| 61. |
- Muscarella, Robert, et al.
(författare)
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The global abundance of tree palms
- 2020
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Ingår i: Global Ecology and Biogeography. - : Wiley. - 1466-822X .- 1466-8238. ; 29:9, s. 1495-1514
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- AimPalms are an iconic, diverse and often abundant component of tropical ecosystems that provide many ecosystem services. Being monocots, tree palms are evolutionarily, morphologically and physiologically distinct from other trees, and these differences have important consequences for ecosystem services (e.g., carbon sequestration and storage) and in terms of responses to climate change. We quantified global patterns of tree palm relative abundance to help improve understanding of tropical forests and reduce uncertainty about these ecosystems under climate change.LocationTropical and subtropical moist forests.Time periodCurrent.Major taxa studiedPalms (Arecaceae).MethodsWe assembled a pantropical dataset of 2,548 forest plots (covering 1,191 ha) and quantified tree palm (i.e., ≥10 cm diameter at breast height) abundance relative to co‐occurring non‐palm trees. We compared the relative abundance of tree palms across biogeographical realms and tested for associations with palaeoclimate stability, current climate, edaphic conditions and metrics of forest structure.ResultsOn average, the relative abundance of tree palms was more than five times larger between Neotropical locations and other biogeographical realms. Tree palms were absent in most locations outside the Neotropics but present in >80% of Neotropical locations. The relative abundance of tree palms was more strongly associated with local conditions (e.g., higher mean annual precipitation, lower soil fertility, shallower water table and lower plot mean wood density) than metrics of long‐term climate stability. Life‐form diversity also influenced the patterns; palm assemblages outside the Neotropics comprise many non‐tree (e.g., climbing) palms. Finally, we show that tree palms can influence estimates of above‐ground biomass, but the magnitude and direction of the effect require additional work.ConclusionsTree palms are not only quintessentially tropical, but they are also overwhelmingly Neotropical. Future work to understand the contributions of tree palms to biomass estimates and carbon cycling will be particularly crucial in Neotropical forests.
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| 62. |
- Naghavi, Mohsen, et al.
(författare)
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Global, regional, and national age-sex specific all-cause and cause-specific mortality for 240 causes of death, 1990-2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013
- 2015
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Ingår i: The Lancet. - 1474-547X .- 0140-6736. ; 385:9963, s. 117-171
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background Up-to-date evidence on levels and trends for age-sex-specifi c all-cause and cause-specifi c mortality is essential for the formation of global, regional, and national health policies. In the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 (GBD 2013) we estimated yearly deaths for 188 countries between 1990, and 2013. We used the results to assess whether there is epidemiological convergence across countries. Methods We estimated age-sex-specifi c all-cause mortality using the GBD 2010 methods with some refinements to improve accuracy applied to an updated database of vital registration, survey, and census data. We generally estimated cause of death as in the GBD 2010. Key improvements included the addition of more recent vital registration data for 72 countries, an updated verbal autopsy literature review, two new and detailed data systems for China, and more detail for Mexico, UK, Turkey, and Russia. We improved statistical models for garbage code redistribution. We used six different modelling strategies across the 240 causes; cause of death ensemble modelling (CODEm) was the dominant strategy for causes with sufficient information. Trends for Alzheimer's disease and other dementias were informed by meta-regression of prevalence studies. For pathogen-specifi c causes of diarrhoea and lower respiratory infections we used a counterfactual approach. We computed two measures of convergence (inequality) across countries: the average relative difference across all pairs of countries (Gini coefficient) and the average absolute difference across countries. To summarise broad findings, we used multiple decrement life-tables to decompose probabilities of death from birth to exact age 15 years, from exact age 15 years to exact age 50 years, and from exact age 50 years to exact age 75 years, and life expectancy at birth into major causes. For all quantities reported, we computed 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs). We constrained cause-specific fractions within each age-sex-country-year group to sum to all-cause mortality based on draws from the uncertainty distributions. Findings Global life expectancy for both sexes increased from 65.3 years (UI 65.0-65.6) in 1990, to 71.5 years (UI 71.0-71.9) in 2013, while the number of deaths increased from 47.5 million (UI 46.8-48.2) to 54.9 million (UI 53.6-56.3) over the same interval. Global progress masked variation by age and sex: for children, average absolute diff erences between countries decreased but relative diff erences increased. For women aged 25-39 years and older than 75 years and for men aged 20-49 years and 65 years and older, both absolute and relative diff erences increased. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the prominent role of reductions in age-standardised death rates for cardiovascular diseases and cancers in high-income regions, and reductions in child deaths from diarrhoea, lower respiratory infections, and neonatal causes in low-income regions. HIV/AIDS reduced life expectancy in southern sub-Saharan Africa. For most communicable causes of death both numbers of deaths and age-standardised death rates fell whereas for most non-communicable causes, demographic shifts have increased numbers of deaths but decreased age-standardised death rates. Global deaths from injury increased by 10.7%, from 4.3 million deaths in 1990 to 4.8 million in 2013; but age-standardised rates declined over the same period by 21%. For some causes of more than 100 000 deaths per year in 2013, age-standardised death rates increased between 1990 and 2013, including HIV/AIDS, pancreatic cancer, atrial fibrillation and flutter, drug use disorders, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and sickle-cell anaemias. Diarrhoeal diseases, lower respiratory infections, neonatal causes, and malaria are still in the top five causes of death in children younger than 5 years. The most important pathogens are rotavirus for diarrhoea and pneumococcus for lower respiratory infections. Country-specific probabilities of death over three phases of life were substantially varied between and within regions. Interpretation For most countries, the general pattern of reductions in age-sex specifi c mortality has been associated with a progressive shift towards a larger share of the remaining deaths caused by non-communicable disease and injuries. Assessing epidemiological convergence across countries depends on whether an absolute or relative measure of inequality is used. Nevertheless, age-standardised death rates for seven substantial causes are increasing, suggesting the potential for reversals in some countries. Important gaps exist in the empirical data for cause of death estimates for some countries; for example, no national data for India are available for the past decade.
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| 63. |
- Ortiz-Rodriguez, Jose M., et al.
(författare)
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Transcriptome analysis reveals that fertilization with cryopreserved sperm downregulates genes relevant for early embryo development in the horse
- 2019
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE. - 1932-6203. ; 14:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Artificial insemination with cryopreserved spermatozoa is a major assisted reproductive technology in many species. In horses, as in humans, insemination with cryopreserved sperm is associated with lower pregnancy rates than those for fresh sperm, however, direct effects of sperm cryopreservation on the development of resulting embryos are largely unexplored. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in gene expression between embryos resulting from fertilization with fresh or cryopreserved sperm. Embryos were obtained at 8, 10 or 12 days after ovulation from mares inseminated post-ovulation on successive cycles with either fresh sperm or frozen-thawed sperm from the same stallion, providing matched embryo pairs at each day. RNA was isolated from two matched pairs (4 embryos) for each day, and cDNA libraries were built and sequenced. Significant differences in transcripts per kilobase million (TPM) were determined using (i) genes for which the expression difference between treatments was higher than 99% of that in the random case (P amp;lt; 0.01), and (ii) genes for which the fold change was amp;gt;= 2, to avoid expression bias in selection of the candidate genes. Molecular pathways were explored using the DAVID webserver, followed by network analyses using STRING, with a threshold of 0.700 for positive interactions. The transcriptional profile of embryos obtained with frozen-thawed sperm differed significantly from that for embryos derived from fresh sperm on all days, showing significant down-regulation of genes involved in biological pathways related to oxidative phosphorylation, DNA binding, DNA replication, and immune response. Many genes with reduced expression were orthologs of genes known to be embryonic lethal in mice. This study, for the first time, provides evidence of altered transcription in embryos resulting from fertilization with cryopreserved spermatozoa in any species. As sperm cryopreservation is commonly used in many species, including human, the effect of this intervention on expression of developmentally important genes in resulting embryos warrants attention.
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| 64. |
- Reddin, Catriona, et al.
(författare)
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Association of Psychosocial Stress With Risk of Acute Stroke.
- 2022
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Ingår i: JAMA network open. - : American Medical Association (AMA). - 2574-3805. ; 5:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Psychosocial stress is considered a modifiable risk factor for stroke. Given the prevalence of chronic and acute exposure to stress, it represents a potentially attractive target for population-health interventions.To determine the association of psychosocial stress with the risk of acute stroke and explore factors that might modify the association of stress with risk of acute stroke in a large international population.INTERSTROKE is an international retrospective case-control study of risk factors for first acute stroke in 32 countries in Asia, North and South America, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, and Africa. A total of 13462 patients with stroke and 13488 matched controls were recruited between January 11, 2007, and August 8, 2015. The present analyses were performed from June 1 to 30, 2021, and included 13350 cases and 13462 controls with available data on psychosocial stress.Psychosocial stress and occurrence of stressful life events within the preceding year were measured using a standardized questionnaire of self-reported stress at home and work.The association of stress with acute stroke and its subtypes was examined using multivariable conditional logistic regression and factors that might modify the association, particularly self-reported locus of control.Among 26812 participants included in the analysis, the mean (SD) age of cases was 62.2 (13.6) years; that of controls, 61.3 (13.3) years; 7960 cases (59.6%) and 8017 controls (59.6%) were men. Several periods of stress and permanent stress were reported for 2745 cases (20.5%) and 1933 controls (14.4%), with marked regional variation in prevalence, with the lowest in China (201 of 3981 [5.0%] among controls and 364 of 3980 [9.1%] among cases) and highest in South East Asia (233 of 855 [26.1%] among controls and 241 of 782 [30.8%] among cases). Increased stress at home (odds ratio [OR], 1.95 [95% CI, 1.77-2.15]) and at work (OR, 2.70 [95% CI, 2.25-3.23]) and recent stressful life events (OR, 1.31 [95% CI, 1.19-1.43]) were associated with an increased risk of acute stroke on multivariable analyses (vs no self-reported stress). Higher locus of control at home was associated with a reduced odds of all stroke (OR, 0.73 [95% CI, 0.68-0.79]), and higher locus of control both at work and at home were associated with a lower odds of acute stroke and significantly diminished the association with stress at work (OR, 2.20 [95% CI, 1.88-2.58]; P =.008 for interaction) and home (OR, 1.69 [95% CI, 1.44-1.98]; P < .001 for interaction) for acute stroke.Psychosocial stress is a common risk factor for acute stroke. The findings of this case-control study suggest that higher locus of control is associated with lower risk of stroke and may be an important effect modifier of the risk associated with psychosocial stress.
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| 65. |
- Richter, Martinus, et al.
(författare)
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EFAS Score - Multilingual development and validation of a patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) by the score committee of the European Foot and Ankle Society (EFAS)
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Foot and Ankle Surgery. - : Elsevier BV. - 1268-7731 .- 1460-9584. ; 24:3, s. 185-204
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: A scientifically sound validated foot and ankle specific score validated ab initio for different languages is missing. The aim of a project of the European Foot and Ankle Society (EFAS) was to develop, validate, and publish a new score(the EFAS-Score) for different European languages.METHODS: The EFAS Score was developed and validated in three stages: (1) item (question) identification, (2) item reduction and scale exploration, (3) confirmatory analyses and responsiveness. The following score specifications were chosen: scale/subscale (Likert 0-4), questionnaire based, outcome measure, patient related outcome measurement. For stage 3, data were collected pre-operatively and at a minimum follow-up of 3 months and mean follow-up of 6 months. Item reduction, scale exploration, confirmatory analyses and responsiveness were executed using analyses from classical test theory and item response theory.RESULTS: Stage 1 resulted in 31 general and 7 sports related questions. In stage 2, a 6-item general EFAS Score was constructed using English, German, French and Swedish language data. In stage 3, internal consistency of the scale was confirmed in seven languages: the original four languages, plus Dutch, Italian and Polish (Cronbach's Alpha >0.86 in all language versions). Responsiveness was good, with moderate to large effect sizes in all languages, and significant positive association between the EFAS Score and patient-reported improvement. No sound EFAS Sports Score could be constructed.CONCLUSIONS: The multi-language EFAS Score was successfully validated in the orthopaedic ankle and foot surgery patient population, including a wide variety of foot and ankle pathologies. All score versions are freely available at www.efas.co.
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| 66. |
- Richter, Martinus, et al.
(författare)
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EFAS Score-Validation of Spanish and Estonian Versions by the score committee of the European Foot and Ankle Society (EFAS)
- 2023
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Ingår i: Foot and Ankle Surgery. - : Elsevier BV. - 1268-7731 .- 1460-9584. ; 29:3, s. 180-187
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: The Score Committee of the European Foot and Ankle Society (EFAS) developed, validated, and published the EFAS Score in 11 languages (Dutch, English, German, Finnish, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Persian, Swedish, Turkish). From other languages under validation, the Spanish and Estonian versions completed data acquisition and underwent further validation.METHODS: The EFAS Score was developed and validated in three stages: 1) item (question) identification (completed during the initial validation study), 2) item reduction and scale exploration (completed during the initial validation study), 3) confirmatory analyses and responsiveness of the Spanish and Estonian versions (completed during the initial validation study in seven other languages). The data were collected pre-operatively and post-operatively at a minimum follow-up of 3 months and mean follow-up of 6 months. Item reduction, scale exploration, confirmatory analyses and responsiveness were executed using classical test theory and item response theory.RESULTS: The internal consistency of the scale was confirmed in the Spanish and Estonian versions (Cronbach's Alpha>0.8). Responsiveness was good, with moderate to large effect sizes in both languages, and evidence of a statistically significant positive association between the EFAS Score and patient-reported improvement.CONCLUSIONS: The Spanish and Estonian EFAS Score versions were successfully validated in orthopaedic ankle and foot surgery patients, with a wide variety of foot and ankle pathologies. All score versions are freely available at www.efas.net.
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| 67. |
- Rios, Pilar, et al.
(författare)
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Aviles Canyon System : Increasing the benthic biodiversity knowledge
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science. - : Elsevier. - 0272-7714 .- 1096-0015. ; 274
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Macro and megafauna were studied in the Avile acute accent s Canyon System (ACS), southern Bay of Biscay (Cantabrian Sea), during several oceanographic cruises carried out from 2009 to 2017. The biodiversity of ACS is summarized and its description is herein updated after sampling surveys of several programmes (ECOMARG, INDEMARES, SponGES, INTEMARES) conducted by the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO).This study has updated previous knowledge in the canyon area from past national and international projects, their reports and publications as well as data collected in the context of regional projects designed to gain new insight into the diversity of marine invertebrates and fishes from the ACS. Samples were taken using a range of sampling gears (Rock dredge, Beam trawl, Trawl gear GOC-73, Suprabenthic sledge, Box corer and Remoted operated vehicle), from 55 to 2291 m in depth. A total of 1015 species were identified at the ACS: 98 Porifera, 153 Cnidaria, 14 Brachiopoda, 22 Bryozoa, 97 Mollusca, 151 Annelida, 315 Arthropoda, 74 Echinodermata and 91 Chordata. New records for the Bay of Biscay fauna include 13 Porifera species, 17 Cnidaria, 7 Mollusca, Arthopoda, 3 Echinodermata and 4 Chordata. Also the bathymetric range of some species has been extended. As a result of the research projects carried out in the area in the last fifteen years, important information is now available which suggests that the ACS houses a large number of species with a high ecological value, that represents a biodiversity hotspot in terms of the presence of sponge aggregations and coral reefs in certain regions, and that it sustains important fisheries due to the abundance of comercial species. Given the relevance of the species and habitats occurring in the ACS, there is a need to implement a conservation and management plan of the area in order to maintain habitats in good state of preservation.
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| 68. |
- Rossi, D. M., et al.
(författare)
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Investigation of the Dipole Response in Exotic Nuclei-Experiments at the LAND-(RB)-B-3 Setup
- 2012
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Ingår i: Progress of Theoretical Physics Supplement. - 1347-4081 .- 0375-9687. ; :196, s. 465-470
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present experimental results on the electromagnetic excitation of neutron-rich nickel isotopes, making use of the (RB)-B-3-LAND setup at GSI. Exotic beams were produced at approximately 500 MeV/u and their reactions were studied in inverse kinematics. Integral cross sections for Ni-58 are discussed and compared to previous data, providing a validation of our experimental method. The El excitation-energy distribution of the unstable Ni-68 is presented as well, showing an excess in cross section in the 1n decay channel when compared only with a typical Giant Dipole Resonance.
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| 69. |
- Seoane, Fernando, et al.
(författare)
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Sensorized Garments and Textrode-Enabled Measurement Instrumentation for Ambulatory Assessment of the Autonomic Nervous System Response in the ATREC Project
- 2013
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Ingår i: Sensors. - : MDPI AG. - 1424-8220. ; 13:7, s. 8997-9015
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Advances in textile materials, technology and miniaturization of electronics for measurement instrumentation has boosted the development of wearable measurement systems. In several projects sensorized garments and non-invasive instrumentation have been integrated to assess on emotional, cognitive responses as well as physical arousal and status of mental stress through the study of the autonomous nervous system. Assessing the mental state of workers under stressful conditions is critical to identify which workers are in the proper state of mind and which are not ready to undertake a mission, which might consequently risk their own life and the lives of others. The project Assessment in Real Time of the Stress in Combatants (ATREC) aims to enable real time assessment of mental stress of the Spanish Armed Forces during military activities using a wearable measurement system containing sensorized garments and textile-enabled non-invasive instrumentation. This work describes the multiparametric sensorized garments and measurement instrumentation implemented in the first phase of the project required to evaluate physiological indicators and recording candidates that can be useful for detection of mental stress. For such purpose different sensorized garments have been constructed: a textrode chest-strap system with six repositionable textrodes, a sensorized glove and an upper-arm strap. The implemented textile-enabled instrumentation contains one skin galvanometer, two temperature sensors for skin and environmental temperature and an impedance pneumographer containing a 1-channel ECG amplifier to record cardiogenic biopotentials. With such combinations of garments and non-invasive measurement devices, a multiparametric wearable measurement system has been implemented able to record the following physiological parameters: heart and respiration rate, skin galvanic response, environmental and peripheral temperature. To ensure the proper functioning of the implemented garments and devices the full series of 12 sets have been functionally tested recording cardiogenic biopotential, thoracic impedance, galvanic skin response and temperature values. The experimental results indicate that the implemented wearable measurement systems operate according to the specifications and are ready to be used for mental stress experiments, which will be executed in the coming phases of the project with dozens of healthy volunteers.
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| 70. |
- Seoane, Fernando, et al.
(författare)
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Wearable Biomedical Measurement Systems for Assessment of Mental Stress of Combatants in Real Time
- 2014
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Ingår i: Sensors. - : MDPI AG. - 1424-8220. ; 14:4, s. 7120-7141
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Spanish Ministry of Defense, through its Future Combatant program, has sought to develop technology aids with the aim of extending combatants' operational capabilities. Within this framework the ATREC project funded by the Coincidente program aims at analyzing diverse biometrics to assess by real time monitoring the stress levels of combatants. This project combines multidisciplinary disciplines and fields, including wearable instrumentation, textile technology, signal processing, pattern recognition and psychological analysis of the obtained information. In this work the ATREC project is described, including the different execution phases, the wearable biomedical measurement systems, the experimental setup, the biomedical signal analysis and speech processing performed. The preliminary results obtained from the data analysis collected during the first phase of the project are presented, indicating the good classification performance exhibited when using features obtained from electrocardiographic recordings and electrical bioimpedance measurements from the thorax. These results suggest that cardiac and respiration activity offer better biomarkers for assessment of stress than speech, galvanic skin response or skin temperature when recorded with wearable biomedical measurement systems.
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