The Changing Landscape for Stroke\ua0Prevention in AF: Findings From the GLORIA-AF Registry Phase 2

Background GLORIA-AF (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation) is a prospective, global registry program describing antithrombotic treatment patterns in patients with newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation at risk of stroke. Phase 2 began when dabigatran, the first non\u2013vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC), became available. Objectives This study sought to describe phase 2 baseline data and compare these with the pre-NOAC era collected during phase 1. Methods During phase 2, 15,641 consenting patients were enrolled (November 2011 to December 2014); 15,092 were eligible. This pre-specified cross-sectional analysis describes eligible patients\u2019 baseline characteristics. Atrial fibrillation disease characteristics, medical outcomes, and concomitant diseases and medications were collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results Of the total patients, 45.5% were female; median age was 71 (interquartile range: 64, 78) years. Patients were from Europe (47.1%), North America (22.5%), Asia (20.3%), Latin America (6.0%), and the Middle East/Africa (4.0%). Most had high stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc [Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age  6575 years, Diabetes mellitus, previous Stroke, Vascular disease, Age 65 to 74 years, Sex category] score  652; 86.1%); 13.9% had moderate risk (CHA2DS2-VASc = 1). Overall, 79.9% received oral anticoagulants, of whom 47.6% received NOAC and 32.3% vitamin K antagonists (VKA); 12.1% received antiplatelet agents; 7.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. For comparison, the proportion of phase 1 patients (of N = 1,063 all eligible) prescribed VKA was 32.8%, acetylsalicylic acid 41.7%, and no therapy 20.2%. In Europe in phase 2, treatment with NOAC was more common than VKA (52.3% and 37.8%, respectively); 6.0% of patients received antiplatelet treatment; and 3.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. In North America, 52.1%, 26.2%, and 14.0% of patients received NOAC, VKA, and antiplatelet drugs, respectively; 7.5% received no antithrombotic treatment. NOAC use was less common in Asia (27.7%), where 27.5% of patients received VKA, 25.0% antiplatelet drugs, and 19.8% no antithrombotic treatment. Conclusions The baseline data from GLORIA-AF phase 2 demonstrate that in newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients, NOAC have been highly adopted into practice, becoming more frequently prescribed than VKA in Europe and North America. Worldwide, however, a large proportion of patients remain undertreated, particularly in Asia and North America. (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation [GLORIA-AF]; NCT01468701

Impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the global energy system and the shift progress to renewable energy: Opportunities, challenges, and policy implications.

Being declared a global emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken many lives, threatened livelihoods and businesses around the world. The energy industry, in particular, has experienced tremendous pressure resulting from the pandemic. In response to such a challenge, the development of sustainable resources and renewable energy infrastructure has demonstrated its potential as a promising and effective strategy. To sufficiently address the effect of COVID-19 on renewable energy development strategies, short-term policy priorities should be identified, while mid-term and long-term action plans should be formulated in achieving the well-defined renewable energy targets and progress towards a more sustainable energy future. In this review, opportunities, challenges, and significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on current and future sustainable energy strategies were analyzed in detail; while drawing from experiences in identifying reasonable behaviors, orientating appropriate actions, and policy implications on the sustainable energy trajectory were also mentioned. Indeed, the question is that whether the COVID-19 pandemic will kill us or provide us with a precious lesson on future sustainable energy development

Equilibrium Sampling to Determine the Thermodynamic Potential for Bioaccumulation of Persistent Organic Pollutants from Sediment

Equilibrium partitioning (EqP) theory is currently the most widely used approach for linking sediment pollution by persistent hydrophobic organic chemicals to bioaccumulation. Most applications of the EqP approach assume (I) a generic relationship between organic carbon-normalized chemical concentrations in sediments and lipid-normalized concentrations in biota and (II) that bioaccumulation does not induce levels exceeding those expected from equilibrium partitioning. Here, we demonstrate that assumption I can be obviated by equilibrating a silicone sampler with chemicals in sediment, measuring chemical concentrations in the silicone, and applying lipid/silicone partition ratios to yield concentrations in lipid at thermodynamic equilibrium with the sediment (<i>C</i>_Lip⇌Sed). Furthermore, we evaluated the validity of assumption II by comparing <i>C</i>_Lip⇌Sed of selected persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic pollutants (polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB)) to lipid-normalized concentrations for a range of biota from a Swedish background lake. PCBs in duck mussels, roach, eel, pikeperch, perch and pike were mostly below the equilibrium partitioning level relative to the sediment, i.e., lipid-normalized concentrations were ≤<i>C</i>_Lip⇌Sed, whereas HCB was near equilibrium between biota and sediment. Equilibrium sampling allows straightforward, sensitive and precise measurement of <i>C</i>_Lip⇌Sed. We propose <i>C</i>_Lip⇌Sed as a metric of the thermodynamic potential for bioaccumulation of persistent organic chemicals from sediment useful to prioritize management actions to remediate contaminated sites