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| 2. |
- Dornelas, M., et al.
(författare)
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BioTIME: A database of biodiversity time series for the Anthropocene
- 2018
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Ingår i: Global Ecology and Biogeography. - : Wiley. - 1466-822X .- 1466-8238. ; 27:7, s. 760-786
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Motivation: The BioTIME database contains raw data on species identities and abundances in ecological assemblages through time. These data enable users to calculate temporal trends in biodiversity within and amongst assemblages using a broad range of metrics. BioTIME is being developed as a community-led open-source database of biodiversity time series. Our goal is to accelerate and facilitate quantitative analysis of temporal patterns of biodiversity in the Anthropocene. Main types of variables included: The database contains 8,777,413 species abundance records, from assemblages consistently sampled for a minimum of 2 years, which need not necessarily be consecutive. In addition, the database contains metadata relating to sampling methodology and contextual information about each record. Spatial location and grain: BioTIME is a global database of 547,161 unique sampling locations spanning the marine, freshwater and terrestrial realms. Grain size varies across datasets from 0.0000000158 km(2) (158 cm(2)) to 100 km(2) (1,000,000,000,000 cm(2)). Time period and grainBio: TIME records span from 1874 to 2016. The minimal temporal grain across all datasets in BioTIME is a year. Major taxa and level of measurement: BioTIME includes data from 44,440 species across the plant and animal kingdoms, ranging from plants, plankton and terrestrial invertebrates to small and large vertebrates.
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| 3. |
- Elhai, M, et al.
(författare)
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Outcomes of patients with systemic sclerosis treated with rituximab in contemporary practice: a prospective cohort study
- 2019
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Ingår i: Annals of the rheumatic diseases. - : BMJ. - 1468-2060 .- 0003-4967. ; 78:7, s. 979-987
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To assess the safety and efficacy of rituximab in systemic sclerosis (SSc) in clinical practice.MethodsWe performed a prospective study including patients with SSc from the European Scleroderma Trials and Research (EUSTAR) network treated with rituximab and matched with untreated patients with SSc. The main outcomes measures were adverse events, skin fibrosis improvement, lung fibrosis worsening and steroids use among propensity score-matched patients treated or not with rituximab.Results254 patients were treated with rituximab, in 58% for lung and in 32% for skin involvement. After a median follow-up of 2 years, about 70% of the patients had no side effect. Comparison of treated patients with 9575 propensity-score matched patients showed that patients treated with rituximab were more likely to have skin fibrosis improvement (22.7 vs 14.03 events per 100 person-years; OR: 2.79 [1.47–5.32]; p=0.002). Treated patients did not have significantly different rates of decrease in forced vital capacity (FVC)>10% (OR: 1.03 [0.55–1.94]; p=0.93) nor in carbon monoxide diffusing capacity (DLCO) decrease. Patients having received rituximab were more prone to stop or decrease steroids (OR: 2.34 [1.56–3.53], p<0.0001). Patients treated concomitantly with mycophenolate mofetil had a trend for better outcomes as compared with patients receiving rituximab alone (delta FVC: 5.22 [0.83–9.62]; p=0.019 as compared with controls vs 3 [0.66–5.35]; p=0.012).ConclusionRituximab use was associated with a good safety profile in this large SSc-cohort. Significant change was observed on skin fibrosis, but not on lung. However, the limitation is the observational design. The potential stabilisation of lung fibrosis by rituximab has to be addressed by a randomised trial.
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| 5. |
- Sampaio, E., et al.
(författare)
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Interaction strength between different grazers and macroalgae mediated by ocean acidification over warming gradients
- 2017
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Ingår i: Marine Environmental Research. - : Elsevier BV. - 0141-1136 .- 1879-0291. ; 125, s. 25-33
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Since the past century, rising CO2 levels have led to global changes (ocean warming and acidification) with subsequent effects on marine ecosystems and organisms. Macroalgae-herbivore interactions have a main role in the regulation of marine community structure (top-down control). Gradients of warming prompt complex non-linear effects on organism metabolism, cascading into altered trophic interactions and community dynamics. However, not much is known on how will acidification and grazer assemblage composition shape these effects. Within this context, we aimed to assess the combined effects of warming gradients and acidification on macroalgae-herbivore interactions, using three cosmopolitan species, abundant in the Iberian Peninsula and closely associated in nature: the amphipod Melita palmata, the gastropod Gibbula umbilicalis, and the green macroalga Ulva rigida. Under two CO2 treatments (triangle CO2 similar or equal to 450 mu atm) across a temperature gradient (13.5, 16.6, 19.9 and 22.1 degrees C), two mesocosm experiments were performed to assess grazer consumption rates and macroalgae-herbivore interaction, respectively. Warming (Experiment I and II) and acidification (Experiment II) prompted negative effects in grazer's survival and species-specific differences in consumption rates. M. palmata was shown to be the stronger grazer per biomass (but not per capita), and also the most affected by climate stressors. Macroalgae-herbivore interaction strength was markedly shaped by the temperature gradient, while simultaneous acidification lowered thermal optimal threshold. In the near future, warming and acidification are likely to strengthen top-down control, but further increases in disturbances may lead to bottom-up regulated communities. Finally, our results suggest that grazer assemblage composition may modulate future macroalgae-herbivore interactions.
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| 6. |
- Fernandes, Juliana Folloni, et al.
(författare)
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Transplantation of Hematopoietic Stem Cells for Primary Immunodeficiencies in Brazil: Challenges in Treating Rare Diseases in Developing Countries.
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of clinical immunology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1573-2592 .- 0271-9142. ; 38:8, s. 917-926
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The results of hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) for primary immunodeficiency diseases (PID) have been improving over time. Unfortunately, developing countries do not experience the same results. This first report of Brazilian experience of HSCT for PID describes the development and results in the field. We included data from transplants in 221 patients, performed at 11 centers which participated in the Brazilian collaborative group, from July 1990 to December 2015. The majority of transplants were concentrated in one center (n=123). The median age at HSCT was 22months, and the most common diseases were severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) (n=67) and Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS) (n=67). Only 15 patients received unconditioned transplants. Cumulative incidence of GVHD grades II to IV was 23%, and GVHD grades III to IV was 10%. The 5-year overall survival was 71.6%. WAS patients had better survival compared to other diseases. Most deaths (n=53) occurred in the first year after transplantation mainly due to infection (55%) and GVHD (13%). Although transplant for PID patients in Brazil has evolved since its beginning, we still face some challenges like delayed diagnosis and referral, severe infections before transplant, a limited number of transplant centers with expertise, and resources for more advanced techniques. Measures like newborn screening for SCID may hasten the diagnosis and ameliorate patients' conditions at the moment of transplant.
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| 7. |
- Nilsson, R. Henrik, 1976, et al.
(författare)
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Taxonomic annotation of public fungal ITS sequences from the built environment - a report from an April 10-11, 2017 workshop (Aberdeen, UK)
- 2018
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Ingår i: Mycokeys. - : Pensoft Publishers. - 1314-4057 .- 1314-4049. ; :28, s. 65-82
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recent DNA-based studies have shown that the built environment is surprisingly rich in fungi. These indoor fungi - whether transient visitors or more persistent residents - may hold clues to the rising levels of human allergies and other medical and building-related health problems observed globally. The taxonomic identity of these fungi is crucial in such pursuits. Molecular identification of the built mycobiome is no trivial undertaking, however, given the large number of unidentified, misidentified, and technically compromised fungal sequences in public sequence databases. In addition, the sequence metadata required to make informed taxonomic decisions - such as country and host/substrate of collection - are often lacking even from reference and ex-type sequences. Here we report on a taxonomic annotation workshop (April 10-11, 2017) organized at the James Hutton Institute/University of Aberdeen (UK) to facilitate reproducible studies of the built mycobiome. The 32 participants went through public fungal ITS bar-code sequences related to the built mycobiome for taxonomic and nomenclatural correctness, technical quality, and metadata availability. A total of 19,508 changes - including 4,783 name changes, 14,121 metadata annotations, and the removal of 99 technically compromised sequences - were implemented in the UNITE database for molecular identification of fungi (https://unite.ut.ee/) and shared with a range of other databases and downstream resources. Among the genera that saw the largest number of changes were Penicillium, Talaromyces, Cladosporium, Acremonium, and Alternaria, all of them of significant importance in both culture-based and culture-independent surveys of the built environment.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Feldman, I., et al.
(författare)
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Effectiveness of the Salut Program : a universal health promotion intervention for parents & children
- 2016
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Ingår i: European Journal of Public Health. - : Oxford University Press. - 1101-1262 .- 1464-360X. ; 26:Suppl 1, s. -253
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: There is a lack of evidence for the effectiveness of health promotion interventions during pregnancy and early childhood. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of the Salut Programme, a universal health promotion intervention in a Swedish County, compared to care as usual.Methods: A register-based retrospective observational study design is used with respect to both exposures and outcomes. Outcomes of interest during pregnancy, delivery and the child’s first three years of life included: direct indications of health risks, such as birth weight, Apgar scores, hospitalization, delivery; and indicators of poor health, such as child’s and mother’s hospital visits, and parents’ number of paid days for care of sick child. We compared outcomes of interest for both parents and children during pre- (children born 2002-2004) and post- (born 2006-2008) measure periods for the intervention (n = 1891 children, n = 1599 mothers), and non-intervention groups (n = 12723 children, n = 10544 mothers). Our analysis strategy combined difference-in-difference estimation with matching. A complementary analysis was carried out on the longitudinal subsample of women who gave birth in both the pre- and post- measure periods.Results: No significant changes were found in the difference-in-difference analysis. A few significant changes were found between intervention and non-intervention groups in the longitudinal analysis; for the Apgar scores 1 and 5 minutes (p < 0.001), and hospitalization during the first three years after birth for mothers (p = 0.002).Conclusions: Adding the Salut Programme to the care as usual provided minor effects on children’s and mothers’ health, for the outcomes used in this study. However, the health outcomes may impact child public health in the long-time perspective.Key message: In this study of the effectiveness of a universal health promotion intervention, the Salut Programme, some positive impact was found on child and maternal health outcomes
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| 10. |
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| 11. |
- Pulkki-Brännström, Anni-Maria, et al.
(författare)
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The equity impact of a universal child health promotion programme
- 2019
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Ingår i: European Journal of Public Health. - : Oxford University Press. - 1101-1262 .- 1464-360X. ; 29:Suppl 4, s. 103-103
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: We aimed to evaluate whether the Salut Programme, a universal child health promotion intervention, aimed to strengthen healthy lifestyles in northern Sweden, had any effect on income-related inequalities in positive birth outcomes for children and on healthcare use for children and their mothers.Methods: Mother’s residence and child’s date of birth determined whether the child and the mother belonged to the control group (areas that received care-as-usual) or the intervention group (areas with the intervention implemented from 2005), during the pre-measure period (children born 2002-2004) and the post-measure period (children born 2006-2008). The sum of parents’ taxable income was used for socioeconomic ranking. We computed the standard concentration index for six binary indicators of positive birth outcomes, and for inpatient and day patient care for children and mothers during the two years after delivery. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we assessed whether the extent of inequality changed over time between areas.Results: Income-related inequalities in child health status at birth and in child healthcare use were absent, except that full-term pregnancies were concentrated among the poor at pre-measure in the intervention group. However, mothers’ healthcare use was significantly pro-poor in the control group. The extent of inequality changed between pre- and post-measure periods for two outcomes: the pro-poor concentration of full-term pregnancies in the intervention group at pre-measure disappeared at post-measure; and an increase in pro-poor concentration of normal birth weight in the control group was not matched by a similar increase in the intervention group. Inequalities in healthcare use did not change significantly.Conclusions: Birth outcomes and child healthcare use seemed to be equitably distributed. However, the results raise concerns whether the intervention may have reduced the pro-poor concentration of positive birth outcomes.Key messagesThere are concerns that participation in universal health promotion programmes differs by socioeconomic status, although few public health interventions have been evaluated from an equity perspective.Birth outcomes and child healthcare use in Northern Sweden seemed to be equitably distributed across different socioeconomic groups.
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| 12. |
- Quelhas-Santos, J, et al.
(författare)
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Renalase regulates peripheral and central dopaminergic activities
- 2015
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Ingår i: American journal of physiology. Renal physiology. - : American Physiological Society. - 1522-1466 .- 1931-857X. ; 308:2, s. F84-F91
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Renalase is a recently identified FAD/NADH-dependent amine oxidase mainly expressed in kidney that is secreted into blood and urine where it was suggested to metabolize catecholamines. The present study evaluated central and peripheral dopaminergic activities in the renalase knockout (KO) mouse model and examined the changes induced by recombinant renalase (RR) administration on plasma and urine catecholamine levels. Compared with wild-type (WT) mice, KO mice presented increased plasma levels of epinephrine (Epi), norepinephrine (NE), and dopamine (DA) that were accompanied by increases in the urinary excretion of Epi, NE, DA. In addition, the KO mice presented an increase in urinary DA-to-l-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (l-DOPA) ratios without changes in renal tubular aromatic-l-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) activity. By contrast, the in vivo administration of RR (1.5 mg/kg sc) to KO mice was accompanied by significant decreases in plasma levels of Epi, DA, and l-DOPA as well as in urinary excretion of Epi, DA, and DA-to-l-DOPA ratios notwithstanding the accompanied increase in renal AADC activity. In addition, the increase in renal DA output observed in renalase KO mice was accompanied by an increase in the expression of the L-type amino acid transporter like (LAT) 1 that is reversed by the administration of RR in these animals. These results suggest that the overexpression of LAT1 in the renal cortex of the renalase KO mice might contribute to the enhanced l-DOPA availability/uptake and consequently to the activation of the renal dopaminergic system in the presence of renalase deficiency.
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| 14. |
- Sampaio, Filipa, PhD, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Cost-effectiveness of internet-delivered cognitive-behavioural therapy for adolescents with irritable bowel syndrome
- 2019
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Ingår i: BMJ open. - : BMJ. - 2044-6055. ; 9:1, s. e023881-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To assess whether exposure-based internet-delivered cognitive–behavioural therapy (internet-CBT) is a cost-effective treatment for adolescents with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) compared with a waitlist control, from a societal perspective, based on data from a randomised trial.DesignWithin-trial cost-effectiveness analysis.SettingParticipants were recruited from the whole of Sweden via primary, secondary and tertiary care clinics reached through news media and advertising.ParticipantsAdolescents (aged 13–17) with a diagnosis of IBS.InterventionsParticipants were randomised to either an exposure-based internet-CBT, including 10 weekly modules for adolescents and five modules for parents, or a waitlist.Outcome measuresThe main health outcome was the quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) estimated by mapping Pediatric Quality-of-Life Inventory (PedsQL) scores onto EQ-5D-3L utilities. The secondary outcome was the point improvement on the PedsQL scale. Data on health outcomes and resource use were collected at baseline and 10 weeks post-treatment. Resource use was measured using the Trimbos and Institute of Medical Technology Assessment Cost Questionnaire for Psychiatry (TIC-P) . Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) were calculated as the difference in average costs by the difference in average outcomes between groups.ResultsThe base-case results showed that internet-CBT costs were on average US$170.24 (95% CI 63.14 to 315.04) more per participant than the waitlist. Adolescents in the internet-CBT group showed small QALY gains (0.0031; 95% CI 0.0003 to 0.0061), and an average improvement of 5.647 points (95% CI 1.82 to 9.46) on the PedsQL compared with the waitlist. Internet-CBT yielded an ICER of $54 916/QALY gained and a probability of cost-effectiveness of 74% given the Swedish willingness-to-pay threshold. The ICER for the outcome PedsQL was US$85.29/point improvement.ConclusionsOffering internet-CBT to adolescents with IBS improves health-related quality of life and generates small QALY gains at a higher cost than a waitlist control. Internet-CBT is thus likely to be cost-effective given the strong efficacy evidence, small QALY gains and low cost.Trial registration numberNCT02306369; Results.
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| 16. |
- Vale, FF, et al.
(författare)
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Genomic structure and insertion sites of Helicobacter pylori prophages from various geographical origins
- 2017
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Ingår i: Scientific reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 7, s. 42471-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Helicobacter pylori genetic diversity is known to be influenced by mobile genomic elements. Here we focused on prophages, the least characterized mobile elements of H. pylori. We present the full genomic sequences, insertion sites and phylogenetic analysis of 28 prophages found in H. pylori isolates from patients of distinct disease types, ranging from gastritis to gastric cancer, and geographic origins, covering most continents. The genome sizes of these prophages range from 22.6–33.0 Kbp, consisting of 27–39 open reading frames. A 36.6% GC was found in prophages in contrast to 39% in H. pylori genome. Remarkably a conserved integration site was found in over 50% of the cases. Nearly 40% of the prophages harbored insertion sequences (IS) previously described in H. pylori. Tandem repeats were frequently found in the intergenic region between the prophage at the 3′ end and the bacterial gene. Furthermore, prophage genomes present a robust phylogeographic pattern, revealing four distinct clusters: one African, one Asian and two European prophage populations. Evidence of recombination was detected within the genome of some prophages, resulting in genome mosaics composed by different populations, which may yield additional H. pylori phenotypes.
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