Neighborhood adversity, child health, and the role for community development.

Despite medical advances, childhood health and well-being have not been broadly achieved due to rising chronic diseases and conditions related to child poverty. Family and neighborhood living conditions can have lasting consequences for health, with community adversity affecting health outcomes in significant part through stress response and increased allostatic load. Exposure to this "toxic stress" influences gene expression and brain development with direct and indirect negative consequences for health. Ensuring healthy child development requires improving conditions in distressed, high-poverty neighborhoods by reducing children's exposure to neighborhood stressors and supporting good family and caregiver functioning. The community development industry invests more than $200 billion annually in low-income neighborhoods, with the goal of improving living conditions for residents. The most impactful investments have transformed neighborhoods by integrating across sectors to address both the built environment and the social and service environment. By addressing many facets of the social determinants of health at once, these efforts suggest substantial results for children, but health outcomes generally have not been considered or evaluated. Increased partnership between the health sector and community development can bring health outcomes explicitly into focus for community development investments, help optimize intervention strategies for health, and provide natural experiments to build the evidence base for holistic interventions for disadvantaged children. The problems and potential solutions are beyond the scope of practicing pediatricians, but the community development sector stands ready to engage in shared efforts to improve the health and development of our most at-risk children.

Not just about sunburn--the ozone hole's profound effect on climate has significant implications for Southern Hemisphere ecosystems.

Climate scientists have concluded that stratospheric ozone depletion has been a major driver of Southern Hemisphere climate processes since about 1980. The implications of these observed and modelled changes in climate are likely to be far more pervasive for both terrestrial and marine ecosystems than the increase in ultraviolet-B radiation due to ozone depletion; however, they have been largely overlooked in the biological literature. Here, we synthesize the current understanding of how ozone depletion has impacted Southern Hemisphere climate and highlight the relatively few documented impacts on terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Reviewing the climate literature, we present examples of how ozone depletion changes atmospheric and oceanic circulation, with an emphasis on how these alterations in the physical climate system affect Southern Hemisphere weather, especially over the summer season (December-February). These potentially include increased incidence of extreme events, resulting in costly floods, drought, wildfires and serious environmental damage. The ecosystem impacts documented so far include changes to growth rates of South American and New Zealand trees, decreased growth of Antarctic mosses and changing biodiversity in Antarctic lakes. The objective of this synthesis was to stimulate the ecological community to look beyond ultraviolet-B radiation when considering the impacts of ozone depletion. Such widespread changes in Southern Hemisphere climate are likely to have had as much or more impact on natural ecosystems and food production over the past few decades, than the increased ultraviolet radiation due to ozone depletion.

Effects of stratospheric ozone depletion, solar UV radiation, and climate change on biogeochemical cycling: interactions and feedbacks.

Climate change modulates the effects of solar UV radiation on biogeochemical cycles in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, particularly for carbon cycling, resulting in UV-mediated positive or negative feedbacks on climate. Possible positive feedbacks discussed in this assessment include: (i) enhanced UV-induced mineralisation of above ground litter due to aridification; (ii) enhanced UV-induced mineralisation of photoreactive dissolved organic matter (DOM) in aquatic ecosystems due to changes in continental runoff and ice melting; (iii) reduced efficiency of the biological pump due to UV-induced bleaching of coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM) in stratified aquatic ecosystems, where CDOM protects phytoplankton from the damaging solar UV-B radiation. Mineralisation of organic matter results in the production and release of CO2, whereas the biological pump is the main biological process for CO2 removal by aquatic ecosystems. This paper also assesses the interactive effects of solar UV radiation and climate change on the biogeochemical cycling of aerosols and trace gases other than CO2, as well as of chemical and biological contaminants. Interacting effects of solar UV radiation and climate change on biogeochemical cycles are particularly pronounced at terrestrial-aquatic interfaces.

Environmental effects of ozone depletion and its interactions with climate change: progress report, 2011.

The parties to the Montreal Protocol are informed by three panels of experts. One of these is the Environmental Effects Assessment Panel (EEAP), which deals with two focal issues. The first focus is the effects of increased UV radiation on human health, animals, plants, biogeochemistry, air quality, and materials. The second focus is on interactions between UV radiation and global climate change and how these may affect humans and the environment. When considering the effects of climate change, it has become clear that processes resulting in changes in stratospheric ozone are more complex than believed previously. As a result of this, human health and environmental problems will be longer-lasting and more regionally variable. Like the other panels, the EEAP produces a detailed report every four years; the most recent was published in 2010 (Photochem. Photobiol. Sci., 2011, 10, 173-300). In the years in between, the EEAP produces less detailed and shorter progress reports, which highlight and assess the significance of developments in key areas of importance to the parties. The next full quadrennial report will be published in 2014-2015.

Environmental effects of ozone depletion and its interactions with climate change: progress report, 2009.

The parties to the Montreal Protocol are informed by three panels of experts. One of these is the Environmental Effects Assessment Panel (EEAP), which deals with UV radiation and its effects on human health, animals, plants, biogeochemistry, air quality and materials. Since 2000, the analyses and interpretation of these effects have included interactions between UV radiation and global climate change. When considering the effects of climate change, it has become clear that processes resulting in changes in stratospheric ozone are more complex than believed previously. As a result of this, human health and environmental problems will likely be longer-lasting and more regionally variable. Like the other panels, the EEAP produces a detailed report every four years; the most recent was that for 2006 (Photochem. Photobiol. Sci., 2007, 6, 201-332). In the years in between, the EEAP produces a less detailed and shorter progress report, as is the case for this present one for 2009. A full quadrennial report will follow for 2010.

Higher trends but larger uncertainty and geographic variability in 21st century temperature and heat waves.

Generating credible climate change and extremes projections remains a high-priority challenge, especially since recent observed emissions are above the worst-case scenario. Bias and uncertainty analyses of ensemble simulations from a global earth systems model show increased warming and more intense heat waves combined with greater uncertainty and large regional variability in the 21st century. Global warming trends are statistically validated across ensembles and investigated at regional scales. Observed heat wave intensities in the current decade are larger than worst-case projections. Model projections are relatively insensitive to initial conditions, while uncertainty bounds obtained by comparison with recent observations are wider than ensemble ranges. Increased trends in temperature and heat waves, concurrent with larger uncertainty and variability, suggest greater urgency and complexity of adaptation or mitigation decisions.

Environmental effects of ozone depletion and its interactions with climate change: progress report, 2008.

After the enthusiastic celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer in 2007, the work for the protection of the ozone layer continues. The Environmental Effects Assessment Panel is one of the three expert panels within the Montreal Protocol. This EEAP deals with the increase of the UV irradiance on the Earth's surface and its effects on human health, animals, plants, biogeochemistry, air quality and materials. For the past few years, interactions of ozone depletion with climate change have also been considered. It has become clear that the environmental problems will be long-lasting. In spite of the fact that the worldwide production of ozone depleting chemicals has already been reduced by 95%, the environmental disturbances are expected to persist for about the next half a century, even if the protective work is actively continued, and completed. The latest full report was published in Photochem. Photobiol. Sci., 2007, 6, 201-332, and the last progress report in Photochem. Photobiol. Sci., 2008, 7, 15-27. The next full report on environmental effects is scheduled for the year 2010. The present progress report 2008 is one of the short interim reports, appearing annually.

Relative performance of mutual information estimation methods for quantifying the dependence among short and noisy data.

Commonly used dependence measures, such as linear correlation, cross-correlogram, or Kendall's tau , cannot capture the complete dependence structure in data unless the structure is restricted to linear, periodic, or monotonic. Mutual information (MI) has been frequently utilized for capturing the complete dependence structure including nonlinear dependence. Recently, several methods have been proposed for the MI estimation, such as kernel density estimators (KDEs), k -nearest neighbors (KNNs), Edgeworth approximation of differential entropy, and adaptive partitioning of the XY plane. However, outstanding gaps in the current literature have precluded the ability to effectively automate these methods, which, in turn, have caused limited adoptions by the application communities. This study attempts to address a key gap in the literature-specifically, the evaluation of the above methods to choose the best method, particularly in terms of their robustness for short and noisy data, based on comparisons with the theoretical MI estimates, which can be computed analytically, as well with linear correlation and Kendall's tau . Here we consider smaller data sizes, such as 50, 100, and 1000, and within this study we characterize 50 and 100 data points as very short and 1000 as short. We consider a broader class of functions, specifically linear, quadratic, periodic, and chaotic, contaminated with artificial noise with varying noise-to-signal ratios. Our results indicate KDEs as the best choice for very short data at relatively high noise-to-signal levels whereas the performance of KNNs is the best for very short data at relatively low noise levels as well as for short data consistently across noise levels. In addition, the optimal smoothing parameter of a Gaussian kernel appears to be the best choice for KDEs while three nearest neighbors appear optimal for KNNs. Thus, in situations where the approximate data sizes are known in advance and exploratory data analysis and/or domain knowledge can be used to provide a priori insights into the noise-to-signal ratios, the results in the paper point to a way forward for automating the process of MI estimation.

Trends of selected malformations in relation to folic acid recommendations and fortification: an international assessment.

BACKGROUND: Two crucial issues relative to the benefits and impact of folic acid in the prevention of birth defects are whether supplementation recommendations alone, without fortification, are effective in reducing the population-wide rates of neural tube defects (NTDs), and whether such policies can reduce the occurrence of other birth defects. Using data from 15 registries, we assessed rates and trends of 14 major defects, including NTDs, in areas with official recommendations or fortification to assess the effectiveness of recommendations and fortification on a wide range of major birth defects. METHODS: We evaluated surveillance data through 2003 on major birth defects from population-based registries from Europe, North America, and Australia. All included ascertainment of pregnancy terminations (where legal). Trends before and after policies or fortification were assessed via Poisson regression and were compared via rate ratios. RESULTS: Significant changes in trends were seen for NTDs in areas with fortification but not in areas with supplementation recommendations alone. For other major birth defects, there was an overall lack of major trend changes after recommendations or fortification. However, some significant declines were observed for select birth defects in individual areas. CONCLUSIONS: Recommendations alone remain an ineffective approach in translating the known protective effect of folic acid in population-wide decline in NTD rates. Fortification appears to be effective in reducing NTDs. The effect on other birth defects remains unclear.

Environmental effects of ozone depletion and its interactions with climate change: progress report, 2004.

The complexity of the linkages between ozone depletion, UV-B radiation and climate change has become more apparent.

Interactive effects of ozone depletion and climate change on biogeochemical cycles.

The effects of ozone depiction on global biogeochemical cycles, via increased UV-B radiation at the Earth's surface, have continued to be documented over the past 4 years. In this report we also document various effects of UV-B that interact with global climate change because the detailed interactions between ozone depletion and climate change are central to the prediction and evaluation of future Earth environmental conditions. There is increasing evidence that elevated UV-B has significant effects on the terrestrial biosphere with important implications for the cycling of carbon, nitrogen and other elements. Increased UV has been shown to induce carbon monoxide production from dead plant matter in terrestrial ecosystems, nitrogen oxide production from Arctic and Antarctic snowpacks, and halogenated substances from several terrestrial ecosystems. New studies on UV effects on the decomposition of dead leaf material confirm that these effects are complex and species-specific. Decomposition can be retarded, accelerated or remain unchanged. It has been difficult to relate effects of UV on decomposition rates to leaf litter chemistry, as this is very variable. However, new evidence shows UV effects on some fungi, bacterial communities and soil fauna that could play roles in decomposition and nutrient cycling. An important new result is that not only is nitrogen cycling in soils perturbed significantly by increased UV-B, but that these effects persist for over a decade. As nitrogen cycling is temperature dependent, this finding clearly links the impacts of ozone depletion to the ability of plants to use nitrogen in a warming global environment. There are many other potential interactions between UV and climate change impacts on terrestrial biogeochemical cycles that remain to be quantified. There is also new evidence that UV-B strongly influences aquatic carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and metals cycling that affect a wide range of life processes. UV-B accelerates the decomposition of colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) entering the sea via terrestrial runoff, thus having important effects on oceanic carbon cycle dynamics. Since UV-B influences the distribution of CDOM, there is an impact of UV-B on estimates of oceanic productivity based on remote sensing of ocean color. Thus, oceanic productivity estimates based on remote sensing require estimates of CDOM distributions. Recent research shows that UV-B transforms dissolved organic matter to dissolved inorganic carbon and nitrogen, including carbon dioxide and ammonium and to organic substances that are either more or less readily available to micro-organisms. The extent of these transformations is correlated with loss of UV absorbance by the organic matter. Changes in aquatic primary productivity and decomposition due to climate-related changes in circulation and nutrient supply, which occur concurrently with increased UV-B exposure, have synergistic influences on the penetration of light into aquatic ecosystems. New research has confirmed that UV affects the biological availability of iron, copper and other trace metals in aquatic environments thus potentially affecting the growth of phytoplankton and other microorganisms that are involved in carbon and nitrogen cycling. There are several instances where UV-B modifies the air sea exchange of trace gases that in turn alter atmospheric chemistry, including the carbon cycle.