Alcoholic cirrhosis in Denmark – population-based incidence, prevalence, and hospitalization rates between 1988 and 2005: A descriptive cohort study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Denmark has one of the highest alcohol consumption rates in Northern Europe. The overall per capita alcohol consumption has been stable in recent decades, but surveys have indicated that consumption has decreased in the young and increased in the old. However, there is no recent information on the epidemiology of alcoholic cirrhosis. We examined time trends in incidence, prevalence, and hospitalization rates of alcoholic cirrhosis in Denmark between 1988 and 2005.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We used data from a nationwide population-based hospital registry to identify all Danish citizens with a hospital diagnosis of alcoholic cirrhosis. We computed standardized incidence rates, prevalence and hospitalization rates of alcoholic cirrhosis within the Danish population. We also computed the number of hospitalizations per alcoholic cirrhosis patient per year.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>From 1988 to 1993, incidence rates for men and women of any age showed no clear trend, and after a 32 percent increase in 1994, rates were stable throughout 2005. In 2001–2005, the incidence rates were 265 and 118 per 1,000,000 per year for men and women, respectively, and the prevalence rates were 1,326 and 701 per 1,000,000. From 1994, incidence, prevalence, and hospitalization rates decreased for men and women younger than 45 years and increased in the older population, although the latter finding might be partly explained by changes in coding practice. Men and women born around 1960 or later had progressively lower age-specific alcoholic cirrhosis incidence rates than the generations before them. From 1996 to 2005, the number of hospitalizations per alcoholic cirrhosis patient per year increased from 1.3 to 1.5 for men and from 1.1 to 1.2 for women.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>From 1988 to 2005, alcoholic cirrhosis put an increasing burden on the Danish healthcare system. However, the decreasing incidence rate in the population younger than 45 years from 1994 indicated that men and women born around 1960 or later had progressively lower incidence rates than the generations before them. Therefore, we expect the overall incidence and prevalence rates of alcoholic cirrhosis to decrease in the future.</p

Quantum Non-Demolition Detection of Strongly Correlated Systems

Preparation, manipulation, and detection of strongly correlated states of quantum many body systems are among the most important goals and challenges of modern physics. Ultracold atoms offer an unprecedented playground for realization of these goals. Here we show how strongly correlated states of ultracold atoms can be detected in a quantum non-demolition scheme, that is, in the fundamentally least destructive way permitted by quantum mechanics. In our method, spatially resolved components of atomic spins couple to quantum polarization degrees of freedom of light. In this way quantum correlations of matter are faithfully mapped on those of light; the latter can then be efficiently measured using homodyne detection. We illustrate the power of such spatially resolved quantum noise limited polarization measurement by applying it to detect various standard and "exotic" types of antiferromagnetic order in lattice systems and by indicating the feasibility of detection of superfluid order in Fermi liquids.Comment: Published versio

Psip1/p52 regulates posterior Hoxa genes through activation of lncRNA Hottip

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been implicated in various biological functions including the regulation of gene expression, however, the functionality of lncRNAs is not clearly understood and conflicting conclusions have often been reached when comparing different methods to investigate them. Moreover, little is known about the upstream regulation of lncRNAs. Here we show that the short isoform (p52) of a transcriptional co-activator—PC4 and SF2 interacting protein (Psip1), which is known to be involved in linking transcription to RNA processing, specifically regulates the expression of the lncRNA Hottip–located at the 5’ end of the Hoxa locus. Using both knockdown and knockout approaches we show that Hottip expression is required for activation of the 5’ Hoxa genes (Hoxa13 and Hoxa10/11) and for retaining Mll1 at the 5’ end of Hoxa. Moreover, we demonstrate that artificially inducing Hottip expression is sufficient to activate the 5’ Hoxa genes and that Hottip RNA binds to the 5’ end of Hoxa. By engineering premature transcription termination, we show that it is the Hottip lncRNA molecule itself, not just Hottip transcription that is required to maintains active expression of posterior Hox genes. Our data show a direct role for a lncRNA molecule in regulating the expression of developmentally-regulated mRNA genes in cis

Multiplicity Distributions and Charged-neutral Fluctuations

Results from the multiplicity distributions of inclusive photons and charged particles, scaling of particle multiplicities, event-by-event multiplicity fluctuations, and charged-neutral fluctuations in 158$\cdot A$ GeV Pb+Pb collisions are presented and discussed. A scaling of charged particle multiplicity as $N_{part}^{1.07\pm 0.05}$ and photons as $N_{part}^{1.12\pm 0.03}$ have been observed, indicating violation of naive wounded nucleon model. The analysis of localized charged-neutral fluctuation indicates a model-independent demonstration of non-statistical fluctuations in both charged particles and photons in limited azimuthal regions. However, no correlated charged-neutral fluctuations are observed.Comment: Talk given at the International Symposium on Nuclear Physics (ISNP-2000), Mumbai, India, 18-22 Dec 2000, Proceedings to be published in Pramana, Journal of Physic

Prenatal Stress Exposure Related to Maternal Bereavement and Risk of Childhood Overweight

BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that prenatal stress contributes to the risk of obesity later in life. In a population-based cohort study, we examined whether prenatal stress related to maternal bereavement during pregnancy was associated with the risk of overweight in offspring during school age. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We followed 65,212 children born in Denmark from 1970-1989 who underwent health examinations from 7 to 13 years of age in public or private schools in Copenhagen. We identified 459 children as exposed to prenatal stress, defined by being born to mothers who were bereaved by death of a close family member from one year before pregnancy until birth of the child. We compared the prevalence of overweight between the exposed and the unexposed. Body mass index (BMI) values and prevalence of overweight were higher in the exposed children, but not significantly so until from 10 years of age and onwards, as compared with the unexposed children. For example, the adjusted odds ratio (OR) for overweight was 1.68 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.08-2.61) at 12 years of age and 1.63 (95% CI 1.00-2.61) at 13 years of age. The highest ORs were observed when the death occurred in the period from 6 to 0 month before pregnancy (OR 3.31, 95% CI 1.71-6.42 at age 12, and OR 2.31, 95% CI 1.08-4.97 at age 13). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results suggest that severe pre-pregnancy stress is associated with an increased risk of overweight in the offspring in later childhood

Mortality after Hospitalization for Pneumonia among Individuals with HIV, 1995–2008: A Danish Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: HIV-infected persons are at increased risk of pneumonia, even with highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART). We examined the impact of pneumonia on mortality and identified prognostic factors for death among HIV-infected. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In a nationwide, population-based cohort of individuals with HIV, we included persons hospitalized with pneumonia from the Danish National Hospital Registry and obtained mortality data from the Danish Civil Registration System. Comparing individuals with and without pneumonia, we used Poisson regression to estimate relative mortality and logistic regression to examine prognostic factors for death following pneumonia. From January 1, 1995, to July 1, 2008, we observed 699 episodes of first hospitalization for pneumonia among 4,352 HIV patients. Ninety-day mortality after pneumonia decreased from 22.4% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 16.5%-28.9%) in 1995-1996 to 8.4% (95% CI: 6.1%-11.6%) in 2000-2008. Mortality remained elevated for more than a year after hospitalization for pneumonia: adjusted mortality rate ratio 5.38 (95% CI: 4.27-6.78), 1.80 (95% CI: 1.36-2.37), and 1.62 (95% CI: 1.32-2.00) for days 0-90, 91-365, and 366+, respectively. The following variables predicted mortality within 90 days following hospitalization for pneumonia (adjusted Odds Ratios): male sex (3.77, 95% CI: 1.37-10.4), Charlson Comorbidity Index score > or = 2 (3.86, 95% CI: 2.19-6.78); no current HAART (3.58, 95% CI: 1.83-6.99); history of AIDS (2.46, 95% CI: 1.40-4.32); age per 10 year increase (1.43, 95% CI: 1.11-1.85); and CD4+ cell count < or = 200 (2.52, 95% CI: 1.37-4.65). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The first hospitalization for pneumonia among HIV-infected individuals was associated with elevated risk of death up to more than a year later. Use of HAART decreased the risk, independent of current CD4+ cell count. Prognosis following pneumonia improved over calendar time

Stability and inheritance of endosperm-specific expression of two transgenes in progeny from crossing independently transformed barley plants

To study stability and inheritance of two different transgenes in barley, we crossed a homozygous T8 plant, having uidA (or gus) driven by the barley endosperm-specific B1-hordein promoter (localized in the near centromeric region of chromosome 7H) with a second homozygous T4 plant, having sgfp(S65T) driven by the barley endosperm-specific D-hordein promoter (localized on the subtelomeric region of chromosome 2H). Both lines stably expressed the two transgenes in the generations prior to the cross. Three independently crossed F1 progeny were analyzed by PCR for both uidA and sgfp(S65T) in each plant and functional expression of GUS and GFP in F2 seeds followed a 3:1 Mendelian segregation ratio and transgenes were localized by FISH to the same location as in the parental plants. FISH was used to screen F2 plants for homozygosity of both transgenes; four homozygous plants were identified from the two crossed lines tested. FISH results showing presence of transgenes were consistent with segregation ratios of expression of both transgenes, indicating that the two transgenes were expressed without transgene silencing in homozygous progeny advanced to the F3 and F4 generations. Thus, even after crossing independently transformed, homozygous parental plants containing a single, stably expressed transgene, progeny were obtained that continued to express multiple transgenes through generation advance. Such stability of transgenes, following outcrossing, is an important attribute for trait modification and for gene flow studies

Biorefining of wheat straw:accounting for the distribution of mineral elements in pretreated biomass by an extended pretreatment–severity equation

BACKGROUND: Mineral elements present in lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks may accumulate in biorefinery process streams and cause technological problems, or alternatively can be reaped for value addition. A better understanding of the distribution of minerals in biomass in response to pretreatment factors is therefore important in relation to development of new biorefinery processes. The objective of the present study was to examine the levels of mineral elements in pretreated wheat straw in response to systematic variations in the hydrothermal pretreatment parameters (pH, temperature, and treatment time), and to assess whether it is possible to model mineral levels in the pretreated fiber fraction. RESULTS: Principal component analysis of the wheat straw biomass constituents, including mineral elements, showed that the recovered levels of wheat straw constituents after different hydrothermal pretreatments could be divided into two groups: 1) Phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, manganese, zinc, and calcium correlated with xylose and arabinose (that is, hemicellulose), and levels of these constituents present in the fiber fraction after pretreatment varied depending on the pretreatment-severity; and 2) Silicon, iron, copper, aluminum correlated with lignin and cellulose levels, but the levels of these constituents showed no severity-dependent trends. For the first group, an expanded pretreatment-severity equation, containing a specific factor for each constituent, accounting for variability due to pretreatment pH, was developed. Using this equation, the mineral levels could be predicted with R(2) > 0.75; for some with R(2) up to 0.96. CONCLUSION: Pretreatment conditions, especially pH, significantly influenced the levels of phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, manganese, zinc, and calcium in the resulting fiber fractions. A new expanded pretreatment-severity equation is proposed to model and predict mineral composition in pretreated wheat straw biomass

Induction of sustained clinical remission in early axial spondyloarthritis following certolizumab pegol treatment: 48-week outcomes from C-OPTIMISE

INTRODUCTION: Achievement of remission is a key treatment goal for patients with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA). C-OPTIMISE assessed achievement of sustained clinical remission in patients with axSpA, including radiographic (r) and non-radiographic (nr) axSpA, during certolizumab pegol (CZP) treatment, and subsequent maintenance of remission following CZP dose continuation, dose reduction or withdrawal. Here, we report outcomes from the first 48 weeks (induction period) of C-OPTIMISE, during which patients received open-label CZP. METHODS: C-OPTIMISE (NCT02505542) was a two-part, multicenter, phase 3b study in adult patients with early axSpA (r-/nr-axSpA), including a 48-week open-label induction period followed by a 48-week maintenance period. Patients with active adult-onset axSpA, < 5 years' symptom duration, and fulfilling Assessment of SpondyloArthritis international Society classification criteria, were included. During the induction period, patients received a loading dose of CZP 400 mg at weeks 0, 2, and 4, followed by CZP 200 mg every 2 weeks (Q2W) up to week 48. The main outcome of the 48-week induction period was the achievement of sustained clinical remission (defined as an Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score [ASDAS] < 1.3 at week 32 and < 2.1 at week 36 [or vice versa], and < 1.3 at week 48). RESULTS: In total, 736 patients (407 with r-axSpA, 329 with nr-axSpA) were enrolled into the study. At week 48, 43.9% (323/736) of patients achieved sustained remission, including 42.8% (174/407) of patients with r-axSpA and 45.3% (149/329) with nr-axSpA. Patients also demonstrated substantial improvements in axSpA symptoms, MRI outcomes and quality of life measures. Adverse events occurred in 67.9% (500/736) of patients, of which 6.0% (44/736) were serious. CONCLUSIONS: Over 40% of patients with early axSpA achieved sustained remission during 48 weeks of open-label CZP treatment. Additionally, patients across the axSpA spectrum demonstrated substantial improvements in imaging outcomes and quality of life following treatment. No new safety signals were identified. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT02505542