We review the development of a disaster health care response system in Mississippi aimed at improving disaster response efforts. Large-scale disasters generate many injured and ill patients, which causes a significant utilization of emergency health care services and often requires external support to meet clinical needs. Disaster health care services require a solid infrastructure of coordination and collaboration to be effective. Following Hurricane Katrina, the state of Mississippi implemented best practices from around the nation to establish a disaster health care response system. The State Medical Response System of Mississippi provides an all-hazards system designed to support local response efforts at the time, scope, and scale required to successfully manage the incident. Components of this disaster health care response system can be replicated or adapted to meet the dynamic landscape of health care delivery following disasters. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:600–604)

The Ziegler Reservoir fossil site near Snowmass Village, Colorado (USA), provides a unique opportunity to reconstruct high-altitude paleoenvironmental conditions in the Rocky Mountains during the Last Interglacial Period. We used four different techniques to establish a chronological framework for the site. Radiocarbon dating of lake organics, bone collagen, and shell carbonate, and in situ cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al ages on a boulder on the crest of a moraine that impounded the lake suggest that the ages of the sediments that hosted the fossils are between ~140 ka and >45 ka. Uranium-series ages of vertebrate remains generally fall within these bounds, but extremely low uranium concentrations and evidence of open-system behavior limit their utility. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages (n = 18) obtained from fine-grained quartz maintain stratigraphic order, were replicable, and provide reliable ages for the lake sediments. Analysis of the equivalent dose (DE) dispersion of the OSL samples showed that the sediments were fully bleached prior to deposition and low scatter suggests that eolian processes were likely the dominant transport mechanism for fine-grained sediments into the lake. The resulting ages show that the fossil-bearing sediments span the latest part of Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 6, all of MIS 5 and MIS 4, and the earliest part of MIS 3.

In North America, terrestrial records of biodiversity and climate change that span Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 are rare. Where found, they provide insight into how the coupling of the ocean–atmosphere system is manifested in biotic and environmental records and how the biosphere responds to climate change. In 2010–2011, construction at Ziegler Reservoir near Snowmass Village, Colorado (USA) revealed a nearly continuous, lacustrine/wetland sedimentary sequence that preserved evidence of past plant communities between ~140 and 55 ka, including all of MIS 5. At an elevation of 2705 m, the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site also contained thousands of well-preserved bones of late Pleistocene megafauna, including mastodons, mammoths, ground sloths, horses, camels, deer, bison, black bear, coyotes, and bighorn sheep. In addition, the site contained more than 26,000 bones from at least 30 species of small animals including salamanders, otters, muskrats, minks, rabbits, beavers, frogs, lizards, snakes, fish, and birds. The combination of macro- and micro-vertebrates, invertebrates, terrestrial and aquatic plant macrofossils, a detailed pollen record, and a robust, directly dated stratigraphic framework shows that high-elevation ecosystems in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado are climatically sensitive and varied dramatically throughout MIS 5.

Objectives: This article describes how the frequency of exposure to a flood is associated with the probability of seeking help from agencies (eg, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Red Cross) that provide disaster-related services. The article also describes the population characteristics for the people who are most likely to seek help for disaster services.

Methods: Prospective cohort data from 1735 respondents of the Iowa Health Poll were used. Multivariate logistic regression was used to model the odds of seeking help from any agency for flood-related problems.

Results: Overall, most people, regardless of flood exposure, did not seek help from disaster service agencies. Disaster services were sought by 23% of respondents who experienced 1 flood, 31% who have experienced 2 floods, and 26% who have experienced 3 or more floods. Multivariate adjusted odds of seeking help were associated with number of flood experiences (odds ratio [OR] 1.58), white race (OR 0.24), economic hardship (OR 1.43), urban residence (OR 0.43), and social support (OR 0.55).

Conclusions: On average, the probability of seeking disaster relief services increases with the number of flood experiences. Racial/ethnic minorities, rural residents, economically challenged individuals, and people with low levels of perceived social support may be more likely than people without these characteristics to seek services. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2008;2:139–141)

Nutrigenomics is the study of how constituents of the diet interact with genes, and their products, to alter phenotype and, conversely, how genes and their products metabolise these constituents into nutrients, antinutrients, and bioactive compounds. Results from molecular and genetic epidemiological studies indicate that dietary unbalance can alter gene–nutrient interactions in ways that increase the risk of developing chronic disease. The interplay of human genetic variation and environmental factors will make identifying causative genes and nutrients a formidable, but not intractable, challenge. We provide specific recommendations for how to best meet this challenge and discuss the need for new methodologies and the use of comprehensive analyses of nutrient–genotype interactions involving large and diverse populations. The objective of the present paper is to stimulate discourse and collaboration among nutrigenomic researchers and stakeholders, a process that will lead to an increase in global health and wellness by reducing health disparities in developed and developing countries.

This report summarises the aims and methods of the Fezzan Project, a new interdisciplinary investigation of human settlement in the Saharan environment of southern Libya. The work follows up earlier British work by Charles Daniels on the Garamantes and focuses on the Wadi el-Agial in the vicinity of Germa (ancient Garama). The time frame of the project is the last 12,000 years. A variety of methodologies has been employed, including topographic survey, standing building recording, excavation, field walking, palaeobotanical and faunal sampling, geophysics and human bone analysis.

This paper explains the analysis and elimination of BPO4 crystal formation in an Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition BPSG film. Film deposition and furnace anneal/flow parameters were studied using full factorial techniques, with anneal/flow parameters having the most significant effect. It was learned that BPO4 crystals could be readily induced by performing the anneal/flow process in a POCl3/O2 ambient. Most testing was done in a POCl3/O2 ambient and inferences made concerning the standard anneal ambient.

BPO4 formation is primarily dependent on thermal processing during anneal toprovide the activation energy necessary to initiate crystal growth. Other factors include 02:Hydride ratio during film deposition, phosphorous concentration in the deposited film, deposition temperature, and anneal/flow ambient. No tested level of these secondary factors completely eliminated crystal formation.

The growth of BPO4 crystals can be eliminated by controlling the thermal environment ofthe anneal/flow step. The primary means employed was to increase the rate of heat dissipation by doubling the spacing between wafers. An alternative method involves utilization of reduced anneal/flow furnace temperatures.

The advantages of Silicon-on-Insulator (SO) devices over bulk Silicon devices are well known (speed, radiation hardened, packing density, latch up free CMOS,). In recent years, much effort has been made to form a thin, buried insulating layer just below the active device region. Several approaches are being developed to fabricate such a buried insulating layer. One viable approach is by high dose, high energy oxygen implantation directly into the silicon wafer surface (1-3). With proper implant and annealing conditions, a thin stoichiometric buried oxide with a good crystalline quality silicon overlayer can be formed on which an epitaxial layer can be grown and functional devices and circuits built. As SO1 circuits become market viable, mass production tools and techniques are being developed and evaluated. Of particular interest here is the evaluation of high current oxygen implantation with rapid thermal processing on the electrical characteristics of the oxide-silicon interfaces, the silicon overlayer and the thermally grown oxide on the top surface using measurements on gated diodes and guarded capacitors.