探花直播 of Cambridge - European Commission 7th Framework Programme

Drinking more than five pints a week could shorten your life, study finds

cjb250 — Fri, 13 Apr 2018 08:44:59 +0000

探花直播authors say their findings challenge the widely held belief that moderate drinking is beneficial to cardiovascular health, and support the UK鈥檚 recently lowered guidelines.

探花直播study compared the health and drinking habits of over 600,000 people in 19 countries worldwide and controlled for age, smoking, history of diabetes, level of education and occupation.

探花直播upper safe limit of drinking was about five drinks per week (100g of pure alcohol, 12.5 units or just over five pints of 4% ABV beer or five 175ml glasses of 13% ABV wine). However, drinking above this limit was linked with lower life expectancy. For example, having 10 or more drinks per week was linked with one to two years shorter life expectancy. Having 18 drinks or more per week was linked with four to five years shorter life expectancy.聽

探花直播research, published today in the Lancet, supports the UK鈥檚 recently lowered guidelines, which since 2016 recommend both men and women should drink no more than 14 units of alcohol each week. This equates to around six pints of beer or six glasses of wine a week.

However, the worldwide study carries implications for countries across the world, where alcohol guidelines vary substantially.

探花直播researchers also looked at the association between alcohol consumption and different types of cardiovascular disease. Alcohol consumption was associated with a higher risk of stroke, heart failure, fatal aortic aneurysms, fatal hypertensive disease and heart failure and there were no clear thresholds where drinking less did not have a benefit.

By contrast, alcohol consumption was associated with a slightly lower risk of non-fatal heart attacks.

探花直播authors note that the different relationships between alcohol intake and various types of cardiovascular disease may relate to alcohol鈥檚 elevating effects on blood pressure and on factors related to elevated high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (also known as 鈥榞ood鈥� cholesterol). They stress that the lower risk of non-fatal heart attack must be considered in the context of the increased risk of several other serious and often fatal cardiovascular diseases.

探花直播study focused on current drinkers to reduce the risk of bias caused by those who abstain from alcohol due to poor health. However, the study used self-reported alcohol consumption and relied on observational data, so no firm conclusions can me made about cause and effect. 探花直播study did not look at the effect of alcohol consumption over the life-course or account for people who may have reduced their consumption due to health complications.

Dr Angela Wood, from the 探花直播 of Cambridge, lead author of the study said: 鈥淚f you already drink alcohol, drinking less may help you live longer and lower your risk of several cardiovascular conditions.

鈥淎lcohol consumption is associated with a slightly lower risk of non-fatal heart attacks but this must be balanced against the higher risk associated with other serious 鈥� and potentially fatal 鈥� cardiovascular diseases.鈥�

Victoria Taylor, Senior dietician at the British Heart Foundation, which part-funded the study, said: 鈥淭his powerful study may make sobering reading for countries that have set their recommendations at higher levels than the UK, but this does seem to broadly reinforce government guidelines for the UK.

鈥淭his doesn鈥檛 mean we should rest on our laurels, many people in the UK regularly drink over what鈥檚 recommended. We should always remember that alcohol guidelines should act as a limit, not a target, and try to drink well below this threshold.鈥�

探花直播study was funded by the UK Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation, National Institute for Health Research, European Union Framework 7, and European Research Council.

Reference
Wood, AM et al. Risk thresholds for alcohol consumption: combined analysis of individual-participant data for 599鈥�912 current drinkers in 83 prospective studies. Lancet; 14 April 2018; DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)30134-X

Adapted from a press release by British Heart Foundation.

Regularly drinking more than the recommended UK guidelines for alcohol could take years off your life, according to new research from the 探花直播 of Cambridge. Part-funded by the British Heart Foundation, the study shows that drinking more alcohol is associated with a higher risk of stroke, fatal aneurysm, heart failure and death.

If you already drink alcohol, drinking less may help you live longer and lower your risk of several cardiovascular conditions

Angela Wood

Radovan

Glass of IPA

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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探花直播winners and losers of ocean acidification

sc604 — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 08:42:50 +0000

Populations of certain types of marine organisms known collectively as the 鈥榖iofouling community鈥� 鈥� tiny creatures that attach themselves to ships鈥� hulls and rocks 鈥� may quadruple within decades, while others may see their numbers reduced by as much as 80%, if the world鈥檚 oceans continue to become more acidic, according to new research.

While these animals are primarily viewed by humans as pests 鈥� removal of biofouling organisms costs about $22 billion annually 鈥� they also play an important role in marine environments, primarily as food sources for larger organisms.

探花直播researchers, from the 探花直播 of Cambridge, British Antarctic Survey and Centro de Ci锚ncias do Mar, found that as acidity increased, organisms with shells, such as tube worms, saw their numbers reduced to just one-fifth their current numbers, while animals without shells, such as sponges and sea squirts, doubled or even quadrupled in number. 探花直播results, published today (28 January) in the journal Global Change Biology, show how these communities may respond to future change.

There is overwhelming evidence to suggest the world鈥檚 oceans are becoming, and will continue to become more acidic in the future, but there are many questions about how it will affect marine life. 探花直播biofouling community affects many industries including underwater construction, desalination plants and ship hulls.

For the first experiment of its kind, over 10,000 animals from the highly productive Ria Formosa Lagoon system in Algarve, Portugal were allowed to colonise hard surfaces in six aquarium tanks. In half the tanks, the seawater had the normal acidity for the lagoon (pH 7.9) and the other half were set at an increased acidity of pH 7.7. 探花直播conditions represented the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change鈥檚 (IPCC) prediction for ocean acidification over the next 50 years.

探花直播researchers expected that the calcium carbonate shells would be broken down by the acidic environment, but scanning electron microscopy found that it was the organic 鈥榞lue鈥� holding the calcium carbonate crystals together that was 鈥榚aten鈥� by the acid, causing the shells to disintegrate.

There is a great deal of competition for hard surfaces in the ocean 鈥� for example, a clean piece of tile placed in the sea would very quickly become covered in biofouling organisms. When organisms with hard shells, such as tube worms, die, they leave behind their shells, giving the next generation of organisms an additional surface to cling onto.

鈥淭hese environments are almost like mini-reefs, and if you lose some of that three-dimensional complexity, you reduce the space and opportunities for some types of marine life 鈥� it becomes harder for some organisms to take their space,鈥� said co-author Dr Elizabeth Harper of Cambridge鈥檚 Department of Earth Sciences.

鈥淥ur experiment shows the response of one 鈥榖iofouling community鈥� to a very rapid change in acidity, but nonetheless shows the degree to which these communities could be impacted by ocean acidification, and to which its associated industries may need to respond,鈥� said Professor Lloyd Peck from British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the paper鈥檚 lead author. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 interesting is that the increased acidity at the levels we studied destroys not the building blocks in the outer shell itself, but the binding that holds it together. Many individuals perish, but we also showed their larvae and juveniles are also unable to establish and create their hard exoskeleton.鈥�

Peck continues, 鈥淎lthough a pH reduction of 0.2 is less than the IPCC鈥檚鈥榖usiness as usual鈥� scenario of pH 0.3 鈥� 0.4 in ocean surface waters by 2100, it will likely be achieved between 2055 and 2070.鈥�

鈥淭aking into consideration the importance of the Ria Formosa lagoon as a natural park the modified community structure driven by a reduction in PH, while potentially reducing biofouling issues, will almost certainly affect lagoon productivity and impact on biodiversity,鈥� said co-author Dr Deborah Power, from Centro de Ci锚ncias do Mar.

探花直播study was carried out by scientists from British Antarctic Survey, Centro de Ci锚ncias do Algarve, Instituto Portugues do Mar e da Atmosfera and 探花直播 of Cambridge, and was funded by the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) and an EU Research Infrastructure Action under the FP7 鈥楥apacities鈥� Specific Programme.

探花直播population balance of some marine 鈥榩ests鈥� could be drastically changed as the world鈥檚 oceans become increasingly acidic.

These environments are almost like mini-reefs, and if you lose some of that three-dimensional complexity, you reduce the space and opportunities for some types of marine life

Elizabeth Harper

Leyre Vilota-Nieva

A Spirobid worm feeding

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Ounce of prevention, pound of cure

lw355 — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 12:34:13 +0000

Benjamin Franklin famously advised fire-threatened Philadelphians in 1736 that 鈥淎n ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.鈥� Clearly, preventing fires is better than fighting them, but to what extent can we protect ourselves from natural disasters? Hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, hurricanes and volcanic eruptions are not in themselves preventable, but some of their devastating effects could be reduced through forward planning.

鈥淚t鈥檚 important to be able to recover resiliently from disasters and, as part of this, it鈥檚 vital to identify the vulnerabilities of communities living in hazard-prone regions,鈥� explained Michael Ramage from the Centre for Risk in the Built Environment (CURBE). By putting resources into resilience and building back better, communities can reduce the risk of disastrous consequences should a similar event reoccur.鈥�

Now, thanks to an information system that Cambridge researchers developed originally for tracking how regions recover from disasters, communities could soon have the means to understand how best to protect themselves from future catastrophes.

探花直播story begins in Haiti, where CURBE researcher Daniel Brown has been working over the past year with the British Red Cross and the United Nations following the devastating earthquake in 2010, which killed 316,000, displaced 1.3 million and destroyed almost 100,000 houses. In a country that was deeply impoverished before the earthquake, people continue to live under tarpaulins exposed to safety and security risks, with limited access to water, livelihoods and key services.

Brown travelled to the country to field-test a system that he and colleagues at Cambridge Architectural Research (CAR) and ImageCat had developed during the previous four years as a mapping technique for tracking post-disaster recovery.

With funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Brown had identified a suite of 12 鈥榩erformance indicators鈥� spanning core recovery sectors extracted from high-resolution satellite imagery. He used these to map the recovery process in Ban Nam Khem, Thailand, after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, by looking at aspects such as the movement of populations, the construction of dwellings, the accessibility of roads, and the loss and rebuilding of livelihoods.

In Thailand and Pakistan, the system had already proved to be extremely useful. Brown鈥檚 work provided data and results that assisted decision making and had the potential to ensure the recovery process was both transparent and accountable.

In Haiti, the EPSRC-funded follow-on project aimed to fine-tune the performance indicators within operational situations to suit the workflow of aid agencies.

What Brown found, however, was that in the complex and dynamic situation that follows a disaster, agencies desperately needed a real-time system to help them decide where to put resources. 鈥淢any of the hundreds of maps produced within the first week of the Haiti earthquake were soon out of date because of the changeability of the situation,鈥� he explained. 鈥淭here was also a massive duplication of effort, with agencies often lacking trained staff to ensure the right information about buildings and people was acquired at the right time.鈥�

Dr Stephen Platt, Chairman of CAR, who has also been working on the project, described how these findings confirmed the results of a survey the team had previously carried out: 鈥淎gencies told us that they lack coordinated mapping information on where displaced populations have gone and where they have begun to return to, as well as damage to livelihoods, and rehabilitation of homes and infrastructure. It鈥檚 very hard for them to decide where to put funds to the best effect for positive and resilient change.鈥�

Brown鈥檚 first task was a remote analysis of the affected area from his office in Cambridge, using pre-disaster satellite imagery together with a new technique based on high-resolution oblique aerial photographs that capture views of the fa莽ade of buildings, and Lidar, which measures building height. On his arrival in Haiti, he identified which of the performance indicators was relevant for planning and used these to gather field information on the state of buildings, the socioeconomic impact on people, the safest places to rebuild and the community鈥檚 views. All data were integrated into a single database to aid the design of a rebuilding programme.

鈥淲e were delighted to find that the information system can be used for all phases of the disaster cycle, from preparedness through to damage assessment, then planning and finally recovery monitoring. You could think of each phase comprising a single module in the database. All these phases are effectively interrelated with each other 鈥� data produced during one phase can be used in another phase. So when we collected damage data, these could be used as a baseline to inform planning, and so on,鈥� explained Brown.

Ramage, Principal Investigator for the follow-on project, added: 鈥淵ou can see how a system that can be used to predict where future vulnerabilities might be in a community is so important. And, through Steve鈥檚 work in New Zealand, Chile and Italy, we have learnt more about how governments and agencies in developed countries are currently responding to disasters, which has allowed us to learn more about how our system and ideas might be adapted for different contexts.鈥�

Echoing this, Dr Emily So, Director of CURBE, explained how the project fitted into what鈥檚 been called the disaster management cycle: 鈥淕overnments and agencies think in terms of mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.

What we are trying to do in our research 鈥� which builds on 25 years of work in this area in the Department of Architecture under the leadership of Professor Robin Spence 鈥� is to make sure that we not only do reactive groundwork after the disaster but also proactive work, to mitigate and prepare ahead of the event and reduce the risk of disaster.鈥�

探花直播team has recently been awarded funding for a two-year project involving eight global institutions with the remit of using satellite remote sensing to understand risk and vulnerabilities in communities around the world, under the European Commission鈥檚 Seventh Framework Programme.

鈥� 探花直播hazard itself is not what creates the disaster,鈥� added So. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the quality of the housing and the social fabric. This is where CURBE can help in terms of assessing exposure and proposing methods of evaluating it. Better information means better ideas, means better protection.鈥�

For more information, please contact Louise Walsh (louise.walsh@admin.cam.ac.uk) at the 探花直播 of Cambridge Office of External Affairs and Communications.

Working with humanitarian organisations in Haiti, Cambridge researchers have found that an information system they designed to track how regions recovered from disasters can also be used to support preparedness, planning and project management.

Better information means better ideas, means better protection.

Dr Emily So

Colin Crowley on flickr

Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake

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