| 1. |
- Bentham, James, et al.
(författare)
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A century of trends in adult human height
- 2016
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Ingår i: eLIFE. - 2050-084X. ; 5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.522.7) and 16.5 cm (13.319.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries.
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| 2. |
- Bentham, James, et al.
(författare)
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A century of trends in adult human height
- 2016
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Ingår i: eLIFE. - : eLife Sciences Publications Ltd. - 2050-084X. ; 5
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.5–22.7) and 16.5 cm (13.3– 19.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8– 144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries.
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| 3. |
- Hu, Jia, et al.
(författare)
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Characterisation of a low methane emission rice cultivar suitable for cultivation in high latitude light and temperature conditions
- 2023
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Ingår i: Environmental Science and Pollution Research. - 0944-1344 .- 1614-7499. ; 30, s. 92950-92962
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Rice cultivation on paddy soil is commonly associated with emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas, but rice varieties may differ in their actual level of emissions. This study analysed methane emissions associated with 22 distinct rice genotypes, using gas chromatography, and identified the cultivar Heijing 5 from northern China as a potential low-methane rice variety. To confirm this and to examine whether Heijing 5 can perform similarly at higher latitudes, Heijing 5 was cultivated in field trials in China (lat. 32° N) and Sweden (lat. 59° N) where (i) methane emissions were measured, (ii) methanogen abundance in the rhizosphere was determined using quantitative PCR, and (iii) the concentrations of nutrients in water and of heavy metals in rice grain and paddy soil were analysed. The results demonstrated that the low-methane rice cultivar Heijing 5 can successfully complete an entire growth period at high-latitude locations such as central Sweden. Massively parallel sequencing of mRNAs identified candidate genes involved in day length and cold acclimatisation. Cultivation of Heijing 5 in central Sweden was also associated with relatively low heavy metal accumulation in rice grains and lowered nutrient losses to neighbouring water bodies.
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| 4. |
- Moreno, Silvana
(författare)
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In silico Analyses of Immune System Protein Interactome Network, Single-Cell RNA Sequencing of Human Tissues, and Artificial Neural Networks Reveal Potential Therapeutic Targets for Drug Repurposing Against COVID-19
- 2021
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Pharmacology. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1663-9812. ; 12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: There is pressing urgency to identify therapeutic targets and drugs that allow treating COVID-19 patients effectively.Methods: We performed in silico analyses of immune system protein interactome network, single-cell RNA sequencing of human tissues, and artificial neural networks to reveal potential therapeutic targets for drug repurposing against COVID-19.Results: We screened 1,584 high-confidence immune system proteins in ACE2 and TMPRSS2 co-expressing cells, finding 25 potential therapeutic targets significantly overexpressed in nasal goblet secretory cells, lung type II pneumocytes, and ileal absorptive enterocytes of patients with several immunopathologies. Then, we performed fully connected deep neural networks to find the best multitask classification model to predict the activity of 10,672 drugs, obtaining several approved drugs, compounds under investigation, and experimental compounds with the highest area under the receiver operating characteristics.Conclusion: After being effectively analyzed in clinical trials, these drugs can be considered for treatment of severe COVID-19 patients. Scripts can be downloaded at.
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| 5. |
- Moreno, Silvana
(författare)
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Response to waterlogging and drought of timothy and related Phleum species: phenotype and transcriptome diversity
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Timothy (Phleum pratense) is a cool-season perennial forage grass commonly used in temperate regions for silage, hay and grazing. Climate change is causing abiotic stresses on agriculture and there is an increasing need for tolerant cultivars. To expand the gene pool for breeding stress-tolerant cultivars, the diversity in natural populations can be exploited. One goal of this study was to understand the diversity of plant traits among a set of Phleum accessions in response to waterlogging and drought stress. A second goal was to identify accessions with putative beneficial traits based on their responses in growth, development, anatomy, and transcriptome. Diversity in biomass and development was evaluated in the field and in a greenhouse for a large collection of 244 wild and domesticated accessions of timothy and two related species, turf timothy (P. nodosum) and alpine timothy (P. alpinum), from different locations and habitats in Europe. Large diversity was found between species and accessions. The groups of wild accessions and cultivars of P. pratense differed in development, but not in biomass. The same pattern was found for P. nodosum. A subset of 19 wild accessions and cultivars from the large collection, were studied in a greenhouse for physiological responses to 21 days of waterlogging, and to 28 days of drought followed by a recovery period. The Phleum species and accessions differed in their response to waterlogging and drought and in their ability to recover. Under waterlogging, some accessions had beneficial adaptations in root growth and aerenchyma formation in roots that were positive for shoot biomass production. In drought, shoot growth was severely affected, but P. nodosum had a greater ability to produce tillers than P. pratense. Based on indexes for drought stress tolerance and resilience, some wild accessions appeared to be more tolerant and to have better recovery. Interestingly, one wild P. pratense accession appeared to have tolerance to both waterlogging and drought. Eight accessions were further investigated for transcriptional responses to waterlogging and drought. Clear differences in the expression pattern due to stress were observed, and abundant tissue-specific (leaf or root) expression to stress was found. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) associated with stress responses, transport, hormone biosynthesis were found in response to waterlogging and drought. In all three species, DEGs were mainly accession specific. Interestingly, in P. pratense, a wild accession and an old cultivar shared 56 DEGs under drought and showed a similar phenotypic response. The knowledge gained on the diversity of trait responses and transcriptome, together with the identified accessions, are valuable resources for further pre-breeding and development of stress-resilient cultivars.
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| 6. |
- Moreno, Silvana, et al.
(författare)
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Response to Waterlogging Stress in Wild and Domesticated Accessions of Timothy (Phleum pratense) and Its Relatives P. alpinum and P. nodosum
- 2023
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Ingår i: Plants. - 2223-7747. ; 12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Timothy (Phleum pratense) is a cool-season perennial forage grass widely grown for silage and hay production in northern regions. Climate change scenarios predict an increase in extreme weather events with fluctuating periods of high rainfall, requiring new varieties adapted to waterlogging (WL). Wild accessions could serve as germplasm for breeding, and we evaluated the responses of 11 wild and 8 domesticated accessions of timothy, P. nodosum and P. alpinum from different locations in northern Europe. Young plants at tillering stage were exposed to WL for 21 days in a greenhouse, and responses in growth allocation and root anatomy were studied. All accessions produced adventitious roots and changed allocation of growth between shoot and root as a response to WL, but the magnitude of these responses varied among species and among accessions. P. pratense responded less in these traits in response to WL than the other two species. The ability to form aerenchyma in the root cortex in response to WL was found for all species and also varied among species and among accessions, with the highest induction in P. pratense. Interestingly, some accessions were able to maintain and even increase root growth, producing more leaves and tillers, while others showed a reduction in the root system. Shoot dry weight (SDW) was not significantly affected by WL, but some accessions showed different and significant responses in the rate of production of leaves and tillers. Overall correlations between SDW and aerenchyma and between SDW and adventitious root formation were found. This study identified two wild timothy accessions and one wild P. nodosum accession based on shoot and root system growth, aerenchyma formation and having a root anatomy considered to be favorable for WL tolerance. These accessions are interesting genetic resources and candidates for development of climate-resilient timothy varieties.
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| 7. |
- Moreno, Silvana
(författare)
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The rise and fall of GMOs in politics: party positions and mainstream party behaviour in Western Europe
- 2023
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Ingår i: Environmental Sociology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 2325-1042. ; 9, s. 93-106
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Social and environmental scientists usually argue that political parties hold hostile positions towards GMOs, yet we are confronted with a lack of systematic comparative analyses in the West European context. Conducting a quantitative content analysis of 265 election manifestos in seven Western European countries from 1990 until 2020, we test this assumption and explore the salience of GMOs in election manifestos and the positions of political parties on this domain. Our findings reveal that GMOs are neither a particular salient nor ignored issue by political parties and that most party families do tend to reject GMOs. Mainstream parties are more likely to talk about GMOs and to take a critical stance during periods of high mobilization of anti-GMO movements. Additionally, we hypothesize that the presence of a Green party in the national party system may make a difference. The findings provide insights into mainstream parties’ behaviour on niche issues and information for the scientific community about how political parties may become less hostile towards GMOs.
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| 8. |
- Rahimi, Yousef, et al.
(författare)
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Phenotypic Diversity in Domesticated and Wild Timothy Grass, and Closely Related Species for Forage Breeding
- 2023
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Ingår i: Plants. - 2223-7747. ; 12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Timothy grass (Phleum pratense L.) is one of the most important forage crops in temperate regions. Forage production, however, faces many challenges, and new cultivars adapted to a changing climate are needed. Wild populations and relatives of timothy may serve as valuable genetic resources in the breeding of improved cultivars. The aim of our study is to provide knowledge about the phenotypic diversity in domesticated (cultivars, breeding lines and landraces) and wild timothy and two closely related species, P. nodosum (lowland species) and P. alpinum, (high altitude species) to identify potential genetic resources. A total of 244 accessions of timothy and the two related species were studied for growth (plant height, fresh and dry weight) and plant development (days to stem elongation, days to booting and days to heading) in the field and in a greenhouse. We found a large diversity in development and growth between the three Phleum species, as well as between the accessions within each species. Timothy showed the highest growth, but no significant difference was found between wild accessions and cultivars of timothy in fresh and dry weight. However, these two groups of accessions showed significant differences in plant development, where timothy cultivars as a group reached flowering earlier than the wild accessions. This suggests that there has not been a strong directional selection towards increased yield during the domestication and breeding of timothy; rather, timothy has been changed for other traits such as earlier heading. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis based on all traits revealed distinct clusters. Accessions falling within the same cluster showed similarities in the development and growth rather than the type of accession. The large diversity found in this study shows the potential of using timothy accessions as genetic resources in crosses with existing cultivars. Also, accessions of P. nodosum with favorable traits can be candidates for the domestication of a novel forage crop, and the high-altitude relative P. alpinum may be a source of genes for the development of more cold and stresstolerant cultivars.
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| 9. |
- Souza Santos, Thanise Sabrina, et al.
(författare)
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A new measure of health motivation influencing food choices and its association with food intakes and nutritional biomarkers in European adolescents
- 2021
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Ingår i: Public Health Nutrition. - : Cambridge University Press. - 1368-9800 .- 1475-2727. ; 24:4, s. 685-695
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective: To develop a scale to assess health motivation influencing food choices and to explore its performance in the associations with food intakes and nutritional biomarkers.Design: Psychometric study using cross-sectional self-report questionnaires and nutritional biomarkers.Setting: Multi-centre investigation conducted in ten European cities.Participants: 2954 adolescents who were included in the HELENA study and completed the Food Choices and Preferences (FCP) questionnaire.Results: Nineteen out of 124 items of the FCP questionnaire were in the same dimension. Sixteen presented adequate parameters for the Scale of evaluatiOn of Food choIcEs (SOFIE). The scores were positively associated with the intakes of cereals, dairy products, meats and eggs, and fish, as well as with blood concentrations of vitamin C, β-carotene, n-3 fatty acids, cobalamin, holo-transcobalamin and folate; scores were negatively associated with the intake of alcohol.Conclusions: SOFIE can improve the assessment of motivation influencing food choices based on items with the best performance and is proposed as a new measure to health-related studies.
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