Predicate-action diagrams, which are similar to standard state-transition diagrams, are precisely defined as formulas of TLA (the Temporal Logic of Actions). We explain how these diagrams can be used to describe aspects of a specification—and those descriptions then proved correct— even when the complete specification cannot be written as a diagram. We also use the diagrams to illustrate proofs...

Robust statistical methods are important to the evaluation of toxicological interactions (i.e., departures from additivity) among chemicals in a mixture. However, different concepts of joint toxic action as applied to the statistical analysis of chemical mixture toxicology data or as used in environmental risk assessment often appear to conflict with one another. A unifying approach for applica...

The Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) are a set of climate change policies and actions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). NAMAs, designed with a bottom-up approach through national processes, focus on active involvement of developing countries in climate change mitigation actions. One term, “transformational impact,” has been widely used as...

We provide an overview of the comprehensive evaluation of State Public Health Actions to Prevent and Control Diabetes, Heart Disease, Obesity and Associated Risk Factors and Promote School Health (State Public Health Actions). State Public Health Actions is a program funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to support the statewide implementation of cross-cutting approaches to p...

The aim of this paper is to discuss some actions that made possible the eradication of smallpox in Brazil, considering the main contexts and policies adopted for the disease between 1920 and 1970, assuming as contrast educational measures in the field of health and establishing a discussion on the educational content of the programs adopted. It can be observed that, during this period, the sett...

This interaction profile discusses and evaluates the evidence for joint toxic action among lead, manganese, zinc, and copper. The interaction profile recommends how to incorporate concerns about possible interactions or additivity into public health assessments of hazardous waste sites where people might be exposed to mixtures of these chemicals. The profile recommends using endpoint-specific h...

This article reviews the mechanistic basis of the tissue residue approach for toxicity assessment (TRA). The tissue residue approach implies that whole-body or organ concentrations (residues) are a better dose metric for describing toxicity to aquatic organisms than is the aqueous concentration typically used in the external medium. Although the benefit of internal concentrations as dose metric...

The development of in vitro cytotoxicity assays is currently essential to evaluate the potential human and environmental health risks associated to chemical exposure, and to limit animal experimentation whenever possible. However, cytotoxicity assessments have been limited by their inability to measure morphological alterations, that can reveal subtle but extremely vital aspects of cell injury....

Abs t rac t . Previous works on assumption/guarantee specifications typically reason about relevant properties at the semantic level or define a special-purpose logic. We feel it is beneficial to formulate such specifications in a more widely used formalism. Specifically, we adopt the lineartime temporal logic (LTL) of Manna and Pnueli. We find that, with past temporal operators, LTL admits a s...