Dynamical models for sand ripples beneath surface waves

We introduce order parameter models for describing the dynamics of sand ripple patterns under oscillatory flow. A crucial ingredient of these models is the mass transport between adjacent ripples, which we obtain from detailed numerical simulations for a range of ripple sizes. Using this mass transport function, our models predict the existence of a stable band of wavenumbers limited by secondary instabilities. Small ripples coarsen in our models and this process leads to a sharply selected final wavenumber, in agreement with experimental observations.Comment: 9 pages. Shortened version of previous submissio

Acute Lower Respiratory Infection in Childhood and Household Fuel Use in Bhaktapur, Nepal

Background: Globally, solid fuels are used by about 3 billion people for cooking. These fuels have been associated with many health effects, including acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) in young children. Nepal has a high prevalence of use of biomass for cooking and heating. Objective: This case–control study was conducted among a population in the Bhaktapur municipality, Nepal, to investigate the relationship of cookfuel type to ALRI in young children. Methods: Cases with ALRI and age-matched controls were enrolled from an open cohort of children 2–35 months old, under active monthly surveillance for ALRI. A questionnaire was used to obtain information on family characteristics, including household cooking and heating appliances and fuels. The main analysis was carried out using conditional logistic regression. Population-attributable fractions (PAF) for stove types were calculated. Results: A total of 917 children (452 cases and 465 controls) were recruited into the study. Relative to use of electricity for cooking, ALRI was increased in association with any use of biomass stoves [odds ratio (OR) = 1.93; 95% CI: 1.24, 2.98], kerosene stoves (OR = 1.87; 95% CI: 1.24, 2.83), and gas stoves (OR = 1.62; 95% CI: 1.05, 2.50). Use of wood, kerosene, or coal heating was also associated with ALRI (OR = 1.45; 95% CI: 0.97, 2.14), compared with no heating or electricity or gas heating. PAFs for ALRI were 18.0% (95% CI: 8.1, 26.9%) and 18.7% (95% CI: 8.4%–27.8%), for biomass and kerosene stoves, respectively. Conclusions: The study supports previous reports indicating that use of biomass as a household fuel is a risk factor for ALRI, and provides new evidence that use of kerosene for cooking may also be a risk factor for ALRI in young children

Psychometric test of the Team Climate Inventory-short version investigated in Dutch quality improvement teams

Abstract BACKGROUND: Although some studies have used the Team Climate Inventory within teams working in health care settings, none of these included quality improvement teams. The aim of our study is to investigate the psychometric properties of the 14-item version of the Team Climate Inventory in healthcare quality improvement teams participating in a Dutch quality collaborative. METHODS: This study included quality improvement teams participating in the Care for Better improvement program for home care, care for the handicapped and the elderly in the Netherlands between 2006 and 2008. As part of a larger evaluation study 270 written questionnaires from team members were collected at baseline and 139 questionnaires at end measurement. Confirmatory factor analyses, reliability, Pearson correlations and paired samples t-tests were conducted to investigate construct validity, reliability, predictive validity and temporal stability. RESULTS: Confirmatory factor analyses revealed the expected four-factor structure and good fit indices. For the four subscales--vision, participative safety, task orientation and support for innovation--acceptable Cronbach's alpha coefficients and high inter-item correlations were found. The four subscales all proved significant predictors of perceived team effectiveness, with participatory safety being the best predictor. As expected the four subscales were found to be stable over time; i.e. without significant changes between baseline and end measurement. CONCLUSION: The psychometric properties of the Dutch version of the TCI-14 are satisfactory. Together these results show that the TCI-14 is a useful instrument to assess to what extent aspects of team climate influence perceived team effectiveness of quality improvement teams

Unequal Responsiveness and Government Partisanship in Northwest Europe

This paper pools datasets on policy responsiveness to public opinion in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. Following the empirical strategy set out by Gilens (2012), we show that the policy outputs correspond much better to the preferences of affluent citizens than to the preferences of low- and middle-income citizens in all four countries. We proceed to explore how government partisanship conditions unequal responsiveness. In so doing, we distinguish between economic/welfare issues and other issues and we also distinguish between the period before 1998 and the period since 1998. Our findings suggest that policy-making under Left-leaning governments was relatively more responsive to low- and middle-income citizens in the economic/welfare domain before 1998, but this was not true for other policy domains before 1998 and it is no longer true for the economic/welfare domain. We conclude with some general reflections on the implications of our empirical findings for the literature on mechanisms of unequal representation in liberal democracies

Human dietary exposure to dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs through the consumption of Atlantic herring from fishing areas in the Norwegian Sea and Baltic Sea

The concentrations of dioxins [polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs)], and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (DL-PCBs) in Atlantic herring depend on the fishing area. These substances originate from various anthropogenic sources and accumulate in the environment and in food. The influence of country-specific contaminant concentrations on human dietary exposure was studied exemplary for herring to show the influence of fish origin. PCDD/F and DL-PCB concentrations in herring from the Norwegian Sea and the Baltic Sea were combined with country-specific herring consumption. Herring concentrations showed geographical variation. For herring consumers, the 50th percentile dietary exposure to the total sum of PCDD/Fs and DL-PCBs amounted to 1.2 and 8.9 pg WHO-2005-TEQ/kg BW/week for Norway and Germany, respectively. The different exposure was mainly related to higher concentrations in herring from the Baltic Sea, rather than in herring from the Norwegian Sea. If contaminant concentrations are influenced by geographical origin, this should be integrated into the dietary exposure assessments. For herring, relevant fishing areas should be integrated into the sampling strategy to generate concentration data. The usage of country-specific data could refine exposure assessments.publishedVersio

Quantify the monthly to decadal variability of climate effects on the lower trophic levelse of shelf sea ecosystems

ECOOP WP10, Deliverable no: D10.1.2.1This report describes three studies using multi-decadal simulations of regional coupled hydrodynamics ecosystem models. These models are used to investigate the relationship between lower trophic level marine ecosystems and biogeochemistry, and the physical environment. The models considered here: POLCOMS-ERSEM Atlantic Margin Model run from 1960 to 2003 (NERC and PML) NORWECOM North Sea Model run from 1985-2006 (IMR) ECOSMO (UiB-GFI) North sea and Baltic Sea run 1980-2004 (UiB-GFI) The POLCOMS-ERSEM model is validated using in-situ data from the world ocean data centre and analysed to investigate the potential long term changes in primary production across the period 1960-2004, in the context of model open boundary conditions and drift. The model experiments demonstrate a strong sensitivity of the on-shelf primary production to the oceanic nutrient boundary conditions, suggesting cross-shelf edge nutrient fluxes provide a significant source of variability. The relationship between the model results and the North Atlantic Oscillation are also considered, demonstrating a r~0.65 correlation with on-shelf nutrients and the NAO The NORWECOM model is validated here using time series data from the Dutch coast. Correlations between model variables in a selection of ICES boxes are compared with a number of driving factors. River loads are shown to dominate coastal boxes. The relationships in open-shelf boxes are more ambiguous, although the southerly inflow is demonstrated to have an important role. The validation of the POLCOMS-ERSEM and NORWECOM models both conclude that the simulations have better skill for nutrients than chlorophyll and in open-shelf seas away from the coast. The validation of ECOSMO presented here focuses on zooplankton and comparison with data from the continuous plankton recorder, investigating six different approaches to matching CPR records with model data. Across the North Sea the mean annual cycle shows good agreement between model and CPR. There is also good correlation with along-track variability. EOF and correlation analysis is used to relate the primary production in the North Sea to atmospheric forcing parameters. The EOF patterns tend to match the distribution of summer time stratification, while the wind speed is shows the highest correlation, particularly during the onset and breakdown of stratification. This indicates the strength of cross-thermocline mixing is an important control on primary production variability. The ECOSMO model has been further developed for use in the Baltic by inclusion of nitrogen fixing cyanobacteria. These studies each demonstrate significant control of the inter-annual variability of shelf sea ecosystems through a range of external forcing vectors: oceanic through cross-shelf edge nutrient flux, terrestrial through variations in river nutrient loading, and atmospheric via the wind control of vertical mixing. Each of these vectors potentially mediates climatic variability and climate change

Role of spinal cord glutamate transporter during normal sensory transmission and pathological pain states

Glutamate is a neurotransmitter critical for spinal excitatory synaptic transmission and for generation and maintenance of spinal states of pain hypersensitivity via activation of glutamate receptors. Understanding the regulation of synaptically and non-synaptically released glutamate associated with pathological pain is important in exploring novel molecular mechanisms and developing therapeutic strategies of pathological pain. The glutamate transporter system is the primary mechanism for the inactivation of synaptically released glutamate and the maintenance of glutamate homeostasis. Recent studies demonstrated that spinal glutamate transporter inhibition relieved pathological pain, suggesting that the spinal glutamate transporter might serve as a therapeutic target for treatment of pathological pain. However, the exact function of glutamate transporter in pathological pain is not completely understood. This report will review the evidence for the role of the spinal glutamate transporter during normal sensory transmission and pathological pain conditions and discuss potential mechanisms by which spinal glutamate transporter is involved in pathological pain

Hypotheses and evidence related to intense sweeteners and effects on appetite and body weight changes: A scoping review of reviews

publishedVersio

A literature review and survey of childhood pneumonia etiology studies: 2000-2010.

The Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) project is the largest multicountry etiology study of childhood pneumonia since the Board on Science and Technology in International Development studies of the 1980s. However, it is not the only recent or ongoing pneumonia etiology study, and even with seven sites, it cannot capture all epidemiologic settings in the developing world. Funding providers, researchers and policymakers rely on the best available evidence to strategically plan programs, new research directions and interventions. We aimed to describe the current landscape of recent pneumonia etiology studies in children under 5 years of age in the developed and developing world, as ascertained by a literature review of relevant studies with data since the year 2000 and a survey of researchers in the field of childhood pneumonia. We collected information on the study population, study design, case definitions, laboratory samples and methods and identified pathogens. A literature review identified 88 studies with child pneumonia etiology results. As of June 2010, our survey of researchers identified an additional 65 ongoing and recently completed child pneumonia etiology studies. This demonstrates the broad existing context into which the PERCH study must be placed. However, the landscape analysis also reveals a multiplicity of case definitions, levels of clinician involvement, facility types, specimen collection, and laboratory techniques. It reinforces the need for the standardization of methods and analyses for present and future pneumonia etiology studies in order to optimize their cumulative potential to accurately describe the microbial causes of childhood pneumonia