| 1. |
- 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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| 2. |
- Falster, Daniel, et al.
(författare)
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AusTraits, a curated plant trait database for the Australian flora
- 2021
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Ingår i: Scientific Data. - : Nature Portfolio. - 2052-4463. ; 8:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We introduce the AusTraits database - a compilation of values of plant traits for taxa in the Australian flora (hereafter AusTraits). AusTraits synthesises data on 448 traits across 28,640 taxa from field campaigns, published literature, taxonomic monographs, and individual taxon descriptions. Traits vary in scope from physiological measures of performance (e.g. photosynthetic gas exchange, water-use efficiency) to morphological attributes (e.g. leaf area, seed mass, plant height) which link to aspects of ecological variation. AusTraits contains curated and harmonised individual- and species-level measurements coupled to, where available, contextual information on site properties and experimental conditions. This article provides information on version 3.0.2 of AusTraits which contains data for 997,808 trait-by-taxon combinations. We envision AusTraits as an ongoing collaborative initiative for easily archiving and sharing trait data, which also provides a template for other national or regional initiatives globally to fill persistent gaps in trait knowledge.
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| 3. |
- Peloso, Gina M, et al.
(författare)
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Association of low-frequency and rare coding-sequence variants with blood lipids and coronary heart disease in 56,000 whites and blacks.
- 2014
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Ingår i: American Journal of Human Genetics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0002-9297. ; 94:2, s. 223-232
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Low-frequency coding DNA sequence variants in the proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 gene (PCSK9) lower plasma low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), protect against risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), and have prompted the development of a new class of therapeutics. It is uncertain whether the PCSK9 example represents a paradigm or an isolated exception. We used the "Exome Array" to genotype >200,000 low-frequency and rare coding sequence variants across the genome in 56,538 individuals (42,208 European ancestry [EA] and 14,330 African ancestry [AA]) and tested these variants for association with LDL-C, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and triglycerides. Although we did not identify new genes associated with LDL-C, we did identify four low-frequency (frequencies between 0.1% and 2%) variants (ANGPTL8 rs145464906 [c.361C>T; p.Gln121(∗)], PAFAH1B2 rs186808413 [c.482C>T; p.Ser161Leu], COL18A1 rs114139997 [c.331G>A; p.Gly111Arg], and PCSK7 rs142953140 [c.1511G>A; p.Arg504His]) with large effects on HDL-C and/or triglycerides. None of these four variants was associated with risk for CHD, suggesting that examples of low-frequency coding variants with robust effects on both lipids and CHD will be limited.
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| 4. |
- Nene, Vishvanath, et al.
(författare)
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Genome sequence of Aedes aegypti, a major arbovirus vector.
- 2007
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Ingår i: Science (New York, N.Y.). - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 1095-9203 .- 0036-8075. ; 316:5832, s. 1718-23
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present a draft sequence of the genome of Aedes aegypti, the primary vector for yellow fever and dengue fever, which at approximately 1376 million base pairs is about 5 times the size of the genome of the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae. Nearly 50% of the Ae. aegypti genome consists of transposable elements. These contribute to a factor of approximately 4 to 6 increase in average gene length and in sizes of intergenic regions relative to An. gambiae and Drosophila melanogaster. Nonetheless, chromosomal synteny is generally maintained among all three insects, although conservation of orthologous gene order is higher (by a factor of approximately 2) between the mosquito species than between either of them and the fruit fly. An increase in genes encoding odorant binding, cytochrome P450, and cuticle domains relative to An. gambiae suggests that members of these protein families underpin some of the biological differences between the two mosquito species.
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| 5. |
- Clayton, Aled, et al.
(författare)
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Summary of the ISEV workshop on extracellular vesicles as disease biomarkers, held in Birmingham, UK, during December 2017
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Extracellular Vesicles. - : Wiley. - 2001-3078. ; 7
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group on behalf of The International Society for Extracellular Vesicles. This report summarises the presentations and activities of the ISEV Workshop on extracellular vesicle biomarkers held in Birmingham, UK during December 2017. Among the key messages was broad agreement about the importance of biospecimen science. Much greater attention needs to be paid towards the provenance of collected samples. The workshop also highlighted clear gaps in our knowledge about pre-analytical factors that alter extracellular vesicles (EVs). The future utility of certified standards for credentialing of instruments and software, to analyse EV and for tracking the influence of isolation steps on the structure and content of EVs were also discussed. Several example studies were presented, demonstrating the potential utility for EVs in disease diagnosis, prognosis, longitudinal serial testing and stratification of patients. The conclusion of the workshop was that more effort focused on pre-analytical issues and benchmarking of isolation methods is needed to strengthen collaborations and advance more effective biomarkers.
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| 6. |
- Koychev, Ivan, et al.
(författare)
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PET Tau and Amyloid-β Burden in Mild Alzheimer's Disease: Divergent Relationship with Age, Cognition, and Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers.
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD. - 1875-8908. ; 60:1, s. 283-293
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Combining PET amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau imaging may be critical for tracking disease progression in Alzheimer's disease (AD).We sought to characterize the relationship between Aβ and tau ligands as well as with other measures of pathology.We conducted a multi-center observational study in early AD (MMSE >20) participants aged 50 to 85y. The schedule included cognitive assessments (ADAS-Cog) and CSF measurement of Aβ and tau at baseline and 6 months; PET-CT imaging with Aβ ([18F]AV45) and tau ([18F]AV1451) ligands at baseline.22 participants took part in the study with 20 completing its 6-month duration and 12 having both tau and amyloid PET. The PET biomarker analysis revealed a strong negative correlation between age and tau in multiple regions. Entorhinal cortex tau and age interacted significantly in terms of cognitive change over 6 months which may have been to older participants deteriorating faster despite lower levels of cortical tau. Cortical Aβ associated with entorhinal cortex tau while CSF tau/Aβ ratio correlated strongly with cortical tau but not Aβ.The negative relationship between age and cortical tau whereby younger patients with mild AD had relatively greater tau burden is potentially important. It suggests that younger-age onset AD may be primarily driven by tau pathology while AD developing later may depend on a multitude of pathological mechanisms. These data also suggest that PET-tau performs better than PET-amyloid in predicting the best validated AD diagnostic marker- the CSF total tau/Aβ ratio.
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| 7. |
- Kuang Soh, Wuu, et al.
(författare)
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Rising CO2 drives divergence in water use efficiency of evergreen and deciduous plants
- 2019
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Ingår i: Science Advances. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 2375-2548. ; 5:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Intrinsic water use efficiency (iWUE), defined as the ratio of photosynthesis to stomatal conductance, is a key variable in plant physiology and ecology. Yet, how rising atmospheric CO2 concentration affects iWUE at broad species and ecosystem scales is poorly understood. In a field-based study of 244 woody angiosperm species across eight biomes over the past 25 years of increasing atmospheric CO2 (similar to 45 ppm), we show that iWUE in evergreen species has increased more rapidly than in deciduous species. Specifically, the difference in iWUE gain between evergreen and deciduous taxa diverges along a mean annual temperature gradient from tropical to boreal forests and follows similar observed trends in leaf functional traits such as leaf mass per area. Synthesis of multiple lines of evidence supports our findings. This study provides timely insights into the impact of Anthropocene climate change on forest ecosystems and will aid the development of next-generation trait-based vegetation models.
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| 8. |
- Lucien, Fabrice, et al.
(författare)
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MIBlood-EV: Minimal information to enhance the quality and reproducibility of blood extracellular vesicle research
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Extracellular Vesicles. - 2001-3078. ; 12:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Blood is the most commonly used body fluid for extracellular vesicle (EV) research. The composition of a blood sample and its derivatives (i.e., plasma and serum) are not only donor-dependent but also influenced by collection and preparation protocols. Since there are hundreds of pre-analytical protocols and over forty variables, the development of standard operating procedures for EV research is very challenging. To improve the reproducibility of blood EV research, the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) Blood EV Task Force proposes standardized reporting of (i) the applied blood collection and preparation protocol and (ii) the quality of the prepared plasma and serum samples. Gathering detailed information will provide insight into the performance of the protocols and more effectively identify potential confounders in the prepared plasma and serum samples. To collect this information, the ISEV Blood EV Task Force created the Minimal Information for Blood EV research (MIBlood-EV), a tool to record and report information about pre-analytical protocols used for plasma and serum preparation as well as assays used to assess the quality of these preparations. This tool does not require modifications of established local pre-analytical protocols and can be easily implemented to enhance existing databases thereby enabling evidence-based optimization of pre-analytical protocols through meta-analysis. Taken together, insight into the quality of prepared plasma and serum samples will (i) improve the quality of biobanks for EV research, (ii) guide the exchange of plasma and serum samples between biobanks and laboratories, (iii) facilitate inter-laboratory comparative EV studies, and (iv) improve the peer review process.
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| 9. |
- Mc Ardle, Ríona, et al.
(författare)
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Gait in Mild Alzheimer's Disease: Feasibility of Multi-Center Measurement in the Clinic and Home with Body-Worn Sensors: A Pilot Study.
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD. - 1875-8908. ; 63:1, s. 331-341
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Gait is emerging as a potential diagnostic tool for cognitive decline. The 'Deep and Frequent Phenotyping for Experimental Medicine in Dementia Study' (D&FP) is a multicenter feasibility study embedded in the United Kingdom Dementia Platform designed to determine participant acceptability and feasibility of extensive and repeated phenotyping to determine the optimal combination of biomarkers to detect disease progression and identify early risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Gait is included as a clinical biomarker. The tools to quantify gait in the clinic and home, and suitability for multi-center application have not been examined. Six centers from the National Institute for Health Research Translational Research Collaboration in Dementia initiative recruited 20 individuals with early onset AD. Participants wore a single wearable (tri-axial accelerometer) and completed both clinic-based and free-living gait assessment. A series of macro (behavioral) and micro (spatiotemporal) characteristics were derived from the resultant data using previously validated algorithms. Results indicate good participant acceptability, and potential for use of body-worn sensors in both the clinic and the home. Recommendations for future studies have been provided. Gait has been demonstrated to be a feasible and suitable measure, and future research should examine its suitability as a biomarker in AD.
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| 10. |
- Murray, Michelle, et al.
(författare)
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Convergence in Maximum Stomatal Conductance of C-3 Woody Angiosperms in Natural Ecosystems Across Bioclimatic Zones
- 2019
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Plant Science. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1664-462X. ; 10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Stomatal conductance (g(s)) in terrestrial vegetation regulates the uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and water loss through transpiration, closely linking the biosphere and atmosphere and influencing climate. Yet, the range and pattern of g(s) in plants from natural ecosystems across broad geographic, climatic, and taxonomic ranges remains poorly quantified. Furthermore, attempts to characterize g(s) on such scales have predominantly relied upon meta-analyses compiling data from many different studies. This approach may be inherently problematic as it combines data collected using unstandardized protocols, sometimes over decadal time spans, and from different habitat groups. Using a standardized protocol, we measured leaf-level g(s) using porometry in 218 C-3 woody angiosperm species in natural ecosystems representing seven bioclimatic zones. The resulting dataset of 4273 g(s) measurements, which we call STraits (Stomatal Traits), was used to determine patterns in maximum g(s) (g(smax)) across bioclimatic zones and whether there was similarity in the mean g(smax) of C3 woody angiosperms across ecosystem types. We also tested for differential g(smax) in two broadly defined habitat groups - open-canopy and understory-subcanopy - within and across bioclimatic zones. We found strong convergence in mean g(smax) of C3 woody angiosperms in the understory-subcanopy habitats across six bioclimatic zones, but not in open-canopy habitats. Mean g(smax) in open-canopy habitats (266 +/- 100 mmol m(-2) s(-1)) was significantly higher than in understory-subcanopy habitats (233 +/- 86 mmol m(-2) s(-1)). There was also a central tendency in the overall dataset to operate toward a g(smax) of similar to 250 mmol m(-2) s(-1). We suggest that the observed convergence in mean g(smax) of C3 woody angiosperms in the understory-subcanopy is due to a buffering of g(smax) against macroclimate effects which will lead to differential response of C3 woody angiosperm vegetation in these two habitats to future global change. Therefore, it will be important for future studies of g(smax) to categorize vegetation according to habitat group.
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