Restructured health care reimbursement systems and new requirements for nonprofit hospitals are transforming the U.S. health system, creating opportunities for enhanced integration of public health and health care goals. This article explores the role of public health practitioners and lawyers in this moment of transformation. We argue that the population perspective and structural strategies that characterize public health can add value to the health care system but could get lost in translation as changes to tax requirements and payment systems are rapidly implemented. We urge public health leaders to take a more active role in hospital assessments of community health needs and evaluation of the patient outcomes for which providers are accountable.

Before September 11, 2001, a mass-casualty terrorist attack on American soil was generally considered a remote possibility. Similarly, before October 4, 2001—the first confirmed case of anthrax caused by intentional release — widespread bioterrorism seemed implausible. Among the arguments that such a biological artack was unlikely included: the lack of a historical precedent; the technological and organizational challenges to acquiring and weaponizing a biological agent; and the almost universal moral opprobrium that would certainly accompany the use by terrorists of such a weapon. In the wake of September 11th and October 4th, however, many are reconsidering the likelihood of a large-scale bioterrorist attack against civilians.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines bioterrorism as the intentional release of viruses, bacteria, or toxins for the purpose of harming or killing civilian. One measurement of the public health system's level of bioterrorism preparedness is the quality and distribution of laws mandating the reporting of diseases caused by certain biological agents.

NASA's requirements for space-based cryogenic detector systems include the long-term storage of the liquid helium cryogen necessary for the optimized performance of far-infrared (IR) detectors. Significant heat loads on the liquid helium dewars exist due to the numerous electrical connections to the detectors, accounting for approximately 20 percent of the total heat load for some systems. High temperature superconductor lead assemblies are under development to replace the existing manganin wires connecting instruments at 80 K to the detector array at 4.2 K. These superconductive elements provide adequate current transport properties, while decreasing the thermal load on the liquid helium dewar. As a result, mission lifetimes can be extended by 10 percent or more.

Thick films of the superconductive material on low thermal conductivity substrates (e.g. yttria stabilized zirconia and fused silica) have been proposed to replace the existing lead assemblies. This work describes some of the design constraints on such a device as well as preliminary analyses of the effects of vibration, gamma irradiation, and long term exposure to high vacuum and liquid nitrogen encountered in operating such a device in space.

The role of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the development of recommendations and guidelines on acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) evolves from a tradition that originates in the earliest editions of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). In 1961 responsibility for the Public Health Service's MMWR was transferred to CDC from the National Office of Vital Statistics. During the first decade that CDC published it, the MMWR continued the tradition of providing detailed statistics on reportable communicable diseases and unusual occurrences of disease or outbreaks of illness. Only rarely did editorial comments on the data appear. However, as early as 1962 the MMWR became the vehicle the Public Health Service used to publish the recommendations of the surgeon general's Oral Poliomyelitis Vaccine Advisory Committee, the predecessor of the current Immunization Practices Advisory Committee. This practice of publishing immunization and other public health recommendations in the MMWR has continued.