Stress in nurses : stress-related affect and its determinants examined over the nursing day

Peer reviewedPostprin

Facilitating the Recruitment of Minority Ethnic People into Research: Qualitative Case Study of South Asians and Asthma

Aziz Sheikh and colleagues report on a qualitative study in the US and the UK to investigate ways to bolster recruitment of South Asians into asthma studies, including making inclusion of diverse populations mandatory

Early-Life Determinants of Total and HDL Cholesterol Concentrations in 8-Year-Old Children; The PIAMA Birth Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: Adult cholesterol concentrations might be influenced by early-life factors, such as breastfeeding and birth weight, referred to as "early programming". How such early factors exert their influence over the life course is still poorly understood. Evidence from studies in children and adolescents is scarce and conflicting. We investigated the influence of 6 different perinatal risk factors on childhood total and HDL cholesterol concentrations and total-to-HDL cholesterol ratio measured at 8 years of age, and additionally we studied the role of the child's current Body Mass Index (BMI). METHODS: Anthropometric measures and blood plasma samples were collected during a medical examination in 751 8-year-old children participating in the prospective Prevention and Incidence of Asthma and Mite Allergy (PIAMA) birth cohort study. Linear and logistic regression were performed to estimate associations of total and HDL cholesterol concentrations with breastfeeding, birth weight, infant weight gain, maternal overweight before pregnancy, gestational diabetes and maternal smoking during pregnancy, taking into account the child's current BMI. RESULTS: Linear regressions showed an association between total-to-HDL cholesterol ratio and maternal pre-pregnancy overweight (β = 0.15, Confidence Interval 95% (CI): 0.02, 0.28), rapid infant weight gain (β = 0.13, 95%CI: 0.01, 0.26), and maternal smoking during pregnancy (β = 0.14, 95%CI: 0.00, 0.29). These associations were partly mediated by the child's BMI. CONCLUSION: Total-to-HDL cholesterol ratio in 8-year-old children was positively associated with maternal pre-pregnancy overweight, maternal smoking during pregnancy and rapid infant weight gain

Spatial and temporal variability in summertime dissolved carbon dioxide and methane in temperate ponds and shallow lakes

Small waterbodies have potentially high greenhouse gas emissions relative to their small footprint on the landscape, although there is high uncertainty in model estimates. Scaling their carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) exchange with the atmosphere remains challenging due to an incomplete understanding and characterization of spatial and temporal variability in CO2 and CH4. Here, we measured partial pressures of CO2 (pCO2) and CH4 (pCH4) across 30 ponds and shallow lakes during summer in temperate regions of Europe and North America. We sampled each waterbody in three locations at three times during the growing season, and tested which physical, chemical, and biological characteristics related to the means and variability of pCO2 and pCH4 in space and time. Summer means of pCO2 and pCH4 were inversely related to waterbody size and positively related to floating vegetative cover; pCO2 was also positively related to dissolved phosphorus. Temporal variability in partial pressure in both gases weas greater than spatial variability. Although sampling on a single date was likely to misestimate mean seasonal pCO2 by up to 26%, mean seasonal pCH4 could be misestimated by up to 64.5%. Shallower systems displayed the most temporal variability in pCH4 and waterbodies with more vegetation cover had lower temporal variability. Inland waters remain one of the most uncertain components of the global carbon budget; understanding spatial and temporal variability will ultimately help us to constrain our estimates and inform research priorities

The Economic Impact of Eradicating Peste des Petits Ruminants:A Benefit-Cost Analysis

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is an important cause of mortality and production loss among sheep and goats in the developing world. Despite control efforts in a number of countries, it has continued to spread across Africa and Asia, placing an increasing burden on the livelihoods of livestock keepers and on veterinary resources in affected countries. Given the similarities between PPR and rinderpest, and the lessons learned from the successful global eradication of rinderpest, the eradication of PPR seems appealing, both eliminating an important disease and improving the livelihoods of the poor in developing countries. We conducted a benefit-cost analysis to examine the conomic returns from a proposed programme for the global eradication of PPR. Based on our knowledge and experience, we developed the eradication strategy and estimated its costs. The benefits of the programme were determined from (i) the averted mortality costs, based on an analysis of the literature, (ii) the downstream impact of reduced mortality using a social accounting matrix, and (iii) the avoided control costs based on current levels of vaccination. The results of the benefit-cost analysis suggest strong economic returns from PPR eradication. Based on a 15-year programme with total discounted costs of US$2.26 billion, we estimate discounted benefits of US$76.5 billion, yielding a net benefit of US$74.2 billion. This suggests a benefit cost ratio of 33.8, and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 199%. As PPR mortality rates are highly variable in different populations, we conducted a sensitivity analysis based on lower and higher mortality scenarios. All the scenarios examined indicate that investment in PPR eradication would be highly beneficial economically. Furthermore, removing one of the major constraints to small ruminant production would be of considerable benefit to many of the most vulnerable communities in Africa and Asia

Fire performance of sandwich panels in a modified ISO 13784-1 small room test: the influence of increased fire load for different insulation materials

Four sandwich panel rooms were constructed as prescribed in the ISO 13784-1 test. However, the construction followed normal industry practice, and the panels were also subjected to the kinds of damage typically found in commercial premises, although such damage may not typically be concentrated in such a small room. The fire load was increased to simulate fires actually occurring in commercial premises by stepping up the propane burner output from the usual maximum of 300–600 kW, and by placing a substantial wooden crib in two of the rooms. The results showed significant differences in fire growth rate and burning behaviour between those panels filled with polyisocyanurate (PIR) and those filled with stone wool in both the experiments without and with the wooden crib. Most significantly, the PIR pyrolysis products caused earlier ignition (by radiation from above) of the wooden crib 11 min into the experiment (1 min after the burner was stepped up to 300 kW), whereas the crib ignited 22 min into the test (2 min after the burner had been stepped up to 600 kW, which is beyond the test standard both in time and heat input) for the stone wool panels. This interaction between building and contents is most often ignored in fire safety assessments. After a few minutes, the PIR pyrolysis products that escaped outside the room, from between the panels, ignited. The extra thermal exposure from the PIR-fuelled flames distorted the panels, which in turn exposed more PIR, resulting in large flames on both the inside and outside of the enclosure. From a fire safety perspective this is most important as it shows that with the large fire loads that are commonly found in commercial premises, steel-faced PIR filled panels are not capable of acting as fire barriers, and may support flame spread through compartment walls and ceilings. In addition, the PIR panelled rooms produced very large quantities of dense smoke and toxic effluents, whereas the stone wool panelled rooms produced small amounts of light smoke of lower toxicity. Furthermore, the experiments showed that modifications to the standard test can lead to extremely different outcomes for some of the products. As the modifications simulated real-life situations, it seems important to discuss whether the standard is robust enough for property safety scenarios encountered in industrial premises

Expression profiling identifies genes involved in neoplastic transformation of serous ovarian cancer

Background: The malignant potential of serous ovarian tumors, the most common ovarian tumor subtype, varies from benign to low malignant potential (LMP) tumors to frankly invasive cancers. Given the uncertainty about the relationship between these different forms, we compared their patterns of gene expression. Methods: Expression profiling was carried out on samples of 7 benign, 7 LMP and 28 invasive (moderate and poorly differentiated) serous tumors and four whole normal ovaries using oligonucleotide microarrays representing over 21,000 genes. Results: We identified 311 transcripts that distinguished invasive from benign tumors, and 20 transcripts that were significantly differentially expressed between invasive and LMP tumors at p < 0.01 (with multiple testing correction). Five genes that were differentially expressed between invasive and either benign or normal tissues were validated by real time PCR in an independent panel of 46 serous tumors (4 benign, 7 LMP, 35 invasive). Overexpression of SLPI and WNT7A and down-regulation of C6orf31, PDGFRA and GLTSCR2 were measured in invasive and LMP compared with benign and normal tissues. Over-expression of WNT7A in an ovarian cancer cell line led to increased migration and invasive capacity. Conclusion: These results highlight several genes that may play an important role across the spectrum of serous ovarian tumorigenesis

Reduced Expression of the Vesicular Acetylcholine Transporter and Neurotransmitter Content Affects Synaptic Vesicle Distribution and Shape in Mouse Neuromuscular Junction

In vertebrates, nerve muscle communication is mediated by the release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine packed inside synaptic vesicles by a specific vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT). Here we used a mouse model (VAChT KDHOM) with 70% reduction in the expression of VAChT to investigate the morphological and functional consequences of a decreased acetylcholine uptake and release in neuromuscular synapses. Upon hypertonic stimulation, VAChT KDHOM mice presented a reduction in the amplitude and frequency of miniature endplate potentials, FM 1-43 staining intensity, total number of synaptic vesicles and altered distribution of vesicles within the synaptic terminal. In contrast, under electrical stimulation or no stimulation, VAChT KDHOM neuromuscular junctions did not differ from WT on total number of vesicles but showed altered distribution. Additionally, motor nerve terminals in VAChT KDHOM exhibited small and flattened synaptic vesicles similar to that observed in WT mice treated with vesamicol that blocks acetylcholine uptake. Based on these results, we propose that decreased VAChT levels affect synaptic vesicle biogenesis and distribution whereas a lower ACh content affects vesicles shape

A randomised clinical trial of subgrouping and targeted treatment for low back pain compared with best current care. The STarT Back Trial Study Protocol

Back pain is a major health problem and many sufferers develop persistent symptoms. Detecting relevant subgroups of patients with non-specific low back pain has been highlighted as a priority area for research, as this could enable better secondary prevention through the targeting of prognostic indicators for persistent, disabling symptoms. We plan to conduct a randomised controlled trial to establish whether subgrouping using a novel tool, combined with targeted treatment, is better than best current care at reducing long-term disability from low back pain