Objective
The objective was to investigate prevalence, estimate risk factors, and antenatal suspicion of abnormally invasive placenta (AIP) associated with laparotomy in women in the Nordic ...countries.
Design
Population‐based cohort study.
Setting and population
A 3‐year Nordic collaboration among obstetricians to identify and report on uterine rupture, peripartum hysterectomy, excessive blood loss, and AIP from 2009 to 2012 The Nordic Obstetric Surveillance Study (NOSS).
Methods
In the NOSS study, clinicians reported AIP cases from maternity wards and the data were validated against National health registries.
Main outcome measures
Prevalence, risk factors, antenatal suspicion, birth complications, and risk estimations using aggregated national data.
Results
A total of 205 cases of AIP in association with laparotomy were identified, representing 3.4 per 10 000 deliveries. The single most important risk factor, which was reported in 49% of all cases of AIP, was placenta praevia. The risk of AIP increased seven‐fold after one prior caesarean section (CS) to 56‐fold after three or more CS. Prior postpartum haemorrhage was associated with six‐fold increased risk of AIP (95% confidence interval 3.7–10.9). Approximately 70% of all cases were not diagnosed antepartum. Of these, 39% had prior CS and 33% had placenta praevia.
Conclusion
Our findings indicate that a lower CS rate in the population may be the most effective way to lower the incidence of AIP. Focused ultrasound assessment of women at high risk will likely strengthen antenatal suspicion. Prior PPH is a novel risk factor associated with an increased prevalence of AIP.
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An ultrasound assessment in women with placenta praevia or prior CS may double the awareness for AIP.
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An ultrasound assessment in women with placenta praevia or prior CS may double the awareness for AIP.
This article includes Author Insights, a video available at https://vimeo.com/rcog/authorinsights13547
Objective
To investigate mortality in the non‐pregnant fertile female population, and mortality during pregnancy and up to 1 year after the end of pregnancy, in Finland from 2001 to 2012 and compare ...the results with those of 1987–2000.
Design
Retrospective cohort study.
Setting
Finland.
Population
10 427 deceased women of reproductive age (15–49).
Methods
Pregnancy outcomes were categorised into: ongoing pregnancy or birth, miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy and termination of pregnancy. Mortality was calculated per 100 000 pregnancies. The mortality rate of the non‐pregnant female population of fertile age was calculated per 100 000 person‐years, and the results were compared with those of 1987–2000.
Main outcome measures
Pregnancy‐associated mortality during pregnancy and up to 1 year after the end of pregnancy. Mortality of non‐pregnant, fertile‐age, female population.
Results
The age‐adjusted mortality rate during pregnancy and within 1 year after the end of pregnancy was 28.4/100 000 pregnancies, and it had significantly decreased compared with the period 1987–2000 risk ratio (RR) 0.75 (95% CI, 0.65–0.88). Mortality in non‐pregnant fertile‐age females was 48.1/100 000 person‐years. Mortality for diseases and medical conditions during and after pregnancy decreased by 26% RR 0.74 (95% CI, 0.59–0.92) and for external causes by 23% RR 0.77 (95% CI, 0.62–0.95). The mortality rate for suicides was 3.3/100 000 in ongoing pregnancies and pregnancies ending in birth while it was 21.8/100 000 after termination of pregnancy and 10.2/100 000 among non‐pregnant women.
Conclusions
In comparison with earlier decades, pregnancy‐associated mortality has decreased in Finland.
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Mortality decreases among pregnant women and within 1 year after pregnancy in Finland.
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Mortality decreases among pregnant women and within 1 year after pregnancy in Finland.
Providing an alternative to pyrethroids, organophosphates, and carbamates, the neonicotinoids are now the most widely used insecticides in the world. They are water soluble and relatively stable in ...soil and water which allows for run-off through surface waters and thus potentially impacting aquatic species and environments.
While the mammalian metabolism of neonicotinoids has been studied extensively, there is a lack of understanding of their metabolism in fish species. The current study constitutes the first report of the metabolism of imidacloprid (IMI) and acetamiprid (AC) in rainbow trout.
Formation of respective metabolites 5-hydroxy-imidacloprid and N-desmethyl-acetamiprid was conserved across orders of biological organization in both microsomal and liver slice assays.
Michaelis-Menten kinetics were determined for the microsomal conversion of IMI to 5-hydroxy-imidacloprid in rainbow trout (Km = 79.2 µM; Vmax = 0.75 pmole/min/mg) and rat (Km = 158.7 µM; Vmax = 38.4 pmole/min/mg). Kinetics for the microsomal demethylation of AC to N-desmethyl-acetamiprid were determined in the rat (Km = 70.9 µM; Vmax = 10 pmoles/min/mg). N-desmethyl-acetamiprid was found in detectable but below quantifiable levels across the range of test concentrations which precluded a calculation of kinetic rate constants in rainbow trout (RBT).
Ultimately, the formation of the metabolites 5-hydroxy-imidacloprid and N-desmethyl-acetamiprid was conserved across RBT and rat species.
Summary
While much is known about the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites by filamentous fungi their biological role is often less clear. The assumption is these pathways have adaptive value to the ...organism but often the evidence to support this role is lacking. We provide the first genetic evidence that the fungal produced secondary metabolite, peramine, protects a host plant from insect herbivory. Peramine is a potent insect feeding deterrent synthesized by Epichloë/Neotyphodium mutualistic endophytes in association with their grass hosts. The structure of peramine, a pyrrolopyrazine, suggests that it is the product of a reaction catalysed by a two‐module non‐ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS). Candidate sequences for a peramine synthetase were amplified by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Four unique NRPS products were identified, two of which were preferentially expressed in planta. One of these hybridized to known peramine producing strains. This clone was used to isolate an Epichloë festucae cosmid that contained a two‐module NRPS, designated perA. Nine additional genes, which show striking conservation of microsynteny with Fusarium graminearum and other fungal genomes, were identified on the perA‐containing cosmid. Associations between perennial ryegrass and an E. festucae mutant deleted for perA lack detectable levels of peramine. A wild‐type copy of perA complemented the deletion mutant, confirming that perA is a NRPS required for peramine biosynthesis. In a choice bioassay, plant material containing the perA mutant was as susceptible to Argentine stem weevil (ASW) (Listronotus bonariensis) feeding damage as endophyte‐free plants confirming that peramine is the E. festucae metabolite responsible for ASW feeding deterrent activity.
► We examined lolitrem B biosynthesis in the endosymbiotic fungus Epichloë festucae. ► Gene deletion analysis and cell feeding experiment identified key biosynthetic steps. ► Indole-diterpene ...metabolic diversity by Epichloë festucae in planta was observed. ► Scheme to account for metabolic diversity observed in Epichloe festucae is proposed.
Epichloë festucae Fl1 in association with Lolium perenne synthesizes a diverse range of indole-diterpene bioprotective metabolites, including lolitrem B, a potent tremorgen. The ltm genes responsible for the synthesis of these metabolites are organized in three clusters at a single sub-telomeric locus in the genome of E. festucae. Here we resolve the genetic basis for the remarkable indole-diterpene diversity observed in planta by analyzing products that accumulate in associations containing ltm deletion mutants of E. festucae and in cells of Penicillium paxilli containing copies of these genes under the control of a P. paxilli biosynthetic gene promoter. We propose a biosynthetic scheme to account for this metabolic diversity.
Abstract
We present results from a stand-alone simulation of electron single Coulomb scattering as implemented completely on an Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) architecture and compared with an ...identical simulation on a standard CPU. FPGA architectures offer unprecedented speed-up capability for Monte Carlo simulations, however with the caveats of lengthy development cycles and resource limitation, particularly in terms of on-chip memory and DSP blocks. As a proof of principle of acceleration on an FPGA, we chose a single scattering process of electrons in water at an energy of 6 MeV. The initial code-base was implemented in C++ and optimised for CPU processing. To measure the potential performance gains of FPGAs compared to modern multi-core CPUs we computed 100M histories of a 6 MeV electron interacting in water. Without performing any hardware-specific optimisation, the results show that the FPGA implementation is over 110 times faster than an optimised parallel implementation running on 12 CPU-cores, and over 270 times faster than a sequential single-core CPU implementation. The results on both architectures were statistically equivalent. The successful implementation and acceleration results are very encouraging for the future exploitation of more sophisticated Monte Carlo simulation on FPGAs for High Energy Physics applications.
Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are ligand-gated ion channels that modulate key physiological processes ranging from neurotransmission to cancer signaling. These receptors are activated by ...the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, and the tobacco alkaloid, nicotine. Recently, the gene cluster encoding the alpha3, alpha5 and beta4 nAChR subunits received heightened interest after a succession of linkage analyses and association studies identified multiple single-nucleotide polymorphisms in these genes that are associated with an increased risk for nicotine dependence and lung cancer. It is not clear whether the risk for lung cancer is direct or an effect of nicotine dependence, as evidence for both scenarios exist. In this study, we summarize the body of work implicating nAChRs in the pathogenesis of lung cancer, with special focus on the clustered nAChR subunits and their emerging role in this disease state.
The incidence of preterm deliveries decreases in Finland Jakobsson, M; Gissler, M; Paavonen, J ...
BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology,
January 2008, 2008, 2008-Jan, 2008-01-00, 20080101, Letnik:
115, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Objective We examined the trends and risk factors of preterm delivery.
Design Register‐based retrospective cohort study from Finland.
Setting National Medical Birth Register data during 1987–2005.
...Population The study population consisted of 1 137 515 deliveries, of which 59 025 were preterm (5.2%).
Methods We calculated the population attributable risks for using the risk factor prevalence rates in the population. We further calculated odds ratios with 95% CI by multivariate logistic regression to adjust for confounders.
Main outcome measures Preterm delivery rate subclassified into moderately preterm (32–36 weeks), very preterm (28–31 weeks) and extremely preterm (less than 28 weeks).
Results Preterm delivery rates increased from 5.1% in the late 1980s to 5.4% in the late 1990s but then decreased to 5.2% for 2001–05. The proportion of extremely preterm deliveries decreased substantially by 12% (P < 0.01). The greatest risk factors were multiplicity (OR 13.72, 95% CI 13.26–14.19), followed by elective delivery (OR 1.86, 95% CI 1.82–1.89), primiparity (OR 1.47, 95% CI 1.45–1.50), in vitro fertilisation treatment (OR 1.39, 95% CI 1.31–1.47), maternal smoking (OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.29–1.34) and advanced maternal age (OR 1.02, 95% CI 1.02–1.03 for each additional year of age). Prematurity rates decreased by 1.8% after adjusting for risk variables.
Conclusions The rate of preterm delivery has not increased from 1987 to 2005 in Finland, while the risk for extremely preterm delivery has decreased. This finding is in contrast with recent trends in other countries.
Limited availability of fish metabolic pathways for PFAS may lead to risk assessments with inherent uncertainties based only upon the parent chemical or the assumption that the biodegradation or ...mammalian metabolism map data will serve as an adequate surrogate. A rapid and transparent process, utilizing a recently created database of systematically collected information for fish, mammals, poultry, plant, earthworm, sediment, sludge, bacteria, and fungus using data evaluation tools in the previously described metabolism pathway software system MetaPath, is presented. The fish metabolism maps for 10 PFAS, heptadecafluorooctyl(tridecafluorohexyl)phosphinic acid (C6/C8 PFPiA), bis(perfluorooctyl)phosphinic acid (C8/C8 PFPiA), 2-(6-chloro-1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4,5,5,6,6-dodecafluorohexyl)oxy-1,1,2,2-tetrafluoroethanesulfonic acid (6:2 Cl-PFESA),
-Ethylperfluorooctane-1-sulfonamide (Sulfuramid; N-EtFOSA),
-Ethyl Perfluorooctane Sulfonamido Ethanol phosphate diester (SAmPAP), Perfluorooctanesulfonamide (FOSA), 8:2 Fluorotelomer phosphate diester (8:2 diPAP), 8:2 fluorotelomer alcohol (8:2 FTOH), 10:2 fluorotelomer alcohol (10:2 FTOH), and 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonamide alkylbetaine (6:2 FTAB), were compared across multiple species and systems. The approach demonstrates how comparisons of metabolic maps across species are aided by considering the sample matrix in which metabolites were quantified for each species, differences in analytical methods used to identify metabolites in each study, and the relative amounts of metabolites quantified. Overall, the pathways appear to be well conserved across species and systems. For PFAS lacking a fish metabolism study, a composite map consisting of all available maps would serve as the best basis for metabolite prediction. This emphasizes the importance and utility of collating metabolism into a searchable database such as that created in this effort.
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