Aerosol containment device design considerations and performance evaluation metrics.

Background: Spurred by the Coronavirus infectious disease 2019 pandemic, aerosol containment devices (ACDs) were developed to capture infectious respiratory aerosols generated by patients at their source. Prior reviews indicated that such devices had low evidence of effectiveness, but did not address how ACDs should be evaluated, how well they should perform, nor have clearly defined performance standards. Towards developing design criteria for ACDs, two questions were posed: 1) What characteristics have guided the design of ACDs? 2) How have these characteristics been evaluated?

Methods: A scoping review was performed consistent with PRISMA guidelines.

Comparison of technical and systems-based approaches to managing pesticide contamination in surface water catchments.

Diffuse pollution of surface waters by herbicides remains a problem despite 25 years of research into mitigation approaches. This study adopts the grassweed herbicide propyzamide as a focus to compare the efficacy of technical, field-scale, interventions with systems-based cropping solutions in a 900 ha headwater catchment on heavy clay soils. Catchment monitoring was combined with modelling of land management options using SWAT, and semi-structured discussions with farmers.

Small Water Bodies in Great Britain and Ireland: Ecosystem function, human-generated degradation, and options for restorative action.

Small, 1st and 2nd-order, headwater streams and ponds play essential roles in providing natural flood control, trapping sediments and contaminants, retaining nutrients, and maintaining biological diversity, which extend into downstream reaches, lakes and estuaries. However, the large geographic extent and high connectivity of these small water bodies with the surrounding terrestrial ecosystem makes them particularly vulnerable to growing land-use pressures and environmental change. The greatest pressure on the physical processes in these waters has been their extension and modification for agricultural and forestry drainage, resulting in highly modified discharge and temperature regimes that have implications for flood and drought control further downstream.

The functional response and resilience in small waterbodies along land-use and environmental gradients.

There is growing recognition of the essential services provided to humanity by functionally intact ecosystems. Freshwater ecosystems are found throughout agricultural and urban landscapes and provide a wide range of ecosystem services, but globally they are also amongst the most vulnerable. In particular, ponds (lentic waters typically less than 2 ha), provide natural flood management, sequester carbon and hold significant cultural value.

Finding clean water habitats in urban landscapes: professional researcher vs citizen science approaches.

This study investigated patterns of nutrient pollution in waterbody types across Greater London. Nitrate and phosphate data were collected by both citizen scientists and professional ecologists and their results were compared. The professional survey comprised 495 randomly selected pond, lake, river, stream and ditch sites.

Urban ponds as an aquatic biodiversity resource in modified landscapes.

Urbanization is a global process contributing to the loss and fragmentation of natural habitats. Many studies have focused on the biological response of terrestrial taxa and habitats to urbanization. However, little is known regarding the consequences of urbanization on freshwater habitats, especially small lentic systems.

Occupational Interstitial Lung Diseases.

Objective: Evidence-based diagnostic and treatment guidelines for occupationally related interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) have been developed and are summarized herein.

Methods: Comprehensive literature reviews were conducted with article abstraction, critiquing, objective grading, and evidence table compilation. A multidisciplinary expert panel drafted evidence- and consensus-based guidance.

Work-Related Asthma.

Objective: Summarize developed evidence-based diagnostic and treatment guidelines for work-related asthma (WRA).

Methods: Comprehensive literature reviews conducted with article critiquing and grading. Guidelines developed by a multidisciplinary expert panel and peer-reviewed.

Developing and enhancing biodiversity monitoring programmes: a collaborative assessment of priorities.

Biodiversity is changing at unprecedented rates, and it is increasingly important that these changes are quantified through monitoring programmes. Previous recommendations for developing or enhancing these programmes focus either on the end goals, that is the intended use of the data, or on how these goals are achieved, for example through volunteer involvement in citizen science, but not both. These recommendations are rarely prioritized.

Impacts of differences in epidemiological case definitions on prevalence for upper-extremity musculoskeletal disorders.

Objective: The aim of this study was to systematically evaluate prevalence based on variations in case definitions used for epidemiological studies of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs).

Background: Prior studies of MSDs have mostly relied on a single case definition based on questionnaires.

Method: In a multicenter prospective cohort study, we systematically collected data to evaluate impacts of differences in case definitions of MSDs on prevalence of three common musculoskeletal disorders: (a) shoulder tendinosis, (b) lateral epicondylalgia, and (c) carpal tunnel syndrome.

Low-back pain ratings for lifetime, 1-month period, and point prevalences in a large occupational population.

Objective: This manuscript systematically quantifies multiple measures of low-back pain (LBP) prevalence by pain rating in a large, multisite cohort of workers.

Background: Published LBP prevalence rates vary. Studies rely on one measure of LBP and none report prevalence stratified by pain rating.

Electrical stimulation for chronic non-specific low back pain in a working-age population: a 12-week double blinded randomized controlled trial.

Background: Non-invasive electrotherapy is commonly used for treatment of chronic low back pain. Evidence for efficacy of most electrotherapy modalities is weak or lacking. This study aims to execute a high-quality, double-blinded randomized controlled clinical trial comparing 1) H-Wave(®) Device stimulation plus usual care with 2) transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) plus usual care, and 3) Sham electrotherapy plus usual care to determine comparative efficacy for treatment of chronic non-specific low back pain patients.

The influence of simulated immigration and chemical persistence on recovery of macroinvertebrates from cypermethrin and 3,4-dichloroaniline exposure in aquatic microcosms.

Background: Chemical dissipation and organism immigration are considered important factors that influence recovery potential from perturbation of aquatic macroinvertebrates. Experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of simulated immigration on recovery of aquatic macroinvertebrates exposed in outdoor microcosms to ecotoxicologically similar concentrations of the rapidly dissipating pyrethroid insecticide cypermethrin (70 ng L(-1)) or the more persistent herbicide intermediate and degradate 3,4-dichloroaniline (10 mg L(-1)). Microcosms were covered with light-permeable mesh to prevent recolonisation.

The ecological niche of Daphnia magna characterized using population growth rate.

The concept of an organism's niche is central to ecological theory, but an operational definition is needed that allows both its experimental delineation and interpretation of field distributions of the species. Here we use population growth rate (hereafter, pgr) to define the niche as the set of points in niche space where pgr > 0. If there are just two axes to the niche space, their relationship to pgr can be pictured as a contour map in which pgr varies along the axes in the same way that the height of land above sea level varies with latitude and longitude.

Relationships between body mass indices and surgical replacements of knee and hip joints.

Background: Osteoarthritis is both the most common form of arthritis and the most common reason for joint replacement surgery. Obese persons are believed to be more likely to develop generalized osteoarthritis that leads not only to knee but also to hip joint replacement surgeries. We hypothesized that obesity is also a risk for partial joint replacements and surgical revisions.

How realistic are outdoor microcosms? A comparison of the biota of microcosms and natural ponds.

This study investigated the extent to which aquatic plant and macroinvertebrate assemblages in small outdoor microcosms (cylinders 1.25-m diameter x 1.25 m deep) resembled assemblages found in natural ponds in Britain.