Alcoholism: A Mathematical Model with Media Awareness Campaigns

In this paper, we study how media awareness campaigns influence the spread and persistence of drinking behavior in a community. Here, we present a compartmental population model with an additional differential equation to describe the dynamics of media awareness campaigns in combating problem drinking ([10], [12], [21]). Our model indicates a basic reproductive number, R0, where there exists an asymptotically stable drinking-free equilibrium if R0 \u3c 1, and a unique endemic state, which appears to be stable when R0 \u3e 1. We found that the following two components affect the basic reproductive number: the strength of peer influence of problem drinkers on susceptibles and the average overall time spent in the problem drinking environment. Furthermore, we conclude that the existence of media awareness programs and effective treatment options does not eliminate a drinking culture in the community, it only temporarily alleviate the issue. To support our findings, we present analytical and numerical approaches

Alcoholism: A Mathematical Model with Media Awareness Campaigns

In this paper, we study how media awareness campaigns influence the spread and persistence of drinking behavior in a community. Here, we present a compartmental population model with an additional differential equation to describe the dynamics of media awareness campaigns in combating problem drinking ([10], [12], [21]). Our model indicates a basic reproductive number, R0, where there exists an asymptotically stable drinking-free equilibrium if R0 \u3c 1, and a unique endemic state, which appears to be stable when R0 \u3e 1. We found that the following two components affect the basic reproductive number: the strength of peer influence of problem drinkers on susceptibles and the average overall time spent in the problem drinking environment. Furthermore, we conclude that the existence of media awareness programs and effective treatment options does not eliminate a drinking culture in the community, it only temporarily alleviate the issue. To support our findings, we present analytical and numerical approaches

Feasible Wrench Set Computation for Legged Robots

During locomotion, legged robots interact with the ground by sequentially establishing and breaking contact. The interaction wrenches that arise from contact are used to steer the robot Center of Mass (CoM) and reject perturbations that make the system deviate from the desired trajectory and often make them fall. The feasibility of a given control target (desired CoM wrench or acceleration) is conditioned by the contact point distribution, ground friction, and actuation limits. In this work, we develop a method to compute the set of feasible wrenches that a legged robot can exert on its CoM through contact. The presented method can be used with any amount of non-co-planar contacts and takes into account actuation limits and limitations based on an inelastic contact model with Coulomb friction. This is exemplified with a planar biped model standing with the feet at different heights. Exploiting assumptions from the contact model, we explain how to compute the set of wrenches that are feasible on the CoM when the contacts remain in position as well as the ones that are feasible when some of the contacts are broken. Therefore, this method can be used to assess whether a switch in contact configuration is feasible while achieving a given control task. Furthermore, the method can be used to identify the directions in which the system is not actuated (i.e. a wrench cannot be exerted in those directions). We show how having a joint be actuated or passive can change the non-actuated wrench directions of a robot at a given pose using a spatial model of a lower-extremity exoskeleton. Therefore, this method is also a useful tool for the design phase of the system. This work presents a useful tool for the control and design of legged systems that extends on the current state of the art.Comment: \c{opyright} 2022 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other work

Lability of Pb in soil: effects of soil properties and contaminant source

Environmental Context: There is growing concern that lead (Pb) in the environment may cause adverse health effects in human populations. We investigated the combined use of isotopic abundance and isotopic dilution to show how the origins of soil Pb and soil characteristics affect lability. Soil pH and soil Pb content are the dominant controls on Pb lability; the lability of recent petrol-derived Pb is similar to that of other sources in urban soils but greater than geogenic Pb in rural roadside topsoils. Lability of lead (Pb) in soils is influenced by both soil properties and source(s) of contamination. We investigated factors controlling Pb lability in soils from (i) land adjacent to a major rural road, (ii) a sewage processing farm and (iii) an archive of the geochemical survey of London. We measured isotopically exchangeable Pb (E-values; PbE), phase fractionation of Pb by a sequential extraction procedure (SEP) and inferred source apportionment from measured Pb isotopic ratios. Isotopic ratios (206Pb/207Pb and 208Pb/207Pb) of total soil Pb fell on a mixing line between those of petrol and UK coal or Pb ore. The main determinant of the isotopically exchangeable Pb fraction (%E-value) was soil pH: %E-values decreased with increasing pH. In rural roadside topsoils and there was also evidence that, petrol-derived Pb remained more labile (35%) than Pb from soil parent material (27%). However, in biosolid-amended and London soils %E-values were low (c. 25%), covered a restricted range, and showed no clear evidence of source-dependent lability

Impact of β-Blockers on Heart Rate and Oxygen Uptake During Exercise and Recovery in Older Patients With Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction

Purpose: The study aimed to investigate the differences in oxygen uptake ((Equation is included in full-text article.)O2) and heart rate (HR) (at rest, submaximal exercise, peak exercise, and recovery) in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) with β-blockers (BB) or without BB treatment (NBB) and to analyze the relationship between HR reserve (HRresv) and peak (Equation is included in full-text article.)O2 ((Equation is included in full-text article.)O2peak) in BB and NBB. Methods: A total of 174 HFpEF patients (>65 yr; BB, n = 59; NBB, n = 115) were assessed with a cardiopulmonary exercise test to peak exertion using an incremental protocol. After 5 min of supine rest, HR and (Equation is included in full-text article.)O2 (HRrest, (Equation is included in full-text article.)O2rest) at submaximal exercise (HRsubmax, (Equation is included in full-text article.)O2submax), at peak exercise (HRpeak, (Equation is included in full-text article.)O2peak), at 1 min of passive recovery (HRrec1), HRresv (HRpeak- HRrest), and HR recovery (HRrecov = HRpeak- HRrec1) were evaluated. Results: Analysis showed that HRrest (66.0 ± 12.2 vs 69.7 ± 10.6 bpm), HRsubmax (91.7 ± 16.2 vs 98.6 ± 15.2 bpm), and HRrec1 (102.9 ± 18.9 vs 109.4 ± 16.9 bpm) were significantly lower (P ≤ .05) in BB than in NBB, respectively. However, there were no significant differences (P > .05) between the BB and the NBB for HRpeak, HRresv, HRrecov, (Equation is included in full-text article.)O2rest, (Equation is included in full-text article.)O2submax, and (Equation is included in full-text article.)O2peak. A significant relationship was found between HRresv and (Equation is included in full-text article.)O2peak values in both groups (BB, r = 0.52; NBB, r = 0.49, P < .001). Conclusions: The nonsignificant differences in HRpeak, HRresv, HRrecov, or (Equation is included in full-text article.)O2 values between BB and NBB HFpEF patients, along with significant correlation between HRresv and (Equation is included in full-text article.)O2peak, suggest that these measures may have equal utility in prognostic and functional assessment as well as clinical applications, including the prescription of exercise, in elderly HFpEF patients

Optimisation of a current generation ICP-QMS and benchmarking against MC-ICP-MS spectrometry for the determination of lead isotope ratios in environmental samples

© 2018 The Royal Society of Chemistry. Novel ANOVA methodology was used to benchmark ICP-QMS against MC-ICP-MS for Pb isotope ratios, demonstrating "fitness-for-purpose" in environmental source apportionment. The precision and accuracy of lead (Pb) isotope measurements obtained from quadrupole-based mass spectrometers (ICP-QMS) are considered to be limited by a number of factors originating in different components of the instruments. In this study, experimental and instrumental protocols were optimised for determining lead isotope ratios in urban soil digests. Experimental measures included individual dilution of all samples and isotopic standards (SRM-981, NIST) to a single Pb concentration intended to produce an intensity which was high enough to negate blanks and interferences but low enough to ensure the detector operated only in pulse counting mode. Instrumental protocols included batch dead time correction, optimisation of dwell time and the number of scans employed and correction of mass discrimination by sequential application of both internal ( 203 Tl/ 205 Tl ratio) and external (SRM-981, NIST) standards. This optimised methodology was benchmarked against multi-collector mass spectrometer (MC-ICP-MS) measurements of Pb isotope ratios using replicate digest solutions of the same soil; but after these had been subjected to Pb separation using an ion-exchange procedure. On the assumption that MC-ICP-MS measurements are more accurate, small additive and multiplicative differences were observed in only the 4 th decimal place. ANOVA was used to compare the precisions of the two techniques demonstrating equal precisions c. 0.08% for 207 Pb/ 206 Pb, suggesting a sample heterogeneity limitation. By contrast, for 207 Pb/ 204 Pb, the worst-case ratio, ICP-QMS had a 10-fold poorer precision, despite negligible interference from 204 Hg, implying an instrumental limitation. The study concludes that ICP-QMS can provide valuable source apportionment information for most Pb isotope ratios but further efforts should focus on improving assay of the 207 Pb/ 204 Pb ratio

Urinary arsenic profiles reveal exposures to inorganic arsenic from private drinking water supplies in Cornwall, UK

Private water supplies (PWS) in Cornwall, South West England exceeded the current WHO guidance value and UK prescribed concentration or value (PCV) for arsenic of 10 μg/L in 5% of properties surveyed (n = 497). In this follow-up study, the first of its kind in the UK, volunteers (n = 207) from 127 households who used their PWS for drinking, provided urine and drinking water samples for total As determination by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and urinary As speciation by high performance liquid chromatography ICP-MS (HPLC-ICP-MS). Arsenic concentrations exceeding 10 μg/L were found in the PWS of 10% of the volunteers. Unadjusted total urinary As concentrations were poorly correlated (Spearman’s ρ = 0.36 (P < 0.001)) with PWS As largely due to the use of spot urine samples and the dominance of arsenobetaine (AB) from seafood sources. However, the osmolality adjusted sum, U-AsIMM, of urinary inorganic As species, arsenite (AsIII) and arsenate (AsV), and their metabolites, methylarsonate (MA) and dimethylarsinate (DMA), was found to strongly correlate (Spearman’s ρ: 0.62 (P < 0.001)) with PWS As, indicating private water supplies as the dominant source of inorganic As exposure in the study population of PWS users

Variability in the chemistry of private drinking water supplies and the impact of domestic treatment systems on water quality.

Tap water from 497 properties using private water supplies, in an area of metalliferous and arsenic mineralisation (Cornwall, UK), was measured to assess the extent of compliance with chemical drinking water quality standards, and how this is influenced by householder water treatment decisions. The proportion of analyses exceeding water quality standards were high, with 65 % of tap water samples exceeding one or more chemical standards. The highest exceedances for health-based standards were nitrate (11 %) and arsenic (5 %). Arsenic had a maximum observed concentration of 440 µg/L. Exceedances were also high for pH (47 %), manganese (12 %) and aluminium (7 %), for which standards are set primarily on aesthetic grounds. However, the highest observed concentrations of manganese and aluminium also exceeded relevant health-based guidelines. Significant reductions in concentrations of aluminium, cadmium, copper, lead and/or nickel were found in tap waters where households were successfully treating low-pH groundwaters, and similar adventitious results were found for arsenic and nickel where treatment was installed for iron and/or manganese removal, and successful treatment specifically to decrease tap water arsenic concentrations was observed at two properties where it was installed. However, 31 % of samples where pH treatment was reported had pH < 6.5 (the minimum value in the drinking water regulations), suggesting widespread problems with system maintenance. Other examples of ineffectual treatment are seen in failed responses post-treatment, including for nitrate. This demonstrates that even where the tap waters are considered to be treated, they may still fail one or more drinking water quality standards. We find that the degree of drinking water standard exceedances warrant further work to understand environmental controls and the location of high concentrations. We also found that residents were more willing to accept drinking water with high metal (iron and manganese) concentrations than international guidelines assume. These findings point to the need for regulators to reinforce the guidance on drinking water quality standards to private water supply users, and the benefits to long-term health of complying with these, even in areas where treated mains water is widely available

Workshop on exploration for hot dry rock geothermal systems

Separate abstracts were prepared for fifteen papers. (MHR

High SOX9 Maintains Glioma Stem Cell Activity through a Regulatory Loop Involving STAT3 and PML

Glioma stem cells (GSCs) are critical targets for glioma therapy. SOX9 is a transcription factor with critical roles during neurodevelopment, particularly within neural stem cells. Previous studies showed that high levels of SOX9 are associated with poor glioma patient survival. SOX9 knockdown impairs GSCs proliferation, confirming its potential as a target for glioma therapy. In this study, we characterized the function of SOX9 directly in patient-derived glioma stem cells. Notably, transcriptome analysis of GSCs with SOX9 knockdown revealed STAT3 and PML as downstream targets. Functional studies demonstrated that SOX9, STAT3, and PML form a regulatory loop that is key for GSC activity and self-renewal. Analysis of glioma clinical biopsies confirmed a positive correlation between SOX9/STAT3/PML and poor patient survival among the cases with the highest SOX9 expression levels. Importantly, direct STAT3 or PML inhibitors reduced the expression of SOX9, STAT3, and PML proteins, which significantly reduced GSCs tumorigenicity. In summary, our study reveals a novel role for SOX9 upstream of STAT3, as a GSC pathway regulator, and presents pharmacological inhibitors of the signaling cascade.P.A. and A.S.-A. were recipients of predoctoral fellowships from the AECC foundation and Carlos III Institute (ISCIII), respectively. M.a.-S. holds a Sara Borrell postdoctoral contract from the ISCIII (CD19/00154). E.C.-G. was a recipient of a Stop Fuga de Cerebros postdoctoral fellowship and holds a Miguel Servet contract from the ISCIII (CP19/00085). We thank the Histology Platform of the Biodonostia Health Research Institute, The Neuro-Oncology Committee of Donostia University Hospital, and Basque Biobank for their help. This research was supported by grants from ISCIII and FEDER Funds (CP16/00039, DTS16/00184, PI16/01580, DTS18/00181, PI18/01612, CP19/00085), and the Industry and Health Departments of the Basque Country