Drinking Water Issues in the Pacific Northwest

This article contains drinking water information from a region-wide survey designed to collect base line data about water issues in the Pacific Northwest. The major findings were: (1) over 90% of survey respondents feel that their home drinking water is safe for consumption, (2) minerals were the most often cited pollutants in drinking water supplies, (3) approximately 25% of residents have installed filters on their sink faucets to improve water quality, and (4) over 25% of residents use bottled water for drinking purposes. These survey results will be used to develop relevant drinking water educational programs for citizens of the Pacific Northwest

Using Updates to Educate Policy Makers About Water Programs at Land-Grant Institutions

We developed a regional two-page color newsletter called PNWWATER UPDATE that focuses on specific water resource issues in the Pacific Northwest to meet the needs of our stakeholders. This newsletter is distributed to our congressional delegation and all state legislators serving on education, environment, or agriculture committees. Fifty-seven policy makers on our mailing list for the last 2 years evaluated the value of this newsletter. In general, policy makers found the newsletter to be of high quality, timely, and informative, and thought that it addressed the water quality priorities in the region

Priority Water Issues in the Pacific Northwest

We developed and conducted a region-wide survey to collect base line information documenting public awareness, attitudes, and priorities about water issues in the Pacific Northwest. The vast majority (over 90%) of survey respondents considered clean drinking water, clean groundwater, and clean rivers very or extremely important issues. Over two-thirds of survey respondents considered having enough water for economic development, prevention of salmon extinction, wetland protection, watershed restoration, water for power generation, and water for agriculture to be high priority issues. The results from this survey will be used to target our regional programming efforts over the next 5 years

Enhancing Public Understanding of Water Resources Issues: A Community-Based Short-Course for the Pacific Northwest

A hands on 15-hour community based water quality and monitoring short-course was delivered to citizen groups at six locations in the Pacific Northwest in 2000. The University of Idaho, Washington State University, and Oregon State University Cooperative Extension Systems, USDA-CSREES, and the Idaho Water Resources Research Institute (IWRRI) partnered in design, development, and delivery. This short-course increased participant understanding, awareness of water issues, and improved water-monitoring skills. A 17-module guide and an evaluation model were developed. This learning experience dramatically improved learners\u27 understanding of complex water resource issues and prepared them to plan, monitor, and assess local water issues

Public Perceptions on the Ideal Balance between Natural Resource Protection and Use in the Western USA

Attitudes of Western residents of the USA toward natural resources have been changing due to changes in demographics and rapid population growth in the region. The objective of the study reported here was to determine how residents in 15 Western states view the balance between natural resource exploitation and protection. In general, natural resource protection was more important than resource use for people having the following demographic characteristics: (1) female, (2) younger than 60, (3) more formally educated, and (4) residing in communities larger than 25,000

Water issues in Hawaii: public attitudes in 2004 and 2010

This report examines Hawai‘i residents' awareness of, attitudes about, and actions taken concerning water quality. "Water quality" is a measure of the suitability of water for a particular use, such as drinking, recreation, agricultural irrigation, or protection and maintenance of aquatic life

Farmers\u27 Trust in Sources of Production and Climate Information and Their Use of Technology

A regionally representative survey of 900 Inland Pacific Northwest farmers showed that farmers trust other farmers and agribusiness most for production management decisions but trust university Extension most for climate change information. Additionally, in responding to questions about use of the Internet and mobile applications for making farm management decisions, many farmers indicated that they use the Internet daily but mobile applications much less regularly to access farm-related information. These results suggest that university Extension personnel have an important role to play in informing farmers about climate change and can do so effectively by using certain digital tools alongside other more traditional avenues for information delivery

Long acting β(2 )agonists for stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with poor reversibility: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials

BACKGROUND: The long acting β2-agonists, salmeterol and formoterol, have been recommended, by some, as first line treatment of stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We reviewed evidence of efficacy and safety when compared with placebo or anticholinergic agents in patients with poorly reversible COPD. METHODS: After searching MEDLINE, EMBASE, HealthSTAR, BIOSIS Previews, PASCAL, ToxFile, SciSearch, the Cochrane Library, and PubMed, as well as Web sites, selected journals, reference lists, and contacting drug manufacturers, two reviewers independently screened reports of randomised controlled trials of parallel or crossover design lasting four weeks or longer and including patients with a forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) ≤ 75% of predicted, a ratio of FEV1 to forced vital capacity (FVC) ≤ 88% of predicted, and < 15% improvement from baseline FEV1 after a dose of a β2 agonist. We included trials comparing salmeterol or formoterol with placebo or with ipratropium bromide and reporting one of these outcomes: lung function; exercise capacity; quality of life scores; dyspnea; exacerbations; rescue inhaler use; incidence of tachycardia, hypokalemia, or dry mouth. Two reviewers assessed the quality of included reports using the Jadad scale and allocation concealment, and abstracted data. RESULTS: Twelve trials satisfied our inclusion criteria; eight were high quality (Jadad score >2) and four were low quality (≤ 2). The adequacy of allocation concealment was unclear in all of them. We did not perform a meta-analysis due to differences in trial design and how outcomes were reported. Two trials comparing salmeterol with ipratropium did not detect differences; one trial comparing formoterol and ipratropium described greater improvement with formoterol in morning PEFR (15.3 versus 7.1 l/min, p = 0.040). Of twelve trials comparing long acting β2 agonists with placebo, six reported no improvement in exercise capacity, eleven reported improvements in FEV1 lung function (one reported no improvement), six reported less rescue inhaler usage (one reported no difference) and five reported improved dyspnea scores (two reported no improvement). Differences in quality of life were detected in one salmeterol trial ; however, two salmeterol, and one formoterol trial reported no differences. Adverse effects of interest were not reported. CONCLUSION: In terms of clinical outcomes and safety, we could not find convincing evidence that salmeterol and formoterol have demonstrated advantages to ipratropium, a less expensive drug, for patients with stable COPD and poor reversibility. Compared to placebo, we found evidence of reduced rescue inhaler usage and improved spirometric outcomes without a significant impact on quality of life or exercise capacity

2-Mercaptomethyl-thiazolidines use conserved aromatic-S interactions to achieve broad-range inhibition of metallo-β-lactamases

Infections caused by multidrug resistant (MDR) bacteria are a major public health threat. Carbapenems are among the most potent antimicrobial agents that are commercially available to treat MDR bacteria. Bacterial production of carbapenem-hydrolysing metallo-b-lactamases (MBLs) challenges their safety and efficacy, with subclass B1 MBLs hydrolysing almost all b-lactam antibiotics. MBL inhibitors would fulfil an urgent clinical need by prolonging the lifetime of these life-saving drugs. Here we report the synthesis and activity of a series of 2-mercaptomethyl-thiazolidines (MMTZs), designed to replicate MBL interactions with reaction intermediates or hydrolysis products. MMTZs are potent competitive inhibitors of B1 MBLs in vitro (e.g., Ki ¼ 0.44 mM vs. NDM-1). Crystal structures of MMTZ complexes reveal similar binding patterns to the most clinically important B1 MBLs (NDM-1, VIM-2 and IMP-1), contrasting with previously studied thiol-based MBL inhibitors, such as bisthiazolidines (BTZs) or captopril stereoisomers, which exhibit lower, more variable potencies and multiple binding modes. MMTZ binding involves thiol coordination to the Zn(II) site and extensive hydrophobic interactions, burying the inhibitor more deeply within the active site than D/L-captopril. Unexpectedly, MMTZ binding features a thioether–p interaction with a conserved active-site aromatic residue, consistent with their equipotent inhibition and similar binding to multiple MBLs. MMTZs penetrate multiple Enterobacterales, inhibit NDM-1 in situ, and restore carbapenem potency against clinical isolates expressing B1 MBLs. Based on their inhibitory profile and lack of eukaryotic cell toxicity, MMTZs represent a promising scaffold for MBL inhibitor development. These results also suggest sulphur–p interactions can be exploited for general ligand design in medicinal chemistry