RNA profiling 2.0: Enhanced cluster analysis of structural ensembles.

Understanding the base pairing of an RNA sequence provides insight into its molecular structure. By mining suboptimal sampling data, RNAprofiling 1.0 identifies the dominant helices in low-energy secondary structures as features, organizes them into profiles which partition the Boltzmann sample, and highlights key similarities/differences among the most informative, i.

RNAprofiling 2.0: Enhanced Cluster Analysis of Structural Ensembles.

Understanding the base pairing of an RNA sequence provides insight into its molecular structure. By mining suboptimal sampling data, RNAprofiling 1.0 identifies the dominant helices in low-energy secondary structures as features, organizes them into profiles which partition the Boltzmann sample, and highlights key similarities/differences among the most informative, i.

'Managing an unexpected life - a caregiver's career': Parents' experience of caring for their child with a non-malignant life-limiting condition.

Parents of children with non-malignant life-limiting conditions frequently accept roles that exceed the conventional activities of parenting in relation to the intensity, complexity and temporal nature of the family caregiver experience. This paper explores the prevalent and all-consuming experiences of parents caring for their children. A qualitative descriptive study design was used.

'With every fibre of their being': Perspectives of healthcare professionals caring for children with non-malignant life-limiting conditions.

Background: Children with non-malignant life-limiting conditions (NMLLCs) constitute the largest proportion of children requiring palliative care. In part, due to technological advances, growing numbers of such children are experiencing improved survival. Care is mostly provided at home by the family, with significant professional input at different points in the child's life trajectory.

'Starting Out in Haziness': Parental Experiences Surrounding the Diagnosis of their Child's Non-Malignant Life-Limiting Condition in Ireland.

Purpose: To explore parental experiences surrounding the diagnosis of their child's non-malignant life-limiting condition.

Design And Methods: A qualitative descriptive study design using single-occasion one-to-one semi-structured interviews collected data from twenty-three parents of children diagnosed with non-malignant life-limiting conditions.

Findings: 'Starting out in haziness' was the central concept when parents' recounted the time they learnt of their child's diagnosis.

Health Impact Assessment of Volcanic Ash Inhalation: A Comparison With Outdoor Air Pollution Methods.

This paper critically appraises the extrapolation of concentration-response functions (CRFs) for fine and coarse particulate matter, PM and PM, respectively, used in outdoor air pollution health impact assessment (HIA) studies to assess the extent of health impacts in communities exposed to volcanic emissions. Treating volcanic ash as PM, we (1) consider existing models for HIA for general outdoor PM, (2) identify documented health effects from exposure to ash in volcanic eruptions, (3) discuss potential issues of applying CRFs based on the composition and concentration of ash-related PM, and (4) critically review available case studies of volcanic exposure scenarios utilizing HIA for outdoor air pollution. We identify a number of small-scale studies focusing on populations exposed to volcanic ash; exposure is rarely quantified, and there is limited evidence concerning the health effects of PM from volcanic eruptions.

Cost of hospitalization for bronchiectasis exacerbation in children.

Background And Objective: Despite paediatric bronchiectasis being recognized increasingly worldwide, prior reports of hospitalization costs for bronchiectasis in children are lacking. This study aimed to (i) identify health service costs of hospitalizations and (ii) factors associated with these costs in children admitted to an Australian paediatric hospital following an acute exacerbation of their bronchiectasis.

Methods: Demographic and hospital resource use data were prospectively recorded for 100 hospitalizations in 80 children aged <18 years admitted consecutively to the QCH, Brisbane, Australia.

A Systematic Review of the Routes and Forms of Exposure to Engineered Nanomaterials.

Background: Establishing the routes of exposure is a fundamental component of the risk assessment process for every dangerous substance. The present study systematically reviews the available literature to assess the relevance of the different routes and forms of exposure that are of concern for the protection of workers during the manufacture, handling, or end-use of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs).

Methods: A systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature published between 2000 and 2015 was completed.

Public health impacts of city policies to reduce climate change: findings from the URGENCHE EU-China project.

Background: Climate change is a global threat to health and wellbeing. Here we provide findings of an international research project investigating the health and wellbeing impacts of policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in urban environments.

Methods: Five European and two Chinese city authorities and partner academic organisations formed the project consortium.

Survey of Ambient Air Pollution Health Risk Assessment Tools.

Designing air quality policies that improve public health can benefit from information about air pollution health risks and impacts, which include respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and premature death. Several computer-based tools help automate air pollution health impact assessments and are being used for a variety of contexts. Expanding information gathered for a May 2014 World Health Organization expert meeting, we survey 12 multinational air pollution health impact assessment tools, categorize them according to key technical and operational characteristics, and identify limitations and challenges.

Quantifying the health impacts of ambient air pollutants: recommendations of a WHO/Europe project.

Objective: Quantitative estimates of air pollution health impacts have become an increasingly critical input to policy decisions. The WHO project "Health risks of air pollution in Europe--HRAPIE" was implemented to provide the evidence-based concentration-response functions for quantifying air pollution health impacts to support the 2013 revision of the air quality policy for the European Union (EU).

Methods: A group of experts convened by WHO Regional Office for Europe reviewed the accumulated primary research evidence together with some commissioned reviews and recommended concentration-response functions for air pollutant-health outcome pairs for which there was sufficient evidence for a causal association.

200 MeV proton radiography studies with a hand phantom using a prototype proton CT scanner.

Proton radiography has applications in patient alignment and verification procedures for proton beam radiation therapy. In this paper, we report an experiment which used 200 MeV protons to generate proton energy-loss and scattering radiographs of a hand phantom. The experiment used the first-generation proton computed tomography (CT) scanner prototype, which was installed on the research beam line of the clinical proton synchrotron at Loma Linda University Medical Center.

Integrating health and environmental impact analysis.

Scientific investigations have progressively refined our understanding of the influence of the environment on human health, and the many adverse impacts that human activities exert on the environment, from the local to the planetary level. Nonetheless, throughout the modern public health era, health has been pursued as though our lives and lifestyles are disconnected from ecosystems and their component organisms. The inadequacy of the societal and public health response to obesity, health inequities, and especially global environmental and climate change now calls for an ecological approach which addresses human activity in all its social, economic and cultural complexity.

Quantitative health impact assessment: taking stock and moving forward.

Over the past years, application of health impact assessment has increased substantially, and there has been a strong growth of tools that allow quantification of health impacts for a range of health relevant policies. We review these developments, and conclude that further tool development is no longer a main priority, although several aspects need to be further developed, such as methods to assess impacts on health inequalities and to assess uncertainties. The main new challenges are, first, to conduct a comparative evaluation of different tools, and, second, to ensure the maintenance and continued availability of the toolkits including their data contents.

Transplantation of novel human GDF5-expressing CHO cells is neuroprotective in models of Parkinson's disease.

Growth/differentiation factor 5 (GDF5) is a neurotrophic factor that promotes the survival of midbrain dopaminergic neurons in vitro and in vivo and as such is potentially useful in the treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD). This study shows that a continuous supply of GDF5, produced by transplanted GDF5-overexpressing CHO cells in vivo, has neuroprotective and neurorestorative effects on midbrain dopaminergic neurons following 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-induced lesions of the adult rat nigrostriatal pathway. It also increases the survival and improves the function of transplanted embryonic dopaminergic neurons in the 6-OHDA-lesioned rat model of PD.

A graphical tool to evaluate temporal coverage of occupational history by exposure measurements.

Introduction: In occupational epidemiology, differences in the temporal coverage of the exposure history by available exposure measurement data may affect the uncertainty of exposure estimates. In the reporting of results of studies, greater attention should be paid to the extent to which exposure assessments require extrapolation outside the timeframe for which exposure measurements are available. We propose a simple graphical method that can be used to visualise the temporal coverage of exposure history with exposure measurements and the extent of temporal extrapolation needed.

A review of the strengths and weaknesses of quantitative methods used in health impact assessment.

Objectives: To explore some of the strengths and weaknesses of purely quantitative approaches used in health impact assessment (HIA) and the implication of this for policy making.

Study Design: The studies presented generally used a variety of quantitative risk assessment (QRA) methodologies.

Methods: For each population, concentration-response (CR) or exposure-response (ER) functions, typically expressed as percentage change in health effect per unit change in concentration or exposure, were applied to estimates of population exposure and background rates of morbidity and mortality in order to calculate the attributable health impact or burden.

Assessing the unintended health impacts of road transport policies and interventions: translating research evidence for use in policy and practice.

Background: Transport and its links to health and health inequalities suggest that it is important to assess both the direct and unintended indirect health and related impacts of transport initiatives and policies. Health Impact Assessment (HIA) provides a framework to assess the possible health impacts of interventions such as transport. Policymakers and practitioners need access to well conducted research syntheses if research evidence is to be used to inform these assessments.

Meeting report: atmospheric pollution and human reproduction.

Background: There is a growing body of epidemiologic literature reporting associations between atmospheric pollutants and reproductive outcomes, particularly birth weight and gestational duration.

Objectives: The objectives of our international workshop were to discuss the current evidence, to identify the strengths and weaknesses of published epidemiologic studies, and to suggest future directions for research.

Discussion: Participants identified promising exposure assessment tools, including exposure models with fine spatial and temporal resolution that take into account time-activity patterns.

Covert observation in practice: lessons from the evaluation of the prohibition of smoking in public places in Scotland.

Background: A ban on smoking in wholly or substantially enclosed public places has been in place in Scotland since 26th March 2006. The impact of this legislation is currently being evaluated in seven studies, three of which involve direct observation of smoking in bars and other enclosed public places. While the ethical issues around covert observation have been widely discussed there is little practical guidance on the conduct of such research.

Improving policy responses to the risk of air pollution.

This paper offers a brief review of the need for cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and the available policy instruments for air pollution. To prioritize different possible actions, one needs to know which source of pollution causes how much damage. This requires an impact pathway analysis, that is, an analysis of the chain emission --> dispersion --> dose-response function --> monetary valuation.