Creation of a retrospective job-exposure matrix using surrogate measures of exposure for a cohort of US career firefighters from San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia.

Objectives: To construct a cohort-specific job-exposure matrix (JEM) using surrogate metrics of exposure for a cancer study on career firefighters from the Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco Fire Departments.

Methods: Departmental work history records, along with data on historical annual fire-runs and hours, were collected from 1950 to 2009 and coded into separate databases. These data were used to create a JEM based on standardised job titles and fire apparatus assignments using several surrogate exposure metrics to estimate firefighters' exposure to the combustion byproducts of fire.

Retrospective cohort study of a microelectronics and business machine facility.

Objectives: We examined health outcomes among 34,494 workers employed at a microelectronics and business machine facility 1969-2001.

Methods: Standardized mortality ratio (SMR) and standardized incidence ratios were used to evaluate health outcomes in the cohort and Cox regression modeling to evaluate relations between scores for occupational exposures and outcomes of a priori interest.

Results: Just over 17% of the cohort (5,966 people) had died through 2009.

A comparison of assessment methods of hand activity and force for use in calculating the ACGIH(R) hand activity level (HAL) TLV(R).

This article compares several methods that were used for determining hand activity level and force in a large prospective ergonomics study. The first goal of this analysis was to determine the degree of correlation between hand activity/ force ratings using different assessment methods. The second goal was to determine if the hand activity/force methods were functionally equivalent for the purpose of calculating the ACGIH(R) hand activity level (HAL) threshold limit value (TLV(R)).

Androgens enhance plasticity of an electric communication signal in female knifefish, Brachyhypopomus pinnicaudatus.

Sex steroids were initially defined by their actions shaping sexually dimorphic behavioral patterns. More recently scientists have begun exploring the role of steroids in determining sex differences in behavioral plasticity. We investigated the role of androgens in potentiating circadian, pharmacological, and socially-induced plasticity in the amplitude and duration of electric organ discharges (EODs) of female gymnotiform fish.

Melanocortins regulate the electric waveforms of gymnotiform electric fish.

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal/interrenal axis couples serotonergic activity in the brain to the peripheral regulators of energy balance and response to stress. The regulation of peripheral systems occurs largely through the release of peptide hormones, especially the melanocortins (adrenocorticotropic hormone [ACTH] and alpha melanocyte stimulating hormone [alpha-MSH]), and beta-endorphin. Once in circulation, these peptides regulate a wide range of processes; alpha-MSH in particular regulates behaviors and physiologies with sexual and social functions.