Cardiovascular and metabolic effects of long-term traffic noise exposure

Traffic noise is an increasingly common environmental exposure affecting large parts of the European population. Since the auditory system is directly linked to the sympathetic nervous and the endocrine systems, noise may induce a stress response, influencing several physiological, metabolic and immunological processes. Previous epidemiological studies suggest harmful effects of traffic noise on the cardiovascular system; however, the overall picture is inconclusive. The primary aim of this thesis was to investigate the long-term effects of traffic noise on cardiovascular and metabolic outcomes. A secondary aim was to apply and evaluate digital noise maps produced in Sweden in accordance with the European Environmental Noise Directive (END) for assessments of residential traffic noise exposure. The long-term effects of aircraft noise on hypertension, obesity and Type 2 diabetes were investigated using questionnaire and clinical data from a cohort within the Stockholm Diabetes Prevention Program. Aircraft noise exposure was assessed by Geographic Information Systems and based on the participants’ residential history. After exclusion of subjects who used tobacco prior to the clinical examinations, the risk of hypertension related to aircraft noise exposure was increased in males (RR per 5 dB(A) Lden 1.21; 95% CI 1.05-1.39) but not in females (RR 0.97; 0.83-1.13). Stronger associations were seen among noise annoyed (RR 1.42; 1.11-1.82). Regardless of sex, long-term exposure to aircraft noise also showed statistically significant associations with waist circumference: 0.62 cm (0.54-0.70) per 1 dB(A) Lden. Also, females exposed at ≥50 dB(A) Lden had a twofold increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, although adjustments for contextual confounding reduced the estimates. A sub-population of the National Environmental Health Survey 2007 (NEHS07) was used to evaluate the Swedish END maps of road traffic and railway noise. The observed proportion of annoyed subjects was plotted as a function of noise exposure and compared to already established exposure-response functions. Generally, there was a good agreement between observed and predicted proportions of annoyed, suggesting that the noise maps are useful for assessments of residential traffic noise exposure. The best agreement was found when the noise estimates derived from the maps were adjusted for how the dwellings were located within the buildings. Cross-sectional analyses were performed based on the NEHS07 of associations between neighborhood traffic load, Lden levels of road traffic and railway noise, respectively, and prevalence of self-reported hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Neither traffic load nor road traffic noise was associated with the cardiovascular outcomes; however, there was a borderline significant association between railway noise and cardiovascular disease. Methodological limitations make these results difficult to interpret. In conclusion, our findings suggest adverse effects of long-term traffic noise exposure on cardiovascular as well as metabolic outcomes. Thus, traffic noise may have detrimental public health effects and research in this area should be prioritized

Comparison between anesthesia with sufentanil-midazolam and sevoflurane in medetomidine premedicated rabbits undergoing ovariohysterectomy

Rabbits carry a high risk of anesthesia related death. This study was part of a project to develop a form of total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA) with minimal effects on cardiac, respiratory and metabolic parameters. In the study, TIVA with sufentanil and midazolam (group TIVA, n=9) was compared with inhalation anesthesia with sevoflurane (group SEVO, n=9) in female rabbits undergoing surgery (ovariehysterectomi). All rabbits were pre-medicated with medetomidin and carprofen before anesthesia induction. Anesthesia was induced with TIVA (2.3 μg/ ml sufentanil, 0.45 mg/ ml midazolam) at a rate of 4 ml/ kg/ h and the mean induction dose was 0.4 μg/ kg of sufentanil and 0.1mg/ kg of midazolam. The induction time was 4.7 ± 1.7 min (mean ± SD) and time to intubation 7.4 ± 6.7 min. After induction the TIVA infusion was maintained at rate of 0.6 ml/ kg/ h in group TIVA during preparations. In group SEVO, the TIVA infusion was stopped after anesthesia induction, and sevoflurane was administered at a concentration of 1 %. During surgery, the TIVA infusion rate and the sevoflurane concentration were adjusted to maintain a surgical plane of anesthesia in the respective groups. The mean infusion rate during anesthesia was 2.9 ± 1.5 ml /kg/ h in group TIVA and in group SEVO the mean sevoflurane concentration was 1.7 ± 1.0 % during maintenance of anesthesia. Mechanical ventilation was necessary in all rabbits in group TIVA and in four of the rabbits in group SEVO to maintain a PaCO2 between 5 and 6 kPa. Time to extubation was 19 ± 14 min in group TIVA, and time to recovery of the righting reflex was 56 ± 33 min. In group SEVO time to extubation was 5 ± 4 min and time to recovery of the righting reflex 21 ± 11 min. No differences between groups could be detected in terms of circulatory parameters.Anestesi av kaniner är förenat med hög dödlighet. Den här studien var en del av ett projekt att utveckla en form av total intravenös anestesi (TIVA) med minimala effekter på kardiologiska, respiratoriska och metabola parametrar. I studien jämfördes TIVA med sufentanil + midazolam (grupp TIVA, n=9) med inhalationsanestesi med sevofluran (grupp SEVO, n=9) hos honkaniner som genomgick ett kirurgiskt ingrepp (ovariehysterektomi). Alla kaniner premedicinerades med medetomidin och carprofen innan induktion av anestesin. Anestesin inducerades med TIVA (2.3 μg/ ml sufentanil, 0.45 mg/ ml midazolam) med en flödeshastighet av 4 ml/ kg/ h och medelvolym för induktion var 0.4 μg/ kg sufentanil och 0.1mg/ kg midazolam). Tiden för induktion var 4.7 ± 1.7 min (medel ± SD) och tiden för intubering var 7.4 ± 6.7 min. Efter induktionen hade TIVA infusionen en flödeshastighet av 0.6 ml/ kg/ h i grupp TIVA under förberedelserna. I grupp SEVO stoppades TIVA infusionen efter induktionen och sevofluran administrerades med en koncentration av 1 %. Under kirurgin justerades koncentrationen sevofluran och flödeshastigheten för TIVA för att bibehålla kirurgisk anestesi i respektive grupp. Flödeshastigheten under anestesi var 2.9 ± 1.5 ml/kg/h i grupp TIVA och i grupp SEVO var koncentrationen sevofluran för underhåll av anestesi 1.7 ± 1.0 %. Mekanisk ventilation var nödvändigt för alla kaninerna i grupp TIVA och för fyra av kaninerna i grupp SEVO för att bibehålla PaCO2 mellan 5-6 kPa. Tid till extubering var 19 ± 14 min i grupp TIVA och till återhämtning av rättningsreflexen 56 ± 33 min. I grupp SEVO var tiden till extubering 5 ± 4 min och till återhämtning av reflexer 21 ± 11 min. Inga skillnader kunde påvisas mellan grupperna gällande de cirkulatoriska parametrarna

Dystoki hos hund

En viktig del i reproduktionen är dräktighet och förlossning. De är naturliga men komplexa processer med oerhört många faktorer involverade och ibland går det inte som det ska. Idag sker de flesta hundförlossningar fortfarande i det privata hemmet eller hos uppfödaren, men det är inte alltför ovanligt att hundägare söker veterinär hjälp för någon form av dystoki, dvs. svårighet i samband med förlossning. Den här litteraturstudien försöker bringa klarhet i vad man idag vet om de maternella orsakerna till dystoki, om det finns några predisponerande faktorer och huruvida man kan vidta några förebyggande åtgärder. Den utgår ifrån hur en normal dräktighet och förlossning hos hund förlöper och belyser vanliga parametrar som idag används för att kontrollera att allt står rätt till. Man kan t ex underlätta planering av parning och beräkning av förlossningsdatum med hjälp av hundens brunstcykel och dräktighetslängd. Förståelse av det hormonella samspelet och att kunna tolka förlossningens olika faser är väsentligt inför diagnosställande, val av hjälpmedel och behandlingsstrategi

Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) typing of Salmonella Senftenberg in animal feed production.

Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was studied as genotyping method typing for a strain collection of Salmonella, belonging to the serotype Senftenberg. This collection consisted of 48 strains/isolates that were sampled in Sweden during 1995-96. In this study the aim was evaluate the usefulness of RAPD in terms of discriminatory power, reproducibility and typeability to compare it with other genotyping methods. By using Taq and Tth DNA polymerase in separate reactions the ability to increase discriminatory power and reproducibility was studied. When Tth DNA polymerase was used in the RAPD reaction brighter bands were obtained and the reproducibility was increased. The results suggest that RAPD can be used for rapid screening of a strain material and in combination with other more discriminating genotyping methods to more truly reflect the genetic diversity

Identifying radiologically important ESS-specific radionuclides and relevant detection methods

The European Spallation Source (ESS) is under construction in the outskirts of Lund in southern Sweden. When ESS has entered the operational phase in a few years, an intense beam of high-energy protons will not only produce the desired spallation neutrons from a large target of tungsten, but a substantial number of different radioactive by-products will also be generated. A small part of these will be released to the environment during normal operation. During an accident scenario, a wide range of gases and aerosols may be released from the tungsten target. The palette of radionuclides generated in the ESS target will differ from that of e.g. medical cyclotrons or nuclear power plants, thus presenting new challenges e.g. in the required environmental monitoring to ensure that dose limits to the public are not exceeded. This project (SSM2018-1636), financed by the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM), aimed to strengthen competence at Lund University for measurement and analysis of ESS-specific radionuclides. First, an extensive literature review, including modelling as well as experimental analyses, of ESS-relevant radionuclides was performed. We found that radionuclide production in particle accelerators is well-known, while experience with tungsten targets is very limited. As a second part of the project, an independent simplified model of the ESS target sector for the calculations of radionuclide production in the ESS tungsten target was developed using the FLUKA code. We conclude that we have a fairly good agreement with results of other authors, except for 148Gd, and that the calculated radionuclide composition is sensitive to the nuclear interaction models used.In the third part of the project, known environmental measurement technologies for various ESS-relevant radionuclides were reviewed, focussing on pure difficult-to-measure alpha- and beta-emitters. Liquid scintillation counting (LSC) is a suitable technique e.g. for the important beta emitters 3H, 14C, 35S, 31P and 33P. Several ESS radionuclides of relevance for dose estimates have never been investigated by environmental analytical techniques, due to their absence in the normal environment. Alpha spectrometry seems promising for the analysis of alpha-emitting lanthanides, in particular for 148Gd. Among the many types of mass spectrometry techniques, ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) and AMS (accelerator mass spectrometry) seem to be the most suitable for the analysis of long-lived ESS radionuclides in environmental samples (e.g. 243Am and possibly lanthanides for ICP-MS and 10Be, 14C, 32Si, 36Cl, 60Fe and 129I for AMS).Three experimental parts were performed during the project, related to initiation of radioactivity measurements of aerosols at Lund University, mapping of environmental tritium in the Lund area, and establishment of a method to measure tritium in urine followed by a study of tritium in persons presently living or working in Lund. Aerosols were collected at a rural background station (Hyltemossa near Perstorp, northern Skåne) using a high-volume aerosol sampler with automatic filter change (DHA-80, Digitel). Gamma spectrometry measurements of 7Be agreed rather well with results from a nearby air monitoring station (SSM/FOI). Tritium (radioactive hydrogen) is expected to dominate the source term from the ESS target station to the environment. We have performed several investigations to monitor the current situation of tritium in Lund using LSC: the matrices investigated included air humidity, precipitation, pond water, indoor air at one accelerator facility and urine from the general public as well as from persons who may be occupationally exposed to tritium. Environmental tritium was generally very low (<3.4 Bq L-1), with somewhat higher concentration in the springtime than during the rest of the year. Tritium in the vast majority of the 55 urine samples was also very low: only a few exposed workers were found to have up to 11 Bq L-1 in their urine, which still is very low compared to e.g. reactor workers. Suggestions for further actions and work related to measurement and analysis of ESS relevant radionuclides are presented

Large scale meta-analysis characterizes genetic architecture for common psoriasis associated variants

Psoriasis is a complex disease of skin with a prevalence of about 2%. We conducted the largest meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for psoriasis to date, including data from eight different Caucasian cohorts, with a combined effective sample size amp;gt;39,000 individuals. We identified 16 additional psoriasis susceptibility loci achieving genome-wide significance, increasing the number of identified loci to 63 for European-origin individuals. Functional analysis highlighted the roles of interferon signalling and the NFkB cascade, and we showed that the psoriasis signals are enriched in regulatory elements from different T cells (CD8(+) T-cells and CD4(+) T-cells including T(H)0, T(H)1 and T(H)17). The identified loci explain similar to 28% of the genetic heritability and generate a discriminatory genetic risk score (AUC = 0.76 in our sample) that is significantly correlated with age at onset (p = 2 x 10(-89)). This study provides a comprehensive layout for the genetic architecture of common variants for psoriasis.Funding Agencies|National Institutes of Health [R01AR042742, R01AR050511, R01AR054966, R01AR063611, R01AR065183]; Foundation for the National Institutes of Health; Dermatology Foundation; National Psoriasis Foundation; Arthritis National Research Foundation; Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs Hospital; Dawn and Dudley Holmes Foundation; Babcock Memorial Trust; Medical Research Council [MR/L011808/1]; German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); Doris Duke Foundation [2013106]; National Institute of Health [K08AR060802, R01AR06907]; Taubman Medical Research Institute; Department of Health via the NIHR comprehensive Biomedical Research Center; Kings College London; KCH NHS Foundation Trust; Barbara and Neal Henschel Charitable Foundation; Heinz Nixdorf Foundation; Estonian Ministry of Education and Research [IUT20-46]; Centre of Translational Genomics of University of Tartu (SP1GVARENG); European Regional Development Fund (Centre of Translational Medicine, University of Tartu); German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health [R44HG006981]; International Psoriasis Council</p

Long-term exposure to transportation noise and risk of incident stroke:A pooled study of nine scandinavian cohorts

BACKGROUND: Transportation noise is increasingly acknowledged as a cardiovascular risk factor, but the evidence base for an association with stroke is sparse. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate the association between transportation noise and stroke incidence in a large Scandinavian population. METHODS: We harmonized and pooled data from nine Scandinavian cohorts (seven Swedish, two Danish), totaling 135,951 participants. We identified residential address history and estimated road, railway, and aircraft noise for all addresses. Information on stroke incidence was acquired through link-age to national patient and mortality registries. We analyzed data using Cox proportional hazards models, including socioeconomic and lifestyle con-founders, and air pollution. RESULTS: During follow-up (median = 19:5 y), 11,056 stroke cases were identified. Road traffic noise (Lden ) was associated with risk of stroke, with a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.06 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03, 1.08] per 10-dB higher 5-y mean time-weighted exposure in analyses adjusted for indi-vidual-and area-level socioeconomic covariates. The association was approximately linear and persisted after adjustment for air pollution [particulate matter (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter of ≤2:5 lm (PM2:5 ) and NO2 ]. Stroke was associated with moderate levels of 5-y aircraft noise exposure (40–50 vs. ≤40 dB) (HR = 1:12; 95% CI: 0.99, 1.27), but not with higher exposure (≥50 dB, HR = 0:94; 95% CI: 0.79, 1.11). Railway noise was not associated with stroke. DISCUSSION: In this pooled study, road traffic noise was associated with a higher risk of stroke. This finding supports road traffic noise as an important cardiovascular risk factor that should be included when estimating the burden of disease due to traffic noise. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP8949

The SPARC water vapour assessment II: Profile-to-profile comparisons of stratospheric and lower mesospheric water vapour data sets obtained from satellites

This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Within the framework of the second SPARC (Stratosphere-troposphere Processes And their Role in Climate) water vapour assessment (WAVAS-II), profile-to-profile comparisons of stratospheric and lower mesospheric water vapour were performed by considering 33 data sets derived from satellite observations of 15 different instruments. These comparisons aimed to provide a picture of the typical biases and drifts in the observational database and to identify data-set-specific problems. The observational database typically exhibits the largest biases below 70 hPa, both in absolute and relative terms. The smallest biases are often found between 50 and 5 hPa. Typically, they range from 0.25 to 0.5 ppmv (5 % to 10 %) in this altitude region, based on the 50 % percentile over the different comparison results. Higher up, the biases increase with altitude overall but this general behaviour is accompanied by considerable variations. Characteristic values vary between 0.3 and 1 ppmv (4 % to 20 %). Obvious data-set-specific bias issues are found for a number of data sets. In our work we performed a drift analysis for data sets overlapping for a period of at least 36 months. This assessment shows a wide range of drifts among the different data sets that are statistically significant at the 2σ uncertainty level. In general, the smallest drifts are found in the altitude range between about 30 and 10 hPa. Histograms considering results from all altitudes indicate the largest occurrence for drifts between 0.05 and 0.3 ppmv decade-1. Comparisons of our drift estimates to those derived from comparisons of zonal mean time series only exhibit statistically significant differences in slightly more than 3 % of the comparisons. Hence, drift estimates from profile-to-profile and zonal mean time series comparisons are largely interchangeable. As for the biases, a number of data sets exhibit prominent drift issues. In our analyses we found that the large number of MIPAS data sets included in the assessment affects our general results as well as the bias summaries we provide for the individual data sets. This is because these data sets exhibit a relative similarity with respect to the remaining data sets, despite the fact that they are based on different measurement modes and different processors implementing different retrieval choices. Because of that, we have by default considered an aggregation of the comparison results obtained from MIPAS data sets. Results without this aggregation are provided on multiple occasions to characterise the effects due to the numerous MIPAS data sets. Among other effects, they cause a reduction of the typical biases in the observational database