The effects of an aerobic training intervention on cognition, grey matter volumes and white matter microstructure

While there is strong evidence from observational studies that physical activity is associated with reduced risk of cognitive decline and dementia, the extent to which aerobic training interventions impact on cognitive health and brain structure remains subject to debate. In a pilot study of 46 healthy older adults (66.6 years ± 5.2 years, 63% female), we compared the effects of a twelve-week aerobic training programme to a waitlist control condition on cardiorespiratory fitness, cognition and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) outcomes. Cardiorespiratory fitness was assessed by VO2 max testing. Cognitive assessments spanned executive function, memory and processing speed. Structural MRI analysis included examination of hippocampal volume, and voxel-wise assessment of grey matter volumes using voxel-based morphometry. Diffusion tensor imaging analysis of fractional anisotropy, axial diffusivity and radial diffusivity was performed using tract-based spatial statistics. While the intervention successfully increased cardiorespiratory fitness, there was no evidence that the aerobic training programme led to changes in cognitive functioning or measures of brain structure in older adults. Interventions that are longer lasting, multi-factorial, or targeted at specific high-risk populations, may yield more encouraging results

On the atmospheric budget of 1,2-dichloroethane and its impact on stratospheric chlorine and ozone (2002-2020)

The chemical compound 1,2-dichloroethane (DCE), or ethylene dichloride, is an industrial very short-lived substance (VSLS) whose major use is as a feedstock in the production chain of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Like other chlorinated VSLSs, transport of DCE (and/or its atmospheric oxidation products) to the stratosphere could contribute to ozone depletion there. However, despite annual production volumes greatly exceeding those of more prominent VSLSs (e.g. dichloromethane), global DCE observations are sparse; thus, the magnitude and distribution of DCE emissions and trends in its atmospheric abundance are poorly known. In this study, we performed an exploratory analysis of the global DCE budget between 2002 and 2020. Combining bottom-up data on annual production and assumptions around fugitive losses during production and feedstock use, we assessed the DCE source strength required to reproduce atmospheric DCE observations. We show that the TOMCAT/SLIMCAT 3-D chemical transport model (CTM) reproduces DCE measurements from various aircraft missions well, including HIPPO (2009-2011), ATom (2016-2018), and KORUS-AQ (2016), along with surface measurements from Southeast Asia, when assuming a regionally varying production emission factor in the range of 0.5 %-1.5 %. Our findings imply substantial fugitive losses of DCE and/or substantial emissive applications (e.g. solvent use) that are poorly reported. We estimate that DCE's global source increased by g1/4 45 % between 2002 (349 ± 61 Ggyr-1) and 2020 (505 ± 90 Ggyr-1), with its contribution to stratospheric chlorine increasing from 8.2 (± 1.5) to g1/4 12.9 (± 2.4) pptCl (where ppt denotes parts per trillion) over this period. DCE's relatively short overall tropospheric lifetime (g1/4 83 d) limits, although does not preclude, its transport to the stratosphere, and we show that its impact on ozone is small at present. Annually averaged, DCE is estimated to have decreased ozone in the lower stratosphere by up to several parts per billion (< 1 %) in 2020, although a larger effect in the springtime Southern Hemisphere polar lower stratosphere is apparent (decreases of up to g1/4 1.3 %). Given strong potential for growth in DCE production tied to demand for PVC, ongoing measurements would be of benefit to monitor potential future increases in its atmospheric abundance and its contribution to ozone depletion

Metrology for Ammonia in Ambient Air. Final publishable JRP report

This project developed reference standards and measurement techniques for traceable measurements of NH3 in air. These will enable validated high quality ammonia measurement data which will help monitor and compare NH3 levels and ensure compliance with environmental protection policies and legislation

A control oriented strategy of disruption prediction to avoid the configuration collapse of tokamak reactors

The objective of thermonuclear fusion consists of producing electricity from the coalescence of light nuclei in high temperature plasmas. The most promising route to fusion envisages the confinement of such plasmas with magnetic fields, whose most studied configuration is the tokamak. Disruptions are catastrophic collapses affecting all tokamak devices and one of the main potential showstoppers on the route to a commercial reactor. In this work we report how, deploying innovative analysis methods on thousands of JET experiments covering the isotopic compositions from hydrogen to full tritium and including the major D-T campaign, the nature of the various forms of collapse is investigated in all phases of the discharges. An original approach to proximity detection has been developed, which allows determining both the probability of and the time interval remaining before an incoming disruption, with adaptive, from scratch, real time compatible techniques. The results indicate that physics based prediction and control tools can be developed, to deploy realistic strategies of disruption avoidance and prevention, meeting the requirements of the next generation of devices.Confining plasma and managing disruptions in tokamak devices is a challenge. Here the authors demonstrate a method predicting and possibly preventing disruptions and macroscopic instabilities in tokamak plasma using data from JET

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P &lt; 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Scalable whole-exome sequencing of cell-free DNA reveals high concordance with metastatic tumors

Whole-exome sequencing of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) could enable comprehensive profiling of tumors from blood but the genome-wide concordance between cfDNA and tumor biopsies is uncertain. Here we report ichorCNA, software that quantifies tumor content in cfDNA from 0.1× coverage whole-genome sequencing data without prior knowledge of tumor mutations. We apply ichorCNA to 1439 blood samples from 520 patients with metastatic prostate or breast cancers. In the earliest tested sample for each patient, 34% of patients have ≥10% tumor-derived cfDNA, sufficient for standard coverage whole-exome sequencing. Using whole-exome sequencing, we validate the concordance of clonal somatic mutations (88%), copy number alterations (80%), mutational signatures, and neoantigens between cfDNA and matched tumor biopsies from 41 patients with ≥10% cfDNA tumor content. In summary, we provide methods to identify patients eligible for comprehensive cfDNA profiling, revealing its applicability to many patients, and demonstrate high concordance of cfDNA and metastatic tumor whole-exome sequencing