Abstract Objectives: To implement a school based health promotion programme aimed at reducing risk factors for obesity and to evaluate the implementation process and its effect on the school. Design: ...Data from 10 schools participating in a group randomised controlled crossover trial were pooled and analysed. Setting: 10 primary schools in Leeds. Participants: 634 children (350 boys and 284 girls) aged 7-11 years. Main outcome measures: Response rates to questionnaires, teachers' evaluation of training and input, success of school action plans, content of school meals, and children's knowledge of healthy living and self reported behaviour. Results: All 10 schools participated throughout the study. 76 (89%) of the action points determined by schools in their school action plans were achieved, along with positive changes in school meals. A high level of support for nutrition education and promotion of physical activity was expressed by both teachers and parents. 410 (64%) parents responded to the questionnaire concerning changes they would like to see implemented in school. 19 out of 20 teachers attended the training, and all reported satisfaction with the training, resources, and support. Intervention children showed a higher score for knowledge, attitudes, and self reported behaviour for healthy eating and physical activity. Conclusion: This programme was successfully implemented and produced changes at school level that tackled risk factors for obesity. What is already known on this topic Prevention of obesity is an increasingly important aspect of health promotion Few trials have investigated school based primary prevention programmes directed at obesity What this study adds The programme was successful in producing school level changes to tackle risk factors for obesity High levels of participation indicated support from schools, staff, parents, and pupils Positive changes were seen in school meals, tuck shops, and playground activities
The high-relief catchment of the Tavignanu River (Corsica Island, France) with an elevation range from sea level to 2622 m above sea level was investigated for its riverine carbon budget and stable ...carbon isotopes. Major riverine dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC or TCO2) sources depended on seasons and sub-catchment lithology. In winter δ13CDIC values of −2 to −7‰ (VPDB) indicated influences of atmospheric CO2. δ13CDIC values decreased gradually to values between −9 and −12‰ in July, which indicates elevated soil CO2 contribution. An observed downstream increase in the total amount of carbon species correlated with inputs from carbonate bearing tributaries and evaporation effects in summer. Main channel partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) was seasonally highly variable in the upper silicate catchment and the lower coastal plain, where summer values exceed up to six times atmospheric levels. During winter, the central section of the Tavignanu River was found to be undersaturated with respect to atmospheric CO2 levels. The median values for main channel pCO2 were below atmospheric levels in winter and spring and above in summer and autumn. The annual carbon flux across the air-water boundary (FCO2) along the Tavignanu River was calculated with (0.77 ± 0.24) Gg C yr−1, which is about seven times higher than the riverine TCO2 transport to the sea of about 0.11 Gg C yr−1. While large sections of the river experienced year-round atmospheric CO2 uptake or equilibrium, the river as a whole was a small but continuous net source of carbon to the atmosphere. This underlines the important, but so far not well-constrained, contributions of smaller streams and rivers to the terrestrial carbon flux and the need of incorporating them into future global carbon cycle models.
Display omitted
•Carbon isotope values of river water indicate atmospheric CO2 influence in winter.•In summer, soil CO2 was the main carbon contributor to the stream.•Half of the main stream length is undersaturated with respect to CO2 year-round.•Annual main stream air-water carbon flux is 7 times higher than riverine DIC export.
During the upwelling season in central California, northwesterly winds along the coast produce a strong upwelling jet that originates at Point Año Nuevo and flows southward across the mouth of ...Monterey Bay. A convergent front with a mean temperature change of 3.77 ± 0.29°C develops between the warm interior waters and the cold offshore upwelling jet. To examine the forcing mechanisms driving the location and movement of the upwelling shadow front and its effects on biological communities in northern Monterey Bay, oceanographic conditions were monitored using cross‐shelf mooring arrays, drifters, and hydrographic surveys along a 20 km stretch of coast extending northwestward from Santa Cruz, California, during the upwelling season of 2007 (May–September). The alongshore location of the upwelling shadow front at the northern edge of the bay was driven by: regional wind forcing, through an alongshore pressure gradient; buoyancy forces due to the temperature change across the front; and local wind forcing (the diurnal sea breeze). The upwelling shadow front behaved as a surface‐trapped buoyant current, which is superimposed on a poleward barotropic current, moving up and down the coast up to several kilometers each day. We surmise that the front is advected poleward by a preexisting northward barotropic current of 0.10 m s−1 that arises due to an alongshore pressure gradient caused by focused upwelling at Point Año Nuevo. The frontal circulation (onshore surface currents) breaks the typical two‐dimensional wind‐driven, cross‐shelf circulation (offshore surface currents) and introduces another way for water, and the material it contains (e.g., pollutants, larvae), to go across the shelf toward shore.
Quantification of the isotope altitude effect from precipitation allows the identification of recharge altitudes in high-relief areas. However, steep terrains frequently limit the use of this ...precipitation-based approach. Perennial rivers often provide easy, year-round access for water sampling. However, in high-relief regions rivers may not adequately represent regional precipitation isotope patterns because they integrate isotope signals along their course. This prevents the calculation of an altitudinal isotope gradient from river water samples alone. We present a study that shows how a river-based sampling approach served to determine the altitude effect. Replacing the original sample site altitude with the mean upstream catchment elevation as calculated from a digital elevation model allowed us to establish a plausible altitude isotope effect from stream water. The correction approach was verified independently using precipitation isotope data. This approach can potentially be transferred to other regions where precipitation sampling at various elevations is difficult to determine.
Objective
D‐bifunctional protein deficiency is an autosomal recessive inborn error of peroxisomal fatty acid oxidation. Although case reports and small series of patients have been published, these ...do not give a complete and balanced picture of the clinical and biochemical spectrum associated with this disorder.
Methods
To improve early recognition, diagnosis, prognosis, and management of this disorder and to provide markers for life expectancy, we performed extensive biochemical studies in a large cohort of D‐bifunctional protein–deficient patients and sent out questionnaires about clinical signs and symptoms to the responsible physicians.
Results
Virtually all children presented with neonatal hypotonia and seizures and died within the first 2 years of life without achieving any developmental milestones. However, within our cohort, 12 patients survived beyond the age of 2 years, and detailed information on 5 patients with prolonged survival (≥7.5 years) is provided.
Interpretation
Biochemical analyses showed that there is a clear correlation between several biochemical parameters and survival of the patient, with C26:0 β‐oxidation activity in cultured skin fibroblasts being the best predictive marker for life expectancy. Remarkably, three patients were identified without biochemical abnormalities in plasma, stressing that D‐bifunctional protein deficiency cannot be excluded when all peroxisomal parameters in plasma are normal. Ann Neurol 2006
ABSTRACT
We show that individual (single-epoch) spectra of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can constrain some of the geometry and dynamics of the AGN broad line region. Studies of the cosmic influence ...of supermassive black holes are limited by the current large uncertainties in the determination of black hole masses. One dominant limitation is the unknown geometry, dynamics, and line-of-sight inclination of the broad line region, used to probe the central black hole mass. Recent progress has been made to constrain the spatial and kinematic structure of the broad line region using dynamical modelling of AGN monitoring data and an underlying physical model for the broad line region. In this work we test the ability of a modified version of this dynamical modelling code to constrain the broad line region structure using single-epoch spectra. We test our modelling code on single-epoch spectra of nearby Arp 151 by comparing our results with those obtained with monitoring data of this same object. We find that a significant fraction of the broad line region parameters can indeed be adequately constrained, with uncertainties that are comparable to, or at most a factor of approximately a few higher than those obtained from modelling of monitoring data. Considering the wealth of available single-epoch spectroscopic observations, this method is promising for establishing the overall AGN population trends in the geometry and dynamics of the broad line region. This method can be applied to spectra of AGNs at low and high redshift making it valuable for studies of cosmological black hole and AGN evolution.
ABSTRACT We describe the first results from a six-month long reverberation-mapping experiment in the ultraviolet based on 171 observations of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 with the Cosmic Origins ...Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. Significant correlated variability is found in the continuum and broad emission lines, with amplitudes ranging from ∼30% to a factor of two in the emission lines and a factor of three in the continuum. The variations of all the strong emission lines lag behind those of the continuum, with He ii lagging behind the continuum by ∼2.5 days and Ly , C iv , and Si iv lagging by ∼5-6 days. The relationship between the continuum and emission lines is complex. In particular, during the second half of the campaign, all emission-line lags increased by a factor of 1.3-2 and differences appear in the detailed structure of the continuum and emission-line light curves. Velocity-resolved cross-correlation analysis shows coherent structure in lag versus line of sight velocity for the emission lines; the high-velocity wings of C iv respond to continuum variations more rapidly than the line core, probably indicating higher velocity broad-line region clouds at smaller distances from the central engine. The velocity-dependent response of Ly , however, is more complex and will require further analysis.
Vascularized composite allograft (VCA) transplantation (also referred to as composite tissue allotransplantation) has demonstrated clinical success in cases of hand, arm and face transplantation ...despite prior belief that skin provides an insurmountable barrier to allograft rejection. These overall good outcomes are facilitated by substantial immunosuppressive requirements in otherwise healthy patients, yet still demonstrate frequent rejection episodes. We developed a nonhuman primate model of facial segment allotransplantation to elucidate the unique pathophysiology and immunosuppressive requirements of VCA with addition of concomitant vascularized bone marrow (VBM). Heterotopically transplanted facial segment VCA with VBM treated only with tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) demonstrated prolonged rejection‐free survival, compared to VCA without VBM that demonstrated early rejection episodes and graft loss. While VCA with VBM demonstrated sporadic macrochimerism, acute and chronic rejection and graft loss occurred after discontinuation of immunosuppression. These data support an immunomodulatory role of VBM in VCA that reduces immunosuppressive requirements while providing improved outcomes.
The authors describe immunomodulatory effects of vascularized bone marrow allografts, including inhibition of rejection responses, transient chimerism and suppressed B cell responses, in a nonhuman primate model of vascularized facial composite allografts.
ABSTRACT During an intensive Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) UV monitoring campaign of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 performed from 2014 February to July, the normally ...highly correlated far UV continuum and broad emission line variations decorrelated for ∼60-70 days, starting ∼75 days after the first HST/COS observation. Following this anomalous state, the flux and variability of the broad emission lines returned to a more normal state. This transient behavior, characterized by significant deficits in flux and equivalent width of the strong broad UV emission lines, is the first of its kind to be unambiguously identified in an active galactic nucleus reverberation mapping campaign. The largest corresponding emission line flux deficits occurred for the high ionization, collisionally excited lines C iv and Si iv(+O iv), and also He ii(+O iii), while the anomaly in Ly was substantially smaller. This pattern of behavior indicates a depletion in the flux of photons with relative to those near 13.6 eV. We suggest two plausible mechanisms for the observed behavior: (i) temporary obscuration of the ionizing continuum incident upon broad line region (BLR) clouds by a moving veil of material lying between the inner accretion disk and inner (BLR), perhaps resulting from an episodic ejection of material from the disk, or (ii) a temporary change in the intrinsic ionizing continuum spectral energy distribution resulting in a deficit of ionizing photons with energies >54 eV, possibly due to a transient restructuring of the Comptonizing atmosphere above the disk. Current evidence appears to favor the latter explanation.
ABSTRACT
A key first step to constrain the impact of energetic particles in exoplanet atmospheres is to detect the chemical signature of ionization due to stellar energetic particles and Galactic ...cosmic rays. We focus on GJ 436, a well-studied M dwarf with a warm Neptune-like exoplanet. We demonstrate how the maximum stellar energetic particle momentum can be estimated from the stellar X-ray luminosity. We model energetic particle transport through the atmosphere of a hypothetical exoplanet at orbital distances between $a=0.01\text{ and }0.2\,$au from GJ 436, including GJ 436 b’s orbital distance (0.028 au). For these distances, we find that, at the top of atmosphere, stellar energetic particles ionize molecular hydrogen at a rate of $\zeta _{\rm StEP,H_2} \sim 4\times 10^{-10}\text{ to }2\times 10^{-13}\, \mathrm{s^{-1}}$. In comparison, Galactic cosmic rays alone lead to $\zeta _{\rm GCR, H_2}\sim 2\times 10^{-20}\!-\!10^{-18} \, \mathrm{s^{-1}}$. At 10 au, we find that ionization due to Galactic cosmic rays equals that of stellar energetic particles: $\zeta _{\rm GCR,H_2} = \zeta _{\rm StEP,H_2} \sim 7\times 10^{-18}\, \rm {s^{-1}}$ for the top-of-atmosphere ionization rate. At GJ 436 b’s orbital distance, the maximum ion-pair production rate due to stellar energetic particles occurs at pressure $P\sim 10^{-3}\,$bar, while Galactic cosmic rays dominate for $P\gt 10^2\,$bar. These high pressures are similar to what is expected for a post-impact early Earth atmosphere. The results presented here will be used to quantify the chemical signatures of energetic particles in warm Neptune-like atmospheres.
PDF
