A system for the management of sandy shorelines under climate change: United States Virgin Islands (USVI).

A methodological framework is presented for the assessment of beach vulnerability to climate variability and change on small touristic islands. Based on the development of a coastal vulnerability index (CVI) fueled by open-source Earth Observations and social media information, it includes both physical and socio-economic characteristics of the shoreline. In a pilot study in the U.

Emotional Eating Predicts Weight Regain Among Black Women in the SisterTalk Intervention.

Objective: This study aimed to assess effects of emotional eating and stress on weight change among Black women in a culturally tailored weight-control program.

Methods: SisterTalk, a cable-TV-delivered weight-control randomized trial, included 331 Black women (aged 18-75 years; BMI ≥ 25 kg/m) in Boston, Massachusetts. BMI and waist circumference (WC) were assessed at baseline and 3, 8, and 12 months post randomization.

A method for regional estimation of climate change exposure of coastal infrastructure: Case of USVI and the influence of digital elevation models on assessments.

Objective: This study tests the impacts of Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data on an exposure assessment methodology developed to quantify flooding of coastal infrastructure from storms and sea level rise on a regional scale. The approach is piloted on the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) for a one-hundred-year storm event in 2050 under the IPCC's 8.5 emission scenario (RCP 8,5).

Motivational interviewing with personalized feedback to reduce alcohol use in HIV-infected men who have sex with men: A randomized controlled trial.

Objective: This randomized controlled trial tested the efficacy of motivational interviewing (MI) to reduce alcohol use among heavy drinking men who have sex with men (MSM) who are engaged in HIV care but not currently receiving addictions treatment.

Method: One hundred eighty MSM living with HIV-recruited regardless of interest in changing drinking-were randomly assigned to MI or an assessment-only treatment as usual (TAU) control. MI comprised one in-person session followed by two brief phone calls and in-person booster sessions at 3 and 6 months.

Improved HIV-1 Viral Load Monitoring Capacity Using Pooled Testing With Marker-Assisted Deconvolution.

Objective: Improve pooled viral load (VL) testing to increase HIV treatment monitoring capacity, particularly relevant for resource-limited settings.

Design: We developed marker-assisted mini-pooling with algorithm (mMPA), a new VL pooling deconvolution strategy that uses information from low-cost, routinely collected clinical markers to determine an efficient order of sequential individual VL testing and dictates when the sequential testing can be stopped.

Methods: We simulated the use of pooled testing to ascertain virological failure status on 918 participants from 3 studies conducted at the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare in Eldoret, Kenya, and estimated the number of assays needed when using mMPA and other pooling methods.

Anthropometric measures, physical activity, and risk of glioma and meningioma in a large prospective cohort study.

Body fatness has been associated with increased risk of a number of hormone-dependent cancers. Recent studies suggest that body mass index (BMI) may be related to meningiomas, which are more common in women than men, and for which estrogens are believed to play a role. Using data from a large European propective cohort, 203 incident cases of meningioma and 340 cases of glioma were included in the analysis for measures of body fat, height, and physical activity among 380,775 participants.

Case-control study of the effects of trihalomethanes on urinary bladder cancer risk.

In this research, the authors examined the relation between the estimated concentrations in drinking water of disinfectant byproduct (DBP) trihalomethanes (THMs) and the risk for urinary bladder cancer in a case-control study of 567 white men aged 35 to 90 years, in western New York State. They used logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (ORS) and to assess the effects of THM consumption on cancer risk. Higher levels of consumption of THMs led to increased risk for cancer of the urinary bladder (total 551, a composite measure of THMs based upon method 551 developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency: OR = 2.

Case control study of the geographic variability of exposure to disinfectant byproducts and risk for rectal cancer.

Background: Levels of byproducts that result from the disinfection of drinking water vary within a water distribution system. This prompted us to question whether the risk for rectal cancer also varies, depending upon one's long term geographic location within the system. Such a geographic distribution in rectal cancer risk would follow naturally from an association between level of byproduct and rectal cancer risk.