Scientific literacy reflects "a broad and functional understanding of science for general education purposes" (DeBoer, 2000, p. 594). Herein, we present the ongoing development of the Scientific Literacy Assessment (SLA), a work-in-progress measure to assess middle school students' (ages 11-14) scientific literacy. The SLA includes a selected response measure of students' demonstrated scientific literacy (SLA-D) and a motivation and beliefs scale based on existing measures of self-efficacy, subjective task value, and personal epistemology for science (SLA-MB). Our theoretical conceptualization of scientific literacy guided the development of our measure. We provide details from three studies: Pilot Study 1 (n = 124) and Pilot Study 2 (n = 220) describe the development of the SLA-D by conducting iterative item analyses of the student responses, think-aloud interviews with six students, and external expert feedback on the items in the SLA-D. Study 3 describes the testing of our prototype measure (n = 264). We present a validity argument including reliability evidence that supports the use of the current version of the SLA to provide evaluation of middle school students' scientific literacy. Our resulting SLA includes the SLA-D in two versions, each with 26 items and the SLA-MB with 25 items across three scales: value of science, scientific literacy self-efficacy, and personal epistemology. C 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 98:549-580, 2014

Objective-To evaluate the relation between mortality from lymphohaematopoietic cancer and long term, low level exposures to benzene among male petroleum distribution workers. Methods-This nested case control study identified all fatal cases of lymphohaematopoietic cancer among a previously studied cohort. Of the 29 cases, 14 had leukaemia, seven multiple myeloma, and eight non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. A four to one matching ratio was used to select a stratified sample of controls from the same cohort, controlling for year of birth and time at risk. Industrial hygienists estimated workplace exposures for benzene and total hydrocarbons, without knowledge of case or control status, for combinations of job, location, and era represented in all work histories. Average daily benzene concentrations ranged from

Efforts to increase participation by all company employees, especially among those with high-risk behaviors, would benefit all health promotion programs, particularly the on-site fitness center.

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This paper describes a multistage process to improve the completeness and time-/cost-effectiveness of ascertaining deaths in large employee cohorts. The process uses the vital status data service of the Social Security Administration (SSA) to identify people who can be confirmed as living, in order to reduce the number of records submitted for a National Death Index (NDI) search. The accuracy of SSA results is verified by submitting a sample of known-living and known-deceased people. For the NDI search results, an algorithm based on a discrete combination of matching variables is applied to distinguish NDI records as true, false, or questionable matches to reduce the number of death certificate requests to state offices. Subsequent decision making is based on manual reviews at various stages. In a cohort of over 200,000 employees, an SSA vital status search reduced the size of the NDI death record search by 85%. The algorithm sorted thousands of NDI records into 15 distinct strata and reduced the number of death certificate requests by 76%. The authors believe that the matching process is enhanced by obtaining paper copies of death certificates from the states, because death certificates often provide additional information and aid in determining true matches to company employees.