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| 2. |
- Santangelo, James S., et al.
(författare)
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Global urban environmental change drives adaptation in white clover
- 2022
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Ingår i: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 375
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Urbanization transforms environments in ways that alter biological evolution. We examined whether urban environmental change drives parallel evolution by sampling 110,019 white clover plants from 6169 populations in 160 cities globally. Plants were assayed for a Mendelian antiherbivore defense that also affects tolerance to abiotic stressors. Urban-rural gradients were associated with the evolution of clines in defense in 47% of cities throughout the world. Variation in the strength of clines was explained by environmental changes in drought stress and vegetation cover that varied among cities. Sequencing 2074 genomes from 26 cities revealed that the evolution of urban-rural dines was best explained by adaptive evolution, but the degree of parallel adaptation varied among cities. Our results demonstrate that urbanization leads to adaptation at a global scale.
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| 3. |
- Loza, M. J., et al.
(författare)
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Validated and longitudinally stable asthma phenotypes based on cluster analysis of the ADEPT study
- 2016
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Ingår i: Respiratory Research. - : Springer Nature. - 1465-9921 .- 1465-993X. ; 17:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Asthma is a disease of varying severity and differing disease mechanisms. To date, studies aimed at stratifying asthma into clinically useful phenotypes have produced a number of phenotypes that have yet to be assessed for stability and to be validated in independent cohorts. The aim of this study was to define and validate, for the first time ever, clinically driven asthma phenotypes using two independent, severe asthma cohorts: ADEPT and U-BIOPRED. Methods: Fuzzy partition-around-medoid clustering was performed on pre-specified data from the ADEPT participants (n = 156) and independently on data from a subset of U-BIOPRED asthma participants (n = 82) for whom the same variables were available. Models for cluster classification probabilities were derived and applied to the 12-month longitudinal ADEPT data and to a larger subset of the U-BIOPRED asthma dataset (n = 397). High and low type-2 inflammation phenotypes were defined as high or low Th2 activity, indicated by endobronchial biopsies gene expression changes downstream of IL-4 or IL-13. Results: Four phenotypes were identified in the ADEPT (training) cohort, with distinct clinical and biomarker profiles. Phenotype 1 was "mild, good lung function, early onset", with a low-inflammatory, predominantly Type-2, phenotype. Phenotype 2 had a "moderate, hyper-responsive, eosinophilic" phenotype, with moderate asthma control, mild airflow obstruction and predominant Type-2 inflammation. Phenotype 3 had a "mixed severity, predominantly fixed obstructive, non-eosinophilic and neutrophilic" phenotype, with moderate asthma control and low Type-2 inflammation. Phenotype 4 had a "severe uncontrolled, severe reversible obstruction, mixed granulocytic" phenotype, with moderate Type-2 inflammation. These phenotypes had good longitudinal stability in the ADEPT cohort. They were reproduced and demonstrated high classification probability in two subsets of the U-BIOPRED asthma cohort. Conclusions: Focusing on the biology of the four clinical independently-validated easy-to-assess ADEPT asthma phenotypes will help understanding the unmet need and will aid in developing tailored therapies. Trial registration:NCT01274507(ADEPT), registered October 28, 2010 and NCT01982162(U-BIOPRED), registered October 30, 2013.
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| 4. |
- Penston, M. V., et al.
(författare)
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The extended narrow line region of NGC 4151. I. Emission line ratios and their implications
- 1990
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 236:1, s. 53-6262
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The paper presents the first results from long-slit spectra of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 4151 which give average diagnostic ratios of weak lines in the extended narrow line region (ENLR) of that galaxy and the first direct density measurement in an ENLR. These data confirm that the ENLR is kinematically undisturbed gas in the disc of the galaxy which is illuminated by an ionizing continuum stronger by a factor of 13 than a power law interpolated between observed ultraviolet and X-ray fluxes. Explanations of this apparent excess include a hot thermal continuum, time variations and an anisotropic radiation field. The authors give reasons for favouring anisotropy which might be caused by shadowing by a thick accretion disc or by relativistic beaming. Shadowing by a molecular torus is unlikely, given the absence of an infrared signal from the reradiated flux absorbed by any torus. Anisotropy would have important implications for the bolometric luminosity and nature of active galactic nuclei
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| 5. |
- Caizergues, Aude E., et al.
(författare)
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Does urbanisation lead to parallel demographic shifts across the world in a cosmopolitan plant?
- 2024
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Ingår i: Molecular Ecology. - 0962-1083 .- 1365-294X. ; 33:7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Urbanisation is occurring globally, leading to dramatic environmental changes that are altering the ecology and evolution of species. In particular, the expansion of human infrastructure and the loss and fragmentation of natural habitats in cities is predicted to increase genetic drift and reduce gene flow by reducing the size and connectivity of populations. Alternatively, the 'urban facilitation model' suggests that some species will have greater gene flow into and within cities leading to higher diversity and lower differentiation in urban populations. These alternative hypotheses have not been contrasted across multiple cities. Here, we used the genomic data from the GLobal Urban Evolution project (GLUE), to study the effects of urbanisation on non-adaptive evolutionary processes of white clover (Trifolium repens) at a global scale. We found that white clover populations presented high genetic diversity and no evidence of reduced Ne linked to urbanisation. On the contrary, we found that urban populations were less likely to experience a recent decrease in effective population size than rural ones. In addition, we found little genetic structure among populations both globally and between urban and rural populations, which showed extensive gene flow between habitats. Interestingly, white clover displayed overall higher gene flow within urban areas than within rural habitats. Our study provides the largest comprehensive test of the demographic effects of urbanisation. Our results contrast with the common perception that heavily altered and fragmented urban environments will reduce the effective population size and genetic diversity of populations and contribute to their isolation.
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| 6. |
- Shaw, DE, et al.
(författare)
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Clinical and inflammatory characteristics of the European U-BIOPRED adult severe asthma cohort
- 2015
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Ingår i: The European respiratory journal. - : European Respiratory Society (ERS). - 1399-3003 .- 0903-1936. ; 46:5, s. 1308-1321
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- U-BIOPRED is a European Union consortium of 20 academic institutions, 11 pharmaceutical companies and six patient organisations with the objective of improving the understanding of asthma disease mechanisms using a systems biology approach.This cross-sectional assessment of adults with severe asthma, mild/moderate asthma and healthy controls from 11 European countries consisted of analyses of patient-reported outcomes, lung function, blood and airway inflammatory measurements.Patients with severe asthma (nonsmokers, n=311; smokers/ex-smokers, n=110) had more symptoms and exacerbations compared to patients with mild/moderate disease (n=88) (2.5 exacerbations versus 0.4 in the preceding 12 months; p<0.001), with worse quality of life, and higher levels of anxiety and depression. They also had a higher incidence of nasal polyps and gastro-oesophageal reflux with lower lung function. Sputum eosinophil count was higher in severe asthma compared to mild/moderate asthma (median count 2.99% versus 1.05%; p=0.004) despite treatment with higher doses of inhaled and/or oral corticosteroids.Consistent with other severe asthma cohorts, U-BIOPRED is characterised by poor symptom control, increased comorbidity and airway inflammation, despite high levels of treatment. It is well suited to identify asthma phenotypes using the array of “omic” datasets that are at the core of this systems medicine approach.
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| 8. |
- Kattner, Nicole, et al.
(författare)
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Development and validation of a quantitative electron microscopy score to assess acute cellular stress in the human exocrine pancreas
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Pathology: Clinical Research. - : Wiley. - 2056-4538. ; 7:2, s. 173-187
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The pancreas is particularly sensitive to acute cellular stress, but this has been difficult to evaluate using light microscopy. Pancreatic ischaemia associated with deceased organ donation negatively impacts whole-organ and isolated-islet transplantation outcomes. Post-mortem changes have also hampered accurate interpretation of ante-mortem pancreatic pathology. A rigorous histological scoring system accurately quantifying ischaemia is required to experimentally evaluate innovations in organ preservation and to increase rigour in clinical/research evaluation of underlying pancreatic pathology. We developed and validated an unbiased electron microscopy (EM) score of acute pancreatic exocrine cellular stress in deceased organ donor cohorts (development [n = 28] and validation [n = 16]). Standardised assessment led to clearly described numerical scores (0–3) for nuclear, mitochondrial and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) morphology and intracellular vacuolisation; with a maximum (worst) aggregate total score of 12. In the Validation cohort, a trend towards higher scores was observed for tail versus head regions (nucleus score following donation after brainstem death [DBD]: head 0.67 ± 0.19; tail 0.86 ± 0.11; p = 0.027) and donation after circulatory death (DCD) versus DBD (mitochondrial score: DCD (head + tail) 2.59 ± 0.16; DBD (head + tail) 2.38 ± 0.21; p = 0.004). Significant mitochondrial changes were seen ubiquitously even with short cold ischaemia, whereas nuclear and vacuolisation changes remained mild even after prolonged ischaemia. ER score correlated with cold ischaemia time (CIT) following DBD (pancreatic tail region: r = 0.796; p = 0.018). No relationships between CIT and EM scores were observed following DCD. In conclusion, we have developed and validated a novel EM score providing standardised quantitative assessment of subcellular ultrastructural morphology in pancreatic acinar cells. This provides a robust novel tool for gold standard measurement of acute cellular stress in studies evaluating surrogate measures of peri-transplant ischaemia, organ preservation technologies and in samples obtained for detailed pathological examination of underlying pancreatic pathology.
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| 9. |
- Jalloh, Mohamed F., et al.
(författare)
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Evidence of behaviour change during an Ebola virus disease outbreak, Sierra Leone
- 2020
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Ingår i: Bulletin of the World Health Organization. - : World Health Organization. - 0042-9686 .- 1564-0604. ; 98:5, s. 330-340
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective To evaluate changes in Ebola-related knowledge, attitudes and prevention practices during the Sierra Leone outbreak between 2014 and 2015.Methods Four cluster surveys were conducted: two before the outbreak peak (3499 participants) and two after (7104 participants). We assessed the effect of temporal and geographical factors on 16 knowledge, attitude and practice outcomes.Findings Fourteen of 16 knowledge, attitude and prevention practice outcomes improved across all regions from before to after the outbreak peak. The proportion of respondents willing to: (i) welcome Ebola survivors back into the community increased from 60.0% to 89.4% (adjusted odds ratio, aOR: 6.0; 95% confidence interval, CI: 3.9–9.1); and (ii) wait for a burial team following a relative’s death increased from 86.0% to 95.9% (aOR: 4.4; 95% CI: 3.2–6.0). The proportion avoiding unsafe traditional burials increased from 27.3% to 48.2% (aOR: 3.1; 95% CI: 2.4–4.2) and the proportion believing spiritual healers can treat Ebola decreased from 15.9% to 5.0% (aOR: 0.2; 95% CI: 0.1–0.3). The likelihood respondents would wait for burial teams increased more in high-transmission (aOR: 6.2; 95% CI: 4.2–9.1) than low-transmission (aOR: 2.3; 95% CI: 1.4–3.8) regions. Self-reported avoidance of physical contact with corpses increased in high but not low-transmission regions, aOR: 1.9 (95% CI: 1.4–2.5) and aOR: 0.8 (95% CI: 0.6–1.2), respectively.Conclusion Ebola knowledge, attitudes and prevention practices improved during the Sierra Leone outbreak, especially in high-transmission regions. Behaviourally-targeted community engagement should be prioritized early during outbreaks.
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| 10. |
- Johnson, Mark S., et al.
(författare)
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Direct and continuous measurements of dissolved carbon dioxide in freshwater aquatic systems : method and applications
- 2010
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Ingår i: Ecohydrology. - : Wiley. - 1936-0584 .- 1936-0592. ; 3:1, s. 68-78
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Understanding of the processes that control CO2 concentrations in the aquatic environment has been hampered by the absence of a direct method to make continuous measurements over both short- and long-term time intervals. We describe an in situ method in which a non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) sensor is enclosed in a water impermeable, gas permeable polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane and deployed in a freshwater environment. This allows measurements of CO2 concentration to be made directly at a specific depth in the water column without the need for pumps or reagents. We demonstrate the potential of the method using examples from different aquatic environments characterized by a range of CO2 concentrations (0·5–8·0 mg CO2-C l−1, equivalent to ca 40–650 µmol CO2 l−1). These comprise streams and ponds from tropical, temperate and boreal regions. Data derived from the sensor was compared with direct measurements of CO2 concentrations using headspace analysis. Sensor performance following long-term (>6 months) field deployment conformed to manufacturers' specifications, with no drift detected. We conclude that the sensor-based method is a robust, accurate and responsive method, with a wide range of potential applications, particularly when combined with other in situ sensor-based measurements of related variables.
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