10 research outputs found
Translation and adaptation of an international questionnaire to measure usage of complementary and alternative medicine (I-CAM-G)
No full textBACKGROUND: The growing body of data on prevalence of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) usage means there is a need to standardize measurement on an international level. An international team has published a questionnaire0020 (I-CAM-Q), but no validation has yet been provided. The aim of the present study was to provide a German measurement instrument for CAM usage (I-CAM-G) which closely resembles the original English version, and to assess it's performance in two potential samples for measuring CAM usage.
METHODS: The English I-CAM-Q questionnaire was translated into German, and adapted slightly. The resulting I-CAM-G questionnaire was then pre-tested on N=16 healthy volunteers, and 12 cognitive interviews were carried out. The questionnaire was employed in a sample of breast cancer patients (N=92, paper and pencil), and a sample from the general population (N=210, internet survey). Descriptive analyses of items and missing data, as well as results from the cognitive interviews, are presented in this paper.
RESULTS: The translated questionnaire had to be adapted to be consistent with the German health care system. All items were comprehensible, whereby some items were unambiguous (e.g. CAM use yes/no, helpfulness), while others gave rise to ambiguous answers (e.g. reasons for CAM use), or high rates of missing data (e.g. number of times the CAM modality had been used during the last 3 months). 78% of the breast cancer patients and up to 85% of a sample of the general population had used some form of CAM.
CONCLUSIONS: Following methodologically sound and comprehensive translation, adaptation and assessment processes using recognized translation procedures, cognitive interviews, and studying the performance of the questionnaire in two samples, we arrived at a German questionnaire for measuring CAM use which is comparable with the international (English) version. The questionnaire appropriately measures CAM use, with some items being more appropriate than others. We recommend the development of a short version
Future Greenland Melt on Multi-Century and Multi-Millennial Time Scales assessed with the Community Ice Sheet Model version 2.1
No full textThe Greenland Ice Sheet is the world’s second largest ice sheet, storing an equivalent of 7.3 meters of sea level rise. Due to climate change, the Greenland ice sheet is currently losing mass at an accelerated rate. Ice sheet models are used to project long term melt of the ice sheet, which are often forced by output from climate models. Most of the multi-millennium time scale ice sheet simulations conducted in the past used SMB calculations based on empirical relationships between melt and temperature (Positive-Degree Day schemes). In this thesis, I address the question of the future evolution of the Greenland ice sheet by means of an ice sheet model forced with an elevation dependent SMB field that accounts for the energy available for melt. This work focuses on key variables such as ice thickness, ice area, velocity and contribution to eustatic sea level rise, and assesses the reversibility of the mass loss. For this thesis, I performed uncoupled CISM2.1 simulations which were forced by the elevation- SMB field from a coupled CESM-CISM simulation. The coupled simulation used to force the ice sheet has a length of 160 years and a CO2 concentration that is increased with 1% per year from pre-industrial levels and capped at 4 times CO2. Time segments with 2x, 3x and 4x pre-industrial CO2 concentrations of this CESM-CISM run were used to force the ice sheet on multi-millennium time-scales. In addition, a Recovery from 4x CO2 was conducted in which the pre-industrial forcing from a coupled CESM-CISM simulation is re-introduced after 55% mass loss. The 2x, 3x and 4x CO2 scenarios resulted in a cumulative sea level rise of 0.49 m, 3.0 m, and 8.2 m by year 4,000. The 2x CO2 scenario resulted in limited retreat and stability within 4,000 years. No stability of the ice sheet was attained by year 8,000 in the 3x CO2 simulation, with a final Mass Balance of -108.8 Gt/yr (0.30 ± mm/yr). The 4x CO2 simulation resulted in the complete deglaciation of the ice sheet within 3,000 years. Despite the lower initial topography compared to the pre-industrial ice sheet, the Recovery from 4x CO2 simulation resulted into expansion of the ice sheet. Within 4,000 years, the mass increased from 46% to 67% relative to the pre-industrial ice sheet.Geoscience and Remote Sensin
Post-transcriptional regulation of 5-lipoxygenase mRNA expression via alternative splicing and nonsense-mediated mRNA decay
No full text5-Lipoxygenase (5-LO) catalyzes the two initial steps in the biosynthesis of leukotrienes (LT), a group of inflammatory lipid mediators derived from arachidonic acid. Here, we investigated the regulation of 5-LO mRNA expression by alternative splicing and nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD). In the present study, we report the identification of 2 truncated transcripts and 4 novel 5-LO splice variants containing premature termination codons (PTC). The characterization of one of the splice variants, 5-LOΔ3, revealed that it is a target for NMD since knockdown of the NMD factors UPF1, UPF2 and UPF3b in the human monocytic cell line Mono Mac 6 (MM6) altered the expression of 5-LOΔ3 mRNA up to 2-fold in a cell differentiation-dependent manner suggesting that cell differentiation alters the composition or function of the NMD complex. In contrast, the mature 5-LO mRNA transcript was not affected by UPF knockdown. Thus, the data suggest that the coupling of alternative splicing and NMD is involved in the regulation of 5-LO gene expression
Returning culture to peacebuilding : contesting the liberal peace in Sierra Leone
No full textThis thesis investigates the advantages and limitations of applying culture to the analysis of violent conflict and peacebuilding, with a particular focus on liberal peacebuilding in Sierra Leone. While fully aware of the critique of the concept of culture in terms of its uses for the production of difference and ‘otherness,’ it also seeks to respond to the critique of liberal peacebuilding on the account of its low sensitivity towards local culture, which allegedly undermines the peace effort. After a careful examination of the terms of discussion about culture enabled by theoretical approaches to conflict in Chapter 2, the thesis presents a theoretical framework for the analysis of cultural aspects of conflict and peace based on the processes and effects of meaning-generation (Chapter 3), developing the conceptual apparatus and vocabulary for the subsequent empirical study. Instead of bracketing out the recursive nature of cultural theorising, the developed approach embraces the recursive dynamics which arise as a result of cultural ‘embeddedness’ of the analyst and the processes which s/he seeks to elucidate, mirroring similar dynamics in the cultural production of meaning and knowledge. The framework of ‘embedded cultural enquiry’ is then used to analyse the practices of liberal peacebuilding as a particular culture, which shapes the interaction of the liberal peace with its ‘subjects’ and critics as well as framing its reception of the cultural problematic generally (Chapter 4). The application of the analytical framework to the case study investigates the interaction between the liberal peace and ‘local culture,’ offering an alternative reading of the conflict and peace process in Sierra Leone (Chapter 5). The study concludes that a greater attention to cultural meaning-making offers a largely untapped potential for peacebuilding, although any decisions with regard to its deployment will inevitably be made from within an inherently biased cultural perspective
Author Correction: GWAS of lifetime cannabis use reveals new risk loci, genetic overlap with psychiatric traits, and a causal effect of schizophrenia liability
No full textSeveral occurrences of the word 'schizophrenia' have been re-worded as 'liability to schizophrenia' or 'schizophrenia risk', including in the title, which should have been "GWAS of lifetime cannabis use reveals new risk loci, genetic overlap with psychiatric traits, and a causal effect of schizophrenia liability," as well as in Supplementary Figures 1-10 and Supplementary Tables 7-10, to more accurately reflect the findings of the work
Author Correction: GWAS of lifetime cannabis use reveals new risk loci, genetic overlap with psychiatric traits, and a causal effect of schizophrenia liability (Nature Neuroscience, (2018), 21, 9, (1161-1170), 10.1038/s41593-018-0206-1)
No full textSeveral occurrences of the word ‘schizophrenia’ have been re-worded as ‘liability to schizophrenia’ or ‘schizophrenia risk’, including in the title, which should have been “GWAS of lifetime cannabis use reveals new risk loci, genetic overlap with psychiatric traits, and a causal effect of schizophrenia liability,” as well as in Supplementary Figures 1–10 and Supplementary Tables 7–10, to more accurately reflect the findings of the work
Water and sanitation services in Europe: do legal frameworks provide for "good governance"?
No full textWater is life – and yet not everyone has safe and secure access to this finite resource. Over 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water and around 2.6 billion people have no access to adequate sanitation. This situation is estimated to cause more than five million deaths each year from water-related diseases, mostly preventable. The current global water crisis is widely considered a crisis of governance and not of scarcity: insufficiency of water, particularly for drinking water supply and sanitation, is primarily caused by inefficient management, corruption, and lack of appropriate institutions, rather than by water shortages. The United Nations and other relevant institutions claim that lack of governance is one of the obstacles to improve access to water supply and sanitation. Improved governance is argued to be essential to provide for better water services, especially in the current context of population growth, increasing water demands and global climate change
Substitutive bodies and constructed actors: a practice-based investigation of animation as performance
No full textThe fundamental conceptualisation of what animation actually is has been changing in the face of material change to production and distribution methods since the introduction of digital technology. This re-conceptualisation has been contributed to by increasing artistic and academic interest in the field, such as the emergence of Animation Studies, a relatively new branch of academic enquiry that is establishing itself as a discipline.
This research (documentation of live events and thesis) examines animation in the context of performance, rather than in terms of technology or material process. Its scope is neither to cover all possible types of animation nor to put forward a new ‘catch-all’ definition of animation, but rather to examine the site of performance in character animation and to propose animation as a form of performance. In elaborating this argument, each chapter is structured around the framing device of animation as a message that is encoded and produced, delivered and played back, then received and decoded.
The PhD includes a portfolio of projects undertaken as part of the research process on which the text critically reflects. Due to their site-specific approach, these live events are documented through video and still images. The work represents an intertwining, interdisciplinary, post-animation praxis where theory and practice inform one another and test relationships between animation and performance to problematise a binary opposition between that which is live as opposed to that which is animated. It is contextualised by a review of historical practice and interviews with key contemporary practitioners whose work combines animation with an intermedial mixture of interaction design, fine art, dance and theatre
Reanalysed (depth and temperature consistent) surface ocean CO₂ atlas (SOCAT) version 2021
No full textThe Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT) version 2021 (v2021) dataset (Bakker et al., 2016, Bakker et al., 2021) is a quality-controlled dataset containing 30.6 million surface ocean gaseous CO2 measurements collated from thousands of individual submissions. These gaseous CO2 measurements are typically collected at many different depths (of the order of several metres below the surface) using many different systems, and the sampling depth varies dependent upon the sampling platform and/or setup. Different platforms (e.g. ships of opportunity, research vessels) and systems will collect water samples at different depths, and the sampling depth can even vary dependent upon sea state. Therefore, the collated SOCAT dataset contains high quality data, but these data are all valid for different and inconsistent depths. This means that the SOCAT provided individual gaseous CO2 measurements and gridded data are sub-optimal for calculating global or regional atmosphere-ocean gas exchange (and the resultant net CO2 sinks) and sub-optimal for verifying gas fluxes from (or assimilation into) numerical models.
Accurate calculations of CO2 flux between the atmosphere and oceans require CO2 concentrations at the top and bottom of the mass boundary layer, the ~100 μm deep layer that forms the interface between the ocean and the atmosphere (Woolf et al., 2016). Ignoring vertical temperature gradients across this very small layer can result in significant biases in the concentration differences and the resulting gas fluxes (e.g. ~5 to 29% underestimate in global net CO2 sink values, Woolf et al., 2016). It is currently impossible to measure the CO2 concentrations either side of this very thin layer, but it is possible to calculate the concentrations either side of this layer using the SOCAT data, satellite observations and knowledge of the carbonate system.
Therefore to enable the SOCAT data to be optimal for an accurate atmosphere-ocean gas flux calculation, a reanalysis methodology was developed to enable the calculation of the fugacity of CO2 (fCO2) for the bottom of the mass boundary layer (termed sub-skin value). The theoretical basis and justification for this is described in detail within Woolf et al., (2016) and the re-analysis methodology is described in detail in (Goddijn-Murphy et al., 2015). The re-analysis calculation exploits paired in situ temperature and fCO2 measurements in the SOCAT dataset, and uses an Earth observation dataset to provide a depth-consistent (sub-skin) temperature field to which all fugacity data are reanalysed. The outputs provide paired fCO2 (and partial pressure of CO2) and temperature data that correspond to a consistent sub-skin layer temperature. These can then be used to accurately calculate concentration differences and atmosphere-ocean CO2 gas fluxes.
This data submission contains a reanalysis of the fugacity of CO2 (fCO2) from the SOCAT version 2021 dataset to a consistent sub-skin temperature field. The reanalysis was performed using a tool that is distributed within the FluxEngine V4.0.1 open source software toolkit (https://github.com/oceanflux-ghg/FluxEngine) (Shutler et al., 2016; Holding et al., 2019). All data processing and driver scripts are available from the FluxEngine Ancillary Tools (FEAT) repository https://github.com/oceanflux-ghg/FluxEngineAncillaryTools. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature (OISST) dataset (Reynolds et al., 2007) were used to provide the climate quality and depth consistent temperature data. The original ¼ degree OISST weekly data (v2.1) were first resampled to provide monthly mean values on a 1º by 1º degree grid (using the Python tools provided in the FEAT repository). These monthly 1º by 1º data were then used as the temperature input for the reanalysis.
The resulting reanalysed data are provided as a tab-separated value file (individual data points) and as netCDF-5 file (gridded monthly means). These are the same file formats as provided by SOCAT and analogous to the SOCAT single data point and gridded data. Each row in the tab-separated value file corresponds to a row in the original SOCAT version 2021 dataset. The original SOCAT version 2021 data are included in full, with four additional columns containing the reanalysed data:
* T_reynolds - The temperature (in degrees C) taken from the consistent OISST temperature field for the corresponding time and location.
* fCO2_reanalysed - The fugacity of CO2 (in μatm) reanalysed to the consistent surface temperature indicated by T_reynolds.
* pCO2_SST - The partial pressure of CO2 (in μatm) corresponding to the in situ (measured) temperature.
* pCO2_reanalysed - The partial pressure of CO2 (in μatm) reanalysed to the consistent surface temperature indicated by T_reynolds.
The netCDF gridded version of the reanalysed dataset contains monthly mean data, binned into a 1º by 1º grid and uses the same units, missing value indicators and time and space resolution as the original SOCAT gridded product to maximise compatibility. The gridding is performed using the SOCAT gridding methodology (Sabine et al. 2013). The implementation of the gridding has been verified by performing the gridding on the original (non-reanalysed) SOCAT data and all results were identical to 8 decimal places. The result of gridding the original SOCAT data are included within these netCDF data, along with additional variables containing the equivalent results for the reanalysed SOCAT data. Statistical sample mean, minimum, maximum, standard deviation and count data for each grid cell are included, with unweighted and cruise-weighted versions (following the convention used by SOCAT). Full meta data are included within the file
Cerebral small vessel disease genomics and its implications across the lifespan
No full textWhite matter hyperintensities (WMH) are the most common brain-imaging feature of cerebral small vessel disease (SVD), hypertension being the main known risk factor. Here, we identify 27 genome-wide loci for WMH-volume in a cohort of 50,970 older individuals, accounting for modification/confounding by hypertension. Aggregated WMH risk variants were associated with altered white matter integrity (p = 2.5×10-7) in brain images from 1,738 young healthy adults, providing insight into the lifetime impact of SVD genetic risk. Mendelian randomization suggested causal association of increasing WMH-volume with stroke, Alzheimer-type dementia, and of increasing blood pressure (BP) with larger WMH-volume, notably also in persons without clinical hypertension. Transcriptome-wide colocalization analyses showed association of WMH-volume with expression of 39 genes, of which four encode known drug targets. Finally, we provide insight into BP-independent biological pathways underlying SVD and suggest potential for genetic stratification of high-risk individuals and for genetically-informed prioritization of drug targets for prevention trials
