Designing a Solid Waste Infrastructure Management Model for Integration into a National Infrastructure System-of Systems

Solid waste management is arguably one of the most important municipal services provided by government1. Given the rapid socio-economic changes that are projected to take place in the UK2 it is important that we plan our future waste management capacity to ensure the continuance of this valuable service. The Solid Waste Infrastructure Management System (SWIMS) model was designed to model the current solid waste infrastructure requirements (from collection through treatment and disposal) for an area based on its solid waste arisings. SWIMS allows an area’s waste treatment capacity requirements to be forecast against future socio-economic change to help decision-makers choose the right solid waste infrastructure given their goals, constraints and ideas about future conditions. The modelling of solid waste management systems has been carried out since the 1970s3 and such modelling exercises have been undertaken for numerous different geographical areas around the world4. However, the SWIMS model is unique in that it was designed to also operate within a larger national infrastructure system-of-systems model, including interdependencies with other infrastructure sectors including energy, water and waste water. To achieve such flexibility the SWIMS model was carefully designed using object-oriented programming (OOP) principles. In documenting this model’s design methodology we hope to demonstrate how applying OOP principles enables such models to not only be more flexible and more easily integrated with other modelling efforts, but also more easily understood by system experts and end-users

Weight suppression and weight elevation are associated with eating disorder symptomatology in women age 50 and older: Results of the gender and body image study

Objective: Weight suppression (WS), the difference between highest past non-pregnancy weight and current weight, predicts negative outcomes in eating disorders, but the impact of WS and related weight constructs are understudied in nonclinical, midlife populations. We examined WS (current weight < highest weight) and weight elevation (WE), the opposite of WS (current weight > lowest weight) and their associations with eating psychopathology in women aged 50+. Method: Participants were a community-based sample (N = 1,776, M age = 59) who completed demographic and eating psychopathology questions via online survey. WS, WE, and WS × WE were tested as predictors of outcome variables; BMI and medical conditions that affect weight were controlled for. Results: Individuals that were higher on WS and WE were most likely to engage in current weight loss attempts, dieting in the past 5 years, and extreme lifetime restriction. Individuals with higher WS were more likely to experience binge eating, greater frequency of weight checking, overvaluation of shape and weight, and lifetime fasting. Individuals with higher WE were more likely to report negative life impacts of eating and dieting. Higher WS and WE each predicted higher levels of skipping meals over the lifetime. Discussion: This novel study investigated WS in midlife women and introduced a new conceptualization of weight change (WE) that may be more relevant for aging populations given that women tend to gain weight with age. The findings implicate the utility of investigating both WS and WE as factors associated with eating psychopathology in midlife women

Perceptions and experiences with eating disorder treatment in the first year of COVID-19: A longitudinal qualitative analysis

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic created significant challenges in accessing and receiving treatment for individuals with eating disorders (EDs). The purpose of this study is to explore perceptions of and experiences with ED treatment during the first year of the pandemic among individuals with past and self-reported EDs in the United States. Methods: Online surveys were administered to adults (N = 510) with a past or current self-reported ED at 13 timepoints between April 2020 and May 2021. Using longitudinal qualitative analysis, 5651 free-text responses were examined to capture experiences with ED treatment and generate inferences of change over time. Results: We categorized results into four sequential, temporal quarters and identified patterns that explained participants' perceptions of facilitators, barriers, and experiences with ED treatment over time: Quarter 1. Treatment Disruption and Reorienting Recovery; Quarter 2. Accumulating COVID-19 Stress and Virtual Treatment Woes; Quarter 3. A Continuation of Inadequate Care; and Quarter 4. Ongoing Adaptation and Adjustment to Uncertainty. Participant experiences were marked by numerous barriers to accessing care, challenges adjusting to virtual treatment, unmet treatment needs, and beginning acceptance of telehealth. Discussion: Our findings present a timeline to help evaluate challenges related to navigating the switch to virtual care which created significant disruption to ED recovery. Participants spent much of the first year trying to adjust to unemployment, loss of insurance, and lack of access to in-person treatment. Future research should identify additional strategies to improve the receipt and experience of care for EDs. Public Significance: Our findings suggest that individuals with eating disorders were significantly challenged by accumulating COVID-19 stress, worsening symptomatology, and limited access to effective treatment during the first year of the pandemic. This knowledge can guide clinicians, treatment centers, and policy makers in addressing the behavioral health needs of individuals impacted by disordered eating amidst emergent public health crises

Dynamical aspects of mean field plane rotators and the Kuramoto model

The Kuramoto model has been introduced in order to describe synchronization phenomena observed in groups of cells, individuals, circuits, etc... We look at the Kuramoto model with white noise forces: in mathematical terms it is a set of N oscillators, each driven by an independent Brownian motion with a constant drift, that is each oscillator has its own frequency, which, in general, changes from one oscillator to another (these frequencies are usually taken to be random and they may be viewed as a quenched disorder). The interactions between oscillators are of long range type (mean field). We review some results on the Kuramoto model from a statistical mechanics standpoint: we give in particular necessary and sufficient conditions for reversibility and we point out a formal analogy, in the N to infinity limit, with local mean field models with conservative dynamics (an analogy that is exploited to identify in particular a Lyapunov functional in the reversible set-up). We then focus on the reversible Kuramoto model with sinusoidal interactions in the N to infinity limit and analyze the stability of the non-trivial stationary profiles arising when the interaction parameter K is larger than its critical value K_c. We provide an analysis of the linear operator describing the time evolution in a neighborhood of the synchronized profile: we exhibit a Hilbert space in which this operator has a self-adjoint extension and we establish, as our main result, a spectral gap inequality for every K>K_c.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figur

Sweet taste preference in binge-eating disorder: A preliminary investigation

Research suggests that individuals with high liking for sweets are at increased risk for binge eating, which has been minimally investigated in individuals with binge-eating disorder (BED). Forty-one adults (85% female, 83% white) with binge eating concerns completed a sweet taste test and measures of eating disorder behaviors and food cravings. A subset of participants with BED completed an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT; N = 21) and a 24-hour dietary recall (N = 26). Regression models were used to compare highest sweet preferers (HSP [N = 18]) to other sweet preferers (OSP [N = 23]) and were used to assess associations between sweet taste preference and outcome variables. Effect sizes (ηp2) for differences between HSP and OSP ranged from small (≤ 0.01) to large (≥ 0.24); group differences were statistically nonsignificant except for 24-hour caloric intake (ηp2 = 0.16, p = 0.04), protein intake (ηp2 = 0.16, p = 0.04), and insulin sensitivity index (ηp2 = 0.24, p = 0.04), which were higher in HSP, and postprandial insulin, which was smaller in HSP (ηp2 = 0.27, p = 0.03). Continuous analyses replicated postprandial insulin response. Compared with OSP, HSP reported numerically higher binge-eating frequency (ηp2 = 0.04), over-eating frequency (ηp2 = 0.06), and carbohydrate intake (ηp2 = 0.14), and they exhibited numerically smaller postprandial glucose AUC (ηp2 = 0.16). Sweet taste preference may have implications for glucose regulation, binge-eating frequency, and nutrient intake in BED

A rapid allele-specific assay for HLA-A*32:01 to identify patients at risk for vancomycin-induced Drug Reaction with Eosinophilia and systemic symptoms

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles have been implicated as risk factors for immune-mediated adverse drug reactions. We recently reported a strong association between HLA-A*32:01 and vancomycin-induced drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS). Identification of individuals with the risk allele prior to or shortly after the initiation of vancomycin therapy is of great clinical importance to prevent morbidity and mortality, improve drug safety and antibiotic treatment options. A prerequisite to the success of a pharmacogenetic screening tests is the development of simple, robust, cost-effective single HLA allele test that can be implemented in routine diagnostic laboratories. In this study, we developed a simple, real-time allele-specific PCR for typing the HLA-A*32:01 allele. Four-hundred and fifty-eight DNA samples including thirty HLA-A*32:01-positive samples were typed by allele-specific PCR. Compared to ASHI accredited sequence-based high-resolution, full allelic HLA typing, this assay demonstrates 100% accuracy, sensitivity of 100% (95% CI: 88.43% to 100%) and specificity of 100% (95% CI: 99.14% to 100%). The lowest limit of detection of this assay using the Power Up SYBR Green is 10 ng of template DNA. The assay demonstrates a sensitivity and specificity to differentiate HLA-A*32:01 allele from closely related non-HLA-A*32 alleles and may be used in clinical settings to identify individuals with the risk allele prior or during the course of vancomycin therapy

Early impact of COVID-19 on individuals with self-reported eating disorders: A survey of ~1,000 individuals in the United States and the Netherlands

Objective: We evaluated the early impact of COVID-19 on people with self-reported eating disorders. Method: Participants in the United States (US, N = 511) and the Netherlands (NL, N = 510), recruited through ongoing studies and social media, completed an online survey that included both quantitative measures and free-text responses assessing the impact of COVID-19 on situational circumstances, eating disorder symptoms, eating disorder treatment, and general well-being. Results: Results revealed strong and wide-ranging effects on eating disorder concerns and illness behaviors that were consistent with eating disorder type. Participants with anorexia nervosa (US 62% of sample; NL 69%) reported increased restriction and fears about being able to find foods consistent with their meal plan. Individuals with bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder (US 30% of sample; NL 15%) reported increases in their binge-eating episodes and urges to binge. Respondents noted marked increases in anxiety since 2019 and reported greater concerns about the impact of COVID-19 on their mental health than physical health. Although many participants acknowledged and appreciated the transition to telehealth, limitations of this treatment modality for this population were raised. Individuals with past histories of eating disorders noted concerns about relapse related to COVID-19 circumstances. Encouragingly, respondents also noted positive effects including greater connection with family, more time for self-care, and motivation to recover. Discussions: COVID-19 is associated with increased anxiety and poses specific disorder-related challenges for individuals with eating disorders that require attention by healthcare professionals and carers

Antiprothrombin antibodies induce platelet activation : a possible explanation for anti‐FXa therapy failure in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome?

Background Arterial and venous thrombosis are both common in antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). Recent studies have shown that anti-factor Xa (FXa) therapy in APS patients leads to a greater number of patients with arterial thrombosis than with warfarin. We hypothesize that this may be due to the lowering of prothrombin levels by warfarin. Objectives To investigate whether antiprothrombin antibodies induce platelet aggregation and to identify the platelet receptors involved. A second aim was to investigate the effect of reduced prothrombin levels on antiprothrombin antibody-induced platelet aggregation. Methods Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays were performed to measure binding of antiprothrombin antibodies to prothrombin fragment 1+2 and prothrombin. Platelet aggregation assays in washed platelets were performed. Fc gamma RIIA was immunoprecipitated and tyrosine-phosphorylated Fc gamma RIIA was measured by western blot. Results The antiprothrombin antibodies 28F4 and 3B1 had lupus anticoagulant (LAC) activity and caused platelet aggregation in the presence of Ca2+ and prothrombin. Antiprothrombin antibodies without LAC activity did not activate platelets. Inhibition of Syk and Src kinases and Fc gamma RIIA blocked platelet aggregation. Fab and F(ab')(2) fragments of 28F4 were unable to induce platelet aggregation. Immunoprecipitations showed that whole 28F4 immunoglobulin G induced tyrosine phosphorylation of Fc gamma RIIA. Platelet aggregation was significantly reduced when prothrombin levels were reduced from 1 mu M to 0.2 mu M. Conclusions Antiprothrombin antibodies with LAC activity are able to activate platelets via Fc gamma RIIA. Decreased prothrombin levels resulted in less antiprothrombin antibody-mediated platelet aggregation. This may explain the lower incidence of arterial thrombosis in patients treated with warfarin than with anti-FXa therapy

Manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging depicts brain activity in models of acute and chronic pain: a new window to study experimental spontaneous pain?

Application of functional imaging techniques to animal models is vital to understand pain mechanisms, but is often confounded by the need to limit movement artefacts with anaesthesia, and a focus on evoked responses rather than clinically relevant spontaneous pain and related hyperalgesia. The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential of manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI) to measure neural responses during on-going pain that underpins hyperalgesia in pre-clinical models of nociception. As a proof of concept that MEMRI is sensitive to the neural activity of spontaneous, intermittent behaviour, we studied a separate positive control group undergoing a voluntary running wheel experiment. In the pain models, pain behaviour (weight bearing asymmetry and hindpaw withdrawal thresholds (PWTs)) was measured at baseline and following either intra-articular injection of nerve growth factor (NGF, 10 µg/50 µl; acute pain model, n=4 rats per group), or the chondrocyte toxin monosodium iodoacetate (MIA, 1 mg/50 µl; chronic model, n=8 rats per group), or control injection. Separate groups of rats underwent a voluntary wheel running protocol (n=8 rats per group). Rats were administered with paramagnetic ion Mn2+ as soluble MnCl2 over seven days (subcutaneous osmotic pump) to allow cumulative activity-dependent neural accumulation in the models of pain, or over a period of running. T1-weighted MR imaging at 7 T was performed under isoflurane anaesthesia using a receive-only rat head coil in combination with a 72 mm volume coil for excitation. The pain models resulted in weight bearing asymmetry (NGF: 20.0 ± 5.2%, MIA: 15 ± 3%), and a reduction in PWT in the MIA model (8.3 ± 1.5 g) on the final day of assessment before undergoing MR imaging. Voxel-wise and region-based analysis of MEMRI data did not identify group differences in T1 signal. However, MnCl2 accumulation in the VTA, right Ce amygdala, and left cingulate was negatively correlated with pain responses (greater differences in weight bearing), similarly MnCl2 accumulation was reduced in the VTA in line with hyperalgesia (lower PWTs), which suggests reduced regional activation as a result of the intensity and duration of pain experienced during the 7 days of MnCl2 exposure. Motor cortex T1-weighted signal increase was associated with the distance ran in the wheel running study, while no between group difference was seen. Our data suggest that on-going pain related signal changes identified using MEMRI offers a new window to study the neural underpinnings of spontaneous pain in rats

Cosmological parameter estimation using Very Small Array data out to ℓ= 1500

We estimate cosmological parameters using data obtained by the Very Small Array (VSA) in its extended configuration, in conjunction with a variety of other cosmic microwave background (CMB) data and external priors. Within the flat Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model, we find that the inclusion of high-resolution data from the VSA modifies the limits on the cosmological parameters as compared to those suggested by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) alone, while still remaining compatible with their estimates. We find that Ωbh2= 0.0234+0.0012−0.0014, Ωdmh2= 0.111+0.014−0.016, h= 0.73+0.09−0.05, nS= 0.97+0.06−0.03, 1010AS= 23+7−3 and τ= 0.14+0.14−0.07 for WMAP and VSA when no external prior is included. On extending the model to include a running spectral index of density fluctuations, we find that the inclusion of VSA data leads to a negative running at a level of more than 95 per cent confidence ( nrun=−0.069 ± 0.032 ), something that is not significantly changed by the inclusion of a stringent prior on the Hubble constant. Inclusion of prior information from the 2dF galaxy redshift survey reduces the significance of the result by constraining the value of Ωm. We discuss the veracity of this result in the context of various systematic effects and also a broken spectral index model. We also constrain the fraction of neutrinos and find that fν < 0.087 at 95 per cent confidence, which corresponds to mν < 0.32 eV when all neutrino masses are equal. Finally, we consider the global best fit within a general cosmological model with 12 parameters and find consistency with other analyses available in the literature. The evidence for nrun < 0 is only marginal within this model