Suicidal behavior in individuals accused or convicted of child sex abuse or indecent image offenses: systematic review of prevalence and risk factors

Objective An emerging body of research indicates that child sex abuse (CSA) offenders are at high risk of suicide when their offenses come to light and that those accused of accessing indecent images of children (IIOC) are at particular risk. Methods We conducted a systematic review and narrative synthesis on suicide rates and risk factors in this population of offenders. A keyword search of bibliographic databases (PsycINFO, Ovid, MEDLINE, Embase, PILOTS, SCIE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials [CENTRAL] and CINAHL) was conducted. Results Eighteen articles were included in the review, with eleven studies meeting criteria for quality assessment. The risk of suicide in perpetrators of CSA and IIOC might be over 100 times that of the general population, although estimates vary widely between studies. Several complex, interlinking factors were identified as associated with risk, including shame, unique demographic characteristics of the offenders, absence of prior criminal contact, and the impact of a criminal investigation. Conclusions The review identified factors that may have practical, clinical, and operational implications in the prevention of suicide in CSA and IIOC perpetrators. Exploring the impact of the investigation itself on suicide risk, including potential operational strategies and clinical input to reduce risk, should be a priority

Quantification of annual settlement growth in rural mining areas using machine learning

Studies on annual settlement growth have mainly focused on larger cities or incorporated data rarely available in, or applicable to, sparsely populated areas in sub-Saharan Africa, such as aerial photography or night-time light data. The aim of the present study is to quantify settlement growth in rural communities in Burkina Faso affected by industrial mining, which often experience substantial in-migration. A multi-annual training dataset was created using historic Google Earth imagery. Support vector machine classifiers were fitted on Landsat scenes to produce annual land use classification maps. Post-classification steps included visual quality assessments, majority voting of scenes of the same year and temporal consistency correction. Overall accuracy in the four studied scenes ranged between 58.5% and 95.1%. Arid conditions and limited availability of Google Earth imagery negatively affected classification accuracy. Humid study sites, where training data could be generated in proximity to the areas of interest, showed the highest classification accuracies. Overall, by relying solely on freely and globally available imagery, the proposed methodology is a promising approach for tracking fast-paced population dynamics in rural areas where population data is scarce. With the growing availability of longitudinal high-resolution imagery, including data from the Sentinel satellites, the potential applications of the methodology presented will further increase in the futur

How do disease control measures impact spatial predictions of schistosomiasis and hookworm? The example of predicting school-based prevalence before and after preventive chemotherapy in Ghana

BACKGROUND: Schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminth infections are among the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) affecting primarily marginalized communities in low- and middle-income countries. Surveillance data for NTDs are typically sparse, and hence, geospatial predictive modeling based on remotely sensed (RS) environmental data is widely used to characterize disease transmission and treatment needs. However, as large-scale preventive chemotherapy has become a widespread practice, resulting in reduced prevalence and intensity of infection, the validity and relevance of these models should be re-assessed. METHODOLOGY: We employed two nationally representative school-based prevalence surveys of Schistosoma haematobium and hookworm infections from Ghana conducted before (2008) and after (2015) the introduction of large-scale preventive chemotherapy. We derived environmental variables from fine-resolution RS data (Landsat 8) and examined a variable distance radius (1-5 km) for aggregating these variables around point-prevalence locations in a non-parametric random forest modeling approach. We used partial dependence and individual conditional expectation plots to improve interpretability. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The average school-level S. haematobium prevalence decreased from 23.8% to 3.6% and that of hookworm from 8.6% to 3.1% between 2008 and 2015. However, hotspots of high-prevalence locations persisted for both diseases. The models with environmental data extracted from a buffer radius of 2-3 km around the school location where prevalence was measured had the best performance. Model performance (according to the R2 value) was already low and declined further from approximately 0.4 in 2008 to 0.1 in 2015 for S. haematobium and from approximately 0.3 to 0.2 for hookworm. According to the 2008 models, land surface temperature (LST), modified normalized difference water index (MNDWI), elevation, slope, and streams variables were associated with S. haematobium prevalence. LST, slope, and improved water coverage were associated with hookworm prevalence. Associations with the environment in 2015 could not be evaluated due to low model performance. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our study showed that in the era of preventive chemotherapy, associations between S. haematobium and hookworm infections and the environment weakened, and thus predictive power of environmental models declined. In light of these observations, it is timely to develop new cost-effective passive surveillance methods for NTDs as an alternative to costly surveys, and to focus on persisting hotspots of infection with additional interventions to reduce reinfection. We further question the broad application of RS-based modeling for environmental diseases for which large-scale pharmaceutical interventions are in place

Nutritive Value of the Crop Residues from bt-Corn Hybrids and Their Effects on Performance of Grazing Beef Cows

One non bt-corn hybrid (Pioneer 3489) and three btcorn hyrids (Pioneer 34RO7, Novartis NX6236, and Novartis N64-Z4) were planted in replicated 7.1-acre fields. After grain harvest, fields were stocked with 3 mature cows in midgestation to be strip-grazed as four paddocks over 126 days. Six similar cows were allotted to replicated drylots. All cows were fed hay as necessary to maintain a condition score of 5 on a 9-point scale. Cows were condition-scored biweekly and weighed monthly. Forage yield and weathering losses were determined by sampling one 4-m2 location per grazed or ungrazed paddock in each field with a minimum total of 2 locations of grazed or ungrazed forage per field. To measure forage selection during grazing, samples of grazed forage were collected from the rumen of one fistulated steer that grazed for 2 hours after ruminal evacuation. Non-bt-corn hybrids had greater (P\u3c.05) infestation of corn borers in the upper stalk, lower stalk and ear shank than bt-corn hybrids. However, there were no differences in grain yields or dropped grain between hybrids. Crop residue dry matter, organic matter and in vitro digestible dry matter yields at the initiation of grazing did not differ between corn hybrids. Dry matter, organic matter and in vitro digestible dry matter losses tended (P\u3c.10) to be greater from the NX6236 and N64-Z4 hybrids than from the 3489 and 34RO7 hybrids and were greater (P\u3c.05) from grazed than non-grazed areas of the fields. At the initiation of grazing, dry matter concentrations of the crop residues from the NX6236 and N64-Z4 hybrids tended to be lower than those from the 3489 and 34RO7 hybrids. Crop residues from the NX6236 and N64-74 hybrids had lower concentrations of acid detergent fiber (P\u3c.05) and acid detergent lignin (P=.07) and higher concentrations of in vitro digestible organic matter than the 3489 and 34RO7 hybrids. Over the grazing season, corn hybrid did not affect mean rates of change in forage composition. The concentration of in vitro digestible organic matter in forage selected by steers after two weeks of grazing did not differ. However, steers grazing corn crop residues consumed forage with higher (P\u3c.05) concentrations of neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, and acid detergent insoluble nitrogen than steers fed hay. The acid detergent fiber concentration of forage selected by steers grazing the 3489 and N64-Z4 hybrids was lower (P \u3c .05) than concentrations from the 34RO7 and NX6236 hybrids. In order to maintain similar body condition score changes, cows grazing crop residues from the 3489, 34RO7, NX6236, and N64-Z4 hybrids required 650, 628, 625, and 541 kg hay DM/cow compared with a hay requirement of 1447 kg hay DM/cow for cows maintained in a drylot

Ezh2-dCas9 and KRAB-dCas9 enable engineering of epigenetic memory in a context-dependent manner.

BackgroundRewriting of the epigenome has risen as a promising alternative to gene editing for precision medicine. In nature, epigenetic silencing can result in complete attenuation of target gene expression over multiple mitotic divisions. However, persistent repression has been difficult to achieve in a predictable manner using targeted systems.ResultsHere, we report that persistent epigenetic memory required both a DNA methyltransferase (DNMT3A-dCas9) and a histone methyltransferase (Ezh2-dCas9 or KRAB-dCas9). We demonstrate that the histone methyltransferase requirement can be locus specific. Co-targeting Ezh2-dCas9, but not KRAB-dCas9, with DNMT3A-dCas9 and DNMT3L induced long-term HER2 repression over at least 50 days (approximately 57 cell divisions) and triggered an epigenetic switch to a heterochromatic environment. An increase in H3K27 trimethylation and DNA methylation was stably maintained and accompanied by a sustained loss of H3K27 acetylation. Interestingly, substitution of Ezh2-dCas9 with KRAB-dCas9 enabled long-term repression at some target genes (e.g., SNURF) but not at HER2, at which H3K9me3 and DNA methylation were transiently acquired and subsequently lost. Off-target DNA hypermethylation occurred at many individual CpG sites but rarely at multiple CpGs in a single promoter, consistent with no detectable effect on transcription at the off-target loci tested. Conversely, robust hypermethylation was observed at HER2. We further demonstrated that Ezh2-dCas9 required full-length DNMT3L for maximal activity and that co-targeting DNMT3L was sufficient for persistent repression by Ezh2-dCas9 or KRAB-dCas9.ConclusionsThese data demonstrate that targeting different combinations of histone and DNA methyltransferases is required to achieve maximal repression at different loci. Fine-tuning of targeting tools is a necessity to engineer epigenetic memory at any given locus in any given cell type

Housing conditions and respiratory health in children in mining communities: an analysis of data from 27 countries in sub-Saharan Africa

Background Poor housing conditions, such as poor building materials and weak structures as well as high levels of indoor air pollution, are important risk factors for a broad range of diseases, including acute respiratory infections (ARI). In mining areas, research on the determinants of respiratory health predominantly focuses on exposures to outdoor air pollutants deriving from mining operations. However, mining projects also influence the socioeconomic status of households, which, in turn, affect housing quality and individual behaviors and, thus, housing quality and levels of indoor air pollution. In this study, we aimed to determine how proximity to an industrial mining project impacts housing quality, sources of indoor air pollution, and prevalence of ARI. Methods We merged data from 131 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) with georeferenced data on mining projects in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to determine associations between housing quality, indoor air pollution sources, and child respiratory health. Spatial differences in selected indicators were explored using descriptive cross-sectional analyses. Furthermore, we applied a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences (DiD) approach using generalized linear mixed-effects models to compare temporal changes in household and child health indicators at different operational phases of mining projects and as a function of distance to mines. Results For cross-sectional analyses, data of 183,466 households and 141,384 children from 27 countries in SSA were used, while 41,648 households and 34,406 children from 23 SSA countries were included in the DiD analyses. The increase in the share of houses being built from finished building materials after mine opening was more than 4-fold higher (odds ratio (OR): 4.32, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.98-6.24) in close proximity to mining sites (i.e., ≤ 10 km) compared to areas further away (i.e., 10-50 km). However, these benefits were not equally distributed across socioeconomic strata, with considerably weaker effects observed among poorer households. Increases in indoor tobacco smoking rates in close proximity to operating mines were twice as high as in comparison areas (OR: 2.06, 95% CI: 1.15-3.68). The cross-sectional analyses revealed that traditional cooking fuels (e.g., charcoal, dung, and wood) were less frequently used (OR: 0.27, 95% CI: 0.23-0.31) in areas located in close proximity to mines than in comparison areas. Overall, no statistically significant association between mining operations and the prevalence of symptoms related to ARI in children under the age of 5 years was observed (OR: 0.78, 95% CI: 0.29-2.07). Conclusions Mines impact known risk factors for ARI through diverse pathways. The absence of significant changes in ARI symptoms among children is likely the result of counteracting effects between improvements in housing infrastructure and increased exposures to air pollutants from outdoor sources and tobacco smoking. For mining projects to unfold their full potential for community development, we recommend that impact assessments move beyond the mere appraisal of mining-related pollution emissions and try to include a more comprehensive set of pathways through which mines can affect ARI in exposed communities

Strategies for selection of subjects for sequencing after detection of a linkage peak

Linkage analysis has the potential to localize disease genes of interest, but the choice of which subjects to select for follow-up sequencing after identifying a linkage peak might influence the ability to find a disease gene. We compare nine different strategies for selection of subjects for follow-up sequencing using sequence data from the Genetic Analysis Workshop 17. We found that our more selective strategies, which included methods to identify case subjects more likely to be affected by genetic causes, out-performed sequencing all case and control subjects in linked pedigrees and required sequencing fewer individuals. We found that using genotype data from population control subjects had a higher benefit-cost ratio than sequencing control subjects selected as being the opposite extreme of the case subjects. We conclude that choosing case subjects for sequencing based on more selective strategies can be reliable and cost-effective

The role of DNA methylation in directing the functional organization of the cancer epigenome

The holistic role of DNA methylation in the organization of the cancer epigenome is not well understood. Here we perform a comprehensive, high-resolution analysis of chromatin structure to compare the landscapes of HCT116 colon cancer cells and a DNA methylation-deficient derivative. The NOMe-seq accessibility assay unexpectedly revealed symmetrical and transcription-independent nucleosomal phasing across active, poised, and inactive genomic elements. DNA methylation abolished this phasing primarily at enhancers and CpG island (CGI) promoters, with little effect on insulators and non-CGI promoters. Abolishment of DNA methylation led to the context-specific reestablishment of the poised and active states of normal colon cells, which were marked in methylation-deficient cells by distinct H3K27 modifications and the presence of either well-phased nucleosomes or nucleosome-depleted regions, respectively. At higher-order genomic scales, we found that long, H3K9me3-marked domains had lower accessibility, consistent with a more compact chromatin structure. Taken together, our results demonstrate the nuanced and context-dependent role of DNA methylation in the functional, multiscale organization of cancer epigenomes.Charles Heidelberger Memorial Fellowshi

Health impacts of industrial mining on surrounding communities: local perspectives from three sub-Saharan African countries

Industrial mining projects can play an important role in global sustainable development if associated health risks are minimised and opportunities maximised. While a broad body of evidence from quantitative studies exists that establishes the interlinkages between mining operations and effects on public health, little research has been conducted investigating health impacts from the perspective of affected communities. This is particularly true in sub-Saharan Africa, where about a third of the remaining global mineral resources are endowed and health-related indicators for sustainable development are lagging behind. In this multi-country qualitative study, we explore community perceptions regarding impacts of industrial mining on their health and well-being. In nine study sites in Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Tanzania, we conducted 83 participatory focus group discussions with a total of 791 participants (385 men, 406 women). Our findings reveal a broad range of perceived impacts on environmental, economic and social determinants of health, with secondary health implications related to morbidity, mortality and well-being. Overall, perceived negative impacts prevailed, mainly related to environmental pollution, change in livelihoods or social disruption. Perceived positive impacts on health and well-being were related to interventions implemented by the mines such as new or improved water sources, health care facilities, roads and schools. The consistency of these findings across countries and study sites suggests a structural problem and indicates a pressing need to address health by acting on the wider determinants of health in mining regions. Participatory health impact assessment should be strengthened in host countries to foster strategic interventions, include marginalised population groups, and protect and promote the health of local communities. By including community perspectives on health before and during project implementation, policymakers can take advantage of economic opportunities while avoiding the pitfalls, bringing their communities closer to achieving good health and well-being goals by 2030 and beyond

Mass Measurements and the Bound--Electron g Factor

The accurate determination of atomic masses and the high-precision measurement of the bound-electron g factor are prerequisites for the determination of the electron mass, which is one of the fundamental constants of nature. In the 2002 CODATA adjustment [P. J. Mohr and B. N. Taylor, Rev. Mod. Phys. 77, 1 (2005)], the values of the electron mass and the electron-proton mass ratio are mainly based on g factor measurements in combination with atomic mass measurements. In this paper, we briefly discuss the prospects for obtaining other fundamental information from bound-electron g factor measurements, we present some details of a recent investigation of two-loop binding corrections to the g factor, and we also investigate the radiative corrections in the limit of highly excited Rydberg S states with a long lifetime, where the g factor might be explored using a double resonance experiment.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX; dedicated to Prof. H.-J. Kluge on the occasion of his 65th birthday, to appear in Int. J. Mass. Spectrometr