Swimming in a Sea of Numbers : Webinars on Statistical Literacy

Librarians need to know how to interpret research studies that build an evidence base for making informed medical decisions. They need to understand research design, and if a study question, methods, and numbers analysis make sense, and why. Our webinars led to a clearer understanding of statistics used to interpret research

Vitamin D with Calcium reduces mortality: patient level pooled analysis of 70,528 patients from eight major vitamin D trials

Introduction: Vitamin D may affect multiple health outcomes. If so, an effect on mortality is to be expected. Using pooled data from randomized controlled trials, we performed individual patient data (IPD) and trial level meta-analyses to assess mortality among participants randomized to either vitamin D alone or vitamin D with calcium. Subjects and Methods: Through a systematic literature search, we identified 24 randomized controlled trials reporting data on mortality in which vitamin D was given either alone or with calcium. From a total of 13 trials with more than 1000 participants each, eight trials were included in our IPD analysis. Using a stratified Cox regression model, we calculated risk of death during 3 yr of treatment in an intention-to-treat analysis. Also, we performed a trial level meta-analysis including data from all studies. Results: The IPD analysis yielded data on 70,528 randomized participants (86.8% females) with a median age of 70 (interquartile range, 62–77) yr. Vitamin D with or without calcium reduced mortality by 7% [hazard ratio, 0.93; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.88–0.99]. However, vitamin D alone did not affect mortality, but risk of death was reduced if vitamin D was given with calcium (hazard ratio, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.84–0.98). The number needed to treat with vitamin D plus calcium for 3 yr to prevent one death was 151. Trial level meta-analysis (24 trials with 88,097 participants) showed similar results, i.e. mortality was reduced with vitamin D plus calcium (odds ratio, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.88–0.99), but not with vitamin D alone (odds ratio, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.91–1.06). Conclusion: Vitamin D with calcium reduces mortality in the elderly, whereas available data do not support an effect of vitamin D alone

Impoundment increases methane emissions in Phragmites‐invaded coastal wetlands

© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Sanders‐DeMott, R., Eagle, M., Kroeger, K., Wang, F., Brooks, T., Suttles, J., Nick, S., Mann, A., & Tang, J. Impoundment increases methane emissions in Phragmites‐invaded coastal wetlands. Global Change Biology, 28(15), (2022): 4539– 4557. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16217.Saline tidal wetlands are important sites of carbon sequestration and produce negligible methane (CH4) emissions due to regular inundation with sulfate-rich seawater. Yet, widespread management of coastal hydrology has restricted tidal exchange in vast areas of coastal wetlands. These ecosystems often undergo impoundment and freshening, which in turn cause vegetation shifts like invasion by Phragmites, that affect ecosystem carbon balance. Understanding controls and scaling of carbon exchange in these understudied ecosystems is critical for informing climate consequences of blue carbon restoration and/or management interventions. Here, we (1) examine how carbon fluxes vary across a salinity gradient (4–25 psu) in impounded and natural, tidally unrestricted Phragmites wetlands using static chambers and (2) probe drivers of carbon fluxes within an impounded coastal wetland using eddy covariance at the Herring River in Wellfleet, MA, United States. Freshening across the salinity gradient led to a 50-fold increase in CH4 emissions, but effects on carbon dioxide (CO2) were less pronounced with uptake generally enhanced in the fresher, impounded sites. The impounded wetland experienced little variation in water-table depth or salinity during the growing season and was a strong CO2 sink of −352 g CO2-C m−2 year−1 offset by CH4 emission of 11.4 g CH4-C m−2 year−1. Growing season CH4 flux was driven primarily by temperature. Methane flux exhibited a diurnal cycle with a night-time minimum that was not reflected in opaque chamber measurements. Therefore, we suggest accounting for the diurnal cycle of CH4 in Phragmites, for example by applying a scaling factor developed here of ~0.6 to mid-day chamber measurements. Taken together, these results suggest that although freshened, impounded wetlands can be strong carbon sinks, enhanced CH4 emission with freshening reduces net radiative balance. Restoration of tidal flow to impounded ecosystems could limit CH4 production and enhance their climate regulating benefits.This project was supported by USGS-NPS Natural Resources Preservation Program #2021-07, U.S. Geological Survey Coastal & Marine Hazards and Resources Program and the USGS Land Change Science Program's LandCarbon program, and NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserve Science Collaborative NA14NOS4190145. R Sanders-DeMott was supported by a USGS Mendenhall Fellowship and partnership with Restore America's Estuaries

UDP-Galactose 4′-Epimerase Activities toward UDP-Gal and UDP-GalNAc Play Different Roles in the Development of Drosophila melanogaster

In both humans and Drosophila melanogaster, UDP-galactose 4′-epimerase (GALE) catalyzes two distinct reactions, interconverting UDP-galactose (UDP-gal) and UDP-glucose (UDP-glc) in the final step of the Leloir pathway of galactose metabolism, and also interconverting UDP-N-acetylgalactosamine (UDP-galNAc) and UDP-N-acetylglucosamine (UDP-glcNAc). All four of these UDP-sugars serve as vital substrates for glycosylation in metazoans. Partial loss of GALE in humans results in the spectrum disorder epimerase deficiency galactosemia; partial loss of GALE in Drosophila melanogaster also results in galactose-sensitivity, and complete loss in Drosophila is embryonic lethal. However, whether these outcomes in both humans and flies result from loss of one GALE activity, the other, or both has remained unknown. To address this question, we uncoupled the two activities in a Drosophila model, effectively replacing the endogenous dGALE with prokaryotic transgenes, one of which (Escherichia coli GALE) efficiently interconverts only UDP-gal/UDP-glc, and the other of which (Plesiomonas shigelloides wbgU) efficiently interconverts only UDP-galNAc/UDP-glcNAc. Our results demonstrate that both UDP-gal and UDP-galNAc activities of dGALE are required for Drosophila survival, although distinct roles for each activity can be seen in specific windows of developmental time or in response to a galactose challenge. By extension, these data also suggest that both activities might play distinct and essential roles in humans

Hepatic steatosis risk is partly driven by increased de novo lipogenesis following carbohydrate consumption.

BACKGROUND: Diet is a major contributor to metabolic disease risk, but there is controversy as to whether increased incidences of diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease arise from consumption of saturated fats or free sugars. Here, we investigate whether a sub-set of triacylglycerols (TAGs) were associated with hepatic steatosis and whether they arise from de novo lipogenesis (DNL) from the consumption of carbohydrates. RESULTS: We conduct direct infusion mass spectrometry of lipids in plasma to study the association between specific TAGs and hepatic steatosis assessed by ultrasound and fatty liver index in volunteers from the UK-based Fenland Study and evaluate clustering of TAGs in the National Survey of Health and Development UK cohort. We find that TAGs containing saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids with 16-18 carbons are specifically associated with hepatic steatosis. These TAGs are additionally associated with higher consumption of carbohydrate and saturated fat, hepatic steatosis, and variations in the gene for protein phosphatase 1, regulatory subunit 3b (PPP1R3B), which in part regulates glycogen synthesis. DNL is measured in hyperphagic ob/ob mice, mice on a western diet (high in fat and free sugar) and in healthy humans using stable isotope techniques following high carbohydrate meals, demonstrating the rate of DNL correlates with increased synthesis of this cluster of TAGs. Furthermore, these TAGs are increased in plasma from patients with biopsy-confirmed steatosis. CONCLUSION: A subset of TAGs is associated with hepatic steatosis, even when correcting for common confounding factors. We suggest that hepatic steatosis risk in western populations is in part driven by increased DNL following carbohydrate rich meals in addition to the consumption of saturated fat

Management of nystagmus in children : a review of the literature and current practice in UK specialist services

Nystagmus is an eye movement disorder characterised by abnormal, involuntary rhythmic oscillations of one or both eyes, initiated by a slow phase. It is not uncommon in the UK and regularly seen in paediatric ophthalmology and adult general/strabismus clinics. In some cases, it occurs in isolation, and in others, it occurs as part of a multisystem disorder, severe visual impairment or neurological disorder. Similarly, in some cases, visual acuity can be normal and in others can be severely degraded. Furthermore, the impact on vision goes well beyond static acuity alone, is rarely measured and may vary on a minute-to-minute, day-to-day or month-to-month basis. For these reasons, management of children with nystagmus in the UK is varied, and patients report hugely different experiences and investigations. In this review, we hope to shine a light on the current management of children with nystagmus across five specialist centres in the UK in order to present, for the first time, a consensus on investigation and clinical management

The Ultraviolet-bright, Slowly Declining Transient PS1-11af as a Partial Tidal Disruption Event

We present the Pan-STARRS1 discovery of the long-lived and blue transient PS1-11af, which was also detected by Galaxy Evolution Explorer with coordinated observations in the near-ultraviolet (NUV) band. PS1-11af is associated with the nucleus of an early type galaxy at redshift z = 0.4046 that exhibits no evidence for star formation or active galactic nucleus activity. Four epochs of spectroscopy reveal a pair of transient broad absorption features in the UV on otherwise featureless spectra. Despite the superficial similarity of these features to P-Cygni absorptions of supernovae (SNe), we conclude that PS1-11af is not consistent with the properties of known types of SNe. Blackbody fits to the spectral energy distribution are inconsistent with the cooling, expanding ejecta of a SN, and the velocities of the absorption features are too high to represent material in homologous expansion near a SN photosphere. However, the constant blue colors and slow evolution of the luminosity are similar to previous optically selected tidal disruption events (TDEs). The shape of the optical light curve is consistent with models for TDEs, but the minimum accreted mass necessary to power the observed luminosity is only ~0.002 M ☉, which points to a partial disruption model. A full disruption model predicts higher bolometric luminosities, which would require most of the radiation to be emitted in a separate component at high energies where we lack observations. In addition, the observed temperature is lower than that predicted by pure accretion disk models for TDEs and requires reprocessing to a constant, lower temperature. Three deep non-detections in the radio with the Very Large Array over the first two years after the event set strict limits on the production of any relativistic outflow comparable to Swift J1644+57, even if off-axis

PS1-10afx at z = 1.388: Pan-STARRS1 Discovery of a New Type of Superluminous Supernova

We present the Pan-STARRS1 discovery of PS1-10afx, a unique hydrogen-deficient superluminous supernova (SLSN) at redshift z = 1.388. The light curve peaked at z P1 = 21.7 mag, making PS1-10afx comparable to the most luminous known SNe, with Mu = –22.3 mag. Our extensive optical and near-infrared observations indicate that the bolometric light curve of PS1-10afx rose on the unusually fast timescale of ~12 days to the extraordinary peak luminosity of 4.1 × 1044 erg s–1 (M bol = –22.8 mag) and subsequently faded rapidly. Equally important, the spectral energy distribution is unusually red for an SLSN, with a color temperature of ~6800 K near maximum light, in contrast to previous hydrogen-poor SLSNe, which are bright in the ultraviolet (UV). The spectra more closely resemble those of a normal SN Ic than any known SLSN, with a photospheric velocity of ~11, 000 km s–1 and evidence for line blanketing in the rest-frame UV. Despite the fast rise, these parameters imply a very large emitting radius (gsim 5 × 1015 cm). We demonstrate that no existing theoretical model can satisfactorily explain this combination of properties: (1) a nickel-powered light curve cannot match the combination of high peak luminosity with the fast timescale; (2) models powered by the spindown energy of a rapidly rotating magnetar predict significantly hotter and faster ejecta; and (3) models invoking shock breakout through a dense circumstellar medium cannot explain the observed spectra or color evolution. The host galaxy is well detected in pre-explosion imaging with a luminosity near L*, a star formation rate of ~15 M ☉ yr–1, and is fairly massive (~2 × 1010 M ☉), with a stellar population age of ~108 yr, also in contrast to the young dwarf hosts of known hydrogen-poor SLSNe. PS1-10afx is distinct from known examples of SLSNe in its spectra, colors, light-curve shape, and host galaxy properties, suggesting that it resulted from a different channel than other hydrogen-poor SLSNe.Astronom