smokeSALUD: exploring the effect of demographic change on the smoking prevalence at municipality level in Austria

Background: Reducing the smoking population is still high on the policy agenda, as smoking leads to many preventable diseases, such as lung cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and more. In Austria, data on smoking prevalence only exists at the federal state level. This provides an interesting overview about the current health situation, but for regional planning authorities these data are often insufficient as they can hide pockets of high and low smoking prevalence in certain municipalities. Methods: This paper presents a spatial-temporal change of estimated smokers for municipalities from 2001 and 2011. A synthetic dataset of smokers is built by combining individual large-scale survey data and small area census data using a deterministic spatial microsimulation approach. Statistical analysis, including chi-square test and binary logistic regression, are applied to find the best variables 24 for the simulation model and to validate its results. Results: As no easy-to-use spatial microsimulation software for non-programmers is available yet, a flexible web-based spatial microsimulation application for health decision support (called simSALUD) has been developed and used for these analyses. The results of the simulation show in general a decrease of smoking prevalence within municipalities between 2001 and 2011 and 29 differences within areas are identified. These results are especially valuable to policy decision makers for future planning strategies. Conclusions: This case study shows the application of smokeSALUD to model the spatial-temporal changes in the smoking population in Austria between 2001 and 2011. This is important as no data on smoking exists at this geographical scale (municipality). However, spatial microsimulation models are useful tools to estimate small area health data and to overcome these problems. The simulations and analysis should support health decision makers to identify hot spots of smokers and this should 36 help to show where to spend health resources best in order to reduce health inequalities

Upper atmospheres and ionospheres of planets and satellites

The upper atmospheres of the planets and their satellites are more directly exposed to sunlight and solar wind particles than the surface or the deeper atmospheric layers. At the altitudes where the associated energy is deposited, the atmospheres may become ionized and are referred to as ionospheres. The details of the photon and particle interactions with the upper atmosphere depend strongly on whether the object has anintrinsic magnetic field that may channel the precipitating particles into the atmosphere or drive the atmospheric gas out to space. Important implications of these interactions include atmospheric loss over diverse timescales, photochemistry and the formation of aerosols, which affect the evolution, composition and remote sensing of the planets (satellites). The upper atmosphere connects the planet (satellite) bulk composition to the near-planet (-satellite) environment. Understanding the relevant physics and chemistry provides insight to the past and future conditions of these objects, which is critical for understanding their evolution. This chapter introduces the basic concepts of upper atmospheres and ionospheres in our solar system, and discusses aspects of their neutral and ion composition, wind dynamics and energy budget. This knowledge is key to putting in context the observations of upper atmospheres and haze on exoplanets, and to devise a theory that explains exoplanet demographics.Comment: Invited Revie

Systematic evaluation of immune regulation and modulation

Cancer immunotherapies are showing promising clinical results in a variety of malignancies. Monitoring the immune as well as the tumor response following these therapies has led to significant advancements in the field. Moreover, the identification and assessment of both predictive and prognostic biomarkers has become a key component to advancing these therapies. Thus, it is critical to develop systematic approaches to monitor the immune response and to interpret the data obtained from these assays. In order to address these issues and make recommendations to the field, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer reconvened the Immune Biomarkers Task Force. As a part of this Task Force, Working Group 3 (WG3) consisting of multidisciplinary experts from industry, academia, and government focused on the systematic assessment of immune regulation and modulation. In this review, the tumor microenvironment, microbiome, bone marrow, and adoptively transferred T cells will be used as examples to discuss the type and timing of sample collection. In addition, potential types of measurements, assays, and analyses will be discussed for each sample. Specifically, these recommendations will focus on the unique collection and assay requirements for the analysis of various samples as well as the high-throughput assays to evaluate potential biomarkers

Alcohol at bedtime induces minor changes in sleep stages and blood gases in stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Purpose/background: The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of a moderate dose of alcohol on sleep architecture and respiration in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Alcohol depresses both hypercapnic and hypoxic ventilatory drives in awake, normal individuals and reduces the amount of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and oxygen saturation (SpO2) in sleeping COPD subjects. Methods: Prospectively designed, open-label interventional study in a pulmonary rehabilitation hospital. Twenty-six (nine males) stable inpatients, median forced expiratory volume first second (FEV1) 40.5 % of predicted, median age 65 years, investigated by polysomnography including transcutaneous measurement of carbon dioxide pressure increase (ΔPtcCO2) in randomized order of either control sleep or intervention with 0.5 g of ethanol/kilogram bodyweight, taken orally immediately before lights off. Results: Alcohol induced a mean increase (95 % confidence interval, [CI]) in the mean ΔPtcCO2 of 0.10 kPa (0.002–0.206, P = 0.047) and a mean decrease (CI) in the REM-sleep percentage of total sleep time (REM % of TST) of 3.1 % (0.2–6.0), (P = 0.020). Six subjects with apnea/hypopnea index (AHI) ≥15 had fewer apneas/hypopneas during alcohol versus control sleep (mean reduction of AHI 11 (1–20), P = 0.046). Alcohol-sleep changes in SpO2, but not in ΔPtcCO2, correlated with daytime arterial pressures of carbon dioxide (PaCO2) and oxygen (PaO2). Conclusion: Occasional use of a moderate, bedtime dose of alcohol has only minor respiratory depressant effects on the majority of COPD subjects, and in a minority even slightly improves respiration during sleep. However, caution is appropriate as this study is small and higher doses of alcohol may result in major respiratory depressive and additional negative health effects

Haematological characteristics of individuals from nine species of Australian cockatoos in response to naturally occurring disease and injury

Birds, both captive and free living, may encounter health challenges and haematological assessment provides important insight into the response to these challenges. We investigated the haematological characteristics, in response to a range of injuries and naturally occurring disease, exhibited by 31 birds from nine species of Australian cockatoos. The birds exhibited packed cell volume between 0.14 and 0.55 l/l with a maximum proportion of 12.5 % polychromatophilic erythrocytes. A spectrum of leukocyte responses was observed. The total leukocyte concentration was between 2.20 and 50.00 × 109/l. The heterophil concentration was between 0.86 and 47.25 × 109/l and the lymphocyte concentration was between 0.27 and 16.47 × 109/l. Morphological atypia of leukocytes was evident for 27/31 (87.1 %) birds. This study illustrates the heterogeneous haematological response exhibited by Australian cockatoos.P. Clark, W. S. J. Boardman and S. R. Raida

Visual analysis of geocoded twin data puts nature and nurture on the map

Twin studies allow us to estimate the relative contributions of nature and nurture to human phenotypes by comparing the resemblance of identical and fraternal twins. Variation in complex traits is a balance of genetic and environmental influences; these influences are typically estimated at a population level. However, what if the balance of nature and nurture varies depending on where we grow up? Here we use statistical and visual analysis of geocoded data from over 6700 families to show that genetic and environmental contributions to 45 childhood cognitive and behavioral phenotypes vary geographically in the United Kingdom. This has implications for detecting environmental exposures that may interact with the genetic influences on complex traits, and for the statistical power of samples recruited for genetic association studies. More broadly, our experience demonstrates the potential for collaborative exploratory visualization to act as a lingua franca for large-scale interdisciplinary research

Haematological responses of Australian owls to naturally occurring disease or injury

We investigated the haematological characteristics exhibited in response to a range of injuries and naturally occurring inflammatory disease, of 11 birds from five species of owls. A spectrum of haematological responses was observed. The PCV was between 0.32 and 0.56 l/l. The concentration of total leukocytes varied between each case, with the least concentration of 3.75×109/l and the greatest concentration of 17.03×109/l. Heterophils were the predominant leukocyte in 7/11 cases, lymphocytes were the predominant leukocyte in 3/11 cases and eosinophils the predominant leukocyte in 1/11 case. Morphological atypia of leukocytes was recognised in all cases. This study illustrates the heterogeneous haematological response exhibited by owls to naturally occurring disorders

The Incidence of Sin Taxes: Evidence from Italy

The term \u201csin goods\u201d is used to identify goods or services whose consumption can be considered self-destructive for individuals and source of negative externalities for the entire society. The potentially harmful nature of sin goods makes these categories of products subject to special fiscal rules. The regulation of sin goods markets in Italy deeply changed over the last 15 years, and it has now reached a particularly complex and potential unfair taxation system. In this paper, we analyse the fairness of the Italian taxation system applied to sin goods in order to measure their economic incidence. After investigating the Italian taxation on sin goods, we analyze and compare their degree of regressivity using data of the Italian Household Budget Survey (HBS). Results show that, among \u201csin taxes\u201d, gambling taxes can be considered the most regressive form of taxation, followed by cigarettes and beer