Smog episodes in the Lodz agglomeration in the years 2014-17

In recent years, in the winter season we are alarmed about the poor air quality in Poland and significantly exceeded permissible concentrations of certain pollutants, especially PM10 and PM2.5, which are a result of so-called low emissions. The authors analyze smog episodes in the Lodz agglomeration by comparing the recorded values of selected pollutant concentrations at monitoring stations of the Regional Inspectorate for Environmental Protection in Lodz with the meteorological conditions prevailing at this time. The analysis covers data from the years 2014-2017

Tracing new occupational diseases in agriculture

Continuous changes in work and working conditions give rise to new occupational health risks and new occupational diseases. The health consequences of new technologies, as well as the currently unknown effects of existing technologies, create reasons for concern among the working population, people professionally involved in work and health, policymakers and insurers.detection of new occupational consequences of work on health and ways towards better OHS-vigilance is of otmost importance

The Importance of Process Representation for Simulating Coupled Surface-Groundwater Flow in Karst Watersheds: A Comparison of SWAT, SWAT-MODFLOW and DisCo

The highly permeable matrix and conduit-dominated flow of karst systems make them vulnerable to contamination due to rapid infiltration and groundwater transport. Critical issues in karst regions with intensive agriculture include water overallocation and high nutrient loads, motivating the need for management strategies to reduce further impairment. But, developing strategies for aquifer and aquatic ecosystem protection is challenging due to the need for hydrological models that capture the spatiotemporal variability in nutrient loading and water use and adequately represent the complex flow dynamics common in karst aquifers. Models that can simulate land and water management strategies and capture the complexity in karst systems are limited. Surface-runoff models such as the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) are useful for simulating changing land management practices and quantifying pollutant loads, but they apply simplistic groundwater routines. Notably, SWAT can now be coupled to the USGS groundwater flow model MODFLOW to overcome these limitations, but simulating integrated surface and groundwater flow systems may still be limited when coupling two distinct models. Fully coupled surface and groundwater models such as Discrete Continuum (DisCo) can simulate 3-D surface and groundwater flow using Richards equation for variably saturated subsurface flow and capture turbulent flow in discrete conduits. While fully coupled models may better represent the flow physics in karst terrain, their inability to simulate management strategies remains a major limitation for guiding watershed management. In this work, we compare the ability of SWAT, SWAT-MODFLOW and DisCo to reproduce surface and groundwater interactions and hydrodynamics in a karst watershed in northern Florida. Model development is part of the USDA-NIFA funded Floridan Aquifer Collaborative Engagement for Sustainability (FACETS) project, which aims to understand land use changes needed to achieve agricultural water security while meeting environmental regulations. Preliminary results show all models perform well, but DisCo captures baseflow and storage in karst systems more effectively. We use these results to discuss the limitations and benefits of each model for karst watershed management in the context of the FACETS project

Transgenerational effects of prenatal exposure to the 1944-45 Dutch famine

OBJECTIVE: We previously showed that maternal under-nutrition during gestation is associated with increased metabolic and cardiovascular disease in the offspring. Also, we found increased neonatal adiposity among the grandchildren of women who had been undernourished during pregnancy. In the present study we investigated whether these transgenerational effects have led to altered body composition and poorer health in adulthood in the grandchildren.DESIGN: Historical cohort study.SETTING: Web-based questionnaire.POPULATION: The adult offspring (F2) of a cohort of men and women (F1) born around the time of the 1944-45 Dutch famine.METHODS: We approached the F2 adults through their parents. Participating F2 adults (n = 360, mean age 37 years) completed an online questionnaire.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Weight, body mass index (BMI), and health in F2 adults, according to F1 prenatal famine exposure.RESULTS: Adult offspring (F2) of prenatally exposed F1 fathers had higher weights and BMIs than offspring of prenatally unexposed F1 fathers (+4.9 kg, P = 0.03; +1.6 kg/m(2), P = 0.006). No such effect was found for the F2 offspring of prenatally exposed F1 mothers. We observed no differences in adult health between the F2 generation groups.CONCLUSIONS: Offspring of prenatally undernourished fathers, but not mothers, were heavier and more obese than offspring of fathers and mothers who had not been undernourished prenatally. We found no evidence of transgenerational effects of grandmaternal under-nutrition during gestation on the health of this relatively young group, but the increased adiposity in the offspring of prenatally undernourished fathers may lead to increased chronic disease rates in the future

LKB1 exonic and whole gene deletions are a common cause of Peutz‐Jeghers syndrome

BACKGROUND: LKB1/STK11 germline mutations cause Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS). The existence of a second PJS locus is controversial, the evidence in its favour being families unlinked to LKB1 and the low frequency of LKB1 mutations found using conventional methods in several studies. Exonic and whole gene deletion or duplication events cannot be detected by routine mutation screening methods. OBJECTIVE: To seek evidence for LKB1 germline deletions or duplications by screening patients meeting clinical criteria for PJS but without detected mutations on conventional screening. METHODS: From an original cohort of 76 patients, 48 were found to have a germline mutation by direct sequencing; the remaining 28 were examined using multiplex ligation dependent probe amplification (MLPA) analysis to detect LKB1 copy number changes. RESULTS: Deletions were found in 11 of the 28 patients (39%)--that is, 14% of all PJS patients (11/76). Five patients had whole gene deletions, two had the promoter and exon 1 deleted, and in one patient exon 8 was deleted. Other deletions events involved: loss of exons 2-10; deletion of the promoter and exons 1-3; and loss of part of the promoter. No duplications were detected. Nine samples with deletions were sequenced at reported single nucleotide polymorphisms to exclude heterozygosity; homozygosity was found in all cases. No MLPA copy number changes were detected in 22 healthy individuals. CONCLUSIONS: These results lessen the possibility of a second PJS locus, as the detection rate of germline mutations in PJS patients was about 80% (59/76). It is suggested that MLPA, or a suitable alternative, should be used for routine genetic testing of PJS patients in clinical practice