Recommendations for cardiovascular health and disease surveillance for 2030 and beyond: A policy statement from the american heart association

The release of the American Heart Association's 2030 Impact Goal and associated metrics for success underscores the importance of cardiovascular health and cardiovascular disease surveillance systems for the acquisition of information sufficient to support implementation and evaluation. The aim of this policy statement is to review and comment on existing recommendations for and current approaches to cardiovascular surveillance, identify gaps, and formulate policy implications and pragmatic recommendations for transforming surveillance of cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular health in the United States. The development of community platforms coupled with widespread use of digital technologies, electronic health records, and mobile health has created new opportunities that could greatly modernize surveillance if coordinated in a pragmatic matter. However, technology and public health and scientific mandates must be merged into action. We describe the action and components necessary to create the cardiovascular health and cardiovascular disease surveillance system of the future, steps in development, and challenges that federal, state, and local governments will need to address. Development of robust policies and commitment to collaboration among professional organizations, community partners, and policy makers are critical to ultimately reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease and improve cardiovascular health and to evaluate whether national health goals are achieved

Grain refinement of magnesium alloys: a review of recent research, theoretical developments and their application

This paper builds on the ‘‘Grain Refinement of Mg Alloys’’ published in 2005 and reviews the grain refinement research onMg alloys that has been undertaken since then with an emphasis on the theoretical and analytical methods that have been developed. Consideration of recent research results and current theoretical knowledge has highlighted two important factors that affect an alloy’s as-cast grain size. The first factor applies to commercial Mg-Al alloys where it is concluded that impurity and minor elements such as Fe and Mn have a substantially negative impact on grain size because, in combination with Al, intermetallic phases can be formed that tend to poison the more potent native or deliberately added nucleant particles present in the melt. This factor appears to explain the contradictory experimental outcomes reported in the literature and suggests that the search for a more potent and reliable grain refining technology may need to take a different approach. The second factor applies to all alloys and is related to the role of constitutional supercooling which, on the one hand, promotes grain nucleation and, on the other hand, forms a nucleation-free zone preventing further nucleation within this zone, consequently limiting the grain refinement achievable, particularly in low solute-containing alloys. Strategies to reduce the negative impact of these two factors are discussed. Further, the Interdependence model has been shown to apply to a broad range of casting methods from slow cooling gravity die casting to fast cooling high pressure die casting and dynamic methods such as ultrasonic treatment

Ecosystem services of wetlands: pathfinder for a new paradigm

Ecosystem services are natural assets produced by the environment and utilized by humans, such as clean air, water, food and materials and contributes to social and cultural well-being. This concept, arguably, has been developed further in wetlands than any other ecosystem. Wetlands were historically important in producing the extensive coal deposits of the Carboniferous period; key steps in human development took place in communities occupying the wetland margins of rivers, lakes and the sea; and wetlands play a key role in the hydrological cycle influencing floods and river droughts. In this paper we examine three pillars that support the wetland research agenda: hydrology, wetland origins and development, and linkages to society. We investigate these through an overview of the evolution of wetland science and assessment of the wide range of topics relating to ecosystem services covered in this Special Issue. We explain the seminal change in how modern society values the benefits of natural ecosystems and highlights the pathfinder role that wetland research has played in the paradigm shift