Plague is an endemic disease among field rodents in the southwestern United States. Epizootic outbreaks of this disease increase the risk of human infection where man comes into contact with infected rodents or their fleas. The risk is further increased when colonial rodents are involved, since these animals are usually found in large numbers and are often found in locations where people live, work, or enjoy recreational activities. Elimination of large numbers of susceptible rodents from a particular location following a plague epizootic usually results in a quiescent period when plague is neither a threat to those rodents moving into the former colony confines or a threat to people using the same geographic area. In areas where the human health threat following an epizootic is unacceptable, susceptible rodents and their fleas may be eliminated through trapping or poisoning the animals and dusting the burrows with insecticide to kill the fleas. In recent years, however, the health (or death) of prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) or California ground squirrels (Spermophilus beecheyi) has become a significant ecological issue in areas where these rodents are the predominant prey base for endangered species of animals. Prairie dogs often support populations of endangered raptors while California ground squirrels may support the endangered San Joaquin kit fox (Vulpes macrotis mutica). In some areas of central California, where the kit foxes are supported by ground squirrels, reduction in the number of rodents to reduce the threat of plague is prohibited. Confounding the management of plague, limitations may be placed on the types of insecticides used for flea control following an epizootic. When insecticide use is permitted, preventive flea control to protect rodents from plague results in a continuous, sustainable population of highly plague susceptible rodents. When flea suppression fails, replacement animals can be trapped and relocated to areas decimated by plague. Not only are these types of plague management expensive in terms of manpower, equipment and time, but the potential of epizootic plague is constantly present.

Contemporary analysis of the functional responses of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) usually addresses drug-receptor interactions from the perspective of the average behavior of the receptor population. This behavior is characterized in terms of observed affinity and efficacy. Efficacy is a measure of how well a drug activates the receptor population and observed affinity a measure of how potently a drug occupies the receptor population. The latter is quantified in terms of the dissociation constant of the ligand-receptor complex. At a deeper level of analysis, drug-receptor interactions are described in terms of ligand affinity constants for active and inactive receptor states. Unlike observed affinity and efficacy, estimates of receptor state affinity constants are unperturbed by G proteins, guanine nucleotides, or other signaling proteins that interact with the receptor. Recent advances in the analysis of the functional responses of GPCRs have enabled the estimation of receptor state affinity constants. These constants provide a more fundamental measure of drug-receptor interactions and are useful in analyzing structure-activity relationships and in quantifying allosterism, biased signaling, and receptor-subtype selectivity.

Policy Points The historical mission of public health is to ensure the conditions in which people can be healthy, and yet the field of public health has been distracted from this mission by an excessive reliance on randomized-control trials, a lack of formal theoretical models, and a fear of politics. The field of population health science has emerged to rigorously address all of these constraints. It deserves ongoing and formal institutional support.

Using a large, U.S. dataset it is shown that children are more likely to receive needed mental health specialty treatment when women have greater decision-making power, as measured by an index of wife-favorable divorce laws and by the sex ratio at the time of marriage. Stratified analyses show that this effect is modified by the degree of marital conflict. Marriages characterized by high conflict conform more closely to the unified household model. The paper then presents a model of household decision-making consistent with these results that incorporates both objective determinants of bargaining power as well as the role of violent coercion in maintaining otherwise unsustainable equilibria. Implications for improving children's access to mental health treatment are offered. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2006.