Cat and house dust mite allergen content is stable in frozen dust over time

Background: Dust from indoor environments consists of animal allergens, pollen, endotoxins and other substances which may exacerbate symptoms in sensitive individuals. In prospective cohort studies, dust is often collected from indoor environments in order to assess allergen exposure and possible relationships to health outcomes. Typically, large numbers of samples are collected and kept frozen until further analysis, sometimes several years later. To date, there is insufficient knowledge about what happens to the dust and its contents during storage. Objectives: In the present study, our aim was to analyse allergen content over a 30 month period frozen dust collected from beds in homes in order to simulate a study design of exposure assessment commonly used in epidemiological studies. Methods: Thirty-seven dust samples from mattresses in homes were collected using a Duststream dust collector. Each dust sample was subdivided into six aliquots. One tube (baseline) was extracted and analysed for cat and HDM allergen content using ELISA, all other tubes were stored at -80°C until further handling. Approximately every six months (6, 12, 18 and 30 months), dust from one tube was thawed, extracted and analysed the same way. Data was log-transformed and analysed using linear regression. Results: No trend for decreasing or increasing cat (p=0.606) or house dust mite (p=0.928)allergen levels could be observed over time. Levels of cat allergen were considerably higher in mattresses from homes with cats compared to homes without cats (p<0.001). Conclusion: It is important to assess the allergen stability in dust before designing costly and labour-intensive studies of allergen exposure and health outcomes, commonly used in environmental epidemiology. Although the present study showed that cat and HDM allergens 3 remained stable in dust stored at -80°C during a 2.5 year period, analyses of other allergens or substances in frozen dust is desirable as well as evaluating the effect of longer storage times.VetenskapsrådetAFAManuscrip

Circulating inflammatory biomarkers, adipokines and breast cancer risk—a case-control study nested within the EPIC cohort

Background Inflammation has been hypothesized to play a role in the development and progression of breast cancer and might differently impact breast cancer risk among pre and postmenopausal women. We performed a nested case-control study to examine whether pre-diagnostic circulating concentrations of adiponectin, leptin, c-reactive protein (CRP), tumour necrosis factor-alpha, interferon-gamma and 6 interleukins were associated with breast cancer risk, overall and by menopausal status. Methods Pre-diagnostic levels of inflammatory biomarkers were measured in plasma from 1558 case-control pairs from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort. We used conditional logistic regression to estimate the odds ratios (ORs) of breast cancer at blood collection, per one standard deviation increase in biomarker concentration. Results Cases were diagnosed at a mean age of 61.4 years on average 8.6 years after blood collection. No statistically significant association was observed between inflammatory markers and breast cancer risk overall. In premenopausal women, borderline significant inverse associations were observed for leptin, leptin-to-adiponectin ratio and CRP [OR= 0.89 (0.77-1.03), OR= 0.88 (0.76-1.01) and OR= 0.87 (0.75-1.01), respectively] while positive associations were observed among postmenopausal women [OR= 1.16 (1.05-1.29), OR= 1.11 (1.01-1.23), OR= 1.10 (0.99-1.22), respectively]. Adjustment for BMI strengthened the estimates in premenopausal women [leptin: OR = 0.83 (0.68-1.00), leptin-to-adiponectin ratio: OR = 0.80 (0.66-0.97), CRP: OR = 0.85 (0.72-1.00)] but attenuated the estimates in postmenopausal women [leptin: OR = 1.09 (0.96-1.24), leptin-to-adiponectin ratio: OR = 1.02 (0.89-1.16), CRP: OR = 1.04 (0.92-1.16)]. Conclusions Associations between CRP, leptin and leptin-to-adiponectin ratio with breast cancer risk may represent the dual effect of obesity by menopausal status although this deserves further investigation

Quantitative and qualitative evaluations of impacts and benefits of nine INHERIT case studies

The INHERIT report Quantitative and Qualitative Evaluations of Impacts and Benefits of Nine INHERIT Case Studies documents the findings relevant to potential impacts and benefits of nine case studies for health, equity and a more sustainable environment. It uses a mixed method approach with quantitative methods augmented in some cases by written responses to survey questions, or by focus group discussions on impacts, as appropriate. Each case study evaluation was led by a different INHERIT partner. In each case, partners formulated the research design appropriate to their case studies and the associated research questions identified within the framework of INHERIT. The coordinating partner, University College London (UCL), developed an evaluation framework to suit the range of case studies examined for impacts and benefits, the case specific logic models developed, and the research questions identified. The nine chapters describe the impact evaluations and findings from the nine case studies using the following format: Background; Overall aims; Context; Research Questions; Methodology; Results; Discussion; Limitations; Learning points for future research; Learning points for potential scale up and transferability

Creating triple-wins for health, equity and environmental sustainability: elements of good practice based on learning from the INHERIT case studies

This report draws out dimensions of good practice for building this triple-win, based on learning from the INHERIT project’s 15 case studies. In the context of the project, good practice refers to ways that support changing contexts and create conditions to enable behaviour change to reach the triple-win. This report summarises key information for consideration by governmental and non-governmental policy-makers and practitioners planning to work across sectors to achieve the triple-win through behaviour change at every level. INHERIT researchers have focused their evaluations of the 15 INHERIT case studies on implementation, intersectoral cooperation, impacts and cost benefits. The researchers have taken dimensions of good practice from INHERIT research to be those elements that appear to be promising or necessary in the contexts in which the INHERIT cases studies are implemented. The extent to which these elements of good practice can be generalised to other contexts merits consideration in developing future initiatives towards creating synergies across sectors. INHERIT researchers have drawn out lessons learned from information gathered in evaluations about triggers for the initiatives, key elements for implementation, success factors in intersectoral cooperation, what could have been done better, what should be done in the future, and the most important learnings from the evaluation of outcomes, costs and benefits

Creating triple-wins for health, equity and environmental sustainability: elements of good practice based on learning from the INHERIT case studies

This report draws out dimensions of good practice for building this triple-win, based on learning from the INHERIT project’s 15 case studies. In the context of the project, good practice refers to ways that support changing contexts and create conditions to enable behaviour change to reach the triple-win. This report summarises key information for consideration by governmental and non-governmental policy-makers and practitioners planning to work across sectors to achieve the triple-win through behaviour change at every level. INHERIT researchers have focused their evaluations of the 15 INHERIT case studies on implementation, intersectoral cooperation, impacts and cost benefits. The researchers have taken dimensions of good practice from INHERIT research to be those elements that appear to be promising or necessary in the contexts in which the INHERIT cases studies are implemented. The extent to which these elements of good practice can be generalised to other contexts merits consideration in developing future initiatives towards creating synergies across sectors. INHERIT researchers have drawn out lessons learned from information gathered in evaluations about triggers for the initiatives, key elements for implementation, success factors in intersectoral cooperation, what could have been done better, what should be done in the future, and the most important learnings from the evaluation of outcomes, costs and benefits

Quantitative and qualitative evaluations of impacts and benefits of nine INHERIT case studies

The INHERIT report Quantitative and Qualitative Evaluations of Impacts and Benefits of Nine INHERIT Case Studies documents the findings relevant to potential impacts and benefits of nine case studies for health, equity and a more sustainable environment. It uses a mixed method approach with quantitative methods augmented in some cases by written responses to survey questions, or by focus group discussions on impacts, as appropriate. Each case study evaluation was led by a different INHERIT partner. In each case, partners formulated the research design appropriate to their case studies and the associated research questions identified within the framework of INHERIT. The coordinating partner, University College London (UCL), developed an evaluation framework to suit the range of case studies examined for impacts and benefits, the case specific logic models developed, and the research questions identified. The nine chapters describe the impact evaluations and findings from the nine case studies using the following format: Background; Overall aims; Context; Research Questions; Methodology; Results; Discussion; Limitations; Learning points for future research; Learning points for potential scale up and transferability

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Search for top squark production in fully hadronic final states in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A search for production of the supersymmetric partners of the top quark, top squarks, is presented. The search is based on proton-proton collision events containing multiple jets, no leptons, and large transverse momentum imbalance. The data were collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb(-1). The targeted signal production scenarios are direct and gluino-mediated top squark production, including scenarios in which the top squark and neutralino masses are nearly degenerate. The search utilizes novel algorithms based on deep neural networks that identify hadronically decaying top quarks and W bosons, which are expected in many of the targeted signal models. No statistically significant excess of events is observed relative to the expectation from the standard model, and limits on the top squark production cross section are obtained in the context of simplified supersymmetric models for various production and decay modes. Exclusion limits as high as 1310 GeVare established at the 95% confidence level on the mass of the top squark for direct top squark production models, and as high as 2260 GeV on the mass of the gluino for gluino-mediated top squark production models. These results represent a significant improvement over the results of previous searches for supersymmetry by CMS in the same final state.Peer reviewe