Risk categorization and decision prioritization for climate change impacts: A rapid risk assessment methodology applied in the State of Qatar

The impacts of climate change vary by location and severity, will be experienced over a range of timescales, and governments are not equally able to respond to risks and hazards in the same way. Yet, despite the rapid expansion of climate-related evidence, few studies categorize risks and hazards to support better-informed decision-making regarding the prioritization of action and investment. This paper develops a risk categorization tool and decision support heuristic, applied to the specific challenges faced in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, and specifically in the State of Qatar. Drawing on expert assessment, the results of this study allow decision-makers to compare risks and hazards when making decisions about resource allocation and policy interventions. The results represent a localized categorization of climate risks and a comparative assessment based on three criteria. Standardized global assessments were used to validate the results. While the application of this study is specific to one country, the methodology and assessment approach could be applied in other contexts to enable more evidence-informed decision-making.Scopu

Pathways for a Sustainable Future

The strategic vision of the State of Qatar seeks to pursue development while aiming for a balanced approach to the social, human, economic, and environmental pillars of the vision. The legal and governance mechanisms supporting this transition are only effective when implemented, and can be hindered by limited access to data for decision-making. In the last decade, significant changes have taken place, catalyzed by commitments made to host the FIFA World Cup 2022 as well as innovations led by the Qatar Foundation. Yet, as a country with heavy reliance on hydrocarbon resources, the transition toward a more sustainable future involves trade-offs, the options for which present different pathways (from pragmatic to transformative). Climate change will present significant challenges for Qatar, including sea level rise and increasing temperatures, but also impacts on terrestrial and marine biodiversity. Domestically, key areas of the economy (energy, water, food, urban development, waste management) require integrated, systems approaches for moving toward greater sustainability. This future needs to be enabled by new ways of teaching and learning as well as new ways of thinking about and doing business. Not all issues could be covered in this collection (most notably, transportation, heating and cooling systems, desalination, health, and air quality, among others). However, this book has provided a wealth of evidence on diverse subjects, and this concluding chapter brings these diverse options and recommendations together.Scopu

Skin- and gut-homing molecules on human circulating gamma delta T cells and their dysregulation in inflammatory bowel disease

Changes in phenotype and function of γδ T cells have been reported in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Dysregulation of lymphocyte migration plays a key role in IBD pathogenesis; however, data on migratory properties of γδ T cells are scarce. Human circulating γδ T cells from healthy controls (n = 27), patients with active CD (n = 15), active UC (n = 14) or cutaneous manifestations of IBD (n = 2) were characterized by flow cytometry. Circulating γδ T cells in healthy controls were CD3(hi) and expressed CD45RO. They expressed gut-homing molecule β7 but not gut-homing molecule corresponding chemokine receptors (CCR)9, or skin-homing molecules cutaneous lymphocyte-associated antigen (CLA) and CCR4, despite conventional T cells containing populations expressing these molecules. CCR9 expression was increased on γδ T cells in CD and UC, while skin-homing CLA was expressed aberrantly on γδ T cells in patients with cutaneous manifestations of IBD. Lower levels of CD3 expression were found on γδ T cells in CD but not in UC, and a lower proportion of γδ T cells expressed CD45RO in CD and UC. Enhanced expression of gut-homing molecules on circulating γδ T cells in IBD and skin-homing molecules in cutaneous manifestations of IBD may be of clinical relevance

Antithrombotic treatment after stroke due to intracerebral haemorrhage

BACKGROUND: This is an update of the Cochrane Review last published in 2017. Survivors of stroke due to intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) are at risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). Antithrombotic (antiplatelet or anticoagulant) treatments may lower the risk of ischaemic MACE after ICH, but they may increase the risk of bleeding. OBJECTIVES: To determine the overall effectiveness and safety of antithrombotic drugs on MACE and its components for people with ICH. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Stroke Group Trials Register (5 October 2021). We also searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL: the Cochrane Library 2021, Issue 10), MEDLINE Ovid (from 1948 to October 2021) and Embase Ovid (from 1980 to October 2021). The online registries of clinical trials searched were the US National Institutes of Health Ongoing Trials Register ClinicalTrials.gov (clinicaltrials.gov) and the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) (5 October 2021). We screened the reference lists of included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) for additional, potentially relevant RCTs. SELECTION CRITERIA: We selected RCTs in which participants with ICH of any age were allocated to a class of antithrombotic treatment as intervention or comparator. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: In accordance with standard methodological procedures recommended by Cochrane, two review authors assessed each selected RCT for its risk of bias and extracted data independently. The primary outcome was a composite of MACE, and secondary outcomes included death, individual components of the MACE composite, ICH growth, functional status and cognitive status. We estimated effects using the frequency of outcomes that occurred during the entire duration of follow‐up and calculated a risk ratio (RR) for each RCT. We grouped RCTs separately for analysis according to 1) the class(es) of antithrombotic treatment used for the intervention and comparator, and 2) the duration of antithrombotic treatment use (short term versus long term). We pooled the intention‐to‐treat populations of RCTs using a fixed‐effect model for meta‐analysis, but used a random‐effects model if RCTs differed substantially in their design or there was considerable heterogeneity (I(2) ≥ 75%) in their results. We applied GRADE to assess the certainty of the evidence. MAIN RESULTS: We identified seven new completed RCTs for this update, resulting in the inclusion of a total of nine RCTs based in secondary care, comprising 1491 participants (average age ranged from 61 to 79 years and the proportion of men ranged from 44% to 67%). The proportion of included RCTs at low risk of bias, by category was: random sequence generation (67%), allocation concealment (67%), performance (22%), detection (78%), attrition (89%), and reporting (78%). For starting versus avoiding short‐term prophylactic dose anticoagulation after ICH, no RCT reported MACE. The evidence is very uncertain about the effect of starting short‐term prophylactic dose anticoagulation on death (RR 1.00, 95% CI 0.59 to 1.70, P = 1.00; 3 RCTs; very low‐certainty evidence), venous thromboembolism (RR 0.84, 95% CI 0.51 to 1.37, P = 0.49; 4 RCTs; very low‐certainty evidence), ICH (RR 0.24, 95% CI 0.04 to 1.38, P = 0.11; 2 RCTs; very low‐certainty evidence), and independent functional status (RR 2.03, 95% CI 0.78 to 5.25, P = 0.15; 1 RCT; very low‐certainty evidence) over 90 days. For starting versus avoiding long‐term therapeutic dose oral anticoagulation for atrial fibrillation after ICH, starting long‐term therapeutic dose oral anticoagulation probably reduces MACE (RR 0.61, 95% CI 0.40 to 0.94, P = 0.02; 3 RCTs; moderate‐certainty evidence) and probably reduces all major occlusive vascular events (RR 0.27, 95% CI 0.14 to 0.53, P = 0.0002; 3 RCTs; moderate‐certainty evidence), but probably results in little to no difference in death (RR 1.05, 95% CI 0.62 to 1.78, P = 0.86; 3 RCTs; moderate‐certainty evidence), probably increases intracranial haemorrhage (RR 2.43, 95% CI 0.88 to 6.73, P = 0.09; 3 RCTs; moderate‐certainty evidence), and may result in little to no difference in independent functional status (RR 0.98, 95% CI 0.78 to 1.24, P = 0.87; 2 RCTs; low‐certainty evidence) over one to three years. For starting versus avoiding long‐term antiplatelet therapy after ICH, the evidence is uncertain about the effects of starting long‐term antiplatelet therapy on MACE (RR 0.89, 95% CI 0.64 to 1.22, P = 0.46; 1 RCT; moderate‐certainty evidence), death (RR 1.08, 95% CI 0.76 to 1.53, P = 0.66; 1 RCT; moderate‐certainty evidence), all major occlusive vascular events (RR 1.03, 95% CI 0.68 to 1.55, P = 0.90; 1 RCT; moderate‐certainty evidence), ICH (RR 0.52, 95% CI 0.27 to 1.03, P = 0.06; 1 RCT; moderate‐certainty evidence) and independent functional status (RR 0.95, 95% CI 0.77 to 1.18, P = 0.67; 1 RCT; moderate‐certainty evidence) over a median follow‐up of two years. For adults within 180 days of non‐cardioembolic ischaemic stroke or transient ischaemic attack and a clinical history of prior ICH, there was no evidence of an effect of long‐term cilostazol compared to aspirin on MACE (RR 1.33, 95% CI 0.74 to 2.40, P = 0.34; subgroup of 1 RCT; low‐certainty evidence), death (RR 1.65, 95% CI 0.55 to 4.91, P = 0.37; subgroup of 1 RCT; low‐certainty evidence), or ICH (RR 1.29, 95% CI 0.35 to 4.69, P = 0.70; subgroup of 1 RCT; low‐certainty evidence) over a median follow‐up of 1.8 years; all major occlusive vascular events and functional status were not reported. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: We did not identify beneficial or hazardous effects of short‐term prophylactic dose parenteral anticoagulation and long‐term oral antiplatelet therapy after ICH on important outcomes. Although there was a significant reduction in MACE and all major occlusive vascular events after long‐term treatment with therapeutic dose oral anticoagulation for atrial fibrillation after ICH, the pooled estimates were imprecise, the certainty of evidence was only moderate, and effects on other important outcomes were uncertain. Large RCTs with a low risk of bias are required to resolve the ongoing dilemmas about antithrombotic treatment after ICH

Microstructural characterisation and compound formation in rapidly solidified SiGe alloy

Severe Ge segregation to grain boundaries was observed in a Si–14.2 at% Ge thermoelectric alloy rapidly solidified using a drop-tube facility, manifesting itself as a series of regions with uniform stoichiometric compositions. The step change in composition at the interface between adjacent regions was ascribed to the formation of different SiGe pseudocompounds and contradicted the accepted thermodynamic description of the SiGe system as a continuous random solid solution. Rapid solidification increased, rather than decreased, the inhomogeneity degree of the solid product, and the Ge content of the most Ge-rich regions was positively correlated with the cooling rate, which suggested the absence of solute trapping. The transmission electron microscopy/selected area electron diffraction analysis of the most Ge-rich regions revealed superlattice spots indicative of chemical ordering. However, simple chemical ordering within a single diamond cubic unit cell could not explain the fact that most stoichiometries had compositions that were multiples of 5 at% Ge, which indicated the presence of superstructural ordering

Association of change in daily step count over five years with insulin sensitivity and adiposity: population based cohort study

addresses: Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, Melbourne 3052, Australia. [email protected]: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tCopyright © 2011 by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. This articles was first published in: BMJ, 2011, Vol. 342, pp. c7249 -To investigate the association between change in daily step count and both adiposity and insulin sensitivity and the extent to which the association between change in daily step count and insulin sensitivity may be mediated by adiposity

Linearization of the brevicidine and laterocidine lipopeptides yields analogues that retain full antibacterial activity

Microbial Biotechnolog

Value, but high costs in post-deposition data Curation

© The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. Discoverability of sequence data in primary data archives is proportional to the richness of contextual information associated with the data. Here, we describe an exercise in the improvement of contextual information surrounding sample records associated with metagenomics sequence reads available in the European Nucleotide Archive. We outline the annotation process and summarize findings of this effort aimed at increasing usability of publicly available environmental data. Furthermore, we emphasize the benefits of such an exercise and detail its costs. We conclude that such a third party annotation approach is expensive and has value as an element of curation, but should form only part of a more sustainable submitter-driven approach

Survey of the quality of experimental design, statistical analysis and reporting of research using animals

For scientific, ethical and economic reasons, experiments involving animals should be appropriately designed, correctly analysed and transparently reported. This increases the scientific validity of the results, and maximises the knowledge gained from each experiment. A minimum amount of relevant information must be included in scientific publications to ensure that the methods and results of a study can be reviewed, analysed and repeated. Omitting essential information can raise scientific and ethical concerns. We report the findings of a systematic survey of reporting, experimental design and statistical analysis in published biomedical research using laboratory animals. Medline and EMBASE were searched for studies reporting research on live rats, mice and non-human primates carried out in UK and US publicly funded research establishments. Detailed information was collected from 271 publications, about the objective or hypothesis of the study, the number, sex, age and/or weight of animals used, and experimental and statistical methods. Only 59% of the studies stated the hypothesis or objective of the study and the number and characteristics of the animals used. Appropriate and efficient experimental design is a critical component of high-quality science. Most of the papers surveyed did not use randomisation (87%) or blinding (86%), to reduce bias in animal selection and outcome assessment. Only 70% of the publications that used statistical methods described their methods and presented the results with a measure of error or variability. This survey has identified a number of issues that need to be addressed in order to improve experimental design and reporting in publications describing research using animals. Scientific publication is a powerful and important source of information; the authors of scientific publications therefore have a responsibility to describe their methods and results comprehensively, accurately and transparently, and peer reviewers and journal editors share the responsibility to ensure that published studies fulfil these criteria

Increasing importance of European lineages in seeding the hepatitis C virus subtype 1a epidemic in Spain

Background: Reducing the burden of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) requires large-scale deployment of intervention programmes, which can be informed by the dynamic pattern of HCV spread. In Spain, ongoing transmission of HCV is mostly fuelled by people who inject drugs (PWID) infected with subtype 1a (HCV1a). Aim: Our aim was to map how infections spread within and between populations, which could help formulate more effective intervention programmes to halt the HCV1a epidemic in Spain. Methods: Epidemiological links between HCV1a viruses from a convenience sample of 283 patients in Spain, mostly PWID, collected between 2014 and 2016, and 1,317, 1,291 and 1,009 samples collected abroad between 1989 and 2016 were reconstructed using sequences covering the NS3, NS5A and NS5B genes. To efficiently do so, fast maximum likelihood-based tree estimation was coupled to a flexible Bayesian discrete phylogeographic inference method. Results: The transmission network structure of the Spanish HCV1a epidemic was shaped by continuous seeding of HCV1a into Spain, almost exclusively from North America and European countries. The latter became increasingly relevant and have dominated in recent times. Export from Spain to other countries in Europe was also strongly supported, although Spain was a net sink for European HCV1a lineages. Spatial reconstructions showed that the epidemic in Spain is diffuse, without large, dominant within-country networks. Conclusion: To boost the effectiveness of local intervention efforts, concerted supra-national strategies to control HCV1a transmission are needed, with a strong focus on the most important drivers of ongoing transmission, i.e. PWID and other high-risk populations