538 research outputs found
Aspirin and risk for gastric cancer: a population-based caseâcontrol study in Sweden
While aspirin and other non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are associated with gastric mucosal damage, they might reduce the risk for gastric cancer. In a population-based caseâcontrol study in 5 Swedish counties, we interviewed 567 incident cases of gastric cancer and 1165 controls about their use of pain relievers. The cases were uniformly classified to subsite (cardia/non-cardia) and histological type and information collected on other known risk factors for gastric cancer. Helicobacter pylori serology was tested in a subset of 542 individuals. Users of aspirin had a moderately reduced risk of gastric cancer compared to never users; odds ratio (OR) adjusted for age, gender and socioeconomic status was 0.7 (95% CI = 0.6â1.0). Gastric cancer risk fell with increasing frequency of aspirin use (P for trend = 0.02). The risk reduction was apparent for both cardia and non-cardia tumours but was uncertain for the diffuse histologic type. No clear association was observed between gastric cancer risk and non-aspirin NSAIDs or other studied pain relievers. Our finding lends support to the hypothesis that use of aspirin reduces the risk for gastric cancer. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.co
Global climate-driven trade-offs between the water retention and cooling benefits of urban greening
Urban greening can potentially help mitigate heat-related mortality and flooding facing the >4 billion urban population worldwide. However, the geographical variation of the relative combined hydrological and thermal performance benefits of such interventions are unknown. Here we quantify globally, using a hydrological model, how climate-driven trade-offs exist between hydrological retention and cooling potential of urban greening such as green roofs and parks. Using a Budyko framework, we show that water retention generally increases with aridity in water-limited environments, while cooling potential favors energy-limited climates. Our models suggest that common urban greening strategies cannot yield high performance simultaneously for addressing both urban heat-island and urban flooding problems in most cities globally. Irrigation, if sustainable, may enhance cooling while maintaining retention performance in more arid locations. Increased precipitation variability with climate change may reduce performance of thinner green-infrastructure more quickly compared to greened areas with thicker soils and root systems. Our results provide a conceptual framework and first-order quantitative guide for urban development, renewal and policymaking
The battle for COVID-19 vaccines highlights the need for a new global governance mechanism
To the EditorâAlthough the rapid development of several vaccines against COVID-19 is an unparalleled scientific accomplishment, one made possible through the collaboration of researchers, industry and funding bodies, the absence of a system that secures equitable access to vaccines has uncovered deep fissures in the global governance systems for health, as noted in a recent Nature Medicine Editorial.
For example, advance purchase agreements for vaccines against COVID-19 have favored affluent countries, allowing them to secure 150â500% of their predicted needs, while many citizens of low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) will remain unvaccinated until 2024.
Additionally, the power of patent-holders and pharmaceutical companies to place conditions on the use of vaccines prices out access for LMICs, and bilateral purchasing deals are rarely disclosed.
By affording priority on the basis of economic or political power, todayâs discourse clearly deviates from previous ethical and public-health principles of maximizing lives or life-years saved, and the sentiment that âpeopleâs entitlement to lifesaving resources should not depend on nationalityâ.
The COVID-19 pandemic has tested wealthy nationsâ commitments to Agenda 2030 and to âleaving no one behindâ at the same time that it has revealed democratic deficits, institutional rigidity, weak accountability systems, and inadequate policy space that protects health-governance systems from economic goals.
Thus, the as-yet-limited support for the vaccine-sharing and allocation principles of the COVAX initiative may be a sign not only of a moral catastrophe, to quote the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), but also of inadequate global accountability mechanisms that exposes the consequences of commercial determinants of health
COVID-19 outbreak at a reception centre for asylum seekers in Espoo, Finland
Publisher Copyright: © 2021Background shared accommodation may increase the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. In April 2020, an increasing number of asylum seekers at a reception centre in Espoo, Finland presented with COVID-19 despite earlier implementation of preventive measures. We decided to screen the entire population of the centre for SARS-CoV-2. Methods we offered nasopharyngeal swab collection and SARS-CoV-2 real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis to the centre's clients. Symptoms were recorded at the time of diagnostic sample collection using electronic forms and followed up for two weeks through phone interviews and a review of medical records. Findings 260 clients were screened. Of them, 96 (37%) were found positive for SARS-CoV-2 and isolated. The high attack rate prompted the local public health authority to set the other clients in quarantine for 14 days to prevent further spread. Of the positive cases, 61 (64%) reported having had symptoms at the time of the screening or one week prior. Of the 35 initially asymptomatic individuals, 12 developed symptoms during follow-up, while 23 (or 18% of all screened SARS-CoV-2 positive clients) remained asymptomatic. No widespread transmission of COVID-19 was detected after the quarantine was lifted. Interpretation in this large COVID-19 outbreak, voluntary mass screening provided valuable information about its extent and helped guide the public health response. Comprehensive quarantine and isolation measures were likely instrumental in containing the outbreak. Funding Finnish Institution for Health and Welfare, Finnish Immigration Agency, City of EspooPeer reviewe
Retinitis pigmentosa: rapid neurodegeneration is governed by slow cell death mechanisms
For most neurodegenerative diseases the precise duration of an individual cell's death is unknown, which is an obstacle when counteractive measures are being considered. To address this, we used the rd1 mouse model for retinal neurodegeneration, characterized by phosphodiesterase-6 (PDE6) dysfunction and photoreceptor death triggered by high cyclic guanosinemono-phosphate (cGMP) levels. Using cellular data on cGMP accumulation, cell death, and survival, we created mathematical models to simulate the temporal development of the degeneration. We validated model predictions using organotypic retinal explant cultures derived from wild-type animals and exposed to the selective PDE6 inhibitor zaprinast. Together, photoreceptor data and modeling for the first time delineated three major cell death phases in a complex neuronal tissue: (1) initiation, taking up to 36 h, (2) execution, lasting another 40 h, and finally (3) clearance, lasting about 7 h. Surprisingly, photoreceptor neurodegeneration was noticeably slower than necrosis or apoptosis, suggesting a different mechanism of death for these neurons. Cell Death and Disease (2013) 4, e488; doi: 10.1038/cddis.2013.12; published online 7 February 201
Differential rotation in rapidly rotating early-type stars : I. Motivations for combined spectroscopic and interferometric studies
Context. Since the external regions of the envelopes of rapidly rotating early-type stars are unstable to convection, a coupling may exist between the convection and the internal rotation.
Aims. We explore what can be learned from spectroscopic and interferometric observations about the properties of the rotation law in the external layers of these objects.
Methods. Using simple relations between the entropy and specific rotational quantities, some of which are found to be efficient at accounting for the solar differential rotation in the convective region, we derived analytical solutions that represent possible differential rotations in the envelope of early-type stars. A surface latitudinal differential rotation may not only be an external imprint of the inner rotation, but induces changes in the stellar geometry, the gravitational darkening, the aspect of spectral line profiles, and the emitted spectral energy distribution.
Results. By studying the equation of the surface of stars with non-conservative rotation laws, we conclude that objects undergo geometrical deformations that are a function of the latitudinal differential rotation able to be scrutinized both spectroscopically and by interferometry. The combination of Fourier analysis of spectral lines with model atmospheres provides independent estimates of the surface latitudinal differential rotation and the inclination angle. Models of stars at different evolutionary stages rotating with internal conservative rotation laws were calculated to show that the Roche approximation can be safely used to account for the gravitational potential. The surface temperature gradient in rapid rotators induce an acceleration to the surface angular velocity. Although a non-zero differential rotation parameter may indicate that the rotation is neither rigid nor shellular underneath the stellar surface, still further information, perhaps non-radial pulsations, is needed to determine its characteristics as a function of depth.Facultad de Ciencias AstronĂłmicas y GeofĂsicasInstituto de AstrofĂsica de La Plat
Supernovae from rotating stars
The present paper discusses the main physical effects produced by stellar
rotation on presupernovae, as well as observations which confirm these effects
and their consequences for presupernova models. Rotation critically influences
the mass of the exploding cores, the mass and chemical composition of the
envelopes and the types of supernovae, as well as the properties of the
remnants and the chemical yields. In the formation of gamma-ray bursts,
rotation and the properties of rotating stars appear as the key factor. In
binaries, the interaction between axial rotation and tidal effects often leads
to interesting and unexpected results. Rotation plays a key role in shaping the
evolution and nucleosynthesis in massive stars with very low metallicities
(metallicity below about the Small Magellanic Cloud metallicity down to
Population III stars). At solar and higher metallicities, the effects of
rotation compete with those of stellar winds. In close binaries, the
synchronisation process can lock the star at a high rotation rate despite
strong mass loss and thus both effects, rotation and stellar winds, have a
strong impact. In conclusion, rotation is a key physical ingredient of the
stellar models and of presupernova stages, and the evolution both of single
stars and close binaries. Moreover, important effects are expected along the
whole cosmic history.Comment: 36 pages, 15 figures, published in Handbook of Supernovae, A.W.
Alsabti and P. Murdin (eds), Springe
High-dispersion spectroscopic monitoring of the Be/X-ray binary A0535+26/V725 Tau I: The long-term profile variability
We report on optical high-dispersion spectroscopic monitoring observations of
the Be/X-ray binary A0535+26/V725 Tau, carried out from November 2005 to March
2009. The main aim of these monitoring observations is to study spectral
variabilities in the Be disc, on both the short (a week or so) and long (more
than hundreds of days) timescales, by taking long-term frequent observations.
Our four-year spectroscopic observations indicate that the V/R ratio, i.e., the
relative intensity of the violet (V) peak to the red (R) one, of the
double-peaked H-alpha line profile varies with a period of 500 days. The H-beta
line profile also varies in phase with the H-alpha profile. With these
observations covering two full cycles of the V/R variability, we reconstruct
the 2-D structure of the Be disc by applying the Doppler tomography method to
the H-alpha and H-beta emission line profiles, using a rigidly rotating frame
with the V/R variability period. The resulting disc structure reveals
non-axisymmetric features, which can be explained by a one-armed perturbation
in the Be disc. It is the first time that an eccentric disc structure is
directly detected by using a method other than the interferometric one.Comment: (10 pages, 9 figures, accepted to MNRAS
Polarisation of the omega meson in the pd-->3He+omega reaction at 1360 and 1450 MeV
The tensor polarisation of omega mesons produced in the pd-->3He+omega
reaction has been studied at two energies near threshold. The 3He nuclei were
detected in coincidence with the pi0pi+pi- or pi0gamma decay products of the
omega. In contrast to the case of phi meson production, the omega mesons are
found to be unpolarised. This brings into question the applicability of the
Okubo-Zweig-Iizuka rule when comparing the production of vector mesons in low
energy hadronic reactions.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
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