Estimating the size distribution of plastics ingested by animals

The ingestion of plastics appears to be widespread throughout the animal kingdom with risks to individuals, ecosystems and human health. Despite growing information on the location, abundance and size distribution of plastics in the environment, it cannot be assumed that any given animal will ingest all sizes of plastic encountered. Here, we use published data to develop an allometric relationship between plastic consumption and animal size to estimate the size distribution of plastics feasibly ingested by animals. Based on more than 2000 gut content analyses from animals ranging over three orders of magnitude in size (lengths 9 mm to 10 m), body length alone accounts for 42% of the variance in the length of plastic an animal may ingest and indicates a size ratio of roughly 20:1 between animal body length and the largest plastic the animal may ingest. We expect this work to improve global assessments of plastic pollution risk by introducing a quantifiable link between animals and the plastics they can ingest

Evaluation of appendicitis risk prediction models in adults with suspected appendicitis

Background Appendicitis is the most common general surgical emergency worldwide, but its diagnosis remains challenging. The aim of this study was to determine whether existing risk prediction models can reliably identify patients presenting to hospital in the UK with acute right iliac fossa (RIF) pain who are at low risk of appendicitis. Methods A systematic search was completed to identify all existing appendicitis risk prediction models. Models were validated using UK data from an international prospective cohort study that captured consecutive patients aged 16–45 years presenting to hospital with acute RIF in March to June 2017. The main outcome was best achievable model specificity (proportion of patients who did not have appendicitis correctly classified as low risk) whilst maintaining a failure rate below 5 per cent (proportion of patients identified as low risk who actually had appendicitis). Results Some 5345 patients across 154 UK hospitals were identified, of which two‐thirds (3613 of 5345, 67·6 per cent) were women. Women were more than twice as likely to undergo surgery with removal of a histologically normal appendix (272 of 964, 28·2 per cent) than men (120 of 993, 12·1 per cent) (relative risk 2·33, 95 per cent c.i. 1·92 to 2·84; P < 0·001). Of 15 validated risk prediction models, the Adult Appendicitis Score performed best (cut‐off score 8 or less, specificity 63·1 per cent, failure rate 3·7 per cent). The Appendicitis Inflammatory Response Score performed best for men (cut‐off score 2 or less, specificity 24·7 per cent, failure rate 2·4 per cent). Conclusion Women in the UK had a disproportionate risk of admission without surgical intervention and had high rates of normal appendicectomy. Risk prediction models to support shared decision‐making by identifying adults in the UK at low risk of appendicitis were identified

Bio-safe: Assessing the impact of physical reconstruction on protected and endangered species

Contains fulltext : 57798.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Assessing actual and potential biodiversity of river-floodplain ecosystems on the basis of policy and legislation concerning endangered and protected species is necessary for consistency between different policy goals. It is thus a prerequisite to sustainable and integrated river management. This paper presents BIO-SAFE, a transnational model that quantifies the relevance of species and ecotopes, characteristic of the main channels and floodplains of the rivers Rhine and Meuse, on the basis of international treaties and directives and national Red Data Lists. BIO-SAFE was developed into a tool for biodiversity assessment with regard to design and evaluation of physical planning projects, Environmental Impact Assessments and comparative landscape-ecological studies. It was conceived to be applicable in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Taxonomic groups involved are higher plants, birds, herpetofauna, mammals, fish, butterflies, and dragonflies and damsel-flies. The linkage of habitat requirements of species to ecotopes allows the user to derive information at the level of several ecotope types and scales. The model requires input data on presence of species and/or surface area of ecotopes. BIO-SAFE has been applied to flood risk reduction projects along the rivers Rhine and Meuse. Results show that BIO-SAFE yields quantitative information regarding the degree to which actual situations, reconstruction designs and developments of species and ecotope composition meet national and international agreements on biodiversity conservation. Attuning biodiversity conservation and flood risk reduction measures is a major issue in applied ecology and spatial planning. Assessments with BIO-SAFE can help find an optimal balance. Because of its policy-based character, BIO-SAFE yields information that is complementary to ecological biodiversity indices, single-species habitat models and ecological network analysis. The development of BIO-SAFE was based on species characteristic of rivers and floodplains, but the method can easily be applied to other ecosystems as well. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd

Influence of oxyfluorination parameters and post-treatment protocols on the number and type of oxygen containing groups studied by ToF-SIMS and XPS

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Development and application of BIO-SAFE

BIO-SAFE is a policy and legislation based model for the assessment of impacts of flood prevention measures on biodiversity in river basins. Within the framework of IRMA-SPONGE, a transnational version of the model BIO-SAFE (Spreadsheet Application For Evaluation of BIOdiversity) for the rivers Rhine and Meuse was developed. The model was specifically designed for policy and legislation based impact assessment of flood risk reduction measures on biodiversity in floodplains. BIO-SAFE is an assessment model that quantifies the policy and legislation status of species in river basins for several taxonomic groups. The model uses data on presence of species and ecotopes. Results show that the BIO-SAFE method enables the user to express politically and legally based biodiversity values in quantitative terms and to compare biodiversity values for various taxonomic groups, landscape-ecological units (e.g. ecotopes) and physical planning scenarios. BIO-SAFE gives information regarding the degree to which floodplain designs, observed or predicted trends of floodplain developments or actual values meet goals set in (inter)national agreements. Assessments with BIO-SAFE, in an early stage of the planning process, of actual situations and different scenarios for an area can help direct the planning process in the stage where this is still possible. Because of its policy-based character, BIO-SAFE yields complementary information to more established ecological biodiversity indices and to singlespecies habitat models and ecological network analysis.Irma-Spong