Increasing stair climbing in a train station: effects of contextual variables and visibility

Accumulation of physical activity during daily living is a current public health target that is influenced by the layout of the built environment. This study reports how the layout of the environment may influence responsiveness to an intervention. Pedestrian choices (n = 41 717) between stairs and the adjacent escalators were monitored for seven weeks in a train station (Birmingham, UK). After a 3.5 week baseline period, a stair riser banner intervention to increase stair climbing was installed on two staircases adjacent to escalators and monitoring continued for a further 3.5 weeks. Logistic regression analyses revealed that the visibility of the intervention, defined as the area of visibility in the horizontal plane opposite to the direction of travel (termed the isovist) had a major effect on success of the intervention. Only the largest isovist produced an increase in stair climbing (isovist=77.6 m2, OR = 1.10, CIs 1.02-1.19; isovist=40.7 m2, OR = 0.98, CIs 0.91-1.06; isovist=53.2 m2, OR = 1.00, CIs 0.95-1.06). Additionally, stair climbing was more common during the morning rush hour (OR = 1.56, CIs 1.80-2.59) and at higher levels of pedestrian traffic volume (OR = 1.92, CIs 1.68-2.21). The layout of the intervention site can influence responsiveness to point-of-choice interventions. Changes to the design of train stations may maximize the choice of the stairs at the expense of the escalator by pedestrians leaving the station.

Imazaquin sorption in surface and subsurface soil samples

The objective of this work was to study the sorption and desorption of imazaquin, in surface and subsurface soil samples from Brazil. Sorption and desorption steps were carried out using batch equilibration and high performance liquid chromatography analytical routines. The value of Kf,ads was positively correlated with clay content, and negatively correlated with pH of supernatant. Samples from Typic Haplustox, clayey soil profile having high clay content, provided higher Kf,ads values, and negative correlation with organic carbon, silt content, cation exchange capacity and pH.

Surface-functionalized ultrasmall superparamagnetic nanoparticles as magnetic delivery vectors for camptothecin.

Drug-nanoparticle conjugates: The anticancer drug camptothecin (CPT) was covalently linked at the surface of ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (USPIOs) via a linker, allowing drug release by cellular esterases. Nanoparticles were hierarchically built to achieve magnetically-enhanced drug delivery to human cancer cells and antiproliferative activity.The linking of therapeutic drugs to ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (USPIOs) allowing intracellular release of the active drug via cell-specific mechanisms would achieve tumor-selective magnetically-enhanced drug delivery. To validate this concept, we covalently attached the anticancer drug camptothecin (CPT) to biocompatible USPIOs (iron oxide core, 9-10 nm; hydrodynamic diameter, 52 nm) coated with polyvinylalcohol/polyvinylamine (PVA/aminoPVA). A bifunctional, end-differentiated dicarboxylic acid linker allowed the attachment of CPT to the aminoPVA as a biologically labile ester substrate for cellular esterases at one end, and as an amide at the other end. These CPT-USPIO conjugates exhibited antiproliferative activity in vitro against human melanoma cells. The intracellular localization of CPT-USPIOs was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (iron oxide core), suggesting localization in lipid vesicles, and by fluorescence microscopy (CPT). An external static magnetic field applied during exposure increased melanoma cell uptake of the CPT-USPIOs.

Proposal of three thermodynamic variables to discriminate between storms associated with hail and storms with intense rainfall in Catalonia (Proposta de tres variables termodinàmiques per discriminar entre tempestes amb pedregades i tempestes amb pluges intenses)

Between late spring and early fall, the development of storms is common in Catalonia. Despite the fact that they usually produce heavy showers of short duration, they can also involve severe weather with ice pellets or hail. While the latter usually affect inland regions, and there are numerous publications on these cases; the analysis of events affecting the coast and causing damage to public and private properties is not so well developed. The aim of this study is to provide additional thermodynamic indicators that help differentiate storms with hail from storms without hail, considering cases that have affected various regions of Catalonia, mainly coastal areas. The aim is to give more information to improve prognosis and the ability to detail information in these situations. The procedure developed involved the study of several episodes of heavy rainfall and hail that hit Catalonia during the 2003-2009 period, mainly in the province of Girona, and validated the proposal during the campaign of late summer and fall of 2009, as well as 2012. For each case, several variables related to temperature, humidity and wind were analyzed at different levels of the atmosphere, while the information provided by the radio sounding in Barcelona was also taken into account. From this study, it can be concluded that the temperature difference between 500 hPa and 850 hPa, the humidity in the lower layers of the atmosphere and the LI index are good indicators for the detection of storms with associated hail.

Gene expression patterns unveil a new level of molecular heterogeneity in colorectal cancer.

The recognition that colorectal cancer (CRC) is a heterogeneous disease in terms of clinical behaviour and response to therapy translates into an urgent need for robust molecular disease subclassifiers that can explain this heterogeneity beyond current parameters (MSI, KRAS, BRAF). Attempts to fill this gap are emerging. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TGCA) reported two main CRC groups, based on the incidence and spectrum of mutated genes, and another paper reported an EMT expression signature defined subgroup. We performed a prior free analysis of CRC heterogeneity on 1113 CRC gene expression profiles and confronted our findings to established molecular determinants and clinical, histopathological and survival data. Unsupervised clustering based on gene modules allowed us to distinguish at least five different gene expression CRC subtypes, which we call surface crypt-like, lower crypt-like, CIMP-H-like, mesenchymal and mixed. A gene set enrichment analysis combined with literature search of gene module members identified distinct biological motifs in different subtypes. The subtypes, which were not derived based on outcome, nonetheless showed differences in prognosis. Known gene copy number variations and mutations in key cancer-associated genes differed between subtypes, but the subtypes provided molecular information beyond that contained in these variables. Morphological features significantly differed between subtypes. The objective existence of the subtypes and their clinical and molecular characteristics were validated in an independent set of 720 CRC expression profiles. Our subtypes provide a novel perspective on the heterogeneity of CRC. The proposed subtypes should be further explored retrospectively on existing clinical trial datasets and, when sufficiently robust, be prospectively assessed for clinical relevance in terms of prognosis and treatment response predictive capacity. Original microarray data were uploaded to the ArrayExpress database (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/arrayexpress/) under Accession Nos E-MTAB-990 and E-MTAB-1026. © 2013 Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics. Journal of Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.