Climate change and health effects in Northwest Alaska

This article provides examples of adverse health effects, including weather-related injury, food insecurity, mental health issues, and water infrastructure damage, and the responses to these effects that are currently being applied in two Northwest Alaska communities

An Antimicrobial Peptide Regulates Tumor-Associated Macrophage Trafficking via the Chemokine Receptor CCR2, a Model for Tumorigenesis

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) constitute a significant part of infiltrating inflammatory cells that are frequently correlated with progression and poor prognosis of a variety of cancers. Tumor cell-produced human β-defensin-3 (hBD-3) has been associated with TAM trafficking in oral cancer; however, its involvement in tumor-related inflammatory processes remains largely unknown., applying a cross-desensitization strategy of CCR2 and its pharmacological inhibitor (RS102895), respectively, was also carried out. outcome and demonstrates the importance of the innate immune system in the development of tumors

Degradation of haloaromatic compounds

An ever increasing number of halogenated organic compounds has been produced by industry in the last few decades. These compounds are employed as biocides, for synthetic polymers, as solvents, and as synthetic intermediates. Production figures are often incomplete, and total production has frequently to be extrapolated from estimates for individual countries. Compounds of this type as a rule are highly persistent against biodegradation and belong, as "recalcitrant" chemicals, to the class of so-called xenobiotics. This term is used to characterise chemical substances which have no or limited structural analogy to natural compounds for which degradation pathways have evolved over billions of years. Xenobiotics frequently have some common features. e.g. high octanol/water partitioning coefficients and low water solubility which makes for a high accumulation ratio in the biosphere (bioaccumulation potential). Recalcitrant compounds therefore are found accumulated in mammals, especially in fat tissue, animal milk supplies and also in human milk. Highly sophisticated analytical techniques have been developed for the detection of organochlorines at the trace and ultratrace level

Are ‘healthy cohorts’ real-world relevant? Comparing the National Child Development Study (NCDS) with the ONS Longitudinal Study (LS)

Comparisons between cohort studies and nationally representative ‘real-world’ samples are limited. The NCDS (1958 British birth cohort) follows those born in Britain in a single week in March 1958 (n=18,558); and the ONS Longitudinal Study (LS) contains linked census data and life events for a 1% sample of the population of England and Wales (> 1 million records; allowing for sub-samples by age, ethnicity, or other socio-demographic factors). Common country-and age-matched socio-demographic variables were extracted from the closest corresponding time-points, NCDS 55-year survey in 2013 (n=8107) and LS respondents aged 55 in 2011 (n=7052). Longitudinal associations between socio-demographic exposures (from the NCDS 46-survey in 2004 and LS respondents aged 45 in 2001) and long-term limiting illness (from NCDS 2013 and LS respondents 2011, aged 55) were assessed using logistic regression. The NCDS 55-year sample had similar characteristics to LS respondents aged 55 for sex and marital status, but the NCDS sample had lower levels of long-term limiting illness (19.7% vs 22.8%), non-white ethnicity (2.1% vs 11.7%) and living in South England (46.9% vs 50.1%), and higher levels of full-time employment (61.2% vs 55.2%), working in professional/higher managerial occupations (35.7% vs 29.2%), and living with a spouse (69.1% vs 64.9%), all p0.09) suggesting these NCDS findings are largely generalisable to the population of England and Wales