Pseudomonas aeruginosa exhibits frequent recombination, but only a limited association between genotype and ecological setting

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen and an important cause of infection, particularly amongst cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. While specific strains capable of patient-to-patient transmission are known, many infections appear to be caused by unique and unrelated strains. There is a need to understand the relationship between strains capable of colonising the CF lung and the broader set of P. aeruginosa isolates found in natural environments. Here we report the results of a multilocus sequence typing (MLST)-based study designed to understand the genetic diversity and population structure of an extensive regional sample of P. aeruginosa isolates from South East Queensland, Australia. The analysis is based on 501 P. aeruginosa isolates obtained from environmental, animal and human (CF and non-CF) sources with particular emphasis on isolates from the Lower Brisbane River and isolates from CF patients obtained from the same geographical region. Overall, MLST identified 274 different sequence types, of which 53 were shared between one or more ecological settings. Our analysis revealed a limited association between genotype and environment and evidence of frequent recombination. We also found that genetic diversity of P. aeruginosa in Queensland, Australia was indistinguishable from that of the global P. aeruginosa population. Several CF strains were encountered frequently in multiple ecological settings; however, the most frequently encountered CF strains were confined to CF patients. Overall, our data confirm a non-clonal epidemic structure and indicate that most CF strains are a random sample of the broader P. aeruginosa population. The increased abundance of some CF strains in different geographical regions is a likely product of chance colonisation events followed by adaptation to the CF lung and horizontal transmission among patients.

Consistency of arsenic speciation in global tobacco products with implications for health and regulation

Background: Tobacco smoke is a major risk to the health of its users and arsenic is among the components of smoke present at concentrations of toxicological concern. There are significant variations in human toxicity between inorganic and organic arsenic species and the aim of this study was to determine whether there are predictable relationships among major arsenic species in tobacco that could be useful for risk assessment.

Methods: 14 samples of tobacco were studied spanning a wide range of concentrations in samples from different geographical regions, including certified reference materials and cigarette products. Inorganic and major organic arsenic species were extracted from powdered tobacco samples by nitric acid using microwave digestion. Concentrations of arsenic species in these extracts were determined using HPLC-ICPMS.

Results: The concentrations of total inorganic arsenic species range from 144 to 3914 mu g kg(-1), while organic species dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) ranges from 21 to 176 mu g As kg(-1), and monomethylarsonic acid (MA) ranges from 30 to 116 mu g kg(-1). The percentage of species eluted compared to the total arsenic extracted ranges from 11.1 to 36.8% suggesting that some As species (possibly macro-molecules, strongly complexed or in organic forms) do not elute from the column. This low percentage of column-speciated arsenic is indicative that more complex forms of arsenic exist in the tobacco. All the analysed species correlate positively with total arsenic concentration over the whole compositional range and regression analysis indicates a consistent ratio of about 4:1 in favour of inorganic arsenic compared with MA + DMA.

Conclusions: The dominance of inorganic arsenic species among those components analysed is a marked feature of the diverse range of tobaccos selected for study. Such consistency is important in the context of a WHO expert panel recommendation to regulate tobacco crops and products using total arsenic concentration. If implemented more research would be required to develop models that accurately predict the smoker's exposure to reduced inorganic arsenic species on the basis of leaf or product concentration and product design features.

Small area estimation for the price of habitation transaction: comparison of different uncertainty measures of temporal EBLUP

Local level planning requires statistics for small areas, but normally due to cost or logistic constraints, sample surveys are often planned to provide reliable estimates only for large geographical regions and large subgroups of a population.

Best Practice for Providing Social Care and Support to People Living with Concurrent Sight Loss and Dementia: Professional Perspectives

Purpose-Approximately 100,000 people in the UK aged 75 and over have concurrent dementia and sight loss, but current understanding of their experiences, needs and preferences is limited. The purpose of this paper is to report on a research project that explored the provision of social care and support for older people with both conditions. Design/methodology/approach-The project was a collaboration between the universities of York, Worcester, Bournemouth and Cambridge, supported by the Thomas Pocklington Trust and the Housing and Dementia Research Consortium. Data for this paper were drawn from focus groups held in 2013 involving 47 professionals across the dementia, sight loss and housing sectors. Findings-Thematic analysis identified five main barriers to providing high-quality, cost-effective social care and support: time constraints; financial limitations; insufficient professional knowledge; a lack of joint working; and inconsistency of services. The requirements of dementia and sight loss often conflict, which can limit the usefulness of equipment, aids and adaptations. Support and information needs to address individual needs and preferences. Research limitations/implications-Unless professionals consider dementia and sight loss together, they are unlikely to think about the impact of both conditions and the potential of their own services to provide effective support for individuals and their informal carers. Failing to consider both conditions together can also limit the availability and accessibility of social care and support services. This paper is based on input from a small sample of self-selecting professionals across three geographical regions of England. More research is needed in this area. Practical implications-There are growing numbers of people living with concurrent dementia and sight loss, many of whom wish to remain living in their own homes. There is limited awareness of the experiences and needs of this group and limited provision of appropriate services aids/adaptations. A range of measures should be implemented in order to support independence and well-being for people living with both conditions and their family carers. These include increased awareness, improved assessment, more training and greater joint working. Social implications-People living with dementia or sight loss are at high risk of social isolation, increasingly so for those with both conditions. Services that take an inclusive approach to both conditions can provide crucial opportunities for social interaction. Extra care housing has the potential to provide a supportive, community-based environment that can help residents to maintain social contact. Originality/value-This paper adds much-needed evidence to the limited existing literature, and reflects the views of diverse professionals across housing, health and social care

Effects of Social Media Platform Preference: a Country Comparison of Online University Reputations

Managing an online reputation is critical to higher education. Universities cannot afford to lose enrolment numbers by neglecting to monitor, control, promote and enhance their online presence. It is critical that universities measure their social media reputation scores and presence on the web, as well as those of their competitors. Universities need to continuously review their social engagement strategy and online reputation to ensure they maximize all opportunities to maintain, and improve student enrolment and retention. Universities have embraced social media to enhance their brand reputation. This study examines the use of social media and its effects from a global perspective. It analysed 90 universities in three geographical areas to assess the impact and level of online social media, especially as it relates to “university brand reputation.” Results of the study indicated there was a wide variation among the three geographical regions, and within countries in the three geographical regions. Use of social media communication tools such as Twitter and Google+ by active users also varied widely depending upon country and region.

Evaluation of uv spectrophotometry for estimation of nitrite and nitrate in nitrified urine

Water is a limited resource for which demand is growing. Contaminated water from inadequate wastewater treatment provides one of the greatest health challenges as it restricts development and increases poverty in emerging and developing countries. Therefore, the connection between wastewater and human health is linked to access to sanitation and to human waste disposal. Adequate sanitation is expected to create a barrier between disposed human excreta and sources of drinking water. Different approaches to wastewater management are required for different geographical regions and different stages of economic governance depending on the capacity to manage wastewater. Effective wastewater management can contribute to overcome the challenges of water scarcity. Separate collection of human urine at its source is one promising approach that strongly reduces the economic and load demands on wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). Treatment of source-separated urine appears as a sanitation system that is affordable, produces a valuable fertiliser, reduces pollution of water resources and promotes health. However, the technical realisation of urine separation still faces challenges. Biological hydrolysis of urea causes a strong increase of ammonia and pH. Under these conditions ammonia volatilises which can cause odour problems and significant nitrogen losses. The above problems can be avoided by urine stabilisation. Biological nitrification is a suitable process for stabilisation of urine. Urine is a highly concentrated nutrient solution which can lead to strong inhibition effects during bacterial nitrification. This can further lead to process instabilities. The major cause of instability is accumulation of the inhibitory intermediate compound nitrite, which could lead to process breakdown. Enhanced on-line nitrite monitoring can be applied in biological source-separated urine nitrification reactors as a sustainable and efficient way to improve the reactor performance, avoiding reactor failures and eventual loss of biological activity. Spectrophotometry appears as a promising candidate for the development and application of on-line nitrite monitoring. Spectroscopic methods together with chemometrics are presented in this work as a powerful tool for estimation of nitrite concentrations. Principal component regression (PCR) is applied for the estimation of nitrite concentrations using an immersible UV sensor and off-line spectra acquisition. The effect of particles and the effect of saturation, respectively, on the UV absorbance spectra are investigated. The analysis allows to conclude that (i) saturation has a substantial effect on nitrite estimation; (ii) particles appear to have less impact on nitrite estimation. In addition, improper mixing together with instabilities in the urine nitrification process appears to significantly reduce the performance of the estimation model.

Multifractal portrayal of the Swiss population

Fractal geometry is a fundamental approach for describing the complex irregularities of the spatial structure of point patterns. The present research characterizes the spatial structure of the Swiss population distribution in the three Swiss geographical regions (Alps, Plateau and Jura) and at the entire country level. These analyses were carried out using fractal and multifractal measures for point patterns, which enabled the estimation of the spatial degree of clustering of a distribution at different scales. The Swiss population dataset is presented on a grid of points and thus it can be modelled as a "point process" where each point is characterized by its spatial location (geometrical support) and a number of inhabitants (measured variable). The fractal characterization was performed by means of the box-counting dimension and the multifractal analysis was conducted through the Renyi's generalized dimensions and the multifractal spectrum. Results showed that the four population patterns are all multifractals and present different clustering behaviours. Applying multifractal and fractal methods at different geographical regions and at different scales allowed us to quantify and describe the dissimilarities between the four structures and their underlying processes. This paper is the first Swiss geodemographic study applying multifractal methods using high resolution data.

Migrations and gradations : reappraising the health profile of immigrants to Canada

New immigrants to Canada typically have a more favourable health profile than the non-immigrant population. This phenomenon, known as the 'healthy immigrant effect', has been attributed to both the socioeconomic advantage (ie. educational attainment, occupational opportunity) of non-refugee immigrants and existing screening protocols that admit only the healthiest of persons to Canada. It has been suggested that this health advantage diminishes as the time of residence in Canada increases, due in part to the adoption of health-risk behaviours such as alcohol and cigarette use, an increase in excess body weight, and declining rates of physical activity. However, the majority of health research concerning immigrants to Canada has been limited to cross-sectional studies (Dunn & Dyck, 2000; Newbold & Danforth, 2003), which may mask an immigrant-specific cohort effect. Furthermore, the practice of aggregating foreign-bom persons by geographical regions or treating all immigrants as a homogeneous group may also obfuscate intra-immigrant differences in health. Accordingly, this study uses the Canadian National Population Health Surveys (NPHS) and data from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to prospectively evaluate factors that predict health status among immigrants to Canada. Each immigrant in the NPHS was linked to the UNDP Human Development Index of their country of birth, which uses a combined measure of health, education, and per capita income of the populace. The six-year change in health function, psychological distress, and self-rated health were considered from a population health perspective (Evans, 1994), using generalized-estimating equations (GEE) to examine the compounding effect of past and recent predictors of health. Demographic

'What ever happened to breakdancing?' : transnational b-boy/b-girl networks, underground video magazines and imagined affinities

In 1997, Paul Gilroy was able to write: "I have been asking myself, whatever happened to breakdancing" (21), a form of vernacular dance associated with urban youth that emerged in the 1970s. However, in the last decade, breakdancing has experienced a massive renaissance in movies (You Got Served), commercials ("Gotta Have My Pops!") and documentaries (the acclaimed Freshest Kids). In this thesis, 1 explore the historical development of global b-boy/bgirl culture through a qualitative study involving dancers and their modes of communication. Widespread circulation of breakdancing images peaked in the mid-1980s, and subsequently b-boy/b-girl culture largely disappeared from the mediated landscape. The dance did not reemerge into the mainstream of North American popular culture until the late 1990s. 1 argue that the development of major transnational networks between b-boys and b-girls during the 1990s was a key factor in the return of 'b-boying/b-girling' (known formerly as breakdancing). Street dancers toured, traveled and competed internationally throughout this decade. They also began to create 'underground' video documentaries and travel video 'magazines.' These video artefacts circulated extensively around the globe through alternative distribution channels (including the backpacks of traveling dancers). 1 argue that underground video artefacts helped to produce 'imagined affinities' between dancers in various nations. Imagined affinities are identifications expressed by a cultural producer who shares an embodied activity with other practitioners through either mediated texts or travels through new places. These 'imagined affinities' helped to sustain b-boy/b-girl culture by generating visual/audio representations of popularity for the dance movement across geographical regions.

Contraband tobacco on post-secondary campuses in Ontario

In Ontario 27% of young adults smoke, and annual surveillance data suggests tobacco use is plateauing after years of decline. The availability of inexpensive contraband tobacco products maybe contributing to this situation. Limited research has been conducted on the use of contraband tobacco and despite the increasing availability of contraband 'Native cigarettes', no studies to date have examined their use among young adults. Accordingly, this study examines: (a) what proportion of cigarette butts discarded on post-secondary campuses are contraband; and (b) whether the proportion of contraband butts varies between colleges and universities, across seven geographical regions in the province and based on proximity First Nations reserves. In March and April 2009, discarded cigarette butts were collected from the grounds of 25 post-secondary institutions across Ontario. At each school, cigarette butts were collected on a single day from four locations. The collected cigarette butts were reliably sorted into five categories according to their filtertip logos: legal, contraband First NationslNative cigarettes, international and suspected counterfeit cigarettes, unidentifiable and unknown. Contraband use was apparent on all campuses, but varied considerably from school to school. Data suggest that contraband Native cigarettes account for as little as 1 % to as much as 38 % of the total cigarette consumption at a particular school. The highest proportion of contraband was found on campuses in the Northern part of the province. Consumption of Native contraband was generally higher on colleges compared to universities. The presence of contraband tobacco on all campuses suggests that strategies to reduce smoking among young adults must respond to this cohort's use of these products.

Distribution patterns of infection with multiple types of human papillomaviruses and their association with risk factors

Background: Infection with multiple types of human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of the main risk factors associated with the development of cervical lesions. In this study, cervical samples collected from 1,810 women with diverse sociocultural backgrounds, who attended to their cervical screening program in different geographical regions of Colombia, were examined for the presence of cervical lesions and HPV by Papanicolau testing and DNA PCR detection, respectively. Principal Findings: The negative binomial distribution model used in this study showed differences between the observed and expected values within some risk factor categories analyzed. Particularly in the case of single infection and coinfection with more than 4 HPV types, observed frequencies were smaller than expected, while the number of women infected with 2 to 4 viral types were higher than expected. Data analysis according to a negative binomial regression showed an increase in the risk of acquiring more HPV types in women who were of indigenous ethnicity (+37.8%), while this risk decreased in women who had given birth more than 4 times (-31.1%), or were of mestizo (-24.6%) or black (-40.9%) ethnicity. Conclusions: According to a theoretical probability distribution, the observed number of women having either a single infection or more than 4 viral types was smaller than expected, while for those infected with 2-4 HPV types it was larger than expected. Taking into account that this study showed a higher HPV coinfection rate in the indigenous ethnicity, the role of underlying factors should be assessed in detail in future studies.

Evolución de la mortalidad por cáncer de próstata en Colombia: estudio ecológico

Introducción y objetivos: Universalmente se evidencia un aumento en la incidencia de cáncer prostático, consecuencia de una mayor expectativa de vida y del uso del tamizaje con el antígeno prostático específi co. La mortalidad secundaria es variable y constituye un problema de salud pública. El presente estudio busca describir la evolución de la mortalidad por cáncer de próstata en Colombia en el ámbito nacional y regional. Materiales y métodos: Se desarrolló un estudio ecológico mixto, teniendo como grupos de estudio: el país, sus regiones y departamentos, con una serie temporal de 1997 a 2012 para el país, y de 2008 a 2012 para las regiones y departamentos; se incluyeron todas las defunciones relacionadas con el código CIE-10 C61 de la base de estadísticas del Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadísticas. Resultados: Se encontró una tasa de mortalidad nacional entre el 8,9 y el 10,9 por cada 100.000 habitantes hombres en la serie temporal. En las regiones pacífica y andina, se encuentran las mayores tasas de mortalidad. Los departamentos del César y Valle concentran las mayores tasas de mortalidad. La tasa estandarizada de mortalidad nacional es similar a otros países de características socioeconómicas semejantes. Conclusiones: La tasa de mortalidad por cáncer de próstata en Colombia ha disminuido en los últimos 4 años. Se deben optimizar las estrategias de atención médica en regiones con predominio de raza negra y población rural, donde las tasas son superiores al promedio.

Prevalencia de enfermedad celiaca en Latinoamérica: revisión sistemática de la literatura y meta-análisis

Introducción: La enfermedad celiaca (EC) es una enfermedad autoinmune (EA) intestinal desencadenada por la ingesta de gluten. Por la falta de información de la presencia de EC en Latinoamérica (LA), nosotros investigamos la prevalencia de la enfermedad en esta región utilizando una revisión sistemática de la literatura y un meta-análisis. Métodos y resultados: Este trabajo fue realizado en dos fases: La primera, fue un estudio de corte transversal de 300 individuos Colombianos. La segunda, fue una revisión sistemática y una meta-regresión siguiendo las guías PRSIMA. Nuestros resultados ponen de manifiesto una falta de anti-transglutaminasa tisular (tTG) e IgA anti-endomisio (EMA) en la población Colombiana. En la revisión sistemática, 72 artículos cumplían con los criterios de selección, la prevalencia estimada de EC en LA fue de 0,46% a 0,64%, mientras que la prevalencia en familiares de primer grado fue de 5,5 a 5,6%, y en los pacientes con diabetes mellitus tipo 1 fue de 4,6% a 8,7% Conclusión: Nuestro estudio muestra que la prevalencia de EC en pacientes sanos de LA es similar a la notificada en la población europea.

Estimating surface CO2 fluxes from space-borne dry air mole fraction observations using an Ensemble Kalman filter

We have developed an ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) to estimate 8-day regional surface fluxes of CO2 from space-borne CO2 dry-air mole fraction observations (XCO2) and evaluate the approach using a series of synthetic experiments, in preparation for data from the NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO). The 32-day duty cycle of OCO alternates every 16 days between nadir and glint measurements of backscattered solar radiation at short-wave infrared wavelengths. The EnKF uses an ensemble of states to represent the error covariances to estimate 8-day CO2 surface fluxes over 144 geographical regions. We use a 12×8-day lag window, recognising that XCO2 measurements include surface flux information from prior time windows. The observation operator that relates surface CO2 fluxes to atmospheric distributions of XCO2 includes: a) the GEOS-Chem transport model that relates surface fluxes to global 3-D distributions of CO2 concentrations, which are sampled at the time and location of OCO measurements that are cloud-free and have aerosol optical depths <0.3; and b) scene-dependent averaging kernels that relate the CO2 profiles to XCO2, accounting for differences between nadir and glint measurements, and the associated scene-dependent observation errors. We show that OCO XCO2 measurements significantly reduce the uncertainties of surface CO2 flux estimates. Glint measurements are generally better at constraining ocean CO2 flux estimates. Nadir XCO2 measurements over the terrestrial tropics are sparse throughout the year because of either clouds or smoke. Glint measurements provide the most effective constraint for estimating tropical terrestrial CO2 fluxes by accurately sampling fresh continental outflow over neighbouring oceans. We also present results from sensitivity experiments that investigate how flux estimates change with 1) bias and unbiased errors, 2) alternative duty cycles, 3) measurement density and correlations, 4) the spatial resolution of estimated flux estimates, and 5) reducing the length of the lag window and the size of the ensemble. At the revision stage of this manuscript, the OCO instrument failed to reach its orbit after it was launched on 24 February 2009. The EnKF formulation presented here is also applicable to GOSAT measurements of CO2 and CH4.

The potential to narrow uncertainty in projections of stratospheric ozone over the 21st century

Future stratospheric ozone concentrations will be determined both by changes in the concentration of ozone depleting substances (ODSs) and by changes in stratospheric and tropospheric climate, including those caused by changes in anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs). Since future economic development pathways and resultant emissions of GHGs are uncertain, anthropogenic climate change could be a significant source of uncertainty for future projections of stratospheric ozone. In this pilot study, using an "ensemble of opportunity" of chemistry-climate model (CCM) simulations, the contribution of scenario uncertainty from different plausible emissions pathways for ODSs and GHGs to future ozone projections is quantified relative to the contribution from model uncertainty and internal variability of the chemistry-climate system. For both the global, annual mean ozone concentration and for ozone in specific geographical regions, differences between CCMs are the dominant source of uncertainty for the first two-thirds of the 21st century, up-to and after the time when ozone concentrations return to 1980 values. In the last third of the 21st century, dependent upon the set of greenhouse gas scenarios used, scenario uncertainty can be the dominant contributor. This result suggests that investment in chemistry-climate modelling is likely to continue to refine projections of stratospheric ozone and estimates of the return of stratospheric ozone concentrations to pre-1980 levels.