Decrease in water clarity of the southern and central North Sea during the 20th century

Light in the marine environment is a key environmental variable coupling physics to marine biogeochemistry and ecology. Weak light penetration reduces light available for photosynthesis, changing energy fluxes through the marine food web. Based on published and unpublished data, this study shows that the central and southern North Sea has become significantly less clear over the second half of the 20th century. In particular, in the different regions and seasons investigated, the average Secchi depth pre-1950 decreased between 25% and 75% compared to the average Secchi depth post-1950. Consequently, in summer pre-1950, most (74%) of the sea floor in the permanently mixed area off East Anglia was within the photic zone. For the last 25+ years, changes in water clarity were more likely driven by an increase in the concentration of suspended sediments, rather than phytoplankton. We suggest that a combination of causes have contributed to this increase in suspended sediments such as changes in sea-bed communities and in weather patterns, decreased sink of sediments in estuaries, and increased coastal erosion. A predicted future increase in storminess (Beniston et al., 2007; Kovats et al., 2014) could enhance the concentration of suspended sediments in the water column and consequently lead to a further decrease in clarity, with potential impacts on phytoplankton production, CO2 fluxes, and fishery production

Modelling the overdiagnosis of breast cancer due to mammography screening in women aged 40 to 49 in the United Kingdom

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, andreproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Evaluation of test statistics in split-mouth clinical trials

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65787/1/j.1600-0765.1988.tb01616.x.pd

Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors in Child and Adolescent Health, 1990 to 2017 Findings From the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors 2017 Study

IMPORTANCE Understanding causes and correlates of health loss among children and adolescents can identify areas of success, stagnation, and emerging threats and thereby facilitate effective improvement strategies. OBJECTIVE To estimate mortality and morbidity in children and adolescents from 1990 to 2017 by age and sex in 195 countries and territories. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This study examined levels, trends, and spatiotemporal patterns of cause-specific mortality and nonfatal health outcomes using standardized approaches to data processing and statistical analysis. It also describes epidemiologic transitions by evaluating historical associations between disease indicators and the Socio-Demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income, educational attainment, and fertility. Data collected from 1990 to 2017 on children and adolescents from birth through 19 years of age in 195 countries and territories were assessed. Data analysis occurred from January 2018 to August 2018. EXPOSURES Being under the age of 20 years between 1990 and 2017. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Death and disability. All-cause and cause-specific deaths, disability-adjusted life years, years of life lost, and years of life lived with disability. RESULTS Child and adolescent deaths decreased 51.7% from 13.77 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI], 13.60-13.93 million) in 1990 to 6.64 million (95% UI, 6.44-6.87 million) in 2017, but in 2017, aggregate disability increased 4.7% to a total of 145 million (95% UI, 107-190 million) years lived with disability globally. Progress was uneven, and inequity increased, with low-SDI and low-middle–SDI locations experiencing 82.2% (95% UI, 81.6%-82.9%) of deaths, up from 70.9% (95% UI, 70.4%-71.4%) in 1990. The leading disaggregated causes of disability-adjusted life years in 2017 in the low-SDI quintile were neonatal disorders, lower respiratory infections, diarrhea, malaria, and congenital birth defects, whereas neonatal disorders, congenital birth defects, headache, dermatitis, and anxiety were highest-ranked in the high-SDI quintile. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Mortality reductions over this 27-year period mean that children are more likely than ever to reach their 20th birthdays. The concomitant expansion of nonfatal health loss and epidemiological transition in children and adolescents, especially in low-SDI and middle-SDI countries, has the potential to increase already overburdened health systems, will affect the human capital potential of societies, and may influence the trajectory of socioeconomic development. Continued monitoring of child and adolescent health loss is crucial to sustain the progress of the past 27 years

Fish Oil Supplementation During Late Pregnancy Does Not Influence Plasma Lipids or Lipoprotein Levels in Young Adult Offspring

Nutritional influences on cardiovascular disease operate throughout life. Studies in both experimental animals and humans have suggested that changes in the peri- and early post-natal nutrition can affect the development of the various components of the metabolic syndrome in adult life. This has lead to the hypothesis that n-3 fatty acid supplementation in pregnancy may have a beneficial effect on lipid profile in the offspring. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of supplementation with n-3 fatty acids during the third trimester of pregnancy on lipids and lipoproteins in the 19-year-old offspring. The study was based on the follow-up of a randomized controlled trial from 1990 where 533 pregnant women were randomized to fish oil (n = 266), olive oil (n = 136) or no oil (n = 131). In 2009, the offspring were invited to a physical examination including blood sampling. A total of 243 of the offspring participated. Lipid values did not differ between the fish oil and olive oil groups. The relative adjusted difference (95% confidence intervals) in lipid concentrations was −3% (−11; 7) for LDL cholesterol, 3% (−3; 10) for HDL cholesterol, −1% (−6; 5) for total cholesterol,−4% (−16; 10) for TAG concentrations, 2%(−2; 7) for apolipoprotein A1, −1% (−9; 7) for apolipoprotein B and 3% (−7; 15) in relative abundance of small dense LDL. In conclusion, there was no effect of fish oil supplementation during the third trimester of pregnancy on offspring plasma lipids and lipoproteins in adolescence

SCAMP:standardised, concentrated, additional macronutrients, parenteral nutrition in very preterm infants: a phase IV randomised, controlled exploratory study of macronutrient intake, growth and other aspects of neonatal care

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Infants born <29 weeks gestation are at high risk of neurocognitive disability. Early postnatal growth failure, particularly head growth, is an important and potentially reversible risk factor for impaired neurodevelopmental outcome. Inadequate nutrition is a major factor in this postnatal growth failure, optimal protein and calorie (macronutrient) intakes are rarely achieved, especially in the first week. Infants <29 weeks are dependent on parenteral nutrition for the bulk of their nutrient needs for the first 2-3 weeks of life to allow gut adaptation to milk digestion. The prescription, formulation and administration of neonatal parenteral nutrition is critical to achieving optimal protein and calorie intake but has received little scientific evaluation. Current neonatal parenteral nutrition regimens often rely on individualised prescription to manage the labile, unpredictable biochemical and metabolic control characteristic of the early neonatal period. Individualised prescription frequently fails to translate into optimal macronutrient delivery. We have previously shown that a standardised, concentrated neonatal parenteral nutrition regimen can optimise macronutrient intake.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We propose a single centre, randomised controlled exploratory trial of two standardised, concentrated neonatal parenteral nutrition regimens comparing a standard macronutrient content (maximum protein 2.8 g/kg/day; lipid 2.8 g/kg/day, dextrose 10%) with a higher macronutrient content (maximum protein 3.8 g/kg/day; lipid 3.8 g/kg/day, dextrose 12%) over the first 28 days of life. 150 infants 24-28 completed weeks gestation and birthweight <1200 g will be recruited. The primary outcome will be head growth velocity in the first 28 days of life. Secondary outcomes will include a) auxological data between birth and 36 weeks corrected gestational age b) actual macronutrient intake in first 28 days c) biomarkers of biochemical and metabolic tolerance d) infection biomarkers and other intravascular line complications e) incidence of major complications of prematurity including mortality f) neurodevelopmental outcome at 2 years corrected gestational age</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>Current controlled trials: <a href="http://www.controlled-trials.com/ISRCTN76597892">ISRCTN76597892</a>; EudraCT Number: 2008-008899-14</p

Do parents of children with congenital malformations have a higher cancer risk? A nationwide study in Denmark

To investigate whether parents of children with congenital malformations more often developed cancer after birth of the child, a population-based case-control study in Denmark was undertaken. By linking the Cancer Registry with the Central Population Registry, we identified 8783 cancer patients having their first child born between 1977 and 1995 before the cancer was diagnosed. Parents of 41 206 firstborn children of a 10% random sample of newborns from the Birth Registry between 1980 and 1995 were identified as controls. We obtained malformation diagnoses of children of cases and controls by linking to the Hospital Discharge Registry. We estimated the association between malformation and cancer by using logistic regression, adjusting for maternal age at birth and sex of child. We found no increased risk of cancer in parents having children with malformations in general, but a higher cancer risk in parents of children born with cleft lip/palate, odds ratio (OR) for all cancer=1.8 (95% confidence interval 1.0–3.2), OR for lymphomas=4.2 (1.3–13.5) and OR for leukaemia=8.1 (2.0–33.7). This association was not restricted to cancer cases diagnosed shortly after birth of the child. Our results suggest a common genetic association between these diseases, but further studies are needed

Scalar and vector Slepian functions, spherical signal estimation and spectral analysis

It is a well-known fact that mathematical functions that are timelimited (or spacelimited) cannot be simultaneously bandlimited (in frequency). Yet the finite precision of measurement and computation unavoidably bandlimits our observation and modeling scientific data, and we often only have access to, or are only interested in, a study area that is temporally or spatially bounded. In the geosciences we may be interested in spectrally modeling a time series defined only on a certain interval, or we may want to characterize a specific geographical area observed using an effectively bandlimited measurement device. It is clear that analyzing and representing scientific data of this kind will be facilitated if a basis of functions can be found that are "spatiospectrally" concentrated, i.e. "localized" in both domains at the same time. Here, we give a theoretical overview of one particular approach to this "concentration" problem, as originally proposed for time series by Slepian and coworkers, in the 1960s. We show how this framework leads to practical algorithms and statistically performant methods for the analysis of signals and their power spectra in one and two dimensions, and, particularly for applications in the geosciences, for scalar and vectorial signals defined on the surface of a unit sphere.Comment: Submitted to the 2nd Edition of the Handbook of Geomathematics, edited by Willi Freeden, Zuhair M. Nashed and Thomas Sonar, and to be published by Springer Verlag. This is a slightly modified but expanded version of the paper arxiv:0909.5368 that appeared in the 1st Edition of the Handbook, when it was called: Slepian functions and their use in signal estimation and spectral analysi

The pattern of influenza virus attachment varies among wild bird species

The ability to attach to host cells is one of the main determinants of the host range of influenza A viruses. By using virus histochemistry, we investigate the pattern of virus attachment of both a human and an avian influenza virus in colon and trachea sections from 12 wild bird species. We show that significant variations exist, even between closely related avian species, which suggests that the ability of wild birds to serve as hosts for influenza viruses strongly varies among species. These results will prove valuable to assess the possibilities of interspecies transmission of influenza viruses in natural environments and better understand the ecology of influenza

Optimization of the Observing Cadence for the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time: A Pioneering Process of Community-focused Experimental Design

Vera C. Rubin Observatory is a ground-based astronomical facility under construction, a joint project of the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, designed to conduct a multipurpose 10 yr optical survey of the Southern Hemisphere sky: the Legacy Survey of Space and Time. Significant flexibility in survey strategy remains within the constraints imposed by the core science goals of probing dark energy and dark matter, cataloging the solar system, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. The survey's massive data throughput will be transformational for many other astrophysics domains and Rubin's data access policy sets the stage for a huge community of potential users. To ensure that the survey science potential is maximized while serving as broad a community as possible, Rubin Observatory has involved the scientific community at large in the process of setting and refining the details of the observing strategy. The motivation, history, and decision-making process of this strategy optimization are detailed in this paper, giving context to the science-driven proposals and recommendations for the survey strategy included in this Focus Issue