An Ipswichian Palaeo-shoreline in Holderness

Previous research has identified a possible palaeo-shoreline extending across the Holderness region of Yorkshire. A 3D modelling project has revealed the extent of this feature under the Quaternary sediments across the entire area. The model also reveals the general palaeo-landscape of the area. This poster illustrates the first full 3D visualisation of this buried shoreline and proposes further investigative work that could be undertake

Risk of low birth weight near EUROHAZCON hazardous waste landfill sites in England.

Few studies have investigated the occurrence of both low birth weight (LBW) and congenital anomalies in populations living near hazardous waste landfill sites. The authors investigated the risk of LBW near 10 English hazardous waste landfill sites included in a previous European study, which reported an increased risk of congenital anomalies. Odds ratios, adjusted for sex, deprivation, year of birth, and study area (pooled ORs), were estimated for LBW (< 2500 gm) within 0-3 km compared with 3-7 km zones around the landfill sites. The authors found a small and not statistically significant increase in risk of LBW (OR = 1.03, 95% confidence interval = 0.98-1.08) within 3 km of hazardous waste landfill sites. Their findings suggest that previously reported results for congenital anomalies should not be extrapolated to a wider range of pregnancy outcomes but should be evaluated separately for each

Review of Markets of Sorrow, Labors of Faith: New Orleans in the Wake of Katrina by Vincanne Adams

I recently took a group of students to New Orleans over our spring break for an interdisciplinary class on the relationships between space, culture, and media industries in cities. It was a trip that promised to be both wonderful and terrifying—wonderful in the sense of students living an embodied education of not only the history, politics, and culture of the city, but also of the sights, sounds, smells, and physical encounters that make up those histories, politics, and cultures; yet terrifying in the sense that the students might miss the significance of how these same sounds, sights, smells, and physical encounters speak to histories of inequity, injustice, and struggle that manifest themselves in renewed struggles over privatization, insecurity, and loss in the post-Katrina aftermath. Carrying Vincanne Adams’ book in my bag throughout the trip (as I was toting it around as a reminder of the need to complete this review) felt like more than the weight of the physical pages on my shoulder. The book weighed on me as a responsibility to ensure students understood the significance of what they were witnessing — that the seeds of ‘recovery’ we were seeing in New Orleans were part of what Adams refers to as a ‘second order disaster,’ one that ‘had its own logic and rationales that were nearly as deadly as those that produced the floods in the first place’ (Adams, 2013: 4). So as the students stumbled home from Bourbon or Frenchman Streets in the wee hours of morning, toting daiquiri cups and other signs that they were living the motto of les bon temps rouler, I took up their days trying to drive home the viciousness of neoliberal economics

Disneyomatics: Media, Branding, and Urban Space in Post-Katrina New Orleans

Following the events of Hurricane Katrina, the Walt Disney Company took on New Orleans as a special philanthropic project. For many citizens of New Orleans, Disney\u27s active role and its consequent partnership with the city is highly problematic, as evidenced by a spate of newspaper articles after Katrina that expressed fears about the rebuilding leading to the potential Disneyfication of the city. Citizens fear Disney will turn the city into something like Times Square-a space emptied of its former meanings and histories and rearticulated to Disney\u27s sanitized family brand, marked by racial, class, and sexual exclusions. Thus, in New Orleans, critics fear Disney\u27s potential to render the city, which already relies primarily on tourism as its main economic generator, into a whitewashed image of a Disney theme park . At a time when the images from Hurricane Katrina of floating dead bodies, mostly those of the city\u27s black and poor, is still burned fresh on the brain, Disneyfying the city appears as a particularly problematic and disturbing possibility. But down in New Orleans, Disney has not bought any real estate designed to imprint its Mickey Mouse value system on those who enter. It hasn\u27t moved into Canal Street or the French Quarter, nor has it offered to take over the now-defunct Jazzland theme park. Instead, Disney presented itself as a good neighbor, offering the city a kind of corporate social welfare to help bring the city back.In what follows, I consider Disney\u27s two most visible charitable acts in New Orleans, what the company characterized as gifts to the city to help them recover : the film, The Princess and the Frog (2009) and Disney\u27s Dreams Come True exhibit at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA)

Effect of long-term starvation on the survival, recovery, and carbon utilization profiles of a bovine Escherichia coli O157:H7 isolate from New Zealand

The ability to maintain a dual lifestyle of colonizing the ruminant gut and surviving in nonhost environments once shed is key to the success of Escherichia coli O157:H7 as a zoonotic pathogen. Both physical and biological conditions encountered by the bacteria are likely to change during the transition between host and nonhost environments. In this study, carbon starvation at suboptimal temperatures in nonhost environments was simulated by starving a New Zealand bovine E. coli O157:H7 isolate in phosphate-buffered saline at 4 and 15°C for 84 days. Recovery of starved cells on media with different nutrient availabilities was monitored under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. We found that the New Zealand bovine E. coli O157:H7 isolate was able to maintain membrane integrity and viability over 84 days and that the level of recovery depended on the nutrient level of the recovery medium as well as the starvation temperature. In addition, a significant difference in carbon utilization was observed between starved and nonstarved cells

Effect of long-term starvation on the survival, recovery, and carbon utilization profiles of a bovine Escherichia coli O157:H7 isolate from New Zealand

The ability to maintain a dual lifestyle of colonizing the ruminant gut and surviving in nonhost environments once shed is key to the success of Escherichia coli O157:H7 as a zoonotic pathogen. Both physical and biological conditions encountered by the bacteria are likely to change during the transition between host and nonhost environments. In this study, carbon starvation at suboptimal temperatures in nonhost environments was simulated by starving a New Zealand bovine E. coli O157:H7 isolate in phosphate-buffered saline at 4 and 15°C for 84 days. Recovery of starved cells on media with different nutrient availabilities was monitored under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. We found that the New Zealand bovine E. coli O157:H7 isolate was able to maintain membrane integrity and viability over 84 days and that the level of recovery depended on the nutrient level of the recovery medium as well as the starvation temperature. In addition, a significant difference in carbon utilization was observed between starved and nonstarved cells

Implementation of the 4th Joint Societies’ Task Force Guidelines on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Clinical Practice. Evaluating implementation across 13 European countries. Main report

The Guidelines of the 4th Joint Societies Task Force on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Clinical Practice (4th JTF)* were issued in 2007, summarising and evaluating available evidence on reducing the incidence of atherosclerotic events arising from coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and peripheral arterial disease. The purpose of the guidelines is to assist physicians in selecting the best strategies for managing cardiovascular disease. They are an important agreed protocol across countries and professionals that have the ultimate aim of improving outcomes from the disease. The value of these guidelines depends on the extent to which they are used by physicians in daily practice. Introducing the guidelines, the 4th JTF authors stressed that ‘implementation programmes for new guidelines form an important component of the dissemination of knowledge’.1 Transferring guidelines from paper into practice has proven to be frustrating for the many who endeavour to standardise the management of cardiovascular disease across Europe. The EUROASPIRE I, II and III surveys, which audited the practice of preventive cardiology in patients with coronary heart disease over a decade, illustrated that patients were not being managed to the standards set by the ESC guidelines and that limited attention was given to prevention in patients with established heart disease. Evidence of the need for more effective lifestyle management was compelling: blood pressure management remained stubbornly unchanged, and lipid targets were not achieved in almost half of patients. Other studies report disappointing levels of guideline observance among physicians; they are often unaware of recommendations given in guidelines and, even when they are, many fail to consistently apply them in treating patients.2-3 Commonly cited barriers to guideline adherence among physicians include lack of time during consultations, financial constraints and lack of confidence in patients’ motivation to comply. Physicians also find that guideline documents are difficult to translate into practice. To address the gap between publication of guidelines and their use in practice, the ESC at a European level organises presentations at conferences for its member national societies and key opinion leaders. It works at a political level to promote the prevention agenda and to directly influence EU health policy, leading, for example, to the EU Commission endorsement of the European Heart Health Charter. However, such efforts must be paralleled by concerted strategies at a national level to realise implementation in the front line. The 4th JTF urged national societies to develop implementation programmes, starting with the translation of guidelines to the local language and their adaptation to the national context. It recommended that the guidelines issued by the 4th JTF be regarded as a framework from which national guidance ‘to suit local political, economic, social, and medical circumstances’ would be developed. The recalibration of the SCORE risk assessment charts to reflect mortality and risk factor distributions in individual countries as part of this adaptation was emphasised. The 4th JTF saw as vital the establishment a multidisciplinary alliance of experts from national professional organisations to oversee the adaptation and to drive implementation. It was necessary that alliances would have the support of national health authorities and work with other sectors such as the medical education and business communities to advance their aims. Other recommendations included: An information and education programme aimed at practising doctors that would include an audit of practices and feedback. The development of supplementary materials to the guidelines, specifically electronic versions for use in hand-held devices, such as PDAs, and of A4 sheet versions of risk algorithms and treatment recommendations. A population health approach addressing lifestyle risk factors in general. A public information campaign explaining the concept of multiple risk assessment and treatment and intervention thresholds, as well as describing how risk can be reduced