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A joint model for the estimation of species distributions and environmental characteristics from point-referenced data
No full textExposome-Wide Association Study of Body Mass Index Using a Novel Meta-Analytical Approach for Random Forest Models
No full textSix exposures were associated with BMI: five indicating neighborhood economic or social environments (average home values, percentage of high-income residents, average income, livability score, share of single residents) and one indicating the physical activity environment (walkability in 5-km buffer area). Living in high-income neighborhoods and neighborhoods with higher livability scores was associated with lower BMI. Nonlinear associations were observed with neighborhood home values in all studies. Lower neighborhood home values were associated with higher BMI scores but only for values up to €300,000. The directions of associations were less consistent for walkability and share of single residents
Enhanced identification of endocrine disruptors through integration of science-based regulatory practices and innovative methodologies: The MERLON Project
No full textMonitoring report Target scope for the Clean Air Agreement. Second progress assessment
No full textDe Nederlandse overheid wil de luchtkwaliteit verbeteren omdat minder luchtvervuiling beter is voor de gezondheid. Ze heeft hiervoor in 2020 het Schone Lucht Akkoord (SLA) gesloten met inmiddels meer dan 100 gemeenten en alle provincies. Afgesproken is om in 2030 50 procent minder gezondheidseffecten te hebben van luchtvervuiling door Nederlandse bronnen dan in 2016. De SLA-partners hebben begin 2023 hun jaarlijkse plannen ingeleverd waarin staat hoe zij de uitstoot van stikstofoxiden en fijnstof in Nederland gaan verminderen. Het RIVM heeft berekend dat de gezondheidseffecten als gevolg van luchtvervuiling in 2030 met 46 procent afnemen ten opzichte van 2016. Voorwaarde daarvoor is dat deze plannen volledig worden uitgevoerd. Als ook de effecten van maatregelen tegen klimaatverandering en stikstofneerslag worden meegerekend is een gezondheidswinst van 50 procent haalbaar. Een gezondheidswinst van 50% betekent dat mensen in Nederland gemiddeld per persoon 2,5-3,5 maanden langer leven. De SLA-partners willen ook dat de luchtkwaliteit gaat voldoen aan de WHO(World Health Organization)-advieswaarden uit 2005 voor fijnstof en stikstofdioxide. Deze advieswaarden zijn strenger dan de normen die nu in Nederland gelden. De Europese Unie gebruikt deze advieswaarden om de wettelijke normen voor fijnstof en stikstofdioxide Europees aan te scherpen. Deze normen zullen naar verwachting gaan gelden vanaf 2030. RIVM berekeningen laten nu zien dat deze advieswaarden in 2030 bijna overal in Nederland kunnen worden gehaald als de plannen voor het SLA worden uitgevoerd. In een paar gebieden zullen extra maatregelen nodig zijn om in 2030 aan de nieuwe EU(Europese Unie)-wetgeving te voldoen. Dit blijkt uit de tweede voortgangsmeting van het RIVM. Hierin staat alle informatie om te kunnen berekenen of de doelen van het SLA worden gehaald. Bijvoorbeeld hoeveel de uitstoot en de concentraties van stikstof(di)oxiden en fijnstof dalen bij verschillende pakketten van maatregelen. Adviesbureau TAUW heeft berekend hoeveel de uitstoot daarbij daalt. Met deze resultaten heeft het RIVM de gezondheidseffecten berekend.The Dutch government wants to improve air quality, since less air pollution is better for public health. To this end, it concluded the Clean Air Agreement (Schone Lucht Akkoord, SLA) in 2020. More than 100 municipalities and all provinces have since decided to sign up to this agreement. The agreement includes a commitment to reduce the health effects of air pollution from Dutch sources by 50% by 2030, compared to 2016. In March 2023, the SLA signatories submitted their annual plans indicating how they would reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter (implementation plans). According to calculations by the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), implementation of all of these plans will decrease the health effects of air pollution by 46% by 2030. Health gains of 50% are possible if the effects of additional measures to combat climate change and nitrogen deposition are also taken into account. A health gain of 50% would translate to a mean increase in life expectancy of 2.5-3.5 months per Dutch resident. Another goal of this agreement is to comply with the WHO guideline values from 2005 for concentrations of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter. These guideline values are stricter than the current mandatory limit values. In the meantime, the European Union is about to finalise a process to strengthen the EU air quality limit values, also based on the 2005 WHO guideline values. These limit values are expected to be valid in 2030. Calculations performed by RIVM show that the guideline values can be achieved across nearly all of the Netherlands in 2030 if the SLA plans are implemented. Additional measures will be needed in some specific areas to comply with the new EU limit values in 2030. RIVM's second progress assessment contains all the necessary information to calculate whether the goals of the SLA are being met, including by how much the emissions and concentrations of nitrogen (di)oxides and particulate matter will decrease as a result of the implementation of various sets of measures. Consultancy firm TAUW has calculated by how much emissions will decrease as a result. RIVM used the results of this analysis to calculate the health effects
Update to Stookwijzer criteria. Stookwijzer criteria based on nuisance reports
No full textDe Stookwijzer uit 2017 informeert inwoners van Nederland wanneer ze wel of niet houtvuur kunnen stoken. Het instrument geeft voor elke postcode per uur een advies (code geel, oranje of rood). De criteria voor de adviezen zijn met de kennis van toen bepaald op basis van de windsnelheid en luchtkwaliteit. Het RIVM adviseert het ministerie van Infrastructuur en Waterstaat (IenW(Infrastructuur en Waterstaat)) nu de criteria van de Stookwijzer te herzien. Met de nieuwe criteria kan de overlast door houtrook minder worden wanneer mensen zich bij code rood aan het advies houden om niet te stoken. De nieuwe criteria zijn onderbouwd met informatie van ruim 5.000 meldingen van overlast door houtrook tussen 2020 en 2022. Het aantal overlastmeldingen bleek sterk samen te hangen met de windsnelheid. Hoe lager de windsnelheid, hoe meer meldingen. Dan wordt houtrook namelijk minder verdund. De Beaufort-schaal voor windkracht is bij de bevolking bekender dan de windsnelheid in meter per seconde. Daarom adviseert het RIVM om bij een windkracht van 2 Beaufort of minder geen hout te stoken (code rood). Boven een windkracht van 2 Beaufort kijkt de nieuwe Stookwijzer ook naar de luchtkwaliteit. Voorgesteld wordt dit criterium te richten op de concentratie fijnstof PM2,5(fijnstof) in de lucht, de fijnstofdeeltjes kleiner dan 2,5 micrometer. Houtstook draagt namelijk veel bij aan de concentratie PM2,5 in de lucht. Tot slot adviseert het RIVM om een stookadvies te geven voor tijdblokken van 6 uur en niet meer per uur. Door het advies al te geven vóórdat het volgende blok van 6 uur begint, weten mensen al vroeg waar ze aan toe zijn. Op basis van de voorgestelde criteria zal vaker een code geel en een code rood worden gegeven. Code oranje zal met de nieuwe criteria veel minder voorkomen dan nu. Deze code wordt dan alleen nog maar gegeven bij een matige luchtkwaliteit door PM2,5. Dat komt niet vaak voor. Code geel geeft aan: ‘Let op: stoken zorgt voor overlast en luchtverontreiniging’. Oranje betekent ‘Het is beter geen hout te stoken’, en rood houdt in: ‘Stook geen hout’.Created in 2017, the Stookwijzer (‘stoking guide’) informs residents of the Netherlands when they can or cannot light wood fires. The tool gives an hourly advice (code yellow, amber or red) for each postcode. The criteria underpinning the advice are based on wind speed and air quality, using the knowledge available at the time. RIVM has advised the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management to update the Stookwijzer criteria. Provided that people observe the guidance not to light wood fires when a code red is in force, the new criteria will have the potential to reduce wood smoke nuisance. The new criteria are based on information derived from more than 5,000 reports of wood smoke nuisance made from 2020 to 2022. It has been shown that the number of nuisance reports is closely related to wind speed: the lower the wind speed, the higher the number of reports. This is because wood smoke is thicker under those conditions. The Beaufort wind force scale is better known among the general population than the scale that measures wind speed in metres per second. For this reason, RIVM recommends not lighting wood fires in winds of Beaufort force 2 or less (code red). For winds of more than Beaufort force 2, the new Stookwijzer will also take air quality into consideration. The proposal is to base the relevant criterion on the concentration in the air of PM2.5 fine particles, meaning those measuring less than 2.5 micrometres. The reason for this is that wood fires contribute significantly to the concentration in the air of PM2.5. Finally, RIVM recommends giving a stoking advice every six hours, rather than hourly. Giving the advice before the start of the next six-hour period will inform people in a timely fashion of what they can expect. If the proposed criteria are adopted, this will result in more frequent code yellow and code red situations and less frequent code amber situations than is currently the case. In that eventuality, the latter code will only be used under poor air quality conditions as a result of PM2.5. This is rare. Code yellow means ‘Caution: lighting wood fires will cause nuisance and air pollution’. Code amber means ‘Lighting wood fires is not recommended’, whereas code red means ‘Do not light wood fires’
Nosocomial transmission of , and -carrying conferring resistance to eravacycline and omadacycline, the Netherlands, March to August 2021.
No full textCarbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAb) is an important pathogen causing serious nosocomial infections. We describe an outbreak of CRAb in an intensive care unit in the Netherlands in 2021. During an outbreak of non-resistant A. baumannii, while infection control measures were in place, CRAb isolates carrying highly similar bla NDM-1 - and tet(x3)-encoding plasmids were isolated from three patients over a period of several months. The chromosomal and plasmid sequences of the CRAb and non-carbapenemase-carrying A. baumannii isolates cultured from patient materials were analysed using hybrid assemblies of short-read and long-read sequences. The CRAb isolates revealed that the CRAb outbreak consisted of two different strains, carrying similar plasmids. The plasmids contained multiple antibiotic resistance genes including the tetracycline resistance gene tet(x3), and the bla NDM-1 and bla OXA-97 carbapenemase genes. We determined minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) for 13 antibiotics, including the newly registered tetracycline antibiotics eravacycline and omadacycline. The CRAb isolates showed high MICs for tetracycline antibiotics including eravacycline and omadacycline, except for minocycline which had a low MIC. In this study we show the value of sequencing multidrug-resistant A. baumannii for outbreak tracking and guiding outbreak mitigation measures
Effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines administered in the 2023 autumnal campaigns in Europe: Results from the VEBIS primary care test-negative design study, September 2023-January 2024.
No full textYajC, a predicted membrane protein, promotes biofilm formation and in a rat endocarditis model.
No full textBiofilm formation is a critical step in the pathogenesis of difficult-to-treat Gram-positive bacterial infections. We identified that YajC, a conserved membrane protein in bacteria, plays a role in biofilm formation of the clinically relevant Enterococcus faecium strain E1162. Deletion of yajC conferred significantly impaired biofilm formation in vitro and was attenuated in a rat endocarditis model. Mass spectrometry analysis of supernatants of washed ΔyajC cells revealed increased amounts in cytoplasmic and cell-surface-located proteins, including biofilm-associated proteins, suggesting that proteins on the surface of the yajC mutant are only loosely attached. In Streptococcus mutans YajC has been identified in complex with proteins of two cotranslational membrane protein-insertion pathways; the signal recognition particle (SRP)-SecYEG-YajC-YidC1 and the SRP-YajC-YidC2 pathway, but its function is unknown. In S. mutans mutation of yidC1 and yidC2 resulted in impaired protein insertion in the cell membrane and secretion in the supernatant. The E. faecium genome contains all homologous genes encoding for the cotranslational membrane protein-insertion pathways. By combining the studies in S. mutans and E. faecium, we propose that YajC is involved in the stabilization of the SRP-SecYEG-YajC-YidC1 and SRP-YajC-Yid2 pathway or plays a role in retaining proteins for proper docking to the YidC insertases for translocation in and over the membrane
Infection dynamics following experimental challenge of pigs orally dosed with different stages of two archetypal genotypes of Toxoplasma gondii.
No full textToxoplasma gondii is a food-borne zoonotic parasite widespread in a variety of hosts, including humans. With a majority of infections in Europe estimated to be meat-borne, pork, as one of the most consumed meats worldwide, represents a potential risk for consumers. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the progress of T. gondii infection and tissue tropism in experimentally infected pigs, using different T. gondii isolates and infectious stages, i.e. tissue cysts or oocysts. Twenty-four pigs were allocated to treatment in four groups of six, with each group inoculated orally with an estimated low dose of either 400 oocysts or 10 tissue cysts of two European T. gondii isolates, a type II and a type III isolate. The majority of pigs seroconverted two weeks post-inoculation. Pigs infected with the type III isolate had significantly higher levels of anti-T. gondii antibodies compared to those infected with the type II isolate. Histopathological exams revealed reactive hyperplasia of the lymphatic tissue of all pigs. Additionally, a selected set of nine tissues was collected during necropsy at 50 dpi from each of the remaining 22 pigs for T. gondii DNA detection by quantitative real-time PCR. A positive result was obtained in 29.8 % (59/139) of tested tissues. The brain was identified as the most frequently positive tissue in 63.6 % (14/22) of the animals. In contrast, liver samples tested negative in all animals. The highest mean parasite load, calculated by interpolating the average Cq values on the standard curve made of ten-fold serial dilutions of the genomic DNA, corresponding to 100 to 104 tachyzoites/µL, was observed in shoulder musculature with an estimated concentration of 84.4 [0.0-442.5] parasites per gram of tissue. The study highlights the variability in clinical signs and tissue distribution of T. gondii in pigs based on the combination of parasite stages and strains, with type III isolates, particularly oocysts, causing a stronger antibody response and higher tissue parasite burden. These findings suggest the need for further investigation of type III isolates to better understand their potential risks to humans
