The significance of hazardous chemicals in wastewater treatment works effluents

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Science of The Total Environment. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2012 Elsevier B.V.The advent of increasingly stringent and wider ranging European Union legislation relating to water and the environment has required regulators to assess compliance risk and to respond by formulating appropriate pollution control measures. To support this process the UK Water Industry has completed a national Chemicals Investigation Programme (CIP), to monitor over 160 wastewater treatment works (WwTWs) for 70 determinands. Final effluent concentrations of zinc, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (fluoranthene, benzo(a)pyrene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, benzo(g,h,i)perylene and indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene), “penta” congeners (BDEs) 47 and 99, tributyltin, triclosan, erythromycin, oxytetracycline, ibuprofen, propranolol, fluoxetine, diclofenac, 17β-estradiol and 17α-ethinyl estradiol exceeded existing or proposed Environmental Quality Standards (EQSs) in over 50% of WwTWs. Dilution by receiving water might ensure compliance with EQSs for these chemicals, apart from the BDEs. However, in some cases there will be insufficient dilution to ensure compliance and additional management options may be required

A structured collaborative approach to intervention design using a modified intervention mapping approach: a case study using the Management and Interventions for Asthma (MIA) project for South Asian children

Background: To describe how using a combined approach of community-based participatory research and intervention mapping principles could inform the development of a tailored complex intervention to improve management of asthma for South Asian (SA) children; Management and Interventions for Asthma (MIA) study. / Methods: A qualitative study using interviews, focus groups, workshops, and modified intervention mapping procedures to develop an intervention planning framework in an urban community setting in Leicester, UK. The modified form of intervention mapping (IM) included: systematic evidence synthesis; community study; families and healthcare professionals study; and development of potential collaborative intervention strategies. Participants in the community study were 63 SA community members and 12 key informants; in-depth semi-structured interviews involved 30 SA families, 14 White British (WB) families and 37 Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) treating SA children living with asthma; prioritisation workshops involved 145 SA, 6 WB and 37 HCP participants; 30 participants in finalisation workshops. / Results: Two key principles were utilised throughout the development of the intervention; community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles and intervention mapping (IM) procedures. The CBPR approach allowed close engagement with stakeholders and generated valuable knowledge to inform intervention development. It accounted for diverse perceptions and experiences with regard to asthma and recognised the priorities of patients and their families/caregivers for service improvement. The ‘ACT on Asthma’ programme was devised, comprising four arms of an intervention strategy: education and training, clinical support, advice centre and raising awareness, to be co-ordinated by a central team. / Conclusions: The modified IM principles utilised in this study were systematic and informed by theory. The combined IM and participatory approach could be considered when tailoring interventions for other clinical problems within diverse communities. The IM approach to intervention development was however resource intensive. Working in meaningful collaboration with minority communities requires specific resources and a culturally competent methodology

Detecting and predicting neutralization of alemtuzumab responses in MS

Objective: To test the hypothesis that anti-drug antibodies against alemtuzumab could become relevant after repeated treatments for some individuals, possibly explaining occasional treatment resistance. Methods: Recombinant alemtuzumab single-chain variable fragment antibody with a dual tandem nanoluciferase reporter linker was made and used to detect binding anti-drug antibodies. Alemtuzumab IgG Alexa-Fluor 488 conjugate was used in a competitive-binding cell based assay to detect neutralizing anti-drug antibodies. The assays were used to retrospectively screen, blinded, banked-serum samples from people with multiple sclerosis (n=32) who had received three or more cycles of alemtuzumab. Lymphocyte depletion was measured between baseline and about 1 month post-infusion. Results: The number of individuals showing limited depletion of lymphocytes increased with the number of treatment cycles. Lack of depletion was also a poor prognostic feature for future disease activity. Anti-drug antibody responses were detected in 29/32 (90.6%) individuals. Neutralizing antibodies occurred prior to the development of limited depletion in 6/7 individuals (18.8% of the whole sample). Pre-infusion, anti-drug antibody levels predicted limited, post-infusion lymphocyte depletion. Conclusions: Although anti-drug antibodies to alemtuzumab have been portrayed as being of no clinical significance, alemtuzumab-specific antibodies appear to be clinically relevant for some individuals, although causation remains to be established. Monitoring of, lymphocyte depletion and the anti-drug response may be of practical value in patients requiring additional cycles of alemtuzumab. Anti-drug antibody detection may help to inform on re-treatment or switching to another treatment

Solar fusion cross sections. II. The pp chain and CNO cycles

We summarize and critically evaluate the available data on nuclear fusion cross sections important to energy generation in the Sun and other hydrogen-burning stars and to solar neutrino production. Recommended values and uncertainties are provided for key cross sections, and a recommended spectrum is given for 8B solar neutrinos. We also discuss opportunities for further increasing the precision of key rates, including new facilities, new experimental techniques, and improvements in theory. This review, which summarizes the conclusions of a workshop held at the Institute for Nuclear Theory, Seattle, in January 2009, is intended as a 10-year update and supplement to Reviews of Modern Physics 70 (1998) 1265.Comment: 54 pages, 20 figures, version to be published in Reviews of Modern Physics; various typos corrected and several updates mad

Turbulence and galactic structure

Interstellar turbulence is driven over a wide range of scales by processes including spiral arm instabilities and supernovae, and it affects the rate and morphology of star formation, energy dissipation, and angular momentum transfer in galaxy disks. Star formation is initiated on large scales by gravitational instabilities which control the overall rate through the long dynamical time corresponding to the average ISM density. Stars form at much higher densities than average, however, and at much faster rates locally, so the slow average rate arises because the fraction of the gas mass that forms stars at any one time is low, ~10^{-4}. This low fraction is determined by turbulence compression, and is apparently independent of specific cloud formation processes which all operate at lower densities. Turbulence compression also accounts for the formation of most stars in clusters, along with the cluster mass spectrum, and it gives a hierarchical distribution to the positions of these clusters and to star-forming regions in general. Turbulent motions appear to be very fast in irregular galaxies at high redshift, possibly having speeds equal to several tenths of the rotation speed in view of the morphology of chain galaxies and their face-on counterparts. The origin of this turbulence is not evident, but some of it could come from accretion onto the disk. Such high turbulence could help drive an early epoch of gas inflow through viscous torques in galaxies where spiral arms and bars are weak. Such evolution may lead to bulge or bar formation, or to bar re-formation if a previous bar dissolved. We show evidence that the bar fraction is about constant with redshift out to z~1, and model the formation and destruction rates of bars required to achieve this constancy.Comment: in: Penetrating Bars through Masks of Cosmic Dust: The Hubble Tuning Fork strikes a New Note, Eds., K. Freeman, D. Block, I. Puerari, R. Groess, Dordrecht: Kluwer, in press (presented at a conference in South Africa, June 7-12, 2004). 19 pgs, 5 figure

Autoimmune and autoinflammatory mechanisms in uveitis

The eye, as currently viewed, is neither immunologically ignorant nor sequestered from the systemic environment. The eye utilises distinct immunoregulatory mechanisms to preserve tissue and cellular function in the face of immune-mediated insult; clinically, inflammation following such an insult is termed uveitis. The intra-ocular inflammation in uveitis may be clinically obvious as a result of infection (e.g. toxoplasma, herpes), but in the main infection, if any, remains covert. We now recognise that healthy tissues including the retina have regulatory mechanisms imparted by control of myeloid cells through receptors (e.g. CD200R) and soluble inhibitory factors (e.g. alpha-MSH), regulation of the blood retinal barrier, and active immune surveillance. Once homoeostasis has been disrupted and inflammation ensues, the mechanisms to regulate inflammation, including T cell apoptosis, generation of Treg cells, and myeloid cell suppression in situ, are less successful. Why inflammation becomes persistent remains unknown, but extrapolating from animal models, possibilities include differential trafficking of T cells from the retina, residency of CD8(+) T cells, and alterations of myeloid cell phenotype and function. Translating lessons learned from animal models to humans has been helped by system biology approaches and informatics, which suggest that diseased animals and people share similar changes in T cell phenotypes and monocyte function to date. Together the data infer a possible cryptic infectious drive in uveitis that unlocks and drives persistent autoimmune responses, or promotes further innate immune responses. Thus there may be many mechanisms in common with those observed in autoinflammatory disorders

A comprehensive review of oral glucosamine use and effects on glucose metabolism in normal and diabetic individuals

Glucosamine (GlcN) is a widely utilized dietary supplement that is used to promote joint health. Reports that oral GlcN supplementation at usual doses adversely affects glucose metabolism in subjects with impaired glucose tolerance have raised concerns that GlcN should be contraindicated in individuals with diabetes and those at risk for developing it. This review addresses its potential, when used at typical doses, to affect glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity in healthy individuals and those with diabetes or ‘pre-diabetes’. Publicly available scientific information and data on GlcN were systematically compiled using the electronic search tool, Dialog®, and reviewed with special emphasis on human studies. In long-term clinical trials, including those containing subjects with type 2 diabetes or ‘pre-diabetes’, GlcN produced a non-significant lowering of fasting blood glucose concentrations in all groups of subjects treated for periods of up to 3 years. Owing to limitations in study design, conclusions based on studies that report adverse affects of GlcN on insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance in pre-diabetic subjects are suspect. However, no definitive long-term studies of GlcN use for individuals with pre-diabetes are available. Nevertheless, based on available evidence, we conclude that GlcN has no effect on fasting blood glucose levels, glucose metabolism, or insulin sensitivity at any oral dose level in healthy subjects, individuals with diabetes, or those with impaired glucose tolerance