Boakes et al. compile and analyze a historical dataset of 170,000 bird sightings over two centuries and show how changing trends in data gathering may confound a true picture of biodiversity change.
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Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
•Research on climatic conditions and household food security is limited.•In Tanzania, low rainfall is associated with a higher risk of household food insecurity.•Households with fewer working age ...members are particularly vulnerable.•Drought tolerant maize and crop insurance may increase resilience to climate change.
Food security and adequate nutrition are critical for achieving progress toward sustainable development. Two billion people worldwide experience moderate to severe food insecurity, and rates of hunger have increased over the past several years after declining steadily for decades. The FAO attributes this increase in large part to climate change, though empirical evidence on the relationship between climatic conditions and food security remains limited. We examine this question by linking nationally representative longitudinal data from four rounds of the Tanzania National Panel Survey to high-resolution gridded climate data. We then estimate a set of fixed effects regression models to understand the linkages between recent rainy season precipitation and temperature and two indicators of household food security: Food Consumption Score (FCS) and reduced Coping Strategies Index (rCSI). We find that low rainfall—particularly dry and cool conditions—is negatively associated with food security. Moving from a typical rainfall year to a particularly dry one increases the risk of being food insecure on both measures simultaneously by 13 percentage points. This suggests that a lack of rainfall impedes households’ ability to access food, likely through reduced agricultural production and increased food prices, leading to lower dietary diversity and food shortages. Vulnerability is higher among households with fewer working age members, suggesting that households with a greater supply of labor can better withstand droughts. As climate change alters precipitation and temperature patterns over the coming decades, policies to increase resilience will be critical for improving food security, particularly among populations heavily reliant on agriculture.
Quantifying the response of cell lines to drugs or other perturbagens is the cornerstone of pre-clinical drug development and pharmacogenomics as well as a means to study factors that contribute to ...sensitivity and resistance. In dividing cells, traditional metrics derived from dose-response curves such as IC
, AUC, and E
, are confounded by the number of cell divisions taking place during the assay, which varies widely for biological and experimental reasons. Hafner et al. (Nat Meth 13:521-627, 2016) recently proposed an alternative way to quantify drug response, normalized growth rate (GR) inhibition, that is robust to such confounders. Adoption of the GR method is expected to improve the reproducibility of dose-response assays and the reliability of pharmacogenomic associations (Hafner et al. 500-502, 2017).
We describe here an interactive website ( www.grcalculator.org ) for calculation, analysis, and visualization of dose-response data using the GR approach and for comparison of GR and traditional metrics. Data can be user-supplied or derived from published datasets. The web tools are implemented in the form of three integrated Shiny applications (grcalculator, grbrowser, and grtutorial) deployed through a Shiny server. Intuitive graphical user interfaces (GUIs) allow for interactive analysis and visualization of data. The Shiny applications make use of two R packages (shinyLi and GRmetrics) specifically developed for this purpose. The GRmetrics R package is also available via Bioconductor and can be used for offline data analysis and visualization. Source code for the Shiny applications and associated packages (shinyLi and GRmetrics) can be accessed at www.github.com/uc-bd2k/grcalculator and www.github.com/datarail/gr_metrics .
GRcalculator is a powerful, user-friendly, and free tool to facilitate analysis of dose-response data. It generates publication-ready figures and provides a unified platform for investigators to analyze dose-response data across diverse cell types and perturbagens (including drugs, biological ligands, RNAi, etc.). GRcalculator also provides access to data collected by the NIH LINCS Program ( http://www.lincsproject.org /) and other public domain datasets. The GRmetrics Bioconductor package provides computationally trained users with a platform for offline analysis of dose-response data and facilitates inclusion of GR metrics calculations within existing R analysis pipelines. These tools are therefore well suited to users in academia as well as industry.
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Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Habitat loss imperils species both locally and globally, so protection of intact habitat is critical for slowing the rate of biodiversity decline. Globally, more than 150,000 protected areas have ...been designated with a goal of protecting species and ecosystems, but whether they can continue to achieve this goal as human impacts escalate is unknown. Here we show that in South Asia, one of the world's major growth epicentres, the trajectory of habitat conversion rates inside protected areas is indistinguishable from that on unprotected lands, and habitat conversion rates do not decline following gazettement of a protected area. Moreover, a quarter of the land inside South Asia's protected areas is now classified as human modified. If the global community is to make significant progress towards the Convention on Biological Diversity's Aichi Target on protected areas, there is an urgent need both to substantially enhance management of these protected areas and to develop systematic conservation outside the formal protected area system.
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Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Mixed methods in biomedical and health services research Curry, Leslie A; Krumholz, Harlan M; O'Cathain, Alicia ...
Circulation Cardiovascular quality and outcomes,
2013-Jan-01, 2013-01-00, 20130101, Letnik:
6, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Mixed methods studies, in which qualitative and quantitative methods are combined in a single program of inquiry, can be valuable in biomedical and health services research, where the complementary ...strengths of each approach can yield greater insight into complex phenomena than either approach alone. Although interest in mixed methods is growing among science funders and investigators, written guidance on how to conduct and assess rigorous mixed methods studies is not readily accessible to the general readership of peer-reviewed biomedical and health services journals. Furthermore, existing guidelines for publishing mixed methods studies are not well known or applied by researchers and journal editors. Accordingly, this paper is intended to serve as a concise, practical resource for readers interested in core principles and practices of mixed methods research. We briefly describe mixed methods approaches and present illustrations from published biomedical and health services literature, including in cardiovascular care, summarize standards for the design and reporting of these studies, and highlight four central considerations for investigators interested in using these methods.
In Russia, firms with consolidated financial statements must produce financial statements in both RAS (Russian accounting standards) and IFRS (international financial reporting standards). ...Unconsolidated SMEs are only required to use RAS. Using hand-collected data from 2010–2013 (pre- and post-IFRS adoption periods), we find income measures under RAS are converging to income measures under IFRS. The quality of earnings exhibits no change under IFRS, while RAS earnings are being managed upward for firms that have adopted IFRS and downward for firms that have not adopted IFRS. The relative variation in market and book values differs more widely under IFRS when compared to RAS, implying more volatility and risk under IFRS. We attribute our findings to a monitoring effect derived from IFRS.
We study the association of persistent trade surpluses and earning management behavior in developing countries that sign trade agreements with developed countries, i.e., whether a coupling of nations ...via trade agreements results in a spillover of increased quality in accounting practices. Specifically, we assess financial reporting quality in Mexico in the years following NAFTA (as measured by earnings management). Under NAFTA, Mexico experienced persistent trade surpluses and adopted stricter regulatory standards. Using publicly listed Mexican firms, we find that the quality of earnings decreased under Mexican GAAP but improved and stabilized under IFRS. Our findings do not change when we control for the size of the trade surpluses, alternative measures of abnormal accruals, various growth measures, research and development intensity, and various measures of distress. Not only has Mexico experienced a growth in their economy under NAFTA but also an increase in earnings quality due to the transfer of accounting knowledge.
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) remains incurable despite B-cell receptor–targeted inhibitors revolutionizing treatment. This suggests that other signaling molecules are involved in disease escape ...mechanisms and resistance. Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) is a promising candidate that is activated by unmethylated cytosine guanine dinucleotide–DNA. Here, we show that plasma from patients with CLL contains significantly more unmethylated DNA than plasma from healthy control subjects (P < .0001) and that cell-free DNA levels correlate with the prognostic markers CD38, β2-microglobulin, and lymphocyte doubling time. Furthermore, elevated cell-free DNA was associated with shorter time to first treatment (hazard ratio, 4.0; P = .003). We also show that TLR9 expression was associated with in vitro CLL cell migration (P < .001), and intracellular endosomal TLR9 strongly correlated with aberrant surface expression (sTLR9; r = 0.9). In addition, lymph node–derived CLL cells exhibited increased sTLR9 (P = .016), and RNA-sequencing of paired sTLR9hi and sTLR9lo CLL cells revealed differential transcription of genes involved in TLR signaling, adhesion, motility, and inflammation in sTLR9hi cells. Mechanistically, a TLR9 agonist, ODN2006, promoted CLL cell migration (P < .001) that was mediated by p65 NF-κB and STAT3 transcription factor activation. Importantly, autologous plasma induced the same effects, which were reversed by a TLR9 antagonist. Furthermore, high TLR9 expression promoted engraftment and rapid disease progression in a NOD/Shi-scid/IL-2Rγnull mouse xenograft model. Finally, we showed that dual targeting of TLR9 and Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) was strongly synergistic (median combination index, 0.2 at half maximal effective dose), which highlights the distinct role for TLR9 signaling in CLL and the potential for combined targeting of TLR9 and BTK as a more effective treatment strategy in this incurable disease.
•TLR9 expression and its agonist, cell-free DNA, correlate with increased migration and poor prognosis in CLL.•Dual targeting of TLR9 and BTK synergistically inhibits CLL cell migration and blocks p65 NF-κB and pSTAT3 activation.
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BACKGROUND:
Nonmedical factors may modify the biological risk of prostate cancer (PCa) and contribute to the differential use of early detection; curative care; and, ultimately, greater racial ...disparities in PCa mortality. In this study, the authors examined patients' usual source of care, continuity of care, and mistrust of physicians and their association with racial differences in PCa screening.
METHODS:
Study nurses conducted in‐home interviews of 1031 African‐American men and Caucasian‐American men aged ≥50 years in North Carolina and Louisiana within weeks of their PCa diagnosis. Medical records were ed, and the data were used to conduct bivariate and multivariate analyses.
RESULTS:
Compared with African Americans, Caucasian Americans exhibited higher physician trust scores and a greater likelihood of reporting a physician office as their usual source of care, seeing the same physician at regular medical encounters, and historically using any PCa screening. Seeing the same physician for regular care was associated with greater trust and screening use. Men who reported their usual source of care as a physician office, hospital clinic, or Veterans Administration facility were more likely to report prior PCa screening than other men. In multivariate regression analysis, seeing the same provider remained associated with prior screening use, whereas both race and trust lost their association with prior screening.
CONCLUSIONS:
The current results indicated that systems factors, including those that differ among different sources of care and those associated with the continuity of care, may provide tangible targets to address disparities in the use of PCa early detection, may attenuate racial differences in PCa screening use, and may contribute to reduced racial disparities in PCa mortality. Cancer 2009. Published 2009 by the American Cancer Society.
The results of the current study indicated that systems factors, including those that differ among different sources of care and those associated with care continuity, may provide tangible targets to address and potentially attenuate disparities in the use of prostate cancer early detection, and may contribute to reduced racial disparities in mortality from prostate cancer.
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