predictions are next used for the development of site-amplification factors for the alternative site-response methodologies, and the results are compared to published site factors of attenuation relations. For the site conditions investigated, currently established amplification factors compare well with synthetic simulations for class C and D site conditions, while long-period amplification factors are overestimated by a factor of 1.5 at the class E site, where site-specific nonlinear analyses should be employed for levels of PGARO > 0.2g. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a behavior-based adaptive mission planner (AMP) to trace a chemical plume to its source and reliably declare the source location. The proposed AMP is implemented on a REMUS autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) equipped with multiple types of sensors that measure chemical concentration, the flow velocity vector, and AUV position, depth, altitude, attitude, and speed. This paper describes the methods and results from experiments conducted in November 2002 on San Clemente Island, CA, using a plume of Rhodamine dye developed in a turbulent fluid flow (i.e., near-shore ocean conditions). These experiments demonstrated chemical plume tracing over 100 m and source declaration accuracy relative to the nominal source location on the order of tens of meters. The designed maneuvers are divided into four behavior types: finding a plume, tracing the plume, reacquiring the plume, and declaring the source location. The tracing and reacquiring behaviors are inspired by male moths flying upwind along a pheromone plume to locate a sexually receptive female. All behaviors are formulated by perception and action modules and translated into chemical plume-tracing algorithms suitable for implementation on a REMUS AUV. To coordinate the different behaviors, the subsumption architecture is adopted to define and arbitrate the behavior priorities. AUVs capable of such feats would have applicability in searching for environmentally interesting phenomena, unexploded ordnance, undersea wreckage, and sources of hazardous chemicals or pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of migration and financial globalization focus on either the movement of money, with people staying put, or on the movement of people, with little attention to the impact of the money that moves with them. This paper uses in-depth interviews with executives at ethnic-Chinese foreign-bank offices in Los Angeles to consider the comovement of people and money. We find that understanding the causes and consequences of this comovement requires adding both ethnic and macrostructural layers to discussions of financial globalization. The forces that have led to the rise of a ChineseAmerican banking sector and to the opening of twenty-one Chinese foreign-bank offices in Los Angeles are intertwined: immigration from the Chinese diaspora to the USA, the growth trajectory and financial transformation of East Asia, and the financial and economic evolution of Los Angeles. Ethnic-Chinese foreign-bank offices in Los Angeles have dual roles: they function both as global outposts managing their headquarters' cross-border financial flows, and as localized institutions that are gradually becoming incorporated into Southern California's internal banking and financial markets. Foreign and domestic ethnic-Chinese banks play complementary roles in facilitating ethnic-Chinese economic development in Southern California. Framing these cross-border money-population flows and this cross-border institution building, respectively, are macrostructural constraints rooted in aggregate net financial flows and the changing strategies of global megabanks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides an analysis of the Chinese American banks of Los Angeles County, California. Argument on the emergence of the ethnic banking sector; Difference from first-wave ethnobanks; Economic impact of the banks.

Focuses on a model of ethnic settlement called ethnoburb and presents an analysis of the demographic profiles and socioeconomic characteristics of the ethnourban Chinese population in Los Angeles, California. Social stratification by country of origin, micro-geographies of neighborhood and workplace.

An abstract of the article "Right ventricle anatomy can predict new onset ventricular tachycardia in patients with repaired tetralogy of Fallot," by Beatrice Bonello and colleagues is presented.

An abstract of the article "Implication of atrial size and function in adults with repaired Tetralogy of Fallot and the effect of treatment by ramipril: the APPROPRIATE randomised trial," by Beatrice Bonello, Anselm Uebing, Wei Li, and colleagues is presented.

In the United States, about 600,000 people die of heart disease every year. The annual cost of care services, medications, and lost productivity reportedly exceeds 108.9 billion dollars. Effective disease risk assessment is critical to prevention, care, and treatment planning. Recent advancements in text analytics have opened up new possibilities of using the rich information in electronic medical records (EMRs) to identify relevant risk factors. The 2014 i2b2/UTHealth Challenge brought together researchers and practitioners of clinical natural language processing (NLP) to tackle the identification of heart disease risk factors reported in EMRs. We participated in this track and developed an NLP system by leveraging existing tools and resources, both public and proprietary. Our system was a hybrid of several machine-learning and rule-based components. The system achieved an overall F1 score of 0.9185, with a recall of 0.9409 and a precision of 0.8972., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)