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Count data occur widely in many bio-surveillance and healthcare applications, e.g. the numbers of new patients of different types of infectious diseases from different cities/counties/states repeatedly over time, say, daily/weekly/monthly. For this type of count data, one important task is the quick detection and localization of hot-spots in terms of unusual infectious rates so that we can respond appropriately. In this paper, we develop a method called Poisson assisted Smooth Sparse Tensor Decomposition (PoSSTenD), which not only detect when hot-spots occur but also localize where hot-spots occur. The main idea of our proposed PoSSTenD method is articulated as follows. First, we represent the observed count data as a three-dimensional tensor including (1) a spatial dimension for location patterns, e.g. different cities/countries/states; (2) a temporal domain for time patterns, e.g. daily/weekly/monthly; (3) a categorical dimension for different types of data sources, e.g. different types of diseases. Second, we fit this tensor into a Poisson regression model, and then we further decompose the infectious rate into two components: smooth global trend and local hot-spots. Third, we detect when hot-spots occur by building a cumulative sum (CUSUM) control chart and localize where hot-spots occur by their LASSO-type sparse estimation. The usefulness of our proposed methodology is validated through numerical simulation studies and a real-world dataset, which records the annual number of 10 different infectious diseases from 1993 to 2018 for 49 mainland states in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, feminists within mainstream rape crisis advocacy have been working to address rape by advocating to end the DNA backlog and therefore, the expansion of DNA databases, locally and nationally. Despite criticisms from radical abolition feminists for practicing carceral feminism that incarcerates more Black and Brown people, rape crisis advocates have been continuing their entanglements with criminal justice, fully recognizing the contradictory ends of such investments. In this paper, I explore their continued carceral investments, through underlying logics and justifications based in science and law and the impacts of doing so, as it relates to the problem of racialized policing. Relying on Black feminist epistemologies and interdisciplinary methodologies, my analysis draws upon archived documents, reports, legislations, and ethnographically driven interviews and observations with and amongst state and non-state actors, who are stakeholders in DNA biosurveillance. I argue that carceral feminists continue their carceral investments through two justifications—materiality and recidivism—that results in intensification of policing in communities of color by expanding genome based racialized biosurveillance. The implications of their justifications further harm survivors of violence, and produce a multifaceted recidivism, that is unbounded spacio-temporally, deepening and furthering state reach within communities of color in perpetuity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The U.S. has been reported as the only country experiencing a decline in incidence rates of colorectal cancer (CRC), despite increasing prevalence of CRC major risk factors, including the Western dietary pattern and obesity. This paper presents a hypothesis that improved folate status in the U.S. is the factor that could most likely explain the seemingly contradictory phenomenon, although a momentary increase in CRC incidence rates was observed in the later 1990s with the initiation of nationwide folic acid fortification. To corroborate this hypothesis, time trends in CRC incidence rates and death rates in the U.S. were plotted by age, race, and gender based on data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER); data were analyzed by simultaneously addressing the following four critical factors: (1) a long induction period between improved folate status and potential protection of CRC; (2) a change in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulation in 1973 on the dose of folic acid allowed in supplements; (3) differential impacts of 1973 regulatory change and 1990s mandatory fortification by race; and (4) changes in CRC screening over time in the U.S. Although this type of analysis precludes a definitive conclusion, available evidence suggests that the increase in CRC incidence rates in the later 1990s is unlikely due to folic acid fortification and, assuming a time lag of a decade or longer to see a benefit on CRC, folate appears to be one of the most promising factors that could explain the downward trend of CRC incidence rates in the U.S. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]