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SummaryThe increasing prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents has become one of the most important public health issues around the world. Lack of physical activity is a risk factor for obesity, while being obese could reduce the likelihood of participating in physical activity. Failing to account for the endogeneity between obesity and physical activity would result in biased estimation. This study investigates the relationship between overweight and physical activity by taking endogeneity into consideration. It develops an endogenous bivariate probit model estimated by the maximum likelihood method. The data included 4008 boys and 4197 girls in the 5th–9th grades in Taiwan in 2007–2008. The relationship between overweight and physical activity is significantly negative in the endogenous model, but insignificant in the comparative exogenous model. This endogenous relationship presents a vicious circle in which lower levels of physical activity lead to overweight, while those who are already overweight engage in less physical activity. The results not only reveal the importance of endogenous treatment, but also demonstrate the robust negative relationship between these two factors. An emphasis should be put on overweight and obese children and adolescents in order to break the vicious circle. Promotion of physical activity by appropriate counselling programmes and peer support could be effective in reducing the prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents.

Abstract. The effect of tidal triggering on earthquake occurrence has been controversial for many years. This study considered earthquakes that occurred near Taiwan between 1973 and 2008. Because earthquake data are nonlinear and non-stationary, we applied the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method to analyze the temporal variations in the number of daily earthquakes to investigate the effect of tidal triggering. We compared the results obtained from the non-declustered catalog with those from two kinds of declustered catalogs and discuss the aftershock effect on the EMD-based analysis. We also investigated stacking the data based on in-phase phenomena of theoretical Earth tides with statistical significance tests. Our results show that the effects of tidal triggering, particularly the lunar tidal effect, can be extracted from the raw seismicity data using the approach proposed here. Our results suggest that the lunar tidal force is likely a factor in the triggering of earthquakes.

Abstract. This study investigates how ground vibrations (underground sounds) and airborne sounds that are produced by rocks in a river bed differ from each other. Airborne and underground sounds were simultaneously received at three microphones and three geophones, respectively. These sound signals were then analyzed using both the Fast Fourier Transform and the Gabor Transform to represent them in both the frequency and time-frequency domains. Experimental data indicate that the frequency of both airborne and underground sounds produced by the impact of rocks against the river bed is in the range 10–150 Hz. Furthermore, the high-frequency band of underground sounds decays much more rapidly than that of airborne sounds. The spatial decay rate of airborne sounds was also determined and compared with theoretical values. The lower spatial decay rate of airborne sounds than that of underground sounds suggests that monitoring of airborne sounds may be more efficient in the detection of debris flows or other natural hazards that generate both airborne and underground sounds.

An earned family income distribution model for Mass is described. This model could be estimated & used for other national or subnational regions for which the microdata required to generate earned family income distribution at working period rates are available. The model is distinguished by its explicit inclusion of M- & F-headed families without earnings, & by its attention to employment structure, labor market conditions, & wage acceleration. A policy simulation is presented that shows the effects on earned family income distribution of cutting the Mass corporate profits tax & offsetting the lost revenue with a luxury goods sales tax. 1 Table, 5 Figures, Appendix. HA.

This study carries out an in-depth analysis of urban water policy implementation in China through a policy cycle analysis and case study of Sponge city program. The policy cycle analysis articulates discrete steps within the policy formulation and implementation process, while the case studies reflect the specific problems in water project implementation. Because of the principal-agent relation between central and local government, a "double wheel" policy cycle model is adopted to reflect the policy cycles at central level and at local level. Changde city and Zhuanghe city, two demo cities in the Sponge city program, are chosen for the analysis. The policy cycle analysis shows that the central government orders local government to implement policy without clear direction on how to attract private sector participation. The evaluation of central government did not include private sector involvement, nor the sustainability of the investments. This promotes the local government's pursuit of project construction completion objectives, without seriously considering private sector involvement and operation and maintenance (O&M) cost. The local governments do not have political motivation and experiences to attract private investments into project implementation. The case study in the two demo cities shows that local government subsidies are the main source of O&M funding currently, which is not sustainable. The water projects are not financially feasible because no sufficient revenue is generated to cover the high initial investments and O&M cost. The lack of private sector involvement makes it difficult to

<i>Background:</i> Eighteen to twenty percent of breast cancer tumors show abnormal amplification of the Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor 2 <i>(HER2)</i> gene and increased expression of the associated protein. <i>HER2</i> amplification is associated with rapid tumor proliferation and shorter disease-free and overall survival. Because women with <i>HER2</i> amplification are more likely to benefit from treatment with the drug trastuzumab, testing for <i>HER2</i> is recommended to guide therapy. However, little is known about use of <i>HER2</i> testing in real-world settings. This study examined uptake, use, appropriateness of <i>HER2</i> testing, and the relationship between <i>HER2</i> test results and treatment decisions. <i>Methods:</i> We assessed electronic data from 3,634 patients with invasive breast cancer diagnosed from 1998 to 2007 in a large integrated health system. We collected data on patient and tumor characteristics, <i>HER2</i> testing status, test results, and trastuzumab treatment. <i>Results:</i>From 1998 to 2000, the percent of patients who underwent <i>HER2 </i>evaluation increased from 12 to 94%; <3% of women with ductal carcinoma in situ, for whom <i>HER2</i> testing is not recommended, were tested. Trastuzumab use increased 5-fold after 2004, when guidelines expanded to include recommending adjuvant treatment for early-stage breast cancer in addition to metastatic treatment. Ninety-five percent of women receiving trastuzumab had a positive <i>HER2</i> result. After 2004, 55% of women with invasive breast cancer and overexpression of <i>HER2</i> received trastuzumab treatment; this ranged from 44% of women with localized breast cancer to 80% of women with distant metastatic disease. <i>Conclusions:</i>These findings illustrate appropriate and effective implementation of a <i>HER2</i> testing strategy in a managed care setting.

This is the final version. Available on open access from the American Association for the Advancement of Science via the DOI in this record. ; Data and materials availability: All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials. The PARASOL/GRASP Models aerosol products are publicly available on the GRASP-OPNE website (https://grasp-open.com/products) and at the AERIS/ICARE Data and Services Center (https://www.icare.univ-lille.fr). The different AERONET data are available on the AERONET website (https://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov/). ; The radiative budget, cloud properties, and precipitation over tropical Africa are influenced by solar absorp- tion by biomass-burning aerosols (BBA) from Central Africa. Recent field campaigns, reinforced by new remote-sensing and aerosol climatology datasets, have highlighted the absorbing nature of the elevated BBA layers over the South-East Atlantic (SEA), indicating that the absorption could be stronger than previously thought. We show that most of the latest generation of general circulation models (GCMs) from the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 6 (CMIP6) underestimates the absorption of BBA over the SEA. This underlines why many (~75%) CMIP6 models do not fully capture the intense positive (warming) direct radiative forcing at the top of the atmosphere observed over this region. In addition, underestimating the magnitude of the BBA-induced solar heating could lead to misrepresentations of the low-level cloud responses and fast precipitation feedbacks that are induced by BBA in tropical regions. ; Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) ; ANR ; French National Research Agency ; European Union ; South African National Research Foundation (NRF) ; French National Agency for Space Studies ; Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme