In the UK, dipping sheep with pesticides for treating ectoparasites has been one of the main pesticide applications and it was compulsory between 1984 and 1991 when organophosphates (OPs) were the main ingredients of sheep dips. As a result many current elderly sheep farmers have been exposed to OPs. The acute health effects of many pesticides especially OPs are very well documented, while the effects of long-term exposure are still unclear. Difficulties in assessing past pesticide exposure have been suggested to be one of the main reasons for this uncertainty. The overall aim of this PhD was to develop long-term occupational pesticide exposure models for UK farmers, specifically for OP exposure among sheep dippers, and to apply them to the Study of Health in Agricultural Work (SHAW) in order to examine the associations between long-term pesticide exposure and neuropsychiatric ill-health. A comprehensive conceptual exposure model to assess pesticide exposure during sheep dipping was developed and included five sources of pesticide exposure; handling the concentrate, dipping sheep in the bath, handling sheep after dipping, disposal of sheep dip, and any incidental exposure. Dermal, ingestion and inhalation routes were described for each source and different modifying factors for each route were identified. A semi-quantitative exposure algorithm was developed and all sources, routes and modifying factors were assigned scores and weights by assessment of the literature and expert judgement. The new model was evaluated by comparing its estimates of diazinon exposure among dippers who participated in the Health and Sheep Dipping Survey (HSDS) with diazinon urinary metabolite levels in spot urines collected after the dipping session. The model estimates generally did not correlate well with metabolite levels though there was evidence of an association between total metabolites and ordinal categories of exposure intensity. The uncontrolled conditions of the HSDS and the lack of 24 hr urine collections may have contributed to these results. A probabilistic model was also developed from the conceptual model and indicated that although handling the concentrate and dipping sheep are the most important exposure sources, other sources like handling dipped sheep and disposal of sheep dip should not be neglected. This probabilistic model was applied to different scenarios: probabilistic estimates may give a more comprehensive description of exposures than deterministic estimates as they take into account all conceptual variables. Occupational pesticide exposure among UK farmers in the SHAW study was then estimated using simple surrogates and more sophisticated models. The validity of self-reported exposure history among SHAW farmers was investigated by making comparison with data collected contemporaneously by the June Census. Farmers recall was generally reliable especially for a specific type of livestock or crop rather than the number of livestock or acreage. Associations between screen-identified ill-health and pesticide exposure were only demonstrated by using more developed metrics. Exposure to pesticides but not specifically OPs in sheep farming was associated with neuropathy and Parkinsonism. Exposure to OPs in sheep dipping was associated with a decrease risk of dementia. Depression was not associated with any exposure. In conclusion, this thesis developed a comprehensive model for pesticide exposure from sheep dipping and simpler exposure models for other farming sectors. The application of these models to the SHAW study suggests that long term pesticide exposure among farmers mainly via sheep dipping may result in ill- health; however the associations between exposure and outcomes may only be revealed by the use of more sophisticated exposure models rather than simple exposure surrogates. The study also indicates that even the use of well-derived deterministic estimates might lead to exposure misclassification. This misclassification may be investigated by using probabilistic approaches.

As pornography has become more widespread, young people are being exposed to pornography at earlier ages. Research examining the relationship between timing of exposure to pornography and outcomes in adulthood of mental health, life satisfaction, sexual behavior and attitudes, and pornography viewing patterns is limited. This study focuses on the relationship between timing of exposure to pornography and individual outcomes in adulthood. Results indicate that earlier exposure to pornography may significantly influence mental health, life satisfaction, sexual behavior and attitudes, and pornography viewing patterns in adulthood. Implications of this study include greater awareness of the risks of early exposure to pornography and unrestrained access to sexually explicit material for young people.

Positioning information for drones, machines, or other equipment has always been valuable. With fifth generation (5G) and long-term evolution (LTE) there are new possibilities to provide positioning information using the cellular network. When positioning information is available through the cellular network, having a standardized way of exposing positioning information would benefit a various number of applications. Thus, determining what requirements such an application programming interface (API) should have is important for future work. This thesis investigates and analyzes requirements that every API for exposing positioning information must have. It provides a theoretical reference API, the positioning exposure protocol (PEP), that fulfill all requirements. Additionally, the thesis analyzes available APIs on the market, and compares each and every one of them against the PEP, constructing a list of changes and extensions to make them compliant. The most compliant and suitable API is the gateway mobile location center (GMLC) API, which only requires a few changes and extensions to be functionally equivalent and fulfill allrequirements.

The present study examined theoretical mediators of a parent-based intervention on sunbathing tendencies and sunburn frequencies based on the work of Turrisi et al. [Turrisi, R., Hillhouse, J., Heavin, S., Robinson, J., Adams, M., & Berry, J. (2004). Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 27, 393-412.]. Three hundred and forty parents in two regions of the United States were educated about the dangers of risky sun behavior and how to convey information about skin cancer prevention to their children. Attitudes toward sunbathing, health beliefs, appearance beliefs, and social normative beliefs were examined and found to be significant mediators of program effects on sunbathing tendencies and sunburn frequencies. The findings are discussed with respect to maximizing the effectiveness of future skin cancer interventions with children.

No description available.

The human body encounters a number of chemical exposures on a daily basis, which may have short- or long-term health implications. Previously it has been demonstrated that the entire respiratory tract of an individual reacts to exposures like tobacco smoke in a similar manner, and that common molecular changes can be measured in airway epithelium. I propose that cataloguing the exposure of airway epithelial cells to tobacco cigarette (TCIG) smoke and its constituents, electronic cigarette (ECIG) aerosol and other drugs and small molecules can significantly increase the understanding of chemical exposure and identify common gene expression alterations. First, I determined the molecular impact of ECIG aerosol exposure on human airway epithelium in vitro, including alterations in genes related to xenobiotic metabolism, oxidative stress, and ciliated cells. These changes were generally less pronounced than the effects of TCIG exposure, and were more pronounced in ECIG products containing nicotine than those without nicotine. Furthermore, gene expression differences observed in vitro were concordant with differences observed in airway epithelium collected from ECIG users. Second, I examined the impact of TCIG exposure and TCIG constituents on premalignant airway cells, to better understand the progression or regression of precancerous lesions. These data could also identify the constituents of TCIGs and the precancerous mutations that increase the risk for malignancy. Third, in an effort to build a high-throughput methodology for chemical exposures, I exposed primary lung cell lines to small molecule therapeutics and identified lung-specific and lung cell-type-specific effects of exposure, suggesting that profiling additional cell lines would further inform airway gene expression in response to exposure and that organ-specific exposure profiling may provide valuable insight into drug discovery for common diseases. Overall, transcriptomic profiles from the airway epithelium reflect exposure to various inhaled and chemical perturbations. These gene expression profiles indicate common changes across a multitude of airway exposures as well as unique alterations specific to a given perturbation. Gene expression profiling can therefore be used to detail the potential response to a compendium of chemical exposures including those that are either well-established or potential risk factors for chronic lung diseases. / 2019-07-09T00:00:00Z

Panic disorder (PD) and claustrophobia are commonly co-occurring anxiety disorders associated with high distress and impairment. Interoceptive exposure (IE; exposure focused on anxiety about somatic sensations) is a well-established component of treatments for PD, but little is known about the specificity of its effects or individual response patterns resulting from this intervention. This study investigated the utility of IE in the treatment of PD with claustrophobia, examining its mechanisms in isolation and in combination with more traditional exposure to phobic situations (situational exposure). Ten adults with PD and claustrophobia (aged 23-74, 30% female) were treated with a flexible single-case experimental approach. Participants received up to 6 sessions of IE exercises (e.g., running in place to build tolerance to racing heart). Nonresponders received up to 6 additional sessions of IE combined with situational exposure entailing entering a closet to induce claustrophobia. Hypotheses included: 1) Reductions in somatic anxiety coinciding with the introduction of IE; 2) Reductions in agoraphobic symptoms coinciding with the introduction of situational exposure for initial nonresponders; 3) Habituation to both interventions whereby distress and participants’ expectancy of the most feared outcome (e.g., fainting) would decrease, and fear tolerance would increase, with improvements maintained at retest. Four participants experienced a clinically significant reduction in somatic anxiety coinciding with IE as predicted; three other participants improved following the addition of situational exposure. One aspect of agoraphobic anxiety – willingness to enter enclosed spaces – generally improved only after combined exposure, as predicted. Both IE and combined exposure elicited habituation whereby distress and expectancies of feared outcomes decreased and fear tolerance increased, supporting hypotheses. All improvements were maintained at retest. Ideographic analysis suggested that IE can rapidly change beliefs about somatic sensations and lead to distress habituation, but has variable immediate effects on overall somatic anxiety and does not reliably reduce related symptom sets (e.g., agoraphobia). IE appeared more helpful to participants who were fearful of the physical consequences of somatic sensations (e.g., heart attack) vs. other consequences (e.g., embarrassment). The observed variability in response to IE and combined exposure suggests a need for individualized implementation of treatments in PD with claustrophobia.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.