Suicide in Scottish military veterans: a 30-year retrospective cohort study

Background: Although reassuring data on suicide risk in UK veterans of the 1982 Falklands conflict and 1991 Gulf conflict have been published, there have been few studies on long-term overall suicide risk in UK veterans. Aims: To examine the risk of suicide in a broad population-based cohort of veterans in Scotland, irrespect ive of length of service or exposure to conflict, in comparison with people having no record of military service. Methods: A retrospective 30-year cohort study of 56205 veterans born 1945–85 and 172741 matched non-veterans, using Cox proportional hazard models to compare the risk of suicide and fatal self-harm overall, by sex, birth cohort, length of service and year of recruitment. Results: There were 267 (0.48%) suicides in the veterans compared with 918 (0.53%) in non-veterans. The difference was not statistically significant overall [adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 0.99; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.86–1.13]. The incidence was lower in younger veterans and higher in veterans aged over 40. Early service leavers were at non-significantly increased risk (adjusted HR 1.13; 95% CI 0.91–1.40) but only in the older age groups. Women veterans had a significantly higher risk of suicide than non-veteran women (adjusted HR 2.44; 95% CI 1.32–4.51, P < 0.01) and comparable risk to veteran men. Methods of suicide did not differ significantly between veterans and non-veterans, for either sex. Conclusions: The Scottish Veterans Health Study adds to the emerging body of evidence that there is no overall difference in long-term risk of suicide between veterans and non-veterans in the UK. However, female veterans merit further study

Routine data linkage to identify and monitor diabetes in clozapine-treated patients with schizophrenia

No abstract available

Exposure to tobacco smoke in utero or during early childhood and risk of hypomania: prospective birth cohort study

Objectives: Using data from a prospective birth cohort, we aimed to test for an association between exposure to tobacco smoke in utero or during early development and the experience of hypomania assessed in young adulthood. Methods: We used data on 2957 participants from a large birth cohort (Avon longitudinal study of parents and children [ALSPAC]). The primary outcome of interest was hypomania, and the secondary outcome was “hypomania plus previous psychotic experiences (PE)”. Maternally-reported smoking during pregnancy, paternal smoking and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in childhood were the exposures of interest. Multivariable logistic regression was used and estimates of association were adjusted for socio-economic, lifestyle and obstetric factors. Results: There was weak evidence of an association between exposure to maternal smoking in utero and lifetime hypomania. However, there was a strong association of maternal smoking during pregnancy within the sub-group of individuals with hypomania who had also experienced psychotic symptoms (OR = 3.45; 95% CI: 1.49–7.98; P = 0.004). There was no association between paternal smoking, or exposure to ETS during childhood, and hypomania outcomes. Conclusions: Exposure to smoking in utero may be a risk factor for more severe forms of psychopathology on the mood-psychosis spectrum, rather than DSM-defined bipolar disorder

Preeclampsia is associated with compromized maternal synthesis of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids leading to offspring deficiency

Obesity and excessive lipolysis are implicated in preeclampsia (PE). Intrauterine growth restriction is associated with low maternal body mass index and decreased lipolysis. Our aim was to assess how maternal and offspring fatty acid metabolism is altered in mothers in the third trimester of pregnancy with PE (n=62) or intrauterine growth restriction (n=23) compared with healthy pregnancies (n=164). Markers of lipid metabolism and erythrocyte fatty acid concentrations were measured. Maternal adipose tissue fatty acid composition and mRNA expression of adipose tissue fatty acid–metabolizing enzymes and placental fatty acid transporters were compared. Mothers with PE had higher plasma triglyceride (21%, P<0.001) and nonesterified fatty acid (50%, P<0.001) concentrations than controls. Concentrations of major n−6 and n−3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in erythrocytes were 23% to 60% lower (all P<0.005) in PE and intrauterine growth restriction mothers and offspring compared with controls. Subcutaneous adipose tissue Δ−5 and Δ−6 desaturase and very long-chain fatty acid elongase mRNA expression was lower in PE than controls (respectively, mean [SD] control 3.38 [2.96] versus PE 1.83 [1.91], P=0.030; 3.33 [2.25] versus 1.03 [0.96], P<0.001; 0.40 [0.81] versus 0.00 [0.00], P=0.038 expression relative to control gene [square root]). Low maternal and fetal long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid concentrations in PE may be the result of decreased maternal synthesis

Drivers of Clostridioides difficile hypervirulent ribotype 027 spore germination, vegetative cell growth and toxin production in vitro

Objectives: Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is a considerable healthcare and economic burden worldwide. Faecal microbial transplant remains the most effective treatment for CDI, but is not at the present time the recommended standard of care. We hereby investigate which factors derived from a healthy gut microbiome might constitute the colonisation resistance barrier (CRB) in the gut, inhibiting CDI. Method: CRB drivers pH, short chain fatty acid (SCFA), and oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) were investigated in vitro using C. difficile NAP1/BI/027. Readouts for inhibitory mechanisms included germination, growth, toxin production and virulence gene expression. pH ranges (3 – 7.6), SCFA concentrations (25 – 200mM) and ORP (-300 - +200mV) were manipulated in brain heart infusion broth cultures under anaerobic conditions to assess the inhibitory action of these mechanisms. Results: <pH 5.3 completely inhibited C. difficile growth to OD of 0.019 vs. 1.19 for control pH 7.5. Toxin production was reduced to 25 units vs 3125 units for pH 7.6 (1 in 5 dilutions). Virulence gene expression reduced by 150 fold compared with pH 7.6 (p<0.05). Germination and proliferation of spores below pH 6.13 yielded an average OD of 0.006 vs. 0.99 for control. SCFA were potent regulators of toxin production at 25mM and above (p<0.05). Acetate significantly inhibited toxin production to 25 units independent of OD (0.8733) vs. control (OD 0.6 and toxin titer 3125) (p<0.05). ORP did not impact C. difficile growth. Conclusion: This study highlights the critical role that pH has in the CRB, regulating CDI in vitro and that SCFA can regulate C. difficile function independent of pH

Statistical mechanics of typical set decoding

The performance of ``typical set (pairs) decoding'' for ensembles of Gallager's linear code is investigated using statistical physics. In this decoding, error happens when the information transmission is corrupted by an untypical noise or two or more typical sequences satisfy the parity check equation provided by the received codeword for which a typical noise is added. We show that the average error rate for the latter case over a given code ensemble can be tightly evaluated using the replica method, including the sensitivity to the message length. Our approach generally improves the existing analysis known in information theory community, which was reintroduced by MacKay (1999) and believed as most accurate to date.Comment: 7 page

On the structure and evolution of a polar crown prominence/filament system

Polar crown prominences are made of chromospheric plasma partially circling the Suns poles between 60 and 70 degree latitude. We aim to diagnose the 3D dynamics of a polar crown prominence using high cadence EUV images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)/AIA at 304 and 171A and the Ahead spacecraft of the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO-A)/EUVI at 195A. Using time series across specific structures we compare flows across the disk in 195A with the prominence dynamics seen on the limb. The densest prominence material forms vertical columns which are separated by many tens of Mm and connected by dynamic bridges of plasma that are clearly visible in 304/171A two-color images. We also observe intermittent but repetitious flows with velocity 15 km/s in the prominence that appear to be associated with EUV bright points on the solar disk. The boundary between the prominence and the overlying cavity appears as a sharp edge. We discuss the structure of the coronal cavity seen both above and around the prominence. SDO/HMI and GONG magnetograms are used to infer the underlying magnetic topology. The evolution and structure of the prominence with respect to the magnetic field seems to agree with the filament linkage model.Comment: 24 pages, 14 figures, Accepted for publication in Solar Physics Journal, Movies can be found at http://www2.mps.mpg.de/data/outgoing/panesar

Multidimensional continued fractions, dynamical renormalization and KAM theory

The disadvantage of `traditional' multidimensional continued fraction algorithms is that it is not known whether they provide simultaneous rational approximations for generic vectors. Following ideas of Dani, Lagarias and Kleinbock-Margulis we describe a simple algorithm based on the dynamics of flows on the homogeneous space SL(2,Z)\SL(2,R) (the space of lattices of covolume one) that indeed yields best possible approximations to any irrational vector. The algorithm is ideally suited for a number of dynamical applications that involve small divisor problems. We explicitely construct renormalization schemes for (a) the linearization of vector fields on tori of arbitrary dimension and (b) the construction of invariant tori for Hamiltonian systems.Comment: 51 page

On generation-integrated energy storage

Generation-integrated energy storage (GIES) systems store energy at some point along the transformation between the primary energy form and electricity. Instances exist already in natural hydro power, biomass generation, wave power, and concentrated solar power. GIES systems have been proposed for wind, nuclear power and they arise naturally in photocatalysis systems that are in development. GIES systems can compare very favourably in both performance and total cost against equivalent non-integrated systems comprising both generation and storage. Despite this, they have not hitherto been recognised as a discrete class of systems. Consequently policy decisions affecting development or demonstration projects and policy approaches concerning low-carbon generation are not fully informed. This paper highlights that policy structures exist militating against the development and introduction of GIES systems-probably to the detriment of overall system good

Challenges in Complex Systems Science

FuturICT foundations are social science, complex systems science, and ICT. The main concerns and challenges in the science of complex systems in the context of FuturICT are laid out in this paper with special emphasis on the Complex Systems route to Social Sciences. This include complex systems having: many heterogeneous interacting parts; multiple scales; complicated transition laws; unexpected or unpredicted emergence; sensitive dependence on initial conditions; path-dependent dynamics; networked hierarchical connectivities; interaction of autonomous agents; self-organisation; non-equilibrium dynamics; combinatorial explosion; adaptivity to changing environments; co-evolving subsystems; ill-defined boundaries; and multilevel dynamics. In this context, science is seen as the process of abstracting the dynamics of systems from data. This presents many challenges including: data gathering by large-scale experiment, participatory sensing and social computation, managing huge distributed dynamic and heterogeneous databases; moving from data to dynamical models, going beyond correlations to cause-effect relationships, understanding the relationship between simple and comprehensive models with appropriate choices of variables, ensemble modeling and data assimilation, modeling systems of systems of systems with many levels between micro and macro; and formulating new approaches to prediction, forecasting, and risk, especially in systems that can reflect on and change their behaviour in response to predictions, and systems whose apparently predictable behaviour is disrupted by apparently unpredictable rare or extreme events. These challenges are part of the FuturICT agenda