| 1. |
- Bjorn, A., et al.
(författare)
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Review of life-cycle based methods for absolute environmental sustainability assessment and their applications
- 2020
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Ingår i: Environmental Research Letters. - : IOP Publishing Ltd. - 1748-9326 .- 1748-9318. ; 15:8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In many regions and at the planetary scale, human pressures on the environment exceed levels that natural systems can sustain. These pressures are caused by networks of human activities, which often extend across countries and continents due to global trade. This has led to an increasing requirement for methods that enable absolute environmental sustainability assessment (AESA) of anthropogenic systems and which have a basis in life cycle assessment (LCA). Such methods enable the comparison of environmental impacts of products, companies, nations, etc, with an assigned share of environmental carrying capacity for various impact categories. This study is the first systematic review of LCA-based AESA methods and their applications. After developing a framework for LCA-based AESA methods, we identified 45 relevant studies through an initial survey, database searches and citation analysis. We characterized these studies according to their intended application, impact categories, basis of carrying capacity estimates, spatial differentiation of environmental model and principles for assigning carrying capacity. We then characterized all method applications and synthesized their results. Based on this assessment, we present recommendations to practitioners on the selection and use of existing LCA-based AESA methods, as well as ways to perform assessments and communicate results to decision-makers. Furthermore, we identify future research priorities intended to extend coverage of all components of the proposed method framework, improve modeling and increase the applicability of methods. © 2020 The Author(s).
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| 2. |
- Chatterjee, Saion, et al.
(författare)
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Type 2 Diabetes as a Risk Factor for Dementia in Women Compared With Men: A Pooled Analysis of 2.3 Million People Comprising More Than 100,000 Cases of Dementia
- 2016
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Ingår i: Diabetes Care. - : American Diabetes Association. - 0149-5992 .- 1935-5548. ; 39:2, s. 300-307
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVE Type 2 diabetes confers a greater excess risk of cardiovascular disease in women than in men. Diabetes is also a risk factor for dementia, but whether the association is similar in women and men remains unknown. We performed a meta-analysis of unpublished data to estimate the sex-specific relationship between women and men with diabetes with incident dementia. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A systematic search identified studies published prior to November 2014 that had reported on the prospective association between diabetes and dementia. Study authors contributed unpublished sex-specific relative risks (RRs) and 95% CIs on the association between diabetes and all dementia and its subtypes. Sex-specific RRs and the women-to-men ratio of RRs (RRRs) were pooled using random-effects meta-analyses. RESULTS Study-level data from 14 studies, 2,310,330 individuals, and 102,174 dementia case patients were included. In multiple-adjusted analyses, diabetes was associated with a 60% increased risk of any dementia in both sexes (women: pooled RR 1.62 [95% CI 1.45–1.80]; men: pooled RR 1.58 [95% CI 1.38–1.81]). The diabetes-associated RRs for vascular dementia were 2.34 (95% CI 1.86–2.94) in women and 1.73 (95% CI 1.61–1.85) in men, and for nonvascular dementia the RRs were 1.53 (95% CI 1.35–1.73) in women and 1.49 (95% CI 1.31–1.69) in men. Overall, women with diabetes had a 19% greater risk for the development of vascular dementia than men (multiple-adjusted RRR 1.19 [95% CI 1.08–1.30]; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Individuals with type 2 diabetes are at ∼60% greater risk for the development of dementia compared with those without diabetes. For vascular dementia, but not for nonvascular dementia, the additional risk is greater in women.
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| 3. |
- Fiedler, Stephanie, et al.
(författare)
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Simulated Tropical Precipitation Assessed across Three Major Phases of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP)
- 2020
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Ingår i: Monthly Weather Review. - 0027-0644 .- 1520-0493. ; 148:9, s. 3653-3680
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The representation of tropical precipitation is evaluated across three generations of models participating in phases 3, 5, and 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). Compared to state-of-the-art observations, improvements in tropical precipitation in the CMIP6 models are identified for some metrics, but we find no general improvement in tropical precipitation on different temporal and spatial scales. Our results indicate overall little changes across the CMIP phases for the summer monsoons, the double-ITCZ bias, and the diurnal cycle of tropical precipitation. We find a reduced amount of drizzle events in CMIP6, but tropical precipitation occurs still too frequently. Continuous improvements across the CMIP phases are identified for the number of consecutive dry days, for the representation of modes of variability, namely, the Madden–Julian oscillation and El Niño–Southern Oscillation, and for the trends in dry months in the twentieth century. The observed positive trend in extreme wet months is, however, not captured by any of the CMIP phases, which simulate negative trends for extremely wet months in the twentieth century. The regional biases are larger than a climate change signal one hopes to use the models to identify. Given the pace of climate change as compared to the pace of model improvements to simulate tropical precipitation, we question the past strategy of the development of the present class of global climate models as the mainstay of the scientific response to climate change. We suggest the exploration of alternative approaches such as high-resolution storm-resolving models that can offer better prospects to inform us about how tropical precipitation might change with anthropogenic warming.
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| 4. |
- Mauritsen, Thorsten, et al.
(författare)
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Developments in the MPI-M Earth System Model version 1.2 (MPI-ESM1.2) and Its Response to Increasing CO2
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems. - 1942-2466. ; 11:4, s. 998-1038
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A new release of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology Earth System Model version 1.2 (MPI-ESM1.2) is presented. The development focused on correcting errors in and improving the physical processes representation, as well as improving the computational performance, versatility, and overall user friendliness. In addition to new radiation and aerosol parameterizations of the atmosphere, several relatively large, but partly compensating, coding errors in the model's cloud, convection, and turbulence parameterizations were corrected. The representation of land processes was refined by introducing a multilayer soil hydrology scheme, extending the land biogeochemistry to include the nitrogen cycle, replacing the soil and litter decomposition model and improving the representation of wildfires. The ocean biogeochemistry now represents cyanobacteria prognostically in order to capture the response of nitrogen fixation to changing climate conditions and further includes improved detritus settling and numerous other refinements. As something new, in addition to limiting drift and minimizing certain biases, the instrumental record warming was explicitly taken into account during the tuning process. To this end, a very high climate sensitivity of around 7 K caused by low-level clouds in the tropics as found in an intermediate model version was addressed, as it was not deemed possible to match observed warming otherwise. As a result, the model has a climate sensitivity to a doubling of CO2 over preindustrial conditions of 2.77 K, maintaining the previously identified highly nonlinear global mean response to increasing CO2 forcing, which nonetheless can be represented by a simple two-layer model.
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| 5. |
- Peters, Bjorn, et al.
(författare)
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A study of clinical complications and risk factors in 1001 native and transplant kidney biopsies in Sweden
- 2014
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Ingår i: Acta Radiologica. - : SAGE Publications. - 0284-1851 .- 1600-0455. ; 55:7, s. 890-896
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: In Sweden, native and transplant kidney biopsies are usually performed in major renal medical centers. Purpose: To clarify risk factors in native and transplant kidney biopsies to improve patient safety. Material and Methods: A total of 1001 biopsies (in 352 women and 565 men) were included. The median age was 54 years (range, 16-90 years). Data were derived from 826 native kidney biopsies (640 prospective and 186 retrospective) and 175 transplant kidney biopsies (170 prospective and 5 retrospective). Various factors and complications were registered while performing native and transplant kidney biopsies, focusing on major (e. g. blood transfusions, invasive procedures) and minor complications. The prospective protocol was used at six centers and at one center data were obtained retrospectively. Results: Women were at greater risk of overall complications than men (12.2% vs. 6.5%; P = 0.003; odds ratio [OR], 2.0; confidence interval [CI], 1.3-3.1) as well as of major complications (9.6% vs. 4.5%; P = 0.002; OR, 2.2, CI 1.3-3.7). Major complications occurred more commonly after biopsies from the right kidney, in women than in men (10.8% vs. 3.1%; P = 0.005; OR, 3.7; CI, 1.5-9.5), and in patients with lower BMI (25.5 vs. 27.3, P = 0.016) and of younger age (45 years vs. 52.5 years; P = 0.001). Lower mean arterial pressure in transplant kidney biopsies indicated a risk of major complications (90 mmHg vs. 98 mmHg; P = 0.039). Factors such as needle size, number of passes, serum creatinine, and eGFR did not influence complication rates. Conclusion: The present findings motivate greater attention being paid to the risk of major side-effects after right-side biopsies from women's kidneys, as well as after biopsies from younger patients and patients with lower BMI.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- van der Laan, Sander W., et al.
(författare)
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Cystatin C and Cardiovascular Disease : A Mendelian Randomization Study
- 2016
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Ingår i: Journal of the American College of Cardiology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0735-1097 .- 1558-3597. ; 68:9, s. 934-945
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND Epidemiological studies show that high circulating cystatin C is associated with risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), independent of creatinine-based renal function measurements. It is unclear whether this relationship is causal, arises from residual confounding, and/or is a consequence of reverse causation. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to use Mendelian randomization to investigate whether cystatin C is causally related to CVD in the general population. METHODS We incorporated participant data from 16 prospective cohorts (n = 76,481) with 37,126 measures of cystatin C and added genetic data from 43 studies (n = 252,216) with 63,292 CVD events. We used the common variant rs911119 in CST3 as an instrumental variable to investigate the causal role of cystatin C in CVD, including coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke, and heart failure. RESULTS Cystatin C concentrations were associated with CVD risk after adjusting for age, sex, and traditional risk factors (relative risk: 1.82 per doubling of cystatin C; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.56 to 2.13; p = 2.12 x 10(-14)). The minor allele of rs911119 was associated with decreased serum cystatin C (6.13% per allele; 95% CI: 5.75 to 6.50; p = 5.95 x 10(-211)), explaining 2.8% of the observed variation in cystatin C. Mendelian randomization analysis did not provide evidence fora causal role of cystatin C, with a causal relative risk for CVD of 1.00 per doubling cystatin C (95% CI: 0.82 to 1.22; p = 0,994), which was statistically different from the observational estimate (p = 1.6 x 10(-5)). A causal effect of cystatin C was not detected for any individual component of CVD. CONCLUSIONS Mendelian randomization analyses did not support a causal role of cystatin C in the etiology of CVD. As such, therapeutics targeted at lowering circulating cystatin C are unlikely to be effective in preventing CVD.
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