SARS-CoV-2 introductions to the island of Ireland: a phylogenetic and geospatiotemporal study of infection dynamics.

Background: Ireland's COVID-19 response combined extensive SARS-CoV-2 testing to estimate incidence, with whole genome sequencing (WGS) for genome surveillance. As an island with two political jurisdictions-Northern Ireland (NI) and Republic of Ireland (RoI)-and access to detailed passenger travel data, Ireland provides a unique setting to study virus introductions and evaluate public health measures. Using a substantial Irish genomic dataset alongside global data from GISAID, this study aimed to trace the introduction and spread of SARS-CoV-2 across the island.

Integrating accelerometry, GPS, GIS and molecular data to investigate mechanistic pathways of the urban environmental exposome and cognitive outcomes in older adults: a longitudinal study protocol.

Introduction: Maintaining cognitive health in later life is a global priority. Encouraging individuals to make health behaviour changes, such as regular physical activity, and providing supportive urban environments can help maintain cognitive health, thereby preventing or delaying the progress of dementia and cognitive decline. However, the mechanistic pathways by which the urban environmental exposome influences cognitive health outcomes are poorly understood.

Genomic Analysis and Surveillance of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Using Wastewater-Based Epidemiology.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes severe infections in infants, immunocompromised or elderly individuals resulting in annual epidemics of respiratory disease. Currently, limited clinical surveillance and the lack of predictable seasonal dynamics limit the public health response. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has recently been used globally as a key metric in determining prevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in the community, but its application to other respiratory viruses is limited.

Modeling Microplastic Transport in the Marine Environment: Testing Empirical Models of Particle Terminal Sinking Velocity for Irregularly Shaped Particles.

Microplastic (mP) pollution has been indicated as an area of concern in the marine environment. However, there is no consensus on their potential to cause significant ecological harm, and a comprehensive risk assessment of mP pollution is unattainable due to gaps in our understanding of their transport, uptake, and exchange processes. This research considers drag models that have been proposed to calculate the terminal settling velocity of regularly and irregularly shaped particles to assess their applicability in a mP modeling context.

Detection of human adenovirus F41 in wastewater and its relationship to clinical cases of acute hepatitis of unknown aetiology.

As of 8 July 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) have reported 1010 probable cases of acute hepatitis of unknown aetiology in children worldwide, including approximately 250 cases in the United Kingdom (UK). Clinical presentations have often been severe, with liver transplantation a frequent clinical outcome. Human adenovirus F41 (HAdV-F41) has been detected in most children with acute hepatitis, but its role in the pathogenesis of this infection has yet to be established.

Understanding and managing uncertainty and variability for wastewater monitoring beyond the pandemic: Lessons learned from the United Kingdom national COVID-19 surveillance programmes.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put unprecedented pressure on public health resources around the world. From adversity, opportunities have arisen to measure the state and dynamics of human disease at a scale not seen before. In the United Kingdom, the evidence that wastewater could be used to monitor the SARS-CoV-2 virus prompted the development of National wastewater surveillance programmes.

Association between community-based self-reported COVID-19 symptoms and social deprivation explored using symptom tracker apps: a repeated cross-sectional study in Northern Ireland.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to investigate the spatial and temporal relationships between the prevalence of COVID-19 symptoms in the community-level and area-level social deprivation.

Design: Spatial mapping, generalised linear models, using time as a factor and spatial-lag models were used to explore the relationship between self-reported COVID-19 symptom prevalence as recorded through two smartphone symptom tracker apps and a range of socioeconomic factors using a repeated cross-sectional study design.

Setting: In the community in Northern Ireland, UK.

A Survey of Psychiatry Course Offerings for Fourth-Year Medical Students.

Objective: Fourth-year course offerings seem to vary widely among psychiatry departments with some offering a wide selection while others offer little or unspecified opportunity. The purpose of this study was to learn the distribution and diversity of fourth-year medical school psychiatry courses and identify unique course offerings that may inspire other departments.

Methods: The authors compiled a list of US allopathic medical schools accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) using the LCME website.

Chronic kidney disease of unknown origin is associated with environmental urbanisation in Belfast, UK.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD), a collective term for many causes of progressive renal failure, is increasing worldwide due to ageing, obesity and diabetes. However, these factors cannot explain the many environmental clusters of renal disease that are known to occur globally. This study uses data from the UK Renal Registry (UKRR) including CKD of uncertain aetiology (CKDu) to investigate environmental factors in Belfast, UK.

The effects of lead sources on oral bioaccessibility in soil and implications for contaminated land risk management.

Lead (Pb) is a non-threshold toxin capable of inducing toxic effects at any blood level but availability of soil screening criteria for assessing potential health risks is limited. The oral bioaccessibility of Pb in 163 soil samples was attributed to sources through solubility estimation and domain identification. Samples were extracted following the Unified BARGE Method.

Comparison of methods used to calculate typical threshold values for potentially toxic elements in soil.

The environmental quality of land can be assessed by calculating relevant threshold values, which differentiate between concentrations of elements resulting from geogenic and diffuse anthropogenic sources and concentrations generated by point sources of elements. A simple process allowing the calculation of these typical threshold values (TTVs) was applied across a region of highly complex geology (Northern Ireland) to six elements of interest; arsenic, chromium, copper, lead, nickel and vanadium. Three methods for identifying domains (areas where a readily identifiable factor can be shown to control the concentration of an element) were used: k-means cluster analysis, boxplots and empirical cumulative distribution functions (ECDF).

The importance of solid-phase distribution on the oral bioaccessibility of Ni and Cr in soils overlying Palaeogene basalt lavas, Northern Ireland.

Potentially toxic elements (PTEs) including nickel and chromium are often present in soils overlying basalt at concentrations above regulatory guidance values due to the presence of these elements in underlying geology. Oral bioaccessibility testing allows the risk posed by PTEs to human health to be assessed; however, bioaccessibility is controlled by factors including mineralogy, particle size, solid-phase speciation and encapsulation. X-ray diffraction was used to characterise the mineralogy of 12 soil samples overlying Palaeogene basalt lavas in Northern Ireland, and non-specific sequential extraction coupled with chemometric analysis was used to determine the distribution of elements amongst soil components in 3 of these samples.

Correlation analysis as a tool to investigate the bioaccessibility of nickel, vanadium and zinc in Northern Ireland soils.

Correlation analyses were conducted on nickel (Ni), vanadium (V) and zinc (Zn) oral bioaccessible fractions (BAFs) and selected geochemistry parameters to identify specific controls exerted over trace element bioaccessibility. BAFs were determined by previous research using the unified BARGE method. Total trace element concentrations and soil geochemical parameters were analysed as part of the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland Tellus Project.

Bioaccessibility of trace elements in soils in Northern Ireland.

Assessment of elevated concentrations of potentially toxic elements (PTE) in soils and the association with specific soil parent material have been the focus of research for a number of years. Risk-based assessment of potential exposure scenarios to identified elevated PTE concentrations has led to the derivation of site- and contaminant-specific soil guideline values (SGVs), which represent generic assessment criteria (GACs) to identify exceeded levels that may reflect an unacceptable risk to human health. A better understanding of the 'bioavailable' or 'bioaccessible' contaminant concentrations offers an opportunity to better refine contaminant exposure assessments.

Comparison of clay mineral stratigraphy to other proxy palaeoclimate indicators in the Mesozoic of NW Europe.

This paper reviews the opportunities and pitfalls associated with using clay mineralogical analysis in palaeoclimatic reconstructions. Following this, conjunctive methods of improving the reliability of clay mineralogical analysis are reviewed. The Mesozoic succession of NW Europe is employed as a case study.