| 1. |
- Abel, I, et al.
(author)
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Overview of the JET results with the ITER-like wall
- 2013
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In: Nuclear Fusion. - : IOP Publishing. - 1741-4326 .- 0029-5515. ; 53:10, s. 104002-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Following the completion in May 2011 of the shutdown for the installation of the beryllium wall and the tungsten divertor, the first set of JET campaigns have addressed the investigation of the retention properties and the development of operational scenarios with the new plasma-facing materials. The large reduction in the carbon content (more than a factor ten) led to a much lower Z(eff) (1.2-1.4) during L- and H-mode plasmas, and radiation during the burn-through phase of the plasma initiation with the consequence that breakdown failures are almost absent. Gas balance experiments have shown that the fuel retention rate with the new wall is substantially reduced with respect to the C wall. The re-establishment of the baseline H-mode and hybrid scenarios compatible with the new wall has required an optimization of the control of metallic impurity sources and heat loads. Stable type-I ELMy H-mode regimes with H-98,H-y2 close to 1 and beta(N) similar to 1.6 have been achieved using gas injection. ELM frequency is a key factor for the control of the metallic impurity accumulation. Pedestal temperatures tend to be lower with the new wall, leading to reduced confinement, but nitrogen seeding restores high pedestal temperatures and confinement. Compared with the carbon wall, major disruptions with the new wall show a lower radiated power and a slower current quench. The higher heat loads on Be wall plasma-facing components due to lower radiation made the routine use of massive gas injection for disruption mitigation essential.
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| 2. |
- Abbafati, Cristiana, et al.
(author)
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- 2020
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)
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| 3. |
- Micah, Angela E., et al.
(author)
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Tracking development assistance for health and for COVID-19 : a review of development assistance, government, out-of-pocket, and other private spending on health for 204 countries and territories, 1990-2050
- 2021
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In: The Lancet. - : Elsevier. - 0140-6736 .- 1474-547X. ; 398:10308, s. 1317-1343
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background The rapid spread of COVID-19 renewed the focus on how health systems across the globe are financed, especially during public health emergencies. Development assistance is an important source of health financing in many low-income countries, yet little is known about how much of this funding was disbursed for COVID-19. We aimed to put development assistance for health for COVID-19 in the context of broader trends in global health financing, and to estimate total health spending from 1995 to 2050 and development assistance for COVID-19 in 2020. Methods We estimated domestic health spending and development assistance for health to generate total health-sector spending estimates for 204 countries and territories. We leveraged data from the WHO Global Health Expenditure Database to produce estimates of domestic health spending. To generate estimates for development assistance for health, we relied on project-level disbursement data from the major international development agencies' online databases and annual financial statements and reports for information on income sources. To adjust our estimates for 2020 to include disbursements related to COVID-19, we extracted project data on commitments and disbursements from a broader set of databases (because not all of the data sources used to estimate the historical series extend to 2020), including the UN Office of Humanitarian Assistance Financial Tracking Service and the International Aid Transparency Initiative. We reported all the historic and future spending estimates in inflation-adjusted 2020 US$, 2020 US$ per capita, purchasing-power parity-adjusted US$ per capita, and as a proportion of gross domestic product. We used various models to generate future health spending to 2050. Findings In 2019, health spending globally reached $8. 8 trillion (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 8.7-8.8) or $1132 (1119-1143) per person. Spending on health varied within and across income groups and geographical regions. Of this total, $40.4 billion (0.5%, 95% UI 0.5-0.5) was development assistance for health provided to low-income and middle-income countries, which made up 24.6% (UI 24.0-25.1) of total spending in low-income countries. We estimate that $54.8 billion in development assistance for health was disbursed in 2020. Of this, $13.7 billion was targeted toward the COVID-19 health response. $12.3 billion was newly committed and $1.4 billion was repurposed from existing health projects. $3.1 billion (22.4%) of the funds focused on country-level coordination and $2.4 billion (17.9%) was for supply chain and logistics. Only $714.4 million (7.7%) of COVID-19 development assistance for health went to Latin America, despite this region reporting 34.3% of total recorded COVID-19 deaths in low-income or middle-income countries in 2020. Spending on health is expected to rise to $1519 (1448-1591) per person in 2050, although spending across countries is expected to remain varied. Interpretation Global health spending is expected to continue to grow, but remain unequally distributed between countries. We estimate that development organisations substantially increased the amount of development assistance for health provided in 2020. Continued efforts are needed to raise sufficient resources to mitigate the pandemic for the most vulnerable, and to help curtail the pandemic for all. Copyright (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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| 4. |
- Brommage, Robert, et al.
(author)
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NOTUM inhibition increases endocortical bone formation and bone strength
- 2019
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In: Bone Research. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2095-4700 .- 2095-6231. ; 7:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The disability, mortality and costs caused by non-vertebral osteoporotic fractures are enormous. Existing osteoporosis therapies are highly effective at reducing vertebral but not non-vertebral fractures. Cortical bone is a major determinant of non-vertebral bone strength. To identify novel osteoporosis drug targets, we phenotyped cortical bone of 3 366 viable mouse strains with global knockouts of druggable genes. Cortical bone thickness was substantially elevated in Notum(-/-) mice. NOTUM is a secreted WNT lipase and we observed high NOTUM expression in cortical bone and osteoblasts but not osteoclasts. Three orally active small molecules and a neutralizing antibody inhibiting NOTUM lipase activity were developed. They increased cortical bone thickness and strength at multiple skeletal sites in both gonadal intact and ovariectomized rodents by stimulating endocortical bone formation. Thus, inhibition of NOTUM activity is a potential novel anabolic therapy for strengthening cortical bone and preventing non-vertebral fractures.
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| 5. |
- Metcalfe, Daniel B., et al.
(author)
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Patchy field sampling biases understanding of climate change impacts across the Arctic
- 2018
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In: Nature Ecology and Evolution. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2397-334X. ; 2:9, s. 1443-1448
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Effective societal responses to rapid climate change in the Arctic rely on an accurate representation of region-specific ecosystem properties and processes. However, this is limited by the scarcity and patchy distribution of field measurements. Here, we use a comprehensive, geo-referenced database of primary field measurements in 1,840 published studies across the Arctic to identify statistically significant spatial biases in field sampling and study citation across this globally important region. We find that 31% of all study citations are derived from sites located within 50 km of just two research sites: Toolik Lake in the USA and Abisko in Sweden. Furthermore, relatively colder, more rapidly warming and sparsely vegetated sites are under-sampled and under-recognized in terms of citations, particularly among microbiology-related studies. The poorly sampled and cited areas, mainly in the Canadian high-Arctic archipelago and the Arctic coastline of Russia, constitute a large fraction of the Arctic ice-free land area. Our results suggest that the current pattern of sampling and citation may bias the scientific consensuses that underpin attempts to accurately predict and effectively mitigate climate change in the region. Further work is required to increase both the quality and quantity of sampling, and incorporate existing literature from poorly cited areas to generate a more representative picture of Arctic climate change and its environmental impacts.
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| 6. |
- Muraro, Antonella, et al.
(author)
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Managing food allergy: GA2LEN guideline 2022.
- 2022
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In: The World Allergy Organization journal. - : Elsevier BV. - 1939-4551. ; 15:9
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Food allergy affects approximately 2-4% of children and adults. This guideline provides recommendations for managing food allergy from the Global Allergy and Asthma European Network (GA2LEN). A multidisciplinary international Task Force developed the guideline using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II framework and the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE) approach. We reviewed the latest available evidence as of April 2021 (161 studies) and created recommendations by balancing benefits, harms, feasibility, and patient and clinician experiences. We suggest that people diagnosed with food allergy avoid triggering allergens (low certainty evidence). We suggest that infants with cow's milk allergy who need a breastmilk alternative use either hypoallergenic extensively hydrolyzed cow's milk formula or an amino acid-based formula (moderate certainty). For selected children with peanut allergy, we recommend oral immunotherapy (high certainty), though epicutaneous immunotherapy might be considered depending on individual preferences and availability (moderate certainty). We suggest considering oral immunotherapy for children with persistent severe hen's egg or cow's milk allergy (moderate certainty). There are significant gaps in evidence about safety and effectiveness of the various strategies. Research is needed to determine the best approaches to education, how to predict the risk of severe reactions, whether immunotherapy is cost-effective and whether biological therapies are effective alone or combined with allergen immunotherapy.
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| 7. |
- Sadziene, Ariadna, et al.
(author)
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A bactericidal antibody to Borrelia burgdorferi is directed against a variable region of the OspB protein
- 1994
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In: Infection and Immunity. - : American Society for Microbiology (ASM). - 0019-9567 .- 1098-5522. ; 62:5, s. 2037-2045
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Borrelia burgdorferi, an agent of Lyme disease, is killed by some monoclonal antibodies in the absence of complement or phagocytes. In the present study, the bactericidal action of monoclonal antibodies against B. burgdorferi and B. hermsii, a cause of relapsing fever, was further characterized. H6831, an antibody recognizing the OspB proteins of some B. burgdorferi strains, and H4825, an antibody specific for one serotype of B. hermsii, were purified, and Fab fragments of the antibodies were prepared. In time-kill studies, more than 99.9% of strain B31 B. burgdorferi cells were killed after 30 min of exposure to H6831 Fab fragments. The MBC of the Fab fragments was 10 micrograms/ml. Electron microscopy revealed that the bactericidal Fab fragments produced numerous blebs and cell lysis of the borrelias for which they were specific. To identify the epitope for H6831, the OspB sequences of H6831-susceptible and -resistant strains and mutants were determined. The deduced OspB proteins of all H6831-resistant strains and mutants differed from the strain B31 OspB at residue 253. Murine antisera raised against a 21-mer synthetic peptide representing the region around residue 253 were specific for strain B31 by Western blot (immunoblot) and growth inhibition assays. Furthermore, the antipeptide serum inhibited the binding of H6831 to whole borrelias. These findings indicated that the linear component of the bactericidal antibody's epitope was located at or near residue 253.
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