The e-liquids used in electronic cigarettes (E-cigs) consist of propylene glycol (PG), vegetable glycerin (VG), nicotine, and chemical additives for flavoring. There are currently over 7,700 e-liquid ...flavors available, and while some have been tested for toxicity in the laboratory, most have not. Here, we developed a 3-phase, 384-well, plate-based, high-throughput screening (HTS) assay to rapidly triage and validate the toxicity of multiple e-liquids. Our data demonstrated that the PG/VG vehicle adversely affected cell viability and that a large number of e-liquids were more toxic than PG/VG. We also performed gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis on all tested e-liquids. Subsequent nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis revealed that e-liquids are an extremely heterogeneous group. Furthermore, these data indicated that (i) the more chemicals contained in an e-liquid, the more toxic it was likely to be and (ii) the presence of vanillin was associated with higher toxicity values. Further analysis of common constituents by electron ionization revealed that the concentration of cinnamaldehyde and vanillin, but not triacetin, correlated with toxicity. We have also developed a publicly available searchable website (www.eliquidinfo.org). Given the large numbers of available e-liquids, this website will serve as a resource to facilitate dissemination of this information. Our data suggest that an HTS approach to evaluate the toxicity of multiple e-liquids is feasible. Such an approach may serve as a roadmap to enable bodies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to better regulate e-liquid composition.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Background & Aims The prevalence of chronic hepatitis C (CH-C) remains high and the complications of infection are common. Our goal was to project the future prevalence of CH-C and its complications. ...Methods We developed a multicohort natural history model to overcome limitations of previous models for predicting disease outcomes and benefits of therapy. Results Prevalence of CH-C peaked in 2001 at 3.6 million. Fibrosis progression was inversely related to age at infection, so cirrhosis and its complications were most common after the age of 60 years, regardless of when infection occurred. The proportion of CH-C with cirrhosis is projected to reach 25% in 2010 and 45% in 2030, although the total number with cirrhosis will peak at 1.0 million (30.5% higher than the current level) in 2020 and then decline. Hepatic decompensation and liver cancer will continue to increase for another 10 to 13 years. Treatment of all infected patients in 2010 could reduce risk of cirrhosis, decompensation, cancer, and liver-related deaths by 16%, 42%, 31%, and 36% by 2020, given current response rates to antiviral therapy. Conclusions Prevalence of hepatitis C cirrhosis and its complications will continue to increase through the next decade and will mostly affect those older than 60 years of age. Current treatment patterns will have little effect on these complications, but wider application of antiviral treatment and better responses with new agents could significantly reduce the impact of this disease in coming years.
The source of health information can have an impact on the manner and frequency of its use. In the arena of vaccine safety, a variety of sources promulgate information from very different ...perspectives. The spectrum runs from traditional sources such as public health officials and physicians to nontraditional sources, such as celebrities.
To assess what proportion of parents trust vaccine information from different sources and whether different groups of parents vary in their trust of such information.
In January 2009, as part of a larger study of parents and nonparents, 2521 online surveys were fielded to a nationally representative sample of parents of children aged ≤ 17 years. The main outcome measure was the source credibility of vaccine-safety information used by parents.
The response rate was 62%. Parents reported trusting their children's doctor for vaccine-safety information most often (76% endorsed a lot of trust), followed by other health care providers (26%), government vaccine experts/officials (23%), and family and friends (15%). In contrast, celebrities were trusted a lot by 2% of the respondents and not at all by 76% of the respondents. Levels of trust in specific sources of vaccine-safety information varied significantly by gender (women > men) and race/ethnicity (Hispanics > other groups).
Although most parents place a lot of trust in their child(ren)'s physician, parents' trust in non-health professional sources for such information should not be discounted. Those who design public health efforts to provide evidence-based information must recognize that different strategies may be required to reach some groups of parents who use other information sources.
Parental Vaccine Safety Concerns in 2009 FREED, Gary L; CLARK, Sarah J; BUTCHART, Amy T ...
Pediatrics (Evanston),
04/2010, Letnik:
125, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Vaccine safety concerns can diminish parents' willingness to vaccinate their children. The objective of this study was to characterize the current prevalence of parental vaccine refusal and specific ...vaccine safety concerns and to determine whether such concerns were more common in specific population groups.
In January 2009, as part of a larger study of parents and nonparents, 2521 online surveys were sent to a nationally representative sample of parents of children who were aged </=17 years. The main outcome measures were parental opinions on vaccine safety and whether the parent had ever refused a vaccine that a doctor recommended for his or her child.
The response rate was 62%. Most parents agreed that vaccines protect their child(ren) from diseases; however, more than half of the respondents also expressed concerns regarding serious adverse effects. Overall, 11.5% of the parents had refused at least 1 recommended vaccine. Women were more likely to be concerned about serious adverse effects, to believe that some vaccines cause autism, and to have ever refused a vaccine for their child(ren). Hispanic parents were more likely than white or black parents to report that they generally follow their doctor's recommendations about vaccines for their children and less likely to have ever refused a vaccine. Hispanic parents were also more likely to be concerned about serious adverse effects of vaccines and to believe that some vaccines cause autism.
Although parents overwhelmingly share the belief that vaccines are a good way to protect their children from disease, these same parents express concerns regarding the potential adverse effects and especially seem to question the safety of newer vaccines. Although information is available to address many vaccine safety concerns, such information is not reaching many parents in an effective or convincing manner.
In rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa, one in eight households obtain drinking water from a piped system; the rest fetch water from improved and unimproved sources located at some distance from their ...homes. This task falls primarily to women and girls, creating time poverty and risks to safety and health. In this paper, we present a conceptual model that elaborates the mechanisms linking access to piped water with food security and long-term economic impacts. These hypotheses were tested in a quasi-experimental study of four villages in rural Zambia using a combination of household surveys, Global Positioning System transponders, and water meters to measure time spent fetching water, water consumption, and how water was being utilized for domestic and productive activities. Households receiving the piped water intervention spent a median of 3.8 h per week less fetching water, savings that accrued primarily to women and girls. Household water consumption increased 32%, which was used for both domestic and productive uses. Increases in the frequency of gardening and the size of garden plots in treatment households were observed. Households receiving piped water reported being happier, healthier, and having more time to participate in work inside or outside the home. We find that piped water supplies can promote the economic development and well-being of rural households, with particular benefits to women and girls, conditional upon pricing and management models that ensure sustainable service.
•Piped water systems were installed in rural villages of southern Zambia.•Households who obtained piped water reduced fetching time by 80%.•The majority of fetching time saved accrued to women and girls.•Households with piped water access use 32% more water than those using boreholes.•Access to piped water increased the odds of garden cultivation and garden size.
Access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services confers significant health and economic benefits, especially for children, but only if those services can be delivered on a consistent basis. ...The challenge of sustainable, school-based WASH service delivery has been widely documented, particularly in resource-constrained contexts. We conducted a systematic review of published research that identifies drivers of, or tests solutions to, this challenge within low- and middle-income countries (PROSPERO 2020 CRD42020199163). Authors in the first group employ cross-sectional research designs and interrogate previously implemented school WASH interventions. Most conclude that dysfunctional accountability and information sharing mechanisms drive school WASH service delivery failures. By contrast, most of the interventions developed and tested experimentally by authors in the second group focus on increasing the financial and material resources available to schools for WASH service delivery. Overall, these authors find negligible impact of such infusions of cash, infrastructure, and supplies across a variety of sustainability outcome metrics. Taken together, the evidence suggests that sustainable service delivery depends on three simultaneously necessary components: resources, information, and accountability. Drawing upon theory and evidence from social psychology, public management, and political science, we identify priority knowledge gaps that can meaningfully improve the design of effective interventions. We also highlight the importance of both interdisciplinary collaboration and local expertise in designing WASH programming that aligns with sociocultural and institutional norms, and is thus more likely to generate sustainable impact.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Increasing numbers of parents use alternative vaccination schedules that differ from the recommended childhood vaccination schedule for their children. We sought to describe national patterns of ...alternative vaccination schedule use and the potential "malleability" of parents' current vaccination schedule choices.
We performed a cross-sectional, Internet-based survey of a nationally representative sample of parents of children 6 months to 6 years of age. Bivariate and multivariate analyses determined associations between demographic and attitudinal factors and alternative vaccination schedule use.
The response rate was 61% (N = 748). Of the 13% of parents who reported following an alternative vaccination schedule, most refused only certain vaccines (53%) and/or delayed some vaccines until the child was older (55%). Only 17% reported refusing all vaccines. In multivariate models, nonblack race and not having a regular health care provider for the child were the only factors significantly associated with higher odds of using an alternative schedule. A large proportion of alternative vaccinators (30%) reported having initially followed the recommended vaccination schedule. Among parents following the recommended vaccination schedule, 28% thought that delaying vaccine doses was safer than the schedule they used, and 22% disagreed that the best vaccination schedule to follow was the one recommended by vaccination experts.
More than 1 of 10 parents of young children currently use an alternative vaccination schedule. In addition, a large proportion of parents currently following the recommended schedule seem to be "at risk" for switching to an alternative schedule.
Triticum mosaic virus (TriMV, genus Poacevirus, family Potyviridae) was first reported in 2006 (Seifers et al. 2008) to infect wheat, and since then, it has been established as a constraint for US ...wheat production (Byamukama et al. 2013). In the field, TriMV often exists as a coinfection with wheat streak mosaic virus (WSMV), and these two viruses interact synergistically to produce severe symptoms and greater yield loss (Byamukama et al. 2012; Tatineni et al. 2022). Both TriMV and WSMV are transmitted by wheat curl mites (Aceria tosichella Keifer) (McMechan et al. 2014). Wheat is the primary host reported for TriMV in the field, but Seifers et al. (2010) established oat, rye, barley, and several other cereals and grasses as hosts under controlled conditions. However, there are no documented cases of TriMV infecting oats in the field. Between 10-25 June, 2023, a total of 273 field oat plants showing foliar yellowing, yellow flecking, and streaking symptoms were collected from four different fields in Nebraska (Big Springs: 41.1029° N, 102.1451° W; Mead: 41.2292° N, 96.4938° W; Odell: 40.0459° N, 96.7984° W; Stumf: 40.5048° N, 101.4223° W). Total RNA was extracted using the MagMax Plant RNA Isolation kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific) and the KingFisher Flex Magnetic Particle Processor (Thermo Fisher Scientific) (Mondal et al. 2023). Sample RNA was assayed with a single-step multiplex reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to determine presence of WSMV and TriMV. Out of 273 symptomatic oat plants, 254 (93.04%) tested positive for at least one virus. Out of total positive samples, 238 were positive for WSMV (93.70 %), 12 plants tested positive for both TriMV and WSMV (4.70%), and 4 plants were infected with TriMV alone (1.60%). As a secondary confirmation, amplified fragments from the TriMV single infection were gel purified using a gel extraction kit (QIAquick) and sequenced (Eurofins Genomics). The nucleotide sequences were analysed using the BlastN program, compiled, and edited in the BioEdit software (Hall 1999). Sequences were deposited in the NCBI GenBank database (accession number PP475806). Nucleotide BLAST searches of the target coat protein (CP) gene showed > 98% identity to the corresponding sequences in TriMV accession MK318274. For further validation, virus inoculum was prepared by grinding field-collected plant material from plants with only TriMV present in 20 mM sodium phosphate buffer, pH 7.0, and then mechanically inoculating two-week-old oats (cv. Shaw n=8) and wheat (cv. Sattler, n=8) plants. Three weeks post-inoculation, all the eight wheat plants exhibited mild yellowing and streaking symptoms, while oat plants did not show obvious foliar symptoms. All wheat and oat plants were further tested positive with DAC-ELISA (antibodies produced against TriMV CP at the USDA-ARS facility in Lincoln, NE) and with RT-PCR. The specific attribution of these symptoms to TriMV in oats is not possible as none produced prominent symptoms. Asymptomatic oat infection from symptomatic field-collected oat samples could be due to oat cultivar differences. Although the prevalence of TriMV in wheat has been established across the Great Plains of the United States, to our knowledge, this is the first report of TriMV infection in US oat fields. Our finding warrant further investigation into the incidence and impact of the virus in oat crop and its potential for serving as a asymptomatic virus reservoir.
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