BU SBRP Director and project 2 researcher David Ozonoff recently presented a paper at the International Conference on Formal Concept Analysis '08 in Montreal. The paper titled "Contingency Structures and Concept Analysis" has been published in the book Formal Concept Analysis. This paper describes a generalization of a common data format and data display technique in epidemiology, the contingency table, showing that it is a type of well defined mathematical structure (Boolean algebra) and that there is a sub structure of the generalized contingency table (the so-called Galois closed sets) that has the same information but is usually  dramatically reduced in size. We then show that you can extend this substructure to include background/subject knowledge, leading to ways to examine specific kinds of implications and near implications, especially relating to cause and effect. The method has been incorporated into computer software to carry out the necessary computations.

BU SBRP researcher David Waxman (project 3) recently published a review article titled "Toxicity of ethylene glycol monomethyl ether: impact on testicular gene expression" in the International Journal of Andrology. Ethylene glycol monomethyl ether (EGME) is an industrial solvent that produces methoxyacetic acid (MAA) upon biological oxidation. In this review Dr. Waxman focused on the gene and signaling pathways that are modulated by EGME exposure and their relevance to the molecular mechanisms underlying EGME and MAA testicular toxicity.

BU SBRP researchers have three new publications in the journals Environmental Health Perspectives, Aquatic Toxicology, and the Journal of Environmental Science and Health.

In a collaborative effort, BU SBRP researcher Ann Aschengrau (project 1), graduate student Lisa Gallagher, researchers Veronica Vieira and Tom Webster (project 2), and Program Director David Ozonoff recently published a paper titled "Prenatal Exposure to Tetrachloroethylene- Contaminated Drinking Water and the Risk of Adverse Birth Outcomes." in Environmental Health Perspectives. In this paper the authors conducted a retrospective cohort study to examine whether PCE contamination of public drinking water supplies affected birth weight and gestation.

Project 5 PI Mark Hahn recently published a paper titled "Functional properties of the four Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) aryl hydrocarbon receptor type 2 (AHR2) isoforms." in the journal Aquatic Toxicology. In this paper the researchers investigated TCDD toxicity by examining the expression of AHR genes in Atlantic Salmon.

Ian Callard (project 8) also published a paper titled  the "Effect of cadmium on gonadal development in freshwater turtle (Trachemys scripta, Chrysemys picta) embryos." in the Journal of Environmental Science and Health. Here the researchers investigated the effect of an environmentally relevant dose of cadmium on gonadal development in freshwater turtles.

On February 11, 2008, BU SBRP Outreach Staff Madeleine Scammell provided an overview of environmental health for an undergraduate Community Health Nursing class at Boston College. Madeleine's talk is part of an effort by the Environmental Health Nursing Education Collaborative to integrate environmental health into the nursing curriculum. The Collaborative includes environmental health experts from the BU SBRP and the Harvard School of Public Health, and nursing faculty from the University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston College, Mass General Hospital, and Salem State.