Fetal and Early Childhood Undernutrition, Mortality, and Lifelong Health

http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.122461

Environmental concern areas

Veel woningen in stedelijke gebieden in Nederland ondervinden milieuproblemen. Met name de grote steden hebben last van geluidsoverlast en vervuilde lucht. Dit blijkt uit een inventarisatie van het RIVM. Dit rapport biedt een globaal overzicht van de milieuproblemen in stedelijk gebied. In opdracht van het ministerie van VROM inventariseerde het RIVM de milieubelasting in stedelijke gebieden. Hierbij werd gekeken naar luchtkwaliteit, geluid, bodem en externe veiligheid. Bij de inventarisatie is naar stedelijke postcodegebieden gekeken waarin zich woningen met een kritieke milieubelasting bevinden. Uit de inventarisatie blijkt dat veel woningen in stedelijke gebieden een overschrijding van kritische grenswaarden voor milieubelasting ondervinden. De overschrijding wordt vaak veroorzaakt door luchtvervuiling, in de vorm van hoge concentraties fijn stof en stikstofdioxide, en lawaai van weg- en railverkeer. Vooral in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht en Noord-Brabant spelen deze problemen. Deelkaarten in dit rapport geven per postcodegebied aan welke milieuproblemen zich ter plaatse voordoen en hoe ernstig deze zijn. De kaarten bieden beleidsmakers en planologen een overzicht van de gebieden die in milieutechnisch opzicht aandacht vragen.Many urban residential areas in the Netherlands experience environmental problems. Particularly within the major cities, extensive environmental damage is caused by noise and air pollution from roadway traffic. This was concluded from an inventory carried out by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). This report presents an overview of urban problem areas. By order of the Ministry of Housing and Spatiol Planning, the RIVM made an inventory of environmental problems in urban regions in the Netherlands due to air pollution, noise, potential soil pollution and external safety risks. Environmental problems (exposure or exposure risks) were related to the presence of dwellings in each postal area where critical limit values are exceeded. From the inventory, it appears that the critical exposure values are exceeded at many dwellings. Exceedences are often caused by air pollution (particulate matter and nitrogen oxide) and noise from road- and railway traffic. Many of these dwellings can be found in major cities with ringways (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht ) and also in the Province of Noord-Brabant. Inventories are presented in a set of color coded maps, showing the type of environmental damage occurring and indicating the number of dwellings critically exposed in each postal area. The maps give policy makers and urban planners an overall picture of the residential areas demanding attention from an environmental point of view.VROM-DGM-LM

Benefits of noise measures

Vermindering van omgevingsgeluid door het weg- en railverkeer in stedelijke gebieden in Nederland levert forse maatschappelijke baten op. Hierdoor worden gebieden nabij deze bronnen aantrekkelijker om te wonen en te bouwen. Dit blijkt uit onderzoek van het RIVM in opdracht van het ministerie van VROM. Het RIVM inventariseerde de maatschappelijke baten van diverse geluidsmaatregelen, zoals stille banden, geluidsarm asfalt en geluidsschermen. Dit gebeurde aan de hand van Hedonic Pricing, een manier om de invloed van geluid op huizenprijzen te beoordelen. Ook is gekeken naar verschillen in grondprijzen voor gebieden die wel of niet geschikt zijn voor nieuwe woningbouw. Uit het onderzoek blijkt dat voor wegverkeer stille banden en geluidsarm asfalt het meest kosteneffectief zijn. Deze maatregelen pakken het geluid aan bij de bron. Geluidsschermen zijn minder kosteneffectief. Ook langs spoorwegen zullen bronmaatregelen forse baten opleveren. De totale omvang van de te realiseren baten bedraagt circa 7 miljard euro in de vorm van waardestijging van woningen en bouwgronden. De meeste van de gebieden grenzen aan stedelijke verkeerswegen en spoorwegen. Geluidsmaatregelen kunnen ook de waarde van natuur- en stiltegebieden verhogen. Deze waardetoename wordt geschat op ruim 60 miljoen euro, op grond van een hogere betalingsbereidheid bij bezoekers voor stiltekwaliteit. Het is echter meestal niet mogelijk om deze baten kosteneffectief te realiseren. Alleen in natuurgebieden die veel bezoekers trekken, zoals bijvoorbeeld het Nationaal Park 'Dwingelderveld' in Drenthe, kunnen de baten opwegen tegen de kosten.Reduction of noise from road- and railway traffic will generate major social benefits in urban areas in the Netherlands. This will improve the environmental quality of residential areas and areas for new housing estate. This followed from an investigation carried out by the RIVM for the Dutch Ministry of Housing Spatial Planning and the Environment. In the investigation benefits from noise measures, such as silent tires, quiet pavements and noise barriers were evaluated. The method of Hedonic Pricing was used to value the effect of noise on the market value of dwellings. Also the influence of reducing noise on the market value of building lands was investigated. In general measures at the source, such as silent tires, quiet pavements or tracks , appear to be highly cost-effective. Noise barriers seem less cost effective. The results of this study indicate that the total benefits from cost-effective noise measures amounts to 7 billion euros. The bulk of these benefits is be obtained alongside urban roads and railways. In addition to the social benefits from noise measures in dense built-up urban areas, benefits may also be attained by improving noise quality in nature areas and noise abatement zones in rural parts of the Netherlands. An indication based on the 'willingness to pay' of visitors for enjoying undisturbed nature amounts to over 60 million euros for all nature areas and noise abatement zones. In general, these benefits cannot be achieved cost-effectively. However, it is possible to find some areas with relatively large numbers of visitors where noise measures could prove cost-effective. One example in the Netherlands is the 'Dwingelderveld' National Park.VROM-DGM-LM

Topological characterization of the simian virus 40 transcription complex

We have used sedimentation analysis as well as agarose gel electrophoresis to characterize the topological state of the DNA of the Simian Virus 40 (SV40) transcription complex. We found that the complex DNA contained constrained topological tension, presumably resulting from nucleosome-like structures, but no detectable unconstrained (i.e., relaxable) topological tension. These results contradict previous conclusions that the SV40 transcription complex contains only unconstrained topological tension. Our findings are also the opposite of what has been proposed to be the case for the 5S gene analyzed in Xenopus oocytes. Thus the proposal that expression from the 5S gene is associated with substantial topological tension is not valid for expression from the SV40 late gene.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/26833/1/0000393.pd

Three-dimensional reconstruction of individual helical nano-filament structures from atomic force microscopy topographs

Atomic force microscopy, AFM, is a powerful tool that can produce detailed topographical images of individual nano-structures with a high signal-to-noise ratio without the need for ensemble averaging. However, the application of AFM in structural biology has been hampered by the tip-sample convolution effect, which distorts images of nano-structures, particularly those that are of similar dimensions to the cantilever probe tips used in AFM. Here we show that the tip-sample convolution results in a feature-dependent and non-uniform distribution of image resolution on AFM topographs. We show how this effect can be utilised in structural studies of nano-sized upward convex objects such as spherical or filamentous molecular assemblies deposited on a flat surface, because it causes ‘magnification’ of such objects in AFM topographs. Subsequently, this enhancement effect is harnessed through contact-point based deconvolution of AFM topographs. Here, the application of this approach is demonstrated through the 3D reconstruction of the surface envelope of individual helical amyloid filaments without the need of cross-particle averaging using the contact- deconvoluted AFM topographs. Resolving the structural variations of individual macromolecular assemblies within inherently heterogeneous populations is paramount for mechanistic understanding of many biological phenomena such as amyloid toxicity and prion strains. The approach presented here will also facilitate the use of AFM for high-resolution structural studies and integrative structural biology analysis of single molecular assemblies

Influence of mental health literacy on help-seeking behaviour for mental health problems in the Swiss young adult community: a cohort and longitudinal case–control study

Poor knowledge about mental health disorders and their treatment likely contributes to the large treatment gap reported for mental health problems. Therefore, we studied the association between mental health literacy (MHL) and active help-seeking in a community sample. Participants were recruited from an add-on questionnaire study to the 'Bern Epidemiological At-Risk' (BEAR) study on 16-40-year-old community subjects of the Swiss canton Bern. At baseline, data of N = 1504, and at 3-year follow-up, data of N = 535 were available. Based on an unlabelled case vignette (on depression or schizophrenia), MHL was assessed by the questionnaire of Angermeyer and colleagues. Cross-sectional and longitudinal baseline predictors of help-seeking were analysed using path analyses. Additionally, sensitivity analyses of the prospective model were computed for sex, vignette, and baseline mental health problems/disorders. Cross-sectionally, help-seeking was associated with non-endorsement of biogenetic causal explanations, presence of mental health problems/disorders, help-seeking before baseline, poorer functioning, and lower health satisfaction. The prospective model was similar; yet, help-seeking at follow-up was associated with endorsements of the causal explanation 'biogenetics' and, additionally, 'childhood trauma' but not the presence of baseline mental health problems/disorders. Sensitivity analyses revealed a significant impact on sex, vignette, and mental health problems/disorders. For example, actual functional problems were predictive in males, while health satisfaction was predictive in females. Our findings indicate that future studies on drivers of help-seeking should assess very large community samples with case vignettes on different mental disorders to examine appropriate subgroups and their likely interaction to address group-specific factors in awareness campaigns

Identification of the slow E3 transition 136mCs -> 136Cs with conversion electrons

We performed at ISOLDE the spectroscopy of the decay of the 8- isomer in 136Cs by and conversion-electron detection. For the first time the excitation energy of the isomer and the multipolarity of its decay have been measured. The half-life of the isomeric state was remeasured to T1/2 = 17.5(2) s. This isomer decays via a very slow 518 keV E3 transition to the ground state. In addition to this, a much weaker decay branch via a 413 keV M4 and a subsequent 105 keV E2 transition has been found. Thus we have found a new level at 105 keV with spin 4+ between the isomeric and the ground state. The results are discussed in comparison to shell model calculations.Comment: Phys. Rev. C accepted for publicatio

A Unique LnIII{[3.3.1]GaIII Metallacryptate} Series That Possesses Properties of Slow Magnetic Relaxation and Visible/Near‐Infrared Luminescence

A new family of [3.3.1] metallacryptates with the general composition [LnGa6(H2shi)(Hshi)(shi)7(C5H5N)] (Ln‐1; shi3−=salicylhydroximate; Ln = Pr, Nd, Sm–Yb) has been synthesized and characterized. Ln‐1 display both interesting magnetic and luminescent properties. Sm‐1 has sharp emission bands in the visible and the near‐infrared (NIR) regions with quantum yield values (QSmL) of 1.64(9) and 5.5(2).10−2 %, respectively. Tb‐1 exhibits a weak green emission (QTbL=1.89(3).10−1 %) while Pr‐1, Nd‐1, Ho‐1, Er‐1, and Yb‐1 possess emission bands in the NIR range with QPrL=3.7(2).10−3 %, QNdL=1.71(5).10−1 %, QHoL=1.1(2).10−3 %, QErL=7.1(2).10−3 % and QYbL=0.65(3) %. Nd‐1, Dy‐1, and Yb‐1 display slow magnetization relaxation in an applied field, where only Dy‐1 has been observed to follow an Orbach process (Ueff=12.7 K). The combination of NIR emission with magnetic properties makes Nd‐1 and Yb‐1 attractive candidates as smart materials addressable in two manners.A two‐for‐one scaffold: A new LnIII‐encapsulating metallamacrocyclic scaffold was synthesized and structurally determined to resemble cryptands. This metallacryptand can bind a wide variety of LnIII ions of different natures and demonstrates the ability to sensitize their characteristic emissions in the visible and/or near‐infrared. Slow magnetic relaxation was also observed for selected LnIII.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145255/1/chem201801355.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145255/2/chem201801355_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145255/3/chem201801355-sup-0001-misc_information.pd

The Epidemiology of Injury in English Women's Domestic Club Football: A Single Site Prospective Cohort Study

Background The epidemiology of injury at club level in the English Women’s Domestic Club Football League is unknown. The aim of this study was to estimate the incidence, prevalence, and nature of injury in a single women’s football squad over the course of one season. Study Design Prospective single site cohort study Methods Twenty-five female footballers competing in the English Women’s Championship were observed. Data collection procedures followed the UEFA consensus guidelines (2006). Individual player exposure was recorded for all football related activity and incidence of injury per 1000h was estimated for total, match, and training activity. Prevalence, site, and type of injury was recorded. Epidemiologic incidence proportions, clinical incidence and severity was calculated to provide measures of injury burden and resource management statistics. Results A total of 18 injuries including re-injuries were sustained in 11 players providing a clinical incidence of 0.72 injuries per player. Epidemiological incidence proportion was 0.44 (95% CI: 0.24 – 0.74), thus the average probability that any player would sustain at least one injury was 44% (95% CI: 25% to 63%). The total incidence of injury was 8.0/1000h, 30.6/1000h during match play and 2.2/1000h during training. The most common sites of injury were the knee (5/18, 28%) and thigh (4/18, 22%). There was two (11%) non-time loss and 16 (89%) time-loss injuries recorded. Of the 16 time loss injuries, there were three (19%) severe, five (31%) moderate and six (37%) minor severity injuries. Of the five knee injuries, two (13%) were major severity ruptures of the anterior cruciate ligament. Injury burden was estimated to be 468 days lost/1000h. Conclusions This is the first prospective investigation capturing women’s injury incidence data from a cohort of English domestic club players. Total, match, and training incidence rate estimates are comparable to rates of single site cohort studies in Europe. The days lost from knee injuries imposes an increased burden on a squad of this size. Multi-site prospective investigations of injury are required