22 research outputs found
Awareness, concern and willingness to adopt biosecure behaviours: public perceptions of invasive tree pests and pathogens in the UK
The growing incidence of invasive tree
pest and disease outbreaks is recognised as an
increasing threat to ecosystem services and human
wellbeing. Linked to global trade, human movement
and climate change, a number of outbreaks have
attracted high public and media attention. However,
there is surprisingly little evidence characterising the
nature of public attentiveness to these events, nor how
publics might respond to evolving outbreaks and the
management actions taken. This paper presents findings
from an online questionnaire involving 1334
respondents nationally-representative of the British
public to assess awareness, concern and willingness to
adopt biosecure behaviours. Despite revealing low
levels of awareness and knowledge, the results indicate
that the British public is concerned about the
health of trees, forests and woodlands and is moderately
willing to adopt biosecure behaviours. A key
finding is that membership of environmental organisations
and strong place identity are likely to engender
higher awareness and levels of concern about tree
pests and diseases. Further, those who visit woodlands
regularly are likely to be more aware than non-visitors,
and gardeners are more likely to be concerned than
non-gardeners. Women, older respondents, those with
strong place identity and dependence, members of
environmental organisations, woodland visitors and
gardeners were most likely to express a willingness to
adopt biosecure behaviours. A comparison with findings
from a survey conducted by the authors 3 years
previously shows a decline over time in awareness,
concern and willingness
Impact of clinical phenotypes on management and outcomes in European atrial fibrillation patients: a report from the ESC-EHRA EURObservational Research Programme in AF (EORP-AF) General Long-Term Registry
Background: Epidemiological studies in atrial fibrillation (AF) illustrate that clinical complexity increase the risk of major adverse outcomes. We aimed to describe European AF patients\u2019 clinical phenotypes and analyse the differential clinical course. Methods: We performed a hierarchical cluster analysis based on Ward\u2019s Method and Squared Euclidean Distance using 22 clinical binary variables, identifying the optimal number of clusters. We investigated differences in clinical management, use of healthcare resources and outcomes in a cohort of European AF patients from a Europe-wide observational registry. Results: A total of 9363 were available for this analysis. We identified three clusters: Cluster 1 (n = 3634; 38.8%) characterized by older patients and prevalent non-cardiac comorbidities; Cluster 2 (n = 2774; 29.6%) characterized by younger patients with low prevalence of comorbidities; Cluster 3 (n = 2955;31.6%) characterized by patients\u2019 prevalent cardiovascular risk factors/comorbidities. Over a mean follow-up of 22.5 months, Cluster 3 had the highest rate of cardiovascular events, all-cause death, and the composite outcome (combining the previous two) compared to Cluster 1 and Cluster 2 (all P <.001). An adjusted Cox regression showed that compared to Cluster 2, Cluster 3 (hazard ratio (HR) 2.87, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.27\u20133.62; HR 3.42, 95%CI 2.72\u20134.31; HR 2.79, 95%CI 2.32\u20133.35), and Cluster 1 (HR 1.88, 95%CI 1.48\u20132.38; HR 2.50, 95%CI 1.98\u20133.15; HR 2.09, 95%CI 1.74\u20132.51) reported a higher risk for the three outcomes respectively. Conclusions: In European AF patients, three main clusters were identified, differentiated by differential presence of comorbidities. Both non-cardiac and cardiac comorbidities clusters were found to be associated with an increased risk of major adverse outcomes
How the shape of an H-Bonded network controls proton-coupled water activation in HONO formation
Many chemical reactions in atmospheric aerosols and bulk aqueous environments are influenced by the surrounding solvation shell, but the precise molecular interactions underlying such effects have rarely been elucidated. We exploited recent advances in isomer-specific cluster vibrational spectroscopy to explore the fundamental relation between the hydrogen (H)-bonding arrangement of a set of ion-solvating water molecules and the chemical activity of this ensemble. We find that the extent to which the nitrosonium ion (NO+) and water form nitrous acid (HONO) and a hydrated proton cluster in the critical trihydrate depends sensitively on the geometrical arrangement of the water molecules in the network. Theoretical analysis of these data details the role of the water network in promoting charge derealization