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Background Heat-related morbidity and mortality is a recognized public health concern. However, public health officials need to base policy decisions on local evidence, which is often lacking for smaller communities. Objectives To evaluate the association between maximum daily heat index (HI) and morbidity and mortality in 15 New England communities (combined population: 2.7 million) in order to provide actionable evidence for local officials. Methods We applied overdispersed Poisson nonlinear distributed lag models to evaluate the association between HI and daily (May-September) emergency department (ED) admissions and deaths in each of 15 study sites in New Hampshire, Maine, and Rhode Island, controlling for time trends, day of week, and federal holidays. Site-specific estimates were meta-analyzed to provide regional estimates. Results Associations (sometimes non-linear) were observed between HI and each health outcome. For example, a day with a HI of 95°F vs. 75°F was associated with a cumulative 7.5% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 6.5%, 8.5%) and 5.1% (95% CI: 0.2%, 10.3%) higher rate of all-cause ED visits and deaths, respectively, with some evidence of regional heterogeneity. We estimate that in the study area, days with a HI≥95°F were associated with an annual average of 784 (95% CI: 658, 908) excess ED visits and 22 (95% CI: 3, 39) excess deaths. Conclusions Our results suggest the presence of adverse health impacts associated with HI below the current local guideline criteria of HI≥100°F used to issue heat advisories. We hypothesize that lowering this threshold may lead to substantially reduced heat-related morbidity and mortality in the study area.

Holistic scoring is a method of rank ing essays according to the general impression they make on trained readers. In the early stages of its develop ment, holistic scoring seemed to be irrep arably subjective and unreliable; but these problems have been overcome, and it now occupies a secure position within the as sessment community and is widely used for research, placement, and other situa tions involving large numbers of writers (Huot 1990). Holistic scoring is popular because of its unique combination of validity, speed, and reliability. Because it is based upon actual samples of writing, holistic scoring has greater face validity than multiple choice and other so-called objective tests. Yet it is less cumbersome than the two major alternatives, analytic and primary trait scoring, which determine an essay's overall score on the basis of subscores as signed within as many as eight separ ate categories (White 1985). Indeed, the speed of holistic scoring is impressive. Breland (1987) reports that "narrative pa pers were completed at an average rate of thirty-three papers per hour, expository papers at forty-six papers per hour, and persuasive papers at seventeen papers per hour/' Moreover, these rates can be achieved without adversely affecting reliability. East Texas State University is typical in

This report investigates the use of single and multi-layer coatings on replaceable headlamp bulbs and how such coatings can affect the performance of bulbs in terms of light scattering, which can contribute to glare, and spectral separation in headlamps. Tests were developed to investigate the effects of absorptive and interference (multi-layer) coatings on bulbs, and on bulbs in headlamp systems. These tests provide validation for a proposed bulb color separation test, which establishes limits for spectral separation within the boundaries of SAE J578 white color requirements. The bulb color separation test provides a definitive selection criterion to identify bulbs that cause excessive light scatter (glare) and/or spectral separation in an optical system.

The title compound (DTTTF) was prepared by the coupling of the corresponding thieno-1,3-dithiolium salt, obtained from thieno-1, 3-dithiolane-2-thione synthesized from 3,4-dibromothiophen.

The title compound (DTTTF) was prepared by the coupling of the corresponding thieno-1,3-dithiolium salt, obtained from thieno-1, 3-dithiolane-2-thione synthesized from 3,4-dibromothiophen.