Mapping geographical inequalities in access to drinking water and sanitation facilities in low-income and middle-income countries, 2000-17

Background: Universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities is an essential human right, recognised in the Sustainable Development Goals as crucial for preventing disease and improving human wellbeing. Comprehensive, high-resolution estimates are important to inform progress towards achieving this goal. We aimed to produce high-resolution geospatial estimates of access to drinking water and sanitation facilities. Methods: We used a Bayesian geostatistical model and data from 600 sources across more than 88 low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) to estimate access to drinking water and sanitation facilities on continuous continent-wide surfaces from 2000 to 2017, and aggregated results to policy-relevant administrative units. We estimated mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive subcategories of facilities for drinking water (piped water on or off premises, other improved facilities, unimproved, and surface water) and sanitation facilities (septic or sewer sanitation, other improved, unimproved, and open defecation) with use of ordinal regression. We also estimated the number of diarrhoeal deaths in children younger than 5 years attributed to unsafe facilities and estimated deaths that were averted by increased access to safe facilities in 2017, and analysed geographical inequality in access within LMICs. Findings: Across LMICs, access to both piped water and improved water overall increased between 2000 and 2017, with progress varying spatially. For piped water, the safest water facility type, access increased from 40·0% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 39·4–40·7) to 50·3% (50·0–50·5), but was lowest in sub-Saharan Africa, where access to piped water was mostly concentrated in urban centres. Access to both sewer or septic sanitation and improved sanitation overall also increased across all LMICs during the study period. For sewer or septic sanitation, access was 46·3% (95% UI 46·1–46·5) in 2017, compared with 28·7% (28·5–29·0) in 2000. Although some units improved access to the safest drinking water or sanitation facilities since 2000, a large absolute number of people continued to not have access in several units with high access to such facilities (>80%) in 2017. More than 253 000 people did not have access to sewer or septic sanitation facilities in the city of Harare, Zimbabwe, despite 88·6% (95% UI 87·2–89·7) access overall. Many units were able to transition from the least safe facilities in 2000 to safe facilities by 2017; for units in which populations primarily practised open defecation in 2000, 686 (95% UI 664–711) of the 1830 (1797–1863) units transitioned to the use of improved sanitation. Geographical disparities in access to improved water across units decreased in 76·1% (95% UI 71·6–80·7) of countries from 2000 to 2017, and in 53·9% (50·6–59·6) of countries for access to improved sanitation, but remained evident subnationally in most countries in 2017. Interpretation: Our estimates, combined with geospatial trends in diarrhoeal burden, identify where efforts to increase access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities are most needed. By highlighting areas with successful approaches or in need of targeted interventions, our estimates can enable precision public health to effectively progress towards universal access to safe water and sanitation

Cannabis in Homes with Children: A Survey on Use, Storage, and Attitudes

Introduction: The recent legalization of cannabis in California has the potential to affect cannabis prevalence in households with children. This eventuality, combined with suboptimal cannabis storage practices, could lead to adverse effects such as unintentional pediatric ingestion, which occurred in Colorado after legalization. Our objective was to assess prevalence and storage practices of cannabis in households with children, and attitudes on use and storage education in a state that has legalized cannabis. Methods: We administered electronic surveys to 401 adults in a pediatric emergency department in California. Participants were excluded if they were not English- or Spanish-speaking or did not live in a household with children <18 years old. They answered questions regarding cannabis use, storage, and attitudes on cannabis storage education. We used convenience sampling and analyzed data using descriptive statistics.  Results: Research assistants approached 558 participants of whom 401 completed the survey. Three participants did not respond regarding past or current cannabis use, and 14.5% (58/401) reported cannabis use in their home in the prior six months. Both users and non-users rated safe storage of high importance in homes with children. Only 44.8% of home users (26/58) reported that their cannabis was both locked and hidden. Among home users, the most common source of storage advice was friends and family (21/58, 36.2%), and 45% of home users (26/58) received no storage information whatsoever. Most cannabis users (53/67, 79.1%) and non-users (241/330, 73%) reported that they would feel comfortable receiving cannabis education from their primary care provider.   Conclusion: Cannabis is used and stored in homes with children; however, safe storage is not clearly defined in California, and storage education is lacking. Healthcare providers in primary care and the emergency department may play an important role in educating the public about cannabis use and safe storage

Cannabis in Homes with Children: A Survey on Use, Storage, and Attitudes

Introduction: The recent legalization of cannabis in California has the potential to affect cannabis prevalence in households with children. This eventuality, combined with suboptimal cannabis storage practices, could lead to adverse effects such as unintentional pediatric ingestion, which occurred in Colorado after legalization. Our objective was to assess prevalence and storage practices of cannabis in households with children, and attitudes on use and storage education in a state that has legalized cannabis. Methods: We administered electronic surveys to 401 adults in a pediatric emergency department in California. Participants were excluded if they were not English- or Spanish-speaking or did not live in a household with children <18 years old. They answered questions regarding cannabis use, storage, and attitudes on cannabis storage education. We used convenience sampling and analyzed data using descriptive statistics.  Results: Research assistants approached 558 participants of whom 401 completed the survey. Three participants did not respond regarding past or current cannabis use, and 14.5% (58/401) reported cannabis use in their home in the prior six months. Both users and non-users rated safe storage of high importance in homes with children. Only 44.8% of home users (26/58) reported that their cannabis was both locked and hidden. Among home users, the most common source of storage advice was friends and family (21/58, 36.2%), and 45% of home users (26/58) received no storage information whatsoever. Most cannabis users (53/67, 79.1%) and non-users (241/330, 73%) reported that they would feel comfortable receiving cannabis education from their primary care provider.   Conclusion: Cannabis is used and stored in homes with children; however, safe storage is not clearly defined in California, and storage education is lacking. Healthcare providers in primary care and the emergency department may play an important role in educating the public about cannabis use and safe storage

A SUMO-ubiquitin relay recruits proteasomes to chromosome axes to regulate meiotic recombination

Meiosis produces haploid gametes through a succession of chromosomal events, including pairing, synapsis, and recombination. Mechanisms that orchestrate these events remain poorly understood. We found that the SUMO (small ubiquitin-like modifier)-modification and ubiquitin-proteasome systems regulate the major events of meiotic prophase in mouse. Interdependent localization of SUMO, ubiquitin, and proteasomes along chromosome axes was mediated largely by RNF212 and HEI10, two E3 ligases that are also essential for crossover recombination. RNF212-dependent SUMO conjugation effected a checkpointlike process that stalls recombination by rendering the turnover of a subset of recombination factors dependent on HEI10-mediated ubiquitylation. We propose that SUMO conjugation establishes a precondition for designating crossover sites via selective protein stabilization. Thus, meiotic chromosome axes are hubs for regulated proteolysis via SUMO-dependent control of the ubiquitin-proteasome system

LERF - New Life for the Jefferson Lab FEL

International audienceIn 2012 Jefferson Laboratory's energy recovery linac (ERL) driven Free Electron Laser successful completed a transmission test in which high current CW beam (4.3 mA at 100 MeV) was transported through a 2 mm aperture for 7 hours with beam losses as low as 3 ppm. The purpose of the run was to mimic an internal gas target for DarkLight* - an experiment designed to search for a dark matter particle. The ERL was not run again until late 2015 for a brief re-commissioning in preparation for the next phase of DarkLight. In the intervening years, the FEL was rebranded as the Low Energy Recirculator Facility (LERF), while organizationally the FEL division was absorbed into the Accelerator division. In 2016 several weeks of operation were allocated to configure the machine for Darklight with the purpose of exercising - for the first time - an internal gas target in an ERL. Despite a number of challenges, including the inability to energy recover, beam was delivered to a target of thickness 10¹⁸ cm⁻² which represents a 3 order of magnitude increase in thickness from previous internal target experiments. Details of the machine configuration and operational experience will be discussed