Transits of Earth-Like Planets

Transmission spectroscopy of Earth-like exoplanets is a potential tool for habitability screening. Transiting planets are present-day "Rosetta Stones" for understanding extrasolar planets because they offer the possibility to characterize giant planet atmospheres and should provide an access to biomarkers in the atmospheres of Earth-like exoplanets, once they are detected. Using the Earth itself as a proxy we show the potential and limits of the transiting technique to detect biomarkers on an Earth-analog exoplanet in transit. We quantify the Earths cross section as a function of wavelength, and show the effect of each atmospheric species, aerosol, and Rayleigh scattering. Clouds do not significantly affect this picture because the opacity of the lower atmosphere from aerosol and Rayleigh losses dominates over cloud losses. We calculate the optimum signal-to-noise ratio for spectral features in the primary eclipse spectrum of an Earth-like exoplanet around a Sun-like star and also M stars, for a 6.5-m telescope in space. We find that the signal to noise values for all important spectral features are on the order of unity or less per transit - except for the closest stars - making it difficult to detect such features in one single transit, and implying that co-adding of many transits will be essential.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, 6 tables, to appear in ApJ (accepted) V2: corrected transit times, corrected values for M4 star radiu

Polypharmacy and emergency readmission to hospital after critical illness:a population-level cohort study

From PubMed via Jisc Publications RouterPolypharmacy is common and closely linked to drug interactions. The impact of polypharmacy has not been previously quantified in survivors of critical illness who have reduced resilience to stressors. Our aim was to identify factors associated with preadmission polypharmacy and ascertain whether polypharmacy is an independent risk factor for emergency readmission to hospital after discharge from a critical illness. A population-wide cohort study consisting of patients admitted to all Scottish general ICUs between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2013, whom survived their ICU stay. Patients were stratified by presence of preadmission polypharmacy, defined as being prescribed five or more regular medications. The primary outcome was emergency hospital readmission within 1 yr of discharge from index hospital stay. Of 23 844 ICU patients, 29.9% were identified with polypharmacy (n=7138). Factors associated with polypharmacy included female sex, increasing age, and social deprivation. Emergency 1-yr hospital readmission was significantly higher in the polypharmacy cohort (51.8% vs 35.8%, P<0.001). After confounder adjustment, patients with polypharmacy had a 22% higher hazard of emergency 1-yr readmission (adjusted hazard ratio 1.22, 95% confidence interval 1.16-1.28, P<0.001). On a linear scale of polypharmacy each additional prescription conferred a 3% increase in hazard of emergency readmission by 1 yr (adjusted hazard ratio 1.03, 95% confidence interval 1.02-1.03, P<0.001). This national cohort study of ICU survivors demonstrates that preadmission polypharmacy is an independent risk factor for emergency readmission. In an ever-growing era of polypharmacy, this risk factor may represent a substantial burden in the at-risk post-intensive care population.126pubpub

Functionality of fatty acid chemoreception : a potential factor in the development of obesity?

Excess dietary fat consumption is recognized as a strong contributing factor in the development of overweight and obesity. Understanding why some individuals are better than others at regulating fat intake will become increasingly important and emerging associative evidence implicates attenuated fatty acid sensing in both the oral cavity and gastrointestinal (GI) tract in the development of obesity. Functional implications of impaired fatty acid chemoreception include diminished activation of the gustatory system, the cephalic response and satiety. This review will focus on knowledge from animal and human studies supporting the existence of oral fatty acid chemoreception including putative oral detection mechanisms, and how sensitivity to fatty acids is associated with fat consumption and fatty food preference

Development and characterisation of acquired radioresistant breast cancer cell lines

Table S1. RIN values for all samples used in gene expression analysis. (XLSX 10 kb

Antenatal lifestyle advice for women who are overweight or obese: LIMIT randomised trial

for the LIMIT Randomised Trial GroupOBJECTIVE To determine the effect of antenatal dietary and lifestyle interventions on health outcomes in overweight and obese pregnant women. DESIGN Multicentre randomised trial. We utilised a central telephone randomisation server, with computer generated schedule, balanced variable blocks, and stratification for parity, body mass index (BMI) category, and hospital. SETTING Three public maternity hospitals across South Australia. PARTICIPANTS 2212 women with a singleton pregnancy, between 10+0 and 20+0 weeks’ gestation, and BMI ≥25. INTERVENTIONS 1108 women were randomised to a comprehensive dietary and lifestyle intervention delivered by research staff; 1104 were randomised to standard care and received pregnancy care according to local guidelines, which did not include such information. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Incidence of infants born large for gestational age (birth weight ≥90th centile for gestation and sex). Prespecified secondary outcomes included birth weight >4000 g, hypertension, pre-eclampsia, and gestational diabetes. Analyses used intention to treat principles. RESULTS 2152 women and 2142 liveborn infants were included in the analyses. The risk of the infant being large for gestational age was not significantly different in the two groups (lifestyle advice 203/1075 (19%) v standard care 224/1067 (21%); adjusted relative risk 0.90, 95% confidence interval 0.77 to 1.07; P=0.24). Infants born to women after lifestyle advice were significantly less likely to have birth weight above 4000 g (lifestyle advice 164/1075 (15%) v standard care 201/1067 (19%); 0.82, 0.68 to 0.99; number needed to treat (NNT) 28, 15 to 263; P=0.04). There were no differences in maternal pregnancy and birth outcomes between the two treatment groups. CONCLUSIONS For women who were overweight or obese, the antenatal lifestyle advice used in this study did not reduce the risk delivering a baby weighing above the 90th centile for gestational age and sex or improve maternal pregnancy and birth outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12607000161426).Jodie M Dodd, Deborah Turnbull, Andrew J McPhee, Andrea R Deussen, Rosalie M Grivell, Lisa N Yelland, Caroline A Crowther, Gary Wittert, Julie A Owens, and Jeffrey S Robinso