Opin visindi
Not a member yet
2982 research outputs found
Sort by
Humanity’s Best Friend: A Dog-Centric Approach to Addressing Global Challenges
Get PDFPublisher's version (útgefin grein)No other animal has a closer mutualistic relationship with humans than the dog (Canis familiaris). Domesticated from the Eurasian grey wolf (Canis lupus), dogs have evolved alongside humans over millennia in a relationship that has transformed dogs and the environments in which humans and dogs have co-inhabited. The story of the dog is the story of recent humanity, in all its biological and cultural complexity. By exploring human-dog-environment interactions throughout time and space, it is possible not only to understand vital elements of global history, but also to critically assess our present-day relationship with the natural world, and to begin to mitigate future global challenges. In this paper, co-authored by researchers from across the natural and social sciences, arts and humanities, we argue that a dog-centric approach provides a new model for future academic enquiry and engagement with both the public and the global environmental agenda.This research was funded by the Annenberg PetSpace Foundation: Human-Animal Bond. DP was supported by the Dog Aging Project U19 grant AG057377 from the NIH National Institute on Aging. GL was supported by the European Research Council (ERC-2013-StG-337574-UNDEAD). NS, LJM, and GL were supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/N004558/1). CW was supported by Maddies Fund.Peer Reviewe
Supersymmetric Yang-Mills, spherical branes, and precision holography
Get PDFPublisher's version (útgefin grein)Using supersymmetric localization we compute the free energy and BPS Wilson loop vacuum expectation values for planar maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on Sd in the strong coupling limit for 2 ≤ d < 6. The same calculation can also be performed in supergravity using the recently found spherical brane solutions. We find excellent agreement between the two sets of results. This constitutes a non-trivial precision test of holography in a non-conformal setting. The free energy of maximal SYM on S6 diverges in the strong coupling limit which might signify the onset of little string theory. We show how this divergence can be regularized both in QFT and in supergravity. We also consider d = 7 with a small negative ’t Hooft coupling and show that the free energy and Wilson loop vacuum expectation value agree with the results from supergravity after addressing some subtleties.Peer Reviewe
Extracellular vesicles, deiminated protein cargo and microRNAs are novel serum biomarkers for environmental rearing temperature in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.)
Get PDFPublisher's version (útgefin grein)Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are released from cells and carry protein and genetic cargo involved in cell communication. EVs isolated from bodyfluids, including plasma and serum, can also be used as markers of pathophysiological changes. Peptidylarginine deiminases (PADs) are phylogenetically conserved enzymes with physiological and pathophysiological roles and cause post-translational protein deimination. This can affect function of target proteins and deimination is also linked to EV release. Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.) reared at 4 °C and 9 °C respectively for 18 months, were here assessed for changes in serum derived EVs, including analysis of deiminated protein and micro-RNA cargo markers related to stress and growth. We found that cod reared at 9 °C showed significantly reduced numbers of EVs in serum, compared to cod reared at 4 °C. Some deiminated protein targets, including complement component C3, were found to be considerably higher in EVs of cod reared at 4 °C. Proteomic analysis revealed further differences in deiminated protein targets in EVs isolated from sera of the two temperature groups. Whole cod sera from the two temperature groups furthermore showed differences in deiminated protein targets, including C3, CRP and histone H3, which is a marker of neutrophil extracellular trap formation. MicroRNAs related to inflammation (miRNA-21) and stress (miRNA-155) were elevated in both total cod serum and serum-derived EVs from the 9 °C group, while the growth-related miRNA-206 was higher in the 4 °C group. Our findings highlight EVs as novel biomarkers to assess fish health in response to environmental rearing temperature.The authors would like to thank the staff at the Marine Institute’s experimental station Staður, Grindavík, Iceland for providing the fish and sampling facilities and Yagnesh Umrania and Michael Deery at the Cambridge Centre for Proteomics for the LC-MS/MS analysis. This study was funded in part by the Icelandic Research Council (RANNIS) , the EC grant Fishaid QLK2-CT-2000-01076 and a University of Westminster start-up grant to SL. Thanks are also due to The Guy Foundation for funding the purchase of equipment utilised in this work. The authors declare no competing interest.Peer Reviewe
Dissolved iron in the North Atlantic Ocean and Labrador Sea along the GEOVIDE section (GEOTRACES section GA01)
Get PDFPublisher's version (útgefin grein)Dissolved Fe (DFe) samples from the GEOVIDE voyage (GEOTRACES GA01, May-June 2014) in the North Atlantic Ocean were analyzed using a seaFAST-pico™ coupled to an Element XR sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (SF-ICP-MS) and provided interesting insights into the Fe sources in this area. Overall, DFe concentrations ranged from 0:09 ± 0:01 to 7:8 ± 0:5 nmol L-1. Elevated DFe concentrations were observed above the Iberian, Greenland, and Newfoundland margins likely due to riverine inputs from the Tagus River, meteoric water inputs, and sedimentary inputs. Deep winter convection occurring the previous winter provided iron-to-nitrate ratios sufficient to sustain phytoplankton growth and lead to relatively elevated DFe concentrations within subsurface waters of the Irminger Sea. Increasing DFe concentrations along the flow path of the Labrador Sea Water were attributed to sedimentary inputs from the Newfoundland Margin. Bottom waters from the Irminger Sea displayed high DFe concentrations likely due to the dissolution of Fe-rich particles in the Denmark Strait Overflow Water and the Polar Intermediate Water. Finally, the nepheloid layers located in the different basins and at the Iberian Margin were found to act as either a source or a sink of DFe depending on the nature of particles, with organic particles likely releasing DFe and Mn particle scavenging DFe.This research has been supported by the French National Research Agency ANR GEOVIDE (grant no. ANR-13-BS06-0014), the RPDOC BITMAP (grant no. ANR-12-PDOC-0025-01), the French National Center for Scientific Research (grant no. CNRS-LEFE-CYBER), the LabexMER (grant no. ANR-10-LABX-19), and Ifremer (Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer).Peer Reviewe
A Data Driven Approach to Investigate the Chemical Variability of Clinopyroxenes From the 2014–2015 Holuhraun–Bárdarbunga Eruption (Iceland)
Get PDFPublisher's version (útgefin grein)The Holuhraun–Bárdarbunga (Iceland) eruption lasted approximately 6 months. Magma propagated laterally through a 40 km long dyke, while Bárdarbunga caldera was collapsing. This event was intensely monitored, providing an opportunity to investigate the relationships between eruption dynamics and erupted products. Whole rock and melt inclusion data do not show chemical variations of magma during the eruption. Nevertheless, zoning patterns in clinopyroxene suggest temporal variations of intensive parameters during crystallization. We investigated the chemical zoning of clinopyroxene using a data driven approach, on major and trace elements analyses from lava flow lobes emplaced during the eruption. We applied hierarchical clustering (HC) to identify compositional groups based on major and trace element chemistry. This analysis identifies five compositional groups, which can be associated with specific petrographic features. One cluster represents the chemistry of hourglass sectors, two constitute the oscillatory zoned mantle of the crystals, one cluster corresponds to a seldom present bright rim (in back scattered electron images) in the outer portions of the crystals, and a last one represents most of the outer rims. HC applied to trace elements also identifies five compositional clusters, which highlight progressively more evolved clinopyroxene compositions from the core to the rim of the crystals. Two of the clusters identified with trace elements corresponds to major element clusters. All together the data suggest that the chemical zoning in the inner portions of the clinopyroxene crystals was generated by crystallization in the magma reservoir and interaction between hot magma propagating through the dyke and unerupted magma cooling within the dyke. The fraction of zones produced by interaction with colder portion of the magma residing within the dyke dropped during the eruption, potentially signaling the thermal maturation of the dyke. Some of the analyses reveal that relatively close to the eruption time (i.e., the outer portions of the crystals) the dyke intercepted a lens of low temperature magma with a chemical composition that is distinguishable from the 2014 to 2015 Bárdarbunga eruption. Our approach can provide insights on the evolution of deep processes occurring during long-lasting eruptions by combining the analysis mineral chemistry of erupted products with multiparametric monitoring signals.LC, LP, and GS appreciated the support for fieldwork of the Faculty of Science of the University of Geneva and the access provided by the Vatnajökull National Park. LC and TS received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (grant agreement no. 677493 – FEVER). LC and TS acknowledge the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant no. 200021_184632). MP acknowledge the Università degli Studi di Perugia FRB2019 grant titled “ENGAGE – machinE learNinG Applications for Geological problEms.”Peer Reviewe
Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes
Get PDFPublisher's version (útgefin grein)Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale1,2,3. Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4–5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter4; identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation5,6; analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution7; describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity8,9; and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes8,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18.Competing interests Gad Getz receives research funds from IBM and Pharmacyclics and is an inventor on patent applications related to MuTect, ABSOLUTE, MutSig, MSMuTect, MSMutSig and POLYSOLVER. Hikmat Al-Ahmadie is consultant for AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Samuel Aparicio is a founder and shareholder of Contextual Genomics. Pratiti Bandopadhayay receives grant funding from Novartis for an unrelated project. Rameen Beroukhim owns equity in Ampressa Therapeutics. Andrew Biankin receives grant funding from Celgene, AstraZeneca and is a consultant for or on advisory boards of AstraZeneca, Celgene, Elstar Therapeutics, Clovis Oncology and Roche. Ewan Birney is a consultant for Oxford Nanopore, Dovetail and GSK. Marcus Bosenberg is a consultant for Eli Lilly. Atul Butte is a cofounder of and consultant for Personalis, NuMedii, a consultant for Samsung, Geisinger Health, Mango Tree Corporation, Regenstrief Institute and in the recent past a consultant for 10x Genomics and Helix, a shareholder in Personalis, a minor shareholder in Apple, Twitter, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Sarepta, 10x Genomics, Amazon, Biogen, CVS, Illumina, Snap and Sutro and has received honoraria and travel reimbursement for invited talks from Genentech, Roche, Pfizer, Optum, AbbVie and many academic institutions and health systems. Carlos Caldas has served on the Scientific Advisory Board of Illumina. Lorraine Chantrill acted on an advisory board for AMGEN Australia in the past 2 years. Andrew D. Cherniack receives research funding from Bayer. Helen Davies is an inventor on a number of patent applications that encompass the use of mutational signatures. Francisco De La Vega was employed at Annai Systems during part of the project. Ronny Drapkin serves on the scientific advisory board of Repare Therapeutics and Siamab Therapeutics. Rosalind Eeles has received an honorarium for the GU-ASCO meeting in San Francisco in January 2016 as a speaker, a honorarium and support from Janssen for the RMH FR meeting in November 2017 as a speaker (title: genetics and prostate cancer), a honorarium for an University of Chicago invited talk in May 2018 as speaker and an educational honorarium paid by Bayer & Ipsen to attend GU Connect ‘Treatment sequencing for mCRPC patients within the changing landscape of mHSPC’ at a venue at ESMO, Barcelona, on 28 September 2019. Paul Flicek is a member of the scientific advisory boards of Fabric Genomics and Eagle Genomics. Ronald Ghossein is a consultant for Veracyte. Dominik Glodzik is an inventor on a number of patent applications that encompass the use of mutational signatures. Eoghan Harrington is a full-time employee of Oxford Nanopore Technologies and is a stock holder. Yann Joly is responsible for the Data Access Compliance Office (DACO) of ICGC 2009-2018. Sissel Juul is a full-time employee of Oxford Nanopore Technologies and is a stock holder. Vincent Khoo has received personal fees and non-financial support from Accuray, Astellas, Bayer, Boston Scientific and Janssen. Stian Knappskog is a coprincipal investigator on a clinical trial that receives research funding from AstraZeneca and Pfizer. Ignaty Leshchiner is a consultant for PACT Pharma. Carlos López-Otín has ownership interest (including stock and patents) in DREAMgenics. Matthew Meyerson is a scientific advisory board chair of, and consultant for, OrigiMed, has obtained research funding from Bayer and Ono Pharma and receives patent royalties from LabCorp. Serena Nik-Zainal is an inventor on a number of patent applications that encompass the use of mutational signatures. Nathan Pennell has done consulting work with Merck, Astrazeneca, Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Xose S. Puente has ownership interest (including stock and patents in DREAMgenics. Benjamin J. Raphael is a consultant for and has ownership interest (including stock and patents) in Medley Genomics. Jorge Reis-Filho is a consultant for Goldman Sachs and REPARE Therapeutics, member of the scientific advisory board of Volition RX and Paige.AI and an ad hoc member of the scientific advisory board of Ventana Medical Systems, Roche Tissue Diagnostics, InVicro, Roche, Genentech and Novartis. Lewis R. Roberts has received grant support from ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Bayer, BTG International, Exact Sciences, Gilead Sciences, Glycotest, RedHill Biopharma, Target PharmaSolutions and Wako Diagnostics and has provided advisory services to Bayer, Exact Sciences, Gilead Sciences, GRAIL, QED Therapeutics and TAVEC Pharmaceuticals. Richard A. Scolyer has received fees for professional services from Merck Sharp & Dohme, GlaxoSmithKline Australia, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Dermpedia, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Australia, Myriad, NeraCare GmbH and Amgen. Tal Shmaya is employed at Annai Systems. Reiner Siebert has received speaker honoraria from Roche and AstraZeneca. Sabina Signoretti is a consultant for Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, Merck, AACR and NCI and has received funding from Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, Exelixis and royalties from Biogenex. Jared Simpson has received research funding and travel support from Oxford Nanopore Technologies. Anil K. Sood is a consultant for Merck and Kiyatec, has received research funding from M-Trap and is a shareholder in BioPath. Simon Tavaré is on the scientific advisory board of Ipsen and a consultant for Kallyope. John F. Thompson has received honoraria and travel support for attending advisory board meetings of GlaxoSmithKline and Provectus and has received honoraria for participation in advisory boards for MSD Australia and BMS Australia. Daniel Turner is a full-time employee of Oxford Nanopore Technologies and is a stock holder. Naveen Vasudev has received speaker honoraria and/or consultancy fees from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, EUSA pharma, MSD and Novartis. Jeremiah A. Wala is a consultant for Nference. Daniel J. Weisenberger is a consultant for Zymo Research. Dai-Ying Wu is employed at Annai Systems. Cheng-Zhong Zhang is a cofounder and equity holder of Pillar Biosciences, a for-profit company that specializes in the development of targeted sequencing assays. The other authors declare no competing interests.Peer Reviewe
Theoretical and Practical Approaches of Circular Economy for Business Models and Technological Solutions
Get PDFPublisher's version (útgefin grein)Circular solutions are essential to tackle the imminent challenges of depleting resources and emerging environmental problems. The complex nature of material and energy systems and the changing economic and technological conditions depend on regional settings and accordingly result differently in developed and rapidly developing countries of the world. A wide variety of theoretical approaches can be used to facilitate a shift from the linear use of resources to circular systems, e.g., circular product planning, zero waste management, service-based repairing, refurbishing, and remanufacturing, to name just a few. The introduction and examination of circular solutions can be based on theoretical models in order to guarantee and ensure a successful application. The successful application of innovative technology approaches, business solutions, and organizational development can be facilitated through theoretical models and new scientific results that support innovation processes. The presented article focuses on sustainable and innovative methods that help and enable the proper use and recovery of resources."Peer Reviewed
The influence of terrain on the mean wind flow characteristics in a fjord
Get PDFPublisher's version (útgefin grein)Flow conditions in complex terrains such as fjords are highly three-dimensional and thus not properly captured by the wind flow models developed for homogenous terrains. In the present study, we explore the potential of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations relying on the steady 3D Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations to complement in-situ measurements from a long-span bridge in a narrow fjord. The validation is done using velocity data recorded in 2017 and 2018 by nine sonic anemometers mounted above the deck of a fjord-crossing suspension bridge. The flow characteristics studied are the along-bridge profile of the mean wind velocity, mean wind direction and mean angle of attack. The simulated flow shows that the non-uniform distributions of the mean angles of attack and wind direction along the bridge span are likely due to side-valley flows, which under certain conditions, predominate over those coming from the main valley. The measurements suggest that wind conditions corresponding to the dominating side-valley flows are associated with a high turbulence intensity at the bridge deck position. The paper highlights the complementary role of CFD studies and in-situ measurements for the design of a wind-sensitive structure, which may not be available using traditional semi-empirical modelling of topography effects.The support of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration and their assistance during the installation and maintenance of the monitoring system is gratefully acknowledged. This study was supported partly by computational resources provided by the Norwegian Metacenter for Computational Science (NOTUR), under Project No: NN9372K. We would like to thank Dr Ove Undheim (Kjeller Vindteknikk) for his advice regarding the post-processing of the topographic data and N. Alya for her help in accessing the data from the Idse weather station."Peer Reviewed
Severe desaturations increase psychomotor vigilance task-based median reaction time and number of lapses in obstructive sleep apnoea patients
Get PDFPublisher's version (útgefin grein)Current diagnostic parameters estimating obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) severity have a poor connection to the psychomotor vigilance of OSA patients. Thus, we aimed to investigate how the severity of apnoeas, hypopnoeas and intermittent hypoxaemia is associated with impaired vigilance.
We retrospectively examined type I polysomnography data and corresponding psychomotor vigilance tasks (PVTs) of 743 consecutive OSA patients (apnoea-hypopnoea index (AHI) >= 5 events.h(-1)). Conventional diagnostic parameters (e.g. AHI and oxygen desaturation index (ODI)) and novel parameters (e.g. desaturation severity and obstruction severity) incorporating duration of apnoeas and hypopnoeas as well as depth and duration of desaturations were assessed. Patients were grouped into quartiles based on PVT outcome variables. The odds of belonging to the worst-performing quartile were assessed. Analyses were performed for all PVT outcome variables using binomial logistic regression.
A relative 10% increase in median depth of desaturations elevated the odds (ORrange 1.20-1.37, p<0.05) of prolonged mean and median reaction times as well as increased lapse count. Similarly, an increase in desaturation severity (ORrange 1.26-1.52, p<0.05) associated with prolonged median reaction time. Female sex (ORrange 2.21-6.02, p<0.01), Epworth Sleepiness Scale score (ORrange 1.05-1.07, p<0.01) and older age (ORrange 1.01-1.05, p<0.05) were significant risk factors in all analyses. In contrast, increases in conventional AHI, ODI and arousal index were not associated with deteriorated PVT performance.
These results show that our novel parameters describing the severity of intermittent hypoxaemia are significantly associated with increased risk of impaired PVT performance, whereas conventional OSA severity and sleep fragmentation metrics are not. These results underline the importance of developing the assessment of OSA severity beyond the AHI.During conduction of the present study, funding was received from the Research Committee of the Kuopio University Hospital Catchment Area for the State Research Funding (projects 5041767, 5041768, 5041770, 5041776, 5041779 and 5041780), the Academy of Finland (decision numbers 313697 and 323536), Seinajoki Central Hospital, the Competitive State Research Financing of Expert Responsibility Area of Tampere University Hospital (grants VTR3221 and VTR3228), Business Finland (decision number 5133/31/2018), Paulo Foundation, Paivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation, The Research Foundation of the Pulmonary Diseases, Finnish Cultural Foundation, Tampere Tuberculosis Foundation, Finnish Anti-Tuberculosis Foundation and the Respiratory Foundation of Kuopio Region. Funding information for this article has been deposited with the Crossref Funder Registry."Peer Reviewed
On the interplay of solvent and conformational effects in simulated excited-state dynamics of a copper phenanthroline photosensitizer
Get PDFPost-print (lokagerð höfundar)Copper(I) bis-phenanthroline complexes represent Earth-abundant alternatives to ruthenium-based sensitizers for solar energy conversion and photocatalysis. Improved understanding of the solvent- mediated excited-state structural dynamics can help optimize their photoconversion efficiency. Through direct dynamics simulations in acetonitrile and excited-state minimum energy path calculations in vacuum, we uncover the mechanism of the photoinduced flattening motion of the prototypical system [Cu(dmphen)2]+ (dmphen = 2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline). We find that the ligand distortion is a two-step process in acetonitrile. The fast component (~110 fs) is due to spontaneous pseudo Jahn– Teller instability and is largely solvent independent, while the slow component (~1.2 ps) arises from the mutual interplay between solvent molecules closely approaching the metal center and rotation of the methyl substituents. These results shed new light on the influence of a donor solvent such as acetonitrile and methyl substituents on the flattening dynamics of [Cu(dmphen)2]+.The present work has received funding from the Icelandic
Research Fund (grants number 196070-051 and 196279-051). The authors are grateful to Aleksei Ivanov for support with the
NEB calculations and Ask H. Larsen for discussion about the
implementation of the acetonitrile force field in ASE.Peer Reviewe