Production of Secondary Organic Aerosol During Aging of Biomass Burning Smoke From Fresh Fuels and Its Relationship to VOC Precursors

After smoke from burning biomass is emitted into the atmosphere, chemical and physical processes change the composition and amount of organic aerosol present in the aged, diluted plume. During the fourth Fire Lab at Missoula Experiment, we performed smog-chamber experiments to investigate formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) and multiphase oxidation of primary organic aerosol (POA). We simulated atmospheric aging of diluted smoke from a variety of biomass fuels while measuring particle composition using high-resolution aerosol mass spectrometry. We quantified SOA formation using a tracer ion for low-volatility POA as a reference standard (akin to a naturally occurring internal standard). These smoke aging experiments revealed variable organic aerosol (OA) enhancements, even for smoke from similar fuels and aging mechanisms. This variable OA enhancement correlated well with measured differences in the amounts of emitted volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that could subsequently be oxidized to form SOA. For some aging experiments, we were able to predict the SOA production to within a factor of 2 using a fuel-specific VOC emission inventory that was scaled by burn-specific toluene measurements. For fires of coniferous fuels that were dominated by needle burning, volatile biogenic compounds were the dominant precursor class. For wiregrass fires, furans were the dominant SOA precursors. We used a POA tracer ion to calculate the amount of mass lost due to gas-phase oxidation and subsequent volatilization of semivolatile POA. Less than 5% of the POA mass was lost via multiphase oxidation-driven evaporation during up to 2 hr of equivalent atmospheric oxidation

Weight loss referrals for adults in primary care (WRAP) : Protocol for a multi-centre randomised controlled trial comparing the clinical and cost-effectiveness of primary care referral to a commercial weight loss provider for 12 weeks, referral for 52 weeks, and a brief self-help intervention [ISRCTN82857232]

Background: Recent trials demonstrate the acceptability and short term efficacy of primary care referral to a commercial weight loss provider for weight management. Commissioners now need information on the optimal duration of intervention and the longer term outcomes and cost effectiveness of such treatment to give best value for money. Methods/Design. This multicentre, randomised controlled trial with a parallel design will recruit 1200 overweight adults (BMI ≥28 kg/m2) through their primary care provider. They will be randomised in a 2:5:5 allocation to: Brief Intervention, Commercial Programme for 12 weeks, or Commercial Programme for 52 weeks. Participants will be followed up for two years, with assessments at 0, 3, 12 and 24 months. The sequential primary research questions are whether the CP interventions achieve significantly greater weight loss from baseline to 12 months than BI, and whether CP52 achieves significantly greater weight loss from baseline to 12 months than CP12. The primary outcomes will be an intention to treat analysis of between treatment differences in body weight at 12 months. Clinical effectiveness will be also be assessed by measures of weight, fat mass, and blood pressure at each time point and biochemical risk factors at 12 months. Self-report questionnaires will collect data on psychosocial factors associated with adherence, weight-loss and weight-loss maintenance. A within-trial and long-term cost-effectiveness analysis will be conducted from an NHS perspective. Qualitative methods will be used to examine the participant experience. Discussion. The current trial compares the clinical and cost effectiveness of referral to a commercial provider with a brief intervention. This trial will specifically examine whether providing longer weight-loss treatment without altering content or intensity (12 months commercial referral vs. 12 weeks) leads to greater weight loss at one year and is sustained at 2 years. It will also evaluate the relative cost-effectiveness of the three interventions. This study has direct implications for primary care practice in the UK and will provide important information to inform the decisions of practitioners and commissioners about service provision

Floods and health in Gambella region, Ethiopia: a qualitative assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of coping mechanisms

BACKGROUND: Floods are the most frequent and devastating type of natural disaster worldwide, causing unprecedented deaths, diseases, and destruction of property and crops. Flooding has a greater impact in developing countries due to lack of sufficient disaster management structures and a lack of economic resources. OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted with the aim of contributing to the knowledge base of development strategies that reduce flood-related health risks in developing countries. The study focused particularly on assessing the flood risks and health-related issues in the Gambella region of Ethiopia; with the intent of producing relevant information to assist with the improvements in the efficacy of the current flood coping strategies in the region. METHODS: Data were gathered through interviews with 14 officers from different government and non-governmental organizations and a questionnaire survey given to 35 flood victims in Itang woreda. A qualitative approach was applied and the data were analyzed using content analysis. RESULTS: It was found that flooding is a common problem in Gambella region. The findings also indicate that the flood frequency and magnitude has increased rapidly during the last decade. The increase in floods was driven mainly by climate change and changes in land use, specifically deforestation. The reported main impacts of flooding on human health in Gambella region were deaths, injuries, and diseases such as malaria and diarrhea. Another notable consequence of flooding was crop destruction and subsequent malnutrition. CONCLUSIONS: Three weaknesses that were identified in the current coping strategies for flood-related health impacts in Gambella region were a lack of flood-specific policy, absence of risk assessment, and weak institutional capacity. This study recommends new policy approaches that will increase the effectiveness of the current flood coping strategies to sustainably address the impact of flooding on human health

Toward an integrative understanding of social behavior: new models and new opportunities.

Social interactions among conspecifics are a fundamental and adaptively significant component of the biology of numerous species. Such interactions give rise to group living as well as many of the complex forms of cooperation and conflict that occur within animal groups. Although previous conceptual models have focused on the ecological causes and fitness consequences of variation in social interactions, recent developments in endocrinology, neuroscience, and molecular genetics offer exciting opportunities to develop more integrated research programs that will facilitate new insights into the physiological causes and consequences of social variation. Here, we propose an integrative framework of social behavior that emphasizes relationships between ultimate-level function and proximate-level mechanism, thereby providing a foundation for exploring the full diversity of factors that underlie variation in social interactions, and ultimately sociality. In addition to identifying new model systems for the study of human psychopathologies, this framework provides a mechanistic basis for predicting how social behavior will change in response to environmental variation. We argue that the study of non-model organisms is essential for implementing this integrative model of social behavior because such species can be studied simultaneously in the lab and field, thereby allowing integration of rigorously controlled experimental manipulations with detailed observations of the ecological contexts in which interactions among conspecifics occur

Maturity Model for Interoperability Potential Measurement

Interoperability potential concerns the preparation level of an enterprise to establish an efficient collaboration with possible part- ners. In order to improve their interoperability, enterprises need to know witch level of maturity they have achieved. This article pro- poses a complete maturity model composed by a methodology and a reference set of parameters to measure interoperability potential. In order to clarify the proposal, an example of application in a real case is described.Campos, C.; Chalmeta, R.; Grangel, R.; Poler Escoto, R. (2013). Maturity Model for Interoperability Potential Measurement. Information Systems Management. 30(3):218-234. doi:10.1080/10580530.2013.794630S218234303Alfaro, J. J., Rodriguez-Rodriguez, R., Verdecho, M. J., & Ortiz, A. (2009). Business process interoperability and collaborative performance measurement. International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 22(9), 877-889. doi:10.1080/09511920902866112Sabucedo, L. Á., & Rifón, L. A. (2010). Managing Citizen Profiles in the Domain of e-Government: The cPortfolio Project. Information Systems Management, 27(4), 309-319. doi:10.1080/10580530.2010.514181Berre, A.-J., Elvesæter, B., Figay, N., Guglielmina, C., Johnsen, S. G., Karlsen, D., … Lippe, S. (s. f.). The ATHENA Interoperability Framework. Enterprise Interoperability II, 569-580. doi:10.1007/978-1-84628-858-6_62Blanc, S., Ducq, Y., & Vallespir, B. (2007). Evolution management towards interoperable supply chains using performance measurement. Computers in Industry, 58(7), 720-732. doi:10.1016/j.compind.2007.05.011Campos, C., Martí, I., Grangel, R., Mascherpa, A. and Chalmeta, R. A methodological proposal for the development of an interoperability framework.Model Driven Interoperability for Sustainable Information Systems (MDISIS′08) (CAiSE′08). Vol. 340, pp.47–57. CEUR-WS. http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-340/paper04.pdfChalmeta, R., & Grangel, R. (2005). Performance measurement systems for virtual enterprise integration. International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 18(1), 73-84. doi:10.1080/0951192042000213164Doumeingts, G. and Chen, D. Basic concepts and approaches to develop interoperability of enterprise applications.PRO-VE,IFIP Conference Proceedings. Edited by: Camarinha-Matos, L. M. and Afsarmanesh, H. Vol. 262, pp.323–330. Norwell, MA: Kluwer.Duque, A., Campos, C., Jimenez-Ruiz, E. and Chalmeta, R. An ontological solution to supprot interoperability in the textile industry.Second IFIP WG 5.8 International Workshop, IWEI 2009. Edited by: Poler, M. V. S. R. Vol. 38, pp.38–51. New York: Springer.Guédria, W., Naudet, Y., & Chen, D. (2008). Interoperability Maturity Models – Survey and Comparison –. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 273-282. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-88875-8_48Hoving, R. (2007). Information Technology Leadership Challenges — Past, Present, and Future. Information Systems Management, 24(2), 147-153. doi:10.1080/10580530701221049Palomares, N., Campos, C., & Palomero, S. (2010). How to Develop a Questionnaire in Order to Measure Interoperability Levels in Enterprises. Enterprise Interoperability IV, 387-396. doi:10.1007/978-1-84996-257-5_36Walsham, G. (1995). Interpretive case studies in IS research: nature and method. European Journal of Information Systems, 4(2), 74-81. doi:10.1057/ejis.1995.

Production of Secondary Organic Aerosol During Aging of Biomass Burning Smoke From Fresh Fuels and Its Relationship to VOC Precursors

After smoke from burning biomass is emitted into the atmosphere, chemical and physical processes change the composition and amount of organic aerosol present in the aged, diluted plume. During the fourth Fire Lab at Missoula Experiment, we performed smog-chamber experiments to investigate formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) and multiphase oxidation of primary organic aerosol (POA). We simulated atmospheric aging of diluted smoke from a variety of biomass fuels while measuring particle composition using high-resolution aerosol mass spectrometry. We quantified SOA formation using a tracer ion for low-volatility POA as a reference standard (akin to a naturally occurring internal standard). These smoke aging experiments revealed variable organic aerosol (OA) enhancements, even for smoke from similar fuels and aging mechanisms. This variable OA enhancement correlated well with measured differences in the amounts of emitted volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that could subsequently be oxidized to form SOA. For some aging experiments, we were able to predict the SOA production to within a factor of 2 using a fuel-specific VOC emission inventory that was scaled by burn-specific toluene measurements. For fires of coniferous fuels that were dominated by needle burning, volatile biogenic compounds were the dominant precursor class. For wiregrass fires, furans were the dominant SOA precursors. We used a POA tracer ion to calculate the amount of mass lost due to gas-phase oxidation and subsequent volatilization of semivolatile POA. Less than 5% of the POA mass was lost via multiphase oxidation-driven evaporation during up to 2 hr of equivalent atmospheric oxidation

Family systems and mental health issues: A resilience approach

In many cases the consumers of mental health information and support are the families of mental health sufferers. The aim of the project was to understand resilience in people who live with or support a family member with a diagnosed or undiagnosed mental illness. Participants were 15 carers (one male, 14 female). Semi-structured interviews were transcribed and analysed using content analysis. Eight recurring themes emerged which indicated the challenges the carers faced and provided indications of the positive and negative personal, family and social factors that impacted on their lives. These themes were \u27Getting to CLAN WA\u27, \u27Accessing help including CLAN WA\u27, \u27Impact of living with a person who has a mental illness or problematic behaviour\u27, \u27Family and cultural issues\u27, \u27Communication within the family\u27,\u27Coping strategies and evidence of resilience\u27, \u27Social support\u27 and \u27Notion of sacrifice\u27. There is still considerable work to do in supporting people who live with or support a family member in these circumstances. The findings demonstrate that individuals living with adversity can do more than just survive the proces

Elevated expression of caspase-3 inhibitors, survivin and xIAP correlates with low levels of apoptosis in active rheumatoid synovium

Introduction: Tumour necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) is a tumour necrosis factor (TNF) family member capable of inducing apoptosis in many cell types. Methods: Using immunohistochemistry, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase biotin-dUTP nick end labelling (TUNEL) and real-time PCR we investigated the expression of TRAIL, TRAIL receptors and several key molecules of the intracellular apoptotic pathway in human synovial tissues from various types of arthritis and normal controls. Synovial tissues from patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA), inactive RA, osteoarthritis (OA) or spondyloarthritis (SpA) and normal individuals were studied. Results Significantly higher levels of TRAIL, TRAIL R1, TRAIL R2 and TRAIL R4 were observed in synovial tissues from patients with active RA compared with normal controls (p < 0.05). TRAIL, TRAIL R1 and TRAIL R4 were expressed by many of the cells expressing CD68 (macrophages). Lower levels of TUNEL but higher levels of cleaved caspase-3 staining were detected in tissue from active RA compared with inactive RA patients (p < 0.05). Higher levels of survivin and x-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (xIAP) were expressed in active RA synovial tissues compared with inactive RA observed at both the protein and mRNA levels. Conclusions: This study indicates that the induction of apoptosis in active RA synovial tissues is inhibited despite stimulation of the intracellular pathway(s) that lead to apoptosis. This inhibition of apoptosis was observed downstream of caspase-3 and may involve the caspase-3 inhibitors, survivin and xIAP.Anak ASSK Dharmapatni, Malcolm D Smith, David M Findlay, Christopher A Holding, Andreas Evdokiou, Michael J Ahern, Helen Weedon, Paul Chen, Gavin Screaton, Xiao N Xu and David R Hayne

Large Extra Dimensions and Decaying KK Recurrences

We suggest the possibility that in ADD type brane-world scenarios, the higher KK excitations of the graviton may decay to lower ones owing to a breakdown of the conservation of extra dimensional ``momenta'' and study its implications for astrophysics and cosmology. We give an explicit realization of this idea with a bulk scalar field $\Phi$, whose nonzero KK modes acquire vacuum expectation values. This scenario helps to avoid constraints on large extra dimensions that come from gamma ray flux bounds in the direction of nearby supernovae as well as those coming from diffuse cosmological gamma ray background. It also relaxes the very stringent limits on reheat temperature of the universe in ADD models.Comment: 16 pages, late

Controlled trial of an mHealth intervention to promote healthy behaviours in adolescence (TeenPower): Effectiveness analysis

Aim To evaluate the effectiveness on lifestyle change of an mHealth intervention to promote healthy behaviours in adolescence (TeenPower) and to analyse the predictors of the mHealth intervention effectiveness. Design This study is designed as a non‐randomized controlled trial with a two‐arm structure. Methods Adolescents of 12–16‐year old were recruited from three school districts, with access to the Internet and smartphone/tablet devices. The intervention group was invited to engage in the mHealth intervention (TeenPower) for 6 months in addition to a school‐based intervention. The control group only followed the school‐based intervention. A repeated measures factorial ANOVA was used and the main effectiveness outcome was the lifestyle change measured by the adolescent lifestyle profile. Results The outcomes of the mHealth intervention (TeenPower) show a significant effect on nutrition (ƞ2p = 0.03, p = .03), positive life perspective (ƞ2p = 0.04, p = .01), and global lifestyle (ƞ2p = 0.02, p = .05), with a dropout rate of 62.1%. The analysis of the effectiveness predictors of the mHealth intervention suggested that older adolescents tended to show a significant increase in the rates of stress management (r = .40; p < .05). Conclusions Although the considerable dropout rate, the mHealth intervention presented significant impact on multiple lifestyle domains, providing support for the effectiveness of mHealth interventions for health promotion as an add‐on to standard interdisciplinary interventions. Impact Adolescents must have the necessary and appropriate knowledge for the correct and responsible decision‐making regarding their health and lifestyle. Innovative strategies (mHealth intervention) were used to promote healthy behaviours. This study evaluates the effectiveness of an mHealth intervention (TeenPower) specifically designed for adolescents. We found a significant impact in several lifestyle domains such as health responsibility, nutrition, positive life perspective, and global lifestyle.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio