Engaging with community researchers for exposure science: lessons learned from a pesticide biomonitoring study

A major challenge in biomonitoring studies with members of the general public is ensuring their continued involvement throughout the necessary length of the research. The paper presents evidence on the use of community researchers, recruited from local study areas, as a mechanism for ensuring effective recruitment and retention of farmer and resident participants for a pesticides biomonitoring study. The evidence presented suggests that community researchers' abilities to build and sustain trusting relationships with participants enhanced the rigour of the study as a result of their on-the-ground responsiveness and flexibility resulting in data collection beyond targets expected

Hospitalized poisonings after renal transplantation in the United States

BACKGROUND: The national incidence of and risk factors for hospitalized poisonings in renal transplant recipients has not been reported. METHODS: Historical cohort study of 39,628 renal transplant recipients in the United States Renal Data System between 1 July 1994 and 30 June 1998. Associations with time to hospitalizations for a primary diagnosis of poisonings (ICD-9 codes 960.x-989.x) within three years after renal transplant were assessed by Cox Regression. RESULTS: The incidence of hospitalized poisonings was 2.3 patients per 1000 person years. The most frequent causes of poisonings were immunosuppressive agents (25.3%), analgesics/antipyretics (14.1%), psychotropic agents (10.0%), and insulin/antidiabetic agents (7.1%). In Cox Regression analysis, low body mass index (BMI, <21.6 vs. >28.3 kg/m(2), adjusted hazard ratio (AHR), 3.02, 95% CI, 1.45–6.28, and allograft rejection, AHR 1.83, 95% CI, 1.15–2.89, were the only factors independently associated with hospitalized poisonings. Hospitalized poisonings were independently associated with increased mortality (AHR, 1.54, 95% CI 1.22–1.92, p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Hospitalized poisonings were associated with increased mortality after renal transplantation. However, almost all reported poisonings in renal transplant recipients were due to the use of prescribed medications. Allograft rejection and low BMI were the only independent risk factors for poisonings identified in this population

No Association between Fish Intake and Depression in over 15,000 Older Adults from Seven Low and Middle Income Countries–The 10/66 Study

Background: Evidence on the association between fish consumption and depression is inconsistent and virtually nonexistent from low-and middle-income countries. Using a standard protocol, we aim to assess the association of fish consumption and late-life depression in seven low-and middle-income countries. Methodology/Findings: We used cross-sectional data from the 10/66 cohort study and applied two diagnostic criteria for late-life depression to assess the association between categories of weekly fish consumption and depression according to ICD-10 and the EURO-D depression symptoms scale scores, adjusting for relevant confounders. All-catchment area surveys were carried out in Cuba, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Peru, Mexico, China, and India, and over 15,000 community-dwelling older adults (65+) were sampled. Using Poisson models the adjusted association between categories of fish consumption and ICD-10 depression was positive in India (p for trend = 0.001), inverse in Peru (p = 0.025), and not significant in all other countries. We found a linear inverse association between fish consumption categories and EURO-D scores only in Cuba (p for trend = 0.039) and China (p&lt;0.001); associations were not significant in all other countries. Between-country heterogeneity was marked for both ICD-10 (I-2&gt;61%) and EURO-D criteria (I-2&gt;66%). Conclusions: The associations of fish consumption with depression in large samples of older adults varied markedly across countries and by depression diagnosis and were explained by socio-demographic and lifestyle variables. Experimental studies in these settings are needed to confirm our findings.Multidisciplinary SciencesSCI(E)SSCI0ARTICLE6null

Constraints on perception of information from obstacles during foot clearance in people with chronic stroke

The aim of this study was to examine effects of different types of task constraints on coupling of perception and action in people with chronic stroke when crossing obstacles during a walking task. Ten participants with hemiplegic chronic stroke volunteered to walk over a static obstacle under two distinct task constraints: simple and dual task. Under simple task constraints, without specific instructions, participants walked at their preferred speed and crossed over an obstacle. Under dual task constraints the same individuals were required to subtract numbers whilst walking. Under both distinct task constraints, we examined emergent values of foot distance when clearing a static obstacle in both affected and unaffected legs, measured by a 3D motion tracking system. Principal Component Analysis was used to quantify task performance and discriminant analysis was used to compare gait performance between task constraints. Results suggested that patients, regardless of affected body side, demonstrated differences in perception of distance information from the obstacle, which constrained gait differences in initial swing, mid-swing and crossing phases. Further, dual task constraints, rather than hemiplegic body side, was a significant discriminator in patients' perceptions of distance and height information to the obstacle. These findings suggested how performance of additional cognitive tasks might constrain perception of information from an obstacle in people with chronic stroke during different phases of obstacle crossing, and thus may impair their adaptive ability to successfully manoeuvre around objects

Observation of associated near-side and away-side long-range correlations in √sNN=5.02 TeV proton-lead collisions with the ATLAS detector

Two-particle correlations in relative azimuthal angle (Δϕ) and pseudorapidity (Δη) are measured in √sNN=5.02  TeV p+Pb collisions using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements are performed using approximately 1  μb-1 of data as a function of transverse momentum (pT) and the transverse energy (ΣETPb) summed over 3.1<η<4.9 in the direction of the Pb beam. The correlation function, constructed from charged particles, exhibits a long-range (2<|Δη|<5) “near-side” (Δϕ∼0) correlation that grows rapidly with increasing ΣETPb. A long-range “away-side” (Δϕ∼π) correlation, obtained by subtracting the expected contributions from recoiling dijets and other sources estimated using events with small ΣETPb, is found to match the near-side correlation in magnitude, shape (in Δη and Δϕ) and ΣETPb dependence. The resultant Δϕ correlation is approximately symmetric about π/2, and is consistent with a dominant cos⁡2Δϕ modulation for all ΣETPb ranges and particle pT

Measurement of the cross-section of high transverse momentum vector bosons reconstructed as single jets and studies of jet substructure in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents a measurement of the cross-section for high transverse momentum W and Z bosons produced in pp collisions and decaying to all-hadronic final states. The data used in the analysis were recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 7 TeV;{\rm Te}{\rm V}$and correspond to an integrated luminosity of$4.6\;{\rm f}{{{\rm b}}^{-1}}$. The measurement is performed by reconstructing the boosted W or Z bosons in single jets. The reconstructed jet mass is used to identify the W and Z bosons, and a jet substructure method based on energy cluster information in the jet centre-of-mass frame is used to suppress the large multi-jet background. The cross-section for events with a hadronically decaying W or Z boson, with transverse momentum${{p}_{{\rm T}}}\gt 320\;{\rm Ge}{\rm V}$and pseudorapidity$|\eta |\lt 1.9$, is measured to be${{\sigma }_{W+Z}}=8.5\pm 1.7$ pb and is compared to next-to-leading-order calculations. The selected events are further used to study jet grooming techniques