Publications by authors named "Peter Ball"

Urban food production can contribute to sustainable development goals by reducing land use and shortening transportation distances. Despite its advantages, the implementation of digital twin (DT) technology for urban food systems has received less investigation compared to manufacturing. This article examines the influence of DT technology on adaptive decision-making in urban food production, focusing on the "Grow It York" case study.

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Objective: Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is relatively common in patients with lung cancer with an incidence of 7.5%. Historically pre-existing ILD was a contraindication to radical radiotherapy owing to increased radiation pneumonitis rates, worsened fibrosis and poorer survival compared with non-ILD cohorts.

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Background And Purpose: Cardiac arrhythmia is a recognised potential complication of thoracic radiotherapy, but the responsible cardiac substructures for arrhythmogenesis have not been identified. Arrhythmogenic tissue is commonly located in the pulmonary veins (PVs) of cardiology patients with arrhythmia, however these structures are not currently considered organs-at-risk during radiotherapy planning. A standardised approach to their delineation was developed and evaluated.

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Updating the road infrastructure requires the potential mass adoption of the road studs currently used in car detection, speed monitoring, and path marking. Road studs commonly include RF transceivers connecting the buried sensors to an offsite base station for centralized data management. Since traffic monitoring experiments through buried sensors are resource expensive and difficult, the literature detailing it is insufficient and inaccessible due to various strategic reasons.

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The use of artificial insemination (AI) has great potential to improve smallholder dairy herds in Africa, however poor success and, in some situations, high costs in Kenya, have been discouraging.  Effective AI requires accurate oestrus detection and the measurement of progesterone (P4) can be used to indicate oestrus as well as non-pregnancy.  A cow-side progesterone lateral flow test, , was evaluated as an aid to detect oestrus and non-pregnancy in Kenyan dairy cows, and assessed for association with AI efficiency.

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This paper provides an outline of a new interdisciplinary project called FixOurFood, funded through UKRI's 'Transforming UK food systems' programme. FixOurFood aims to transform the Yorkshire food system to a regenerative food system and will work to answer two main questions: (1) What do regenerative food systems look like? (2) How can transformations be enabled so that we can achieve a regenerative food system? To answer these questions, FixOurFood will work with diverse stakeholders to change the Yorkshire food system and use the learning to inform change efforts in other parts of the UK and beyond. Our work will focus on shifting trajectories towards regenerative dynamics in three inter-related systems of: healthy eating for young children, hybrid food economies and regenerative farming.

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Background: Concomitant double valve pathology in the presence of severe MAC poses significant technical challenges when planning surgical intervention. With continued evolution of valve prosthesis, innovative techniques can be considered with the potential for additional therapeutic benefit.

Case Presentation: We present a novel technique of using a rapid deployment surgical aortic valve in combination with open surgical transcatheter mitral valve implantation (TMVI) for severe Mitral Annular Calcification (MAC).

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Background: Transcatheter mitral valve implantation (TMVI) for native mitral valve pathology with severe mitral annular calcification has emerged as an alternative treatment option to conventional mitral valve surgery. The objective of this study was to evaluate patients who were referred for TMVI with severe mitral annular calcification and their procedural outcomes.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of patients from 2017 to 2020 referred for TMVI was carried out.

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Aortoenteric fistula (AEF) is a rare but potentially fatal condition causing massive gastrointestinal bleeding. It is defined as fistulous communication between the gastrointestinal tract and the aorta which is sub classified into primary and secondary. Primary AEF refers to communication between a native aorta and the gastrointestinal tract.

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Background: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is impaired in patients with stable angina but patients often present with other forms of chest pain. The aim of this study was to compare the pre-diagnostic HRQoL in patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD) according to angina type, gender, and presence of obstructive CAD.

Methods: From the pilot study for the European DISCHARGE trial, we analysed data from 24 sites including 1263 patients (45.

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Increasing demand for chemicals worldwide, depleting resources, consumer pressure, stricter legislation, and the rising cost of waste disposal are placing increasing pressure on chemical and related industries. For any organization to survive in the current arena of growing climate change laws and regulations, and increasing public influence, the issue of sustainability must be fundamental to the way it operates. A sustainable manufacturing approach will enable economic growth to be combined with environmental and social sustainability and will be realized via collaboration between a multidisciplinary community including chemists, biologists, engineers, environmental scientists, economists, experts in management, and policy makers.

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Objective: To implement detailed EU cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA) quality criteria in the multicentre DISCHARGE trial (FP72007-2013, EC-GA 603266), we reviewed image quality and adherence to CCTA protocol and to the recommendations of invasive coronary angiography (ICA) in a pilot study.

Materials And Methods: From every clinical centre, imaging datasets of three patients per arm were assessed for adherence to the inclusion/exclusion criteria of the pilot study, predefined standards for the CCTA protocol and ICA recommendations, image quality and non-diagnostic (NDX) rate. These parameters were compared via multinomial regression and ANOVA.

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Fractional flow reserve (FFR) derived from coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA) is a new technique for the diagnosis of ischemic coronary artery stenoses. The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of a novel on-site computed tomography-based fractional flow reserve algorithm (CT-FFR) compared with invasive FFR as the gold standard, and to determine whether its diagnostic performance is affected by interobserver variations in lumen segmentation. We enrolled 44 consecutive patients (64.

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Objectives: More than 3.5 million invasive coronary angiographies (ICA) are performed in Europe annually. Approximately 2 million of these invasive procedures might be reduced by noninvasive tests because no coronary intervention is performed.

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Background: High density lipoproteins (HDL) protect against cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, increased serum amyloid-A (SAA) related inflammation may negate this property. This study investigated if SAA was related to CVD-burden.

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Cardiac computerized tomography (CT) has evolved from a research tool to an important diagnostic investigation in cardiology, and is now recommended in European, US, and UK guidelines. This review is designed to give the reader an overview of the current state of cardiac CT. The role of cardiac CT is multifaceted, and includes risk stratification, disease detection, coronary plaque quantification, defining congenital heart disease, planning for structural intervention, and, more recently, assessment of ischemia.

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Background And Aims: Sarcocornia comprises about 28 species of perennial succulent halophytes distributed worldwide, mainly in saline environments of warm-temperate and subtropical regions. The genus is characterized by strongly reduced leaves and flowers, which cause taxonomic difficulties; however, species in the genus show high diversity in growth form, with a mat-forming habit found in coastal salt marshes of all continents. Sarcocornia forms a monophyletic lineage with Salicornia whose species are all annual, yet the relationship between the two genera is poorly understood.

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To determine if calcium scores (CS) could act as a more effective gatekeeper than Diamond Forrester (DF) in the assessment of patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD). A sub-study of the Cardiac CT for the Assessment of Chest Pain and Plaque (CAPP) study, a randomised control trial evaluating the cost-effectiveness of cardiac CT in symptomatic patients with stable chest pain. Stable pain was defined as troponin negative pain without symptoms of unstable angina.

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UK Biobank required a cryogenic facility to store, in vapour phase, a minimum of 5 000 000 1.2 ml capacity micro-tubes held in racks of 96 tubes below -180 degrees C for a 20 year period. The archive would be housed in a 900 m(2) industrial unit remote from the main laboratory area that would be generally unmanned and would require a complete cryogenic infrastructure.

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Since most infectious microorganisms inevitably develop resistance to any agents used to combat them, there has been a constant need to produce improved, more potent, antimicrobials. At least in part, the emergence and spread of resistant organisms has been provoked by inappropriate over-use of antibacterials. In the last decade, many fewer new antibacterials have been developed but overall prescribing has continued to increase.

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By the 1960s and 1970s, problems in the antibacterial treatment of infections had begun to emerge. Previously active antibacterials were being compromised by the development of resistance. Beta-lactamase production was identified in isolates of staphylococci, and, amongst others, in Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis, Haemophilus influenzae and Moraxella catarrhalis.

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Over 420 delegates participated in this, the fourth of a biennial series of scientific meetings, drawing from 30 or more nations and encompassing the specialties of infectious diseases, clinical microbiology, pulmonary and general medicine and Industry inter alia. The 2007 Forum was chaired by Professors Antoni Torres Marti, Giuliana Gialdroni Grassi and Dr Peter Ball and received academic endorsement from the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC), Italian Society for Chemotherapy, Spanish Pulmonology Society, Paul Ehrlich Society and the Société de Pneumologie de Langue Français. The Scientific Programme was scientifically and financially supported by the BSAC and a consortium of pharmaceutical companies.

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