Evaluating the sensitivity of mortality attributable to pollution to modeling Choices: A case study for Colorado.

We evaluated the sensitivity of estimated PM and NO health impacts to varying key input parameters and assumptions including: 1) the spatial scale at which impacts are estimated, 2) using either a single concentration-response function (CRF) or using racial/ethnic group specific CRFs from the same epidemiologic study, 3) assigning exposure to residents based on home, instead of home and work locations for the state of Colorado. We found that the spatial scale of the analysis influences the magnitude of NO, but not PM, attributable deaths. Using county-level predictions instead of 1 km predictions of NO resulted in a lower estimate of mortality attributable to NO by ∼ 50 % for all of Colorado for each year between 2000 and 2020.

The Social Cost of Ozone-Related Mortality Impacts From Methane Emissions.

Atmospheric methane directly affects surface temperatures and indirectly affects ozone, impacting human welfare, the economy, and environment. The social cost of methane (SC-CH) metric estimates the costs associated with an additional marginal metric ton of emissions. Current SC-CH estimates do not consider the indirect impacts associated with ozone production from changes in methane.

Estimates of Quality-Adjusted Life-Year Loss for Injuries in the United States.

Purpose: The goal of this study is to develop an approach for estimating nationally representative quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) loss from injury and poisoning conditions using data collected in the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS).

Methods: This study uses data from the 2002-2015 NHIS and MEPS surveys. Injuries were identified in the MEPS medical events file and through self-reporting of medical conditions.

Estimates of the Global Burden of Ambient [Formula: see text], Ozone, and [Formula: see text] on Asthma Incidence and Emergency Room Visits.

Background: Asthma is the most prevalent chronic respiratory disease worldwide, affecting 358 million people in 2015. Ambient air pollution exacerbates asthma among populations around the world and may also contribute to new-onset asthma.

Objectives: We aimed to estimate the number of asthma emergency room visits and new onset asthma cases globally attributable to fine particulate matter ([Formula: see text]), ozone, and nitrogen dioxide ([Formula: see text]) concentrations.

Heat-Related Health Impacts under Scenarios of Climate and Population Change.

Recent assessments have found that a warming climate, with associated increases in extreme heat events, could profoundly affect human health. This paper describes a new modeling and analysis framework, built around the Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program-Community Edition (BenMAP), for estimating heat-related mortality as a function of changes in key factors that determine the health impacts of extreme heat. This new framework has the flexibility to integrate these factors within health risk assessments, and to sample across the uncertainties in them, to provide a more comprehensive picture of total health risk from climate-driven increases in extreme heat.

Zygotic loss of ZEN-4/MKLP1 results in disruption of epidermal morphogenesis in the C. elegans embryo.

ZEN-4/MKLP1 is required maternally for cytokinesis in Caenorhabditis elegans, but was originally identified in a screen for zygotic lethal, enclosure abnormal (Zen) mutants. We report that zen-4(w35) homozygotes exhibit stochastic failures in cytokinesis in multiple lineages. Remarkably, multinucleate epidermal cells show directional migration, even when there are as few as half the normal number of cells.

Characterization of Caenorhabditis elegans homologs of the Down syndrome candidate gene DYRK1A.

The pathology of trisomy 21/Down syndrome includes cognitive and memory deficits. Increased expression of the dual-specificity protein kinase DYRK1A kinase (DYRK1A) appears to play a significant role in the neuropathology of Down syndrome. To shed light on the cellular role of DYRK1A and related genes we identified three DYRK/minibrain-like genes in the genome sequence of Caenorhabditis elegans, termed mbk-1, mbk-2, and hpk-1.