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Elizabeth Fee (1946-2018)

Birn AE, Brown TM

Am J Public Health, 2019 Apr 18.
PMID: 30998404 DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2019.305065

Elizabeth Fee was a remarkable and influential public health historian, whose personal and professional trajectories led her to speak truth to and about power in public health, past and present. Born in Northern Ireland in 1946 to Irish-Methodist missionary parents, Liz's childhood brought her into contact with peoples and struggles across the globe. At just five weeks of age, she was whisked away by her parents to civil war-era China, where she lost hearing in one ear from an untreated bout with scarlet fever. In midchildhood, she attended school in Malaysia, after which her family returned to Belfast. There, she came of age amid festering political and religious violence, learning firsthand that history is told and retold by protagonists and witnesses, oppressors and oppressed. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print April 18, 2019: e1-e4. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2019.305065).

Matched MeSH terms: Northern Ireland
Impacts of forestry planting on primary production in upland lakes from north-west Ireland

Stevenson MA, McGowan S, Anderson NJ, Foy RH, Leavitt PR, McElarney YR, et al.

Glob Chang Biol, 2016 Apr;22(4):1490-504.
PMID: 26666434 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.13194

Planted forests are increasing in many upland regions worldwide, but knowledge about their potential effects on algal communities of catchment lakes is relatively unknown. Here, the effects of afforestation were investigated using palaeolimnology at six upland lake sites in the north-west of Ireland subject to different extents of forest plantation cover (4-64% of catchment area). (210) Pb-dated sediment cores were analysed for carotenoid pigments from algae, stable isotopes of bulk carbon (δ(13) C) and nitrogen (δ(15) N), and C/N ratios. In lakes with >50% of their catchment area covered by plantations, there were two- to sixfold increases in pigments from cryptophytes (alloxanthin) and significant but lower increases (39-116%) in those from colonial cyanobacteria (canthaxanthin), but no response from biomarkers of total algal abundance (β-carotene). In contrast, lakes in catchments with <20% afforestation exhibited no consistent response to forestry practices, although all lakes exhibited fluctuations in pigments and geochemical variables due to peat cutting and upland grazing prior to forest plantation. Taken together, patterns suggest that increases in cyanobacteria and cryptophyte abundance reflect a combination of mineral and nutrient enrichment associated with forest fertilization and organic matter influx which may have facilitated growth of mixotrophic taxa. This study demonstrates that planted forests can alter the abundance and community structure of algae in upland humic lakes of Ireland and Northern Ireland, despite long histories of prior catchment disturbance.

Matched MeSH terms: Northern Ireland
Fulltext International links between Streptococcus pneumoniae vaccine serotype 4 sequence type (ST) 801 in Northern European shipyard outbreaks of invasive pneumococcal disease

Gladstone RA, Siira L, Brynildsrud OB, Vestrheim DF, Turner P, Clarke SC, et al.

Vaccine, 2022 Feb 11;40(7):1054-1060.
PMID: 34996643 DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.10.046

BACKGROUND: Pneumococcal disease outbreaks of vaccine preventable serotype 4 sequence type (ST)801 in shipyards have been reported in several countries. We aimed to use genomics to establish any international links between them.
METHODS: Sequence data from ST801-related outbreak isolates from Norway (n = 17), Finland (n = 11) and Northern Ireland (n = 2) were combined with invasive pneumococcal disease surveillance from the respective countries, and ST801-related genomes from an international collection (n = 41 of > 40,000), totalling 106 genomes. Raw data were mapped and recombination excluded before phylogenetic dating.
RESULTS: Outbreak isolates were relatively diverse, with up to 100 SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) and a common ancestor estimated around the year 2000. However, 19 Norwegian and Finnish isolates were nearly indistinguishable (0-2 SNPs) with the common ancestor dated around 2017.
CONCLUSION: The total diversity of ST801 within the outbreaks could not be explained by recent transmission alone, suggesting that harsh environmental and associated living conditions reported in the shipyards may facilitate invasion of colonising pneumococci. However, near identical strains in the Norwegian and Finnish outbreaks does suggest that transmission between international shipyards also contributed to those outbreaks. This indicates the need for improved preventative measures in this working population including pneumococcal vaccination.

Matched MeSH terms: Northern Ireland
Fulltext Brain metastasis of unknown origin

Chee CP

Singapore Med J, 1990 Feb;31(1):48-50.
PMID: 2333544

From 1973 to 1984, 119 patients presented to the Department of Neurosurgery, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, with brain metastases, the primary sites of which remained unknown in 33 cases one month after discharge. About half of these cases were solitary and neurological lateralising signs were the commonest presentation. Of those cases in which surgery was performed, the majority remained improved one month after surgery. The one month mortality rate was only 3%. This study shows that with aggressive and appropriate treatment including surgical excision or decompression in solitary cases, an improved quality of life in the immediate postoperative period can be achieved in this particular group of brain metastases. A small number of patients remained alive and well after 6 months.

Matched MeSH terms: Northern Ireland
Fulltext Intergroup Contact Effects via Ingroup Distancing among Majority and Minority Groups: Moderation by Social Dominance Orientation

Kauff M, Schmid K, Lolliot S, Al Ramiah A, Hewstone M

PLoS One, 2016;11(1):e0146895.
PMID: 26751203 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0146895

Five studies tested whether intergroup contact reduces negative outgroup attitudes through a process of ingroup distancing. Based on the deprovincialization hypothesis and Social Dominance Theory, we hypothesized that the indirect effect of cross-group friendship on outgroup attitudes via reduced ingroup identification is moderated by individuals' Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), and occurs only for members of high status majority groups. We tested these predictions in three different intergroup contexts, involving conflictual relations between social groups in Germany (Study 1; N = 150; longitudinal Study 2: N = 753), Northern Ireland (Study 3: N = 160; Study 4: N = 1,948), and England (Study 5; N = 594). Cross-group friendship was associated with reduced ingroup identification and the link between reduced ingroup identification and improved outgroup attitudes was moderated by SDO (the indirect effect of cross-group friendship on outgroup attitudes via reduced ingroup only occurred for individuals scoring high, but not low, in SDO). Although there was a consistent moderating effect of SDO in high-status majority groups (Studies 1-5), but not low-status minority groups (Studies 3, 4, and 5), the interaction by SDO was not reliably stronger in high- than low-status groups. Findings are discussed in terms of better understanding deprovincialization effects of contact.

Matched MeSH terms: Northern Ireland