Climate action at Public Health Schools in the European region

Climate change is putting the achievement of all Sustainable Development Goals at risk and leads to negative impacts on human health and well-being. Consequently, tremendous social responsibility lies with public health professionals and their associations. Therefore, this study addressed the following question: "How can the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) best support the goals of the European Green Deal through its network of public health schools and departments?" This study looked at the implementation of climate education in public health schools in the European region and climate action taken by these public health schools. An online survey among ASPHER members with a 51% overall response rate (excluding non-European members) shows that 64% of the responding schools provide climate-health educational offerings, while 63% consider these for the future. Additionally, most climate actions taken by the schools were ad hoc actions. These findings show that a systematic approach is missing, and there is a general lack of strategy in most schools. We consequently recommend that schools invest in climate and health education in their curricula and become exemplars for climate action to actively contribute to the achievement of Europe's climate goals

WHY IS THE LEFT KNEE RATHER PRONE TO INJURY DURING TEAM HANDBALL-SPECIFIC SIDE-CUTTING MANEUVERS TO THE RIGHT?

The purpose of this study was the biomechanical inter-leg evaluation in three team handball-specific side-cutting maneuvers. This should help to gain a better understanding how different movement executions potentially produce harmful demands to one or both knee joints. Therefore, eight competitive handball player performed the three most common side-cutting maneuvers to the right side (side-cutting maneuver was performed with alternating or simultaneous steps) in a game-like setting in a movement laboratory. Movement data were collected with a 3D motion capture system and two linked 3D force plates. The analysis of the side-cutting maneuvers revealed increased vertical and medio-lateral ground reaction force components on the left leg, which initiated the side-cutting maneuver. The peak knee abduction moments in the weight acceptance phase did not differ between the left and the right leg in all three side-cutting maneuvers. However, higher peak knee valgus angles occurred at the left leg, which increased with increasing stance time. The results of this study indicate that during the performance of handball-specific side-cutting maneuvers to the right, the left knee joint has a greater risk to get injured. Consequently, athletes and coaches should place special focus on the movement execution of the cutting initiating leg to reduce the risk of knee injuries. Furthermore, leg explosive strength and core stability should be in major focus in training exercises to prepare the athlete for the demands in such high intensity movements

Spatiotemporal patterns of particulate matter (PM) and associations between PM and mortality in Shenzhen, China

DOI: 10.1186/s12889-016-2725-6Background: Most studies on air pollution exposure and its associations with human health in China have focused on the heavily polluted industrial areas and/or mega-cities, and studies on cities with comparatively low air pollutant concentrations are still rare. Only a few studies have attempted to analyse particulate matter (PM) for the vibrant economic centre Shenzhen in the Pearl River Delta. So far no systematic investigation of PM spatiotemporal patterns in Shenzhen has been undertaken and the understanding of pollution exposure in urban agglomerations with comparatively low pollution is still limited. Methods: We analyze daily and hourly particulate matter concentrations and all-cause mortality during 2013 in Shenzhen, China. Temporal patterns of PM (PM2.5 and PM10) with aerodynamic diameters of 2.5 (10) μm or less (or less (including particles with a diameter that equals to 2.5 (10) μm) are studied, along with the ratio of PM2.5 to PM10. Spatial distributions of PM10 and PM2.5 are addressed and associations of PM10 or PM2.5 and all-cause mortality are analyzed. Results: Annual average PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations were 61.3 and 39.6 μg/m3 in 2013. PM2.5 failed to meet the Class 2 annual limit of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard. PM2.5 was the primary air pollutant, with 8.8 % of days having heavy PM2.5 pollution. The daily PM2.5/PM10 ratios were high. Hourly PM2.5 concentrations in the tourist area were lower than downtown throughout the day. PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations were higher in western parts of Shenzhen than in eastern parts. Excess risks in the number of all-cause mortality with a 10 μg/m3 increase of PM were 0.61 % (95 % confidence interval [CI]: 0.50–0.72) for PM10, and 0.69 % (95 % CI: 0.55–0.83) for PM2.5, respectively. The greatest ERs of PM10 and PM2.5 were in 2-day cumulative measures for the all-cause mortality, 2-day lag for females and the young (0–65 years), and L02 for males and the elder (>65 years). PM2.5 had higher risks on all-cause mortality than PM10. Effects of high PM pollution on mortality were stronger in the elder and male. Conclusions: Our findings provide additional relevant information on air quality monitoring and associations of PM and human health, valuable data for further scientific research in Shenzhen and for the on-going discourse on improving environmental policie

Overcoming Individual Limitations Through Distributed Computation: Rational Information Accumulation in Multigenerational Populations

Many of the computational problems people face are difficult to solve under the limited time and cognitive resources available to them. Overcoming these limitations through social interaction is one of the most distinctive features of human intelligence. In this paper, we show that information accumulation in multigenerational social networks can be produced by a form of distributed Bayesian inference that allows individuals to benefit from the experience of previous generations while expending little cognitive effort. In doing so, we provide a criterion for assessing the rationality of a population that extends traditional analyses of the rationality of individuals. We tested the predictions of this analysis in two highly controlled behavioral experiments where the social transmission structure closely matched the assumptions of our model. Participants made decisions on simple categorization tasks that relied on and contributed to accumulated knowledge. Success required these microsocieties to accumulate information distributed across people and time. Our findings illustrate how in certain settings, distributed computation at the group level can pool information and resources, allowing limited individuals to perform effectively on complex tasks

Bayesian collective learning emerges from heuristic social learning

Researchers across cognitive science, economics, and evolutionary biology have studied the ubiquitous phenomenon of social learning—the use of information about other people's decisions to make your own. Decision-making with the benefit of the accumulated knowledge of a community can result in superior decisions compared to what people can achieve alone. However, groups of people face two coupled challenges in accumulating knowledge to make good decisions: (1) aggregating information and (2) addressing an informational public goods problem known as the exploration-exploitation dilemma. Here, we show how a Bayesian social sampling model can in principle simultaneously optimally aggregate information and nearly optimally solve the exploration-exploitation dilemma. The key idea we explore is that Bayesian rationality at the level of a population can be implemented through a more simplistic heuristic social learning mechanism at the individual level. This simple individual-level behavioral rule in the context of a group of decision-makers functions as a distributed algorithm that tracks a Bayesian posterior in population-level statistics. We test this model using a large-scale dataset from an online financial trading platform

Finite size effects in stimulated laser pair production

We consider stimulated pair production employing strong-field QED in a high-intensity laser background. In an infinite plane wave, we show that light-cone quasi-momentum can only be transferred to the created pair as a multiple of the laser frequency, i.e.\ by a higher harmonic. This translates into discrete resonance conditions providing the support of the pair creation probability which becomes a delta-comb. These findings corroborate the usual interpretation of multi-photon production of pairs with an effective mass. In a pulse, the momentum transfer is continuous, leading to broadening of the resonances and sub-threshold behaviour. The peaks remain visible as long as the number of cycles per pulse exceeds unity. The resonance patterns in pulses are analogous to those of a diffraction process based on interference of the produced pairs.Comment: 7 pages, 7 EPS figures. Version 2 contains additional examples using smooth pulse envelopes. Conclusions unchange

Towards Sustainable Public Health Surveillance in India: Using Routinely Collected Electronic Emergency Medical Service Data for Early Warning of Infectious Diseases

Infectious disease surveillance, timely detection and early warning of outbreaks present a complex challenge to health authorities in India. Approaches based on the use of unexplored data sources, like emergency medical services (EMS) data, can contribute to the further advancement of public health surveillance capacities in India and support and strengthen the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) strategy. This research followed a mixed method approach including a series of semi-structured interviews and fever data analysis of the EMS operating dispatch system in Andra Pradesh, India. In this paper, we explore whether routinely collected EMS health data can improve sustainable infectious disease surveillance and early warning capacity. The result highlights the need for improved surveillance systems for early warning of infectious diseases in India. The data availability at the EMS dispatch centre includes patient data and spatial information and can be used for near real-time analysis. Routine data relevant for health surveillance can be extracted to provide timely health information that supplements and enhances more traditional surveillance mechanisms and thus provides a cost-efficient, near real-time early warning system for the operating states. The designed intervention is sustainable and can improve infectious disease surveillance to potentially help the government officials to appropriately prioritize timely interventions to prevent infectious disease spread