Digital Segmentation of Priority Populations in Public Health.

The rapid growth and diffusion of digital media technologies has changed the landscape of market segmentation in the last two decades, including its use in promoting prosocial and behavior change. New, population-specific and culturally appropriate prevention strategies can leverage the potential of digital media to influence health outcomes, especially for the greatest users of digital technology, including youth and young adults. Health behavior change campaigns are increasingly shifting resources to social media, creating opportunities for innovative interventions and new research methods. This article examines three case studies of digital segmentation: (1) tobacco control from the Truth Initiative, (2) community-based public health programs from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and (3) substance use (including opioids) and other risk behavior prevention from Public Good Projects. These case studies of recent digital segmentation efforts in the not-for-profit, government, and academic sectors show that it increases reach and frequency of messages delivered to priority populations. The practice of digital segmentation is rapidly growing, shows early signs of effectiveness, and may enhance future public health campaigns. Additional research could optimize its use and effectiveness in promoting prosocial and behavior change campaign outcomes.

Identification of the absorption processes in periodic plasmonic structures using energy absorption interferometry.

Power dissipation in electromagnetic absorbers is a quadratic function of the incident fields. To characterize an absorber, one needs to deal with the coupling that may occur between different excitations. Energy absorption interferometry (EAI) is a technique that highlights the independent degrees of freedom through which a structure can absorb energy: the natural absorption modes of the structure. The coupling between these modes vanishes. In this paper, we use the EAI formalism to analyze different kinds of plasmonic periodic absorbers while rigorously accounting for the coupling: resonant golden patches on a grounded dielectric slab, parallel free-standing silver wires, and a silver slab of finite thickness. The EAI formalism is used to identify the physical processes that mediate absorption in the near and far field. First, we demonstrate that the angular absorption, which is classically used to characterize periodic absorbers in the far field and which neglects the coupling between different plane waves, is only valid under stringent conditions (subwavelength periodicity, far-field excitation, and negligible coupling between the two possible polarizations). Using EAI, we show how the dominant absorption channels can be identified through the signature of the absorption modes of the structure, while rigorously accounting for the coupling. We then exploit these channels to improve absorption. We show that long-range processes can be exploited to enhance the spatial selectivity, while short-range processes can be exploited to improve absorptivity over wide angles of incidence. Finally, we show that by simply adding scatterers with the proper periodicity on top of the absorber, the absorption can be increased by more than 1 order of magnitude.

Overweight and Obesity in Local Media: An Analysis of Media Coverage in CDC-Funded Communities.

We conducted a content analysis of newspaper and television news coverage in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grantee locations from June 2011 through May 2013. After searching 2 databases for news stories related to overweight or obesity, we coded and analyzed stories for valence (how the author/reporter framed overweight and obesity control strategies), descriptors, causes and solutions, and populations mentioned. Of almost 3,000 stories analyzed, most had a neutral or positive valence, depicted overweight and obesity as epidemic, discussed individual causes and environmental solutions most frequently, and mentioned children most often. Earned media can be part of addressing overweight and obesity by emphasizing prevention and by emphasizing both environmental and individual causes and solutions.

Characterization of power absorption response of periodic three-dimensional structures to partially coherent fields.

In many applications of absorbing structures it is important to understand their spatial response to incident fields, for example in thermal solar panels, bolometric imaging, and controlling radiative heat transfer. In practice, the illuminating field often originates from thermal sources and is only partially spatially coherent when it reaches the absorbing device. In this paper, we present a method to fully characterize the way a structure can absorb such partially coherent fields. The method is presented for any three-dimensional material and accounts for the partial coherence and partial polarization of the incident light. This characterization can be achieved numerically using simulation results or experimentally using the energy absorption interferometry that has been described previously in the literature. The absorbing structure is characterized through a set of absorbing functions onto which any partially coherent field can be projected. This set is compact for any structure of finite extent, and the absorbing function is discrete for periodic structures.

Characteristic functions describing the power absorption response of periodic structures to partially coherent fields.

Periodic thin-film structures are widely used as absorptive structures for electromagnetic radiation. We show that the absorption behavior for partially coherent illumination can be fully characterized by a set of characteristic functions in wavenumber space. We discuss the prediction of these functions using electromagnetic solvers based on periodic boundary conditions, and their measurement experimentally using Energy Absorption Interferometry (EAI). The theory is developed here for the case of 2D absorbers with TE illumination and arbitrary material properties in the plane of the problem, except for the resistivity, which is assumed isotropic. Numerical examples are given for the case of absorbing strips printed on a semi-infinite substrate. We derive rules for the convergence of the representation as a function of the number of characteristic functions used, as well as conditions for sampling in EAI experiments.

Optical modeling techniques for multimode horn-coupled power detectors for submillimeter and far-infrared astronomy.

An important class of detectors for the submillimeter and far-infrared uses a multimode horn to couple incident radiation into an absorbing film made from a thin conductor. We consider how to model the full, partially coherent, optical behavior of these multimode detectors using extensions of mode-matching techniques. We validate modeling the absorber as a resistive sheet, and demonstrate the equivalence of mode-matching and Green's function methods for calculating the scattering matrix representation of the film. Finally, we show how the scattering matrix of the film can be cascaded with those of the other components, as determined by mode matching, so as to calculate the overall optical response of the detector. Simulations are presented of the optical behavior of a square absorbing film in a circular waveguide.

Analysis of far-infrared horns, lightpipes, and cavities containing patterned conductive films.

A scheme is described for calculating the scattering parameters of patterned conductive films in waveguide. The films can have non-uniform, non-isotropic, and non-local sheet impedances. Once the scattering parameters are known, they can be combined with the scattering parameters of paths, dielectric slabs, and waveguide steps to build up models of complicated components comprising patterned films in profiled lightpipes and cavities. It is then straightforward to calculate the Stokes fields of the total reception pattern, the natural optical modes to which the component is sensitive, the Stokes fields of the individual natural modes, and the spatial state of coherence. The method is demonstrated by modeling an absorbing pixel in a length of shorted multimode waveguide. The natural optical modes change from being those of the waveguide to those of a free-space pixel as the size of the absorber is reduced.

Modeling the intensity and polarization response of planar bolometric detectors.

Far-infrared bolometric detectors are used extensively in ground-based and space-borne astronomy, and thus it is important to understand their optical behavior precisely. We have studied the intensity and polarization response of free-space bolometers and shown that when the size of the absorber is reduced below a wavelength, the response changes from being that of a classical optical detector to that of a few-mode antenna. We have calculated the modal content of the reception patterns and found that for any volumetric detector having a side length of less than a wavelength, three magnetic and three electric dipoles characterize the behavior. The size of the absorber merely determines the relative strengths of the contributions. The same formalism can be applied to thin-film absorbers, where the induced current is forced to flow in a plane. In this case, one magnetic and two electric dipoles characterize the behavior. The ability to model easily the intensity, polarization, and straylight characteristics of electrically small detectors will be of great value when designing high-performance polarimetric imaging arrays.

Optical theory of partially coherent thin-film energy-absorbing structures for power detectors and imaging arrays.

Free-space power detectors often have energy absorbing structures comprising multilayer systems of patterned thin films. We show that for any system of interacting resistive films, the expectation value of the absorbed power is given by the contraction of two tensor fields: one describes the spatial state of coherence of the incoming radiation, the other the state of coherence to which the detector is sensitive. Equivalently, the natural modes of the optical field scatter power into the natural modes of the detector. We describe a procedure for determining the amplitude, phase, and polarization patterns of a detector's optical modes and their relative responsivities. The procedure gives the state of coherence of the currents flowing in the system and leads to important conceptual insights into the way the pixels of an imaging array interact and extract information from an optical field.

Human papillomavirus-related content in state and tribal comprehensive cancer control plans.

Oncogenic types of the human papillomavirus (HPV) are firmly established as etiological agents for most premalignant and malignant epithelial lesions of the cervical mucosa. Genital infection with HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the United States. Although most women infected with the virus become HPV negative within 2 years, women with persistent high-risk HPV infections are at greatest risk for developing cervical cancer. Since the development of the Papanicolau (Pap) test more than 60 years ago to screen for cervical cancer, technological advances have occurred in cervical cytology screening and HPV vaccine research. For example, in 2001, high-risk HPV DNA testing was recommended for the management of women whose Pap smears (collected by a liquid-based method) reveal atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance. In 2006, the Food and Drug Administration licensed a quadrivalent HPV vaccine for females aged 9-26 years to prevent cervical cancer, precancerous lesions, and genital warts associated with HPV types in the vaccine. New and emerging technologies in cancer diagnosis, management, and prevention are often addressed in comprehensive cancer control (CCC) plans developed by states, tribes, and territories. CCC is a collaborative process through which a community and its partners pool resources to reduce the burden of cancer. To assess whether CCC plans include HPV-related content, particularly regarding cervical cancer screening and prevention, we reviewed the most current plans available between October 2006 and January 2007 on an interactive Internet site for CCC programs (n = 53). This paper describes the contexts in which HPV-related content occurs in the plans.