Burden of disease studies in the WHO European Region—a mapping exercise

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) have produced numerous global burden of disease (GBD) estimates since the 1990s, using disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs). Here we attempt to identify studies that have either independent DALY estimates or build on the work of WHO and IHME, for the WHO European Region, categorize them by scope of disease analysis and geographic coverage, and briefly compare their methodology (age weighting, discounting and disability weights). Methods: Google and Google Scholar were used with the search terms ‘DALY’, ‘national burden of disease’, Member State names and researcher’s names, covering all years. Studies were categorized as: ‘specific’ (fewer than five disease categories or just risk factors for a single country), ‘specific, multicountry’ (fewer than five disease categories or just risk factors for more than one country), ‘extensive’ (covering five or more but not all disease categories for one country), ‘full, sub country’ (covering all relevant disease categories for part of one country) and ‘full, country’ (covering all relevant disease categories for one country). Results: A total of 198 studies were identified: 143 ‘specific’, 26 ‘specific, multicountry’, 7 ‘extensive’, 10 ‘full, sub country’ and 12 ‘full, country’ [England (1), Estonia (2), France (1), Romania (1), Serbia (1), Spain (3), Sweden (2) and Turkey (1)]. About 5 (20%) of the 25 examinable ‘extensive’, ‘full, sub country’ and ‘full, country’ studies calculated DALYs using GBD 2010 methodology. Conclusions: Independent burden of diseases studies in Europe have been located, and categorized by scope of disease analysis and geographic coverage. Methodological choices varied between independent ‘full, country’ studies

Dynamics of urinary and respiratory shedding of Severe acute respiratory syndrome virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA excludes urine as a relevant source of viral transmission

PURPOSE To investigate the expression of the receptor protein ACE-2 alongside the urinary tract, urinary shedding and urinary stability of SARS-CoV-2 RNA. METHODS Immunohistochemical staining was performed on tissue from urological surgery of 10 patients. Further, patients treated for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at specialized care-units of a university hospital were assessed for detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in urinary samples via PCR, disease severity (WHO score), inflammatory response of patients. Finally, the stability of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in urine was analyzed. RESULTS High ACE-2 expression (3/3) was observed in the tubules of the kidney and prostate glands, moderate expression in urothelial cells of the bladder (0-2/3) and no expression in kidney glomeruli, muscularis of the bladder and stroma of the prostate (0/3). SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in 5/199 urine samples from 64 patients. Viral RNA was detected in the first urinary sample of sequential samples. Viral RNA load from other specimen as nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) or endotracheal aspirates revealed higher levels than from urine. Detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in urine was not associated with impaired WHO score (median 5, range 3-8 vs median 4, range 1-8, p = 0.314), peak white blood cell count (median 24.1 × 1000/ml, range 5.19-48.1 versus median 11.9 × 1000/ml, range 2.9-60.3, p = 0.307), peak CRP (median 20.7~mg/dl, 4.2-40.2 versus median 11.9~mg/dl, range 0.1-51.9, p = 0.316) or peak IL-6 levels (median: 1442~ng/ml, range 26.7-3918 versus median 140~ng/ml, range 3.0-11,041, p = 0.099). SARS-CoV-2 RNA was stable under different storage conditions and after freeze-thaw cycles. CONCLUSIONS SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the urine of COVID-19 patients occurs infrequently. The viral RNA load and dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 RNA shedding suggest no relevant route of transmission through the urinary tract

Bio-inspired optimization techniques using Apache Hadoop

Problem optimization is a fundamental task encountered everywhere, from everydays life to the most complex science areas. Finding the optimal solution often takes an unreasonable amount of time or computing resources. Therefore, approximation techniques are used to find near-optimal solutions. Bio-inspired algorithms provide such approximation techniques, they mimic existing solutions found in the nature. But even those techniques are sometimes to slow for extensive problems, so they need to be run in parallel. This master thesis presents a new framework, Biohadoop, to facilitate the implementation and execution of parallelized bio-inspired optimization techniques on Apache Hadoop. Its usefulness is demonstrated by the implementation and performance evaluation of two bio-inspired optimization algorithms.by Christian GappInnsbruck, Univ., Master-Arb., 2015(VLID)39050

In vitro and in vivo interactions of selected nanoparticles with rodent serum proteins and their consequences in biokinetics

When particles incorporated within a mammalian organism come into contact with body fluids they will bind to soluble proteins or those within cellular membranes forming what is called a protein corona. This binding process is very complex and highly dynamic due to the plethora of proteins with different affinities and fractions in different body fluids and the large variation of compounds and structures of the particle surface. Interestingly, in the case of nanoparticles (NP) this protein corona is well suited to provide a guiding vehicle of translocation within body fluids and across membranes. This NP translocation may subsequently lead to accumulation in various organs and tissues and their respective cell types that are not expected to accumulate such tiny foreign bodies. Because of this unprecedented NP accumulation, potentially adverse biological responses in tissues and cells cannot be neglected a priori but require thorough investigations. Therefore, we studied the interactions and protein binding kinetics of blood serum proteins with a number of engineered NP as a function of their physicochemical properties. Here we show by in vitro incubation tests that the binding capacity of different engineered NP (polystyrene, elemental carbon) for selected serum proteins depends strongly on the NP size and the properties of engineered surface modifications. In the following attempt, we studied systematically the effect of the size (5, 15, 80 nm) of gold spheres (AuNP), surface-modified with the same ionic ligand; as well as 5 nm AuNP with five different surface modifications on the binding to serum proteins by using proteomics analyses. We found that the binding of numerous serum proteins depended strongly on the physicochemical properties of the AuNP. These in vitro results helped us substantially in the interpretation of our numerous in vivo biokinetics studies performed in rodents using the same NP. These had shown that not only the physicochemical properties determined the AuNP translocation from the organ of intake towards blood circulation and subsequent accumulation in secondary organs and tissues but also the the transport across organ membranes depended on the route of AuNP application. Our in vitro protein binding studies support the notion that the observed differences in in vivo biokinetics are mediated by the NP protein corona and its dynamical change during AuNP translocation in fluids and across membranes within the organism

Trends in ecosystem and health responses to long-range transported atmospheric pollutants : Convention on long-range transboundary air pollution. International cooperative programme on assessment and monitoring effects of air pollution on rivers and lakes

Folia element contents, p. 31-32 ; Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Report No. 6946-2015, revised 21.04.2016The aim of this trend report is to assess the effectiveness of air pollution policies under the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP), and to document progress and identify remaining challenges. Trends in environmental and health responses to long-range transported air pollution are presented, primarily focusing on 1990 to 2012 and on Europe, with additional data from North America and the Arctic region. Air pollutants included in the report are sulphur and nitrogen as acidifying agents, nutrient-nitrogen, ground-level ozone, particulate matter (PM), heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants (POPs). The results are from work done under the bodies of the Working Group on Effects of the LRTAP Convention, i.e. ICP Integrated Monitoring, ICP Forests, ICP Materials, ICP Modelling and Mapping, ICP Vegetation, ICP Waters, JEG Dynamic Modelling and the Task Force on Health. The European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP) and the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) also contributed