Falls and fall prevention programmes in developing countries: environmental scan for the adaptation of the Canadian Falls prevention curriculum for developing countries

Problem

Falls in older persons in developing countries are poorly understood, and falls prevention and health promotion programmes for this population are largely lacking.

Methods

A systematic review was carried out of relevant literature on falls and prevention programmes, and falls prevention education, and a scan undertaken of health promotion programmes for older persons in a representative country - South Africa.

Results

Studies on the risk and prevalence of falls are largely retrospective and hospital-based, with varied methodology, including study period, sampling method and sample size. Falls prevalence is based largely on self-reports in studies on general trauma in all age groups. Falls incidence varies from 10.1% to 54%. No reports could be traced on sustained falls prevention or health promotion programmes.

Conclusion

Scant research has been conducted and little preventive education offered on falls in older persons. Adaptation of the Canadian Falls Prevention Curriculum for developing countries will help to fill gaps in knowledge and practice.

Impact on industry

With rapid increase in the populations of older persons in developing countries, research on age related disorders such as falls is required to guide policy and management of falls.     

Iron-rich Oklahoma clays as a natural source of chromium in monitoring wells

Water samples, drawn from groundwater monitoring wells located southeast of Oklahoma City, OK, were found to contain elevated concentrations of total chromium with an apparent source localized to the area surrounding each well. Since these monitoring wells are located in areas with no historic chromium usage, industrial sources of chromium were ruled out. Water testing was performed on twelve monitoring wells in the area that historically had elevated total chromium concentrations ranging from 10-4900 micrograms per litre. Filtered water samples were found to be free of chromium contamination, indicating that the source of the chromium is the suspended solids. Analysis of these solids by acid digestion and a sequential extraction technique revealed that the chromium was primarily associated with iron-containing solids. X-ray diffraction identified goethite, an iron oxide hydroxide, as the dominant iron-containing phase in the suspended solids. The mineralogy in this region is dominated by interbedded red-bed sandstone and mudstone whose mineral content includes mixed-layer illite-smectite, hematite, goethite, gypsum and dolomite. Elemental analysis of soil samples collected as a function of depth in the locale of the monitoring wells indicated that the iron rich clays contain a natural source of chromium. The elevated levels of total chromium are most likely due to the dissolution of silica and alumina from the chromium containing iron clays in the basic well water, resulting in the release of fine suspended solids that naturally have high chromium concentrations. These results should be applicable to other areas containing iron-rich clays.     

Climate change collaboration among natural resource management agencies: lessons learned from two US regions

It has been argued that regional collaboration can facilitate adaptation to climate change impacts through integrated planning and management. In an attempt to understand the underlying institutional factors that either support or contest this assumption, this paper explores the institutional factors influencing adaptation to climate change at the regional scale, where multiple public land and natural resource management jurisdictions are involved. Insights from two mid-western US case studies reveal that several challenges to collaboration persist and prevent fully integrative multi-jurisdictional adaptation planning at a regional scale. We propose that some of these challenges, such as lack of adequate time, funding and communication channels, be reframed as opportunities to build interdependence, identify issue-linkages and collaboratively explore the nature and extent of organisational trade-offs with respect to regional climate change adaptation efforts. Such a reframing can better facilitate multi-jurisdictional adaptation planning and management of shared biophysical resources generally while simultaneously enhancing organisational capacity to mitigate negative effects and take advantage of potentially favourable future conditions in an era characterised by rapid climate change.     

Monitoring perchlorate exposure and thyroid hormone status among raccoons inhabiting a perchlorate-contaminated site

Perchlorate is a water soluble anion that is readily accumulated in vegetation. It inhibits uptake of iodide into thyroid gland tissue, thereby reducing production of thyroid hormones. Potential raccoon food items including berries, fish, and vegetation collected at a contaminated site contained quantifiable concentrations of perchlorate as determined by ion chromatography. Therefore, we monitored resident raccoons for exposure to perchlorate by examining plasma perchlorate and thyroid hormone concentrations. Resulting analytical data failed to demonstrate perchlorate exposure among raccoons that likely consumed food items collected along perchlorate-contaminated water bodies. There were no correlations between triiodothyronine or thyroxine and thyroid stimulating hormone concentrations, but triiodothyronine concentrations in raccoon plasma were significantly higher in 2000 than in 2001 (p = 0.0081). These data suggest that natural attenuation and remedial efforts initiated in January of 2001 may have reduced perchlorate exposure among raccoons inhabiting this site from 2000 to 2001. Temporal, spatial, and analytical factors limited our ability to quantify exposure among raccoons, however, our data do not indicate that raccoons currently inhabiting this site are at risk for significant exposure to perchlorate and subsequent effects.     

Heavy metals removal/stabilization from municipal solid waste incineration fly ash: a review and recent trends

Waste treatment using thermal technologies, such as incineration, leads to the production of pollutants and wastes, including fly ash (FA). Fly ash contains heavy metals (HMs) and other contaminants and can potentially pose high risks to the environment and negatively impact health and safety. Consequently, stabilizing fly ash prior to either use or landfilling is crucial. The toxicity of fly ash through heavy metal leaching can be assessed using leaching tests. The leaching rates of heavy metals primarily depend on the surrounding conditions as well as fly ash properties and metal speciation. Physical separation, leaching or extraction, thermal treatment and solidification/chemical stabilization are proposed as suitable approaches for fly ash treatment. Economic considerations, environmental concerns, energy consumption and processing times can define the efficiency and selection of the treatment approach. This review considers the latest findings and compares the advantages and shortcomings of different fly ash treatment methods with the aim of highlighting the recent advances in the field. The review concludes that the simultaneous implementation of various methods can lead to highly efficient heavy metals removal/stabilization while simultaneously taking economic and environmental considerations into account.

     

Household disposal of pharmaceuticals: attitudes and risk perception in a UK sample

Pharmaceuticals can enter the environment through disposal in toilets, sinks and general waste. In the UK, household medicines are correctly disposed of by returning them to a pharmacy. This study examined household patterns of medicine waste, storage and disposal practices via a cross-sectional survey with 663 UK adults. Multiple regression was used to explore the contribution of key variables on self-reported medicines disposal behaviour. Analysis demonstrated that age, information, awareness, probability, attitude and intention all predicted correct disposal behaviour. Results indicate that multiple factors influence different disposal destinations uniquely. Affect and age increase disposal in sink/toilet but reduce disposal in bin. Presence of children increase bin and sink/toilet disposal but decrease pharmacy returns. Awareness and received information on correct disposal reduce bin disposal and increase pharmacy returns. The results suggest people use different mental models for each destination with disposal in sink/toilets and bins considered quicker and safer in the presence of children or for those feeling anxious. It is important to understand the capability, opportunity and motivation people have to return medicines to the pharmacy in addition to raising awareness of correct medicine disposal.

     

Consumptive and nonconsumptive effects of predators on metacommunities of competing prey

Although predators affect prey both via consumption and by changing prey migration behavior, the interplay between these two effects is rarely incorporated into spatial models of predator-prey dynamics and competition among prey. We develop a model where generalist predators have consumptive effects (i.e., altering the likelihood of local prey extinction) as well as nonconsumptive effects (altering the likelihood of colonization) on spatially separated prey populations (metapopulations). We then extend this model to explore the effects of predators on competition among prey. We find that generalist predators can promote persistence of prey metapopulations by promoting prey colonization, but predators can also hasten system-wide extinction by either increasing local extinction or reducing prey migration. By altering rates of prey migration, predators in one location can exert remote control over prey dynamics in another location via predator-mediated changes in prey flux. Thus, the effect of predators may extend well beyond the proportion of patches they visit. In the context of prey metacommunities, predator-mediated shifts in prey migration and mortality can shift the competition-colonization trade-off among competing prey, leading to changes in the prey community as well as changes in the susceptibility of prey species to habitat loss. Consequently, native prey communities may be susceptible to invasion not only by exotic prey species that experience reduced amounts of mortality from resident predators, but also by exotic prey species that exhibit strong dispersal in response to generalist native predators. Ultimately, our work suggests that the consumptive and nonconsumptive effects of generalist predators may have strong, yet potentially cryptic, effects on competing prey capable of mediating coexistence, fostering invasion, and interacting with anthropogenic habitat alteration.     

Probabilistic movement model with emigration simulates movements of deer in Nebraska, 1990–2006

Movements of deer can affect population dynamics, spatial redistribution, and transmission and spread of diseases. Our goal was to model the movement of deer in Nebraska in an attempt to predict the potential for spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) into eastern Nebraska. We collared and radio-tracked >600 white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in Nebraska during 1990–2006. We observed large displacements (>10 km) for both species and sexes of deer, including migrations up to 100 km and dispersals up to 50 km. Average distance traveled between successive daily locations was 166 m for male and 173 for female deer in eastern Nebraska, and 427 m for male and 459 for female deer in western Nebraska. Average daily displacement from initial capture point was 10 m for male and 14 m for female deer in eastern Nebraska, and 27 m for male and 28 m for female deer in western Nebraska. We used these data on naturally occurring movements to create and test 6 individual-based models of movement for white-tailed deer and mule deer in Nebraska, including models that incorporated sampling from empirical distributions of movement lengths and turn angles (DIST), correlated random walks (CRW), home point fidelity (FOCUS), shifting home point (SHIFT), probabilistic movement acceptance (MOVE), and probabilistic movement with emigration (MOVEwEMI). We created models in sequence in an attempt to account for the shortcomings of the previous model(s). We used the Kolmogrov–Smirnov goodness-of-fit test to verify improvement of simulated annual displacement distributions to empirical displacement distributions. The best-fit model (D = 0.07 and 0.08 for eastern and western Nebraska, respectively) included a probabilistic movement chance with emigration (MOVEwEMI) and resulted in an optimal daily movement length of 350 m (maximum daily movement length of 2800 m for emigrators) for eastern Nebraska and 370 m (maximum of 2960 m) for western Nebraska. The proportion of deer that moved as emigrators was 0.10 and 0.13 for eastern and western Nebraska, respectively. We propose that the observed spread of CWD may be driven by large movements of a small proportion of deer that help to establish a low prevalence of the disease in areas east of the current endemic area. Our movement models will be used in a larger individual-based simulation of movement, survival, and transmission of CWD to help determine future surveillance and management actions.     

Invasive species impacts on ecosystem structure and function: A comparison of Oneida Lake, New York, USA, before and after zebra mussel invasion

Exotic species invasion is widely considered to affect ecosystem structure and function. Yet, few contemporary approaches can assess the effects of exotic species invasion at such an inclusive level. Our research presents one of the first attempts to examine the effects of an exotic species at the ecosystem level in a quantifiable manner. We used ecological network analysis (ENA) and a social network analysis (SNA) method called cohesion analysis to examine the effect of zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) invasion on the Oneida Lake, New York, USA, food web. We used ENA to quantify ecosystem function through an analysis of food web carbon transfer that explicitly incorporated flow over all food web paths (direct and indirect). The cohesion analysis assessed ecosystem structure through an organization of food web members into subgroups of strongly interacting predators and prey. Our analysis detected effects of zebra mussel invasion throughout the entire Oneida Lake food web, including changes in trophic flow efficiency (i.e., carbon flow among trophic levels) and alterations of food web organization (i.e., paths of carbon flow) and ecosystem activity (i.e., total carbon flow). ENA indicated that zebra mussels altered food web function by shunting carbon from pelagic to benthic pathways, increasing dissipative flow loss, and decreasing ecosystem activity. SNA revealed the strength of zebra mussel perturbation as evidenced by a reorganization of food web subgroup structure, with a decrease in importance of pelagic pathways, a concomitant rise of benthic pathways, and a reorganization of interactions between top predator fish. Together, these analyses allowed for a holistic understanding of the effects of zebra mussel invasion on the Oneida Lake food web.     

Chromium transport, oxidation, and adsorption in manganese-coated sand

We examine how the processes of advection, dispersion, oxidation-reduction, and adsorption combine to affect the transport of chromium through columns packed with pyrolusite (beta-MnO2)-coated sand. We find that beta-MnO2 effectively oxidizes Cr(III) to Cr(VI) and that the extent of oxidation is sensitive to changes in pH, pore water velocity, and influent concentrations of Cr(III). Cr(III) oxidation rates, although initially high, decline well before the supply of beta-MnO2 is depleted, suggesting that a reaction product inhibits the conversion of Cr(III) to Cr(VI). Rate-limited reactions govern the weak adsorption of each chromium species, with Cr(III) adsorption varying directly with pH and Cr(VI) adsorption varying inversely with pH. The breakthrough data on chromium transport can be matched closely by calculations of a simple model that accounts for (1) advective-dispersive transport of Cr(III), Cr(VI), and dissolved oxygen, (2) first-order kinetics adsorption of the reduced and oxidized chromium species, and (3) nonlinear rate-limited oxidation of Cr(III) to Cr(VI). Our work supplements the limited database on the transport of redox-sensitive metals in porous media and provides a means for quantifying the coupled processes that contribute to this transport.