Use of 3D visualisation tools for representing urban greenspace spatial planning.

The objective of this paper is to report on the development of prototype models for use in raising public awareness of changes in urban areas, focusing on green spaces, and testing responses to scenarios of change. Specifically, the focus is on the design of appropriate types of outdoor features for community planning and engagement. This modelling is fulfilled using the Autodesk Maya, Google SketchUp and ArcGIS software packages together in a novel combination of spatial and visualisation tools. The experiment results show evidence that different types of 3D iconic symbols with interactive communication will influence participation and decision making in land use planning

Application Of 1D And 2D Numerical Models For Assessing And Visualizing Effectiveness Of Natural Flood Management (NFM) Measures

Natural Flood Management (NFM) techniques that include alteration, restoration or use of landscape features, have emerged as a novel way of reducing flood risk in Scotland. NFM aims to reduce the peak flood downstreamincreasing the time available to prepare for flood. Water storage ponds are very effective for this purpose. The aim of the paper is to present findings of a modelling approach to floodinundation and risk assessment, and its application for assessing the effectiveness of wetland storage ponds as NFM measures. The study was undertaken in a rural catchment (Tarland Burn, area ~74 km2) located in Aberdeenshire, north-east Scotland. A one-dimensional numerical model – ISIS was used for assessing the effectiveness of storage ponds. It was developed using a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) based on channel cross-sections. The output was then used as inflow boundary to a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model – Tuflow to develop high resolution flood inundation maps. The model was developed by using a DEM derived from high-resolutionLiDAR. Modelling of an existing storage pond located in the middle of the catchment indicated that there was no significant flow attenuation as a result of the single pond. An additional storage capacity would be required to effectively attenuate the flow especially during the extreme flow events. Model output indicated that significant reduction in thedownstream flood peak is possible only if the pond area is increased -e.g.a five-fold increase in pond area would result in a 25 % decrease in peak flow.A range of flood water storage options in the headwater zone was assessed to minimise flood risks downstream. The flood inundation output products can be effectively visualised using Virtual Landscape Theatre (VLT), which is an interactive viewing environment that can be used for communicating flood risks to a wide variety of stakeholder groups

Net carbon dioxide emissions from an eroding Atlantic blanket bog

The net impact of greenhouse gas emissions from degraded peatland environments on national Inventories and subsequent mitigation of such emissions has only been seriously considered within the last decade. Data on greenhouse gas emissions from special cases of peatland degradation, such as eroding peatlands, are particularly scarce. Here, we report the first eddy covariance-based monitoring of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from an eroding Atlantic blanket bog. The CO2 budget across the period July 2018–November 2019 was 147 (± 9) g C m−2. For an annual budget that contained proportionally more of the extreme 2018 drought and heat wave, cumulative CO2 emissions were nearly double (191 g C m−2) of that of an annual period without drought (106 g C m−2), suggesting that direct CO2 emissions from eroded peatlands are at risk of increasing with projected changes in temperatures and precipitation due to global climate change. The results of this study are consistent with chamber-based and modelling studies that suggest degraded blanket bogs to be a net source of CO2 to the atmosphere, and provide baseline data against which to assess future peatland restoration efforts in this region

The potential for modelling peatland habitat condition in Scotland using long-term MODIS data

Funding: All James Hutton Institute authors are supported by the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Research and Analysis Directorate under the current Strategic Research Programme (2016-2021). Sally Johnson, Patricia Bruneau and Louise Ross did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors for this project. The peat spatial extent model was created in part within a UK Government – Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy-funded project (TRN860/07/2014, Scoping the use of the methodology set out in Chapters 2 and 3 of the ‘2013 Supplement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories: Wetlands in the UK GHG Inventory: Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF)), with further updates created within the Strategic Research Programme (2016-2021) funding.Peer reviewedPostprin

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

The Influence of Number and Timing of Pregnancies on Breast Cancer Risk for Women With BRCA1 or BRCA2 Mutations

International audienceBACKGROUND:Full-term pregnancy (FTP) is associated with a reduced breast cancer (BC) risk over time, but women are at increased BC risk in the immediate years following an FTP. No large prospective studies, however, have examined whether the number and timing of pregnancies are associated with BC risk for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers.METHODS:Using weighted and time-varying Cox proportional hazards models, we investigated whether reproductive events are associated with BC risk for mutation carriers using a retrospective cohort (5707 BRCA1 and 3525 BRCA2 mutation carriers) and a prospective cohort (2276 BRCA1 and 1610 BRCA2 mutation carriers), separately for each cohort and the combined prospective and retrospective cohort.RESULTS:For BRCA1 mutation carriers, there was no overall association with parity compared with nulliparity (combined hazard ratio [HRc] = 0.99, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.83 to 1.18). Relative to being uniparous, an increased number of FTPs was associated with decreased BC risk (HRc = 0.79, 95% CI = 0.69 to 0.91; HRc = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.59 to 0.82; HRc = 0.50, 95% CI = 0.40 to 0.63, for 2, 3, and ≥4 FTPs, respectively, P trend < .0001) and increasing duration of breastfeeding was associated with decreased BC risk (combined cohort P trend = .0003). Relative to being nulliparous, uniparous BRCA1 mutation carriers were at increased BC risk in the prospective analysis (prospective hazard ration [HRp] = 1.69, 95% CI = 1.09 to 2.62). For BRCA2 mutation carriers, being parous was associated with a 30% increase in BC risk (HRc = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.05 to 1.69), and there was no apparent decrease in risk associated with multiparity except for having at least 4 FTPs vs. 1 FTP (HRc = 0.72, 95% CI = 0.54 to 0.98).CONCLUSIONS:These findings suggest differential associations with parity between BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers with higher risk for uniparous BRCA1 carriers and parous BRCA2 carriers

An original phylogenetic approach identified mitochondrial haplogroup T1a1 as inversely associated with breast cancer risk in BRCA2 mutation carriers

Introduction: Individuals carrying pathogenic mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes have a high lifetime risk of breast cancer. BRCA1 and BRCA2 are involved in DNA double-strand break repair, DNA alterations that can be caused by exposure to reactive oxygen species, a main source of which are mitochondria. Mitochondrial genome variations affect electron transport chain efficiency and reactive oxygen species production. Individuals with different mitochondrial haplogroups differ in their metabolism and sensitivity to oxidative stress. Variability in mitochondrial genetic background can alter reactive oxygen species production, leading to cancer risk. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that mitochondrial haplogroups modify breast cancer risk in BRCA1/2 mutation carriers. Methods: We genotyped 22,214 (11,421 affected, 10,793 unaffected) mutation carriers belonging to the Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of BRCA1/2 for 129 mitochondrial polymorphisms using the iCOGS array. Haplogroup inference and association detection were performed using a phylogenetic approach. ALTree was applied to explore the reference mitochondrial evolutionary tree and detect subclades enriched in affected or unaffected individuals. Results: We discovered that subclade T1a1 was depleted in affected BRCA2 mutation carriers compared with the rest of clade T (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.55; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.34 to 0.88; P = 0.01). Compared with the most frequent haplogroup in the general population (that is, H and T clades), the T1a1 haplogroup has a HR of 0.62 (95% CI, 0.40 to 0.95; P = 0.03). We also identified three potential susceptibility loci, including G13708A/rs28359178, which has demonstrated an inverse association with familial breast cancer risk. Conclusions: This study illustrates how original approaches such as the phylogeny-based method we used can empower classical molecular epidemiological studies aimed at identifying association or risk modification effects.Peer reviewe

Identification of a BRCA2-Specific modifier locus at 6p24 related to breast cancer risk

Common genetic variants contribute to the observed variation in breast cancer risk for BRCA2 mutation carriers; those known to date have all been found through population-based genome-wide association studies (GWAS). To comprehensively identify breast cancer risk modifying loci for BRCA2 mutation carriers, we conducted a deep replication of an ongoing GWAS discovery study. Using the ranked P-values of the breast cancer associations with the imputed genotype of 1.4 M SNPs, 19,029 SNPs were selected and designed for inclusion on a custom Illumina array that included a total of 211,155 SNPs as part of a multi-consortial project. DNA samples from 3,881 breast cancer affected and 4,330 unaffected BRCA2 mutation carriers from 47 studies belonging to the Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of BRCA1/2 were genotyped and available for analysis. We replicated previously reported breast cancer susceptibility alleles in these BRCA2 mutation carriers and for several regions (including FGFR2, MAP3K1, CDKN2A/B, and PTHLH) identified SNPs that have stronger evidence of association than those previously published. We also identified a novel susceptibility allele at 6p24 that was inversely associated with risk in BRCA2 mutation carriers (rs9348512; per allele HR = 0.85, 95% CI 0.80-0.90, P = 3.9×10−8). This SNP was not associated with breast cancer risk either in the general population or in BRCA1 mutation carriers. The locus lies within a region containing TFAP2A, which encodes a transcriptional activation protein that interacts with several tumor suppressor genes. This report identifies the first breast cancer risk locus specific to a BRCA2 mutation background. This comprehensive update of novel and previously reported breast cancer susceptibility loci contributes to the establishment of a panel of SNPs that modify breast cancer risk in BRCA2 mutation carriers. This panel may have clinical utility for women with BRCA2 mutations weighing options for medical prevention of breast cancer

Psychosocial impact of undergoing prostate cancer screening for men with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations.

OBJECTIVES: To report the baseline results of a longitudinal psychosocial study that forms part of the IMPACT study, a multi-national investigation of targeted prostate cancer (PCa) screening among men with a known pathogenic germline mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. PARTICPANTS AND METHODS: Men enrolled in the IMPACT study were invited to complete a questionnaire at collaborating sites prior to each annual screening visit. The questionnaire included sociodemographic characteristics and the following measures: the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Impact of Event Scale (IES), 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36), Memorial Anxiety Scale for Prostate Cancer, Cancer Worry Scale-Revised, risk perception and knowledge. The results of the baseline questionnaire are presented. RESULTS: A total of 432 men completed questionnaires: 98 and 160 had mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, respectively, and 174 were controls (familial mutation negative). Participants' perception of PCa risk was influenced by genetic status. Knowledge levels were high and unrelated to genetic status. Mean scores for the HADS and SF-36 were within reported general population norms and mean IES scores were within normal range. IES mean intrusion and avoidance scores were significantly higher in BRCA1/BRCA2 carriers than in controls and were higher in men with increased PCa risk perception. At the multivariate level, risk perception contributed more significantly to variance in IES scores than genetic status. CONCLUSION: This is the first study to report the psychosocial profile of men with BRCA1/BRCA2 mutations undergoing PCa screening. No clinically concerning levels of general or cancer-specific distress or poor quality of life were detected in the cohort as a whole. A small subset of participants reported higher levels of distress, suggesting the need for healthcare professionals offering PCa screening to identify these risk factors and offer additional information and support to men seeking PCa screening