Preface: Special Issue on Environmental Impact of Nature‐Based Tourism.

Tourism is growing rapidly throughout the world, including nature‐based tourism, but natural habitats are shrinking. How do we avoid damaging what is left as an increasing number of visitors wish to experience nature or enjoy adventure or relaxation in natural surroundings? This issue explores various environmental impact factors, from the physical effects of trampling through the disturbance of wildlife to the attitudes of visitors and how well‐run tourism ventures might modify their behavior

Elevated cardiovascular risk among adults with obstructive and restrictive airway functioning in the United States: a cross-sectional study of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2007-2010

BACKGROUND: Reasons for the excess risk for cardiovascular disease among people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease remain unclear. Our objective was to examine the cardiovascular risk profile for adults with obstructive and restrictive impairments of lung functioning in a representative sample of adults from the United States. METHODS: We used data from adults aged 20-79 years who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2007 to 2010 and had a pulmonary function test. The severity of obstructive impairment was defined by adapting the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease criteria. RESULTS: Among 7249 participants, 80.9% had a normal pulmonary function test, 5.7% had a restrictive impairment, 7.9% had mild obstructive impairment, and 5.5% had moderate or severe/very severe obstructive impairment. Participants with obstructive impairment had high rates of smoking and increased serum concentrations of cotinine. Compared to participants with normal pulmonary functioning, participants with at least moderate obstructive impairment had elevated concentrations of C-reactive protein but lower concentrations of total cholesterol and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Among participants aged 50-74 years, participants with at least a moderate obstructive impairment or a restrictive impairment had an elevated predicted 10-year risk for cardiovascular disease. CONCLUSIONS: The high rates of smoking among adults with impaired pulmonary functioning, particularly those with obstructive impairment, point to a need for aggressive efforts to promote smoking cessation in these adults. In addition, adults with restrictive impairment may require increased attention to and fine-tuning of their cardiovascular risk profile

Improving Cosmological Distance Measurements by Reconstruction of the Baryon Acoustic Peak

The baryon acoustic oscillations are a promising route to the precision measure of the cosmological distance scale and hence the measurement of the time evolution of dark energy. We show that the non-linear degradation of the acoustic signature in the correlations of low-redshift galaxies is a correctable process. By suitable reconstruction of the linear density field, one can sharpen the acoustic peak in the correlation function or, equivalently, restore the higher harmonics of the oscillations in the power spectrum. With this, one can achieve better measurements of the acoustic scale for a given survey volume. Reconstruction is particularly effective at low redshift, where the non-linearities are worse but where the dark energy density is highest. At z=0.3, we find that one can reduce the sample variance error bar on the acoustic scale by at least a factor of 2 and in principle by nearly a factor of 4. We discuss the significant implications our results have for the design of galaxy surveys aimed at measuring the distance scale through the acoustic peak.Comment: 5 pages, LaTeX. Submitted to the Astrophysical Journa

Trends in the Use, Sociodemographic Correlates, and Undertreatment of Prescription Medications for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease among Adults with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in the United States from 1999 to 2010

BACKGROUND: The extent to which patients with COPD are receiving indicated treatment with medications to improve lung function and recent trends in the use of these medications is not well documented in the United States. The objective of this study was to examine trends in prescription medications for COPD among adults in the United States from 1999 to 2010. METHODS: We performed a trend analysis using data from up to 1426 participants aged ≥20 years with self-reported COPD from six national surveys (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2010). RESULTS: During 2009-2010, the age-adjusted percentage of participants who used any kind of medication was 44.2%. Also during 2009-2010, the most commonly used medications were short-acting agents (36.0%), inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) (18.3%), and LABAs (16.7%). The use of long-acting beta-2 agonists (LABAs) (p for trend CONCLUSION: The percentages of adults with COPD who reported having various classes of prescription medications that improve airflow limitations changed markedly from 1999-2000 to 2009-2010. However, many adults with COPD did not report having recommended prescription medications

Minkowski's Object: A Starburst Triggered by a Radio Jet, Revisited

We present neutral hydrogen, ultraviolet, optical and near-infrared imaging, and optical spectroscopy, of Minkowski's Object (MO), a star forming peculiar galaxy near NGC 541. The observations strengthen evidence that star formation in MO was triggered by the radio jet from NGC 541. Key new results are the discovery of a 4.9E8 solar mass double HI cloud straddling the radio jet downstream from MO, where the jet changes direction and decollimates; strong detections of MO, also showing double structure, in UV and H-alpha; and numerous HII regions and associated clusters in MO. In UV, MO resembles the radio-aligned, rest-frame UV morphologies in many high redshift radio galaxies (HzRGs), also thought to be caused by jet-induced star formation. MO's stellar population is dominated by a 7.5 Myr-old, 1.9E7 solar mass instantaneous burst, with current star formation rate 0.52 solar masses per year (concentrated upstream from where the HI column density is high). This is unlike the jet-induced star formation in Centaurus A, where the jet interacts with pre-existing cold gas; in MO the HI may have cooled out of a warmer, clumpy intergalactic or interstellar medium as a result of jet interaction, followed by collapse of the cooling clouds and subsequent star formation (consistent with numerical simulations). Since the radio source that triggered star formation in MO is much less luminous, and therefore more common, than powerful HzRGs, and because the environment around MO is not particularly special in terms of abundant dense, cold gas, jet-induced star formation in the early universe might be even more prevalent than previously thought.Comment: 52 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Detection of fast radio transients with multiple stations: a case study using the Very Long Baseline Array

Recent investigations reveal an important new class of transient radio phenomena that occur on sub-millisecond timescales. Often transient surveys' data volumes are too large to archive exhaustively. Instead, an on-line automatic system must excise impulsive interference and detect candidate events in real-time. This work presents a case study using data from multiple geographically distributed stations to perform simultaneous interference excision and transient detection. We present several algorithms that incorporate dedispersed data from multiple sites, and report experiments with a commensal real-time transient detection system on the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). We test the system using observations of pulsar B0329+54. The multiple-station algorithms enhanced sensitivity for detection of individual pulses. These strategies could improve detection performance for a future generation of geographically distributed arrays such as the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder and the Square Kilometre Array.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for Ap

Smoking Duration, Respiratory Symptoms, and COPD in Adults Aged ≥45 Years with a Smoking History

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship of smoking duration with respiratory symptoms and history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the South Carolina Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey in 2012. METHODS: Data from 4,135 adults aged ≥45 years with a smoking history were analyzed using multivariable logistic regression that accounted for sex, age, race/ethnicity, education, and current smoking status, as well as the complex sampling design. RESULTS:The distribution of smoking duration ranged from 19.2% (1-9 years) to 36.2% (≥30 years). Among 1,454 respondents who had smoked for ≥30 years, 58.3% were current smokers, 25.0% had frequent productive cough, 11.2% had frequent shortness of breath, 16.7% strongly agreed that shortness of breath affected physical activity, and 25.6% had been diagnosed with COPD. Prevalence of COPD and each respiratory symptom was lower among former smokers who quit ≥10 years earlier compared with current smokers. Smoking duration had a linear relationship with COPD (P\u3c0.001) and all three respiratory symptoms (P\u3c0.001) after adjusting for smoking status and other covariates. While COPD prevalence increased with prolonged smoking duration in both men and women, women had a higher age-adjusted prevalence of COPD in the 1–9 years, 20–29 years, and ≥30 years duration periods. CONCLUSION:These state population data confirm that prolonged tobacco use is associated with respiratory symptoms and COPD after controlling for current smoking behavior

Recruiting in surgical trial in the emergency setting: understanding clinician and patient perspectives: a mixed methods study

Background. Undertaking randomised controlled trials (RCT) in emergency surgical setting is associated with methodological and practical challenges. This study explored patients and clinicians’ perspectives associated with the conduct of a RCT comparing laparoscopic and open colorectal surgery in the acute setting.Method. All eligible patients screened/enrolled for the ‘Laparoscopic versus Open Colorectal Surgery in the Acute Setting multicentre, randomised controlled feasibility (LaCeS) trial’ in five NHS Trusts were invited to respond to a survey. Also, patients and healthcare professionals were invited to take part in semi-structured interviews. Survey and interviews explored acceptability of the feasibility trial. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis. Survey data were analysed descriptively to assess patient views of the trial and intervention. Results. Out of 72 patients enrolled for the LaCeS RCT, survey data was collected from 28 patients (38.9%), and interviews were conducted with 16 patients and 14 healthcare professionals. Thirteen out of 28 patients (46%) had treatment preferences but these were not strong enough to deter participation. Twelve of the patients interviewed believed their surgeon preferred laparoscopic surgery, but this did not deter them from participating in the trial. Half of the surgeons interviewed expressed the view that laparoscopic surgery was of benefit in this setting, but recognised that the need for research evidence outweighed their personal treatment preferences. Eight of the 14 recruiters reported that the emergency setting affected recruitment, especially in centres with fewer recruiting surgeons. Interviewees reported that recruitment was helped significantly by using surgical trainees to consent patients. Conclusion. This study identified specific challenges for the LaCeS2 trial design to address, and adds to our understanding of recruiting to emergency surgical trials more broadly