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| 2. |
- Ademuyiwa, Adesoji O., et al.
(författare)
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Determinants of morbidity and mortality following emergency abdominal surgery in children in low-income and middle-income countries
- 2016
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Ingår i: BMJ Global Health. - : BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. - 2059-7908. ; 1:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Child health is a key priority on the global health agenda, yet the provision of essential and emergency surgery in children is patchy in resource-poor regions. This study was aimed to determine the mortality risk for emergency abdominal paediatric surgery in low-income countries globally.Methods: Multicentre, international, prospective, cohort study. Self-selected surgical units performing emergency abdominal surgery submitted prespecified data for consecutive children aged <16 years during a 2-week period between July and December 2014. The United Nation's Human Development Index (HDI) was used to stratify countries. The main outcome measure was 30-day postoperative mortality, analysed by multilevel logistic regression.Results: This study included 1409 patients from 253 centres in 43 countries; 282 children were under 2 years of age. Among them, 265 (18.8%) were from low-HDI, 450 (31.9%) from middle-HDI and 694 (49.3%) from high-HDI countries. The most common operations performed were appendectomy, small bowel resection, pyloromyotomy and correction of intussusception. After adjustment for patient and hospital risk factors, child mortality at 30 days was significantly higher in low-HDI (adjusted OR 7.14 (95% CI 2.52 to 20.23), p<0.001) and middle-HDI (4.42 (1.44 to 13.56), p=0.009) countries compared with high-HDI countries, translating to 40 excess deaths per 1000 procedures performed.Conclusions: Adjusted mortality in children following emergency abdominal surgery may be as high as 7 times greater in low-HDI and middle-HDI countries compared with high-HDI countries. Effective provision of emergency essential surgery should be a key priority for global child health agendas.
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| 3. |
- 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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| 4. |
- Weigand, H., et al.
(författare)
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Closing the user-centric service coordination cycle
- 2010
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Ingår i: CAiSE Forum'10. ; , s. 1-8
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the future vision of an Internet of Services, users take an active role in service selection and composition. In this context, web services are mostly interfaces to real services and can be classified as coordination services with respect to the latter. To enable users to perform service composition, the effect of the coordination services must be described in such a way that users are not only able to discover services but also to detect and prevent possible conflicts in their composition. To meet these requirements, a service description language for coordination services is proposed based on the REA business ontology.
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| 5. |
- Weigand, H., et al.
(författare)
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Closing the user-centric service coordination cycle by means of coordination services
- 2011
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Ingår i: CAiSE Forum 2010 on Information Systems Evolution. - Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer Berlin Heidelberg. - 3642177212 - 9783642177217 ; , s. 267-282
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the future vision of an Internet of Services, users take an active role in service selection and composition. In this context, web services are mostly interfaces to real services and can be classified as coordination services with respect to the latter. To enable users to perform service composition, the effect of the coordination services must be described in such a way that users are not only able to discover services but also to detect and prevent possible conflicts in their composition. To meet these requirements, a service description language for coordination services is proposed based on the REA business ontology.
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| 6. |
- Weigand, H., et al.
(författare)
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Describing coordination services with REA
- 2010
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Ingår i: CAiSE 2010 Workshop BUSITAL’10. ; , s. 120-134
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Coordination services are services, possibly implemented as web services, that support the coordination of (real-world) services that a consumer would like to take. To support users of a future Internet of Services, the effect of the coordination services must be described in such a way that users are not only able to discover services but also to detect and prevent possible conflicts in their composition. In this paper, REA is applied as a solution approach to this requirement. The REA business ontology has proven to be a good foundation for the description of services, but we argue that its conceptualization of commitments can be improved.
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| 7. |
- Arachchige, Erandi C.W.Subasinghe, et al.
(författare)
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A global assessment of the species composition and effectiveness of watermelon pollinators and the management strategies to inform effective pollination service delivery
- 2023
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Ingår i: Basic and Applied Ecology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1439-1791. ; 66, s. 50-62
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- For most food crops the identity and efficiency of pollinators across key growing regions remains a significant knowledge gap that needs to be addressed before we can develop crop-specific approaches for pollination service delivery. Here, we conducted a systematic literature review and meta-analysis on watermelon (Citrullus lanatus (Thunb. Matsum. & Nakai)), a globally important fruit crop, to identify the floral visitors and their efficiency across different growing regions. We found that 265 insect species visit watermelon flowers (including 5 orders, 18 families and 75 genera) across 17 countries and 6 continents. Bees and flies were the most abundant flower visitors overall, but show distinct regional differences. Honey bees were the majority visitor in 53% of growing regions (range: 0 – 94%), whilst wild bee species were more abundant in 42% of regions (range: 3.4 – 100%). Honey bees and other bees were equally effective at depositing pollen on stigmas, but varied in effectiveness for fruit set and seed set. Pollination data from global studies appear to be limited for the largest-scale watermelon producers, namely: China, Turkey, and India, with the majority (56%) of data available from North America. This synthesis identified four key themes for improving pollination in watermelon: increasing honey bee densities on crops where local polices and environmental conditions are suitable; introducing other managed pollinators; identifying key wild pollinator taxa to encourage within crops; and improving local and landscape management practices to support pollinators.
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| 8. |
- Jayasinghe-Arachchige, Vindi M., et al.
(författare)
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Hydrolysis of Chemically Distinct Sites of Human Serum Albumin by Polyoxometalate : A Hybrid QM/MM (ONIOM) Study
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Computational Chemistry. - : Wiley. - 0192-8651 .- 1096-987X. ; 40:1, s. 51-61
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this study, mechanisms of hydrolysis of all four chemically diverse cleavage sites of human serum albumin (HSA) by [Zr(OH) (PW11O39)](4-)(ZrK) have been investigated using the hybrid two-layer QM/MM (ONIOM) method. These reactions have been proposed to occur through the following two mechanisms: internal attack (IA) and water assisted (WA). In both mechanisms, the cleavage of the peptide bond in the Cys392-Glu393 site of HSA is predicted to occur in the rate-limiting step of the mechanism. With the barrier of 27.5 kcal/mol for the hydrolysis of this site, the IA mechanism is found to be energetically more favorable than the WA mechanism (barrier = 31.6 kcal/mol). The energetics for the IA mechanism are in line with the experimentally measured values for the cleavage of a wide range of dipeptides. These calculations also suggest an energetic preference (Cys392-Glu393, Ala257-Asp258, Lys313-Asp314, and Arg114-Leu115) for the hydrolysis of all four sites of HSA. (C) 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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| 9. |
- Subasinghe Arachchige, Erandi C.W., et al.
(författare)
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Honey bees are the most abundant visitors to Australian watermelon but native stingless bees are equally effective as pollinators
- 2022
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Ingår i: Ecological Solutions and Evidence. - : Wiley. - 2688-8319. ; 3:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite the benefits of a diverse approach to crop pollination, global food production remains reliant on a low diversity of managed pollinators, especially the European honey bee (Apis mellifera). To facilitate more robust pollinator management and improve the resilience of the production system, it is necessary to understand regional variation in the pollination ecology of global food crops. Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus [Thunb.] Matsum & Nakai) is a highly insect pollinator-dependent crop and even though it is grown globally across many different climate zones, little is known about its pollination ecology across the diverse growing regions of Australia, spanning from the tropics to the arid zone. We compared the species composition, visitation rates and effectiveness of the dominant floral visitors on 15 farms across five major watermelon-growing regions of Australia. We found that insect species composition differed significantly among regions, but honey bees were the dominant watermelon flower visitor, with relative abundance varying from 73% to 94%. However, native bees (including stingless bees Tetragonula sp., and bees from families Megachilidae and Halictidae such as Lasioglossum, Homalictus and Lipotriches) and flies (particularly Syrphidae sp.) also visited and transferred pollen onto watermelon flowers. In particular, native stingless bees were common visitors in several growing regions and deposited similar amounts of pollen to honey bees. Our findings indicate that the Australian watermelon industry utilizes honey bees, but the diverse assemblage of available native pollinating taxa provides an additional opportunity for growers in specific growing regions. Pollination service delivery could be increased by deploying managed populations (e.g., native stingless bee colonies), employing pollinator-safe land management practices as well as exploring methods for increasing the efficiency of managed honey bee colonies.
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| 10. |
- Subasinghe Arachchige, Erandi C.W., et al.
(författare)
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Morphological characteristics of pollen from triploid watermelon and its fate on stigmas in a hybrid crop production system
- 2022
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Hybrid crop production is more reliant on pollinators compared to open-pollinated crops because they require cross-pollination between a male-fertile and a male-sterile line. Little is known about how stigma receipt of pollen from male-sterile genotypes affects reproduction in hybrids. Non-viable and non-compatible pollen cannot fertilise plant ovules, but may still interfere with pollination success. Here we used seedless watermelon (Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai) as a model hybrid plant, to evaluate the morphology, physiology, and movement of pollen from inter-planted genotypes (diploids and triploids). We found that pollen from triploids (‘Exclamation’ and ‘Royal Armada’) and diploids (‘SP-6’, ‘Summer Flavor 800’, and ‘Tiger’) was visually distinguishable. Pollen in triploids had more deformities (42.4–46%), tetrads (43–44%), and abnormal growth of callose plugs in pollen tubes. The amount of pollen in triploids to germinate on stigmas was low (8 ± 3%), and few pollen grains produced pollen tubes (6.5 ± 2%). Still, contrary to previous reports our results suggest that some viable pollen grains are produced by triploid watermelons. However, whilst honey bees can collect and deposit pollen from triploids onto stigmas, its effect on hybrid watermelon reproduction is likely to be minimal due to its low germination rate.
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