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Few studies on population-specific health effects of extreme temperature on cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) deaths have been conducted in the subtropical and tropical climates of China. We examined the association between extreme temperature and CVD across four cities in China. We performed a two-stage analysis; we generated city-specific estimates using a distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) and estimated the overall effects by conducting a meta-analysis. Heat thresholds of 29 °C, 29 °C, 29 °C, and 30 °C and cold thresholds of 6 °C, 10 °C, 14 °C, and 15 °C were observed in Hefei, Changsha, Nanning, and Haikou, respectively. The lag periods for heat-related CVD mortality were observed only for 0–2 days, while those of cold-related CVD mortality were observed for 10–15 days. The meta-analysis showed that a 1 °C increase above the city-specific heat threshold was associated with average overall CVD mortality increases of 4.6% (3.0%–6.2%), 6.4% (3.4%–9.4%), and 0.2% (−4.8%–5.2%) for all ages, ≥65 years, and <65 years over a lag period of 0–2 days, respectively. Similarly, a 1 °C decrease below the city-specific cold threshold was associated with average overall CVD mortality increases of 4.2% (3.0%–5.4%), 4.9% (3.5%–6.3%), and 3.1% (1.7%–4.5%), for all ages, ≥65 years, and <65 years over a lag period of 0–15 days, respectively. This work will help to take appropriate measures to reduce temperature-mortality risk in different populations in the subtropical and tropical climates of China.

Ross River virus (RRV) has recently been suggested to be a potential emerging infectious disease worldwide. RRV infection remains the most common human arboviral disease in Australia, with a yearly estimated economic cost of $4.3 billion. Infection in humans and horses can cause chronic, long-term debilitating arthritogenic illnesses. However, current knowledge of immunopathogenesis remains to be elucidated and is mainly inferred from a murine model that only partially resembles clinical signs and pathology in human and horses. The epidemiology of RRV transmission is complex and multifactorial and is further complicated by climate change, making predictive models difficult to design. Establishing an equine model for RRV may allow better characterization of RRV disease pathogenesis and immunology in humans and horses, and could potentially be used for other infectious diseases. While there are no approved therapeutics or registered vaccines to treat or prevent RRV infection, clinical trials of various potential drugs and vaccines are currently underway. In the future, the RRV disease dynamic is likely to shift into temperate areas of Australia with longer active months of infection. Here, we (1) review the current knowledge of RRV infection, epidemiology, diagnostics, and therapeutics in both humans and horses; (2) identify and discuss major research gaps that warrant further research.

Despite overall progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals, large health discrepancies persist between developed and developing countries. The world is rapidly changing and the influences of societal change and climate change will disproportionately affect the world's most vulnerable populations, thus exacerbating current inequities. Current development strategies do not adequately address these disproportionate impacts of environmental exposures. The aim of this study was to propose a new framework to address the health consequences of environmental exposures beyond 2015. This framework is transdisciplinary and precautionary. It is based on identifying social and economic determinants of health, strengthening primary health systems, and improving the health of vulnerable populations. It incorporates deliberate plans for assessment and control of avoidable environmental exposures. It sets specific, measurable targets for health and environmental improvement.

While binge drinking-episodic or irregular consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol-is recognised as a serious problem affecting our youth, to date there has been a lack of psychological theory and thus theoretically driven research into this problem. The current paper develops a cognitive model using the key constructs of alcohol expectancies (AEs) and drinking refusal self-efficacy (DRSE) to explain the acquisition and maintenance of binge drinking. It is suggested that the four combinations of the AE and DRSE can explain the four drinking styles. These are normal/social drinkers, binge drinkers, regular heavy drinkers, and problem drinkers or alcoholics. Since AE and DRSE are cognitive constructs and therefore modifiable, the cognitive model can thus facilitate the design of intervention and prevention strategies for binge drinking.

For many patients clinical prescription of walking will be beneficial to health and accelerometers can be used to monitor their walking intensity, frequency and duration over many days. Walking intensity should include establishment of individual specific accelerometer count, walking speed and energy expenditure (VO2) relationships and this can be achieved using a walking protocol on a treadmill or overground. However, differences in gait mechanics during treadmill compared to overground walking may result in inaccurate estimations of free-living walking speed and VO2. The aims of this study were to compare the validity of track- and treadmill-based calibration methods for estimating free-living level walking speed and VO2 and to explain between-method differences in accuracy of estimation.Fifty healthy adults [32 women and 18 men; mean (SD): 40 (13) years] walked at four pre-determined speeds on an outdoor track and a treadmill, and completed three 1-km self-paced level walks while wearing an Actigraph monitor and a mobile oxygen analyser. Speed- and VO2-to-Actigraph count individual calibration equations were computed for each calibration method. Between-method differences in calibration equation parameters, prediction errors, and relationships of walking speed with VO2 and Actigraph counts were assessed.The treadmill-calibration equation overestimated free-living walking speed (on average, by 0.7 km · h(-1)) and VO2 (by 4.99 ml · kg(-1) · min(-1)), while the track-calibration equation did not. This was because treadmill walking, from which the calibration equation was derived, produced lower Actigraph counts and higher VO2 for a given walking speed compared to walking on a track. The prediction error associated with the use of the treadmill-calibration method increased with free-living walking speed. This issue was not observed when using the track-calibration method.The proposed track-based individual accelerometer calibration method can provide accurate and unbiased estimates of free-living walking speed and VO2 from walking. The treadmill-based calibration produces calibration equations that tend to substantially overestimate both VO2 and speed.

Fuel cell is an electrochemical device which can convert chemical energy into to electricity. Compared with steam engine and internal combustion engine, the fuel cell has higher conversion efficiency and lower pollution. The energy conversion in fuel cells is based on the oxidation of fuel and reduction of oxygen, both of which need electrocatalyts to smooth the reactions. However, the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is sluggish. Therefore, high-performance ORR catalyst is crucial to the overall performance of the fuel cell. State-to-art ORR catalyst are those based on Pt and its alloys. Therefore, developing new inexpensive eletrocatalysts for ORR is very demanding. This thesis is committed to develop carbon based ORR catalysts. The research comprises synthesis of material, characterization and electrochemical test. The research specially emphasizes on facile synthesis of nitrogen and non-precious metal co-doped graphitic carbon, characterization of metal-nitrogen interaction and methodology in electrochemical analysis. The first three parts of the thesis is about the synthesis of non-precious metal/ nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide (N-rGO) composite and study of their ORR catalytic activity. The first part of the thesis is focused on synthesis of N-rGO, and for the first time, a nanocomposite of CuO/N-rGO with a very high ORR performance in alkaline electrolyte was synthesized. It is confirmed that CuO, with negligible ORR reactivity by itself, introduces a synergistic effect by combining with N-rGO through the interactions with nitrogen, resulting in a significant ORR activity enhancement. The experiment revealed that rapid reduction of HOO- intermediate by the CuO/N-rGO leads to more positive onset potential, higher current density and higher four-electron selectivity catalysed than both the CuO/rGO and N-rGO. Meanwhile, the CuO hindered restacking of N-rGO, providing the resultant nanocomposite much higher specific surface area and larger pore size to facilitate oxygen transfer, resulting in higher ORR current than that of Pt/C at low potential. In the second part of the thesis, three types of silver/ reduced graphene oxide (Ag/rGO) nanocomposites (one doped with nitrogen and another two without) are synthesized to investigate their atomic structures and the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance with them as the electrocatalysts. For the first time, the bonding interaction between Ag and N in N-rGO is confirmed by both high resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). The Ag/N-rGO shows excellent ORR performance, including very high onset potential and current density, which outperforms those Ag/rGOs without N doping. Detailed electrochemical analysis shows that the ORR mechanism on Ag/N-rGO is different from both Ag and N-rGO, and its excellent performance is caused by the Ag-N bonding which alters the electronic structure of N-rGO. In the third part of the thesis, a novel Fe/N co-doped graphitic carbon bulb (Fe/N-gCB) is synthesized as a high-performance ORR catalyst. The key findings include: 1) highly graphitic and lowly defective carbon with extraordinarily high N content can be synthesized at low temperature of 550 °C. 2) High Fe content facilitates the formation of high specific surface area and graphitic structure at low temperature. 3) The low temperature process retains high level of N. 4) Fe/N-gCB shows comparable performance with Pt/C in alkaline electrolyte and adequate performance in acidic electrolyte. 5) Only the Fe coordinated to N in the shell can contribute ORR activity. The forth part of the thesis focus on the study methodology of ORR. The forced convection methods on rotation electrode are carefully investigated in theory and verified by experiment to study the electron transfer number (n) of ORR on non-Pt catalysts in aqueous electrolyte. It is found that the widely used Koutechy-Levich (KL) plot is not suitable in determining n neither theoretically nor experimentally. The oxygen reduction reaction is neither a single-step nor irreversible so it does not meet the precondition of KL theory. By construction of a simple mathematical model, it is prove that the ORR is even not a first-order reaction in some cases, which is also essential to KL theory. Practically, the n of oxygen reduction is significantly dependent on the angular velocity of the electrode, which makes the linear fitting of KL plot meaningless. The KL plot is always not linear, even though the measurement error is excluded. Therefore, forced linear fitting results in incorrect n. The fifth part of the thesis is the extension of the forth part. A new mathematical method is developed to determine the rate constants and the orders of reaction of the sub-reactions in ORR. The method can extract the oxygen and peroxide concentration on the electrode surface and the current destiny from different sub-reactions of ORR. So it can be used to determine order of reaction. This method is applied to various catalysts and the orders of reactions are determined not to be 1 for most cases.

Climate change presents risks to health that must be addressed by both decision-makers and public health researchers. Within the application of Environmental Health Impact Assessment (EHIA), there have been few attempts to incorporate climate change-related health risks as an input to the framework. This study used a focus group design to examine the perceptions of government, industry and academic specialists about the suitability of assessing the health consequences of climate change within an EHIA framework. Practitioners expressed concern over a number of factors relating to the current EHIA methodology and the inclusion of climate change-related health risks. These concerns related to the broad scope of issues that would need to be considered, problems with identifying appropriate health indicators, the lack of relevant qualitative information that is currently incorporated in assessment and persistent issues surrounding stakeholder participation. It was suggested that improvements are needed in data collection processes, particularly in terms of adequate communication between environmental and health practitioners. Concerns were raised surrounding data privacy and usage, and how these could impact on the assessment process. These findings may provide guidance for government and industry bodies to improve the assessment of climate change-related health risks.