Driving under the influence of allergies: the effect of seasonal pollen on traffic fatalities.

Traffic fatalities are the leading cause of mortality in the United States despite being preventable. While several policies have been introduced to improve traffic safety and their effects have been well documented, the role of transitory health shocks or situational factors at explaining variations in fatal traffic accidents has been understudied. Exploring daily variation in city-specific pollen counts, this study finds novel evidence that traffic fatalities increase on days in which the local pollen count is particularly high.

Office-based mental healthcare and juvenile arrests.

We estimate the effect of local access to office-based mental healthcare on juvenile arrest outcomes. We leverage variation in the number of offices of physicians and non-physicians specializing in mental healthcare in a county over the period 1999-2016 in a two-way fixed-effects regression. Office-based treatment is the most common modality of mental healthcare received by juveniles.

Use of local waste for biochar production: Influence of feedstock and pyrolysis temperature on chromium removal from aqueous solutions.

Sediment enrichment with biochar, a high-carbon material produced by the pyrolysis of biomass, is a promising remediation strategy for metal pollution. The metal immobilization capacity of biochar can be explained by its porous structure, surface functional groups, pH greater than 7, and cation exchange capacity. However, the effectiveness in reducing metal bioavailability depends on the physicochemical characteristics of the biochar, which are strongly associated with the process conditions and feedstock.

More sneezing, less crime? Health shocks and the market for offenses.

A large literature points out that exposure to criminal victimization has far-reaching effects on public health. What remains surprisingly unexplored is that role that health shocks play in explaining aggregate fluctuations in offending. This research finds novel evidence that crime is sensitive to health shocks.

Graduated driver licensing and teen fertility.

This paper evaluates the effect of implementing nighttime driving curfews and passenger restrictions mandated by graduated driver licensing (GDL) on teen fertility. Both components of GDL potentially restrict the freedom and mobility of minor drivers by requiring adult supervision, and therefore reduces opportunities to become pregnant. Using birth data from the National Vital Statistics (NVSS) and a triple differences approach, I find that the implementation of "tough" GDL decreased fertility by 3-4% among mothers between the ages of 16 and 18.

Invasive pneumococcal disease in hospitalised children from Lima, Peru before and after introduction of the 7-valent conjugated vaccine.

The objective of this study was to determine the serotype distribution and antibiotic resistance of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) strains in children from Lima, Peru, before and after the introduction of the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7), which was introduced in the national immunisation program on 2009. We conducted a prospective, multicentre, passive surveillance IPD study during 2006-2008 and 2009-2011, before and right after the introduction of PCV7 in Peru. The study was performed in 11 hospitals and five private laboratories in Lima, Peru, in patients <18 years old, with sterile site cultures yielding Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Identifying biomarkers for asthma diagnosis using targeted metabolomics approaches.

Background: The diagnosis of asthma in children is challenging and relies on a combination of clinical factors and biomarkers including methacholine challenge, lung function, bronchodilator responsiveness, and presence of airway inflammation. No single test is diagnostic. We sought to identify a pattern of inflammatory biomarkers that was unique to asthma using a targeted metabolomics approach combined with data science methods.

Two new species of the orb-weaving spider genus Alpaida (Araneae, Araneidae) from Peru.

Two new species of the orb-weaving spider genus Alpaida O. P.-Cambridge, 1889 are described and illustrated; Alpaida losamigos n.

The effects of alcohol on the consumption of hard drugs: regression discontinuity evidence from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, 1997.

This paper estimates the effect of alcohol use on consumption of hard drugs using the exogenous decrease in the cost of accessing alcohol that occurs when individuals reach the minimum legal drinking age. By using a regression discontinuity design and the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997, I find that all measures of alcohol consumption, even alcohol initiation increase discontinuously at age 21 years. I also find evidence that consumption of hard drugs decreased by 1.

Space fullerenes: a computer search for new Frank-Kasper structures.

A Frank-Kasper structure is a 3-periodic tiling of the Euclidean space E3 by tetrahedra such that the vertex figure of any vertex belongs to four specified patterns with, respectively, 20, 24, 26 and 28 faces. Frank-Kasper structures occur in the crystallography of metallic alloys and clathrates. A new computer enumeration method has been devised for obtaining Frank-Kasper structures of up to 20 cells in a reduced fundamental domain.

Efficacy of neutral electrolyzed water to inactivate Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus on plastic and wooden kitchen cutting boards.

This study evaluated the efficacy of neutral electrolyzed water (NEW; 64.1 mg/liter of active chlorine) to reduce populations of Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Listeria monocytogenes on plastic and wooden kitchen cutting boards. Its effectiveness was compared with that of a sodium hypochlorite solution (NaClO; 62.

Inactivation of Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus on stainless steel and glass surfaces by neutral electrolysed water.

Aim: To ascertain the efficacy of neutral electrolysed water (NEW) in reducing Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes on glass and stainless steel surfaces. Its effectiveness for that purpose is compared with that of a sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) solution with similar pH, oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) and active chlorine content.

Methods And Results: First, the bactericidal activity of NEW was evaluated over pure cultures (8.

Addition patterns in carbon allotropes: independence numbers and d-codes in the Klein and related graphs.

The problem of predicting stoichiometries and patterns of chemical addition to a carbon framework, subject solely to the restriction that each addend excludes neighboring sites up to some distance d, is equivalent to determination of d-codes of a graph, and for d = 2 to determination of maximum independent sets. Sizes, symmetries, and numbers of d-codes are found for the all-heptagon Klein graph (prototype for "plumber's nightmare" carbon) and for three related graphs. The independence number of the Klein graph is 23, which increases to 24 for a related, but sterically relaxed, all-heptagon network with the same number of vertices and modified adjacencies.

Zigzags, railroads, and knots in fullerenes.

Two connections between fullerene structures and alternating knots are established. Knots may appear in two ways: from zigzags, i.e.

Inactivation of Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella enteritidis and Listeria monocytogenes on the surface of tomatoes by neutral electrolyzed water.

Aims: To determine the efficacy of neutral electrolyzed water (NEW) in killing Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella enteritidis and Listeria monocytogenes, as well as nonpathogenic E. coli, on the surface of tomatoes, and to evaluate the effect of rinsing with NEW on the organoleptic characteristics of the tomatoes.

Methods And Results: The bactericidal activity of NEW, containing 444 or 89 mg l(-1) of active chlorine, was evaluated over pure cultures (8.

Version of zones and zigzag structure in icosahedral fullerenes and icosadeltahedra.

A circuit of faces in a polyhedron is called a zone if each face is attached to its two neighbors by opposite edges. (For odd-sized faces, each edge has a left and a right opposite partner.) Zones are called alternating if, when odd faces (if any) are encountered, left and right opposite edges are chosen alternately.

Addition patterns, codes and contact graphs for fullerene derivatives.

The mathematical concept of the d-code and its associated contact graph give a model for sterically constrained addition patterns in fullerene derivatives C60Xm and C70Xm. In combination with simple electronic arguments, the stoichiometries, symmetries, and location of addends can be predicted, yielding a small number of candidates for further study. For example, sterically and optimal solutions C60Xm with pairwise separation of d bonds between addends are found at m(d) = 24(2), 12(3), 6(4,5), 2(6 to 9).

Codes in platonic, Archimedean, Catalan, and related polyhedra: a model for maximum addition patterns in chemical cages.

The notion of d-code is extended to general polyhedra by defining maximum sets of vertices with pairwise separation > or =d. Codes are enumerated and classified by symmetry for all regular and semiregular polyhedra and their duals. Partial results are also given for the series of medials of Archimedean polyhedra.

Allowed boundary sequences for fused polycyclic patches and related algorithmic problems.

We consider sequences that encode boundary circuits of fused polycycles made up of polygonal faces with p sides, p < or = 6. We give a constructive algorithm for recognizing such sequences when p = 5 or 6. A simpler algorithm is given for planar hexagonal sequences.

Fullerenes as tilings of surfaces.

If a fullerene is defined as a finite trivalent graph made up solely of pentagons and hexagons, embedding in only four surfaces is possible: the sphere, torus, Klein bottle, and projective (elliptic) plane. The usual spherical fullerenes have 12 pentagons; elliptic fullerenes, 6; and toroidal and Klein-bottle fullerenes, none. Klein-bottle and elliptic fullerenes are the antipodal quotients of centrosymmetric toroidal and spherical fullerenes, respectively.

Lists of face-regular polyhedra.

We introduce a new notion that connects the combinatorial concept of regularity with the geometrical notion of face transitivity. This new notion implies finiteness results in the case of bounded maximal face size. We give lists of structures for some classes and investigate polyhedra with constant vertex degrees and faces of only two sizes.

Pentaheptite modifications of the graphite sheet.

Pentaheptites (three-coordinate tilings of the plane by pentagons and heptagons only) are classified under the chemically motivated restriction that all pentagons occur in isolated pairs and all heptagons have three heptagonal neighbors. They span a continuum between the two lattices exemplified by the boron nets in ThMoB4 (cmm) and YCrB4 (pgg), in analogy with the crossover from cubic-close-packed to hexagonal-close-packed packings in 3D. Symmetries realizable for these pentaheptite layers are three strip groups (periodic in one dimension), p1a1, p112, and p111, and five Fedorov groups (periodic in two dimensions), cmm, pgg, pg, p2, and p1.