Benchmark Dose Risk Assessment for Formaldehyde Using Airflow Modeling and a Single-Compartment, DNA-Protein Cross-Link Dosimetry Model to Estimate Human Equivalent Doses

Formaldehyde induced squamous-cell carcinomas in the nasal passages of F344 rats in two inhalation bioassays at exposure levels of 6 ppm and above. Increases in rates of cell proliferation were measured by T. M. Monticello and colleagues at exposure levels of 0.7 ppm and above in the same tissues from which tumors arose. A risk assessment for formaldehyde was conducted at the CIIT Centers for Health Research, in collaboration with investigators from Toxicological Excellence in Risk Assessment (TERA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) in 1999. Two methods for dose-response assessment were used: a full biologically based modeling approach and a statistically oriented analysis by benchmark dose (BMD) method. This article presents the later approach, the purpose of which is to combine BMD and pharmacokinetic modeling to estimate human cancer risks from formaldehyde exposure. BMD analysis was used to identify points of departure (exposure levels) for low-dose extrapolation in rats for both tumor and the cell proliferation endpoints. The benchmark concentrations for induced cell proliferation were lower than for tumors. These concentrations were extrapolated to humans using two mechanistic models. One model used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) alone to determine rates of delivery of inhaled formaldehyde to the nasal lining. The second model combined the CFD method with a pharmacokinetic model to predict tissue dose with formaldehyde-induced DNA-protein cross-links (DPX) as a dose metric. Both extrapolation methods gave similar results, and the predicted cancer risk in humans at low exposure levels was found to be similar to that from a risk assessment conducted by the U.S. EPA in 1991. Use of the mechanistically based extrapolation models lends greater certainty to these risk estimates than previous approaches and also identifies the uncertainty in the measured dose-response relationship for cell proliferation at low exposure levels, the dose-response relationship for DPX in monkeys, and the choice between linear and nonlinear methods of extrapolation as key remaining sources of uncertainty.     

Organized Racism and the Stranger

To attract members and adherents, contemporary racist organizations construct interpretive frames that address a wide variety of social issues and problems. We draw on Simmel's insights on the social position of “the stranger,” arguing that racist framing should have greater resonance in communities with a large non-White population that is not fully integrated into the community. We examine county-level variation in the presence or absence of an active racist group in 2001. Results show that the combination of a large non-White population and White isolation from non-Whites provides a favorable context for racist activism.     

The Way we Were — and Will Be

When extremists, both feminists and anti-feminists, perpetrate the myth that equality means death to the family, women such as myself have a hard time working out what our real options are — and indeed what our real feelings are. Some choose to opt out of families; some choose to make a lot of money pursuing their own careers; some choose to travel the country lecturing women that they don't need equal rights, just husbands to support them. But the underlying reality is no different for the most committed feminists and the most vocal defenders of the traditional family.     

Strategies to Improve the World Food Programme's Revenue Mobilisation and Procurement Practices

Currently, a vast majority of WFP food procurement is executed through spot markets, which exposes it to substantial commodity and transport price risk as well as significant delays in delivery. The WFP also has limited flexibility owing to unpredictable revenue mobilisation, partly driven by restricted donor contributions. However, a significant portion of its operations are fairly predictable – both in terms of countries and delivery volumes. There are several types of derivatives contracts available at commodities exchanges that can facilitate strategic hedging. Greater commitments of untied cash donations from the US and other major donors can give the WFP significant operational flexibility to execute prudent financial management operations without damaging local food markets.     

‘Bands of Fellowship’: The Role of Personal Relationships and Social Networks Among Irish Migrants in New Zealand, 1861–1911

Utilising personal correspondence, this study explores the practical assistance and emotional benefit that newcomers derived from Irish expatriate kin and neighbourhood networks in New Zealand. These social networks frequently provided new arrivals with practical assistance relating to employment and accommodation, as well as enabling access to marital partners. Besides demonstrating the existence and operation of Irish migrant ties among correspondents, this study also explores the quality of these relationships. It is suggested that high levels of community solidarity rather than their absence, together with the ‘cultural baggage’ of migrants, may have had negative social consequences such as drunkenness and interpersonal conflict. Yet settlement abroad was not necessarily a crippling undertaking characterised by loneliness and maladjustment. Rather, the succour and support offered by informal expatriate ties helped alleviate feelings of dislocation and proved much more instructive than companionship provided by formal networks.     

Improving the Archiving of Records in the Out-of-home Care Sector

Abstract

Senate Inquiries into the lives of people who grew up in care, highly critical Ombudsman reports, and advocacy groups for recent and past “care leavers” draw attention to the significance of the records for children growing up in out-of-home care. This article reports on a project in which an interdisciplinary team of social workers, archivists, and historians worked together with 12 community-sector (nongovernment) organisations to look at the question of how to improve the management of the records for people with experience of out-of-home care. A Self Assessment Tool was developed and deployed at two points in time to provide feedback to organisations about the quality of their record-keeping practices. Clear improvements could be documented over a 2-year period in all 12 of the organisations involved.     

Social Status and the Application of Sanctions to Hypothetical Criminal Offenders

Abstract

Responses to hypothetical episodes of criminal acts from 523 adult respondents were used to test the proposition that persons react to criminal offenders and victims partially on the basis of class identification. Specifically, we hypothesized that persons would tend to recommend greater degrees of punishment to offenders who occupied class positions different from themselves and to offenders whose victims were similar to themselves. The data did not support the hypotheses.     

Understanding outsourcing contexts through information asymmetry and capability fit

Outsourcing is a strategic activity that has long been central to operations management research and practice. Yet, there are still many outsourcing management challenges that remain. In this article, we explore two of the outsourcing challenges that motivated this special issue and are central to the 10 articles included. To do this, we develop a theoretical model that examines how variations in capability fit and information asymmetry combine to present firms with four different outsourcing contexts. We then explain how each of the articles included in this special issue relate to our theoretical model and explore several avenues for future research.