Highlights d Cities possess a consistent ''core'' set of non-human microbes d Urban microbiomes echo important features of cities and city-life d Antimicrobial resistance genes are widespread in cities d Cities contain many novel bacterial and viral species

US health care spending increased 5.3 percent to $3.0 trillion in 2014. On a per capita basis, health spending was $9,523 in 2014, an increase of 4.5 percent from 2013. The share of gross domestic product devoted to health care spending was 17.5 percent, up from 17.3 percent in 2013. The faster growth in 2014 that followed five consecutive years of historically low growth was primarily due to the major coverage expansions under the Affordable Care Act, particularly for Medicaid and private health insurance, which contributed to an increase in the insured share of the population. Additionally, the introduction of new hepatitis C drugs contributed to rapid growth in retail prescription drug expenditures, which increased by 12.2 percent in 2014. Spending by the federal government grew at a faster rate in 2014 than spending by other sponsors of health care, leading to a 2-percentage-point increase in its share of total health care spending between 2013 and 2014.

Soil carbon (C) storage is a key ecosystem service. Soil C stocks play a vital role in soil fertility and climate regulation, but the factors that control these stocks at regional and national scales are unknown, particularly when their composition and stability are considered. As a result, their mapping relies on either unreliable proxy measures or laborious direct measurements. Using data from an extensive national survey of English grasslands, we show that surface soil (0–7 cm) C stocks in size fractions of varying stability can be predicted at both regional and national scales from plant traits and simple measures of soil and climatic conditions. Soil C stocks in the largest pool, of intermediate particle size (50–250 μm), were best explained by mean annual temperature (MAT), soil pH and soil moisture content. The second largest C pool, highly stable physically and biochemically protected particles (0·45–50 μm), was explained by soil pH and the community abundance-weighted mean (CWM) leaf nitrogen (N) content, with the highest soil C stocks under N-rich vegetation. The C stock in the small active fraction (250–4000 μm) was explained by a wide range of variables: MAT, mean annual precipitation, mean growing season length, soil pH and CWM specific leaf area; stocks were higher under vegetation with thick and/or dense leaves. Testing the models describing these fractions against data from an independent English region indicated moderately strong correlation between predicted and actual values and no systematic bias, with the exception of the active fraction, for which predictions were inaccurate. Synthesis and applications. Validation indicates that readily available climate, soils and plant survey data can be effective in making local- to landscape-scale (1–100 000 km2) soil C stock predictions. Such predictions are a crucial component of effective management strategies to protect C stocks and enhance soil C sequestration

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In 2011 US health care spending grew 3.9 percent to reach $2.7 trillion, marking the third consecutive year of relatively slow growth. Growth in national health spending closely tracked growth in nominal gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010 and 2011, and health spending as a share of GDP remained stable from 2009 through 2011, at 17.9 percent. Even as growth in spending at the national level has remained stable, personal health care spending growth accelerated in 2011 (from 3.7 percent to 4.1 percent), in part because of faster growth in spending for prescription drugs and physician and clinical services. There were also divergent trends in spending growth in 2011 depending on the payment source: Medicaid spending growth slowed, while growth in Medicare, private health insurance, and out-of-pocket spending accelerated. Overall, there was relatively slow growth in incomes, jobs, and GDP in 2011, which raises questions about whether US health care spending will rebound over the next few years as it typically has after past economic downturns.

Homelessness increases vulnerability to violence victimization; however, the precise factors associated with victimization and injury are not clearly understood. Thus, this study explores the prevalence of and characteristics associated with violence victimization among homeless individuals by surveying approximately 500 individuals experiencing homelessness in 5 cities across the United States. Our findings reveal that nearly one-half of our sample reported experiencing violence and that prolonged duration of homelessness (greater than 2 years) and being older increased the risk of experiencing a violent attack. In addition, increased length of homelessness and female gender predicted experiencing rape. Women were also significantly more likely to know one's perpetrator and experience continued suffering after a violent attack. We conclude that certain subpopulations within the homeless population are at an increased risk for victimization and, subsequently, require added protective services; implications for health care and policy recommendations are also discussed.

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Principal Findings:In 2009, the 10 states where per capita spending was highest ranged from 13 to 36 percent higher than the national average, and the 10 states where per capita spending was lowest ranged from 8 to 26 percent below the national average. States with the highest per capita spending tended to have older populations and the highest per capita incomes; states with the lowest per capita spending tended to have younger populations, lower per capita incomes, and higher rates of uninsured. Over the last decade, the New England and Mideast regions exhibited the highest per capita personal health care spending, while states in the Southwest and Rocky Mountain regions had the lowest per capita spending. Variation in per enrollee Medicaid spending, however, has consistently been greater than that of total per capita personal health care spending or per enrollee Medicare spending from 1998-2009. The Great Lakes, New England, and Far West regions experienced the largest slowdown in per person health spending growth during the recent recession, largely as a result of higher unemployment rates.