Neighborhoods, Daily Activities, and Measuring Health Risks Experienced in Urban Environments.

Studies of place and health often classify a subject\u27s exposure status according to that which is present in their neighborhood of residence. One\u27s neighborhood is often proxied by designating it to be an administratively defined unit such as census tract, to make analysis feasible. Although it is understood that residential space and actual lived space may not correspond and therefore exposure misclassification may result, few studies have the opportunity to investigate the implications of this issue concretely. A population-based case-control study that is currently underway provides one such opportunity. Adolescent victims of assault in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, and a control sample of adolescents drawn randomly from the community are being enrolled to study how alcohol consumption and time spent nearby alcohol outlets - individual-level and environmental-level risk factors for violence, respectively - over the course of daily activities relate to the likelihood of being assaulted. Data from a rapport-building exercise consist of hand-drawn sketches that subjects drew on street maps when asked to indicate the area considered their neighborhood. The main data consist of self-reported, detailed paths of the routes adolescents traveled from one location to the next over the course of one full day. Having noticed interesting patterns as the data collection phase proceeds, we present here an analysis conducted with the data of 55 control subjects between 15 and 19 years old. We found that hand-drawn neighborhoods and activity paths did not correspond to census tract boundaries, and time subjects spent in close proximity to alcohol outlets during their daily activities was not correlated with the prevalence of alcohol outlets in the census tract of their residence. This served as a useful example demonstrating how classifying subjects as exposed based solely on the prevalence of the exposure in the geographic area of their residence may misrepresent the exposure that is etiologically meaningful

Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) dampens neuronal toll-like receptor-mediated responses in ischemia

10.1186/s12974-015-0294-8Journal of Neuroinflammation12

Geophysical investigations of a geothermal anomaly at Wadi Ghadir, eastern Egypt

During regional heat flow studies a geothermal anomaly was discovered approximately 2 km from the Red Sea coast at Wadi Ghadir, in the Red Sea Hills of Eastern Egypt. A temperature gradient of 55 C/km was measured in a 150 m drillhole at this location, indicating a heat flow of approximately 175 mw/sqm, approximately four times the regional background heat flow for Egypt. Gravity and magnetic data were collected along Wadi Ghadir, and combined with offshore gravity data, to investigate the source of the thermal anomaly. Magnetic anomalies in the profile do not coincide with the thermal anomaly, but were observed to correlate with outcrops of basic rocks. Other regional heat flow and gravity data indicate that the transition from continental to oceanic type lithosphere occurs close to the Red Sea margin, and that the regional thermal anomaly is possibly related to the formation of the Red Sea

Biocompatibility of a new nanomaterial based on calcium silicate implanted in subcutaneous connective tissue of rats

The aim of the study was to investigate rat connective tissue response to a new calcium silicate system 7, 15, 30 and 60 days after implantation. Twenty Wistar albino male rats received two tubes half-filled with a new calcium silicate system (NCSS) or MTA in subcutaneous tissue. The empty half of the tubes served as controls. Five animals were sacrificed after 7, 15, 30 and 60 days and samples of the subcutaneous tissue around implanted material were submitted to histological analysis. The intensity of inflammation was evaluated based on the number of inflammatory cells present. Statistical analysis was performed using one way ANOVA and Holm Sidak's multiple comparison tests. Mild to moderate inflammatory reaction was observed after 7, 15 and 30 days around a NCSS while mild inflammatory reaction was detected after 60 days of implantation. In the MTA group, mild to moderate inflammatory reaction was found after 7 and 15 days while mild inflammatory reaction was present after 30 and 60 days. There was no statistically significant difference in the intensity of inflammatory reactions between the tested materials and control groups in any experimental period (ANOVA p>0.05). Regarding the intensity of inflammatory reactions at different experimental periods, a statistically significant difference was observed between 7 and 30 days, 7 and 60 days and 15 to 60 days for both materials. For the controls, a statistically significant difference was found between 7 and 60 days and 15 and 60 days of the experiment (Holm Sidak < p 0.001). Subcutaneous tissue of rats showed good tolerance to a new calcium silicate system. Inflammatory reaction was similar to that caused by MTA. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 172026

Time-dependent reduction of structural complexity of the buccal epithelial cell nuclei after treatment with silver nanoparticles

Recent studies have suggested that silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) may affect cell DNA structure in in vitro conditions. In this paper, we present the results indicating that AgNPs change nuclear complexity properties in isolated human epithelial buccal cells in a time-dependent manner. Epithelial buccal cells were plated in special tissue culture chamber / slides and were kept at 37°C in an RPMI 1640 cell culture medium supplemented with L-glutamine. The cells were treated with colloidal silver nanoparticles suspended in RPMI 1640 medium at the concentration 15 mg L−1. Digital micrographs of the cell nuclei in a sample of 30 cells were created at five different time steps: before the treatment (controls), immediately after the treatment, as well as 15 , 30 and 60 min after the treatment with AgNPs. For each nuclear structure, values of fractal dimension, lacunarity, circularity, as well as parameters of grey level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) texture, were determined. The results indicate time-dependent reduction of structural complexity in the cell nuclei after the contact with AgNPs. These findings further suggest that AgNPs, at concentrations present in today's over-the-counter drug products, might have significant effects on the cell genetic material

Gamma evaluation with Octavius 4D phantom for pretreatment of modern radiotherapy treatment techniques

Purpose: In modern radiotherapy techniques such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and volume modulated arc therapy (VMAT), the quality assurance (QA) process is vital. The goal of the study was to verify the treatment planning dose delivered during delivery of complex treatment plans. The QA standard is to perform patient-specific comparisons between planned doses and doses measured in a phantom. Materials and Methods: Ninety-five complex IMRT and VMAT plans for different pathologies planned using Eclipse treatment planning system (TPS). The Octavius 4D phantom has been used to verify patient specific quality assurance of all VMAT plans calculating with different algorithms. Conclusion: Overall, good agreement was observed between measured and calculated doses in most cases with gamma values above 1 in >95% of measured points in volumetric 3D analysis and 1 in >90% in 2D analysis. The Octavius 4D phantom is an effective and efficient method for patient specific QA

Nutrition Anemia and Physical Endurance Among Civil Construction Workers

Penyelidikan ini adalah untuk membuktikan suatu hypothesa bahwa ada pengaruh dari keadaan gizi dan kesehatan terhadap kemampuan bekerja para pekerja. Sejumlah 571 pekerja laki-laki telah dipilih dari tiga daerah tempat bekerja yaitu : Rentang, Seladarma (pembuatan canalj Halim Perdanakusuma (pembuatan lapangan terbang) Didapatkan bahwa seluruh pekerja mempunyai nilai gizi yang borderline dan tidak ada perbedaan didalam keadaan fisik mereka, namun masih terdapat rata-rata 30 percent menderita anemia. Anemia banyak disertai dengan rendahnya kadar Iron darah pada pekerja di Rentang dan Seladarma hal ini tidak terdapat pada pekerja di Halim. (Table 4). Mengenai infeksi cacing terutama cacing tambang maka diseluruh pekerja menderita infeksi cacing tersebut tingkat pertama yaitu infeksi ringan yang tidak akan mempengaruhi keadaan fisik kecuali hanya kekurangan Iron didalam darah. Untuk mengetahui kemampuan bekerja maka telah dipakai Harvard Step Test Scores selama 5 menit. Dan ternyata bila pekerja-pekerja tersebut dibagi dua group yaitu yang diatas dan yang dibawah nilai Hb. 11 Gm/100 ml maka terdapat perbedaan yang menyolok sekali atas kemampuan pekerja tersebut didalam melakukan test fisik. Hal ini sesuai dengan penyelidikan Veteri. Perlu juga disini diketahui bahwa pekerja berasal dari Rentang dan Seladarma lebih banyak menggunakan tenaga kaki oleh karena selalu naik dan turun canal. Kesimpulan penyelidikan ini adalah adanya pengaruh yang positip antara faktor makanan dan infeksi cacing dengan kemampuan bekerja yang dewasa ini amat diperlukan didalam pembangunan negara