Lessons from the removal of lead from gasoline for controlling other environmental pollutants: A case study from New Zealand

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>It took over two decades to achieve the removal of leaded gasoline in this country. This was despite international evidence and original research conducted in New Zealand on the harm to child cognitive function and behaviour from lead exposure.</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>To identify lessons from the New Zealand experience of removing leaded gasoline that are potentially relevant to the control of other environmental pollutants.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>From the available documentation, we suggest a number of reasons for the slow policy response to the leaded gasoline hazard. These include: (1) industry power in the form of successful lobbying by the lead additive supplier, Associated Octel; (2) the absence of the precautionary principle as part of risk management policy; and (3) weak policymaking machinery that included: (a) the poor use of health research evidence (from both NZ and internationally), as well as limited use of expertise in academic and non-governmental organisations; (b) lack of personnel competent in addressing technically complex issues; and (c) diffusion of responsibility among government agencies.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There is a need for a stronger precautionary approach by policymakers when considering environmental pollutants. Politicians, officials and health workers need to strengthen policymaking processes and effectively counter the industry tactics used to delay regulatory responses.</p

Episode 2: Nick Canfield

I am currently a Peace Corps Fellow in the Stevenson Center Program at Illinois State University getting my Master\u27s in Political Science and Applied Community Development. In Micronesia as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I taught English, trained teachers in English teaching techniques, and engaged in other projects like coaching a long distance track team. Currently I am in my professional practicum working in Washington, D.C. for two financial service non-profits called Credit Builders Alliance and Center for Financial Services Innovation. I mostly work on large scale financial research projects and data management for both organizations.https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/stvcpc/1001/thumbnail.jp

HSP Judges: Culture and History in Comestor\u27s Historia Iudicum

As participants within the Historia Scholastica Project, ongoing since August 2011, our project joins with the larger goal of making a transcription and English translation of Boise State University’s copy of Peter Comestor’s Historia Scholastica accessible to a general English-speaking audience. Throughout the 2015-2016 academic year, we will have translated 206 lines of the “Judges” section. The goal of this translation is to preserve the fundamental ideas that Comestor conveyed through his vocabulary and grammar in our English translation while making it presentable to a contemporary English audience. Our cohort of Latin students has begun the process of transcription, textual comparison, and translation of the book of Judges, referring to Adriano Cappelli’s The Elements of Abbreviation in Medieval Latin Paleography for a transcription reference and comparing our copy with other extant texts, the Patrologia Latinae 198 and the 1543 Lugduni transcription. We have begun to identify Comestor’s sources and influences, such as Jerome and Josephus, exercising comparisons between the authors. The textual comparisons made with our research will set the stage for further analysis of the BSU manuscript within manuscript lineages of Comestor’s crucial medieval work

HSP Judges: A Template for Community Collaboration

The Fall 2016 - Spring 2017 Historia Scholastica Judges group, a team dedicated to the translation of a Medieval Latin document, explored electronic venues to make the project bridge communities across physical space through an online collaboration tool. We evaluated commonly-available platforms to select a tool with sufficient potential to facilitate future online collaborative efforts with community partners. Throughout the Spring 2017 semester, we collaborated via the platform to judge its performance. We agreed on the continued use of Google related applications, including Google Docs and Hangout. In the process, we encountered multiple issues: exigent circumstances, including snow days, classmates overseas, and former classmates likely not using their university E-mails caused many delays in the class schedule and difficulty in communication. Communication between Historia Scholastica Project (HSP) team members was frequently unclear and hangouts were difficult to conduct, with not everyone online simultaneously. The implementation of Google as a collaborative tool within HSP is on-going, initiated on a two-month trial. Results will be evaluated on criteria of communication and scheduling, with a bearing on future HSP collaborations

X-ray Micro-Computed Tomography: An Emerging Technology to Analyze Vascular Calcification in Animal Models

Vascular calcification describes the formation of mineralized tissue within the blood vessel wall, and it is highly associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease, diabetes, and atherosclerosis. In this article, we briefly review different rodent models used to study vascular calcification in vivo, and critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of the current techniques used to analyze and quantify calcification in these models, namely 2-D histology and the o-cresolphthalein assay. In light of this, we examine X-ray micro-computed tomography (&micro;CT) as an emerging complementary tool for the analysis of vascular calcification in animal models. We demonstrate that this non-destructive technique allows us to simultaneously quantify and localize calcification in an intact vessel in 3-D, and we consider recent advances in &micro;CT sample preparation techniques. This review also discusses the potential to combine 3-D &micro;CT analyses with subsequent 2-D histological, immunohistochemical, and proteomic approaches in correlative microscopy workflows to obtain rich, multifaceted information on calcification volume, calcification load, and signaling mechanisms from within the same arterial segment. In conclusion we briefly discuss the potential use of &micro;CT to visualize and measure vascular calcification in vivo in real-time

Axl tyrosine kinase protects against tubulo-interstitial apoptosis and progression of renal failure in a murine model of chronic kidney disease and hyperphosphataemia.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is defined as the progressive loss of renal function often involving glomerular, tubulo-interstitial and vascular pathology. CKD is associated with vascular calcification; the extent of which predicts morbidity and mortality. However, the molecular regulation of these events and the progression of chronic kidney disease are not fully elucidated. To investigate the function of Axl receptor tyrosine kinase in CKD we performed a sub-total nephrectomy and fed high phosphate (1%) diet to Axl+/+ and Axl-/- mice. Plasma Gas6 (Axl' ligand), renal Axl expression and downstream Akt signalling were all significantly up-regulated in Axl+/+ mice following renal mass reduction and high phosphate diet, compared to age-matched controls. Axl-/- mice had significantly enhanced uraemia, reduced bodyweight and significantly reduced survival following sub-total nephrectomy and high phosphate diet compared to Axl+/+ mice; only 45% of Axl-/- mice survived to 14 weeks post-surgery compared to 87% of Axl+/+ mice. Histological analysis of kidney remnants revealed no effect of loss of Axl on glomerular hypertrophy, calcification or renal sclerosis but identified significantly increased tubulo-interstitial apoptosis in Axl-/- mice. Vascular calcification was not induced in Axl+/+ or Axl-/- mice in the time frame we were able to examine. In conclusion, we identify the up-regulation of Gas6/Axl signalling as a protective mechanism which reduces tubulo-interstitial apoptosis and slows progression to end-stage renal failure in the murine nephrectomy and high phosphate diet model of CKD

Axl−/− mice develop elevated uraemia following sub-total nephrectomy and high phosphate diet.

<p>(A) Blood Urea Nitrogen (BUN) levels expressed as individual data points with means +/− standard deviation (Std Dev). Statistical test is a 1-way ANOVA with Sidak compensation for multiple comparisons. (B–G) BUN levels of Axl+/+ and Axl−/− mice expressed as means +/− SEM; (B) all mice, (C) Axl−/− sub-populations (survived/deceased), (D) females analysed by genotype, (E) males analysed by genotype, (F) Axl+/+ mice analysed by gender, (G) Axl−/− mice analysed by gender. Statistical test is a 2-way ANOVA with Sidak compensation for multiple comparisons. § = p≤0.05 for difference between genotypes, * = p≤0.05, ** = p≤0.01, *** = p≤0.005.</p

Axl−/− mice have significantly reduced body weight and survival following sub-total nephrectomy and high phosphate diet.

<p>Weight in grams of (A) females and (B) males expressed as means +/− standard error of the mean (SEM). Statistical test is a 2-way ANOVA with a Sidak compensation for multiple comparison, § = p≤0.005 for difference between genotypes and * = p≤0.05 for individual time points, n number (surviving animals) in brackets. (C–F) Kaplan-Meier survival plots of Axl+/+ and Axl−/− mice following nephrectomy and high phosphate diet. (C) All mice, (D) males, (E) females, (F) Axl−/− mice alone.</p

Loss of Axl results in elevated renal tubulo-interstitial apoptosis.

<p>(A) Representative TUNEL- and DAPI-stained kidney sections post-sub-total nephrectomy and high phosphate diet. Tubulo-interstitial areas of the kidney are shown, bar  = 50 microns. (B) Quantification of TUNEL staining expressed as mean +/− SEM, n = 10 per group. Statistical test is Student's <i>t</i>-test; ns  =  not significant, * = p≤0.05.</p