| 1. |
- Amuakwa-Mensah, Franklin, et al.
(författare)
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Role of banking sector performance in renewable energy consumption
- 2022
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Ingår i: Applied Energy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0306-2619 .- 1872-9118. ; 306, Part B
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To secure future universal access to modern energy, large investments in renewable energy technology are required. This paper estimates the impact of five banking sector performance indicators (return on asset, market capitalisation, asset quality, managerial efficiency and financial stability) on renewable energy consumption for a global panel consisting of 124 countries. The study used two-step system-GMM panel model to handle potential endogeneity and serial correlation. The paper considers three homogenous subpanels which are constructed based on the income group classification (high-, middle-, and low-income countries). Generally, our results show that improved banking sector performance enhances renewable energy consumption, with heterogenous effect across income group classification. For high -income (HI) countries, an increase in bank size together with improved asset quality and managerial efficiency have positive effects on renewable energy consumption. For middle-income (MI) and low-income (LI) countries, a high return on asset, an increase in bank size and financial stability are positive determinants of renewable energy consumption. We also find heterogenous effect of banking performance indicators across various renewable energy consumption types. The results highlight the importance of a well-functioning bank sector to achieve the investment in renewable energy needed to meet future energy demand and simultaneous decrease CO2 emissions.
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| 2. |
- Antti, Henrik, et al.
(författare)
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Metabolic profiling for detection of staphylococcus aureus infection and antibiotic resistance
- 2013
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 8:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Due to slow diagnostics, physicians must optimize antibiotic therapies based on clinical evaluation of patients without specific information on causative bacteria. We have investigated metabolomic analysis of blood for the detection of acute bacterial infection and early differentiation between ineffective and effective antibiotic treatment. A vital and timely therapeutic difficulty was thereby addressed: the ability to rapidly detect treatment failures because of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Methicillin-resistant (MRSA) and methicillin-sensitive (MSSA) were used and for infecting mice, while natural MSSA infection was studied in humans. Samples of bacterial growth media, the blood of infected mice and of humans were analyzed with combined Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry. Multivariate data analysis was used to reveal the metabolic profiles of infection and the responses to different antibiotic treatments. experiments resulted in the detection of 256 putative metabolites and mice infection experiments resulted in the detection of 474 putative metabolites. Importantly, ineffective and effective antibiotic treatments were differentiated already two hours after treatment start in both experimental systems. That is, the ineffective treatment of MRSA using cloxacillin and untreated controls produced one metabolic profile while all effective treatment combinations using cloxacillin or vancomycin for MSSA or MRSA produced another profile. For further evaluation of the concept, blood samples of humans admitted to intensive care with severe sepsis were analyzed. One hundred thirty-three putative metabolites differentiated severe MSSA sepsis (n = 6) from severe sepsis (n = 10) and identified treatment responses over time. Combined analysis of human, , and mice samples identified 25 metabolites indicative of effective treatment of sepsis. Taken together, this study provides a proof of concept of the utility of analyzing metabolite patterns in blood for early differentiation between ineffective and effective antibiotic treatment in acute infections.
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| 3. |
- Näsström, Elin, 1988-
(författare)
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Diagnosis of acute and chronic enteric fever using metabolomics
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Enteric (or typhoid) fever is a systemic infection mainly caused by Salmonella Typhi and Salmonella Paratyphi A. The disease is common in areas with poor water quality and insufficient sanitation. Humans are the only reservoir for transmission of the disease. The presence of asymptomatic chronic carriers is a complicating factor for the transmission. There are major limitations regarding the current diagnostic methods both for acute infection and chronic carriage. Metabolomics is a methodology studying metabolites in biological systems under influence of environmental or physiological perturbations. It has been applied to study several infectious diseases, with the goal of detecting diagnostic biomarkers. In this thesis, a mass spectrometry-based metabolomics approach, including chemometric bioinformatics techniques for data analysis, has been used to evaluate the potential of metabolite biomarker patterns for diagnosis of enteric fever at different stages of the disease.In Paper I, metabolite patterns related to acute enteric fever were investigated. Human plasma samples from patients in Nepal with culture-confirmed S. Typhi or S. Paratyphi A infection were compared to afebrile controls. A metabolite pattern discriminating between acute enteric fever and afebrile controls, as well as between the two causative agents of enteric fever was detected. The strength of using a panel of metabolites instead of single metabolites as biomarkers was also highlighted. In Paper II, metabolite patterns for acute enteric fever, this time focusing only on S. Typhi infections, were investigated. Human plasma from patients in Bangladesh with culture-positive or -negative but clinically suspected S. Typhi infection were compared to febrile controls. Differences were found in metabolite patterns between the culture-positive S. Typhi group and the febrile controls with a heterogeneity among the suspected S. Typhi samples. Consistencies in metabolite patterns were found to the results from Paper I. In addition, a validation cohort with culture-positive S. Typhi samples and a control group including patients with malaria and infections caused by other pathogens was analysed. Differences in metabolite patterns were detected between S. Typhi samples and all controls as well as between S. Typhi and malaria. Consistencies in metabolite patterns were found to the primary Bangladeshi cohort and the Nepali cohort from Paper I. Paper III focused on chronic Salmonella carriers. Human plasma samples from patients in Nepal undergoing cholecystectomy with confirmed S. Typhi or S. Paratyphi A gallbladder carriage were compared to non-carriage controls. The Salmonella carriage samples were distinguished from the non-carriage controls and differential signatures were also found between the S. Typhi and S. Paratyphi A carriage samples. Comparing metabolites found during chronic carriage and acute enteric fever (in Paper I) resulted in a panel of metabolites significant only during chronic carriage. This work has contributed to highlight the potential of using metabolomics as a tool to find diagnostic biomarker patterns associated with different stages of enteric fever.
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| 4. |
- Näsström, Elin, et al.
(författare)
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Diagnostic metabolite biomarkers of chronic typhoid carriage
- 2018
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Ingår i: PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1935-2727 .- 1935-2735. ; 12:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Salmonella Typhi and Salmonella Paratyphi A are the agents of enteric (typhoid) fever; both can establish chronic carriage in the gallbladder. Chronic Salmonella carriers are typically asymptomatic, intermittently shedding bacteria in the feces, and contributing to disease transmission. Detecting chronic carriers is of public health relevance in areas where enteric fever is endemic, but there are no routinely used methods for prospectively identifying those carrying Salmonella in their gallbladder.Methodology/Principal findings: Here we aimed to identify biomarkers of Salmonella carriage using metabolite profiling. We performed metabolite profiling on plasma from Nepali patients undergoing cholecystectomy with confirmed S. Typhi or S. Paratyphi A gallbladder carriage (and non-carriage controls) using two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GCxGC-TOFMS) and supervised pattern recognition modeling. We were able to significantly discriminate Salmonella carriage samples from non-carriage control samples. We were also able to detect differential signatures between S. Typhi and S. Paratyphi A carriers. We additionally compared carriage metabolite profiles with profiles generated during acute infection; these data revealed substantial heterogeneity between metabolites associated with acute enteric fever and chronic carriage. Lastly, we found that Salmonella carriers could be significantly distinguished from non-carriage controls using only five metabolites, indicating the potential of these metabolites as diagnostic markers for detecting chronic Salmonella carriers.Conclusions/Significance: Our novel approach has highlighted the potential of using metabolomics to search for diagnostic markers of chronic Salmonella carriage. We suggest further epidemiological investigations of these potential biomarkers in alternative endemic enteric fever settings.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Näsström, Elin, et al.
(författare)
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Reproducible diagnostic metabolites in plasma from typhoid fever patients in Asia and Africa
- 2017
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Ingår i: eLIFE. - : eLife Sciences Publications. - 2050-084X. ; 6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Salmonella Typhi is the causative agent of typhoid. Typhoid is diagnosed by blood culture, a method that lacks sensitivity, portability and speed. We have previously shown that specific metabolomic profiles can be detected in the blood of typhoid patients from Nepal (Nasstrom et al., 2014). Here, we performed mass spectrometry on plasma from Bangladeshi and Senegalese patients with culture confirmed typhoid fever, clinically suspected typhoid, and other febrile diseases including malaria. After applying supervised pattern recognition modelling, we could significantly distinguish metabolite profiles in plasma from the culture confirmed typhoid patients. After comparing the direction of change and degree of multivariate significance, we identified 24 metabolites that were consistently up- or down regulated in a further Bangladeshi/Senegalese validation cohort, and the Nepali cohort from our previous work. We have identified and validated a metabolite panel that can distinguish typhoid from other febrile diseases, providing a new approach for typhoid diagnostics.
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| 7. |
- Näsström, Elin, et al.
(författare)
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Salmonella Typhi and Salmonella Paratyphi A elaborate distinct systemic metabolite signatures during enteric fever
- 2014
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Ingår i: eLIFE. - 2050-084X. ; 3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The host-pathogen interactions induced by Salmonella Typhi and Salmonella Paratyphi A during enteric fever are poorly understood. This knowledge gap, and the human restricted nature of these bacteria, limit our understanding of the disease and impede the development of new diagnostic approaches. To investigate metabolite signals associated with enteric fever we performed two-dimensional gas chromatography with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GCxGC/TOFMS) on plasma from patients with S. Typhi and S. Paratyphi A infections and asymptomatic controls, identifying 695 individual metabolite peaks. Applying supervised pattern recognition, we found highly significant and reproducible metabolite profiles separating S. Typhi cases, S. Paratyphi A cases, and controls, calculating that a combination of six metabolites could accurately define the etiological agent. For the first time we show that reproducible and serovar specific systemic biomarkers can be detected during enteric fever. Our work defines several biologically plausible metabolites that can be used to detect enteric fever, and unlocks the potential of this method in diagnosing other systemic bacterial infections.
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| 8. |
- Östman, Marcus, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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A snapshot of illicit drug use in Sweden acquired through sewage water analysis
- 2014
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Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0048-9697 .- 1879-1026. ; 472, s. 862-871
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Analytical measurements of sewage water have been used many times to estimate the consumption of specific drugs in an area. This study measured a large number of illicit drugs and metabolites (>30) at a large number of sewage treatment plants (STPs) distributed across Sweden. Twenty-four illicit and prescription drugs, classified as narcotic substances in Sweden, and seven selected metabolites were included in the study. A 24 hour composite sample of incoming sewage water was collected from 33 different municipalities at various geographic locations across Sweden. Species were analyzed using an on-line solid-phase extraction-liquid chromatography electrospray tandem mass spectrometry method. The method proved to be rapid with minimum need for sample work up and was able to detect 13 compounds above their respective limits of quantification. The results for all compounds were presented as per capita loads. Multivariate data analysis was used to relate drug consumption to geographical location and/or population of cities. The results showed that geographical differences in drug consumption were apparent across the country. For the narcotic pharmaceuticals, the geographical differences suggested by the multivariate model were supported by prescription statistics. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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