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- Nguyen, Thanh N, et al.
(author)
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Global Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Stroke Volumes and Cerebrovascular Events: A 1-Year Follow-up.
- 2023
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In: Neurology. - 1526-632X. ; 100:4
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Declines in stroke admission, IV thrombolysis (IVT), and mechanical thrombectomy volumes were reported during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a paucity of data on the longer-term effect of the pandemic on stroke volumes over the course of a year and through the second wave of the pandemic. We sought to measure the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the volumes of stroke admissions, intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), IVT, and mechanical thrombectomy over a 1-year period at the onset of the pandemic (March 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021) compared with the immediately preceding year (March 1, 2019, to February 29, 2020).We conducted a longitudinal retrospective study across 6 continents, 56 countries, and 275 stroke centers. We collected volume data for COVID-19 admissions and 4 stroke metrics: ischemic stroke admissions, ICH admissions, IVT treatments, and mechanical thrombectomy procedures. Diagnoses were identified by their ICD-10 codes or classifications in stroke databases.There were 148,895 stroke admissions in the 1 year immediately before compared with 138,453 admissions during the 1-year pandemic, representing a 7% decline (95% CI [95% CI 7.1-6.9]; p < 0.0001). ICH volumes declined from 29,585 to 28,156 (4.8% [5.1-4.6]; p < 0.0001) and IVT volume from 24,584 to 23,077 (6.1% [6.4-5.8]; p < 0.0001). Larger declines were observed at high-volume compared with low-volume centers (all p < 0.0001). There was no significant change in mechanical thrombectomy volumes (0.7% [0.6-0.9]; p = 0.49). Stroke was diagnosed in 1.3% [1.31-1.38] of 406,792 COVID-19 hospitalizations. SARS-CoV-2 infection was present in 2.9% ([2.82-2.97], 5,656/195,539) of all stroke hospitalizations.There was a global decline and shift to lower-volume centers of stroke admission volumes, ICH volumes, and IVT volumes during the 1st year of the COVID-19 pandemic compared with the prior year. Mechanical thrombectomy volumes were preserved. These results suggest preservation in the stroke care of higher severity of disease through the first pandemic year.This study is registered under NCT04934020.
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- Bragée, Petra, et al.
(author)
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Historical TOC concentration minima during peak sulfur deposition in two Swedish lakes
- 2015
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In: Biogeosciences. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1726-4170 .- 1726-4189. ; 12:2, s. 307-322
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Decadal-scale variations in total organic carbon (TOC) concentration in lake water since AD1200 in two small lakes in southern Sweden were reconstructed based on visible-near-infrared spectroscopy (VNIRS) of their recent sediment successions. In order to assess the impacts of local land-use changes, regional variations in sulfur, and nitrogen deposition and climate variations on the inferred changes in TOC concentration, the same sediment records were subjected to multi-proxy palaeolimnological analyses. Changes in lake-water pH were inferred from diatom analysis, whereas pollen-based land-use reconstructions (Landscape Reconstruction Algorithm) together with geochemical records provided information on catchment-scale environmental changes, and comparisons were made with available records of climate and population density. Our long-term reconstructions reveal that inferred lake-water TOC concentrations were generally high prior to AD1900, with additional variability coupled mainly to changes in forest cover and agricultural land-use intensity. The last century showed significant changes, and unusually low TOC concentrations were inferred at AD1930-1990, followed by a recent increase, largely consistent with monitoring data. Variations in sulfur emissions, with an increase in the early 1900s to a peak around AD1980 and a subsequent decrease, were identified as an important driver of these dynamics at both sites, while processes related to the introduction of modern forestry and recent increases in precipitation and temperature may have contributed, but the effects differed between the sites. The increase in lake-water TOC concentration from around AD1980 may therefore reflect a recovery process. Given that the effects of sulfur deposition now subside and that the recovery of lake-water TOC concentrations has reached pre-industrial levels, other forcing mechanisms related to land management and climate change may become the main drivers of TOC concentration changes in boreal lake waters in the future.
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- Brinkhoff, Petra, 1973, et al.
(author)
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Economic Project Risk Assessment in Remediation Projects Prior to Construction: Methodology Development and Case Study Application
- 2015
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In: Remediation. - : Wiley. - 1051-5658 .- 1520-6831. ; 25:2, s. 117-138
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Probabilistic economic analysis, including uncertainty of probabilities and consequences of project risks, is not widely used in remediation projects. This article presents a project risk assessment (PRA) method to identify, quantify, and analyze risks in remediation projects. The suggested method is probabilistic and includes uncertainty analysis of input variables based on expert judgment. It was originally developed as a part of a sustainability assessment tool, but is viable as a stand-alone tool for remediation projects. The method is applied to a case study: a former paint factory that is being redeveloped into a residential area. The PRA method is used for analyzing and comparing the project risks associated with four remediation options, all including excavation but with different degrees of onsite treatment. The result of the case study application shows which alternative has the lowest mean risk cost, the highest probability to have the lowest risk cost, and how the risk costs are distributed, but also, importantly, helps the user to prioritize between risk-reduction measures.
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- Dengler, Juergen, et al.
(author)
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GrassPlot - a database of multi-scale plant diversity in Palaearctic grasslands
- 2018
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In: Phytocoenologia. - : Schweizerbart. - 0340-269X. ; 48:3, s. 331-347
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- GrassPlot is a collaborative vegetation-plot database organised by the Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG) and listed in the Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases (GIVD ID EU-00-003). GrassPlot collects plot records (releves) from grasslands and other open habitats of the Palaearctic biogeographic realm. It focuses on precisely delimited plots of eight standard grain sizes (0.0001; 0.001;... 1,000 m(2)) and on nested-plot series with at least four different grain sizes. The usage of GrassPlot is regulated through Bylaws that intend to balance the interests of data contributors and data users. The current version (v. 1.00) contains data for approximately 170,000 plots of different sizes and 2,800 nested-plot series. The key components are richness data and metadata. However, most included datasets also encompass compositional data. About 14,000 plots have near-complete records of terricolous bryophytes and lichens in addition to vascular plants. At present, GrassPlot contains data from 36 countries throughout the Palaearctic, spread across elevational gradients and major grassland types. GrassPlot with its multi-scale and multi-taxon focus complements the larger international vegetationplot databases, such as the European Vegetation Archive (EVA) and the global database " sPlot". Its main aim is to facilitate studies on the scale-and taxon-dependency of biodiversity patterns and drivers along macroecological gradients. GrassPlot is a dynamic database and will expand through new data collection coordinated by the elected Governing Board. We invite researchers with suitable data to join GrassPlot. Researchers with project ideas addressable with GrassPlot data are welcome to submit proposals to the Governing Board.
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- Ek, Kristine, 1975, et al.
(author)
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A harmonized method for automatable life cycle sustainability performance assessment and comparison of civil engineering works design concepts
- 2020
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In: IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. - : IOP Publishing. - 1755-1307 .- 1755-1315. ; 588:5
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The life cycle sustainability performance of civil engineering works is increasingly important. The possibility to influence the sustainability of a project design is larger in the conceptual stage than in later stages. Better-informed decisions regarding design choices’ impact on sustainability can be made by comparing conceptual project designs based on an assessment of their life cycle sustainability performance. It is essential that concepts are assessed in a harmonized way and compared impartially. Current standards provide the general framework for the assessment of sustainability performance, but do not give detailed guidance on calculation of sustainability indicators and their aggregation. Since design in automated systems is becoming increasingly common, there is a growing need for machine-readable data and automatable assessment methods. Assessment methods which can be applied using open-access data is important to achieve fair competition. This paper aims to provide a method for life cycle sustainability performance assessment and comparison of civil engineering works design concepts, possible to apply using open-access Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and life cycle assessment (LCA) data. The purpose is to enable fair and automatable sustainability assessments of design concepts, to facilitate impartial comparisons of such assessments as a basis for choosing sustainable designs. A literature review of relevant standards and scientific papers on sustainability assessment of construction and civil engineering works was performed. A harmonized, fair and automatable method for life cycle sustainability assessment and comparison of civil engineering works design concepts, well-suited for optimization purposes, is presented. However, the aim currently limits categories and indicators possible to include. The proposed method includes guidance on the calculation of environmental, social and economic indicators, based on LCA, life cycle costing (LCC) and external costs, and aggregation using normalisation and weighting factors of the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF). The proposed method allows for an impartial comparison of the sustainability of design concepts, resulting in better-informed decisions.
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- Ek, Kristine, 1975, et al.
(author)
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Multi-criteria decision analysis methods to support sustainable infrastructure construction
- 2019
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In: IABSE Symposium, Guimaraes 2019: Towards a Resilient Built Environment Risk and Asset Management - Report. ; , s. 1084-1091
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The construction of infrastructure projects represents a large sustainability impact, both positive and negative. Increased positive and reduced negative impacts can be achieved through better design and planning of the construction. To make more sustainable choices, well‐defined predictive sustainability assessment methods are required. Multi‐criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is a well-suited method for predictive sustainability assessment. This paper evaluates two MCDA methods for sustainability assessment of infrastructure construction and exemplifies their application with two case studies. The aim of this paper is to discuss if the methods are suitable for identifying the most sustainable alternative during the procurement process of an infrastructure project. It is recommended that MCDA methods are further developed to comply with the recently published EN standard on sustainability assessment of civil engineering works.
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- Mattsby-Baltzer, Inger, 1949, et al.
(author)
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IL-1beta, IL-6, TNFalpha, fetal fibronectin, and endotoxin in the lower genital tract of pregnant women with bacterial vaginosis.
- 1998
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In: Acta obstetricia et gynecologica Scandinavica. - : Wiley. - 0001-6349. ; 77:7, s. 701-6
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In our studies on women with bacterial vaginosis (BV) in early pregnancy a strong association has been found between BV and the levels of endotoxin or interleukin-1alpha (IL-1alpha) in the lower genital tract. In the present study we investigated if an association could be found between BV and other cytokines (IL-1beta, IL-6, tumor necrosis factor alpha, TNF) or fetal fibronectin (FFN). The cytokine-inducing capacity of endotoxins present in the cervical mucus was explored in a monocytic cell assay.Cervical mucus or cervicovaginal fluid was collected from women with (BV) and without BV (nonBV) attending a family planning unit for first trimester abortion. The concentrations of IL-1beta, IL-6, TNF and FFN were determined by quantitative enzyme immunoassays. TNF was determined in 63 women (BV, n=25) out of whom 37 (BV, n=11) were analyzed for IL-1beta and the remaining 26 for IL-6 (BV, n=14). FFN was determined in another 36 women (BV, n= 19). The cytokine-inducing capacity of endotoxin-containing cervical mucus and purified endotoxin of Prevotella bivia were studied by an in vitro cell assay using a human monocytic cell line (THP-1).IL-lbeta and IL-6 were found in almost all women. The levels of IL-1beta, but not IL-6, TNF or FFN, were significantly increased in women with BV compared with the nonBV women (p<0.05). Purified endotoxin from P. bivia, and cervical mucus from BV women containing high levels of endotoxin were able to induce a cytokine response (IL-6) in monocytic cells in vitro.BV is associated with increased levels of IL-1beta in the lower genital tract of pregnant women in the first trimester. The ability of BV-associated endotoxins to induce cytokine production in monocytic cells may partly explain the increased IL-1beta levels.
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