Exposure Assessment Approaches for Engineered Nanomaterials

Products based on nanotechnology are rapidly emerging in the marketplace, sometimes with little notice to consumers of their nanotechnology pedigree. This wide variety of nanotechnology products will result (in some cases) in unintentional human exposure to purposely engineered nanoscale materials via the dermal, inhalation, ingestion, and ocular pathways. Occupational, consumer, and environmental exposure to the nanomaterials should be characterized during the entire product lifecycle—manufacture, use, and disposal. Monitoring the fate and transport of engineered nanomaterials is complicated by the lack of detection techniques and the lack of a defined set of standardized metrics to be consistently measured. New exposure metrics may be required for engineered nanomaterials, but progress is possible by building on existing tools. An exposure metric matrix could organize existing data by relating likely exposure pathways (dermal, inhalation, ocular, ingestion) with existing measurements of important characteristics of nanoscale materials (particle number, mass, size distribution, charge). Nanomaterial characteristics not commonly measured, but shown to initiate a biological response during toxicity testing, signal a need for further research, such as the pressing need to develop monitoring devices capable of measuring those aspects of engineered nanomaterials that result in biological responses in humans. Modeling the behavior of nanoparticles may require new types of exposure models that individually track particles through the environment while keeping track of the particle shape, surface area, and other surface characteristics as the nanoparticles are transformed or become reactive. Lifecycle analysis could also be used to develop conceptual models of exposure from engineered nanomaterials.     

HIV/AIDS treatments

Although fewer people are being diagnosed with AIDS in the U.S. and deaths continue to decline, the number of adults age 50 and older who are living with HIV/AIDS is larger than ever. It is likely that older people will continue to comprise an increasingly larger proportion of individuals diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, reflecting both the ineffective prevention efforts targeting older adults and the highly effective antiretroviral therapies that allow many people to live for significantly longer periods of time. These recent trends have created two distinct populations of older persons with HIV/AIDS: those who were infected later in life and those infected earlier and now aging with HIV disease. Aging with HIV/AIDS presents unique psychosocial challenges that may be exacerbated by the aging process. HIV-related stigma, social support and coping issues and evidence-based psychosocial interventions for older adults with HIV/AIDS are reviewed in this paper and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Buy or burn?: Empirical tests of models of crime using data from a general population

This study tested models of an individual's choice to copy illegally music using survey data from a random sample of adults who acquired recorded music. It added to the short list of studies of crime based on data from a general population sample and formally tested the added predictive power of an augmented crime model containing variables from both the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and rational choice models. The results supported the desirability of using general population samples and the augmented model. Policies that change attitudes and perceived norms have the potential to reduce crime.     

Option Contracts and Capacity Management—Enabling Price Discrimination under Demand Uncertainty

We explore using an option contract as a price discrimination tool under demand uncertainty. In our capacity game model, a monopolistic supplier has to build capacity before observing the uncertain demand. The demand is generated by two potential customers, who privately know their own types. The types could be either high or low, differing in willingness to pay for each unit of demand. To discriminate between the customer types, the supplier designs option contracts so that only the high type will buy options in advance. The high type will do so because the options can hedge their risk of demand loss when capacity is tight. The supplier profits in three ways. First, the high type customers pay higher marginal prices on average. Second, the high type customers' demand is satisfied as a first priority, guaranteeing allocation efficiency. Third, the supplier can observe the number of options being purchased and so determine customer types, improving capacity investment efficiency. We compare our results to those of classical second degree price discrimination. We show that our proposed framework guarantees the same level of supplier profit even when the supplier cannot discriminate between the customers by bundling products.     

Family Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Risks of Financial Insecurity and Coping

During the COVID-19 pandemic, families have experienced unprecedented financial and social disruptions. We studied the impact of preexisting psychosocial factors and pandemic-related financial and social disruptions in relation to family well-being among N = 4091 adolescents and parents during early summer 2020, participating in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development^SM Study. Poorer family well-being was linked to prepandemic psychosocial and financial adversity and was associated with pandemic-related material hardship and social disruptions to routines. Parental alcohol use increased risk for worsening of family relationships, while a greater endorsement of coping strategies was mainly associated with overall better family well-being. Financial and mental health support may be critical for family well-being during and after a widespread crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.     

Markets,Institutions and Technology: Missing Links in Livelihoods Analysis

The benefits of livelihoods thinking and approaches are widely recognised. This article focuses on an important gap in much of the conceptualization and application of ‘livelihood approaches’— a lack of emphasis on markets and their roles in livelihood development and poverty reduction. The omission is important, as it can lead to failure to identify and act on a wider range of market, institutional and technological opportunities and constraints. An alternative conceptualisation is proposed, with markets as one particular set of institutional mechanisms for co‐ordination and exchange in an economy. It is argued that more explicit attention to interactions between institutions, technology and assets in livelihood analysis may be valuable in conceptualising and managing programmes for livelihood development and poverty reduction.     

Failure is always an option: the necessity,promise & peril of radical contextualism

This essay pays tribute to Lawrence Grossberg and his influence through a consideration of radical contextualism – an analytical process that: (1) understands reality as contingently relational, complex, and always open to alteration; and (2) attempts to narratively represent the messiness and complexity of empirical reality as rigorously as possible (with an explicit recognition of the limits of our ability to do so). The piece opens by reflecting briefly on these principles with respect to the genre of intellectual tribute – that is, to contextualize what it means to talk about Larry and his work within the framework of the advisor/advisee relationship. How do you combine the care of engagement with the ethics of argumentation to make a statement that is as personal as it is intellectual? From there, I situate radical contextualism within Cultural Studies as both an ethical-intellectual commitment and an analytical practice. The goal here is to discuss both the positive and negative potential of this process. I end by reflecting on how Larry’s intellectual commitment to radical contextualism also works as a personal form of radical contextuality.     

Lessons from meta‐analyses of randomized clinical trials for analysis of distributed networks of observational databases

Networks of constellations of longitudinal observational databases, often electronic medical records or transactional insurance claims or both, are increasingly being used for studying the effects of medicinal products in real‐world use. Such databases are frequently configured as distributed networks. That is, patient‐level data are kept behind firewalls and not communicated outside of the data vendor other than in aggregate form. Instead, data are standardized across the network, and queries of the network are executed locally by data partners, and summary results provided to a central research partner(s) for amalgamation, aggregation, and summarization. Such networks can be huge covering years of data on upwards of 100 million patients. Examples of such networks include the FDA Sentinel Network, ASPEN, CNODES, and EU‐ADR. As this is a new emerging field, we note in this paper the conceptual similarities and differences between the analysis of distributed networks and the now well‐established field of meta‐analysis of randomized clinical trials (RCTs). We recommend, wherever appropriate, to apply learnings from meta‐analysis to help guide the development of distributed network analyses of longitudinal observational databases.     

The immense and continuing challenge of urban governance: Developments in Australia and across Greater China

The article describes the long history of urbanisation, including developments in four jurisdictions – three in Greater China (the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) and Australia. While each has its own history, all now face challenges associated with continuing urbanisation and the growth of very large cities. There are broadly similar economic forces at work, but differences in scale and differences in the “growth machines” involved and the institutional arrangements within which urban governance operates. The article explains the growing importance internationally of urban governance and the growing interest in the “performance” of cities. The authors then set out two case studies describing developments in urban governance around Shanghai and around Sydney. In both cases, the scale of big city growth is demanding both horizontal and vertical coordination, and processes that facilitate citizens and civil society participation. While the very different institutional arrangements in these jurisdictions have led to different urban governance arrangements, there are common challenges that have led to some common governance developments such as having a lead government with citywide and comprehensive public service responsibilities, and also having the national government play an increasingly active role in support.