Heat-Related Mortality and Adaptation to Heat in the United States

Background: In a changing climate, increasing temperatures are anticipated to have profound health impacts. These impacts could be mitigated if individuals and communities adapt to changing exposures; however, little is known about the extent to which the population may be adapting. Objective: We investigated the hypothesis that if adaptation is occurring, then heat-related mortality would be decreasing over time. Methods: We used a national database of daily weather, air pollution, and age-stratified mortality rates for 105 U.S. cities (covering 106 million people) during the summers of 1987–2005. Time-varying coefficient regression models and Bayesian hierarchical models were used to estimate city-specific, regional, and national temporal trends in heat-related mortality and to identify factors that might explain variation across cities. Results: On average across cities, the number of deaths (per 1,000 deaths) attributable to each 10°F increase in same-day temperature decreased from 51 [95% posterior interval (PI): 42, 61] in 1987 to 19 (95% PI: 12, 27) in 2005. This decline was largest among those ≥ 75 years of age, in northern regions, and in cities with cooler climates. Although central air conditioning (AC) prevalence has increased, we did not find statistically significant evidence of larger temporal declines among cities with larger increases in AC prevalence. Conclusions: The population has become more resilient to heat over time. Yet even with this increased resilience, substantial risks of heat-related mortality remain. Based on 2005 estimates, an increase in average temperatures by 5°F (central climate projection) would lead to an additional 1,907 deaths per summer across all cities. Citation: Bobb JF, Peng RD, Bell ML, Dominici F. 2014. Heat-related mortality and adaptation to heat in the United States. Environ Health Perspect 122:811–816; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.130739

Associations of PM2.5 Constituents and Sources with Hospital Admissions: Analysis of Four Counties in Connecticut and Massachusetts (USA) for Persons ≥ 65 Years of Age

Background: Epidemiological studies have demonstrated associations between short-term exposure to PM2.5 and hospital admissions. The chemical composition of particles varies across locations and time periods. Identifying the most harmful constituents and sources is an important health and regulatory concern. Objectives: We examined pollutant sources for associations with risk of hospital admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory causes. Methods: We obtained PM2.5 filter samples for four counties in Connecticut and Massachusetts and analyzed them for PM2.5 elements. Source apportionment was used to estimate daily PM2.5 contributions from sources (traffic, road dust, oil combustion, and sea salt as well as a regional source representing coal combustion and other sources). Associations between daily PM2.5 constituents and sources and risk of cardiovascular and respiratory hospitalizations for the Medicare population (> 333,000 persons ≥ 65 years of age) were estimated with time-series analyses (August 2000–February 2004). Results: PM2.5 total mass and PM2.5 road dust contribution were associated with cardiovascular hospitalizations, as were the PM2.5 constituents calcium, black carbon, vanadium, and zinc. For respiratory hospitalizations, associations were observed with PM2.5 road dust, and sea salt as well as aluminum, calcium, chlorine, black carbon, nickel, silicon, titanium, and vanadium. Effect estimates were generally robust to adjustment by co-pollutants of other constituents. An interquartile range increase in same-day PM2.5 road dust (1.71 μg/m3) was associated with a 2.11% (95% CI: 1.09, 3.15%) and 3.47% (95% CI: 2.03, 4.94%) increase in cardiovascular and respiratory admissions, respectively. Conclusions: Our results suggest some particle sources and constituents are more harmful than others and that in this Connecticut/Massachusetts region the most harmful particles include black carbon, calcium, and road dust PM2.5. Citation: Bell ML, Ebisu K, Leaderer BP, Gent JF, Lee HJ, Koutrakis P, Wang Y, Dominici F, Peng RD. 2014. Associations of PM2.5 constituents and sources with hospital admissions: analysis of four counties in Connecticut and Massachusetts (USA) for persons ≥ 65 years of age. Environ Health Perspect 122:138–144; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.130665

The politics of in/visibility: carving out queer space in Ul'yanovsk

<p>In spite of a growing interest within sexualities studies in the concept of queer space (Oswin 2008), existing literature focuses almost exclusively on its most visible and territorialised forms, such as the gay scene, thus privileging Western metropolitan areas as hubs of queer consumer culture (Binnie 2004). While the literature has emphasised the political significance of queer space as a site of resistance to hegemonic gender and sexual norms, it has again predominantly focused on overt claims to public space embodied in Pride events, neglecting other less open forms of resistance.</p><p> This article contributes new insights to current debates about the construction and meaning of queer space by considering how city space is appropriated by an informal queer network in Ul’ianovsk. The group routinely occupied very public locations meeting and socialising on the street or in mainstream cafés in central Ul’ianovsk, although claims to these spaces as queer were mostly contingent, precarious or invisible to outsiders. The article considers how provincial location affects tactics used to carve out communal space, foregrounding the importance of local context and collective agency in shaping specific forms of resistance, and questioning ethnocentric assumptions about the empowering potential of visibility.</p&gt

Molecular insights into land snail neuropeptides through transcriptome and comparative gene analysis

Background: Snails belong to the molluscan class Gastropoda, which inhabit land, freshwater and marine environments. Several land snail species, including Theba pisana, are crop pests of major concern, causing extensive damage to agriculture and horticulture. A deeper understanding of their molecular biology is necessary in order to develop methods to manipulate land snail populations. Results: The present study used in silico gene data mining of T. pisana tissue transcriptomes to predict 24,920 central nervous system (CNS) proteins, 37,661 foot muscle proteins and 40,766 hepatopancreas proteins, which together have 5,236 unique protein functional domains. Neuropeptides, metabolic enzymes and epiphragmin genes dominated expression within the CNS, hepatopancreas and muscle, respectively. Further investigation of the CNS transcriptome demonstrated that it might contain as many as 5,504 genes that encode for proteins destined for extracellular secretion. Neuropeptides form an important class of cell-cell messengers that control or influence various complex metabolic events. A total of 35 full-length neuropeptide genes were abundantly expressed within T. pisana CNS, encoding precursors that release molluscan-type bioactive neuropeptide products. These included achatin, allototropin, conopressin, elevenin, FMRFamide, LFRFamide, LRFNVamide, myomodulins, neurokinin Y, PKYMDT, PXFVamide, sCAPamides and several insulin-like peptides. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry of neural ganglia confirmed the presence of many of these neuropeptides. Conclusions: Our results provide the most comprehensive picture of the molecular genes and proteins associated with land snail functioning, including the repertoire of neuropeptides that likely play significant roles in neuroendocrine signalling. This information has the potential to expedite the study of molluscan metabolism and potentially stimulate advances in the biological control of land snail pest species

Toward a Quantitative Estimate of Future Heat Wave Mortality under Global Climate Change

Background: Climate change is anticipated to affect human health by changing the distribution of known risk factors. Heat waves have had debilitating effects on human mortality, and global climate models predict an increase in the frequency and severity of heat waves. The extent to which climate change will harm human health through changes in the distribution of heat waves and the sources of uncertainty in estimating these effects have not been studied extensively. Objectives: We estimated the future excess mortality attributable to heat waves under global climate change for a major U.S. city. Methods: We used a database comprising daily data from 1987 through 2005 on mortality from all nonaccidental causes, ambient levels of particulate matter and ozone, temperature, and dew point temperature for the city of Chicago, Illinois. We estimated the associations between heat waves and mortality in Chicago using Poisson regression models. Results: Under three different climate change scenarios for 2081–2100 and in the absence of adaptation, the city of Chicago could experience between 166 and 2,217 excess deaths per year attributable to heat waves, based on estimates from seven global climate models. We noted considerable variability in the projections of annual heat wave mortality; the largest source of variation was the choice of climate model. Conclusions: The impact of future heat waves on human health will likely be profound, and significant gains can be expected by lowering future carbon dioxide emissions

Relationship between spatial ability, visuospatial working memory and self-assessed spatial orientation ability: a study in older adults

This paper describes some novel spatial tasks and questionnaires designed to assess spatial and orientation abilities. The new tasks and questionnaires were administered to a sample of 90 older adults (41 males, age range 57–90), along with some other tests of spatial ability (Minnesota Paper Form Board, Mental Rotations Test, and Embedded Figures Test) and tests of visuospatial working memory (Corsi’s Block Test and Visual Pattern Test). The internal reliability of the new tasks and questionnaires was analyzed, as well as their relationship with the spatial and working memory tests. The results showed that the new spatial tasks are reliable, correlate with working memory and spatial ability tests and, compared with the latters, show stronger correlations with the self-report questionnaires referring to orientation abilities. A model was also tested (with reference to Allen et al. in Intelligence 22:327–355, 1996) in which the new tasks were assumed to relate to spatial ability and predict orientation abilities as assessed by the self-report measures

Species Interactions Alter Evolutionary Responses to a Novel Environment

Adaptation to a novel environment is altered by the presence of co-occurring species. Species in diverse communities evolved complementary resource use, which altered the functioning of the experimental ecosystems