| 1. |
- Aad, G, et al.
(author)
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- 2015
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swepub:Mat__t
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| 2. |
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- 2019
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Beal, Jacob, et al.
(author)
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Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density
- 2020
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In: Communications Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2399-3642. ; 3:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data.
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| 5. |
- DeMott, Paul J., et al.
(author)
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The Fifth International Workshop on Ice Nucleation phase 2 (FIN-02) : Laboratory intercomparison of ice nucleation measurements
- 2018
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In: Atmospheric Measurement Techniques. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1867-1381 .- 1867-8548. ; 11:11, s. 6231-6257
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The second phase of the Fifth International Ice Nucleation Workshop (FIN-02) involved the gathering of a large number of researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology's Aerosol Interactions and Dynamics of the Atmosphere (AIDA) facility to promote characterization and understanding of ice nucleation measurements made by a variety of methods used worldwide. Compared to the previous workshop in 2007, participation was doubled, reflecting a vibrant research area. Experimental methods involved sampling of aerosol particles by direct processing ice nucleation measuring systems from the same volume of air in separate experiments using different ice nucleating particle (INP) types, and collections of aerosol particle samples onto filters or into liquid for sharing amongst measurement techniques that post-process these samples. In this manner, any errors introduced by differences in generation methods when samples are shared across laboratories were mitigated. Furthermore, as much as possible, aerosol particle size distribution was controlled so that the size limitations of different methods were minimized. The results presented here use data from the workshop to assess the comparability of immersion freezing measurement methods activating INPs in bulk suspensions, methods that activate INPs in condensation and/or immersion freezing modes as single particles on a substrate, continuous flow diffusion chambers (CFDCs) directly sampling and processing particles well above water saturation to maximize immersion and subsequent freezing of aerosol particles, and expansion cloud chamber simulations in which liquid cloud droplets were first activated on aerosol particles prior to freezing. The AIDA expansion chamber measurements are expected to be the closest representation to INP activation in atmospheric cloud parcels in these comparisons, due to exposing particles freely to adiabatic cooling. The different particle types used as INPs included the minerals illite NX and potassium feldspar (K-feldspar), two natural soil dusts representative of arable sandy loam (Argentina) and highly erodible sandy dryland (Tunisia) soils, respectively, and a bacterial INP (Snomax®). Considered together, the agreement among post-processed immersion freezing measurements of the numbers and fractions of particles active at different temperatures following bulk collection of particles into liquid was excellent, with possible temperature uncertainties inferred to be a key factor in determining INP uncertainties. Collection onto filters for rinsing versus directly into liquid in impingers made little difference. For methods that activated collected single particles on a substrate at a controlled humidity at or above water saturation, agreement with immersion freezing methods was good in most cases, but was biased low in a few others for reasons that have not been resolved, but could relate to water vapor competition effects. Amongst CFDC-style instruments, various factors requiring (variable) higher supersaturations to achieve equivalent immersion freezing activation dominate the uncertainty between these measurements, and for comparison with bulk immersion freezing methods. When operated above water saturation to include assessment of immersion freezing, CFDC measurements often measured at or above the upper bound of immersion freezing device measurements, but often underestimated INP concentration in comparison to an immersion freezing method that first activates all particles into liquid droplets prior to cooling (the PIMCA-PINC device, or Portable Immersion Mode Cooling chAmber-Portable Ice Nucleation Chamber), and typically slightly underestimated INP number concentrations in comparison to cloud parcel expansions in the AIDA chamber; this can be largely mitigated when it is possible to raise the relative humidity to sufficiently high values in the CFDCs, although this is not always possible operationally. Correspondence of measurements of INPs among direct sampling and post-processing systems varied depending on the INP type. Agreement was best for Snomax® particles in the temperature regime colder than -10°C, where their ice nucleation activity is nearly maximized and changes very little with temperature. At temperatures warmer than -10°C, Snomax® INP measurements (all via freezing of suspensions) demonstrated discrepancies consistent with previous reports of the instability of its protein aggregates that appear to make it less suitable as a calibration INP at these temperatures. For Argentinian soil dust particles, there was excellent agreement across all measurement methods; measures ranged within 1 order of magnitude for INP number concentrations, active fractions and calculated active site densities over a 25 to 30°C range and 5 to 8 orders of corresponding magnitude change in number concentrations. This was also the case for all temperatures warmer than -25°C in Tunisian dust experiments. In contrast, discrepancies in measurements of INP concentrations or active site densities that exceeded 2 orders of magnitude across a broad range of temperature measurements found at temperatures warmer than -25°C in a previous study were replicated for illite NX. Discrepancies also exceeded 2 orders of magnitude at temperatures of -20 to -25°C for potassium feldspar (K-feldspar), but these coincided with the range of temperatures at which INP concentrations increase rapidly at approximately an order of magnitude per 2°C cooling for K-feldspar. These few discrepancies did not outweigh the overall positive outcomes of the workshop activity, nor the future utility of this data set or future similar efforts for resolving remaining measurement issues. Measurements of the same materials were repeatable over the time of the workshop and demonstrated strong consistency with prior studies, as reflected by agreement of data broadly with parameterizations of different specific or general (e.g., soil dust) aerosol types. The divergent measurements of the INP activity of illite NX by direct versus post-processing methods were not repeated for other particle types, and the Snomax° data demonstrated that, at least for a biological INP type, there is no expected measurement bias between bulk collection and direct immediately processed freezing methods to as warm as -10°C. Since particle size ranges were limited for this workshop, it can be expected that for atmospheric populations of INPs, measurement discrepancies will appear due to the different capabilities of methods for sampling the full aerosol size distribution, or due to limitations on achieving sufficient water supersaturations to fully capture immersion freezing in direct processing instruments. Overall, this workshop presents an improved picture of present capabilities for measuring INPs than in past workshops, and provides direction toward addressing remaining measurement issues.
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| 6. |
- Ho, Joshua W. K., et al.
(author)
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Comparative analysis of metazoan chromatin organization
- 2014
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In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 512:7515, s. 449-U507
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Genome function is dynamically regulated in part by chromatin, which consists of the histones, non-histone proteins and RNA molecules that package DNA. Studies in Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster have contributed substantially to our understanding of molecular mechanisms of genome function in humans, and have revealed conservation of chromatin components and mechanisms(1-3). Nevertheless, the three organisms have markedly different genome sizes, chromosome architecture and gene organization. On human and fly chromosomes, for example, pericentric heterochromatin flanks single centromeres, whereas worm chromosomes have dispersed heterochromatin-like regions enriched in the distal chromosomal 'arms', and centromeres distributed along their lengths(4,5). To systematically investigate chromatin organization and associated gene regulation across species, we generated and analysed a large collection of genome-wide chromatin data sets from cell lines and developmental stages in worm, fly and human. Here we present over 800 new data sets from our ENCODE and modENCODE consortia, bringing the total to over 1,400. Comparison of combinatorial patterns of histone modifications, nuclear lamina-associated domains, organization of large-scale topological domains, chromatin environment at promoters and enhancers, nucleosome positioning, and DNA replication patterns reveals many conserved features of chromatin organization among the three organisms. We also find notable differences in the composition and locations of repressive chromatin. These data sets and analyses provide a rich resource for comparative and species-specific investigations of chromatin composition, organization and function.
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| 7. |
- Drover, Samantha S. M., et al.
(author)
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Maternal Thyroid Function During Pregnancy or Neonatal Thyroid Function and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder : A Systematic Review
- 2019
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In: Epidemiology. - : Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. - 1044-3983 .- 1531-5487. ; 30:1, s. 130-144
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common neurobehavioral disorder in children, yet its etiology is poorly understood. Early thyroid hormone disruption may contribute to the development of ADHD. Disrupted maternal thyroid hormone function has been associated with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in children. Among newborns, early-treated congenital hypothyroidism has been consistently associated with later cognitive deficits.METHODS: We systematically reviewed literature on the association between maternal or neonatal thyroid hormones and ADHD diagnosis or symptoms. We searched Embase, Pubmed, Cinahl, PsycInfo, ERIC, Medline, Scopus, and Web of Science for articles published or available ahead of print as of April 2018.RESULTS: We identified 28 eligible articles: 16 studies of maternal thyroid hormones, seven studies of early-treated congenital hypothyroidism, and five studies of neonatal thyroid hormones. The studies provide moderate evidence for an association between maternal thyroid hormone levels and offspring ADHD, some evidence for an association between early-treated congenital hypothyroidism and ADHD, and little evidence for an association between neonatal thyroid hormone levels and later ADHD.CONCLUSIONS: The reviewed articles suggest an association between maternal thyroid function and ADHD, and possibly between early-treated congenital hypothyroidism and ADHD. Study limitations, however, weaken the conclusions in our systematic review, underlining the need for more research. Importantly, there was much variation in the measurement of thyroid hormone function and of ADHD symptoms. Recommendations for future research include using population-based designs, attending to measurement issues for thyroid hormones and ADHD, considering biologically relevant covariates (e.g., iodine intake), and assessing nonlinear dose responses.
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| 8. |
- Egelhofer, Thea A, et al.
(author)
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An assessment of histone-modification antibody quality
- 2011
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In: Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1545-9993 .- 1545-9985. ; 18:1, s. 91-93
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We have tested the specificity and utility of more than 200 antibodies raised against 57 different histone modifications in Drosophila melanogaster, Caenorhabditis elegans and human cells. Although most antibodies performed well, more than 25% failed specificity tests by dot blot or western blot. Among specific antibodies, more than 20% failed in chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments. We advise rigorous testing of histone-modification antibodies before use, and we provide a website for posting new test results (http://compbio.med.harvard.edu/antibodies/).
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| 9. |
- McCully, Curtis, et al.
(author)
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HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE AND GROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS OF THE TYPE Iax SUPERNOVAE SN 2005hk AND SN 2008A
- 2014
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In: Astrophysical Journal. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 786:2, s. 134-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and ground-based optical and near-infrared observations of SN 2005hk and SN 2008A, typical members of the Type Iax class of supernovae (SNe). Here we focus on late-time observations, where these objects deviate most dramatically from all other SN types. Instead of the dominant nebular emission lines that are observed in other SNe at late phases, spectra of SNe 2005hk and 2008A show lines of Fe II, Ca II, and Fe I more than a year past maximum light, along with narrow [ Fe II] and [ Ca II] emission. We use spectral features to constrain the temperature and density of the ejecta, and find high densities at late times, with n(e) greater than or similar to 10(9) cm(-3). Such high densities should yield enhanced cooling of the ejecta, making these objects good candidates to observe the expected infrared catastrophe, a generic feature of SN Ia models. However, our HST photometry of SN 2008A does not match the predictions of an infrared catastrophe. Moreover, our HST observations rule out a complete deflagration that fully disrupts the white dwarf for these peculiar SNe, showing no evidence for unburned material at late times. Deflagration explosion models that leave behind a bound remnant can match some of the observed properties of SNe Iax, but no published model is consistent with all of our observations of SNe 2005hk and 2008A.
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| 10. |
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| 11. |
- Schrijver, Lieske H, et al.
(author)
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Oral contraceptive use and ovarian cancer risk for BRCA1/2 mutation carriers : an international cohort study
- 2021
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In: American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1097-6868 .- 0002-9378. ; 225:1, s. 1-51
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Ovarian cancer risk in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers has been shown to decrease with longer duration of oral contraceptive preparations (OCPs) use. While the effects of OCPs in the general population are well established (∼50% reduction), the estimated risk reduction in mutation carriers is much less precise due to potential bias and small sample sizes. In addition, only a few studies have examined the associations between duration of use, time since last use, starting age, and calendar year of start with risk of ovarian cancer.OBJECTIVE(S): To investigate in more detail the associations between various characteristics of OCP use and risk of ovarian cancer, to provide health care providers and carriers with better risk estimates.STUDY DESIGN: In this international retrospective study, ovarian cancer risk associations were assessed using OCP data on 3,989 BRCA1 and 2,445 BRCA2 mutation carriers. Age-dependent weighted Cox regression analyses were stratified by study and birth cohort and included breast cancer diagnosis as covariate. To minimize survival bias, analyses were left-truncated at 5 years before baseline questionnaire. Separate analysis were conducted for each of the aspects of OCP use and in a multivariate analysis including all these aspects. In addition, the analysis of duration of OCP use was stratified by recency of use.RESULTS: OCPs were less often used by mutation carriers who were diagnosed with ovarian cancer (Ever use: BRCA1 58.6%, BRCA2 53.5%) than by unaffected carriers (Ever use: BRCA1 88.9%, BRCA2 80.7%. The median duration of use was 7 years for both BRCA1 and BRCA2 carriers who developed ovarian cancer, and 9 and 8 years for ovarian cancer unaffected BRCA1 and BRCA2 carriers, respectively. For BRCA1 mutation carriers univariate analyses showed that both a longer duration of OCP use and more recent use of OCPs were inversely associated with risk of ovarian cancer. However, in multivariate analyses including duration of use, age at first use and time since last use, duration of use proved to be the prominent protective factor (compared with <5 years, 5-9 years HR=0.67;95%CI 0.40-1.12, 10+ years HR=0.37;95%CI 0.19-0.73; ptrend=0.008). The inverse association between duration of use and ovarian cancer risk persisted for more than 15 years (Duration of ≥10 years; BRCA1: <15 years since last use: HR=0.24 95%CI 0.14-0.43, 15+ years since last use: HR 0.56 95%CI 0.18-0.59). Univariate results for BRCA2 mutation carriers were similar, but due to limit sample size inconclusive.CONCLUSION: For BRCA1 mutation carriers, a longer duration of OCP use is associated with a greater reduction of ovarian cancer risk and the protection is long term.
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| 12. |
- Smith, Joel B., et al.
(author)
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Development and climate change adaptation funding : coordination and integration
- 2011
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In: Climate Policy. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1469-3062 .- 1752-7457. ; 11:3, s. 987-1000
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Within a few decades, tens of billions, and possibly over a hundred billion, dollars will be needed for climate change adaptation in developing countries. In recent international climate negotiations, US$100 billion per year by 2020 was pledged by developed countries for mitigation and adaptation. Even if this pledge is realized, it is not clear that it will generate sufficient funds to address the adaptation needs of developing countries. A majority of what has been identified as climate change adaptation needs could be considered as funding for basic development. In addition, a large share of current development assistance is spent on climate-sensitive projects. With the potential for funding of climate change adaptation to fall short of what is needed and for development funding to continue funding many climate-sensitive activities, coordination of the two funding streams may enable more effective support for both sustainable development and climate change adaptation. Preliminary steps to facilitate such coordination are part of the Cancun Agreements and initiatives by other organizations.
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| 13. |
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