Resipientundersøkelse av Begna, Storelva og Nordfjorden i 1997 ved Norske Skogindustrier ASA - Follum

Rapporten dokumenterer effektene av at det biologiske renseanlegget for fjerning av løst organisk stoff ble satt i drift i juni 1995. Det er også gjort sammenligninger med forholdene før og etter installeringen av kjemisk fellingsanlegg sommeren 1991. Etter installeringen av det biologiske renseanlegget, er TOC redusert fra ca 5000 tonn til ca 2000 tonn karbon pr. år. Tilførslene av fosfor er imidlertid økt fra ca 3 tonn til ca 8 tonn fordi fosfor må tilsettes til det biologiske anlegget. Follums egne og mer nøyaktige utslippsmålinger avviker noe fra elvemålingene, men trendene er de samme, klar reduksjon av organisk stoff og like klar økning av fosfor. Undersøkelse av bunndyr og begroing viser at Begna fortsatt er påvirket av utslipp av organisk stoff nedstrøms Follum. Det er en klar bedring i miljøkvalitet etter samløp med Randselva, men Storelva får igjen en redusert vannkvalitet ved Busund (nedstrøms Monserud). Forholdene i Begna (nedstrøms Monserud). Forholdene i Begna (nedstrøms Follum) er i 1997 merkbart bedre enn i 1993. Dette gir seg utslag i bedret biologisk mangfold, dvs. flere dyre- og plantegrupper (arter). Elvebunnen er også mindre dekket av bakterier og sopp, som vanligvis indikerer overbelastning av organisk stoff, noe som hovedsakelig skyldes tilførsler fra tidligere år. Hovedvannmassene i Tyrifjorden er imidlertid fortsatt i bedring, og algeinnholdet er nå på et nivå som tilsvarer miljømålet satt opp av Vannbruksplanutvalget

Smoking, diet, pregnancy and oral contraceptive use as risk factors for cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia in relation to human papillomavirus infection

Smoking, nutrition, parity and oral contraceptive use have been reported as major environmental risk factors for cervical cancer. After the discovery of the very strong link between human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and cervical cancer, it is unclear whether the association of these environmental factors with cervical cancer reflect secondary associations attributable to confounding by HPV, if they are independent risk factors or whether they may act as cofactors to HPV infection in cervical carcinogenesis. To investigate this issue, we performed a population-based case–control study in the Västerbotten county of Northern Sweden of 137 women with high-grade cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN 2–3) and 253 healthy age-matched women. The women answered a 94-item questionnaire on diet, smoking, oral contraceptive use and sexual history and donated specimens for diagnosis of present HPV infection (nested polymerase chain reaction on cervical brush samples) and for past or present HPV infections (HPV seropositivity). The previously described protective effects of dietary micronutrients were not detected. Pregnancy appeared to be a risk factor in the multivariate analysis (P< 0.0001). Prolonged oral contraceptive use and sexual history were associated with CIN 2–3 in univariate analysis, but these associations lost significance after taking HPV into account. Smoking was associated with CIN 2–3 (odds ratio (OR) 2.6, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.7–4.0), the effect was dose-dependent (P = 0.002) and the smoking-associated risk was not affected by adjusting for HPV, neither when adjusting for HPV DNA (OR 2.5, CI 1.3–4.9) nor when adjusting for HPV seropositivity (OR 3.0, CI 1.9–4.7). In conclusion, after taking HPV into account, smoking appeared to be the most significant environmental risk factor for cervical neoplasia. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaig

The SOFIA Pilot Trial:A cluster-randomized trial of coordinated, co-produced care to reduce mortality and improve quality of life in people with severe mental illness in the general practice setting

Abstract Background People with severe mental illness (SMI) have an increased risk of premature mortality, predominantly due to somatic health conditions. Evidence indicates that primary and tertiary prevention and improved treatment of somatic conditions in patients with SMI could reduce this excess mortality. This paper reports a protocol designed to evaluate the feasibility of a coordinated co-produced care program (SOFIA model, a Danish acronym for Severe Mental Illness and Physical Health in General Practice) in the general practice setting to reduce mortality and improve quality of life in patients with severe mental illness. Methods The SOFIA pilot trial is designed as a cluster randomized controlled trial targeting general practices in two regions in Denmark. We aim to include 12 practices, each of which is instructed to recruit up to 15 community-dwelling patients aged 18 and older with SMI. Practices will be randomized by a computer in a ratio of 2:1 to deliver a coordinated care program or usual care during a 6-month study period. A randomized algorithm is used to perform randomization. The coordinated care program includes educational training of general practitioners and their clinical staff educational training of general practitioners and their clinical staff, which covers clinical and diagnostic management and focus on patient-centered care of this patient group, after which general practitioners will provide a prolonged consultation focusing on individual needs and preferences of the patient with SMI and a follow-up plan if indicated. The outcomes will be parameters of the feasibility of the intervention and trial methods and will be assessed quantitatively and qualitatively. Assessments of the outcome parameters will be administered at baseline, throughout, and at end of the study period. Discussion If necessary the intervention will be revised based on results from this study. If delivery of the intervention, either in its current form or after revision, is considered feasible, a future, definitive trial to determine the effectiveness of the intervention in reducing mortality and improving quality of life in patients with SMI can take place. Successful implementation of the intervention would imply preliminary promise for addressing health inequities in patients with SMI. Trial registration The trial was registered in Clinical Trials as of November 5, 2020, with registration number NCT04618250 . Protocol version: January 22, 2021; original versio

Electronic Coherence Dephasing in Excitonic Molecular Complexes: Role of Markov and Secular Approximations

We compare four different types of equations of motion for reduced density matrix of a system of molecular excitons interacting with thermodynamic bath. All four equations are of second order in the linear system-bath interaction Hamiltonian, with different approximations applied in their derivation. In particular we compare time-nonlocal equations obtained from so-called Nakajima-Zwanzig identity and the time-local equations resulting from the partial ordering prescription of the cummulant expansion. In each of these equations we alternatively apply secular approximation to decouple population and coherence dynamics from each other. We focus on the dynamics of intraband electronic coherences of the excitonic system which can be traced by coherent two-dimensional spectroscopy. We discuss the applicability of the four relaxation theories to simulations of population and coherence dynamics, and identify features of the two-dimensional coherent spectrum that allow us to distinguish time-nonlocal effects.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure

Osmolal and anion gaps after acute self-poisoning with agricultural formulations of the organophosphorus insecticides profenofos and diazinon : A pilot study

Self-poisoning with organophosphorus (OP) insecticides is an important means of global self-harm. The insecticides are formulated with solvents that may also contribute to toxicity. We set up a study to detect changes in osmolal and anion gaps following ingestion of OP insecticides. We recruited consecutive patients admitted to a Teaching Hospital, Sri Lanka, with a history of OP self-poisoning. The osmolal and anion gaps were calculated on admission and at 4, 24 and 72 h post-ingestion together with ethanol concentration. Forty-nine patients were recruited (28 profenofos, 10 diazinon, one coumaphos, one chlorpyrifos, one phenthoate and eight unknown OP). Only modest increases in osmolal and anion gaps were noted. Small rises in osmolal gap above the upper limit of normal were noted in 16/49 (32.7%) of all cases, 9/28 (32.1%) profenofos cases and 4/10 (40.0%) diazinon cases. The anion gap was raised in 24/49 (49.0%) of all cases, 15/28 (53.6%) profenofos cases and 5/10 (50.0%) diazinon cases. We observed a trend for a fall in osmolal gap during the first 24 h, followed by an increase up to 72 h. There was no correlation between the anion gap and serum lactate concentration, indicating that a lactic acidosis was not responsible for the anion gap. Formate, which could have explained the increased gap, was not detected in any of the samples; ketoacids (beta-hydroxybutyrate and acetoacetate) were not measured. This pilot study found that profenofos and diazinon poisoning caused only modest increases in the osmolal and anion gaps in a minority of cases.Peer reviewe