Inhaled particle counts on bicycle commute routes of low and high proximity to motorised traffic

Frequent exposure to ultrafine particles (UFP) is associated with detrimental effects on cardiopulmonary function and health. UFP dose and therefore the associated health risk are a factor of exposure frequency, duration, and magnitude of (therefore also proximity to) a UFP emission source. Bicycle commuters using on-road routes during peak traffic times are sharing a microenvironment with high levels of motorised traffic, a major UFP emission source. Inhaled particle counts were measured along popular pre-identified bicycle commute route alterations of low (LOW) and high (HIGH) motorised traffic to the same inner-city destination at peak commute traffic times. During commute, real-time particle number concentration (PNC; mostly in the UFP range) and particle diameter (PD), heart and respiratory rate, geographical location, and meteorological variables were measured. To determine inhaled particle counts, ventilation rate was calculated from heart-rate-ventilation associations, produced from periodic exercise testing. Total mean PNC of LOW (compared to HIGH) was reduced (1.56 x e4 ± 0.38 x e4 versus 3.06 x e4 ± 0.53 x e4 ppcc; p = 0.012). Total estimated ventilation rate did not vary significantly between LOW and HIGH (43 ± 5 versus 46 ± 9 L•min; p = 0.136); however, due to total mean PNC, accumulated inhaled particle counts were 48% lower in LOW, compared to HIGH (7.6 x e8 ± 1.5 x e8 versus 14.6 x e8 ± 1.8 x e8; p = 0.003). For bicycle commuting at peak morning commute times, inhaled particle counts and therefore cardiopulmonary health risk may be substantially reduced by decreasing exposure to motorised traffic, which should be considered by both bicycle commuters and urban planners

New tuberculosis drugs on the horizon

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Using video games for volcanic hazard education and communication: An assessment of the method and preliminary results

This paper presents the findings from a study aimed at understanding whether video games (or serious games) can be effective in enhancing volcanic hazard education and communication. Using the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent, we have developed a video game – St. Vincent's Volcano-for use in existing volcano education and outreach sessions. Its twin aims are to improve residents' knowledge of potential future eruptive hazards (ash fall, pyroclastic flows and lahars) and to integrate traditional methods of education in a more interactive manner. Here, we discuss the process of game development including concept design through to the final implementation on St. Vincent. Preliminary results obtained from the final implementation (through pre-and post-test knowledge quizzes) for both student and adult participants provide indications that a video game of this style may be effective in improving a learner's knowledge. Both groups of participants demonstrated a post-test increase in their knowledge quiz score of 9.3% for adults and 8.3% for students and, when plotted as learning gains (Hake, 1998), show similar overall improvements (0.11 for adults and 0.09 for students). These preliminary findings may provide a sound foundation for the increased integration of emerging technologies within traditional education sessions. This paper also shares some of the challenges and lessons learnt throughout the development and testing processes and provides recommendations for researchers looking to pursue a similar study

New Approaches to Filling the Gap in Tuberculosis Drug Discovery

For the first time in decades, say the authors, there is a tuberculosis drug pipeline, but the paucity of candidates is still cause for alarm

High-resolution transcriptome and genome-wide dynamics of RNA polymerase and NusA in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

To construct a regulatory map of the genome of the human pathogen, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, we applied two complementary high-resolution approaches: strand-specific RNA-seq, to survey the global transcriptome, and ChIP-seq, to monitor the genome-wide dynamics of RNA polymerase (RNAP) and the anti-terminator NusA. Although NusA does not bind directly to DNA, but rather to RNAP and/or to the nascent transcript, we demonstrate that NusA interacts with RNAP ubiquitously throughout the chromosome, and that its profile mirrors RNAP distribution in both the exponential and stationary phases of growth. Generally, promoter-proximal peaks for RNAP and NusA were observed, followed by a decrease in signal strength reflecting transcriptional polarity. Differential binding of RNAP and NusA in the two growth conditions correlated with transcriptional activity as reflected by RNA abundance. Indeed, a significant association between expression levels and the presence of NusA throughout the gene body was detected, confirming the peculiar transcription-promoting role of NusA. Integration of the data sets pinpointed transcriptional units, mapped promoters and uncovered new anti-sense and non-coding transcripts. Highly expressed transcriptional units were situated mainly on the leading strand, despite the relatively unbiased distribution of genes throughout the genome, thus helping the replicative and transcriptional complexes to alig

Hypertension in mice lacking 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2

Deficiency of 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 (11β-HSD2) in humans leads to the syndrome of apparent mineralocorticoid excess (SAME), in which cortisol illicitly occupies mineralocorticoid receptors, causing sodium retention, hypokalemia, and hypertension. However, the disorder is usually incompletely corrected by suppression of cortisol, suggesting additional and irreversible changes, perhaps in the kidney. To examine this further, we produced mice with targeted disruption of the 11β-HSD2 gene. Homozygous mutant mice (11β-HSD2(–/–)) appear normal at birth, but ∼50% show motor weakness and die within 48 hours. Both male and female survivors are fertile but exhibit hypokalemia, hypotonic polyuria, and apparent mineralocorticoid activity of corticosterone. Young adult 11β-HSD2(–/–) mice are markedly hypertensive, with a mean arterial blood pressure of 146 ± 2 mmHg, compared with 121 ± 2 mmHg in wild-type controls and 114 ± 4 mmHg in heterozygotes. The epithelium of the distal tubule of the nephron shows striking hypertrophy and hyperplasia. These histological changes do not readily reverse with mineralocorticoid receptor antagonism in adulthood. Thus, 11β-HSD2(–/–) mice demonstrate the major features of SAME, providing a unique rodent model to study the molecular mechanisms of kidney resetting leading to hypertension. J. Clin. Invest. 103:683–689 (1999

The distance between us

Many of us express compassion and concern for other animals alongside complicity in their exploitation. Researchers can examine how the mass media allow us to sustain care towards other animals while making it more difficult to know about, and act upon, the realities of the harms inflicted on them

'A new life in the countryside awaits': interactive lessons in the rural utopia in 'farming' simulation games

This paper critically analyses the legitimation of exploitative human–nonhuman animal relations in online ‘farming’ simulation games, especially the game Hay Day. The analysis contributes to a wider project of critical analyses of popular culture representations of nonhuman animals. The paper argues that legitimation is effected in Hay Day and cognate games through: the construction of idyllic rural utopias in gameplay, imagery, and soundscape; the depiction of anthropomorphized nonhumans who are complicit in their own subjection; the suppression of references to suffering, death, and sexual reproduction among ‘farmed’ animals; and the colonialist transmission of Western norms of nonhuman animal use and food practices among the global audience of players. Hay Day thereby resonates with the wider cultural legitimation of nonhuman animal exploitation through establishing emotional connections with idealized representations of nonhuman animals at the same time as they inhibit the development of awareness and empathy about the exploitation of real nonhuman animals

Speciesism party: a vegan critique of Sausage party

This paper provides a critical vegan reading of the comedy animation film Sausage Party (2016), directed by Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan and starring Seth Rogen and Kristen Wiig. Such a reading is situated within an emerging vegan studies framework (Wright 2015) that is sensitive to the reproduction of unequal power relations between humans and other species, but also how those power inequalities intersect with intra-human power relations along the lines of gender, sexuality, "race", age, class, different experiences of embodiment and so on. Sociologist Erika Cudworth argues that "[w]e need as full an analysis of social interse ctionality as we are capable of, "so that the critical focus remains on "relational systems of power" (Cudworth 2015, 101). Cudworth (2011) also introduced the concept of anthroparchy, to signify the human domination of nature, with "nature" including but not limited to other animals. In that context, Sausage Party perpetuates anthroparchy, in so far as it normalizes the consumption of "animal products" for the audience. Those consumption practices are dependent on systems of production that are implicated in major environmental crises (Twine 2010), including mass extinctions, climate change, deforestation, water pollution and water scarcity, which might be summed up by Michael Fox's (2000) term "ecocide". Cudworth (2014) argues that a relational system of power comprises both ideas and beliefs as well as contextually embedded social practices. In this paper, we argue that Sausage Party provides an exemplary case study in the cultural reproduction of such an intersected relational system of power. It celebrates ecocidal, oppressive consumption practices at the same time as it reproduces ideas and beliefs, or social norms, of unequal relations between species, between genders, between the differently abled, and so on. This may be made clearer by situating the critique of Sausage Party in the context of recent research that may be broadly construed as operating within a vegan studies framework