The effectiveness of public health interventions to reduce the health impact of climate change:a systematic review of systematic reviews

Climate change is likely to be one of the most important threats to public health in the coming years. Yet despite the large number of papers considering the health impact of climate change, few have considered what public health interventions may be of most value in reducing the disease burden. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of public health interventions to reduce the disease burden of high priority climate sensitive diseases

MECHANISMS Study:Using Game Theory to Assess the Effects of Social Norms and Social Networks on Adolescent Smoking in Schools-Study Protocol

This proof of concept study harnesses novel transdisciplinary insights to contrast two school-based smoking prevention interventions among adolescents in the UK and Colombia. We compare schools in these locations because smoking rates and norms are different, in order to better understand social norms based mechanisms of action related to smoking. We aim to: (1) improve the measurement of social norms for smoking behaviors in adolescents and reveal how they spread in schools; (2) to better characterize the mechanisms of action of smoking prevention interventions in schools, learning lessons for future intervention research. The A Stop Smoking in Schools Trial (ASSIST) intervention harnesses peer influence, while the Dead Cool intervention uses classroom pedagogy. Both interventions were originally developed in the UK but culturally adapted for a Colombian setting. In a before and after design, we will obtain psychosocial, friendship, and behavioral data (e.g., attitudes and intentions toward smoking and vaping) from ⁓300 students in three schools for each intervention in the UK and the same number in Colombia (i.e., ⁓1,200 participants in total). Pre-intervention, participants take part in a Rule Following task, and in Coordination Games that allow us to assess their judgments about the social appropriateness of a range of smoking-related and unrelated behaviors, and elicit individual sensitivity to social norms. After the interventions, these behavioral economic experiments are repeated, so we can assess how social norms related to smoking have changed, how sensitivity to classroom and school year group norms have changed and how individual changes are related to changes among friends. This Game Theoretic approach allows us to estimate proxies for norms and norm sensitivity parameters and to test for the influence of individual student attributes and their social networks within a Markov Chain Monte Carlo modeling framework. We identify hypothesized mechanisms by triangulating results with qualitative data from participants. The MECHANISMS study is innovative in the interplay of Game Theory and longitudinal social network analytical approaches, and in its transdisciplinary research approach. This study will help us to better understand the mechanisms of smoking prevention interventions in high and middle income settings

Genome-Wide Maps of Circulating miRNA Biomarkers for Ulcerative Colitis

Inflammatory Bowel Disease – comprised of Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis (UC) - is a complex, multi-factorial inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract. In this study we have explored the utility of naturally occurring circulating miRNAs as potential blood-based biomarkers for non-invasive prediction of UC incidences. Whole genome maps of circulating miRNAs in micro-vesicles, Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells and platelets have been constructed from a cohort of 20 UC patients and 20 normal individuals. Through Significance Analysis of Microarrays, a signature of 31 differentially expressed platelet-derived miRNAs has been identified and biomarker performance estimated through a non-probabilistic binary linear classification using Support Vector Machines. Through this approach, classifier measurements reveal a predictive score of 92.8% accuracy, 96.2% specificity and 89.5% sensitivity in distinguishing UC patients from normal individuals. Additionally, the platelet-derived biomarker signature can be validated at 88% accuracy through qPCR assays, and a majority of the miRNAs in this panel can be demonstrated to sub-stratify into 4 highly correlated intensity based clusters. Analysis of predicted targets of these biomarkers reveal an enrichment of pathways associated with cytoskeleton assembly, transport, membrane permeability and regulation of transcription factors engaged in a variety of regulatory cascades that are consistent with a cell-mediated immune response model of intestinal inflammation. Interestingly, comparison of the miRNA biomarker panel and genetic loci implicated in IBD through genome-wide association studies identifies a physical linkage between hsa-miR-941 and a UC susceptibility loci located on Chr 20. Taken together, analysis of these expression maps outlines a promising catalog of novel platelet-derived miRNA biomarkers of clinical utility and provides insight into the potential biological function of these candidates in disease pathogenesis

The Relationship between Medullated Fibres and Angora Goat Age and Fibre Diameter Distribution in Commercial Mohair Sale Lots

The study involved over 1400 mohair sale lots, representative of two different growing seasons Winter and Summer for each of the two different years (2010 and 2015). The results of the two years (2010 and 2015) were generally in good agreement and could, for all practical purposes, be treated as one population. It was found that, as expected and is well known, the number of objectionable medullated fibers (kemp type) were highest in the Kid mohair produced in the first shearing (i.e. approximately 6 months after birth). Furthermore, the total number of flat and objectionable medullated fibers was related to the mean fiber diameter and the width of the fiber diameter distribution (CVD) of the sample but could not be predicted accurately from the latter values. The effect of goat age on the various types of medullated fibers could generally be explained in terms of associated changes in mean fiber diameter and diameter distribution

The Application of the FibreLux Instrument for Measuring the Diameter of Mohair Fibres

ABSTRACTThe current study investigated the possible application of the FibreLux Micron MeterTM (FibreLux) instrument for the on-farm measurement of the diameter of greasy mohair staples. Initially, the effects of arrangement of the fibers in the specimen holder and that of solvent cleaning were investigated. It was found that a random arrangement of the fibers in the specimen holder produced more accurate and reproducible results, than when the fibers were aligned parallel (to the length of the specimen holder). The solvent cleaning had a statistically significant effect (p < .05) on the results, with the average of the mean fiber diameter (MFD) for the clean staple samples being 1.21 µm lower (finer) than that for the greasy staples. A good correlation (R = 0.95) was found between the FibreLux greasy staple results and those of the OFDA100 clean staples, the latter being used as the reference. The FibreLux values were, on average, some 0.80 µm lower than those of the OFDA100. It was concluded that the FibreLux holds significant promise for determining the fiber diameter of greasy mohair staples, but this should be validated by further trials, preferably “on farm” field trials, to determine the number of staples that need to be measured for each goat