Cross-sectional Examination of U.S. Gun Ownership and Support for Gun Control Measures: Socio-demographic, Geographic, and Political Associations Explored

Background: Gun violence in the United States is a public health threat without global parallel. Gun-related injury, disability, and death impact vulnerable populations disproportionately; women and youth, residents of impoverished cities and communities, and black males are most frequently the victims-which starkly contracts sociodemographic patterns associated with owners of guns. The purpose of the study is to determine associations between gun control policy support and sociodemographic characteristics, geographic region, and political views among gun owners in the US. Methods: Cross-sectional national data pooled from 3 waves of the biennial General Social Survey administered from 2010 to 2014 were utilized to examine sociodemographic, geographic, and attitudinal differences among respondents who responded positively that they owned a personal firearm (N=2990). The main outcome measure included favor towards gun sale restrictions. Prevalence of gun ownership and support of gun control policy was examined calculated by age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, income, region of residence, and political views. Prevalence ratios and 95 percent confidence intervals were calculated based on logistic regression models. Results: An estimated 33.5 percent of U.S. adults reported owning a gun while 73.3 percent were in favor of laws requiring a person to obtain a police permit before purchasing a gun. After adjusting for significant study variables, adults 65 of age or older, male, non-Hispanic white, earning $35,000 or more, residing in the Midwest or South, and with Conservative political views were more likely to own a gun than their respective counterparts. Additional characteristics that were found to be significantly associated in favor of permit laws before gun purchase included females, Non-Hispanic Black/Other, Hispanic, college graduates, residing in the Northeast, and siding with liberal political views. Conclusions: The result of this investigation reveal characteristics among gun owners that are associated with support for gun restriction laws. Public health professionals can utilize these findings to development more tailored, culturally-sensitive gun violence prevention advocacy campaigns and outreach efforts

Global patterns and environmental controls of perchlorate and nitrate co-occurrence in arid and semi-arid environments

Natural perchlorate (ClO4-) is of increasing interest due to its wide-spread occurrence on Earth and Mars, yet little information exists on the relative abundance of ClO4- compared to other major anions, its stability, or long-term variations in production that may impact the observed distributions. Our objectives were to evaluate the occurrence and fate of ClO4- in groundwater and soils/caliche in arid and semi-arid environments (southwestern United States, southern Africa, United Arab Emirates, China, Antarctica, and Chile) and the relationship of ClO4- to the more well-studied atmospherically deposited anions NO3- and Cl- as a means to understand the prevalent processes that affect the accumulation of these species over various time scales. ClO4- is globally distributed in soil and groundwater in arid and semi-arid regions on Earth at concentrations ranging from 10-1 to 106 µg/kg. Generally, the ClO4- concentration in these regions increases with aridity index, but also depends on the duration of arid conditions. In many arid and semi-arid areas, NO3- and ClO4- co-occur at molar ratios (NO3-/ClO4-) that vary between ~104 and 105. We hypothesize that atmospheric deposition ratios are largely preserved in hyper-arid areas that support little or no biological activity (e.g. plants or bacteria), but can be altered in areas with more active biological processes including N2 fixation, N mineralization, nitrification, denitrification, and microbial ClO4- reduction, as indicated in part by NO3- isotope data. In contrast, much larger ranges of Cl-/ClO4- and Cl-/NO3- ratios indicate Cl- varies independently from both ClO4- and NO3-. The general lack of correlation between Cl- and ClO4- or NO3- implies that Cl- is not a good indicator of co-deposition and should be used with care when interpreting oxyanion cycling in arid systems. The Atacama Desert appears to be unique compared to all other terrestrial locations having a NO3-/ClO4- molar ratio ~103. The relative enrichment in ClO4- compared to Cl- or NO3- and unique isotopic composition of Atacama ClO4- may reflect either additional in-situ production mechanism(s) or higher relative atmospheric production rates in that specific region or in the geological past. Elevated concentrations of ClO4- reported on the surface of Mars, and its enrichment with respect to Cl- and NO3-, could reveal important clues regarding the climatic, hydrologic, and potentially biologic evolution of that planet. Given the highly conserved ratio of NO3-/ClO4- in non-biologically active areas on Earth, it may be possible to use alterations of this ratio as a biomarker on Mars and for interpreting major anion cycles and processes on both Mars and Earth, particularly with respect to the less-conserved NO3- pool terrestrially

Global patterns and environmental controls of perchlorate and nitrate co-occurrence in arid and semi-arid environments

Natural perchlorate (ClO4-) is of increasing interest due to its wide-spread occurrence on Earth and Mars, yet little information exists on the relative abundance of ClO4- compared to other major anions, its stability, or long-term variations in production that may impact the observed distributions. Our objectives were to evaluate the occurrence and fate of ClO4- in groundwater and soils/caliche in arid and semi-arid environments (southwestern United States, southern Africa, United Arab Emirates, China, Antarctica, and Chile) and the relationship of ClO4- to the more well-studied atmospherically deposited anions NO3- and Cl- as a means to understand the prevalent processes that affect the accumulation of these species over various time scales. ClO4- is globally distributed in soil and groundwater in arid and semi-arid regions on Earth at concentrations ranging from 10-1 to 106 µg/kg. Generally, the ClO4- concentration in these regions increases with aridity index, but also depends on the duration of arid conditions. In many arid and semi-arid areas, NO3- and ClO4- co-occur at molar ratios (NO3-/ClO4-) that vary between ~104 and 105. We hypothesize that atmospheric deposition ratios are largely preserved in hyper-arid areas that support little or no biological activity (e.g. plants or bacteria), but can be altered in areas with more active biological processes including N2 fixation, N mineralization, nitrification, denitrification, and microbial ClO4- reduction, as indicated in part by NO3- isotope data. In contrast, much larger ranges of Cl-/ClO4- and Cl-/NO3- ratios indicate Cl- varies independently from both ClO4- and NO3-. The general lack of correlation between Cl- and ClO4- or NO3- implies that Cl- is not a good indicator of co-deposition and should be used with care when interpreting oxyanion cycling in arid systems. The Atacama Desert appears to be unique compared to all other terrestrial locations having a NO3-/ClO4- molar ratio ~103. The relative enrichment in ClO4- compared to Cl- or NO3- and unique isotopic composition of Atacama ClO4- may reflect either additional in-situ production mechanism(s) or higher relative atmospheric production rates in that specific region or in the geological past. Elevated concentrations of ClO4- reported on the surface of Mars, and its enrichment with respect to Cl- and NO3-, could reveal important clues regarding the climatic, hydrologic, and potentially biologic evolution of that planet. Given the highly conserved ratio of NO3-/ClO4- in non-biologically active areas on Earth, it may be possible to use alterations of this ratio as a biomarker on Mars and for interpreting major anion cycles and processes on both Mars and Earth, particularly with respect to the less-conserved NO3- pool terrestrially

The impacts of discriminatory experiences on lesbian, gay and bisexual people in sport

This study examines the nature and impact of sexist and homophobic discrimination experienced by lesbians, gays and bisexuals (LGB) in Australian sporting settings. A mixed methods online survey was utilized to collate participant experiences. The findings suggest that, in sport, participants experienced sexism directly and systemically, and homophobia explicitly and implicitly. Women experienced sexism and homophobia, whilst men reported more homophobic events. The most mentioned impacts of discrimination were negative emotions such as sadness, anger, distress and shame, followed by negative engagement with sport such as disliking sport, or avoiding or leaving sport. The well-recognized benefits of sport such as physical and mental well-being, social connections, enjoyment, positive identity and achievement may be more difficult to realize within this context of significant social stress

Mobile health apps to facilitate self-care: a qualitative study of user experiences

Objective: Consumers are living longer, creating more pressure on the health system and increasing their requirement for self-care of chronic conditions. Despite rapidly-increasing numbers of mobile health applications (‘apps’) for consumers’ self-care, there is a paucity of research into consumer engagement with electronic self-monitoring. This paper presents a qualitative exploration of how health consumers use apps for health monitoring, their perceived benefits from use of health apps, and suggestions for improvement of health apps. Materials and Methods: ‘Health app’ was defined as any commercially-available health or fitness app with capacity for self-monitoring. English-speaking consumers aged 18 years and older using any health app for self-monitoring were recruited for interview from the metropolitan area of Perth, Australia. The semi-structured interview guide comprised questions based on the Technology Acceptance Model, Health Information Technology Acceptance Model, and the Mobile Application Rating Scale, and is the only study to do so. These models also facilitated deductive thematic analysis of interview transcripts. Implicit and explicit responses not aligned to these models were analyzed inductively.Results: Twenty-two consumers (15 female, seven male) participated, 13 of whom were aged 26–35 years. Eighteen participants reported on apps used on iPhones. Apps were used to monitor diabetes, asthma, depression, celiac disease, blood pressure, chronic migraine, pain management, menstrual cycle irregularity, and fitness. Most were used approximately weekly for several minutes per session, and prior to meeting initial milestones, with significantly decreased usage thereafter. Deductive and inductive thematic analysis reduced the data to four dominant themes: engagement in use of the app; technical functionality of the app; ease of use and design features; and management of consumers’ data. Conclusions: The semi-structured interviews provided insight into usage, benefits and challenges of health monitoring using apps. Understanding the range of consumer experiences and expectations can inform design of health apps to encourage persistence in self-monitoring

LSST Science Book, Version 2.0

A survey that can cover the sky in optical bands over wide fields to faint magnitudes with a fast cadence will enable many of the exciting science opportunities of the next decade. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will have an effective aperture of 6.7 meters and an imaging camera with field of view of 9.6 deg^2, and will be devoted to a ten-year imaging survey over 20,000 deg^2 south of +15 deg. Each pointing will be imaged 2000 times with fifteen second exposures in six broad bands from 0.35 to 1.1 microns, to a total point-source depth of r~27.5. The LSST Science Book describes the basic parameters of the LSST hardware, software, and observing plans. The book discusses educational and outreach opportunities, then goes on to describe a broad range of science that LSST will revolutionize: mapping the inner and outer Solar System, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, the structure of the Milky Way disk and halo and other objects in the Local Volume, transient and variable objects both at low and high redshift, and the properties of normal and active galaxies at low and high redshift. It then turns to far-field cosmological topics, exploring properties of supernovae to z~1, strong and weak lensing, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and baryon oscillations, and how these different probes may be combined to constrain cosmological models and the physics of dark energy.Comment: 596 pages. Also available at full resolution at http://www.lsst.org/lsst/sciboo

Priority setting for adult malnutrition and nutritional screening in healthcare: a James Lind Alliance.

BACKGROUND: Malnutrition is one the greatest global health challenges of our generation, leading to the increased utilisation of healthcare resources, as well as morbidity and mortality. Research has primarily been driven by industry, academia and clinical working groups and has had little involvement from patients and carers. The project described in the present study aimed to establish a priority setting partnership allowing patients, carers and healthcare professionals an opportunity to influence the research agenda. METHODS: A national survey was conducted to gather malnutrition uncertainties and identify key issues (i.e. areas within scope where an evidence-base is lacking) from those with experience of malnutrition. Uncertainties were analysed according to themes. Similar questions were grouped and summary questions were developed. A second survey was conducted and respondents were asked to choose their 10 most important summary questions. A workshop was conducted to finalise the top 10 research priorities from the most frequently indicated uncertainties on the interim survey. RESULTS: Overall, 1128 uncertainty questions were submitted from 268 people. The interim survey had 71 responses and a list of the top 26 questions was generated for the workshop. There were 26 questions discussed, ranked and agreed by healthcare professionals, carers and patients at the workshop. The top 10 research priorities were then chosen. These included questions on oral nutritional supplements, vulnerable groups, screening, community care, use of body mass index and technology. CONCLUSIONS: The top 10 research priorities in malnutrition and nutritional screening have been identified from a robust process involving patients, carers and healthcare professionals

The Changing Epidemiology of Murray Valley Encephalitis in Australia: The 2011 Outbreak and a Review of the Literature

Murray Valley encephalitis virus (MVEV) is the most serious of the endemic arboviruses in Australia. It was responsible for six known large outbreaks of encephalitis in south-eastern Australia in the 1900s, with the last comprising 58 cases in 1974. Since then MVEV clinical cases have been largely confined to the western and central parts of northern Australia. In 2011, high-level MVEV activity occurred in south-eastern Australia for the first time since 1974, accompanied by unusually heavy seasonal MVEV activity in northern Australia. This resulted in 17 confirmed cases of MVEV disease across Australia. Record wet season rainfall was recorded in many areas of Australia in the summer and autumn of 2011. This was associated with significant flooding and increased numbers of the mosquito vector and subsequent MVEV activity. This paper documents the outbreak and adds to our knowledge about disease outcomes, epidemiology of disease and the link between the MVEV activity and environmental factors. Clinical and demographic information from the 17 reported cases was obtained. Cases or family members were interviewed about their activities and location during the incubation period. In contrast to outbreaks prior to 2000, the majority of cases were non-Aboriginal adults, and almost half (40%) of the cases acquired MVEV outside their area of residence. All but two cases occurred in areas of known MVEV activity.This outbreak continues to reflect a change in the demographic pattern of human cases of encephalitic MVEV over the last 20 years. In northern Australia, this is associated with the increasing numbers of non-Aboriginal workers and tourists living and travelling in endemic and epidemic areas, and also identifies an association with activities that lead to high mosquito exposure. This outbreak demonstrates that there is an ongoing risk of MVEV encephalitis to the heavily populated areas of south-eastern Australia