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342 Differences in COVID-19 vaccination among migrants and non-migrants in Germany: the mediating role of psychological factors of vaccination
No full textOP 25: Exclusion and Discrimination 3, B207 (FCSH), September 4, 2025, 14:45 - 15:45
Aim
Understanding the underlying mechanisms for differences in COVID-19 vaccine uptake between migrants and non-migrants is crucial in order to design targeted interventions encouraging vaccination. This study examined to what extent vaccine disparities were mediated by psychological factors using the established 5C model of vaccine behaviour (Confidence, Complacency, Constraints, Calculation, Collective Responsibility).
Methods
Data were obtained from the German study “Corona Monitoring Nationwide”(11/2021-02/2022). The association between COVID-19 vaccination and migration history considering the psychological factors was investigated using multivariable binary logistic regressions, while controlling for various sociodemographic and health-related characteristics. A decomposition (KHB method) was conducted to examine how much of the disparities in vaccine uptake could be explained by the 5C framework.
Results
People who immigrated themselves were less likely to be vaccinated against COVID-19 compared to non-migrants, especially participants from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The decomposition analysis showed that almost two thirds of the disparities in COVID-19 vaccine uptake between migrants and non-migrants were mediated by the psychological factors. Confidence in safety of the vaccine was the most relevant explanatory factor in the 5C framework. The results highlighted the importance of a differentiated consideration regarding the country of origin: While 19.4% of the effect for the MENA region is explained by the 5C model, the proportion for Eastern Europe is 73.5%, suggesting that the underlying mechanisms for the lower uptake in the MENA group still need to be identified.
Conclusion
Given our results showed the key explanatory factor of vaccine behaviour was confidence, there is a need for proactive health communication strategies to improve knowledge about and trust in vaccinations within the heterogeneous group of migrants. In addition, more in-depth research is needed with a health equity focus to explore the effect of structural inequities on the psychological factors of vaccine behaviour
Glycosaminoglycans as Polyelectrolytes: Charge, Interactions, and Applications
No full textGlycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are linear, negatively charged biopolymers that modulate complex biological processes, such as blood coagulation, immune regulation, or viral entry. Their sulfation pattern and chain length govern how strongly they bind to other physiologically relevant species. Most of these interactions rely on electrostatic forces facilitated by the strong polyanionic properties of GAGs; therefore, considering these from a polyelectrolyte vantage point can help understand how such charge-based, often transient interactions contribute to physiological and pathological processes. While the different GAG classes share key electrostatic properties, they exhibit unique structural features that shape their function. Here, it is highlighted on how modern separation and analytical tools exploit the polyanionic character of GAGs to dissect subtle structural details. For these, the fundamental description of their charge–charge interactions is crucial. With this knowledge, modified GAGs, synthetic GAG mimetics, or GAG-binding molecules can be designed that replicate or refine their key properties and show promise for therapeutic and biomedical applications. Altogether, recognizing the importance of GAGs as polyelectrolytes provides vital knowledge on how their charge distribution mediates crucial biomolecular interactions in health and disease, and thus it helps complete our knowledge on fundamentally important biopolymers
A suite of tools for safe-and-sustainable-by-design advanced materials from the EU projects DIAGONAL, HARMLESS and SUNSHINE
No full textMulti-component nanomaterials (MCNM) and High Aspect Ratio Nanomaterials (HARN) are advanced materials that present innovation potential but also challenge the innovation by Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) principles. In 2021 to 2025, three EU-funded sister projects developed and implemented SSbD concepts in digital tools that are applicable to MCNM and HARNs despite their respective unique properties. The projects jointly established a tiered suite of tools that serves both industrial, SME (small and medium enterprise) and regulatory stakeholders. The tools for innovators are tiered by StageGate phases (projects SUNSHINE and HARMLESS) or organized in transversal topics (project DIAGONAL). Also the tools for regulatory preparedness comprise a range from simple to elaborate approaches. Key achievements include the alignment of tools for innovators and for regulators via a high overlap of the questions asked, and the systematic tiering of targeted input that is required. The suite of tools thus supports the OECD's Safe and Sustainable Innovation Approach (SSIA). With specific value to SME innovators, tools were developed that lower the previously perceived hurdles to implementation of SSbD concepts in product development. The suite of tools is demonstrated on three MCNM or HARN case studies provided by partners from industry and SMEs, specifically anti-stick coatings for baking trays (SiC@TiO2), automotive catalysts (doped oxide perovskites) and flexible electronics (Ag nanowires). However, the cases also shed a light on remaining challenges in the SSbD concept that are not solved by tools alone, most notably the uncertainty of decision-support at early stages and the complexity of data gathering at later stages, which also implies a need of increasing data exchange among value chain actors while allowing actors to generate and protect intellectual property
Erratum to “Neurotropism of alphaherpesviruses is most prominent in the mesiotemporal, piriform and prefrontal cortices in mice”. [Neuroscience 584 (2025) 367–381]
No full textLarge-scale stochastic simulation of open quantum systems
No full textUnderstanding interactions between quantum systems and their environments is crucial for developing stable quantum technologies and accurate physical models. Yet, simulating open quantum systems with non-unitary dynamics remains computationally demanding. We introduce the tensor jump method (TJM), a scalable and embarrassingly parallel algorithm for stochastically simulating large-scale open quantum systems governed by Lindbladians. The TJM extends the Monte Carlo wave function (MCWF) approach to matrix product states, employs a dynamic time-dependent variational principle (TDVP) to minimize evolution errors, and introduces a sampling MPS to reduce timestep dependence. This method scales efficiently, ensuring convergence to Lindbladian dynamics independent of system size, as demonstrated both rigorously and numerically. We showcase its utility by simulating XXX Heisenberg models with up to a thousand spins on a consumer-grade CPU. The TJM represents a significant advance in open quantum system simulation, enabling exploration of dissipative many-body dynamics and the design of more stable quantum hardware
Leveraging the collective: Contesting California’s corporate landlords through multibuilding organising
No full textThe financialisation of US rental real estate has accelerated since 2008, facilitated by state intervention at multiple levels. The corporate consolidation of rental housing and the profit-maximising practices pursued by corporate landlords have exacerbated pressures on tenants in the already hypercommodified housing sector. In response, some tenants have launched ‘multibuilding campaigns’ that exploit emerging oligopolies by harnessing collective power across buildings owned by the same corporate entity to force concessions and legislative change. Drawing on fieldwork carried out over 2022 and 2023, this article explores the potential of multibuilding organising through the Veritas Tenants Association’s rent debt strike against San Francisco’s largest landlord Veritas Investments, Inc., and the K3 Tenant Council’s campaign against K3 Holdings in Los Angeles. These struggles illustrate how the corporate landlord structure enables multibuilding organising – an ‘upward scale shift’ in both organising and tactics that shows potential to increase tenant leverage in the context of rental housing and state financialisation. They also demonstrate that, given the increasing entanglements between the state and financial markets, tenants are more likely to transform the terms and conditions of their housing through multibuilding organising than through reliance on the state as an intermediary. The article sheds light on how different levels of government simultaneously facilitate and internalise financialisation while introducing tactical and organising interventions to the burgeoning literature on corporate landlord contestation that suggest transformative potential
Ein weiterer Beitrag zum Verhalten des Acetamids im Organismus phlorhizindiabetischer Hunde
No full textDigitalisat der Ausgabe von 1916, erschienen 202
Reply to Edgeworth et al. (2024): The Anthropocene Is a Time Interval, and More Besides
No full textThe Anthropocene was introduced to denote a dramatic, ongoing, planetary shift from prolonged relative Holocene stability, driving the Earth system into a new functional state outside its natural variability. Now stratigraphically-grounded, the Anthropocene is de facto a new epoch, not the subjective filtering of all anthropogenic impacts in Earth history
MDPath: Unraveling Allosteric Communication Paths of Drug Targets through Molecular Dynamics Simulations
No full textUnderstanding allosteric communication in proteins remains a critical challenge for structure-based, rational drug design. We present MDPath, a Python toolkit for analyzing allosteric communication paths in molecular dynamics simulations using NMI-based analysis. We demonstrate MDPath’s ability to identify both established and novel GPCR allosteric mechanisms using the β2-adrenoceptor, adenosine A2A receptor, and μ-opioid receptor as model systems. The toolkit reveals ligand-specific allosteric effects in β2-adrenoceptor and MOR, illustrating how protein–ligand interactions drive conformational changes. Analysis of ABL1 kinase in complex with allosteric and orthosteric inhibitors demonstrates the broader applicability of the approach. Ultimately, MDPath provides an open-source framework for mapping allosteric communication within proteins, advancing structure-based drug design (https://github.com/wolberlab/mdpath)
Bornholm – the island in the middle. Communication, mobility and trade on the example of materials from the Store Frigård cemetery
No full textOne of the key sites for understanding the scale of the mobility and intercultural contact between continental Europe (Poland and northern Germany) and Jutland and southern Scandinavia (including Öland and Gotland) in the Iron Age is the previously unpublished cemetery at Store Frigård on Bornholm. The 1256 graves, dating from the early pre-Roman Iron Age to the late Roman period (500 BC–AD 400), make Store Frigård the largest and longest-functioning cemetery on Bornholm and in the entire Baltic area. In the graves were recorded at least 650 metal finds (ornaments and parts of clothing, tools and weaponry). As an example of trans-regional contacts, the paper analyzes iron brooches with a long true spring and a large, cast bronze ornament on the bow, Kostrzewski type K brooches, the so-called ‘Scandinavian belts’ and, as a local pattern, brooches type Slusegård 7c. The presence of cross-regional clothing ele¬ments can be interpreted as an indication of the diffusion of cultural patterns, exchange and/or trade, and the mobility of people (including artisans), as well as long- or short-dis¬tance exogamy and alliance building.
All such contacts had to be undertaken by sea. The positioning of Bornholm in the Baltic meant that it could be used as a starting point or as a ‘pit-stop’ for longer cruises. The problem is that there are no remaining boats or ships from the younger pre-Roman and early Roman periods, but maritime attempts to reconstruct a much earlier boat from Hjorstpiring have shown that it could have made even longer cruises. With a boat paddled by a well-trained crew, it was possible to cover a distance of between 40 and 55 nm in a long day depending on weather conditions. This would easily have allowed a crew to cover the distance between the Swedish coast (Schonen) and Bornholm, which is only 20 nm, where the distance is shortest. A much longer journey (56 nm), but also possible, would be the route from Nexø to Mielno or Kołobrzeg in central Pomerania, Poland. The route from Gotland to Bornholm, despite the much longer distance (about 160 nm in a direct line), also seems quite feasible. In this case, the easiest way would be to sail to Öland and then stick to the Öland coast and then Sweden. Such a voyage, however, would require much more time and, above all, crew effort, and numerous pit-stops would be needed. This route is reflected in archaeological materials, for example, in the Scandinavian belt fittings discussed here. A direct trip from Gotland to the Gulf of Gdańsk would be much more difficult. The problem here is the long distance, some 160 nm, and the lack of stopping facilities along the way. Perhaps imports from Gotland made their way to the Vistula estuary region by a circuitous route, via the “reloading station” at Bornholm. However, Scandinavian or Baltic imports from the younger Pre-Roman period are accumulated almost exclusively in the lower Vistula region, and there are only few traces, if any, in Central Pomerania. The direct route from Bornholm to the Gulf of Gdańsk is longer, about 170 nm, and just as difficult, unless the captain chooses to sail to Central Pomerania in one jump, and then all the way along the coast.
Such voyages were most likely to have taken place in summer due to better weather conditions, milder waves and greater visibility of the sky and destination, allowing for better navigation. The relatively small amount of goods that could be taken in a fairly small paddled boats indicates that the mobility had other, more personalised reasons than a regular, profit-oriented trade with a strictly commercial function