The city of London has launched an innovative service, funded by ESA, which delivers air pollution alerts and health advice via SMS text messages to those who suffer from asthma and other conditions vulnerable to poor air quality.

The airTEXT service officially kicked off at London’s City Hall pn Thursday with the Deputy Mayor of London Nicky Gavron addressing the event: “There’s more than love in the air this spring! Air pollution causes around one thousand premature deaths each year, and we must do everything we can to cut emissions. “This pioneering service will provide people with crucial information about peak periods of air pollution localised for their part of London, so they can take action. It could literally save lives.”

AirTEXT is a free service aimed at those who have been diagnosed with asthma, emphysema, bronchitis, heart disease or angina as well as for those who live or work in London. The service has operated in the Borough of Croydon, the largest borough by population, since July 2005 and has received a positive response with 80 percent of users saying it has helped them manage their symptoms better and reduce their exposure to air pollution.

Subscribers can choose whether they want airTEXT alerts delivered through SMS text messages, voicemail or e-mail and whether they want to receive the alerts the morning of days when air pollution is likely to be higher than normal or the evening before. Forecasts are generated for each London borough.

Messages will indicate moderate, high or very high levels of pollution are expected, what effects are likely to be noticed, such as wheezing, difficulty in breathing or chest pains, and what should be done to minimise the effects, such as avoiding long periods outdoors, avoiding strenuous outdoor activity and increasing the dose of reliever medication as directed by a physician.

The Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants (CERC) developed airTEXT using information from ESA’s PROMOTE project, which aims to improve air-quality forecasting using satellite technology. In addition, PROMOTE aims to construct and deliver a sustainable and reliable operational service to support informed decisions on the atmospheric policy issues of stratospheric ozone depletion, surface ultraviolet (UV) exposure, air quality and climate change.

PROMOTE, PROtocol MOniToring for the GMES Service Element on Atmospheric Composition, is itself part of Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES), a joint initiative between ESA and the European Commission to combine all available space- and ground-based information sources to develop an independent European environmental monitoring capacity from planetary to local scales.

The airTEXT service works by combining satellite data from ESA’s Envisat on regional air quality forecasts provided by PROMOTE with information on local road traffic patterns and monitoring stations around the city. Regional air quality information is important because not all the pollution affecting a city actually originates there. Depending on the weather, studies show that up to half the air pollution found in some European cities might have come from elsewhere in the continent.

“Previously air pollution forecasts have focused on very large geographical areas and the methods for communicating the information have been poor,” CERC atmospheric scientist Dr Iarla Kilbane-Dawe said. “AirTEXT represents a revolution in air-pollution forecasting with localised information being sent directly to the individual.”

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Contact: Mariangela D’Acunto
European Space Agency

The Department of Health is offering flu vaccination this winter to those who work in close contact with poultry. This is being done as a precautionary public health measure and does not mean that workers are at any higher risk of getting flu this winter than usual. Nor does it mean that there is an increased risk of an outbreak of bird flu in the UK as this risk remains low.

For further information please see the leaflet,Q&A sheet, and Directions at the links below.

– Flu vaccination for poultry workers – Leaflets

– Download Flu immunisation programme for people who work in close contact with poultry – Q&A (PDF, 64K)

– The Primary Medical Services (Influenza Immunisation Scheme for Poultry Workers) Directions 2007

– Guidance on the implementation of a seasonal flu vaccination programme

– Download Flu immunisation programme for poultry workers – consent form (PDF, 30K)

– Download Poultry premises for England (Map) (PDF, 256K)

– Download Vaccine supply order form (PDF, 54K)

Flu key documents

Flu documents and resources for patients and health professionals. Includes frequently asked questions, anti-viral agent information, contingency plans and immunisation publicity campaigns.
– Flu key documents

Flu FAQ

Frequently asked questions about flu immunisation policy, vaccine and the implementation of policy.
– Flu FAQ

Flu useful links

Links to web pages about influenza.
– Flu useful links

Department of Health (UK)

Days when schoolchildren walked to neighbourhood schools are long gone. A new study by a team of researchers led by Paul Lewis, a professor of Urban Planning at the UniversitГ© de MontrГ©al, shows that only 30 percent of children attending elementary school reach school on foot or by bicycle.

The study was conducted from 2006 to 2008 in the central neighbourhoods and suburbs of two target regions: Montreal, the biggest metropolitan area of Quebec, and Trois-RiviГЁres, a medium-sized city. The parents of 1495 children attending 67 schools were surveyed for this investigation.

A public health problem for children

“The primary goal of the study was to identify the obstacles to why elementary pupils do not walk and bicycle to school and aren’t physical activity for the recommended 60 minutes per day,” says Dr. Lewis, who conducted this study with eight colleagues from the Group de recherche Ville et mobilitГ© (City and mobility research group).

The research team began their investigation by consulting past studies on the subject. According to Kino-QuГ©bec, in 1971, about 80 percent of Canadian children aged 7 and 8 walked to school. The Ville et mobilitГ© study conducted in 2008 revealed that the number of children who regularly walk or bicycle to school in the morning is around 30 percent of all children in the Montreal and Trois-RiviГЁres regions. What’s more, 80 percent of those who walk to school travel less than 600 meters.

Why are children walking less?

“The decrease in walking and bicycling in Western societies is the consequence of a general trend towards sedentary lifestyles,” Dr. Lewis says. “This decline is explained by urban sprawl, greater distance to travel to more activities and modern schedules featuring tighter time-management.”

The survey confirms the strongly dissuasive effect of home to school distance, which is due to the proliferation of special-purpose public schools and the strong presence of private schools. Indeed, attending neighbourhood schools is no longer the norm and kids travel farther for their education.

Another fundamental causes of the decline is how the majority of parents surveyed travel by car and do not set a good example for their children. “Even when the school is 300 meters away, some parents drive their children because it is on their way or they are leaving at the same time,” stresses Dr. Lewis. “Parents fear for their children’s safety in high urbanized environments. Safety takes precedence over health.”

How can children be encouraged to walk?

Although the study did not establish an action plan, the research team nonetheless has recommendations to encourage walking and bicycling by schoolchildren:

- Education boards should promote physical activity and walking should be factored when deciding to close or open a school or when designating schools with special programs.

- Existing urban frameworks must be radically altered to make them safer for children and adults: school zones should be made safer and planning measures should focus on entire urban environments to improve safety conditions where people are likely to circulate.

- It is imperative to restore spaces sacrificed for motorized traffic to pedestrians and cyclists.

- Public transit must be bolstered and speed limits should be stricter for motorists.

- Mothers and fathers should set an example for their children by having at least one parent walk or use public transit to commute.

- More parents need to be convinced of the importance of walking for daily energy expenditure and to foster greater autonomy in kids, whether kids walk alone or accompanied.

On the Web:

- The report is available in English in PDF format at villeetmobilite.

- The report can also be consulted in English thanks to the contribution of Transport Canada.

- About the UniversitГ© de MontrГ©al.

Partners in research:

The research was conducted by Groupe de recherche Ville et mobilitГ© between 2006 and 2008 as part of the Actions concertГ©es program on “Development of public policies favorable to acquisition and maintenance of healthy lifestyles.”

The Fonds quГ©bГ©cois de la recherche sur la sociГ©tГ© et la culture (FQRSC), in partnership with the Fonds de recherche en santГ© du QuГ©bec (FRSQ), the MinistГЁre de la santГ© et des services sociaux (MSSS) and the Centre de recherche en prГ©vention de l’obГ©sitГ© (CRPO). The MinistГЁre des transports du QuГ©bec (MTQ) and the Institut national de santГ© publique du QuГ©bec (INSPQ) research.

UniversitГ© de MontrГ©al

Infestation by bacteria and other pathogens result in global crop losses of over $500 billion annually. A research team led by the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Plant Biology developed a novel trick for identifying how pathogens hijack plant nutrients to take over the organism. They discovered a novel family of pores that transport sugar out of the plant. Bacteria and fungi hijack the pores to access the plant sugar for food. The first goal of any pathogen is to access the host’s food supply to allow them to reproduce in large numbers. This is the first time scientists have a direct handle on controlling the food supply to pathogens and thus a new means to prevent a wide range of crop diseases and losses.

Mutation of the pore-protein genes prevents pathogen infection, such as blight in rice plants. In the absence of a pathogen, the pore proteins, called SWEETs, supply sugars to the developing pollen and may even be the long sought suppliers of nectar in flowers. The researchers found that humans and animals make a similar pore protein, which may play a role in the release of sugars from cells of the intestine, liver, testes, and mammary cells in animals including humans. Studies describing the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) sensor-based technology for identifying the pore proteins appeared in FASEB Journal (April 2010) and the Biochemical Journal (Sept 2010). The identification of the novel transporters is published in the November 25, 2010, issue of Nature.

Li-Qing Chen, the lead author of the study, explains the pathogenic process: “The primary goal of a pathogen is to tap the plants nutrient resources. They enter the spaces between the cells where they camp out, feed, and reproduce. Pathogenic bacteria inject activator proteins into the cell that directly induce expression of what we call sugar efflux transporters. Our novel sugar transporters – little flood gates that release sugar from the cell – at the cells’ plasma membrane, turn out to be essential for bacterial reproduction. Without food, bacteria can’t divide and amplify and thus cannot infect other plants.”

Previous to this study, the same lab had identified import mechanisms that drive sugar into cells, and has been searching for the elusive a sugar-pumping mechanism that exports sugar out of cells.

Plants convert energy from sunlight into sugar to nurture pollen, seeds, and nectar and cultivate beneficial microbes in the soil. The researchers work with plants containing FRET sugar nanosensors led them to the hypothesis that yet unknown sugar pores must be present in plants. The researchers looked for potential sugar transporters by screening for genes that might create pore-like activities in the cell membrane in Arabidopsis, a relative to mustard that is widely used for research.

They expressed these genes together with their FRET sensors in human cells that are very inefficient in taking up sugars and thus the nanosensors did not report sugar transport. However, when sugar pore genes are expressed with the nanosensors, the researchers obtain an optical report of sugar transport into the cell. The novel pore proteins in Arabidopsis turned out to have counterparts in rice, the worm C. elegans, and humans.

The scientists then found that pathogenic bacteria and fungi causing powdery mildew disease hijacked different SWEET family members to access to the plant’s nutrient resources. The SWEET genes are the cousins of one of the most important rice blight resistance genes used widely all across Asia to prevent blight infections. The researchers showed that the rice resistance gene Xa13, which had originally been identified by Frank White’s group from Kansas and Shiping Wang’s lab from Huazhong Agricultural University, China, also functions as a sugar pore. When production of the pore is suppressed, the plant becomes resistant to a blight bacteria. This result suggests to the researchers that the protein supplies sugar to the bug during infection. Since different pathogens try to hijack different pore genes, a drug that can block the activity of all SWEET cousins at the same time would turn off sugar supply to a pathogen that requires its host to live. Such a drug might be a powerful new way to reduce crop losses to a wide spectrum of pathogens. The research changes the perspective of plant-pathogen researchers by getting to the root of the process of infection. Understanding this process will advance infection prevention research against a wide variety of pathogens – bacterial and fungal.

Sugar efflux has been a mystery in human and animal systems as well. It is required in our intestine to transfer food-derived sugars to our blood stream and from the liver during fasting to keep glucose levels in the blood constant. The fact that the researchers also found a similar gene HsSWEET1 in humans that mediates sugar outflow in the liver and intestine suggests that study of this gene could open up a new avenue for diabetes research.

“These discoveries, made in the model plant Arabidopsis, have opened up an entirely new line of investigation for better crop protection techniques. Specifically, plant breeding and genetic changes that prevent hijacking of the pore function may serve to provide resistance to some problematic plant diseases,” remarked Frank White from Kansas University, a coauthor of this study. “Since the same genes are shared in many different organisms, including people, these genes could also be important to medicine.”

Source:
Wolf B. Frommer
Carnegie Institution

Men who sleep too much or too little are at an increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, according to a study by the New England Research Institutes in collaboration with Yale School of Medicine researchers.

The data published in the March issue of Diabetes Care were obtained from 1,709 men, 40 to 70 years old. The men were enrolled in the Massachusetts Male Aging Study and were followed for 15 years with home visits, a health questionnaire and blood samples.

Six to eight hours of sleep was found to be most healthy. In contrast, men who reported they slept between five and six hours per night were twice as likely to develop diabetes and men who slept more than eight hours per night were three times as likely to develop diabetes, according to the lead author, H. Klar Yaggi, M.D., professor in Yale’s Department of Internal Medicine, pulmonary section. Previous data from the Nurses Health Study have shown similar results in women.

“These elevated risks remained after adjustment for age, hypertension, smoking status, self-rated health status and education,” Yaggi said.

He said researchers are just beginning to recognize the hormonal and metabolic implications of too little sleep. Among the documented effects, Yaggi said, are striking alterations in metabolic and endocrine function including decreased carbohydrate tolerance, insulin resistance, and lower levels of the hormone leptin leading to obesity. The mechanisms by which long sleep duration increase diabetes risk requires further investigation.

“There is a lot of interest in determining whether sleep disturbances such as a reduced amount of sleep or disorders like sleep apnea may actually worsen the metabolic syndrome,” said Yaggi. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of risk factors including high blood pressure, obesity, high cholesterol and insulin resistance which increase the risk for heart disease and stroke.

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Co-authors include Andre Araujo and John McKinlay. The research was supported in part by the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders, the Yale Mentored Clinical Research Scholars Program from the National Center for Research Resources, and a career development award from the Veterans Affairs Health Services and Research and Development Service.

Diabetes Care 29: 657-661 (March 2006)

Contact: Jacqueline Weaver
jacqueline.weaveryale.edu
Yale University

In a Comment published Online First by The Lancet, Dr Frank J M van Kuppeveld and Professor Jos W M van der Meer (Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Netherlands), discuss the recent events which they say have closed the door on the possibility of xenotropic murine leukaemia virus (MLV)-related virus (XMRV) having any role in chronic fatigue syndrome.

In 2009, in Science, Lombardi and colleagues described the detection of XMRV, a gammaretrovirus, in white blood cells in 67% of patients with CFS and in 3.7% of healthy controls.

Numerous studies since have been unable to replicate these findings. The Comment authors say: “Now, three new publications seem to provide the final nail in the coffin of the XMRV-CFS story. Two of these studies – one of which was published in Science – fail to detect XMRV or related MLVs, either as infectious virus or viral sequence, as well as antibodies against these viruses, in a large group of patients with CFS, including patients from the original study by Lombardi and colleagues.”

The association of XMRV with CFS is now widely believed to be due to contamination of laboratory reagents. This, and the fact the XMRV is not a genuine human pathogen, has led to the editors of Science asking Lombardi and colleagues to voluntarily retract their paper. They have so far declined to do so, and now Science editor-in-chief Bruce Alberts has published an Editorial Expression of Concern about the paper.

The Comment authors conclude: “In the past, several infectious agents have been associated with CFS but none of these could be confirmed in subsequent studies, leaving the field and patients in the same state of uncertainty as before. Sadly, we have to conclude that the world has witnessed another false claim that gave new hope to patients with CFS, who are desperately seeking a cause for their suffering.”

Link to Comment

Source
The Lancet

Veterans with substance use disorders who die by suicide are more likely to use violent means (such as a firearm) rather than nonviolent means (such as a drug overdose), new research suggests.

In a study of more than 5,000 Veterans Affairs (VA) patients with substance use disorders, researchers found that, despite having access to potentially lethal substances, 70% of those who died by suicide used violent means. The study was reported in the July issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

This research is the largest known study of risk factors for suicide in individuals with alcohol or drug problems and one of the first to examine risk factors for suicide based on method of attempt. To perform the study, the researchers looked at two distinct groups. They identified 854 VA patients who died by suicide and had substance use disorders, as well as a control group of 4,228 VA patients with substance use disorders who did not die by suicide.

The researchers found that the people who committed suicide by overdose had more — and more severe — mental disorders such as depression or posttraumatic stress disorder than people who used violent means.

“What’s troubling about these findings is that some of the predictors that we typically think of as good indicators of suicide risk were not as closely related to violent suicide as nonviolent suicide, although violent suicide was the most common type of suicide,” said lead researcher Dr. Mark Ilgen, a psychologist at the Ann Arbor VA Health Care System and an assistant professor in the psychiatry department at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “It’s potentially scary if there’s a group of patients that is somewhat large in number that we might be missing by paying attention only to psychiatric problems.”

The researchers say the findings highlight the importance of suicide prevention in people with substance use disorders. Previous research has found that people with substance use disorders are about 10 to 14 times more likely to die by suicide than people without these problems.

Ilgen said that substance use disorders and suicide are probably linked in several ways: First, people who develop a drug or alcohol addiction may already be at higher risk for suicide. Second, having a substance use disorder can cause problems at work and in relationships, which may increase suicide risk. Third, being under the influence of alcohol or drug can make someone more likely to engage in impulsive behaviors — such as a suicide attempt.

“Care providers should be aware of the high risk of suicide in this group and do an initial screening for current suicidal thoughts and plans,” said Ilgen. “It’s easy to wait to think about suicide prevention until someone is depressed, but it’s really a conversation worth having with someone who has a substance use disorder, since they’re already at risk.”

Notes:
Ilgen also suggested that reducing access to lethal means, which is often an effective suicide-prevention strategy in psychiatric patients, should be applied to drug and alcohol patients as well.


Ilgen, M. A., Conner, K. R., Valenstein, M., Austin, K., and Blow F. C. (July 2010). Violent and Nonviolent Suicide in Veterans With Substance-Use Disorders. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 71 (4), 473-479.

Source:
Kara Gavin
Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs

In choice tests using live prey as well as dead prey mounted in a life-like posture on cork discs, we found an East African jumping spider, Evarcha culicivora, to choose blood-fed female mosquitoes in the genus Anopheles as its preferred prey. Mosquitoes in the genus Anopheles are best known as the vectors of malaria and E. culicivora is the first predator that has been found to single out Anopheles as prey. In a sated condition, E. culicivoraВґs preference held regardless of the sex or age of the spider. When fasted, larger spiders chose both mosquito choices (sympatric mosquitoes of different genera) in equal numbers, but the smaller E. culicivora maintained their preference for Anopheles.

Anopheles holds its body at a 45 degree angle relative to the substrate when resting, whereas other mosquitoes rest with their bodies parallel to the surface of the substrate. We investigated whether the characteristic resting posture of Anopheles was a cue E. culicivora uses to distinguish these mosquitoes from others. To do this we drew 3D virtual mosquitoes whose movement was based on frame-by-frame copying of digital video footage of grooming Anopheles. The use of virtual mosquitoes eliminated variables except the variable in question. We found the single most important visual cue used to distinguish Anopheles mosquitoes is its resting position. Finding a predator that chooses Anopheles as its preferred prey shows that we should not abandon efforts to search for avenues for the biological control of malaria.

plosone

India is to be commended for its successful efforts to control the recent worst-ever outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the state of West Bengal, FAO said. The agency warned, however, that intensive surveillance should continue in high-risk areas as the possibility of new outbreaks remains high.

“Intensive culling in the predominantly backyard poultry sector appears to have stopped the disease in its tracks,” said FAO veterinary expert Mohinder Oberoi after a recent field trip to the affected areas.

“The political and financial commitment from the government of India and the state of Bengal to stamp out the disease was instrumental in this success. Public awareness campaigns, a strong command chain from districts to villages, compensation payments and an effective collaboration between animal and human health departments at field level, have been the key factors for the success,” Oberoi said.

No new disease outbreaks have been discovered since 2 February 2008.

FAO’s Chief Veterinary Officer Joseph Domenech urged to maintain intensive surveillance in high risk areas as the possibility of new outbreaks remains high. “The virus could still be present in the environment despite heavy slaughtering and extensive disinfection of affected areas, or it could be reintroduced from other countries,” he said.

In order to achieve rapid control, prevent virus spread to other states and to avoid the risk of human infection the government of India had to cull over 3.9 million chickens and ducks, mainly belonging to poor backyard poultry farmers.

The socio-economic impact of this control campaign should be urgently assessed in order to better define and apply the necessary mitigation measures regarding the negative impacts of massive culling on poor small holders, FAO said. Live bird markets, migration of wild birds and transportation routes of birds and poultry products should be mapped to better understand and control the spread of the disease.

Public awareness campaigns should continue over the next months introducing rural communities to safe poultry production and basic biosecurity measures with the ultimate goal of reducing the risk of human infections.

The recent outbreak of avian influenza in West Bengal, and the ongoing spread of the disease in Bangladesh require close collaboration between affected countries, FAO said. FAO, in collaboration with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), has invited India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar to participate in a regional meeting to better coordinate avian influenza control campaigns. The Government of Nepal has agreed to host the meeting in Kathmandu.

fao

Hey guys, remember the muscle shirts we wore in our teens and 20s? After the age of 40 that meager part of our wardrobes usually is obsolete. Yes, at the big 4-0 we begin to lose muscle, and by age 80 up to a third of it may be gone. It’s an inevitable process of aging called sarcopenia.

Why does sarcopenia happen and can it be stopped? A study conducted in mice with accelerated muscle loss at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio provides this insight: Less protection from antioxidants and more damage from oxidative stress results in impairment to cells’ energy centers, which slowly leads to death of muscle cells.

A team directed by Holly Van Remmen, Ph.D., associate professor with the university’s Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies and the Department of Cellular and Structural Biology, found that without a certain antioxidant enzyme to balance the formation of harmful reactive oxygen species (ROS), cellular energy centers called mitochondria fail to work properly. The mitochondria even add to the spate of ROS molecules and release factors leading to cell death.

“The impaired function of mitochondria also has a detrimental effect on the way motor neurons ‘talk’ to the muscle to achieve muscle contraction,” Dr. Van Remmen said. “This interaction occurs at a specialized synapse where the nerve and muscle come in close contact.” This key structure is called the neuromuscular junction, she said.

Smaller and weaker muscles

Youngmok C. Jang, Ph.D., a leading author in the study, investigated mice that were genetically engineered to lack an antioxidant enzyme called copper-zinc superoxide dismutase. He compared mitochondria from these mice and normal mice and found reduced function of the energy centers in the enzyme-deficient mice. This contributed to more cell death and muscle atrophy in the rodents. “As a result, their muscles were a lot smaller and weaker,” Dr. Van Remmen said.

Insights gleaned about muscle loss can help scientists better understand other neuromuscular diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease). “Age-related muscle atrophy is a complex process and involves multiple systems,” Dr. Van Remmen said. “There are, however, common mechanisms occurring in sarcopenia and other neuromuscular diseases. By understanding the mechanisms underlying age-related muscle atrophy and alterations at the neuromuscular junction, we should be able to gain insight that will help us to discover new therapeutic interventions.”

If a muscle-preserving therapy is one day developed, future generations of young men will be able to keep their muscle shirts a bit longer.

Note: A grant from the National Institute on Aging supported this project, along with a Julie Martin Mid-Career Award in Aging Research to Dr. Van Remmen from the American Federation for Aging Research. Co-authors from the UT Health Science Center are Youngmok Jang, Ph.D.; Michael Lustgarten, Ph.D.; Yuhong Liu; Florian Muller, Ph.D.; Arunabh Bhattacharya, Ph.D.; Hanyu Liang, Ph.D.; Adam Salmon, Ph.D.; and Arlan Richardson, Ph.D. Other co-authors are Susan Brooks, Ph.D., and Lisa Larkin, Ph.D., of The University of Michigan and Christopher Hayworth, Ph.D., of The University of Texas at Austin. Drs. Van Remmen and Richardson have joint appointments with the South Texas Veterans Health Care System. This paper was published online by The FASEB Journal.

Source:
Will Sansom
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio