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Local and regional food production diversity are positively associated with household dietary diversity in rural Africa
Get PDFUndernutrition and low dietary quality remain widespread issues in Africa. As most rural households in the region are involved in farming, the diversification of own farm production could improve their access to nutritious foods. Here we use representative panel data from six African countries to estimate this effect across different scales. We show that farm production diversity is positively associated with household dietary diversity—yet the average magnitude of the association is small, depends on the specific measure of production diversity and increases with distance from urban centres. In all countries, markets and market access are more important for dietary diversity than own production. Because village-, town- and district-level production diversity are often positively associated with dietary diversity, higher diversity on each individual farm may not be required. The appropriate spatial scale should be considered when designing diversification strategies
Literatur und Abtreibung : Von der Romantik bis zur Gegenwart
Get PDFAbortions have always existed and will continue to exist – both in real life and in literature. This volume traces the literary history of abortion from the Romantic period to the present day. The contributions deal with texts by Dorothea Schlegel, Vicki Baum, Jean Rhys, Mela Hartwig, Rosamond Lehmann, Marieluise Fleißer, Ingerose Paust, Charlotte Worgitzky, Monika Helmecke, Mo Yan, Nino Haratischwili and many more. The focus is on the narratability and sayability of abortions as well as their publishability. The authors therefore read the texts against their historical-patriarchal contexts, trace configurations of female authorship and developments in the history of publication and editions. They examine the interweaving of medical and legal discourses and work out decision-making ethics. This volume thus helps to fill the gap in literary studies on (literary) abortions.Abtreibungen hat es schon immer gegeben und das wird es auch weiterhin – sowohl im echten Leben wie in der Literatur. Dieser Band zeichnet die Literaturgeschichte des Schwangerschaftsabbruchs von der Romantik bis zur Gegenwart nach. Die Beiträge beschäftigen sich mit Texten von Dorothea Schlegel, Vicki Baum, Jean Rhys, Mela Hartwig, Rosamond Lehmann, Marieluise Fleißer, Ingerose Paust, Charlotte Worgitzky, Monika Helmecke, Mo Yan, Nino Haratischwili u.v.m. Dabei geht es um die Erzähl- und Sagbarkeit der Abbrüche sowie um deren Publizierbarkeit. Die Autorinnen lesen die Texte folglich gegen ihre historisch-patriarchalen Kontexte, zeichnen Konfigurationen weiblicher Autorschaft und publikations- wie editionsgeschichtliche Entwicklungen nach. Sie untersuchen die Verflechtung medizinischer und juristischer Diskurse und arbeiten Entscheidungsethiken heraus. Somit trägt dieser Band dazu bei, die literaturwissenschaftliche Leerstelle zu (literarischen) Schwangerschaftsabbrüchen zu füllen
Amtliche Bekanntmachungen, 55. Jahrgang, Nr. 79
No full textVierte Ordnung zur Änderung der Studien- und Prüfungsordnung für den Studiengang „Zahnmedizin“ der Medizinischen Fakultät der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn vom 21. Oktober 202
Einfluss akuter körperlicher Belastungen unterschiedlicher Intensität auf Exekutivfunktionen kognitiver Ruhenetzwerke : Eine resting-state fMRI-Studie
Get PDFDie Auswirkungen von akuter körperlicher Aktivität auf die kognitive Leistung und die funktionelle Konnektivität in Ruhenetzwerken (RSN) wurden erst in wenigen Studien gemeinsam untersucht und sind bisher nicht vollständig verstanden. Die Literatur gibt Hinweise auf eine nicht-lineare Beziehung zwischen Intensität der körperlichen Aktivität und Änderungen der kognitiven Leistung bzw. funktionellen Konnektivität. Das Verständnis der neuronalen Hintergründe in Akutstudien bei jungen, gesunden Probanden kann in Zukunft hilfreich für die Vorhersage von Langzeiteffekten und Effekten bei älteren Erwachsenen und Patienten mit bspw. neurodegenerativen Erkrankungen sein. Die BEACON-Studie (Bicycling Effects on Affect and Cognition in Neuroscience) untersuchte in einem randomisierten Studiendesign die Effekte akuter körperlicher Aktivität mit aerober und anaerober Intensität und einer Kontrollbedingung auf die kognitive Leistung im Attention Network Test (ANT) und die funktionelle Konnektivität in kognitiven RSN bei jungen (Alter: 20-35 Jahre), gesunden und trainierten männlichen Probanden. Ziel war es, die Beziehung zwischen Intensität und Änderungen der funktionellen Konnektivität und kognitiven Leistung zu ermitteln. In einer Leistungsdiagnostik auf einem Fahrradergometer wurden die kardiorespiratorische Fitness der Probanden (Einschlusskriterium: relVO2max > 55 ml/min/kg Körpergewicht) und die individuellen Leistungsintensitäten für die anschließenden Untersuchungsbedingungen bestimmt. Die Untersuchungstage fanden in randomisierter Reihenfolge mit standardisiertem Ablauf statt. Die finale Stichprobe umfasste n = 20 Probanden. Im ANT fanden sich keine signifikanten Änderungen der kognitiven Leistung. Im linken frontoparietalen Netzwerk zeigte sich nach Clusterkorrektur ein signifikanter Interaktionseffekt im Gyrus frontalis superior (Zeitpunkt x Bedingung; p < 0,001 (unkorrigiert), FWE-korrigiert α < 0,05 mit 3dFWHMx und 3dClustSim), wobei die funktionelle Konnektivität nach der anaeroben Bedingung signifikant abnahm und nach der aeroben Bedingung (nicht signifikant) anstieg. Bei einem liberaleren p-Wert von p < 0,005 (unkorrigiert), FWE-korrigiert α < 0,05 fanden sich Konnektivitätsänderungen nach dem gleichen Muster im dorsalen Aufmerksamkeitsnetzwerk im Lobulus parietalis superior und im cerebellären basalganglionären Netzwerk im rechten Kleinhirn (Crus 1 und 2). Eine Korrelationsanalyse ergab eine signifikante positive Korrelation zwischen den Änderungen der funktionellen Konnektivität im Lobulus parietalis superior und dem "orienting"-Score aus dem ANT nach der aeroben Bedingung. Die Studienergebnisse stützen Hinweise darauf, dass die kognitive Leistung und funktionelle Konnektivität in entsprechenden RSN vor allem durch eine aerobe Trainingsintensität verbessert werden, während anaerobe Trainingsintensitäten diese vermindern, und unterstützen somit die umgekehrt U-förmige Beziehung zwischen der Intensität akuter körperlicher Belastung und der kognitiven Leistung bzw. Änderungen der funktionellen Konnektivität
Essays in Macroeconomics
Get PDFUnderstanding the role of public policy in shaping individual behavior, and thus broader economic outcomes, is fundamental to the design of effective policy interventions. Individuals do not make decisions in a vacuum: their choices are shaped by incentives, constraints, and the economic and institutional context in which they operate. This dissertation contributes to the ongoing discussion by examining how individual decisions interact with the design of public policies in two areas that are both economically and politically salient: social mobility and climate policy. Across three chapters, I investigate how structural features of the economic environment, such as regional disparities in labor demand and heterogeneity in household carbon emissions, mediate the effects of policy interventions. These features shape not only how individuals respond to policies, but also who benefits and who bears the costs, with significant implications for both the effectiveness of policies and their distributional consequences.
Chapter 1 explores how regional labor demand influences the persistence of occupational choices across generations, affecting income mobility. The study finds that accounting for regional and occupation-specific demand reduces occupational persistence by up to 10%, highlighting the importance of addressing regional disparities in job opportunities to improve social mobility.
Chapters 2 and 3 examine the distributional impacts of climate policies, focusing on carbon taxation and subsidies for carbon-neutral technologies. Chapter 2 finds that policies aimed at quickly reducing emissions, like carbon taxes with subsidies, tend to redistribute wealth from low- to high-income households, but financing them through progressive income taxes can balance emissions reductions with broader political support. Chapter 3 highlights regional differences, showing that rural households have higher carbon footprints than urban ones and proposing mechanisms like place-based transfers to avoid unfair redistribution and maintain political support for climate policies
The Spectrum of Functional, Structural and Patient-Reported Outcomes in Intermediate Age-Related Macular Degeneration : A MACUSTAR Study Report
Get PDFIntroduction: There is an unmet medical need for therapies in intermediate age-related macular degeneration (iAMD). The prospective European multi-center cohort study MACUSTAR validates structural, functional and patient-reported iAMD endpoints for use in future trials. The multiplicity of assessments allows characterizing iAMD in more dimensions than previously available. We describe the heterogeneity of assessments in the iAMD baseline cohort of the MACUSTAR study. Methods: A wide range of assessments were administered across 20 European study sites in accordance with established guidelines. These assessments encompassed multiple structural evaluations, such as color fundus photography, fundus autofluorescence, and optical coherence tomography. Additionally, functional tests were conducted, including assessments of best-corrected and low-luminance visual acuity (VA), Moorfields acuity, contrast sensitivity, reading speed, mesopic and scotopic microperimetry, and dark adaptometry. Moreover, patient-reported outcome assessments, specifically the Vision Impairment in Low Luminance questionnaire, were also incorporated into the evaluation process. Associations between variables were investigated using Phi coefficients, Pearson correlation coefficients and age-corrected regression models. Results: Five-hundred eighty-five individuals with iAMD (66% women; mean (standard deviation) age: 72±7 years) were included in the MACUSTAR study. Forty-nine percent had pigmentary abnormalities, 27% had reticular pseudodrusen; 10% and 9% had incomplete and complete retinal pigment epithelium and outer retinal atrophy at baseline, respectively. Mean best-corrected VA, low-luminance VA and mesopic average threshold on microperimetry at baseline were 0.03±0.11 logMAR, 0.24±0.16 logMAR and 23.3±3.7 dB. Mean VILL subscale scores at baseline were 2±2 to 2±3 logits. Phi coefficients between structural assessments ranged between 0.17 and 0.22 (median 0.21); correlation coefficients between function tests ranged between 0.07 and 0.69 (median 0.34) and between VILL scores ranged between 0.21 and 0.68 (median 0.23). Conclusion: The findings from this broad and comprehensive spectrum of assessments of structure, function, and patient-reported outcomes in iAMD suggest that the disease spectrum is diverse and heterogeneous and that further efforts are necessary to fully understand and characterize iAMD in all its complexities. A further in-depth characterization will enable novel enrichment strategies for clinical trials in iAMD
Chemical Language Models for Molecular Design
Get PDFIn drug discovery, chemical language models (CLMs) inspired by natural language processing (NLP) provide innovative solutions for molecular design. CLMs learn the vocabulary, syntax, and conditional probabilities of molecular representations, enabling various sequence-to-sequence mappings. Leveraging neural language architectures, particularly transformers with multi-head self-attention and parallel processing, CLMs effectively handle diverse sequence types, enabling efficient training and molecular translation tasks. Their versatility in machine translation and property conditioning opens new opportunities for generative molecular design. This dissertation investigates the development and application of chemical and biochemical language models (LMs) for various medicinal chemistry and drug design challenges, including activity cliff (AC) prediction, highly potent compound design, analogue series extension, and active compound generation from protein sequences. The first project focused on conditional transformers (DeepAC) for predicting ACs and designing new AC compounds. During pre-training, the models learned source-to-target compound mappings from diverse activity classes, conditioned on potency differences caused by structural modifications. Fine-tuning enabled accurate generation of target compounds satisfying potency constraints bridging between predictive modeling and compound design. The subsequent study generalized predictions beyond ACs to design highly potent compounds from weakly potent templates across unseen activity classes. Further, the next study incorporated meta-learning, enabling effective generative design even in low-data regimes. Building on these predictive capabilities, the second project developed the DeepAS models for iterative analogue series (AS) extension in lead optimization. The initial DeepAS model predicted substituents for AS arranged by ascending potency, successfully reproducing AS across various targets from which the terminal (most potent) analogue was removed. DeepAS 2.0 expanded this approach to multi-site AS extension using a BERT-based architecture, while DeepAS 3.0 integrated structure–activity relationship matrix (SARM) formalism, enabling core modifications in AS with multiple substitution sites. The final project extended CLMs into the biochemical domain by developing a dual-component LM combining a pre-trained protein language model (PLM) with a conditional CLM. This model learned mappings from protein sequence embeddings conditioned on potency to active compounds; it consistently reproduced known compounds with varying potency across various activity classes not encountered during training. Additionally, the biochemical LM generated structurally diverse candidate compounds departing from both fine-tuning and test compounds. Taken together, this thesis highlights the promising capability of CLMs to address previously challenging or unfeasible prediction scenarios in molecular design, providing new opportunities for advancing in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery
Amtliche Bekanntmachungen, 55. Jahrgang, Nr. 38
No full textDritte Ordnung zur Änderung der Prüfungsordnung für den konsekutiven Masterstudiengang „Biochemistry“ der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn vom 3. Juli 202
Investigation of Interplay between Neuropilin-2, EGFR and Radiation in Prostate Cancer and Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Get PDFAim the thesis is to explore how NRP2, EGFR, and radiation interact in relation to PCa and HNSCC. NRP2 and EGFR are known to play crucial roles in tumor development, progression, and treatment resistance. Nevertheless, the precise connection and reaction to radiation treatment by them are not well comprehended. Method examing the expression patterns of NRP2 and EGFR in PCa and HNSCC cell lines and tissue samples by Immunohistochemistry. To explore the effects of NRP2 and EGFR on radiation sensitivity, in vitro experiments are conducted using PCa and HNSCC cell lines in RNA and protein level.
Results the activation of EGFR upon NRP2 knockdown, demonstrating upregulation of EGFR and phosphorylated EGFR (pEGFR) in specific timeframes. These findings support previous studies linking NRP2 loss to EGFR upregulation in cell lines.
To conclusion the thesis offers important perspectives on the connection among NRP2, EGFR, and radiationtherapy. The results indicate a possible connection between NRP2 and EGFR in resistance to treatment
Amtliche Bekanntmachungen, 55. Jahrgang, Nr. 62
No full textPrüfungsordnung für den konsekutiven Masterstudiengang „Geodäsie und Geoinformation“ der Agrar-, Ernährungs- und Ingenieurwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn vom 20. August 202