Intimate Partner Violence in Urban, Rural, and Remote Areas: An Investigation of Offense Severity and Risk Factors

This study compared the severity of intimate partner violence (IPV) and the relationship between risk factors for IPV and overall risk judgements of future IPV in urban, rural and remote areas. IPV risk assessments conducted by the Swedish police between 2010 and 2014 in urban (n = 564), rural (n = 456), and remote (n = 196) areas were examined. Rurality was associated with the severity of IPV reported, as well as the presence of risk factors and their relationship to overall risk judgements. Cases in remote areas included more severe IPV as well as more risk factors

Neutrino-induced deuteron disintegration experiment

Cross sections for the disintegration of the deuteron via neutral-current (NCD) and charged-current (CCD) interactions with reactor antineutrinos are measured to be 6.08 +/- 0.77 x 10^(-45) cm-sq and 9.83 +/- 2.04 x 10^(-45) cm-sq per neutrino, respectively, in excellent agreement with current calculations. Since the experimental NCD value depends upon the CCD value, if we use the theoretical value for the CCD reaction, we obtain the improved value of 5.98 +/- 0.54 x 10^(-45) for the NCD cross section. The neutral-current reaction allows a unique measurement of the isovector-axial vector coupling constant in the hadronic weak interaction (beta). In the standard model, this constant is predicted to be exactly 1, independent of the Weinberg angle. We measure a value of beta^2 = 1.01 +/- 0.16. Using the above improved value for the NCD cross section, beta^2 becomes 0.99 +/- 0.10.Comment: 22pages, 9 figure

Costs of sea dikes – regressions and uncertainty estimates

Failure to consider the costs of adaptation strategies can be seen by decision makers as a barrier to implementing coastal protection measures. In order to validate adaptation strategies to sea-level rise in the form of coastal protection, a consistent and repeatable assessment of the costs is necessary. This paper significantly extends current knowledge on cost estimates by developing – and implementing using real coastal dike data – probabilistic functions of dike costs. Data from Canada and the Netherlands are analysed and related to published studies from the US, UK, and Vietnam in order to provide a reproducible estimate of typical sea dike costs and their uncertainty. We plot the costs divided by dike length as a function of height and test four different regression models. Our analysis shows that a linear function without intercept is sufficient to model the costs, i.e. fixed costs and higher-order contributions such as that due to the volume of core fill material are less significant. We also characterise the spread around the regression models which represents an uncertainty stemming from factors beyond dike length and height. Drawing an analogy with project cost overruns, we employ log-normal distributions and calculate that the range between 3x and x∕3 contains 95 % of the data, where x represents the corresponding regression value. We compare our estimates with previously published unit costs for other countries. We note that the unit costs depend not only on the country and land use (urban/non-urban) of the sites where the dikes are being constructed but also on characteristics included in the costs, e.g. property acquisition, utility relocation, and project management. This paper gives decision makers an order of magnitude on the protection costs, which can help to remove potential barriers to developing adaptation strategies. Although the focus of this research is sea dikes, our approach is applicable and transferable to other adaptation measures

Gut barrier-microbiota imbalances in early life lead to higher sensitivity to inflammation in a murine model of C-section delivery

Background Most interactions between the host and its microbiota occur at the gut barrier, and primary colonizers are essential in the gut barrier maturation in the early life. The mother–ofspring transmission of microorganisms is the most important factor infuencing microbial colonization in mammals, and C‑section delivery (CSD) is an impor‑ tant disruptive factor of this transfer. Recently, the deregulation of symbiotic host‑microbe interactions in early life has been shown to alter the maturation of the immune system, predisposing the host to gut barrier dysfunction and infammation. The main goal of this study is to decipher the role of the early‑life gut microbiota‑barrier alterations and its links with later‑life risks of intestinal infammation in a murine model of CSD. Results The higher sensitivity to chemically induced infammation in CSD mice is related to excessive exposure to a too diverse microbiota too early in life. This early microbial stimulus has short‑term consequences on the host homeo‑ stasis. It switches the pup’s immune response to an infammatory context and alters the epithelium structure and the mucus‑producing cells, disrupting gut homeostasis. This presence of a too diverse microbiota in the very early life involves a disproportionate short‑chain fatty acids ratio and an excessive antigen exposure across the vulnerable gut barrier in the frst days of life, before the gut closure. Besides, as shown by microbiota transfer experiments, the microbiota is causal in the high sensitivity of CSD mice to chemical‑induced colitis and in most of the phenotypical parameters found altered in early life. Finally, supplementation with lactobacilli, the main bacterial group impacted by CSD in mice, reverts the higher sensitivity to infammation in ex‑germ‑free mice colonized by CSD pups’ microbiota. Conclusions Early‑life gut microbiota‑host crosstalk alterations related to CSD could be the linchpin behind the phe‑ notypic efects that lead to increased susceptibility to an induced infammation later in life in mice. Keywords C‑section delivery, Microbiota, Primary colonization, Early life, Infammation, Gut barrier, Murine modelinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Gut barrier-microbiota imbalances in early life lead to higher sensitivity to inflammation in a murine model of C-section delivery

Most interactions between the host and its microbiota occur at the gut barrier, and primary colonizers are essential in the gut barrier maturation in the early life. The mother-offspring transmission of microorganisms is the most important factor influencing microbial colonization in mammals, and C-section delivery (CSD) is an important disruptive factor of this transfer. Recently, the deregulation of symbiotic host-microbe interactions in early life has been shown to alter the maturation of the immune system, predisposing the host to gut barrier dysfunction and inflammation. The main goal of this study is to decipher the role of the early-life gut microbiota-barrier alterations and its links with later-life risks of intestinal inflammation in a murine model of CSD. The higher sensitivity to chemically induced inflammation in CSD mice is related to excessive exposure to a too diverse microbiota too early in life. This early microbial stimulus has short-term consequences on the host homeostasis. It switches the pup's immune response to an inflammatory context and alters the epithelium structure and the mucus-producing cells, disrupting gut homeostasis. This presence of a too diverse microbiota in the very early life involves a disproportionate short-chain fatty acids ratio and an excessive antigen exposure across the vulnerable gut barrier in the first days of life, before the gut closure. Besides, as shown by microbiota transfer experiments, the microbiota is causal in the high sensitivity of CSD mice to chemical-induced colitis and in most of the phenotypical parameters found altered in early life. Finally, supplementation with lactobacilli, the main bacterial group impacted by CSD in mice, reverts the higher sensitivity to inflammation in ex-germ-free mice colonized by CSD pups' microbiota. Early-life gut microbiota-host crosstalk alterations related to CSD could be the linchpin behind the phenotypic effects that lead to increased susceptibility to an induced inflammation later in life in mice

Draft Genome Sequence of a Pantoea sp. Isolated from a Preterm Neonatal Blood Sepsis Patient

Herein, we report the draft genome sequence of Pantoea sp. ED-NGS-1003, cultivated from a blood sample taken from a neonatal sepsis patient at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Draft Genome Sequence of a Streptococcus agalactiae Strain Isolated from a Preterm Neonate Blood Sepsis Patient at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, Scotland

Herein, we report the draft genome sequence of Streptococcus agalactiae ED-NGS-1000, cultivated from a blood sample taken from a preterm neonate blood sepsis patient at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Abnormal cortical responses to somatosensory stimulation in medication-overuse headache

BACKGROUND: Medication-overuse headache (MOH) is a frequent, disabling disorder. Despite a controversial pathophysiology convincing evidence attributes a pivotal role to central sensitization. Most patients with MOH initially have episodic migraine without aura (MOA) characterized interictally by an absent amplitude decrease in cortical evoked potentials to repetitive stimuli (habituation deficit), despite a normal initial amplitude (lack of sensitization). Whether central sensitization alters this electrophysiological profile is unknown. We therefore sought differences in somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) sensitization and habituation in patients with MOH and episodic MOA. METHODS: We recorded median-nerve SEPs (3 blocks of 100 sweeps) in 29 patients with MOH, 64 with MOA and 42 controls. Episodic migraineurs were studied during and between attacks. We measured N20-P25 amplitudes from 3 blocks of 100 sweeps, and assessed sensitization from block 1 amplitude, and habituation from amplitude changes between the 3 sequential blocks. RESULTS: In episodic migraineurs, interictal SEP amplitudes were normal in block 1, but thereafter failed to habituate. Ictal SEP amplitudes increased in block 1, then habituated normally. Patients with MOH had larger-amplitude block 1 SEPs than controls, and also lacked SEP habituation. SEP amplitudes were smaller in triptan overusers than in patients overusing nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or both medications combined, lowest in patients with the longest migraine history, and highest in those with the longest-lasting headache chronification. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with MOH, especially those overusing NSAIDs, the somatosensory cortex becomes increasingly sensitized. Sensory sensitization might add to the behavioral sensitization that favors compulsive drug intake, and may reflect drug-induced changes in central serotoninergic transmission