White Matter Hyperintensity Volume and Poststroke Cognition: An Individual Patient Data Pooled Analysis of 9 Ischemic Stroke Cohort Studies

BACKGROUND: White matter hyperintensities (WMH) are associated with cognitive dysfunction after ischemic stroke. Yet, uncertainty remains about affected domains, the role of other preexisting brain injury, and infarct types in the relation between WMH burden and poststroke cognition. We aimed to disentangle these factors in a large sample of patients with ischemic stroke from different cohorts. METHODS: We pooled and harmonized individual patient data (n=1568) from 9 cohorts, through the Meta VCI Map consortium (www.metavcimap.org). Included cohorts comprised patients with available magnetic resonance imaging and multidomain cognitive assessment <15 months poststroke. In this individual patient data meta-analysis, linear mixed models were used to determine the association between WMH volume and domain-specific cognitive functioning (Z scores; attention and executive functioning, processing speed, language and verbal memory) for the total sample and stratified by infarct type. Preexisting brain injury was accounted for in the multivariable models and all analyses were corrected for the study site as a random effect. RESULTS: In the total sample (67 years [SD, 11.5], 40% female), we found a dose-dependent inverse relationship between WMH volume and poststroke cognitive functioning across all 4 cognitive domains (coefficients ranging from -0.09 [SE, 0.04, P=0.01] for verbal memory to -0.19 [SE, 0.03, P<0.001] for attention and executive functioning). This relation was independent of acute infarct volume and the presence of lacunes and old infarcts. In stratified analyses, the relation between WMH volume and domain-specific functioning was also largely independent of infarct type. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with ischemic stroke, increasing WMH volume is independently associated with worse cognitive functioning across all major domains, regardless of old ischemic lesions and infarct type

Renewable Energy Communities as a New Actor in Home Energy Savings

Renewable energy communities (RECs) might be an interesting new stakeholder in stimulating home energy-saving efforts by tenants and homeowners due to their potential of raising awareness locally and gaining public support for low-carbon energy and energy-savings projects, because RECs are often locally sited, in close social proximity of residents, and are already part of local structures and share local institutions. This comes with many benefits since they already have a reputation locally, a social history with the local community, and can be trusted by the latter. This makes them potentially better suited than other - often less-trusted - parties (i.e., government and business companies) to use their agency to encourage sustainable change. The article builds on empirical data from the EU Horizon 2020 project REScoop Plus, using a mixed-methods research approach, including desk research, expert interviews, validation workshops, and multiple surveys among RECs in six EU member states about energy-saving actions implemented, and their effectiveness in terms of raising awareness, influencing the intention to save energy, and actual energy-saving behaviour. This article provides more insight into the assessment of actions and measures for coaching householders to achieve energy savings and low carbon goals. In addition, it shows the potential of using RECs as a new strategy to address home energy savings in the current housing stock, including options to improve the energy performance thereof

Renewable Energy Cooperatives as a Stimulating Factor in Household Energy Savings

Little is known about how renewable energy cooperatives (REScoops) try to influence energy conservation among households and the resulting impact. In this article the main research question is: What is the predictive value of renewable energy cooperatives on intention to save energy, engagement in energy-saving actions, and self-reported energy conservation by households? A survey was conducted to answer this question. Data analysis involved multivariate and binary logistic regression on data from two cooperatives: Ecopower (Belgium; N = 1000) and Enercoop (France; N = 8290). Results show that in addition to psychological and socio-demographic variables, REScoop items modestly contribute to the explained variation in engagement in energy-saving actions and reported energy conservation. At Enercoop 18.2% of the respondents indicated that their cooperative contributed to household energy savings; for Ecopower this figure was 36.9%. Moreover, at Enercoop, 38.7% of the respondents reported consuming less energy since obtaining cooperative membership; at Ecopower this was 64.7%. The article concludes with suggestions for future research

Gender-Ethnicity Intersectionality in Climate Change Adaptation in the Coastal Areas of Bangladesh

Climate change effects are not uniform and have disproportionate impacts among different groups of people within communities. It is therefore important to understand the underlying issues of intersectionality for climate change adaptation and human well-being. This paper aims to measure human capabilities and freedom of choice by analyzing perceived climate change impacts and current climate change adaptation ability among ethnic and non-ethnic communities in Bangladesh. This study applies a range of participatory rural appraisal tools and key informant interviews to assess impacts of climate change when considering gender and ethnicity. Women in the coastal regions have less access to resources and services because of social capital and cultural practices and this directly or indirectly influences their adaptation to climate change. Women have limited or no participation in decision-making processes at family or community levels and this impacts their vulnerability and well-being. In consequence, women’s capabilities must be focused on moderating their vulnerability and risk, and developing effective adaptation to the adverse impacts of climate change and natural hazards

Functional consequences of mitochondrial tRNA Trp and tRNA Arg mutations causing combined OXPHOS defects.

Contains fulltext : 83310.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Combined oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) system deficiencies are a group of mitochondrial disorders that are associated with a range of clinical phenotypes and genetic defects. They occur in approximately 30% of all OXPHOS disorders and around 4% are combined complex I, III and IV deficiencies. In this study we present two mutations in the mitochondrial tRNA(Trp) (MT-TW) and tRNA(Arg) (MT-TR) genes, m.5556G>A and m.10450A>G, respectively, which were detected in two unrelated patients showing combined OXPHOS complex I, III and IV deficiencies and progressive multisystemic diseases. Both mitochondrial tRNA mutations were almost homoplasmic in fibroblasts and muscle tissue of the two patients and not present in controls. Patient fibroblasts showed a general mitochondrial translation defect. The mutations resulted in lowered steady-state levels and altered conformations of the tRNAs. Cybrid cell lines showed similar tRNA defects and impairment of OXPHOS complex assembly as patient fibroblasts. Our results show that these tRNA(Trp) and tRNA(Arg) mutations cause the combined OXPHOS deficiencies in the patients, adding to the still expanding group of pathogenic mitochondrial tRNA mutations.01 maart 20106 p

Search for new physics in the lepton plus missing transverse momentum final state in proton-proton collisions at s=\sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

International audienceA search for physics beyond the standard model (SM) in final states with an electron or muon and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis uses data from proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2016-2018 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. No significant deviation from the SM prediction is observed. Model-independent limits are set on the production cross section of W' bosons decaying into lepton-plus-neutrino final states. Within the framework of the sequential standard model, with the combined results from the electron and muon decay channels a W' boson with mass less than 5.7 TeV is excluded at 95% confidence level. Results on a SM precision test, the determination of the oblique electroweak $W$ parameter, are presented using LHC data for the first time. These results together with those from the direct W' resonance search are used to extend existing constraints on composite Higgs scenarios. This is the first experimental exclusion on compositeness parameters using results from LHC data other than Higgs boson measurements