Suchergebnisse

European Union [765492 to M.H.]; Spanish Government [AGL2017-88702-C2-2-R to M.H.]; Chair 'Doctors Galera-Requena in cancer stem cell research' (to J.A.M.); Tromsoforskningsstiftelse (TFS) [20 SG BF 'MIRevolution' to B.F.]; Stichting Cancer Center Amsterdam [CCA2021-9-77 to C.G]; TKI-Health Holland ['AQrate' project to C.G. and M.P.]. This publication is part of a project that has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 765492. ; The NCBI Sequence Read Archive currently hosts microRNA sequencing data for over 800 different species, evidencing the existence of a broad taxonomic distribution in the field of small RNA research. Simultaneously, the number of samples per miRNA-seq study continues to increase resulting in a vast amount of data that requires accurate, fast and user-friendly analysis methods. Since the previous release of sRNAtoolbox in 2019, 55 000 sRNAbench jobs have been submitted which has motivated many improvements in its usability and the scope of the underlying annotation database. With this update, users can upload an unlimited number of samples or import them from Google Drive, Dropbox or URLs. Micro- and small RNA profiling can now be carried out using high-confidence Metazoan and plant specific databases, MirGeneDB and PmiREN respectively, together with genome assemblies and libraries from 441 Ensembl species. The new results page includes straightforward sample annotation to allow downstream differential expression analysis with sRNAde. Unassigned reads can also be explored by means of a new tool that performsmapping to microbial references, which can reveal contamination events or biologically meaningful findings as we describe in the example. sRNAtoolbox is available at: https://arn.ugr.es/srnatoolbox/. ; European Commission 765492 ; Spanish Government ; European Commission AGL2017-88702-C2-2-R ; Chair 'Doctors Galera-Requena in cancer stem cell research' ; Stichting Cancer Center ...

Theoretical works have shown that off-plane motions of bars can heat stars in the vertical direction during buckling but is not clear how do they affect the rest of components of the stellar velocity ellipsoid (SVE). We study the 2D spatial distribution of the vertical, sigma(z), azimuthal, sigma(phi), and radial, sigma(r) velocity dispersions in the inner regions of Auriga galaxies, a set of high-resolution magneto-hydrodynamical cosmological zoom-in simulations, to unveil the influence of the bar on the stellar kinematics. sigma(z) and sigma(phi) maps exhibit non-axisymmetric features that closely match the bar light distribution with low-sigma regions along the bar major axis and high values in the perpendicular direction. On the other hand, sigma(r) velocity dispersion maps present more axisymmetric distributions. We show that isophotal profile differences best capture the impact of the bar on the three SVE components providing strong correlations with bar morphology proxies although there is no relation with individual sigma. Time evolution analysis shows that these differences are a consequence of the bar formation and that they tightly coevolve with the strength of the bar. We discuss the presence of different behaviours of sigma(z) and its connection with observations. This work helps us understand the intrinsic sigma distribution and motivates the use of isophotal profiles as a mean to quantify the effect of bars. ; Spanish Government PID2019-107427GB-C32 ; Consejeria de Economia, Industria, Comercio y Conocimiento of the Canary Islands Autonomous Community ; Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) through the Spanish State Research Agency, under the Severo Ochoa Program CEX2019-000920-S

A species-specific lipidome profile is an inherent feature linked to longevity in the animal kingdom. However, there is a lack of lipidomic studies on human longevity. Here, we use mass spectrometry-based lipidomics to detect and quantify 151 sphingolipid molecular species and use these to define a phenotype of healthy humans with exceptional life span. Our results demonstrate that this profile specifically comprises a higher content of complex glycosphingolipids (hexosylceramides and gangliosides), and lower levels of ceramide species from the de novo pathway, sphingomyelin and sulfatide; while for ceramide-derived signaling compounds, their content remains unchanged. Our findings suggest that structural glycosphingolipids may be more relevant to achieve the centenarian condition than signaling sphingolipids. ; We acknowledge funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (RTI2018-099200-B-I00) and the Generalitat of Catalonia, Agency for management of University and Research Grants (2017SGR696) and Department of Health (SLT002/16/00250) to R.P., and Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (SAF2013-44663-R) and the 'Red Tematica de Investigación Cooperativa en Envejecimiento y Fragilidad' (RETICEF) (ISCIII2012-RED-43-029) to J.V. This study has been co-financed by FEDER funds from the European Union ("A way to build Europe"). I.P. was supported by a University of Lleida Predoctoral Fellowship. K.H. was supported by a Dementia Australia Research Foundation Scholarship.

© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Behavioral Medicine. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ; Background: Patterns of protective health behaviors, such as handwashing and sanitizing during the COVID-19 pandemic, may be predicted by macro-level variables, such as regulations specified by public health policies. Health behavior patterns may also be predicted by micro-level variables, such as self-regulatory cognitions specified by health behavior models, including the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA). Purpose: This study explored whether strictness of containment and health policies was related to handwashing adherence and whether such associations were mediated by HAPA-specified self-regulatory cognitions. Methods: The study (NCT04367337) was conducted among 1,256 adults from Australia, Canada, China, France, Gambia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, and Switzerland. Self-report data on cross-situational handwashing adherence were collected using an online survey at two time points, 4 weeks apart. Values of the index of strictness of containment and health policies, obtained from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker database, were retrieved twice for each country (1 week prior to individual data collection). Results: Across countries and time, levels of handwashing adherence and strictness of policies were high. Path analysis indicated that stricter containment and health policies were indirectly related to lower handwashing adherence via lower self-efficacy and self-monitoring. Less strict policies were indirectly related to higher handwashing adherence via higher self-efficacy and self-monitoring. Conclusions: When policies are less strict, exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 ...

This essay examines Evelyn Waugh as practitioner and critic in the field of wartime propaganda. In 1941, Waugh produced a fictitious account of a British Commando raid on German territory in North Africa for publication in Britain and the United States, an episode which reveals his skill as a propagandist, but also prompts scrutiny of his contacts with British propaganda agencies and agents and of the effect of propaganda on his writings. Waugh's interwar fiction exhibits a sophisticated understanding of the evolving and growing power of modern propaganda, but the novels also anticipate the public relations and psychological warfare campaigns of the Second World War, specifically those carried out by the Political Warfare Executive (PWE), a secret service established in 1941 to produce and coordinate propaganda to enemy and occupied Europe. Waugh's proximity to the PWE is suggested by a dense network of social and professional connections, and is further indicated by a series of references to the PWE and its work which I have uncovered in his fiction. Allusions to covert propaganda in Put Out More Flags and the Sword of Honour trilogy betray Waugh's understanding of the PWE's operations, but also provide a critique of the corrosive and unforeseen effects of information warfare waged by the secret state and offer a productive means of re-examining his much-noted anxieties regarding modernity and mid-century political change.

This article interrogates the assumptions and moral values underlying social research ethics frameworks and practices applicable to migration studies. Based on a review of forced migration literature and on empirical observations I identify three tiers of research ethics that generally guide ethical conduct in this field: Procedural, relational and reciprocal ethics. I suggest that these tiers are traditionally conceptualised as a hierarchy in which certain ethical demands are considered morally superior to others. Looking at each of the three tiers the article shows that procedural and relational ethics demands are often based on unclear moral values and problematic notions of migrants' vulnerability. To address this shortcoming, I draw on deontological ethics and on Levinas' notion of unconditional responsibility to argue that our duty as researchers is based on our particular relationship with our research subjects rather than on their status as migrants. Moving away from a hierarchical understanding of research ethics I then propose an integrated ethics framework that allows researchers to conceptualise and address the various ethical demands in an interconnected and holistic way. This framework presents an original contribution to research ethics discourses and practice in migration studies and other fields of social inquiry with a political and moral ambition such as human rights, social work and childhood studies. ; This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) and the European Union's EUSA_ID Mobility Programme. ; 24m embargo from pub date when known

BACKGROUND : Inappropriate use of antimicrobials is a key factor increasing antimicrobial resistance, a major global public health problem including in South Africa. Key drivers include antibiotics being dispensed without a prescription. OBJECTIVES : To determine the accessibility of antibiotics without a prescription in community pharmacies in urban areas in South Africa and determine whether counselling was provided when antibiotics were dispensed. PATIENTS AND METHODS : Prospective, observational study, employing simulated patients (SPs), presenting with upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) and urinary tract infections (UTIs), undertaken to establish whether antibiotics can be obtained without a valid prescription in South Africa. This pilot study was conducted in privately owned (n = 20) and corporate (franchised, n = 14) community pharmacies in three regions in Gauteng Province. RESULTS : Antibiotics were sold in privately owned pharmacies without a prescription in 80% (16/20) of cases while no antibiotics were dispensed in corporate (franchised) pharmacies. Of the 16 pharmacies selling antibiotics without a prescription, pharmacist assistants were involved in 37.5% (n = 6) and counselling was not provided to 19% of SPs. Ciprofloxacin (42.9%) and metronidazole (28.6%) were the most common antibiotics dispensed. No antibiotics were dispensed for URTIs, only UTIs. CONCLUSIONS : Dispensing antibiotics without prescriptions can be common among privately owned pharmacies in urban areas in South Africa. Corporate pharmacies, which probably have a greater income, appear to follow current legislation banning such activities. To limit selling with no prescription, community pharmacists and assistants especially in urban areas should be educated on appropriate patient care and legal requirements, with dispensing electronically monitored. ; The School of Pharmacy Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences ; https://academic.oup.com/jacamr ; hj2022 ; Pharmacology

The water-quality effects of low-density rural land-use activities are understudied but important because of large rural land coverage. We review and synthesize spatially extensive studies of oligotrophic mountain streams in the rural Southern Appalachian Mountains, concluding that rural land-use activities significantly degrade water quality through altered and mostly enhanced landscape-stream connections, despite high forest retention. Some connections (insolation, organic inputs, root-channel interactions, stream-field connectivity, individual landowner discharges) are controlled by near-stream land-use activities, whereas others (reduced nitrogen uptake and cycling, enhanced biological nitrogen fixation, nutrient subsidy, runoff from compacted soils, road runoff delivery) are controlled by basin-wide land use. These connections merge to alter basal resources and shift fish, salamander, and invertebrate assemblages toward species tolerant of higher turbidity and summer temperatures and those more competitive in mesotrophic systems. Rural water quality problems could be mitigated substantially with well-known best management practices, raising socioecological governance questions about best management practice adoption. ; National Science Foundation through the LTER program [DEB-1637522] ; Published version ; Thomas Prebyl created the land cover map. The Coweeta LTER and Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory technicians, students, and investigators who worked on the synthesized projects are too numerous to name, but we thank all of them for their help. Jason Meador and Kelder Monar from Mainspring Conservation Trust provided input about their conservation programs, such as Shade Your Stream. Fred Benfield, John Maerz, Cathy Pringle, and Paul Bolstad helped conceptualize and frame this synthesis. This work was supported by multiple grants from the National Science Foundation through the LTER program, the last of which was grant no. DEB-1637522. ; Public domain authored by a U.S. government employee

Chloride (Cl−), traditionally considered harmful for agriculture, has recently been defined as a beneficial macronutrient with specific roles that result in more efficient use of water (WUE), nitrogen (NUE), and CO2 in well-watered plants. When supplied in a beneficial range of 1–5 mM, Cl− increases leaf cell size, improves leaf osmoregulation, and reduces water consumption without impairing photosynthetic efficiency, resulting in overall higher WUE. Thus, adequate management of Cl− nutrition arises as a potential strategy to increase the ability of plants to withstand water deficit. To study the relationship between Cl− nutrition and drought resistance, tobacco plants treated with 0.5–5 mM Cl− salts were subjected to sustained water deficit (WD; 60% field capacity) and water deprivation/rehydration treatments, in comparison with plants treated with equivalent concentrations of nitrate, sulfate, and phosphate salts. The results showed that Cl− application reduced stress symptoms and improved plant growth during water deficit. Drought resistance promoted by Cl− nutrition resulted from the simultaneous occurrence of water deficit avoidance and tolerance mechanisms, which improved leaf turgor, water balance, photosynthesis performance, and WUE. Thus, it is proposed that beneficial Cl− levels increase the ability of crops to withstand drought, promoting a more sustainable and resilient agriculture. ; Spanish Ministry of Science Innovation and Universities-FEDER grants AGL2015-71386-R and RTI2018- 094460-B-I00 ; Spanish National Research Council grants CSIC201840E132, CSIC-201940E039, and CSIC-201940E077 ; the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 895613.

Populist radical right parties (PRRPs) are generally considered detrimental to democracy. Research on their damaging potential tends to focus on their influ- ence in triggering policy backsliding but leaves the promotion of gender equality out of the equation. This study explores the case of Vox in Andalusia, a southern region of Spain, to show how PRRPs also contribute to de-democratization through their capacity to erode the equality framework. We demonstrate how they can effectively dismantle and reframe crucial policies, even when not in office. This opens new analytical pathways for studying the role of PRRPs in undermining democratic systems ; Xunta de Galicia ED431B 2020/23

We analyse the likely trade effects of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), which defines the post-Brexit trading environment between the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU). We apply a computable general equilibrium model and focus on trade in value added rather than just the gross values of exports and imports. We describe the TCA and estimate its effects on the costs of conducting UK–EU trade, including various non-tariff barriers in both goods and services. We suggest that the TCA will reduce UK trade significantly: total exports by around 7 per cent and imports by around 14 per cent. In terms of value added (i.e. incomes generated), textiles and vehicles, both of which trade extensively with the EU, suffer heavily, as do services which trade significantly with the EU, face large increases in trade barriers, and experience declining demand from other sectors as those sectors' exports fall. Such inter-industry linkages spread the losses from Brexit widely through the economy.

Rebel groups govern significant parts of territory worldwide. They often deliver crucial public goods and services to populations under their control. Scholarship on rebel governance commonly explains this with the need for armed groups to generate local and international legitimacy. We argue that this understanding of rebel governance as an instrumental means to power is insufficient. Instead, we propose a novel conceptualization of rebel governance as competing biopolitics. Tracing biopolitical technologies of rebel rule reveals the productive functions of war-time social orders for molding populations into imagined communities in direct opposition to the existing nation state. We develop this perspective by mobilizing Foucault's work in conjunction with Chatterjee's postcolonial understanding of governmentality in contexts of postcolonial state- and nation-formation, and empirical research on the Pat Jasan in northern Myanmar. Linked to the Kachin rebellion, this movement has fought against a devastating narcotics crisis with biopolitical interventions that form the Kachin nation body amidst protracted ethnonational conflict. Beyond shedding light on one of the world's longest running but least-researched civil wars, this offers three distinct contributions to international studies: exploring non-state armed groups as actors of public health, theorizing the sociological underpinnings of rebel governance, and developing the concept of biopolitics beyond the nation state.

Failures in UK decision-making for women seeking protection from gender-based violence vary depending on the claimant's (purported) sexuality. These failures are attributable, at least in part, to the application of the particular social group Refugee Convention ground which channels claims along two distinct pathways: one path, for women assumed to be straight, focuses on the violence that threatens them; in contrast, for lesbian and bisexual women, the focus is on their sexuality. In either case, the claimant's autonomy and individuality is eclipsed, but different stereotypes come into play depending on her (imputed) sexuality. This article argues that greater use of the political opinion Convention ground, and a holistic, rights-based approach would improve refugee status determination for all women, regardless of their sexuality.

Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented social and political challenges. Mitigation strategies often disrupt the daily lives of citizens and constrain rights and privileges. Policies intended to contain disease spread have provoked resentment, resistance, and backlash. We examine the extent to which specific COVID-19 policy responses influence the frequency of civil unrest. Combining insights from both grievance and opportunity models of dissent, we contend that pandemic response policies are most likely to lead to unrest when the grievances and opportunities created by disease mitigation strategies reinforce each other. We test our arguments with nuanced information on specific pandemic mitigation policies, combined with geo-located events data on COVID-19-related social unrest activities. We find that policies such as workplace and school closures, which induce intense grievances and reduce the opportunity cost of engaging in collective mobilization, are associated with increases in dissent activities. Policies that restrict opportunities for mobilization, such as restrictions on public transportation, reduce the number of dissent activities. Notably, economic support policies attenuate the effects of workplace closures on dissent. Our results illustrate the varying effects of pandemic mitigation policies on unrest depending on how the grievances they inspire relate to the opportunity they create.

The combined analysis of haplotype panels with phenotype clinical cohorts is a common approach to explore the genetic architecture of human diseases. However, genetic studies are mainly based on single nucleotide variants (SNVs) and small insertions and deletions (indels). Here, we contribute to fill this gap by generating a dense haplotype map focused on the identification, characterization, and phasing of structural variants (SVs). By integrating multiple variant identification methods and Logistic Regression Models (LRMs), we present a catalogue of 35 431 441 variants, including 89 178 SVs (≥50 bp), 30 325 064 SNVs and 5 017 199 indels, across 785 Illumina high coverage (30x) whole-genomes from the Iberian GCAT Cohort, containing a median of 3.52M SNVs, 606 336 indels and 6393 SVs per individual. The haplotype panel is able to impute up to 14 360 728 SNVs/indels and 23 179 SVs, showing a 2.7-fold increase for SVs compared with available genetic variation panels. The value of this panel for SVs analysis is shown through an imputed rare Alu element located in a new locus associated with Mononeuritis of lower limb, a rare neuromuscular disease. This study represents the first deep characterization of genetic variation within the Iberian population and the first operational haplotype panel to systematically include the SVs into genome-wide genetic studies. ; GCAT|Genomes for Life, a cohort study of the Genomes of Catalonia, Fundació Institut Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP); IGTP is part of the CERCA Program/Generalitat de Catalunya; GCAT is supported by Acción de Dinamización del ISCIII-MINECO; Ministry of Health of the Generalitat of Catalunya [ADE 10/00026]; Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR) [2017-SGR 529]; B.C. is supported by national grants [PI18/01512]; X.F. is supported by VEIS project [001-P-001647] (co-funded by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), 'A way to build Europe'); a full list of the investigators who contributed to the generation of the GCAT data is available from www.genomesforlife.com/; Severo Ochoa Program, awarded by the Spanish Government [SEV-2011-00067 and SEV2015-0493]; Spanish Ministry of Science [TIN2015-65316-P]; Innovation and by the Generalitat de Catalunya [2014-SGR-1051 to D.T.]; Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI, Spain) [BFU2016-77244-R and PID2019-107836RB-I00]; European Regional Development Fund (FEDER, EU) (to M.C.); Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation [FPI BES-2016-0077344 to J.V.M.]; C.S. received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement [H2020-MSCA-COFUND-2016-754433]; this study made use of data generated by the UK10K Consortium from UK10K COHORT IMPUTATION [EGAS00001000713]; formal agreement with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC); this study made use of data generated by the Genome of the Netherlands' project, which is funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research [184021007], allowing us to use the GoNL reference panel containing SVs, upon request (GoNL Data Access request 2019203); this study also used data generated by the Haplotype Reference Consortium (HRC) accessed through the European Genome-phenome Archive with the accession numbers EGAD00001002729; formal agreement of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) with WTSI; this study made use of data generated by the 1000 Genomes (1000G), accessed through the FTP portal (http://ftp.1000genomes.ebi.ac.uk/vol1/ftp/release/20130502/); this study used the GeneHancer-for-AnnotSV dump for GeneCards Suite Version 4.14, through a formal agreement between the BSC and the Weizmann Institute of Science. ; Peer Reviewed ; "Article signat per 21 autors/es: Jordi Valls-Margarit, Iván Galván-Femenía, Daniel Matías-Sánchez, Natalia Blay, Montserrat Puiggròs, Anna Carreras, Cecilia Salvoro, Beatriz Cortés, Ramon Amela, Xavier Farre, Jon Lerga-Jaso, Marta Puig, Jose Francisco Sánchez-Herrero, Victor Moreno, Manuel Perucho, Lauro Sumoy, Lluís Armengol, Olivier Delaneau, Mario Cáceres, Rafael de Cid, David Torrents" ; Postprint (published version)