A summary of terminology used in tephra-related studies

The word ‘tephra’, derived from a Greek word for ash, is a collective term for all the unconsolidated, primary pyroclastic products of a volcanic eruption. We summarise here the meanings and applicability of this and related terms, including tephrostratigraphy, tephrochronology, tephrochronometry, tephrology, and cryptotephra. These and other tephra-based terms, some of which are erroneous or unnecessary, have been used in a wide range of stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental disciplines and in archaeology

The Future of Health Behavior Research

This commentary discusses the author\u27s views of the future of health behavior research

Eighty years of food-web response to interannual variation in discharge recorded in river diatom frustules from an ocean sediment core.

Little is known about the importance of food-web processes as controls of river primary production due to the paucity of both long-term studies and of depositional environments which would allow retrospective fossil analysis. To investigate how freshwater algal production in the Eel River, northern California, varied over eight decades, we quantified siliceous shells (frustules) of freshwater diatoms from a well-dated undisturbed sediment core in a nearshore marine environment. Abundances of freshwater diatom frustules exported to Eel Canyon sediment from 1988 to 2001 were positively correlated with annual biomass of Cladophora surveyed over these years in upper portions of the Eel basin. Over 28 years of contemporary field research, peak algal biomass was generally higher in summers following bankfull, bed-scouring winter floods. Field surveys and experiments suggested that bed-mobilizing floods scour away overwintering grazers, releasing algae from spring and early summer grazing. During wet years, growth conditions for algae could also be enhanced by increased nutrient loading from the watershed, or by sustained summer base flows. Total annual rainfall and frustule densities in laminae over a longer 83-year record were weakly and negatively correlated, however, suggesting that positive effects of floods on annual algal production were primarily mediated by "top-down" (consumer release) rather than "bottom-up" (growth promoting) controls

The prevalence of and knowledge about tobacco use among physicians in the Odessa region, Ukraine

We investigated prevalence of and knowledge about tobacco use among physicians, and their counselling of patients in the Odessa region (Ukraine). Paediatricians (40), family doctors (40) and interns (70) were selected from the physician population of the Odessa region. The proportion of smokers was unacceptably high for health care professionals: paediatricians, 32.5%; family doctors, 37.5%; and interns, 50%. Majority of smokers were men. Less than half of smokers had considered quitting or seriously attempted to quit. Interns least frequently asked their patients about smoking (52.5 vs. 80% paediatricians and 72.5% family doctors). Ukrainian universities need to better educate medical students on tobacco control measures

The Role of Genetic Polymorphism of IL-4 (C-589T) and TNfa (G-308A) and Regular Passive Smoking in Clinical Manifestations of Pneumonia in Infants

Objective: This study set out to investigate the relationship between molecular-genetic mechanisms that modulate cytokine in infants whose parents expose them to cigarette smoke and those that do not expose their infants to cigarette smoke with the possible effects on the severity of pneumonia at presentation to hospital. Exposure to cigarette smoke in infants changed the likelihood of the severity of pneumonia. The results suggest a possible link between the duration of clinical manifestation of pneumonia within infants that are exposed to cigarette smoke. Infants who are exposed to cigarette smoke had higher plasma concentrates in both IgE and CRP. Among infants with the mutant variant of the TNF-α (G-308A) gene, infants from households where both parents smoked or had a father who smoked had longer duration of clinical signs of pneumonia than did infants with no exposure to tobacco smoke. The plasma concentration of IgE in infants in families where one or both parents smoke was significantly higher than in infants with no smoke exposure. The study begins to develop evidence that if the newborn infant is exposed to tobacco smoke either directly from their mother or from others in the household including automobiles, the severity of pneumonia is increased. Both nurses and pediatricians should reinforce the consequences of smoke around the baby to all parents at every opportunity

The Clinical and Epidemiological Peculiarities of Short Stature during childhood in the Odessa Region (Ukraine)

The clinical and epidemiological examination of children who present to a children’s clinic in the Odessa region (Ukraine) demonstrates under diagnoses of short stature, including Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD). Optimization of GHD management is a significant challenge in primary health care in Ukraine. Parent awareness of GHD and education on the importance of treatment adherence, up-to-date training for medical staff, more emphasis on using the national growth charts for growth monitoring, increased family and social support to the patient, and social media development are strategies needed to improve primary health care medicine in developing nations. There is a need for database and registries for monitoring various possible ethnicity-specific growth responses and adverse effects. Ukraine-specific databases or registries may help provide epidemiological data for GHD in the Ukrainian context

Enzymes involved in mammalian oligosaccharide biosynthesis

Several new sialyltransferases, N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase and fucosyltransferase genes have been reported in this past year. These sequences have advanced our understanding of the structural, functional and evolutionary relationships amongst the glycosyltransferases, including their roles in selectin ligand biosynthesis. Ablation of the murine N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase 1 gene through gene `knock out' technology has yielded insight into the role of this gene in the developing mouse. Novel `O-linked' protein glycosylation events described in the past year have added to the substantial known diversity in the oligosaccharide structure and glycosyltransferase repertoire of mammalian organisms.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/31305/1/0000211.pd

Suppression of tumor formation in lymph nodes by L-selectin–mediated natural killer cell recruitment

Natural killer (NK) cells are known to reject certain tumors in vivo; however, the ability of NK cells to prevent metastasis of tumors into secondary lymphoid organs has not been addressed. Here, we report that in tumor-bearing hosts, NK cells are recruited to regional lymph nodes in wild-type mice, but not in mice deficient for L-selectin or L-selectin ligands. By adoptive transfer and complete Freund's adjuvant stimulation experiments, we demonstrated that L-selectin on NK cells and L-selectin ligands on endothelial cells are essential for NK cell recruitment to lymph nodes. Furthermore, freshly isolated resident lymph node NK cells lysed tumors efficiently, and metastasis of B16 melanoma cells to draining lymph nodes was suppressed in wild-type or Rag-1–deficient mice, but not when NK cells were depleted. Although L-selectin–deficient NK cells efficiently lysed tumor cells in vitro, NK cell–dependent suppression of tumor metastasis was diminished in mice deficient for L-selectin or L-selectin ligands because of insufficient NK cell recruitment to lymph nodes. Moreover, tumor metastasis was substantially inhibited in L-selectin–deficient mice reconstituted with wild-type NK cells. These findings indicate that L-selectin–mediated NK cell recruitment plays a crucial role in the control of tumor metastasis into secondary lymphoid organs

Effective electroosmotic transport of water in an intrinsically microporous polyamine (PIM-EA-TB)

Tertiary-amine-based Polymers of Intrinsic Microporosity (PIMs) provide a class of highly porous molecularly rigid materials for the electrochemical transport of both ionic and neutral species. Here, the transport of water molecules together with chloride anions (i.e. the electroosmotic drag coefficient) is studied for the intrinsically microporous polyamine PIM-EA-TB immersed in aqueous 0.01 M NaCl (i) when protonated for pH  4. Preliminary data suggest that in both cases a high electroosmotic drag coefficient is observed based on direct H2O transport into a D2O-filled compartment (quantified by 1H-NMR). For PIM-EA-TB there is a strong pH dependence with a higher electroosmotic drag coefficient in less acidic solutions (going from approx. 400 H2O per anion at pH 3 to approx. 4000 H2O per anion at pH 7), although the underlying absolute rate of water transport at a fixed voltage of −1 V appears to be essentially pH independent. Water transport through the PIM-EA-TB microchannels is rationalised based on the relative populations of chloride anions and of water in the micropores (essentially a ‘piston’ mechanism)