Causes of death among people who used illicit opioids in England, 2001–18: a matched cohort study

Background: In many countries, the average age of people who use illicit opioids, such as heroin, is increasing. This has been suggested to be a reason for increasing numbers of opioid-related deaths seen in surveillance data. We aimed to describe causes of death among people who use illicit opioids in England, how causes of death have changed over time, and how they change with age. Methods: In this matched cohort study, we studied patients in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink with recorded illicit opioid use (defined as aged 18–64 years, with prescriptions or clinical observations that indicate use of illicit opioids) in England between Jan 1, 2001, and Oct 30, 2018. We also included a comparison group, matched (1:3) for age, sex, and general practice with no records of illicit opioid use before cohort entry. Dates and causes of death were obtained from the UK Office for National Statistics. The cohort exit date was the earliest of date of death or Oct 30, 2018. We described rates of death and calculated cause-specific standardised mortality ratios. We used Poisson regression to estimate associations between age, calendar year, and cause-specific death. Findings: We collected data for 106 789 participants with a history of illicit opioid use, with a median follow-up of 8·7 years (IQR 4·3–13·5), and 320 367 matched controls with a median follow-up of 9·5 years (5·0–14·4). 13 209 (12·4%) of 106 789 participants in the exposed cohort had died, with a standardised mortality ratio of 7·72 (95% CI 7·47–7·97). The most common causes of death were drug poisoning (4375 [33·1%] of 13 209), liver disease (1272 [9·6%]), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD; 681 [5·2%]), and suicide (645 [4·9%]). Participants with a history of illicit opioid use had higher mortality rates than the comparison group for all causes of death analysed, with highest standardised mortality ratios being seen for viral hepatitis (103·5 [95% CI 61·7–242·6]), HIV (16·7 [9·5–34·9]), and COPD (14·8 [12·6–17·6]). In the exposed cohort, at age 20 years, the rate of fatal drug poisonings was 271 (95% CI 230–313) per 100 000 person-years, accounting for 59·9% of deaths at this age, whereas the mortality rate due to non-communicable diseases was 31 (16–45) per 100 000 person-years, accounting for 6·8% of deaths at this age. Deaths due to non-communicable diseases increased more rapidly with age (1155 [95% CI 880–1431] deaths per 100 000 person-years at age 50 years; accounting for 52·0% of deaths at this age) than did deaths due to drug poisoning (507 (95% CI 452–562) per 100 000 person-years at age 50 years; accounting for 22·8% of deaths at this age). Mirroring national surveillance data, the rate of fatal drug poisonings in the exposed cohort increased from 345 (95% CI 299–391) deaths per 100 000 person-years in 2010–12 to 534 (468–600) per 100 000 person-years in 2016–18; an increase of 55%, a trend that was not explained by ageing of participants. Interpretation: People who use illicit opioids have excess risk of death across all major causes of death we analysed. Our findings suggest that population ageing is unlikely to explain the increasing number of fatal drug poisonings seen in surveillance data, but is associated with many more deaths due to non-communicable diseases

Seabird Bycatch in Pelagic Longline Fisheries Is Grossly Underestimated when Using Only Haul Data

Hundreds of thousands of seabirds are killed each year as bycatch in longline fisheries. Seabirds are predominantly caught during line setting but bycatch is generally recorded during line hauling, many hours after birds are caught. Bird loss during this interval may lead to inaccurate bycatch information. In this 15 year study, seabird bycatch was recorded during both line setting and line hauling from four fishing regions: Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean, Coral Sea and central Pacific Ocean. Over 43,000 albatrosses, petrels and skuas representing over 25 species were counted during line setting of which almost 6,000 seabirds attempted to take the bait. Bait-taking interactions were placed into one of four categories. (i) The majority (57%) of bait-taking attempts were “unsuccessful” involving seabirds that did not take the bait nor get caught or hooked. (ii) One-third of attempts were “successful” with seabirds removing the bait while not getting caught. (iii) One-hundred and seventy-six seabirds (3% of attempts) were observed being “caught” during line setting, with three albatross species – Laysan (Phoebastria immutabilis), black-footed (P. nigripes) and black-browed (Thalassarche melanophrys)– dominating this category. However, of these, only 85 (48%) seabird carcasses were retrieved during line hauling. Most caught seabirds were hooked through the bill. (iv) The remainder of seabird-bait interactions (7%) was not clearly observed, but likely involved more “caught” seabirds. Bait taking attempts and percentage outcome (e.g. successful, caught) varied between seabird species and was not always related to species abundance around fishing vessels. Using only haul data to calculate seabird bycatch grossly underestimates actual bycatch levels, with the level of seabird bycatch from pelagic longline fishing possibly double what was previously thought

What Is Special about Aromatic-Aromatic Interactions? Significant Attraction at Large Horizontal Displacement

High-level ab initio calculations show that the most stable stacking for benzene-cyclohexane is 17% stronger than that for benzene-benzene. However, as these systems are displaced horizontally the benzene-benzene attraction retains its strength. At a displacement of 5.0 Å, the benzene-benzene attraction is still ∼70% of its maximum strength, while benzene-cyclohexane attraction has fallen to ∼40% of its maximum strength. Alternatively, the radius of attraction (>2.0 kcal/mol) for benzene-benzene is 250% larger than that for benzene-cyclohexane. Thus, at relatively large distances aromatic rings can recognize each other, a phenomenon that helps explain their importance in protein folding and supramolecular structures

A feedback loop links brownification to anoxia in a temperate, shallow lake

This study examines a natural, rapid, fivefold increase in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations in a temperate shallow lake, describing the processes by which increased DOC resulted in anoxic conditions and altered existing carbon cycling pathways. High precipitation for two consecutive years led to rising water levels and the flooding of adjacent degraded peatlands. Leaching from the flooded soils provided an initial increase in DOC concentrations (from a 2010 mean of 12 ± 1 mg L−1 to a maximum concentration of 53 mg L−1 by June 2012). Increasing water levels, DOC, and phytoplankton concentrations reduced light reaching the sediment surface, eliminating most benthic primary production and promoting anoxia in the hypolimnion. From January to June 2012 there was a sudden increase in total phosphorus (from 57 µg L−1 to 216 µg L−1), DOC (from 24.6 mg L−1 to 53 mg L−1), and iron (from 0.12 mg L−1 to 1.07 mg L−1) concentrations, without any further large fluxes in water levels. We suggest that anoxic conditions at the sediment surface and flooded soils produced a dramatic release of these chemicals that exacerbated brownification and eutrophication, creating anoxic conditions that persisted roughly 6 months below a water depth of 1 m and extended periodically to the water surface. This brownification-anoxia feedback loop resulted in a near-complete loss of macroinvertebrate and fish populations, and increased surface carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by an order of magnitude relative to previous years

Supplementary data for the article: Malenov, D. P.; Veljković, D. Ž.; Hall, M. B.; Brothers, E. N.; Zarić, S. Influence of Chelate Ring Type on Chelate-Chelate and Chelate-Aryl Stacking: The Case of Nickel Bis(Dithiolene). Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 2019, 21 (3), 1198–1206. https://doi.org/10.1039/c8cp06312e

Related to published version: [http://cherry.chem.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/2822]Supplementary material for: [https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2019/CP/C8CP06312E#!divAbstract

Albatrosses Following Fishing Vessels: How Badly Hooked Are They on an Easy Meal?

Fisheries have major impacts on seabirds, both by changing food availability and by causing direct mortality of birds during trawling and longline setting. However, little is known about the nature and the spatial-temporal extent of the interactions between individual birds and vessels. By studying a system in which we had fine-scale data on bird movements and activity, and near real-time information on vessel distribution, we provide new insights on the association of a threatened albatross with fisheries. During early chick-rearing, black-browed albatrosses Thalassarche melanophris from two different colonies (separated by only 75 km) showed significant differences in the degree of association with fisheries, despite being nearly equidistant to the Falklands fishing fleet. Most foraging trips from either colony did not bring tracked individuals close to vessels, and proportionally little time and foraging effort was spent near ships. Nevertheless, a few individuals repeatedly visited fishing vessels, which may indicate they specialise on fisheries-linked food sources and so are potentially more vulnerable to bycatch. The evidence suggests that this population has little reliance on fisheries discards at a critical stage of its nesting cycle, and hence measures to limit fisheries waste on the Patagonian shelf that also reduce vessel attractiveness and the risk of incidental mortality, would be of high overall conservation benefit

Global CO2 Emissions From Dry Inland Waters Share Common Drivers Across Ecosystems

Many inland waters exhibit complete or partial desiccation, or have vanished due to global change, exposing sediments to the atmosphere. Yet, data on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from these sediments are too scarce to upscale emissions for global estimates or to understand their fundamental drivers. Here, we present the results of a global survey covering 196 dry inland waters across diverse ecosystem types and climate zones. We show that their CO2 emissions share fundamental drivers and constitute a substantial fraction of the carbon cycled by inland waters. CO2 emissions were consistent across ecosystem types and climate zones, with local characteristics explaining much of the variability. Accounting for such emissions increases global estimates of carbon emissions from inland waters by 6% (~0.12 Pg C y−1). Our results indicate that emissions from dry inland waters represent a significant and likely increasing component of the inland waters carbon cycle

Supplementary data for article: Ninković, D. B.; Malenov, D. P.; Petrović, P. V.; Brothers, E. N.; Niu, S.; Hall, M. B.; Belić, M. R.; Zarić, S. D. Unexpected Importance of Aromatic–Aliphatic and Aliphatic Side Chain–Backbone Interactions in the Stability of Amyloids. Chemistry - A European Journal 2017, 23 (46), 11046–11053. https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201701351

Supporting information for: [https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201701351]Related to published version: [http://cherry.chem.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/2506]Related to accepted version: [http://cherry.chem.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/3118

Unexpected Importance of Aromatic-Aliphatic and Aliphatic Side Chain-Backbone Interactions in the Stability of Amyloids

The role of aromatic and nonaromatic amino acids in amyloid formation has been elucidated by calculating interaction energies between -sheets in amyloid model systems using density functional theory (B3LYP-D3/6-31G*). The model systems were based on experimental crystal structures of two types of amyloids: (1)with aromatic amino acids, and (2)without aromatic amino acids. Data show that these two types of amyloids have similar interaction energies, supporting experimental findings that aromatic amino acids are not essential for amyloid formation. However, different factors contribute to the stability of these two types of amyloids. In the former, the presence of aromatic amino acids significantly contributes to the strength of interactions between side chains; interactions between aromatic and aliphatic side chains are the strongest, followed by aromatic-aromatic interactions, while aliphatic-aliphatic interactions are the weakest. In the latter, that is, the amyloids without aromatic residues, stability is provided by interactions of aliphatic side chains with the backbone and, in some cases, by hydrogen bonds.This is the peer-reviewed version of the following article: Ninković, D. B.; Malenov, D. P.; Petrović, P. V.; Brothers, E. N.; Niu, S.; Hall, M. B.; Belić, M. R.; Zarić, S. D. Unexpected Importance of Aromatic–Aliphatic and Aliphatic Side Chain–Backbone Interactions in the Stability of Amyloids. Chemistry - A European Journal 2017, 23 (46), 11046–11053. [https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201701351]Supplementary material: [http://cherry.chem.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/3119

Novel insights into host-fungal pathogen interactions derived from live-cell imaging

Acknowledgments The authors acknowledge funding from the Wellcome Trust (080088, 086827, 075470 and 099215) including a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award for Medical Mycology and Fungal Immunology 097377 and FP7-2007–2013 grant agreement HEALTH-F2-2010-260338–ALLFUN to NARG.Peer reviewedPublisher PD