Association of Circulating Trimethylamine N-Oxide and Its Dietary Determinants with the Risk of Kidney Graft Failure:Results of the TransplantLines Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: Due to the critical shortage of kidneys for transplantation, the identification of modifiable factors related to graft failure is highly desirable. The role of trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) in graft failure remains undetermined. Here, we investigated the clinical utility of TMAO and its dietary determinants for graft failure prediction in renal transplant recipients (RTRs). METHODS: We included 448 RTRs who participated in the TransplantLines Cohort Study. Cox proportional-hazards regression analyses were performed to study the association of plasma TMAO with graft failure. Net Benefit, which is a decision analysis method, was performed to evaluate the clinical utility of TMAO and dietary information in the prediction of graft failure. RESULTS: Among RTRs (age 52.7 ± 13.1 years; 53% males), the baseline median TMAO was 5.6 (3.0-10.2) µmol/L. In multivariable regression analysis, the most important dietary determinants of TMAO were egg intake (Std. β = 0.09 [95%CI, 0.01; 0.18]; p = 0.03), fiber intake (Std. β = -0.14 [95%CI, -0.22, -0.05]; p = 0.002), and fish and seafood intake (Std. β = 0.12 [95%CI, 0.03,0.21]; p = 0.01). After a median follow-up of 5.3 (4.5-6.0) years, graft failure was observed in 58 subjects. TMAO was associated with an increased risk of graft failure, independent of age, sex, the body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, lipids, albuminuria, and the Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) (Hazard Ratio per 1-SD increase of TMAO, 1.62 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.22; 2.14, p < 0.001)). A TMAO and dietary enhanced prediction model offered approximately double the Net Benefit compared to a previously reported, validated prediction model for future graft failure, allowing the detection of 21 RTRs per 100 RTRs tested, with no false positives versus 10 RTRs, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: A predictive model for graft failure, enriched with TMAO and its dietary determinants, yielded a higher Net Benefit compared with an already validated model. This study suggests that TMAO and its dietary determinants are associated with an increased risk of graft failure and that it is clinically meaningful

Prioritisation of Research and Development for modelling the safe production, storage, delivery and use of hydrogen.

Hydrogen is expected to play an important role in the energy mix of a future low carbon society, (the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan of the European Commission (COM 2007 - 723) and in the Hydrogen, Fuel Cells & Infrastructure Technologies Program-Multi-Year Research, Development, and Demonstration Plan of the USA Department of Energy (DoE 2007). Hydrogen safety issues must be addressed in order to ensure that the wide spread deployment and use of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies can occur with the same or lower level of hazards and associated risk compared to the conventional fossil fuel technologies. Hydrogen safety is a EU Policy relevant issue as it is stated in the priority 3 Action 2 (Continuous improvement in safety and security) of the EU “Energy 2020 A strategy for competitive, sustainable and secure energy”: “The same security and safety considerations will also be upheld in the development and deployment of new energy technologies (hydrogen safety, safety of CO2 transportation network, CO2 storage, etc…)” Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is one of the tools to investigate safety issues related to the production, storage, delivery and use of hydrogen. CFD techniques can provide a wealthy amount of information on the dynamics of hypothetical hydrogen accident and its consequences. The CFD-based consequence analysis is then used in risk assessments. This report describes the output of a workshop organised at the Institute for Energy and Transport (JRC) in Petten, Netherlands to identify the gaps and issues in CFD modelling of hydrogen release and combustion. A hydrogen accident usually follows a typical sequence of events: an unintended release, the mixing of hydrogen with air to form a flammable mixture, the ignition of the flammable cloud and depending on the conditions, and a fire or an explosion (deflagration or/and detonation). For each stage of the accident, the critical CFD issues have been identified and prioritised. Beyond the specific issues of CFD modelling that are described for each accident stage in the report, some general modelling issues can be found in all stages: • lack of an extensive validation of CFD codes/models that covers all the relevant range of conditions that can be found in hypothetical accident scenarios e.g. in terms of geometrical lay-out, leak flow rates. • lack of a CFD validation protocol for hydrogen like it exists for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG): the Model Evaluation Protocols (MEP) for assessment of models for accident consequences, with guidance on evaluating models in terms of scientific assessment, verification and validation. • lack of a database of experiments for validation of hydrogen models. • in some cases, lack of complete and accurate experimental data for the CFD validation. The goals of this work were to perform a state of the art review in CFD modelling of hypothetical accidents scenarios related to hydrogen technologies and identify and prioritise the gaps in the field. The report is based on a dedicated workshop organised in Petten with the participation of external experts an extensive literature review performed by experts in the field and the direct expertise and experience of the experts. The experts were carefully selected according to their experience/expertise, number of scientific publications and participations to International Conferences, seminars, workshops and to international and/or European co-funded projects such as HySafe (Hydrogen Safety), HyApproval (Approval of Hydrogen Re-fuelling Stations), European Integrated Hydrogen Projects. By performing a state of the art review of CFD modelling for hydrogen safety issues, a consensus was reached among the scientific experts as to the main gaps in the field and on the priority of the research needs.JRC.F.2-Cleaner energ

Cultivating greater self-confidence in African management research

Although strategic management has taken root in many African organisations, much of the existing body of African management research offers little insight into the current state of knowledge and direction in terms of Africa finding its voice within the mainstream research. We draw on a review of the literature to develop a conceptual framework for classifying the contributions in African management research. The conceptual model captures the indigenous (intra-Africa) and inter-Africa dimension of macro-strategy and organisational behaviour/human resource research. The accumulated body of research indicates a sign of growing self-confidence in African management research which must be maintained and revitalised. The paper contributes to the literature by developing a unified conceptual model which captures both the indigenous and comparative dimensions of management research. A number of fruitful avenues for future research have been advanced

Kompetensflykt i sjukvården: En fråga om ledarskap eller medarbetartrivsel?

Vården har genomgått stora omstruktureringar följt av frivilliga uppsägningar, som kopplats till bristande ledarskap. Samtidigt har arbetsattityder visats hänga samman med frivilliga uppsägningar, vilket föranleder frågan om positiva arbetsupplevelser medierar sambandet mellan ledarskap och intention att säga upp sig. Detta testades med enkätdata från ett sjukhus som privatiserades. Resultaten visade att arbetstrivsel medierar sambandet mellan ledarskap och intention till uppsägning. Studien aktualiserar olika HR-strategier för att behålla organisationens humankapital

The moderating role of employability on the relationship between job insecurity and commitment to change

The development of commitment to change is an underresearched area especially in non-western settings. The aim of the present study was to determine whether employability can moderate the negative effects of job insecurity on individuals’ commitment to change. A survey method approach was used to collect 149 responses from managers of a large public sector organization in Pakistan undergoing restructuring. Hierarchical multiple regression results suggest that employability is an important coping resource during organizational change as it helps mitigate the negative effects of job insecurity on the most desirable form of commitment to change, namely affective commitment to change. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0143831X0935121

An Inter-Comparison Exercise on CFD Model Capabilities to Predict a Hydrogen Explosion in a Simulated Vehicle Refuelling Environment

The paper describes the comparison of simulations of a hydrogen explosion experiment in an environment simulating a vehicle refuelling station. The exercise was performed in 2007 within the European-Commission-funded Network of Excellence Hydrogen Safety as an Energy Carrier (www.hysafe.org), which facilitates the safe introduction of hydrogen technologies and infrastructure. The experiment in a mock-up of a hydrogen refuelling station was conducted jointly by Shell Global Solutions (UK) and the Health and Safety Laboratory (UK) in order to study the potential hazards and consequences associated with a hydrogen-air mixture explosion. The worst-case scenario of a stoichiometric hydrogen-air mixture explosion was offered to the network partners for this simulation exercise. Simulations were conducted by a total of seven partners using different models and numerical codes with the intention of predicting/reproducing pressure dynamics in different locations and of evaluating the performance of different combustion codes and models in realistic large-scale conditions. The paper briefly details the models and numerical codes used, and presents the simulated pressure transients obtained by the partners in comparison with the experimental pressure records. The comparative model analysis was made based on achieved simulation results, where the simulated maximum overpressure and the characteristic rate of pressure rise were treated as major output parameters. A contribution to hydrogen safety was made in the form of a description of the models, their performance and an analysis of the results for their cross-fertilisation where possible.JRC.F.2-Cleaner energ

JuliaGPU/AMDGPU.jl: v0.7.4

&lt;h2&gt;AMDGPU v0.7.4&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://github.com/JuliaGPU/AMDGPU.jl/compare/v0.7.3...v0.7.4"&gt;Diff since v0.7.3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Merged pull requests:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Update preconditioners.jl (#533) (@amontoison)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;[rocSPARSE] Interface the generic routines (#535) (@amontoison)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Defer freeing hostcall buffers &amp; add 1.10 CI (#538) (@pxl-th)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Have separate &lt;code&gt;free!&lt;/code&gt; method for hostcalls (#539) (@pxl-th)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Switch to artifact device libraries if ROCm 5.5+ is detected (#540) (@pxl-th)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Fix artifact discovery in global project (#541) (@pxl-th)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Closed issues:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Investigate GPUArrays tests suite error (#515)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Multiple workers hang test suite on Julia 1.10 (#521)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;[rocSPARSE] ILU(0) and IC(0) preconditioners are not working (#532)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Hostcall tests hang (#537)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt