John F. Kennedy Research Articles

Spherical autoregressive models, with application to distributional and compositional time series

We introduce a new class of autoregressive models for spherical time series. The dimension of the spheres on which the observations of the time series are situated may be finite-dimensional or infinite-dimensional, where in the latter case we consider the Hilbert sphere. Spherical time series arise in various settings. We focus here on distributional and compositional time series. Applying a square root transformation to the densities of the observations of a distributional time series maps the distributional observations to the Hilbert sphere, equipped with the Fisher–Rao metric. Likewise, applying a square root transformation to the components of the observations of a compositional time series maps the compositional observations to a finite-dimensional sphere, equipped with the geodesic metric on spheres. The challenge in modeling such time series lies in the intrinsic non-linearity of spheres and Hilbert spheres, where conventional arithmetic operations such as addition or scalar multiplication are no longer available. To address this difficulty, we consider rotation operators to map observations on the sphere. Specifically, we introduce a class of skew-symmetric operators such that the associated exponential operators are rotation operators that for each given pair of points on the sphere map the first point of the pair to the second point of the pair. We exploit the fact that the space of skew-symmetric operators is Hilbertian to develop autoregressive modeling of geometric differences that correspond to rotations of spherical and distributional time series. Differences expressed in terms of rotations can be taken between the Fréchet mean and the observations or between consecutive observations of the time series. We derive theoretical properties of the ensuing autoregressive models and showcase these approaches with several motivating data. These include a time series of yearly observations of bivariate distributions of the minimum/maximum temperatures for a period of 120 days during each summer for the years 1990-2018 at Los Angeles (LAX) and John F. Kennedy (JFK) international airports. A second data application concerns a compositional time series with annual observations of compositions of energy sources for power generation in the U.S..

Analysis and modelling of airport resilience, robustness, and vulnerability: impact of COVID-19 pandemic disease

AbstractAirports have been frequently affected by different internal and external disruptive events, which generally deteriorated their planned/regular performances. Their resilience is defined as the ability to withstand and maintain a certain level of functionality of performances compared to their reference regular/planned level during the impact of disruptive events and to recover reasonably rapidly afterwards. Robustness is defined as the level of saved functionality of performances compared to their planned/regular level, enabling continuous operations during the impact of disruptive events. The level of deteriorated functionality compared to that of the planned/regular functionality of performances represents their vulnerability. This paper develops a methodology for assessing resilience, robustness and vulnerability of airports affected by a given disruptive event(s). The methodology consists of analytical models of indicators of operational, economic, social and environmental performances of airports and other main actors/stakeholders involved. These indicators are used as figures-of-merit in analytical models for assessing their cumulative and time-dependent resilience, robustness, and vulnerability. The methodology is applied to assess resilience, robustness and vulnerability of two large airports – LHR (London Heathrow, UK) and NYC JFK (John F. Kennedy, US) – affected by a global and lasting external disruptive event – the COVID-19 pandemic disease. Based on the indicators of operational and economic performances, the results indicate very low resilience and robustness and very high vulnerability of both airports and their other main actors/stakeholders involved. Their resilience and robustness based on the indicators of social and environmental performances were not substantively different from the corresponding vulnerability. In absolute terms, LHR airport has been affected stronger than its NYC JFK counterpart. Savings in costs/externalities during the observed period under the given conditions have modestly compensated for total losses of both airports and their main actors/stakeholders involved.

Characteristics of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Sightings and Airport Safety

This paper presents the characteristics of unmanned aircraft system (UAS) sightings and discusses these characteristics in the context of airport safety using airport operational data. An unmanned aircraft in the vicinity of a commercial airport may be a potential threat to aircraft operations, and may result in operational and economic impacts if it causes an airport delay or shutdown. To ensure a record of UAS activity, the Federal Aviation Administration collects and publishes a UAS Sightings Report. This study analyzed UAS sightings and found that they vary by time of year and time of day, with more sightings in the summer and during the daytime. While all kinds of aircraft may be affected, pilots of general aviation aircraft report more UAS sightings, although overall only 3.3 percent of sightings required the pilot to take evasive action. Only 9.8 percent of UAS sightings occurred at or below 400 feet and 57 percent occurred within five miles of an airport, and sightings are more likely to be reported close to large and medium hub airports. States with a large population (such as California and Florida) and airports in big cities have more UAS sightings. The airports with the most UAS sightings are LaGuardia (LGA), Los Angeles (LAX), John F. Kennedy (JFK), and O’Hare (ORD).

Why Did the Earwitnesses to the John F. Kennedy Assassination Not Agree About the Location of the Gunman?

Earwitnesses to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy (JFK) did not agree about the location of the gunman even though their judgments about the number and timing of the gunshots were reasonably consistent. Even earwitnesses at the same general location disagreed. An examination of the acoustics of supersonic bullets and the characteristics of human sound localization help explain the general disagreement about the origin of the gunshots. The key fact is that a shock wave produced by the supersonic bullet arrived prior to the muzzle blast for many earwitnesses, and the shock wave provides erroneous information about the origin of the gunshot. During the government's official re-enactment of the JFK assassination in 1978, expert observers were highly accurate in localizing the origin of gunshots taken from either of two locations, but their supplementary observations help explain the absence of a consensus among the earwitnesses to the assassination itself.

Urban law and the expulsion of authenticity: Preservation of the TWA terminal in the JFK Airport Redevelopment Plan

AbstractThe key issue addressed in this article is authenticity, which is a criterion that is no longer limited to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s world heritage domain. This article draws from one of the most interesting public projects in the United States – the John F. Kennedy (JFK) Terminal 5/6 Redevelopment Plan, which was part of the larger JFK master plan. The project’s Trans World Airlines (TWA) terminal, which is the only landmarked terminal and remnant of the original JFK airport plan, raised concerns. In 2001, the debate started off with keeping the terminal building active for aviation use and experiences. Nonetheless, the terminal was reimagined into a luxury hotel in 2019. This article unveils the micro-politics in the redevelopment plan and examines the authenticity of the TWA terminal and how it was (re)constructed. In doing so, the article sheds light on urban law and the decision-making process. Moreover, it discusses the tangible and intangible consequences of the prevailing speculative logic in the law.

Prevalence of Hepatitis B and C Among Healthcare Workers in a Tertiary Care Center in Monrovia Liberia.

Background:Viral hepatitis is a leading cause of death worldwide, with a higher mortality rate than that from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), tuberculosis (TB) or malaria. In order to meet the WHO’s goal of eliminating hepatitis B and C by 2030, there is a dire need to establish baseline prevalence rates and increase public health awareness of this detrimental disease, especially in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) where establishing prevalence rates of hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis (HCV) continues to be a problem.Objective:To establish baseline rates of hepatitis B and C among healthcare workers at the national medical center of Liberia.Methods:Between October 2017 to 2018 we performed a prospective study to determine rates of hepatitis B and hepatitis C among healthcare workers at John F. Kennedy (JFK) Medical Center, the national medical center of Liberia. All healthcare workers were offered one-time point of care hepatitis B antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis C antibody testing.Findings:Two hundred forty-five participants were tested for hepatitis B and C. 15 participants (6.12%) tested positive for hepatitis B [95% CI, 3.47%, 9.90%]. Eleven of the fifteen (73.3%) participants received confirmatory hepatitis B profile testing, and eight (72%) of those were found to be chronic hepatitis B carriers. No participants tested positive for hepatitis C Ab.Conclusion:Our finding of a greater than 5% prevalence rate, during first line testing, of chronic hepatitis B among health care workers, should help fuel efforts for national testing, vaccination, and treatment efforts in order to align with the WHO goals of elimination of hepatitis B and C by 2030.

Modeling go-around occurrence using principal component logistic regression

A go-around is an aborted approach of an aircraft. We model go-around occurrence using Principal Component Logistic Regression (PCLR). This entails go-around detection, feature engineering, and model estimation. As a case study, we consider John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport arrivals, and model go-around occurrence based on information available when the subject flight is five nautical miles from its landing runway threshold. The PCLR model is based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for analyzing data that suffer from multi-collinearity. The model provides a representation of the empirical relationship between go-around occurrence and Principal Components (PCs) covariates, which encompass flight approach features, aircraft characteristics, flight lead-trail spacing, surface operation, go-around clustering effect, airport and weather conditions. We use factor loading analysis to reveal the relationship between variables and the PCs they formed. Coefficient estimates of PCs are also transformed back to the scale of the original variables by matrix operations. A counterfactual analysis is employed to assess the importance of different features, and reveals that the stability of an approach, flight lead-trail spacing, departure traffic, and ceiling are the most salient factors affecting go-around occurrence.

Assessing the importance of nonlinearity for aircraft emissions' impact on O3 and PM2.5

In this study we utilize the Decoupled Direct Method (HDDM-3D) as implemented in the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model (CMAQ) to calculate first and second order sensitivity coefficients of O 3 and PM 2.5 concentrations with respect to aviation emissions during landing and takeoff (LTO) cycles at ten individual airports; five located in regions of attainment of O 3 and PM 2.5 NAAQS: Boston Logan (BOS), Kansas City (MCI), Raleigh-Durham (RDU), Seattle-Tacoma (SEA), and Tucson (TUS); and five airports in current nonattainment areas: Chicago O'Hare (ORD), Hartsfield- Jackson Atlanta (ATL), New York John F. Kennedy (JFK), Los Angeles (LAX), and Charlotte- Douglas (CLT). We utilize these coefficients in an attainment/nonattainment emission decrease/increase analysis to determine the importance of including second order sensitivity coefficients for quantifying O 3 and PM 2.5 concentration responses to LTO aircraft emission reductions near the airport. Sensitivity coefficients help to determine distinct chemical regimes, NO X -limited versus NO X -inhibited for the case of O 3 formation, and NH 3 -rich versus NH 3 -poor for the case of PM 2.5 formation. Overall, we find that NO X LTO emissions are the largest contributor to any potential nonlinearity in O 3 and PM 2.5 formation through LTO emissions. However, when utilizing Taylor series expansions to estimate O 3 and PM 2.5 concentration responses under LTO emission perturbation scenarios, differences in responses calculated using only first order coefficients and responses calculated using both first and second order coefficients were less than 1% for LTO emission perturbations less than 100%. Hence, we find from the results in this study that first order sensitivity coefficients are sufficient for constructing accurate LTO emissions perturbation scenarios. This study also demonstrates through the analyses performed, an illustration of how HDDM-based sensitivity calculations can be used to assess sector-specific impacts on attainment designations. • Sensitivities can help to determine distinct chemical regimes. • Aircraft NOx emissions contribute most to nonlinear chemistry. • Higher order sensitivities not needed for aircraft emission reduction strategies. • Novel approach to determine emissions sector contribution to attainment designations.

Projections of Wind Gusts for New York City Under a Changing Climate

Abstract To determine potential changes in the frequency and intensity of future storm events due to climate change in New York City (NYC), a statistical downscaling technique is proposed. First, a historical benchmark was determined using weather station data from the John F. Kennedy (JFK) and La Guardia (LGA) airports for the period 1973–2017. This historical information was used to perform the bias-correction exercise of near-future (2011–2050) global circulation model (GCM) output (ORNL RegCM4; RCP 8.5). Results show that NYC is projected to experience higher wind gusts under a warming climate for the period 2017–2050 in comparison with the historical data period, with the most extreme event projected to produce a maximum wind gust of approximately 110 mph, a significant increase over the past maximum of 80 mph. The historical 700-year return period event was estimated at 115 mph, while the overall 700-year event (historical and projected) is estimated at 124 mph. The most extreme cases of maximum daily wind gusts are projected to occur during the winter and early spring seasons. No increase in the number of projected tropical storms was observed, but the intensity of the storms is projected to be higher than during the historical period. These changes in extreme wind events could have serious implications for NYC in terms of urban planning, potential power outages, transportation disruptions, impacts on building structures, and public safety.

Coastal Airports and Rising Sea Levels

Griggs, G., 2020. Coastal airports and rising sea levels. Journal of Coastal Research, 36(5), 1079–1092. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.Most of the world's major cities are located along coastlines, and their large international airports are typically built either very close to sea level or on filled shallow coastal waters. These large facilities handle thousands of flights and millions of passengers annually, and in addition to being critical infrastructure, they are huge economic engines. Being very close to sea level, however, many of these airports are already exposed to extreme flood events (hurricanes, typhoons, large storms, and high tides) and in the future will face increasing risks with global sea-level rise. LaGuardia, John F. Kennedy (JFK), and Newark all suffered some flood damage during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. San Francisco and Oakland airports have already developed plans to build walls to protect them from 2 to 3 ft (0.6 to 0.9 m) of additional sea-level rise. In addition to these airports, the Federal Aviation Administration has designated the airports at Philadelphia, Washington National, Miami, Tampa, Ft. Lauderdale, Louis Armstrong New Orleans, and Honolulu as at-risk from future storm surge and high water from extreme events. A rising ocean is inevitable and will be additive over time with extreme events. The existing elevations of individual airports combined with projections of future sea-level rise can provide important guidance on when these facilities are likely to be exposed to tidal flooding and, therefore, when airport management should begin to plan to respond or adapt to the future threats.

1328. Post-War and Post-Ebola HIV Care Continuum in a Liberian Academic Center: Fresh Insights and Trends Over 5-Year Period

BackgroundTwo-thirds of people living with HIV (PLWH) reside in sub-Saharan Africa. The UNAIDS 90-90-90 target to end the HIV epidemic is an aspirational but achievable goal. The Continuum of Care model allows evaluating the progress toward this goal as well as identifying gaps in diagnosis, linkage to care, HIV treatment. In Liberia, the estimated number of PLWH is 40,000 with only 26,000 (65%) diagnosed, 14,000 (53%) on combination ART (cART), and of those, 53% virally suppressed. After a devastating war and Ebola epidemic, the country has only one academic medical center, John F. Kennedy (JFK) Hospital in Monrovia, with the largest HIV clinic caring for a cohort of 3,000 PLWH. This study was designed to evaluate the HIV care continuum at this center over a 5-year period.MethodsData from 2014 to 2018 were collected from a database at JFK hospital HIV clinic. Data were extracted for all patients tested for HIV. The proportion of those tested positive, who were linked to care, retained in care, and subsequently initiated on cART was analyzed. Only a sample of PLWH received HIV viral load monitoring test. Utilizing the HIV care continuum model, data on each step of the care cascade were reported as simple percentages or proportions.ResultsOver the 5-year study period, a total of 41,343 individuals were screened for HIV and 4,066 tested positive (10%), much higher than the national rate of 3–5%. Linkage to care was inconsistent; 87% (592/678) in 2014, 98% (622/636) in 2015, 61% (644/1057) in 2016, 73% (570/786) in 2017, and 64% (584/909) in 2018 were enrolled in the clinic. ART initiation improved over time; of the PLWH enrolled in the clinic, 75%, 64%, 76%, 86%, and 84% for the years 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, respectively, were initiated on cART, also higher than the national rate estimated at 53%. Only a sample of 100 patients had HIV VL performed and of those 53% had viral suppression. From the total clinic cohort of 5,280 PLWH, 19–28% of HIV patients were lost to care with a 2–4% death rate annually.ConclusionAlthough the HIV Care Continuum rates at the largest academic center in Monrovia, Liberia were above national rates, they were suboptimal and fell below the 90-90-90 UNAIDS target. Current efforts are focused on understanding gaps in care and investigating opportunities to improve linkage to, and retention in care. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.

Capacity Constraints and Service Quality: Do Airport Slot Controls Reduce Flight Delays?

Slot controls (restrictions on the number of departing and arriving flights) are implemented at over 200 capacity constrained airports worldwide to mitigate persistent congestion and delays. However, evidence is limited regarding the effectiveness of these policies. This paper uses a quasi-experiment to evaluate whether the introduction of slot controls at John F. Kennedy (JFK) and Newark (EWR) in 2008 reduced the incidence and severity of flight delays. No evidence is found of a reduction in delays at both airports. In the months after slot controls were introduced, the average arrival delay at EWR actually increased by 7 minutes. Further, the length of Delta's departure banks (high-volume periods of departing flights) decreased by about 2 minutes at JFK while the scheduled time of EWR flights decreased by 1.52-2.24 minutes. These findings are consistent with Ater (2012), who suggested that policies aimed at reducing congestion at highly concentrated airports will only have a limited impact because dominant airlines already internalize congestion. The results highlight the need for policymakers to carefully consider how the allocation of airport slots will impact flight scheduling decisions when implementing similar policies in the future.

Obstetric brachial palsy: Challenges of management in a developing country

Background: Obstetric brachial palsy is not common in the presence of satisfactory Obstetric practice. The objective of this study was to highlight the challenges in the management of Obstetric brachial palsy (OBP) in Liberia. Patients and Method: The study was carried out at John F Kennedy (JFK) Memorial Hospital Monrovia Liberia, the largest tertiary institution in Liberia, between October 2018 and June 2019. Records of all patients with OBP that presented to the orthopedic outpatient clinic were used for the study. All the patients were less than 3 months old. The follow-up status at 8–12 weeks and as at June 2019 were recorded. Phone numbers provided on the charts were used to trace the parents of the patients or care givers. Results: Records of 10 patients were analyzed. There were seven males and three females. Birth weight ranged 2.6–4.5 kg, the gestational ages at birth was 36–40 weeks. Parity of the mothers were 1–3. Five patients had Erbs Palsy, three patients had Klumpkes paralysis, and two patients had global deformity. All 10 patients had right upper limb involvement. All the patients were referred for physiotherapy. At 8–12 weeks of presentation, three patients came for follow-up, seven were lost to follow-up. A follow-up phone call in June 2019 revealed improvement in four patients, some improvement in one patient, whereas five patients could not be reached. Conclusion: OBP is not uncommon in our setting and usually occurs on the right upper limb. Majority of the patients that present soon after birth would have significant improvement on physiotherapy.

Migrant Reading

Migrant Reading Thomas Docherty (bio) 1 In February 1835, the eminent English politician and historian, Thomas Babington Macaulay, wrote his famous "Minute" on the proposed educational arrangements for the people of India, where he served as a Member of Council. The British East India Company's charter had been renewed two years previously, in 1833. The regulations governing charter renewal stipulated that the East India Company must engage in educational activities; and, ever since the charter renewal of 1813, a sum of one Lakh (100,000 rupees) had been provided "for the revival and promotion of literature" (Macaulay 1835, 2). For Macaulay, this had to be specifically English literature, and it had to be advanced through the medium of the English language, the language that "is the best worth knowing" (9). Despite acknowledging complete ignorance of both Arabic and Sanskrit, Macaulay insists that there is not a single orientalist "who could deny that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia," given the "intrinsic superiority of the Western literature" (1835, 10). This "superiority," casually asserted, is both moral and metaphysical, for English literature abounds with works of imagination … with models of every species of eloquence,—with historical composition, which, considered [End Page 839] merely as narratives … have never been equaled—with just and lively representations of human life and human nature,—with the most profound speculations on metaphysics, morals, government, jurisprudence, trade,—with full and correct information respecting every experimental science which tends to preserve the health, or increase the comfort, or to expand the intellect of man. (Macaulay 1835, 12) As Gauri Viswanathan has pointed out, there is a deep irony in the fact that "English literature appeared as a subject in the curriculum of the colonies long before it was institutionalized in the home country" (1989, 3). "English literature," as an institutional form, is, indeed, inaugurated "across continents." Further, it owes a good deal of its intrinsic impetus to the demands of capital within the context of global political power. As Macaulay argued, since "English is the language spoken by the ruling class" in India, "it is likely to become the language of commerce throughout the seas of the East" (1835, 12). This all shows that the status of "English literature" is determined by politics, and explicitly by what we can call "the government of the tongue" (Heaney 1988, passim). Speaking occurs, as it were, only within governing conditions, under governance. This is so even in minimal conditions whereby our "first" language is that which is conventionally spoken around us and in which we willingly engage, or that which is "imposed" upon us, either contingently or by political design. 2 Such governance—and such imperialism—can be broken, however. Two notable occasions will advance the argument here. Speaking in Berlin on June 26, 1963, John F. Kennedy (JFK), then-US President, famously stated that "Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was 'civis romanus sum.'" He then uttered the phrase for which the speech became known, saying "Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is 'Ich bin ein Berliner'"; adding "I appreciate my interpreter translating my German." In this, JFK explicitly acknowledges his linguistic imprecision and, in doing so, places German and American on an equal and democratic footing with each other. He also indicates that the days of empire—specifically that of Rome—may no longer pertain in the same way as they once did; the implicit political sub-text and claim is that "empire" is replaced by "freedom." The words establish the political identification of the [End Page 840] United States with Germany (and specifically Berlin) as the locus of freedom and democracy, set against an encircling but outdated Communist imperialism. It is intended to signal a gesture of friendship, not of expansion of US interests (the real politics behind the rhetoric differs, of course). The United Kingdom's head of state made a similar gesture in an address given on the occasion of her State Visit to Ireland, hosted by President Mary MacAleese, on May 18, 2011. This was the first such visit by a British monarch for a hundred years, the only...

John F. Kennedy’s back: chronic pain, failed surgeries, and the story of its effects on his life and death

The 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy (JFK), experienced chronic back pain beginning in his early 20s. He underwent a total of 4 back operations, including a discectomy, an instrumentation and fusion, and 2 relatively minor surgeries that failed to significantly improve his pain. The authors examined the nature and etiology of JFK's back pain and performed a detailed investigation into the former president's numerous medical evaluations and treatment modalities. This information may lead to a better understanding of the profound effects that JFK's chronic back pain and its treatment had on his life and presidency, and even his death.

Modeling taxi drivers’ decisions for improving airport ground access: John F. Kennedy airport case

Taxi service is an important component of airport ground access, which affects the economic competitiveness of an airport and its potential positive impact on the surrounding region. Airports across the globe experience both taxi shortages and excesses due to various factors such as the airport’s proximity to the city center, timing and frequency of flights, and the fare structure. Since taxi drivers are independent entities whose decisions affect the taxi supply at airports, it is important to understand taxi drivers’ decision mechanisms in order to suggest policies and to maintain taxi demand and supply equilibrium at the airports. In this paper, New York City (NYC) taxi drivers’ decisions about airport pick-ups or cruising for customers at the end of each trip is modeled using logistic regression based on a large taxi GPS dataset. The presented approach helps to quantify the potential impacts of parameters and to rank their influence for policy recommendations. The results reveal that spatial variables (mainly related to proximity) have the highest impact on taxi drivers’ airport pickup decisions, followed by temporal, environmental and driver-shift related variables. Along with supplementary information from unstructured taxi driver interviews, the model results are used to suggest policies for the improvement of John F. Kennedy (JFK) airport’s ground access and passenger satisfaction, i.e. the implementation of taxi driver frequent airport server punch cards and a time-specific ride share program.

The Essence of Non-Decision: CIA's Deferral of Declassifying JFK-Era Documents

The 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy (JFK)'s assassination passed in November 2013, but the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) still refuses to declassify numerous documents related to ...

Active Monitoring of Travelers Arriving from Ebola-Affected Countries — New York City, October 2014–April 2015

The Ebola virus disease (Ebola) outbreak in West Africa has claimed approximately 11,300 lives (1), and the magnitude and course of the epidemic prompted many nonaffected countries to prepare for Ebola cases imported from affected countries. In October 2014, CDC and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) implemented enhanced entry risk assessment and management at five U.S. airports: John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport in New York City (NYC), O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, and Dulles International Airport in Virginia (2). Enhanced entry risk assessment began at JFK on October 11, 2014, and at the remaining airports on October 16 (3). On October 21, DHS exercised its authority to direct all travelers flying into the United States from an Ebola-affected country to arrive at one of the five participating airports. At the time, the Ebola-affected countries included Guinea, Liberia, Mali, and Sierra Leone. On October 27, CDC issued updated guidance for monitoring persons with potential Ebola virus exposure (4), including recommending daily monitoring of such persons to ascertain the presence of fever or symptoms for a period of 21 days (the maximum incubation period of Ebola virus) after the last potential exposure; this was termed "active monitoring." CDC also recommended "direct active monitoring" of persons with a higher risk for Ebola virus exposure, including health care workers who had provided direct patient care in Ebola-affected countries. Direct active monitoring required direct observation of the person being monitored by the local health authority at least once daily (5). This report describes the operational structure of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's (DOHMH) active monitoring program during its first 6 months (October 2014-April 2015) of operation. Data collected on persons who required direct active monitoring are not included in this report.

Violence and/or Nonviolence in the Success of the Civil Rights Movement: The Malcolm X–Martin Luther King, Jr. Nexus

Nonviolent mass protests are often considered as having been mainly responsible for the two major legislative gains of the Civil Rights Movement half a century ago—the 1964 Civil Rights Act (CRA) and the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA). In this article, I argue that it was the combination of that course and the threat of violence on the part of African Americans that fully explain those two victories. A close reading of the texts and actions of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X is indispensable for my claim. The archival evidence, as well, makes a convincing case for the CRA, its proposal by the John F. Kennedy (JFK) administration and enactment by Congress. For the VRA, its proposal by the Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) administration and enactment by Congress, the evidence is more circumstantial but still compelling. The evidence reveals that for the threat of violence to have been credible, actual violence was required, as events in Birmingham, Alabama, demonstrate. Such violence, the “long hot summers” of the 1960s that began with Birmingham, probably aided and abetted subsequent civil rights gains—a story that has potential lessons for today’s struggles for social equality.

Likely effect of the 2014 Ebola epidemic on HIV care in Liberia.

Liberia's health system has been severely struck by the 2014 Ebola epidemic. We aimed to assess the potential effect of this epidemic on the care of HIV patient in two clinics [John F. Kennedy (JFK) and Redemption Hospitals] in Monrovia, which stayed open throughout the epidemic. A preexisting electronic database of HIV patient's follow-up visits was used to estimate three weekly parameters from January 2012 to October 2014: number of visits, number of new patient, and proportion of patients with follow-up delay. We used segmented negative binomial regressions to assess trends before and after the week of the Ebola outbreak defined in June 2014 by WHO. The cumulative number of patients in care comprised 5948 patients with a total of 56 287 visits between January 2012 and October 2014. From June 2014, the number of visit per week, stable since 2012, abruptly decreased (59%) in Redemption (P < 0.001) and progressively decreased by 3% per week in JFK (P < 0.001). In both the clinics, the weekly proportion of patient with follow-up delay sharply increased after the point break from June 2014 (P value < 0.001). From June 2014, a significant decrease in new patients per week occurred in both the clinics: by 57% (P value < 0.001) in Redemption and by 4.6% per week (P value < 0.001) in JFK. The Ebola epidemic had a significant effect on HIV care in Monrovia. Given the particular impact on the rate of patients with follow-up delay, a long-term impact is feared.