Virological Characterization of Roof-Harvested Rainwater of Densely Urbanized Low-Income Region

Food and Environmental Virology - Roof-harvested rainwater (RHRW) is considered relatively clean water, even though the possible presence of pathogens in the water may pose human health risks. In...     

Proposal for standardized prenatal ultrasound assessment of the fetus with congenital diaphragmatic hernia by the European reference network on rare inherited and congenital anomalies (ERNICA)

Congenital diaphragmatic hernia is a rare disease associated with high mortality and morbidity. Antenatal ultrasound screening identifies more than 70% of cases, providing the opportunity for in utero referral to a tertiary care center for expert assessment and perinatal management. Additional genetic and morphologic assessment may be used to rule out associated anomalies. In isolated cases, the outcome may be predicted prenatally by medical imaging. The combination of lung size and liver herniation is a widely accepted method to stratify fetuses into groups with an increasing degree of pulmonary hypoplasia and corresponding mortality rates. Ultrasound measurement of the observed to expected lung-to-head ratio (o/e LHR) is most widely used. The o/e LHR is an independent predictor of survival and short-term morbidity. Finally, evaluation of stomach position has recently been introduced as an indirect method to estimate severity of the disease in left-sided defects, as it has been shown to correlate with the proportion of intrathoracic liver. Herein, we propose a protocol for the standardized ultrasound assessment of fetuses with isolated CDH and individualized prediction of neonatal outcome.     

Rapid molecular prenatal diagnosis of ataxia-telangiectasia by direct mutational analysis

Mutations of the ataxia-telangiectasia-mutated (ATM) gene are responsible for the autosomal recessive disorder ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T). This study reports the first A-T prenatal diagnosis performed in Spain by direct molecular analysis. The pregnant woman had a previous child suffering from A-T due to a deletion in the ATM gene. The ATM coding region was sequenced in the A-T patient and her parents. Then, a specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect the deletion was performed for prenatal diagnosis. Additionally, polymorphic HLA loci were examined in order to exclude the possible contamination by maternal DNA. In this family of Gypsy origin, we carried out a rapid molecular diagnosis of A-T. Then, a prenatal diagnosis was carried out, identifying the deletion in the fetal DNA. Additionally, we performed a population study in unrelated Spanish Gypsies and in unrelated controls, showing that the deletion described could be a hotspot in the Spanish Gypsy population. The size of the coding region and the genomic structure, together with the absence of hotspots, make the mutation screening of the ATM gene difficult. The ability to identify ATM mutations provides a tool that can be applied in confirmatory diagnosis, genetic counselling, carrier prediction and prenatal diagnosis. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Innovative solutions for averting a potential resource crisis—the case of one-person households in England and Wales

This paper seeks to test the hypothesis that growth in one-person households will increase the domestic consumption of energy, land and household goods in England and Wales. It concludes that if current consumer behaviour of one-person households persists there will be a significant increase in the consumption of all three resources in the future. However, it argues that that many opportunities exist in England and Wales for tackling this problem. For example the new housing programme, increasing ability amongst one-person households to afford “green alternatives” and the search amongst some one-person households for alternative lifestyles (which could be potentially more resource efficient). The paper suggests that providing one-person households with opportunities to live in more resource efficient housing and adopt pro-environmental behaviour could significantly reduce their future environmental impact. Various design, fiscal and awareness-raising solutions are presented in the paper and their viability is assessed. These include ecological homes, collective housing forms, occupancy tax, relocation packages, educational programmes and targeted advertising campaigns. The paper proposes that using a combination of these more innovative solutions to the problem could significantly reduce the future environmental impact of one-person households.