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| 2. |
- Masselot, Pierre, et al.
(författare)
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Differential mortality risks associated with PM2.5 components : a multi-country, multi-city study
- 2022
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Ingår i: Epidemiology. - : Wolters Kluwer. - 1044-3983 .- 1531-5487. ; 33:2, s. 167-175
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: The association between fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and mortality widely differs between as well as within countries. Differences in PM2.5 composition can play a role in modifying the effect estimates, but there is little evidence about which components have higher impacts on mortality.METHODS: We applied a two-stage analysis on data collected from 210 locations in 16 countries. In the first stage, we estimated location-specific relative risks (RR) for mortality associated with daily total PM2.5 through time series regression analysis. We then pooled these estimates in a meta-regression model that included city-specific logratio-transformed proportions of seven PM2.5 components as well as meta-predictors derived from city-specific socio-economic and environmental indicators.RESULTS: We found associations between RR and several PM2.5 components. Increasing the ammonium (NH4+) proportion from 1% to 22%, while keeping a relative average proportion of other components, increased the RR from 1.0063 (95%CI: 1.0030-1.0097) to 1.0102 (95%CI:1.0070-1.0135). Conversely, an increase in nitrate (NO3-) from 1% to 71% resulted in a reduced RR, from 1.0100 (95%CI: 1.0067-1.0133) to 1.0037 (95%CI: 0.9998- 1.0077). Differences in composition explained a substantial part of the heterogeneity in PM2.5 risk.CONCLUSIONS: These findings contribute to the identification of more hazardous emission sources. Further work is needed to understand the health impacts of PM2.5 components and sources given the overlapping sources and correlations among many components.
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| 3. |
- Urban, Ales, et al.
(författare)
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Evaluation of the ERA5 reanalysis-based Universal Thermal Climate Index on mortality data in Europe
- 2021
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Ingår i: Environmental Research. - : Elsevier. - 0013-9351 .- 1096-0953. ; 198
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Air temperature has been the most commonly used exposure metric in assessing relationships between thermal stress and mortality. Lack of the high-quality meteorological station data necessary to adequately characterize the thermal environment has been one of the main limitations for the use of more complex thermal indices. Global climate reanalyses may provide an ideal platform to overcome this limitation and define complex heat and cold stress conditions anywhere in the world. In this study, we explored the potential of the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) based on ERA5 & ndash; the latest global climate reanalysis from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) & ndash; as a health-related tool. Employing a novel ERA5-based thermal comfort dataset ERA5-HEAT, we investigated the relationships between the UTCI and daily mortality data in 21 cities across 9 European countries. We used distributed lag nonlinear models to assess exposure-response re-lationships between mortality and thermal conditions in individual cities. We then employed meta-regression models to pool the results for each city into four groups according to climate zone. To evaluate the perfor-mance of ERA5-based UTCI, we compared its effects on mortality with those for the station-based UTCI data. In order to assess the additional effect of the UTCI, the performance of ERA5-and station-based air temperature (T) was evaluated. Whilst generally similar heat-and cold-effects were observed for the ERA5-and station-based data in most locations, the important role of wind in the UTCI appeared in the results. The largest difference between any two datasets was found in the Southern European group of cities, where the relative risk of mortality at the 1st percentile of daily mean temperature distribution (1.29 and 1.30 according to the ERA5 vs station data, respectively) considerably exceeded the one for the daily mean UTCI (1.19 vs 1.22). These differences were mainly due to the effect of wind in the cold tail of the UTCI distribution. The comparison of exposure-response relationships between ERA5-and station-based data shows that ERA5-based UTCI may be a useful tool for definition of life-threatening thermal conditions in locations where high-quality station data are not available. and cold stress conditions anywhere in the world. In this study, we explored the potential of the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) based on ERA5 - the latest global climate reanalysis from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) - as a health-related tool. Employing a novel ERA5-based thermal comfort dataset ERA5-HEAT, we investigated the relationships between the UTCI and daily mortality data in 21 cities across 9 European countries. We used distributed lag nonlinear models to assess exposure-response relationships between mortality and thermal conditions in individual cities. We then employed meta-regression models to pool the results for each city into four groups according to climate zone. To evaluate the performance of ERA5-based UTCI, we compared its effects on mortality with those for the station-based UTCI data. In order to assess the additional effect of the UTCI, the performance of ERA5-and station-based air temperature (T) was evaluated. Whilst generally similar heat- and cold-effects were observed for the ERA5-and station-based data in most locations, the important role of wind in the UTCI appeared in the results. The largest difference between any two datasets was found in the Southern European group of cities, where the relative risk of mortality at the 1st percentile of daily mean temperature distribution (1.29 and 1.30 according to the ERA5 vs station data,
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| 4. |
- Adolfsson, Karl, et al.
(författare)
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Ingestion of gallium phosphide nanowires has no adverse effect on Drosophila tissue function.
- 2013
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Ingår i: Nanotechnology. - : IOP Publishing. - 0957-4484 .- 1361-6528. ; 24:28
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Engineered nanoparticles have been under increasing scrutiny in recent years. High aspect ratio nanoparticles such as carbon nanotubes and nanowires have raised safety concerns due to their geometrical similarity to asbestos fibers. III-V epitaxial semiconductor nanowires are expected to be utilized in devices such as LEDs and solar cells and will thus be available to the public. In addition, clean-room staff fabricating and characterizing the nanowires are at risk of exposure, emphasizing the importance of investigating their possible toxicity. Here we investigated the effects of gallium phosphide nanowires on the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Drosophila larvae and/or adults were exposed to gallium phosphide nanowires by ingestion with food. The toxicity and tissue interaction of the nanowires was evaluated by investigating tissue distribution, activation of immune response, genome-wide gene expression, life span, fecundity and somatic mutation rates. Our results show that gallium phosphide nanowires applied through the diet are not taken up into Drosophila tissues, do not elicit a measurable immune response or changes in genome-wide gene expression and do not significantly affect life span or somatic mutation rate.
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| 5. |
- Bainbridge, Wilma A., et al.
(författare)
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Memorability of photographs in subjective cognitive decline and mild cognitive impairment : Implications for cognitive assessment
- 2019
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Ingår i: Alzheimer's and Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment and Disease Monitoring. - : Wiley. - 2352-8729. ; 11, s. 610-618
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: Impaired long-term memory is a defining feature of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We tested whether this impairment is item specific, limited to some memoranda, whereas some remain consistently memorable. Methods: We conducted item-based analyses of long-term visual recognition memory. Three hundred ninety-four participants (healthy controls, subjective cognitive decline [SCD], and MCI) in the multicentric DZNE-Longitudinal Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Study (DELCODE) were tested with images from a pool of 835 photographs. Results: We observed consistent memorability for images in healthy controls, SCD, and MCI, predictable by a neural network trained on another healthy sample. Looking at memorability differences between groups, we identified images that could successfully categorize group membership with higher success and a substantial image reduction than the original image set. Discussion: Individuals with SCD and MCI show consistent memorability for specific items, while other items show significant diagnosticity. Certain stimulus features could optimize diagnostic assessment, while others could support memory.
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| 6. |
- 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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| 7. |
- 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
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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 17.5–22.7) 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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| 8. |
- Chaitanya, Lakshmi, et al.
(författare)
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Collaborative EDNAP exercise on the IrisPlex system for DNA based prediction of human eye colour
- 2014
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Ingår i: Forensic Science International. - : Elsevier. - 1872-4973 .- 1878-0326. ; 11, s. 241-251
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The IrisPlex system is a DNA-based test system for the prediction of human eye colour from biological samples and consists of a single forensically validated multiplex genotyping assay together with a statistical prediction model that is based on genotypes and phenotypes from thousands of individuals. IrisPlex predicts blue and brown human eye colour with, on average, >94% precision accuracy using six of the currently most eye colour informative single nucleotide polymorphisms (HERC2 rs12913832, OCA2 rs1800407, SLC24A4 rs12896399, SLC45A2 (MATP) rs16891982, TYR rs1393350, and IRF4 rs12203592) according to a previous study, while the accuracy in predicting non-blue and non-brown eye colours is considerably lower. In an effort to vigorously assess the IrisPlex system at the international level, testing was performed by 21 laboratories in the context of a collaborative exercise divided into three tasks and organised by the European DNA Profiling (EDNAP) Group of the International Society of Forensic Genetics (ISFG). Task 1 involved the assessment of 10 blood and saliva samples provided on FTA cards by the organising laboratory together with eye colour phenotypes; 99.4% of the genotypes were correctly reported and 99% of the eye colour phenotypes were correctly predicted. Task 2 involved the assessment of 5 DNA samples extracted by the host laboratory from simulated casework samples, artificially degraded, and provided to the participants in varying DNA concentrations. For this task, 98.7% of the genotypes were correctly determined and 96.2% of eye colour phenotypes were correctly inferred. For Tasks 1 and 2 together, 99.2% (1875) of the 1890 genotypes were correctly generated and of the 15 (0.8%) incorrect genotype calls, only 2 (0.1%) resulted in incorrect eye colour phenotypes. The voluntary Task 3 involved participants choosing their own test subjects for IrisPlex genotyping and eye colour phenotype inference, while eye photographs were provided to the organising laboratory and judged; 96% of the eye colour phenotypes were inferred correctly across 100 samples and 19 laboratories. The high success rates in genotyping and eye colour phenotyping clearly demonstrate the reproducibility and the robustness of the IrisPlex assay as well as the accuracy of the IrisPlex model to predict blue and brown eye colour from DNA. Additionally, this study demonstrates the ease with which the IrisPlex system is implementable and applicable across forensic laboratories around the world with varying pre-existing experiences.
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| 9. |
- Chen, Gongbo, et al.
(författare)
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Mortality risk attributable to wildfire-related PM2·5 pollution : a global time series study in 749 locations
- 2021
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Ingår i: The Lancet Planetary Health. - : Elsevier. - 2542-5196. ; 5:9, s. e579-e587
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Many regions of the world are now facing more frequent and unprecedentedly large wildfires. However, the association between wildfire-related PM2·5 and mortality has not been well characterised. We aimed to comprehensively assess the association between short-term exposure to wildfire-related PM2·5 and mortality across various regions of the world.METHODS: For this time series study, data on daily counts of deaths for all causes, cardiovascular causes, and respiratory causes were collected from 749 cities in 43 countries and regions during 2000-16. Daily concentrations of wildfire-related PM2·5 were estimated using the three-dimensional chemical transport model GEOS-Chem at a 0·25° × 0·25° resolution. The association between wildfire-related PM2·5 exposure and mortality was examined using a quasi-Poisson time series model in each city considering both the current-day and lag effects, and the effect estimates were then pooled using a random-effects meta-analysis. Based on these pooled effect estimates, the population attributable fraction and relative risk (RR) of annual mortality due to acute wildfire-related PM2·5 exposure was calculated.FINDINGS: 65·6 million all-cause deaths, 15·1 million cardiovascular deaths, and 6·8 million respiratory deaths were included in our analyses. The pooled RRs of mortality associated with each 10 μg/m3 increase in the 3-day moving average (lag 0-2 days) of wildfire-related PM2·5 exposure were 1·019 (95% CI 1·016-1·022) for all-cause mortality, 1·017 (1·012-1·021) for cardiovascular mortality, and 1·019 (1·013-1·025) for respiratory mortality. Overall, 0·62% (95% CI 0·48-0·75) of all-cause deaths, 0·55% (0·43-0·67) of cardiovascular deaths, and 0·64% (0·50-0·78) of respiratory deaths were annually attributable to the acute impacts of wildfire-related PM2·5 exposure during the study period.INTERPRETATION: Short-term exposure to wildfire-related PM2·5 was associated with increased risk of mortality. Urgent action is needed to reduce health risks from the increasing wildfires.
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| 10. |
- Chen, Kai, et al.
(författare)
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Ambient carbon monoxide and daily mortality: a global time-series study in 337 cities
- 2021
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Ingår i: The Lancet Planetary Health. - 2542-5196. ; 5:4, s. e191-e199
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Epidemiological evidence on short-term association between ambient carbon monoxide (CO) and mortality is inconclusive and limited to single cities, regions, or countries. Generalisation of results from previous studies is hindered by potential publication bias and different modelling approaches. We therefore assessed the association between short-term exposure to ambient CO and daily mortality in a multicity, multicountry setting. Methods: We collected daily data on air pollution, meteorology, and total mortality from 337 cities in 18 countries or regions, covering various periods from 1979 to 2016. All included cities had at least 2 years of both CO and mortality data. We estimated city-specific associations using confounder-adjusted generalised additive models with a quasi-Poisson distribution, and then pooled the estimates, accounting for their statistical uncertainty, using a random-effects multilevel meta-analytical model. We also assessed the overall shape of the exposure–response curve and evaluated the possibility of a threshold below which health is not affected. Findings: Overall, a 1 mg/m3 increase in the average CO concentration of the previous day was associated with a 0·91% (95% CI 0·32–1·50) increase in daily total mortality. The pooled exposure–response curve showed a continuously elevated mortality risk with increasing CO concentrations, suggesting no threshold. The exposure–response curve was steeper at daily CO levels lower than 1 mg/m3, indicating greater risk of mortality per increment in CO exposure, and persisted at daily concentrations as low as 0·6 mg/m3 or less. The association remained similar after adjustment for ozone but was attenuated after adjustment for particulate matter or sulphur dioxide, or even reduced to null after adjustment for nitrogen dioxide. Interpretation: This international study is by far the largest epidemiological investigation on short-term CO-related mortality. We found significant associations between ambient CO and daily mortality, even at levels well below current air quality guidelines. Further studies are warranted to disentangle its independent effect from other traffic-related pollutants. Funding: EU Horizon 2020, UK Medical Research Council, and Natural Environment Research Council.
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