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Showing papers by "Dalhousie University published in 2020"


Journal ArticleDOI
Theo Vos1, Theo Vos2, Theo Vos3, Stephen S Lim  +2416 moreInstitutions (246)
TL;DR: Global health has steadily improved over the past 30 years as measured by age-standardised DALY rates, and there has been a marked shift towards a greater proportion of burden due to YLDs from non-communicable diseases and injuries.

5,802 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Author(s): Livingston, Gill; Huntley, Jonathan; Sommerlad, Andrew ; Sommer Glad, Andrew; Ames, David; Ballard, Clive; Banerjee, Sube; Brayne, Carol; Burns, Alistair; Cohen-Mansfield, Jiska; Cooper, Claudia; Costafreda, Sergi G; Dias, Amit; Fox, Nick; Gitlin, Laura N; Howard, Robert; Kales, Helen C;

3,559 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The largest declines in risk exposure from 2010 to 2019 were among a set of risks that are strongly linked to social and economic development, including household air pollution; unsafe water, sanitation, and handwashing; and child growth failure.

3,059 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The PICRUSt2 algorithm includes steps that optimize genome prediction, including placing sequences into a reference phylogeny rather than relying on predictions limited to reference OTUs, and basing predictions on a larger database of reference genomes and gene families, and enabling predictions of complex phenotypes and integration of custom databases.
Abstract: To the Editor — One limitation of microbial community marker-gene sequencing is that it does not provide information about the functional composition of sampled communities. PICRUSt1 was developed in 2013 to predict the functional potential of a bacterial community on the basis of marker gene sequencing profiles, and now we present PICRUSt2 (https://github. com/picrust/picrust2), which improves on the original method. Specifically, PICRUSt2 contains an updated and larger database of gene families and reference genomes, provides interoperability with any operational taxonomic unit (OTU)-picking or denoising algorithm, and enables phenotype predictions. Benchmarking shows that PICRUSt2 is more accurate than PICRUSt and other competing methods overall. PICRUSt2 also allows the addition of custom reference databases. We highlight these improvements and also important caveats regarding the use of predicted metagenomes. The most common method for profiling bacterial communities is to sequence the conserved 16S rRNA gene. Functional profiles cannot be directly identified using 16S rRNA gene sequence data owing to strain variation, so several methods have been developed to predict microbial community functions from taxonomic profiles (amplicon sequences) alone1–5. Shotgun metagenomics sequencing (MGS), which sequences entire genomes rather than marker genes, can also be used to characterize the functions of a community, but does not work well if there is host contamination — for example, in a biopsy — or if there is very little community biomass. PICRUSt (hereafter “PICRUSt1”) was developed for prediction of functions from 16S marker sequences, and it is widely used but has some limitations. Standard PICRUSt1 workflows require input sequences to be OTUs generated from closed-reference OTU-picking against a compatible version of the Greengenes database6. Due to this restriction to reference OTUs, the default PICRUSt1 workflow is incompatible with sequence denoising methods, which produce amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) rather than OTUs. ASVs have finer resolution, allowing closely related organisms to be more readily distinguished. Furthermore, the bacterial reference databases used by PICRUSt1 have not been updated since 2013 and lack thousands of recently added gene families. We expected that optimizing genome prediction would improve accuracy of functional predictions. Therefore, the PICRUSt2 algorithm (Fig. 1a) includes steps that optimize genome prediction, including placing sequences into a reference phylogeny rather than relying on predictions limited to reference OTUs (Fig. 1b); basing predictions on a larger database of reference genomes and gene families (Fig. 1c); more stringently predicting pathway abundance (Supplementary Fig. 1); and enabling predictions of complex phenotypes and integration of custom databases. PICRUSt2 integrates existing open-source tools to predict genomes of environmentally sampled 16S rRNA gene sequences. ASVs are placed into a reference tree, which is used as the basis of functional predictions. 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000

1,946 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Sep 2020-Pain
TL;DR: This review provides a synopsis of the critical concepts, the analysis of comments from the IASP membership and public, and the committee's final recommendations for revisions to the definition and notes, which were discussed over a 2-year period.
Abstract: The current International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) definition of pain as "An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage" was recommended by the Subcommittee on Taxonomy and adopted by the IASP Council in 1979. This definition has become accepted widely by health care professionals and researchers in the pain field and adopted by several professional, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations, including the World Health Organization. In recent years, some in the field have reasoned that advances in our understanding of pain warrant a reevaluation of the definition and have proposed modifications. Therefore, in 2018, the IASP formed a 14-member, multinational Presidential Task Force comprising individuals with broad expertise in clinical and basic science related to pain, to evaluate the current definition and accompanying note and recommend whether they should be retained or changed. This review provides a synopsis of the critical concepts, the analysis of comments from the IASP membership and public, and the committee's final recommendations for revisions to the definition and notes, which were discussed over a 2-year period. The task force ultimately recommended that the definition of pain be revised to "An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage," and that the accompanying notes be updated to a bulleted list that included the etymology. The revised definition and notes were unanimously accepted by the IASP Council early this year.

1,432 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
23 Jul 2020-Cell
TL;DR: The nasal susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 with likely subsequent aspiration-mediated virus seeding to the lung in SARS/COVID-19 pathogenesis is highlighted and reagents provide a foundation for investigations into virus-host interactions in protective immunity, host susceptibility, and virus pathogenesis.

1,163 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
29 May 2020-Science
TL;DR: A comprehensive analysis of the tumor microbiome was undertaken, studying 1526 tumors and their adjacent normal tissues across seven cancer types, finding that each tumor type has a distinct microbiome composition and that breast cancer has a particularly rich and diverse microbiome.
Abstract: Bacteria were first detected in human tumors more than 100 years ago, but the characterization of the tumor microbiome has remained challenging because of its low biomass. We undertook a comprehensive analysis of the tumor microbiome, studying 1526 tumors and their adjacent normal tissues across seven cancer types, including breast, lung, ovary, pancreas, melanoma, bone, and brain tumors. We found that each tumor type has a distinct microbiome composition and that breast cancer has a particularly rich and diverse microbiome. The intratumor bacteria are mostly intracellular and are present in both cancer and immune cells. We also noted correlations between intratumor bacteria or their predicted functions with tumor types and subtypes, patients' smoking status, and the response to immunotherapy.

842 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Findings can guide efforts to preserve and promote child health during the COVID-19 outbreak and crisis recovery period, and to inform strategies to mitigate potential harm during future pandemics.
Abstract: Healthy childhood development is fostered through sufficient physical activity (PA; including time outdoors), limiting sedentary behaviours (SB), and adequate sleep; collectively known as movement behaviours. Though the COVID-19 virus outbreak has changed the daily lives of children and youth, it is unknown to what extent related restrictions may compromise the ability to play and meet movement behaviour recommendations. This secondary data analysis examined the immediate impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on movement and play behaviours in children and youth. A national sample of Canadian parents (n = 1472) of children (5–11 years) or youth (12–17 years) (54% girls) completed an online survey that assessed immediate changes in child movement and play behaviours during the COVID-19 outbreak. Behaviours included PA and play, SB, and sleep. Family demographics and parental factors that may influence movement behaviours were assessed. Correlations between behaviours and demographic and parental factors were determined. For open-ended questions, word frequency distributions were reported. Only 4.8% (2.8% girls, 6.5% boys) of children and 0.6% (0.8% girls, 0.5% boys) of youth were meeting combined movement behaviour guidelines during COVID-19 restrictions. Children and youth had lower PA levels, less outside time, higher SB (including leisure screen time), and more sleep during the outbreak. Parental encouragement and support, parental engagement in PA, and family dog ownership were positively associated with healthy movement behaviours. Although families spent less time in PA and more time in SB, several parents reported adopting new hobbies or accessing new resources. This study provides evidence of immediate collateral consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak, demonstrating an adverse impact on the movement and play behaviours of Canadian children and youth. These findings can guide efforts to preserve and promote child health during the COVID-19 outbreak and crisis recovery period, and to inform strategies to mitigate potential harm during future pandemics.

644 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: There is a need to assess alternatives that allow reductions of PPE and reinforce awareness on the proper public use and disposal, and assessment of contamination and impacts of plastics driven by the pandemic will be required once the outbreak ends.
Abstract: Plastics are essential in society as a widely available and inexpensive material. Mismanagement of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a monthly estimated use of 129 billion face masks and 65 billion gloves globally, is resulting in widespread environmental contamination. This poses a risk to public health as waste is a vector for SARS-CoV-2 virus, which survives up to 3 days on plastics, and there are also broad impacts to ecosystems and organisms. Concerns over the role of reusable plastics as vectors for SARS-CoV-2 virus contributed to the reversal of bans on single-use plastics, highly supported by the plastic industry. While not underestimating the importance of plastics in the prevention of COVID-19 transmission, it is imperative not to undermine recent progress made in the sustainable use of plastics. There is a need to assess alternatives that allow reductions of PPE and reinforce awareness on the proper public use and disposal. Finally, assessment of contamination and impacts of plastics driven by the pandemic will be required once the outbreak ends.

582 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
Louis K. Scheffer1, C. Shan Xu1, Michał Januszewski2, Zhiyuan Lu1, Zhiyuan Lu3, Shin-ya Takemura1, Kenneth J. Hayworth1, Gary B. Huang1, Kazunori Shinomiya1, Jeremy Maitlin-Shepard2, Stuart Berg1, Jody Clements1, Philip M Hubbard1, William T. Katz1, Lowell Umayam1, Ting Zhao1, David G. Ackerman1, Tim Blakely2, John A. Bogovic1, Tom Dolafi1, Dagmar Kainmueller1, Takashi Kawase1, Khaled Khairy1, Laramie Leavitt2, Peter H. Li2, Larry Lindsey2, Nicole Neubarth1, Donald J. Olbris1, Hideo Otsuna1, Eric T. Trautman1, Masayoshi Ito1, Masayoshi Ito4, Alexander Shakeel Bates5, Jens Goldammer6, Jens Goldammer1, Tanya Wolff1, Robert Svirskas1, Philipp Schlegel5, Erika Neace1, Christopher J Knecht1, Chelsea X Alvarado1, Dennis A Bailey1, Samantha Ballinger1, Jolanta A. Borycz3, Brandon S Canino1, Natasha Cheatham1, Michael A Cook1, Marisa Dreher1, Octave Duclos1, Bryon Eubanks1, Kelli Fairbanks1, Samantha Finley1, Nora Forknall1, Audrey Francis1, Gary Patrick Hopkins1, Emily M Joyce1, SungJin Kim1, Nicole A Kirk1, Julie Kovalyak1, Shirley Lauchie1, Alanna Lohff1, Charli Maldonado1, Emily A Manley1, Sari McLin3, Caroline Mooney1, Miatta Ndama1, Omotara Ogundeyi1, Nneoma Okeoma1, Christopher Ordish1, Nicholas Padilla1, Christopher Patrick1, Tyler Paterson1, Elliott E Phillips1, Emily M Phillips1, Neha Rampally1, Caitlin Ribeiro1, Madelaine K Robertson3, Jon Thomson Rymer1, Sean M Ryan1, Megan Sammons1, Anne K Scott1, Ashley L Scott1, Aya Shinomiya1, Claire Smith1, Kelsey Smith1, Natalie L Smith1, Margaret A Sobeski1, Alia Suleiman1, Jackie Swift1, Satoko Takemura1, Iris Talebi1, Dorota Tarnogorska3, Emily Tenshaw1, Temour Tokhi1, John J. Walsh1, Tansy Yang1, Jane Anne Horne3, Feng Li1, Ruchi Parekh1, Patricia K. Rivlin1, Vivek Jayaraman1, Marta Costa7, Gregory S.X.E. Jefferis7, Gregory S.X.E. Jefferis5, Kei Ito1, Kei Ito6, Kei Ito4, Stephan Saalfeld1, Reed A. George1, Ian A. Meinertzhagen3, Ian A. Meinertzhagen1, Gerald M. Rubin1, Harald F. Hess1, Viren Jain2, Stephen M. Plaza1 
07 Sep 2020-eLife
TL;DR: Improved methods are summarized and the circuitry of a large fraction of the brain of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is presented, reducing the effort needed to answer circuit questions and providing procedures linking the neurons defined by the analysis with genetic reagents.
Abstract: Animal brains of all sizes, from the smallest to the largest, work in broadly similar ways. Studying the brain of any one animal in depth can thus reveal the general principles behind the workings of all brains. The fruit fly Drosophila is a popular choice for such research. With about 100,000 neurons – compared to some 86 billion in humans – the fly brain is small enough to study at the level of individual cells. But it nevertheless supports a range of complex behaviors, including navigation, courtship and learning. Thanks to decades of research, scientists now have a good understanding of which parts of the fruit fly brain support particular behaviors. But exactly how they do this is often unclear. This is because previous studies showing the connections between cells only covered small areas of the brain. This is like trying to understand a novel when all you can see is a few isolated paragraphs. To solve this problem, Scheffer, Xu, Januszewski, Lu, Takemura, Hayworth, Huang, Shinomiya et al. prepared the first complete map of the entire central region of the fruit fly brain. The central brain consists of approximately 25,000 neurons and around 20 million connections. To prepare the map – or connectome – the brain was cut into very thin 8nm slices and photographed with an electron microscope. A three-dimensional map of the neurons and connections in the brain was then reconstructed from these images using machine learning algorithms. Finally, Scheffer et al. used the new connectome to obtain further insights into the circuits that support specific fruit fly behaviors. The central brain connectome is freely available online for anyone to access. When used in combination with existing methods, the map will make it easier to understand how the fly brain works, and how and why it can fail to work correctly. Many of these findings will likely apply to larger brains, including our own. In the long run, studying the fly connectome may therefore lead to a better understanding of the human brain and its disorders. Performing a similar analysis on the brain of a small mammal, by scaling up the methods here, will be a likely next step along this path.

546 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Obesity is a complex chronic disease in which abnormal or excess body fat (adiposity) impairs health, increases the risk of long-term medical complications and reduces lifespan.
Abstract: KEY POINTS Obesity is a complex chronic disease in which abnormal or excess body fat (adiposity) impairs health, increases the risk of long-term medical complications and reduces lifespan.[1][1] Epidemiologic studies define obesity using the body mass index (BMI; weight/height2), which can stratify

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The combination of traditional culturing with maturing culture-free approaches and phylogenomics should accelerate the process of completing and resolving the eukaryote Tree of Life at its deepest levels.
Abstract: For 15 years, the eukaryote Tree of Life (eToL) has been divided into five to eight major groupings, known as ‘supergroups’. However, the tree has been profoundly rearranged during this time. The new eToL results from the widespread application of phylogenomics and numerous discoveries of major lineages of eukaryotes, mostly free-living heterotrophic protists. The evidence that supports the tree has transitioned from a synthesis of molecular phylogenetics and biological characters to purely molecular phylogenetics. Most current supergroups lack defining morphological or cell-biological characteristics, making the supergroup label even more arbitrary than before. Going forward, the combination of traditional culturing with maturing culture-free approaches and phylogenomics should accelerate the process of completing and resolving the eToL at its deepest levels.

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Apr 2020-Nature
TL;DR: Recovery rates across studies suggest that substantial recovery of the abundance, structure and function of marine life could be achieved by 2050 if major pressures, including climate change, are mitigated.
Abstract: Sustainable Development Goal 14 of the United Nations aims to "conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development". Achieving this goal will require rebuilding the marine life-support systems that deliver the many benefits that society receives from a healthy ocean. Here we document the recovery of marine populations, habitats and ecosystems following past conservation interventions. Recovery rates across studies suggest that substantial recovery of the abundance, structure and function of marine life could be achieved by 2050, if major pressures-including climate change-are mitigated. Rebuilding marine life represents a doable Grand Challenge for humanity, an ethical obligation and a smart economic objective to achieve a sustainable future.

Posted ContentDOI
20 Mar 2020-bioRxiv
TL;DR: This updated method and implementation of PICRUSt2 includes several improvements over the previous algorithm: an expanded database of gene families and reference genomes, a new approach now compatible with any OTU-picking or denoising algorithm, and novel phenotype predictions.
Abstract: One major limitation of microbial community marker gene sequencing is that it does not provide direct information on the functional composition of sampled communities. Here, we present PICRUSt2 (https://github.com/picrust/picrust2), which expands the capabilities of the original PICRUSt method1 to predict the functional potential of a community based on marker gene sequencing profiles. This updated method and implementation includes several improvements over the previous algorithm: an expanded database of gene families and reference genomes, a new approach now compatible with any OTU-picking or denoising algorithm, and novel phenotype predictions. Upon evaluation, PICRUSt2 was more accurate than PICRUSt1 and other current approaches overall. PICRUSt2 is also now more flexible and allows the addition of custom reference databases. We highlight these improvements and also important caveats regarding the use of predicted metagenomes, which are related to the inherent challenges of analyzing metagenome data in general.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Global estimates of annual PM2.5 concentrations and trends for 1998-2018 are developed using advances in satellite observations, chemical transport modeling, and ground-based monitoring, identifying significant trends for eastern North America, Europe, and globally.
Abstract: Exposure to outdoor fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is a leading risk factor for mortality. We develop global estimates of annual PM2.5 concentrations and trends for 1998-2018 using advances in satellite observations, chemical transport modeling, and ground-based monitoring. Aerosol optical depths (AODs) from advanced satellite products including finer resolution, increased global coverage, and improved long-term stability are combined and related to surface PM2.5 concentrations using geophysical relationships between surface PM2.5 and AOD simulated by the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model with updated algorithms. The resultant annual mean geophysical PM2.5 estimates are highly consistent with globally distributed ground monitors (R2 = 0.81; slope = 0.90). Geographically weighted regression is applied to the geophysical PM2.5 estimates to predict and account for the residual bias with PM2.5 monitors, yielding even higher cross validated agreement (R2 = 0.90-0.92; slope = 0.90-0.97) with ground monitors and improved agreement compared to all earlier global estimates. The consistent long-term satellite AOD and simulation enable trend assessment over a 21 year period, identifying significant trends for eastern North America (-0.28 ± 0.03 μg/m3/yr), Europe (-0.15 ± 0.03 μg/m3/yr), India (1.13 ± 0.15 μg/m3/yr), and globally (0.04 ± 0.02 μg/m3/yr). The positive trend (2.44 ± 0.44 μg/m3/yr) for India over 2005-2013 and the negative trend (-3.37 ± 0.38 μg/m3/yr) for China over 2011-2018 are remarkable, with implications for the health of billions of people.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review summarizes the last decade of work by the ENIGMA Consortium, a global alliance of over 1400 scientists across 43 countries, studying the human brain in health and disease, and highlights the advantages of collaborative large-scale coordinated data analyses for testing reproducibility and robustness of findings.
Abstract: This review summarizes the last decade of work by the ENIGMA (Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta Analysis) Consortium, a global alliance of over 1400 scientists across 43 countries, studying the human brain in health and disease. Building on large-scale genetic studies that discovered the first robustly replicated genetic loci associated with brain metrics, ENIGMA has diversified into over 50 working groups (WGs), pooling worldwide data and expertise to answer fundamental questions in neuroscience, psychiatry, neurology, and genetics. Most ENIGMA WGs focus on specific psychiatric and neurological conditions, other WGs study normal variation due to sex and gender differences, or development and aging; still other WGs develop methodological pipelines and tools to facilitate harmonized analyses of "big data" (i.e., genetic and epigenetic data, multimodal MRI, and electroencephalography data). These international efforts have yielded the largest neuroimaging studies to date in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy, and 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. More recent ENIGMA WGs have formed to study anxiety disorders, suicidal thoughts and behavior, sleep and insomnia, eating disorders, irritability, brain injury, antisocial personality and conduct disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. Here, we summarize the first decade of ENIGMA's activities and ongoing projects, and describe the successes and challenges encountered along the way. We highlight the advantages of collaborative large-scale coordinated data analyses for testing reproducibility and robustness of findings, offering the opportunity to identify brain systems involved in clinical syndromes across diverse samples and associated genetic, environmental, demographic, cognitive, and psychosocial factors.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An analysis of the impact that Abinit has had, through for example the bibliometric indicators of the 2009 publication, and the new capabilities of abinit that have been implemented during the last three years are covered, complementing a recent update of the2009 article published in 2016.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It will be important to develop point-of-care devices to aid clinicians in stratifying elderly patients as early as possible to determine the potential level of care they will require to improve their chances of survival from COVID-19 disease.
Abstract: As of 28 February 2020, Italy had 888 cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections, with most cases in Northern Italy in the Lombardia and Veneto regions. Travel-related cases were the main source of COVID-19 cases during the early stages of the current epidemic in Italy. The month of February, however, has been dominated by two large clusters of outbreaks in Northern Italy, south of Milan, with mainly local transmission the source of infections. Contact tracing has failed to identify patient zero in one of the outbreaks. As of 28 February 2020, twenty-one cases of COVID-19 have died. Comparison between case fatality rates in China and Italy are identical at 2.3. Additionally, deaths are similar in both countries with fatalities in mostly the elderly with known comorbidities. It will be important to develop point-of-care devices to aid clinicians in stratifying elderly patients as early as possible to determine the potential level of care they will require to improve their chances of survival from COVID-19 disease.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The sudden increase in plastic waste and composition due to the COVID-19 pandemic underlines the crucial need to reinforce plastic reduction policies and to implement them into action without delays, to scale up in innovation for sustainable and green plastics solutions and to develop dynamic and responsive waste management systems immediately.

Journal ArticleDOI
01 May 2020-Pain
TL;DR: The public health consequences of COVID-19 for patients with pain; the consequences of not treating these patients for the unknown duration of this pandemic; options for remote assessment and management; and clinical evidence supporting remote therapies are considered.
Abstract: Across the world, pain treatment centres have closed their doors. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare providers are abruptly changing their care delivery to protect patients and staff from infection and to reallocate resource towards the greatest acute needs. Elective, routine, and nonemergency casework has stopped in secondary and tertiary centres, while in primary care, patients are requested to stay away or “socially distance,” and in residential care facilities and hospices, strict isolation and separation protocols have been introduced. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine and eHealth approaches were being developed and tested in a gradual fashion with many studies focusing on lessons learned and barriers to using digital solutions.3,37,39,51 Overnight, however, treating or supporting people with non-urgent and long-term conditions at a distance from healthcare providers has become imperative. These immediate changes are happening across healthcare systems. Telemedicine is being used to demand-manage the flow of patients with respiratory distress accessing emergency departments25; video consultation is being introduced in multiple settings23; and using social media is being discussed positively for its potential to direct people to trusted resources, to counteract misinformation, and to provide psychological first aid.36 Pain management providers face the challenge of delivering face-to-face service through different modes. Fortunately, there is a rich stream of research and clinical experience in the use of different technological solutions. Table ​Table11 provides a summary of the definitions and terminology in use. Table 1 Definitions and terminology used in remotely supported pain management.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is shown that the concept of resilience is best understood as the process of multiple biological, psychological, social, and ecological systems interacting in ways that help individuals to regain, sustain, or improve their mental wellbeing when challenged by one or more risk factors.

Journal ArticleDOI
Michael D. Hill1, Mayank Goyal1, Bijoy K Menon1, Raul G. Nogueira2  +773 moreInstitutions (39)
TL;DR: Nerinetide did not improve the proportion of patients achieving good clinical outcomes after endovascular thrombectomy compared with patients receiving placebo, and this trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02930018.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The ECNP Resilience members advocate for an increased focus on mental health during the coronavirus pandemic and highlight the urgent need of augmenting the authors' focus on resilience and on strategies to enhance it.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This scoping review revealed that the CFS has been widely used in multiple settings and the association of CFS score with clinical outcomes highlights its utility in the care of the aging population.
Abstract: Frailty is increasingly recognized as an important construct which has health implications for older adults. The Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) is a judgement-based frailty tool that evaluates specific domains including comorbidity, function, and cognition to generate a frailty score ranging from 1 (very fit) to 9 (terminally ill). The aim of this scoping review is to identify and document the nature and extent of research evidence related to the CFS. We performed a comprehensive literature search to identify original studies that used the Clinical Frailty Scale. Medline OVID, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library and Embase were searched from January 2005 to March 2017. Articles were screened by two independent reviewers. Data extracted included publication date, setting, demographics, purpose of CFS assessment, and outcomes associated with CFS score. Our search yielded 1688 articles of which 183 studies were included. Overall, 62% of studies were conducted after 2015 and 63% of the studies measured the CFS in hospitalized patients. The association of the CFS with an outcome was examined 526 times; CFS was predictive in 74% of the cases. Mortality was the most common outcome examined with CFS being predictive 87% of the time. CFS was associated with comorbidity 73% of the time, complications 100%, length of stay 75%, falls 71%, cognition 94%, and function 91%. The CFS was associated with other frailty scores 94% of the time. This scoping review revealed that the CFS has been widely used in multiple settings. The association of CFS score with clinical outcomes highlights its utility in the care of the aging population.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The notion of non-trivial topological winding in condensed matter systems represents a major area of present-day theoretical and experimental research as discussed by the authors, and the potential for major breakthroughs ranging from fundamental questions to applications as driven by an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas between areas in magnetism which traditionally have been pursued rather independently.
Abstract: The notion of non-trivial topological winding in condensed matter systems represents a major area of present-day theoretical and experimental research. Magnetic materials offer a versatile platform that is particularly amenable for the exploration of topological spin solitons in real space such as skyrmions. First identified in non-centrosymmetric bulk materials, the rapidly growing zoology of materials systems hosting skyrmions and related topological spin solitons includes bulk compounds, surfaces, thin films, heterostructures, nano-wires and nano-dots. This underscores an exceptional potential for major breakthroughs ranging from fundamental questions to applications as driven by an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas between areas in magnetism which traditionally have been pursued rather independently. The skyrmionics roadmap provides a review of the present state of the art and the wide range of research directions and strategies currently under way. These are, for instance, motivated by the identification of the fundamental structural properties of skyrmions and related textures, processes of nucleation and annihilation in the presence of non-trivial topological winding, an exceptionally efficient coupling to spin currents generating spin transfer torques at tiny current densities, as well as the capability to purpose-design broad-band spin dynamic and logic devices.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Clinical Frailty Scale is now commonly used as a triage tool to make important clinical decisions such as allocating scarce health care resources for COVID-19 management; therefore, it is important that the scale is used appropriately.
Abstract: The key idea behind the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) is that, as people age, they are more likely to have things wrong with them. Those things they have wrong (health deficits) can, as they accumulate, erode their ability to do the high order functions which define their overall health. These high order functions include being able to: think and do as they please; look after themselves; interact with other people; and move about without falling. The Clinical Frailty Scale brings that information together in one place. This paper is a guide for people new to the Clinical Frailty Scale. It also introduces an updated version (CFS version 2.0), with revised level names (e.g., "vulnerable" becomes "living with very mild frailty") and minor edits to level descriptions. The key points discussed are that the Clinical Frailty Scale assays the baseline state, it is not widely validated in younger people or those with stable single-system disabilities, and it requires clinical judgement. The Clinical Frailty Scale is now commonly used as a triage tool to make important clinical decisions such as allocating scarce health care resources for COVID-19 management; therefore, it is important that the scale is used appropriately.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored how perceived threat and psychological distress related to the COVID-19 pandemic are associated with drinking behavior among an American sample of adults and found that psychological distress was consistently related to alcohol use indices, and moderation results indicated that this pattern was significant only among women for the recent heaviest drinking occasion and number of drinks consumed on a typical evening.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An update to the 2003 European Respiratory Society technical standards document was developed by an ERS task force of international experts to provide technical recommendations regarding oscillometry measurement including hardware, software, testing protocols and quality control.
Abstract: Oscillometry (also known as the forced oscillation technique) measures the mechanical properties of the respiratory system (upper and intrathoracic airways, lung tissue and chest wall) during quiet tidal breathing, by the application of an oscillating pressure signal (input or forcing signal), most commonly at the mouth. With increased clinical and research use, it is critical that all technical details of the hardware design, signal processing and analyses, and testing protocols are transparent and clearly reported to allow standardisation, comparison and replication of clinical and research studies. Because of this need, an update of the 2003 European Respiratory Society (ERS) technical standards document was produced by an ERS task force of experts who are active in clinical oscillometry research.The aim of the task force was to provide technical recommendations regarding oscillometry measurement including hardware, software, testing protocols and quality control.The main changes in this update, compared with the 2003 ERS task force document are 1) new quality control procedures which reflect use of "within-breath" analysis, and methods of handling artefacts; 2) recommendation to disclose signal processing, quality control, artefact handling and breathing protocols (e.g. number and duration of acquisitions) in reports and publications to allow comparability and replication between devices and laboratories; 3) a summary review of new data to support threshold values for bronchodilator and bronchial challenge tests; and 4) updated list of predicted impedance values in adults and children.


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the degradation of anode-free cells with a lean (2.6 g Ah−1) liquid electrolyte was characterized using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray tomography, and the cause was identified as electrolyte degradation and depletion.
Abstract: Anode-free lithium metal cells store 60% more energy per volume than conventional lithium-ion cells. Such high energy density can increase the range of electric vehicles by approximately 280 km or even enable electrified urban aviation. However, these cells tend to experience rapid capacity loss and short cycle life. Furthermore, safety issues concerning metallic lithium often remain unaddressed in the literature. Recently, we demonstrated long-lifetime anode-free cells using a dual-salt carbonate electrolyte. Here we characterize the degradation of anode-free cells with this lean (2.6 g Ah−1) liquid electrolyte. We observe deterioration of the pristine lithium morphology using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray tomography, and diagnose the cause as electrolyte degradation and depletion using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and ultrasonic transmission mapping. For the safety characterization tests, we measure the cell temperature during nail penetration. Finally, we use the insights gained in this work to develop an optimized electrolyte, extending the lifetime of anode-free cells to 200 cycles. Anode-free batteries have emerged as a promising storage means to offer high energy density but still suffer from long-term reversibility. The authors analyse the cell failure mechanisms and present an optimized electrolyte to extend the lifetime of anode-free pouch cells.