Temporal trends in intracerebral hemorrhage in a general population. Incidence, risk factors, case fatality and long-term mortality. The Tromsø Study

Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is the second most common subtype of stroke. The prognosis is poor. However, it is to a large degree a preventable disease. The aim of our study was to analyse the association between cardiovascular risk factors and risk of ICH, and to assess the impact of changes in risk factor levels over time on incidence rates of ICH. In addition, we aimed to analyse short- and long-term mortality after ICH. The Tromsø study is an ongoing, longitudinal population-based study with repeated health surveys, with >45,000 attendees, providing an unique opportunity to assess longitudinal data on ICH epidemiology in a general population in a well-defined geographical area. Age, male sex, systolic and diastolic blood pressure were significantly associated with increased risk of ICH. Incidence rates were stable in the overall population in the period 1995-2013. In women incidence rates decreased, whereas incidence rates in men were stable. Lower blood pressure levels, and a steeper decrease in blood pressure in women may have contributed to the difference in trends. Despite an increase in treatment of hypertension, less than half of attendees of the last survey who had hypertension were on blood pressure-lowering drugs. Of these, two-thirds had uncontrolled hypertension. One-month case fatality and 5-year mortality rates remained stable. Participants who survived the first 30 days after ICH had a more than 60% increased 5-year risk of death compared with controls matched by birth-year and sex. The main cause of death was cardiovascular disease. Smoking, serum cholesterol and use of anticoagulant drugs at time of ICH were associated with increased risk of 5-year mortality after ICH. Our results indicate that there is a need for improved primary prevention of ICH. The stable short- and long-term mortality rates probably reflect the limited treatment possibilities of ICH and emphasize the urge for improved treatment strategies in the acute phase and a need for better knowledge on secondary prevention after ICH.Intracerebral blødning (ICB) er den nest hyppigste type av hjerneslag. Prognosen etter ICB er alvorlig, men det er en sykdom som i stor grad kan forebygges. Vi ønsket å undersøke hvilke risikofaktorer som øker risikoen for ICB, og om endringer i risikofaktorer over tid har påvirket forekomsten av ICB. I tillegg ønsket vi å undersøke kort- og langtidsdødelighet etter ICB. Tromsøundersøkelsen er en pågående longitudinell populasjonsbasert studie med repeterte målinger med over 45,000 deltakere. Undersøkelsen gir en unik mulighet til å analysere endringer over tid i insidens og dødelighet og risiko-faktorer for ICB i befolkningen. Vi fant at alder, mannlig kjønn, systolisk og diastolisk blodtrykk var signifikant assosiert med risikoen for ICB. Insidensraten av ICB var stabil i den samlede befolkningen i perioden 1995-2013. Vi observerte imidlertid en nedgang i insidens av ICB hos kvinner. Insidensratene hos menn var stabile. Lavere blodtrykksnivåer og en større nedgang i blodtrykk hos kvinner kan ha bidratt til forskjellen i trend. Blant deltakere med hypertensjon økte andelen som ble behandlet og hadde velregulert blodtrykk. Til tross for dette var mindre enn halvparten av deltakere med hypertensjon i siste del av studien medikamentelt behandlet. To tredeler av disse hadde ukontrollert hypertensjon. Det var ingen endring i 30-dagers fatalitet og 5-års dødelighet. Blant deltakere som var i live 30 dager etter ICB var risikoen for død i løpet av 5 år mer enn 60% høyere sammenlignet med kontroller matchet for fødselsår og kjønn. Forskjellen kunne forklares av en økt risiko for død av kardiovaskulær sykdom hos pasienter med ICB. Røyking, serum kolesterol og bruk av antikoagulantia på blødningstidspunktet var assosiert med økt risiko for 5-års dødelighet. De stabile insidensratene viser at det er behov for en forbedret forebygging av ICB. Stabile trender i kort- og langtidsdødelighet indikerer at det er et behov for mer effektiv behandling av ICB. I tillegg er det behov for økt kunnskap om sekundærprofylakse etter ICB

A case study of the relationship between the City Council of Nairobi and Community Based Waste Management Organisations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between local governments and community based waste management organisations and the sustainability of voluntary organisations providing basic services. Drawing on analytical concepts of participatory development it investigate factors contributing to a successful relationship. More specifically how cooperation, communication and collaboration relate to the success or failure of community based initiatives. The concept of sustainable development provided analytical tools to measure how used for investigating the level of social sustainability. The thesis draws on an instrumental case study approach using community based organisations in Kibera, Nairobi and the City Council of Nairobi, Kenya. Data was collected through semi-structured and informal interviews together with non-participatory observations. The findings shows a relationship that lacks in cooperation, communication and collaboration and a case where social factors related to income, priority and motivation challenges the sustainability of the community based organisations

Farmers’ Adaptation to Climate Change: A Framed Field Experiment

The risk of losing income and productive means due to adverse weather can differ significantly among farmers sharing a productive landscape and is, of course, hard to estimate or even “guesstimate” empirically. Moreover, the costs associated with investments in adaptation to climate are likely to exhibit economies of scope. We explore the implications of these characteristics on Costa Rican coffee farmers’ decisions to adapt to climate change, using a framed field experiment. Despite having a baseline of high levels of risk aversion, we still found that farmers more frequently chose the safe options when the setting is characterized by unknown risk (that is, poor or unreliable risk information). Second, we found that farmers, to a large extent, coordinated their decisions to secure a lower adaptation cost and that communication among farmers strongly facilitated coordination.risk, ambiguity, technology adoption, climate change, field experiment

Expression of mRNA for phospholipase A(2), cyclooxygenases, and lipoxygenases in cultured human umbilical vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells and in biopsies from umbilical arteries and veins

Arachidonic acid (AA) is released by phospholipase A(2) (PLA(2)) and then converted into vasoactive and inflammatory eicosanoids by cyclooxygenases (COX) and lipoxygenases (LOX). These eicosanoids are important paracrine regulators of vascular permeability, blood flow, local pro- and anticoagulant activity and they play a major role in the local inflammatory response. We have investigated the presence of mRNAs for PLA(2) and for isoforms of COX and LOX in both human endothelial cells (EC) and in human smooth muscle cells (SMC) in culture and in vascular biopsies of human umbilical veins (HUVB) and arteries (HUAB) by using the reversed transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique. Results show detectable levels of PLA(2) type IV (cPLA(2)) in cultured EC and SMC and in vascular wall biopsies from HUAB and HUVB. The cultured EC and SMC demonstrate higher levels of both COX-1 and COX-2 with PCR analyses than do vascular wall biopsies from HUAB and HUVB. This indicates a difference in the native expression of COX-1 and COX-2 in cultures of EC and SMC compared to that in biopsies from intact vessel walls. The EC and SMC in culture do not express mRNA for 5-LOX, that was, however, expressed in the vascular wall biopsies. This speaks in favour of a constitutive, i.e, in vivo expression of 5-LOX in SMC in the vascular wall of both umbilical vein and arteries. Thus results from in vitro studies of constitutive COX and LOX expression in EC and vascular SMC in culture cannot simply be extrapolated to represent in vivo conditions

Re-Reading Chevron

Though increasingly disfavored by the Supreme Court, Chevron remains central to administrative law doctrine. This Article suggests a way for the Court to reformulate the Chevron doctrine without overruling the Chevron decision. Through careful attention to the language of Chevron itself, the Court can honor the decision’s underlying value of harnessing comparative institutional advantage in judicial review, while setting aside a highly selective reading that unduly narrows judicial review. This re-reading would put the Chevron doctrine—and with it, an entire branch of administrative law—on firmer footing

Millimeter radiation from a 3D model of the solar atmosphere II. Chromospheric magnetic field

We use state-of-the-art, three-dimensional non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE) radiative magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the quiet solar atmosphere to carry out detailed tests of chromospheric magnetic field diagnostics from free-free radiation at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths (mm/submm). The vertical component of the magnetic field was deduced from the mm/submm brightness spectra and the degree of circular polarization synthesized at millimeter frequencies. We used the frequency bands observed by the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) as a convenient reference. The magnetic field maps obtained describe the longitudinal magnetic field at the effective formation heights of the relevant wavelengths in the solar chromosphere. The comparison of the deduced and model chromospheric magnetic fields at the spatial resolution of both the model and current observations demonstrates a good correlation, but has a tendency to underestimate the model field. The systematic discrepancy of about 10 percent is probably due to averaging of the restored field over the heights contributing to the radiation, weighted by the strength of the contribution. On the whole, the method of probing the longitudinal component of the magnetic field with free-free emission at mm/submm wavelengths is found to be applicable to measurements of the weak quiet-Sun magnetic fields. However, successful exploitation of this technique requires very accurate measurements of the polarization properties (primary beam and receiver polarization response) of the antennas, which will be the principal factor that determines the level to which chromospheric magnetic fields can be measured. Consequently, high-resolution and high-precision observations of circularly polarized radiation at millimeter wavelengths can be a powerful tool for producing chromospheric longitudinal magnetograms.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Production of protein extracts from Swedish red, green, and brown seaweeds, Porphyra umbilicalis Kützing, Ulva lactuca Linnaeus, and Saccharina latissima (Linnaeus) J. V. Lamouroux using three different methods

peer-reviewedThe demand for vegetable proteins increases globally and seaweeds are considered novel and promising protein sources. However, the tough polysaccharide-rich cell walls and the abundance of polyphenols reduce the extractability and digestibility of seaweed proteins. Therefore, food grade, scalable, and environmentally friendly protein extraction techniques are required. To date, little work has been carried out on developing such methods taking into consideration the structural differences between seaweed species. In this work, three different protein extraction methods were applied to three Swedish seaweeds (Porphyra umbilicalis, Ulva lactuca, and Saccharina latissima). These methods included (I) a traditional method using sonication in water and subsequent ammonium sulfate-induced protein precipitation, (II) the pH-shift protein extraction method using alkaline protein solubilization followed by isoelectric precipitation, and (III) the accelerated solvent extraction (ASE®) method where proteins are extracted after pre-removal of lipids and phlorotannins. The highest protein yields were achieved using the pH-shift method applied to P. umbilicalis (22.6 ± 7.3%) and S. latissima (25.1 ± 0.9%). The traditional method resulted in the greatest protein yield when applied to U. lactuca (19.6 ± 0.8%). However, the protein concentration in the produced extracts was highest for all three species using the pH-shift method (71.0 ± 3.7%, 51.2 ± 2.1%, and 40.7 ± 0.5% for P. umbilicalis, U. lactuca, and S. latissima, respectively). In addition, the pH-shift method was found to concentrate the fatty acids in U. lactuca and S. latissima by 2.2 and 1.6 times, respectively. The pH-shift method can therefore be considered a promising strategy for producing seaweed protein ingredients for use in food and feed