Living in cities, naturally Hartig, Terry; Kahn, Peter H.
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
05/2016, Letnik:
352, Številka:
6288
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Natural features, settings, and processes in urban areas can help to reduce stress associated with urban life. In this and other ways, public health benefits from, street trees, green roofs, ...community gardens, parks and open spaces, and extensive connective pathways for walking and biking. Such urban design provisions can also yield ecological benefits, not only directly but also through the role they play in shaping attitudes toward the environment and environmental protection. Knowledge of the psychological benefits of nature experience supports efforts to better integrate nature into the architecture, infrastructure, and public spaces of urban areas.
At a time of increasing disconnectedness from nature, scientific interest in the potential health benefits of nature contact has grown. Research in recent decades has yielded substantial evidence, ...but large gaps remain in our understanding.
We propose a research agenda on nature contact and health, identifying principal domains of research and key questions that, if answered, would provide the basis for evidence-based public health interventions.
We identify research questions in seven domains:
) mechanistic biomedical studies;
) exposure science;
) epidemiology of health benefits;
) diversity and equity considerations;
) technological nature;
) economic and policy studies; and
) implementation science.
Nature contact may offer a range of human health benefits. Although much evidence is already available, much remains unknown. A robust research effort, guided by a focus on key unanswered questions, has the potential to yield high-impact, consequential public health insights. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1663.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
CEKLJ, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VSZLJ
The glycocalyx, a thick layer of carbohydrates, surrounds the cell wall of most bacterial and parasitic pathogens. Recognition of these unique glycans by the human immune system results in ...destruction of the invaders. To elicit a protective immune response, polysaccharides either isolated from the bacterial cell surface or conjugated with a carrier protein, for T-cell help, are administered. Conjugate vaccines based on isolated carbohydrates currently protect millions of people against Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae type b, and Neisseria meningitides infections. Active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are increasingly discovered by medicinal chemistry and synthetic in origin, rather than isolated from natural sources. Converting vaccines from biologicals to pharmaceuticals requires a fundamental understanding of how the human immune system recognizes carbohydrates and could now be realized. To illustrate the chemistry-based approach to vaccine discovery, I summarize efforts focusing on synthetic glycan-based medicinal chemistry to understand the mammalian antiglycan immune response and define glycan epitopes for novel synthetic glycoconjugate vaccines against Streptococcus pneumoniae, Clostridium difficile, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and other bacteria. The chemical tools described here help us gain fundamental insights into how the human system recognizes carbohydrates and drive the discovery of carbohydrate vaccines.
Major declines in insect biomass and diversity, reviewed here, have become obvious and well documented since the end of World War II. Here, we conclude that the spread and intensification of ...agriculture during the past half century is directly related to these losses. In addition, many areas, including tropical mountains, are suffering serious losses because of climate change as well. Crops currently occupy about 11% of the world's land surface, with active grazing taking place over an additional 30%. The industrialization of agriculture during the second half of the 20th century involved farming on greatly expanded scales, monoculturing, the application of increasing amounts of pesticides and fertilizers, and the elimination of interspersed hedgerows and other wildlife habitat fragments, all practices that are destructive to insect and other biodiversity in and near the fields. Some of the insects that we are destroying, including pollinators and predators of crop pests, are directly beneficial to the crops. In the tropics generally, natural vegetation is being destroyed rapidly and often replaced with export crops such as oil palm and soybeans. To mitigate the effects of the Sixth Mass Extinction event that we have caused and are experiencing now, the following will be necessary: a stable (and almost certainly lower) human population, sustainable levels of consumption, and social justice that empowers the less wealthy people and nations of the world, where the vast majority of us live, will be necessary.
Purpose In a time of worldwide physician shortages, the advanced practice providers (APPs) might be a good alternative for physicians as the leaders of a rapid response team. This retrospective ...analysis aimed to establish whether the performance of APP-led rapid response teams is comparable to the performance of rapid response teams led by a medical resident of the ICU. Material and methods In a retrospective single-center cohort study, the electronic medical record of a tertiary hospital was queried during a 12-months period to identify patients who had been visited by our rapid response team. Patient- and process-related outcomes of interventions of rapid response teams led by an APP were compared with those of teams led by a medical resident using various parameters, including the MAELOR tool, which measures the performance of a rapid response team. Results In total, 179 responses of the APP-led teams were analyzed, versus 275 responses of the teams led by a resident. Per APP, twice as many calls were handled than per resident. Interventions of teams led by APPs, and residents did not differ in number of admissions (p = 0.87), mortality (p = 0.8), early warning scores (p = 0.2) or MAELOR tool triggering (p = 0.19). Both groups scored equally on time to admission (p = 0.67) or time until any performed intervention. Conclusion This retrospective analysis showed that the quality of APP-led rapid response teams was similar to the quality of teams led by a resident. These findings need to be confirmed by prospective studies with balanced outcome parameters.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The aim of the English NHS Diabetic Eye Screening Programme is to reduce the risk of sight loss amongst people with diabetes by the prompt identification and effective treatment if necessary of ...sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy, at the appropriate stage during the disease process. In order to achieve the delivery of evidence-based, population-based screening programmes, it was recognised that certain key components were required. It is necessary to identify the eligible population in order to deliver the programme to the maximum number of people with diabetes. The programme is delivered and supported by suitably trained, competent, and qualified, clinical and non-clinical staff who participate in recognised ongoing Continuous Professional Development and Quality Assurance schemes. There is an appropriate referral route for those with screen-positive disease for ophthalmology treatment and for assessment of the retinal status in those with poor-quality images. Appropriate assessment of control of their diabetes is also important in those who are screen positive. Audit and internal and external quality assurance schemes are embedded in the service. In England, two-field mydriatic digital photographic screening is offered annually to all people with diabetes aged 12 years and over. The programme commenced in 2003 and reached population coverage across the whole of England by 2008. Increasing uptake has been achieved and the current annual uptake of the programme in 2015–16 is 82.8% when 2.59 million people with diabetes were offered screening and 2.14 million were screened. The benefit of the programme is that, in England, diabetic retinopathy/maculopathy is no longer the leading cause of certifiable blindness in the working age group.
The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) has long been associated with the flexible control of behavior and concepts such as behavioral inhibition, self-control, and emotional regulation. These ideas emphasize ...the suppression of behaviors and emotions, but OFC’s affirmative functions have remained enigmatic. Here we review recent work that has advanced our understanding of this prefrontal area and how its functions are shaped through interaction with subcortical structures such as the amygdala. Recent findings have overturned theories emphasizing behavioral inhibition as OFC’s fundamental function. Instead, new findings indicate that OFC provides predictions about specific outcomes associated with stimuli, choices, and actions, especially their moment-to-moment value based on current internal states. OFC function thereby encompasses a broad representation or model of an individual’s sensory milieu and potential actions, along with their relationship to likely behavioral outcomes.
Display omitted
Rudebeck and Murray highlight recent research that characterizes the affirmative functions of orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Taking a mechanistic approach, they emphasize that OFC is critical for signaling predictions about specific outcomes associated with stimuli, choices, and actions.
Multiple comparisons using R Bretz, Frank; Hothorn, Torsten; Westfall, Peter H
2010., 2011, 2016, 2010, 2010-07-27
eBook
Adopting a unifying theme based on maximum statistics, Multiple Comparisons Using R describes the common underlying theory of multiple comparison procedures through numerous examples. It also ...presents a detailed description of available software implementations in R. The R packages and source code for the analyses are available at http://CRAN.R-pro
The incorrect notion that kurtosis somehow measures "peakedness" (flatness, pointiness, or modality) of a distribution is remarkably persistent, despite attempts by statisticians to set the record ...straight. This article puts the notion to rest once and for all. Kurtosis tells you virtually nothing about the shape of the peak-its only unambiguous interpretation is in terms of tail extremity, that is, either existing outliers (for the sample kurtosis) or propensity to produce outliers (for the kurtosis of a probability distribution). To clarify this point, relevant literature is reviewed, counterexample distributions are given, and it is shown that the proportion of the kurtosis that is determined by the central μ ± σ range is usually quite small.
The ongoing sixth mass species extinction is the result of the destruction of component populations leading to eventual extirpation of entire species. Populations and species extinctions have severe ...implications for society through the degradation of ecosystem services. Here we assess the extinction crisis from a different perspective. We examine 29,400 species of terrestrial vertebrates, and determine which are on the brink of extinction because they have fewer than 1,000 individuals. There are 515 species on the brink (1.7% of the evaluated vertebrates). Around 94% of the populations of 77 mammal and bird species on the brink have been lost in the last century. Assuming all species on the brink have similar trends, more than 237,000 populations of those species have vanished since 1900. We conclude the human-caused sixth mass extinction is likely accelerating for several reasons. First, many of the species that have been driven to the brink will likely become extinct soon. Second, the distribution of those species highly coincides with hundreds of other endangered species, surviving in regions with high human impacts, suggesting ongoing regional biodiversity collapses. Third, close ecological interactions of species on the brink tend to move other species toward annihilation when they disappear—extinction breeds extinctions. Finally, human pressures on the biosphere are growing rapidly, and a recent example is the current coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, linked to wildlife trade. Our results reemphasize the extreme urgency of taking much-expanded worldwide actions to save wild species and humanity’s crucial life-support systems from this existential threat.
PDF
