An international team of over forty stratigraphic experts have helped to build the most up-to-date international stratigraphic framework for the Precambrian and Phanerozoic. This successor to A ...Geologic Time Scale 1989 by W. Brian Harland et al. (CUP 0521 387655) begins with an introduction to the theory and methodology behind the construction of the new time scale. The main part of the book is devoted to the scale itself, systematically presenting the standard subdivisions at all levels using a variety of correlation markers. Extensive use is made of isotope geochronology, geomathematics and orbital tuning to produce a standard geologic scale of unprecedented detail and accuracy with a full error analysis. A wallchart summarising the whole time scale, with paleogeographic reconstructions throughout the Phanerozoic, is included in the back of the book. The time scale will be an invaluable reference source for academic and professional researchers and students.
Nitrous oxide, N2O, is the third most important of the long‐lived greenhouse gases, in terms of its contribution to global warming, and is expected to be the dominant cause of stratospheric ozone ...depletion this century. The concentration of N2O in the atmosphere was fairly constant until the beginning of the industrial age, but has gone up by 20% since. This is because of increased anthropogenic emissions, of which about 60% come from agricultural soil. The cause is the increased use of synthetic fertilizer nitrogen globally to meet the demands for increased production of food and biofuels. This review examines the isotopic evidence for this role of fertilizer N, the main mechanisms for microbial production of N2O in soil, the key soil physical and other variables that greatly affect the magnitude of emissions, and the spatial and temporal variation in emissions and the associated problems of measurement. The review also considers the methodology devised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to enable countries to compile national inventories of their emissions, direct and indirect, that arise from anthropogenic activity related to agriculture and land use. This methodology also enables modellers to make ‘bottom‐up’ global estimates of N2O emissions. These estimates agree quite well at the global scale with ‘top‐down’ estimates based on the relation between reactive nitrogen newly introduced into agricultural ecosystems and increases in the global atmospheric concentration of N2O, but not with some recent regional‐scale emission measurements. The discrepancy may be related to problems of estimating indirect emissions. Top‐down estimates indicate that N2O emissions from crop‐based biofuels are too great to comply with national and international environmental regulations. Finally, possible future trends in emissions and possible mitigation measures are discussed.
Highlights
Evidence for increasing N2O in the atmosphere suggests it is caused by fertilizer N use.
Agreements and inconsistencies in assessments of N2O emissions are considered.
The main cause of increasing N2O is the use of synthetic N fertilizers on agricultural soil worldwide.
Indirect emissions from waters receiving leached N may be a major cause of assessment uncertainties.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Carbohydrates - namely glycans - decorate every cell in the human body and most secreted proteins. Advances in genomics, glycoproteomics and tools from chemical biology have made glycobiology more ...tractable and understandable. Dysregulated glycosylation plays a major role in disease processes from immune evasion to cognition, sparking research that aims to target glycans for therapeutic benefit. The field is now poised for a boom in drug development. As a harbinger of this activity, glycobiology has already produced several drugs that have improved human health or are currently being translated to the clinic. Focusing on three areas - selectins, Siglecs and glycan-targeted antibodies - this Review aims to tell the stories behind therapies inspired by glycans and to outline how the lessons learned from these approaches are paving the way for future glycobiology-focused therapeutics.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK, ZAGLJ
Public health measures were decisive in controlling the SARS epidemic in 2003. Isolation is the separation of ill persons from non-infected persons. Quarantine is movement restriction, often with ...fever surveillance, of contacts when it is not evident whether they have been infected but are not yet symptomatic or have not been infected. Community containment includes measures that range from increasing social distancing to community-wide quarantine. Whether these measures will be sufficient to control 2019-nCoV depends on addressing some unanswered questions.
Moderately elevated plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) is a strong modifiable risk factor for vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Prospectively, elevated tHcy is associated with cognitive ...decline, white matter damage, brain atrophy, neurofibrillary tangles, and dementia. Most homocysteine-lowering trials with folate and vitamins B6 and or B12 tested as protective agents against cognitive decline were poorly designed by including subjects unlikely to benefit during the trial period. In contrast, trials in high-risk subjects, which have taken into account the baseline B vitamin status, show a slowing of cognitive decline and of atrophy in critical brain regions, results that are consistent with modification of the Alzheimer's disease process. Homocysteine may interact with both risk factors and protective factors, thereby identifying people at risk but also providing potential strategies for early intervention. Public health steps to slow cognitive decline should be promoted in individuals who are at risk of dementia, and more trials are needed to see if simple interventions with nutrients can prevent progression to dementia.
We have reviewed the literature and have identified more than 100 diseases or conditions that are associated with raised concentrations of plasma total homocysteine. The commonest associations are ...with cardiovascular diseases and diseases of the central nervous system, but a large number of developmental and age‐related conditions are also associated. Few other disease biomarkers have so many associations. The clinical importance of these associations becomes especially relevant if lowering plasma total homocysteine by B vitamin treatment can prevent disease and so improve health. Five diseases can at least in part be prevented by lowering total homocysteine: neural tube defects, impaired childhood cognition, macular degeneration, primary stroke, and cognitive impairment in the elderly. We conclude from our review that total homocysteine values in adults of 10 μmol/L or below are probably safe, but that values of 11 μmol/L or above may justify intervention. Homocysteine is more than a disease biomarker: it is a guide for the prevention of disease.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
An increased rate of brain atrophy is often observed in older subjects, in particular those who suffer from cognitive decline. Homocysteine is a risk factor for brain atrophy, cognitive impairment ...and dementia. Plasma concentrations of homocysteine can be lowered by dietary administration of B vitamins.
To determine whether supplementation with B vitamins that lower levels of plasma total homocysteine can slow the rate of brain atrophy in subjects with mild cognitive impairment in a randomised controlled trial (VITACOG, ISRCTN 94410159).
Single-center, randomized, double-blind controlled trial of high-dose folic acid, vitamins B(6) and B(12) in 271 individuals (of 646 screened) over 70 y old with mild cognitive impairment. A subset (187) volunteered to have cranial MRI scans at the start and finish of the study. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups of equal size, one treated with folic acid (0.8 mg/d), vitamin B(12) (0.5 mg/d) and vitamin B(6) (20 mg/d), the other with placebo; treatment was for 24 months. The main outcome measure was the change in the rate of atrophy of the whole brain assessed by serial volumetric MRI scans.
A total of 168 participants (85 in active treatment group; 83 receiving placebo) completed the MRI section of the trial. The mean rate of brain atrophy per year was 0.76% 95% CI, 0.63-0.90 in the active treatment group and 1.08% 0.94-1.22 in the placebo group (P = 0.001). The treatment response was related to baseline homocysteine levels: the rate of atrophy in participants with homocysteine >13 µmol/L was 53% lower in the active treatment group (P = 0.001). A greater rate of atrophy was associated with a lower final cognitive test scores. There was no difference in serious adverse events according to treatment category.
The accelerated rate of brain atrophy in elderly with mild cognitive impairment can be slowed by treatment with homocysteine-lowering B vitamins. Sixteen percent of those over 70 y old have mild cognitive impairment and half of these develop Alzheimer's disease. Since accelerated brain atrophy is a characteristic of subjects with mild cognitive impairment who convert to Alzheimer's disease, trials are needed to see if the same treatment will delay the development of Alzheimer's disease.
Controlled-Trials.com ISRCTN94410159.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Premise of the Study
Large phylogenies can help shed light on macroevolutionary patterns that inform our understanding of fundamental processes that shape the tree of life. These phylogenies also ...serve as tools that facilitate other systematic, evolutionary, and ecological analyses. Here we combine genetic data from public repositories (GenBank) with phylogenetic data (Open Tree of Life project) to construct a dated phylogeny for seed plants.
Methods
We conducted a hierarchical clustering analysis of publicly available molecular data for major clades within the Spermatophyta. We constructed phylogenies of major clades, estimated divergence times, and incorporated data from the Open Tree of Life project, resulting in a seed plant phylogeny. We estimated diversification rates, excluding those taxa without molecular data. We also summarized topological uncertainty and data overlap for each major clade.
Key Results
The trees constructed for Spermatophyta consisted of 79,881 and 353,185 terminal taxa; the latter included the Open Tree of Life taxa for which we could not include molecular data from GenBank. The diversification analyses demonstrated nested patterns of rate shifts throughout the phylogeny. Data overlap and inference uncertainty show significant variation throughout and demonstrate the continued need for data collection across seed plants.
Conclusions
This study demonstrates a means for combining available resources to construct a dated phylogeny for plants. However, this approach is an early step and more developments are needed to add data, better incorporating underlying uncertainty, and improve resolution. The methods discussed here can also be applied to other major clades in the tree of life.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NMLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract
Background
Cruise ships carry a large number of people in confined spaces with relative homogeneous mixing. On 3 February, 2020, an outbreak of COVID-19 on cruise ship Diamond Princess was ...reported with 10 initial cases, following an index case on board around 21-25th January. By 4th February, public health measures such as removal and isolation of ill passengers and quarantine of non-ill passengers were implemented. By 20th February, 619 of 3700 passengers and crew (17%) were tested positive.
Methods
We estimated the basic reproduction number from the initial period of the outbreak using SEIR models. We calibrated the models with transient functions of countermeasures to incidence data. We additionally estimated a counterfactual scenario in absence of countermeasures, and established a model stratified by crew and guests to study the impact of differential contact rates among the groups. We also compared scenarios of an earlier versus later evacuation of the ship.
Results
The basic reproduction rate was initially 4 times higher on-board compared to the ${R}_0$ in the epicentre in Wuhan, but the countermeasures lowered it substantially. Based on the modeled initial ${R}_0$ of 14.8, we estimated that without any interventions within the time period of 21 January to 19 February, 2920 out of the 3700 (79%) would have been infected. Isolation and quarantine therefore prevented 2307 cases, and lowered the ${R}_0$ to 1.78. We showed that an early evacuation of all passengers on 3 February would have been associated with 76 infected persons in their incubation time.
Conclusions
The cruise ship conditions clearly amplified an already highly transmissible disease. The public health measures prevented more than 2000 additional cases compared to no interventions. However, evacuating all passengers and crew early on in the outbreak would have prevented many more passengers and crew from infection.
Vibration-based rolling element bearing diagnostics is a very well-developed field, yet researchers continue to develop new diagnostic algorithms quite frequently. Over the last decade, data from the ...Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) Bearing Data Center has become a standard reference used to test these algorithms, yet without any recognised benchmark it is difficult to properly assess the performance of any proposed diagnostic methods. There is, then, a clear need to examine the data thoroughly and to categorise it appropriately, and this paper intends to fulfil that objective. To do so, three established diagnostic techniques are applied to the entire CWRU data set, and the diagnostic outcomes are provided and discussed in detail. Recommendations are given as to how the data might best be used, and also on how any future benchmark data should be generated. Though intended primarily as a benchmark to aid in testing new diagnostic algorithms, it is also hoped that much of the discussion will have broader applicability to other bearing diagnostics cases.
•We provide a thorough benchmark analysis of the CWRU Bearing Data.•Three established diagnostic techniques are applied.•We provide the diagnostic outcomes for all data sets as a benchmark reference.•We discuss the records at length and identify data problems and anomalies.•We give recommendations as to how best to use the data for algorithm development.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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