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Effects of Finerenone on Readmissions for Heart Failure:Insights From the FINEARTS-HF Trial
No full textDe zorgwekkende actualiteit van regimewisseling
No full textDe arrestatie van de Venezolaanse president Maduro laat zien dat Amerikaanse interventie in de binnenlandse politiek van andere landen allerminst een historisch verschijnsel is uit de Koude Oorlog. Ook toen speelden de Verenigde Staten wereldwijd een actieve rol bij het omverwerpen van communistische regimes en het onderdrukken van communistische bewegingen. Nu de Nederlandse vertaling van Vincent Bevins’ De Jakartamethode is verschenen, vraagt historicus Clemens Six zich af of dit boek ook nieuwe, actuele inzichten biedt in hedendaagse regimewisselingen.De arrestatie van de Venezolaanse president Maduro laat zien dat Amerikaanse interventie in de binnenlandse politiek van andere landen allerminst een historisch verschijnsel is uit de Koude Oorlog. Ook toen speelden de Verenigde Staten wereldwijd een actieve rol bij het omverwerpen van communistische regimes en het onderdrukken van communistische bewegingen. Nu de Nederlandse vertaling van Vincent Bevins’ De Jakartamethode is verschenen, vraagt historicus Clemens Six zich af of dit boek ook nieuwe, actuele inzichten biedt in hedendaagse regimewisselingen
A validated finite element model for designing a multistage forming process to enhance annealing-induced shape change in AISI 420 sheet
No full textHeat treatment of metallic components, while crucial for achieving desired material properties, often inducesshape changes that compromise dimensional accuracy. For components manufactured from AISI 420 sheet, thisshape change is minor yet critical, presenting significant challenges for experimental measurement and parametricinvestigation. This work develops and validates a finite element-based constitutive model suite to not onlypredict this phenomenon but also to design a novel multistage forming process that deliberately amplifies theshape change for measurability. The model, which incorporates mechanical and thermal effects, was implementedin a staged workflow preserving state variables across simulations. Validation against an existing processdemonstrated excellent agreement in predicting both earing and annealing-induced shape change. Subsequently,this validated model was employed to design a new process. Among five tooling variants assessed, the optimizeddesign successfully amplifies the shape change to 47.3 µm, a tenfold increase over an existing process. Ouranalysis reveals that shape change is governed by the magnitude and components of residual stress inconjunction with product geometry. This study contributes a validated constitutive model suite, a systematicworkflow for FEM-based process design, and a novel multistage forming process engineered to amplifyannealing-induced shape change and enhance measurability
Moral management in the extractive industries during turbulent times:see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil
No full textWe develop an inclusive overarching moral framework for understanding corporate behaviour in turbulent times (or non-normal situations). We test this framework empirically using a case study from the extractives sector, the planned Dominga mining project in Chile. Chile experienced turbulent times (social and political turmoil) with the 18-O social revolution (on 18 October 2019), the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economic and social lives of people, and with public shock following the release of the Pandora Papers in August 2021, which exposed high-level corruption. We undertook multi-phased, multi-method fieldwork across several research visits to Chile between 2019 and 2022. We considered various corporate moral management concepts such as moral silence, moral muteness, moral deafness, moral blindness, moral myopia, moral hypocrisy, moral paralysis, and moral nihilism. While these concepts are conceptually clear, in our research, we found that they were hard to differentiate. Nevertheless, by clarifying and bringing together some of the concepts, we believe that together they provide a useful and comprehensive framework to analyse the ethical decision-making of managers. We contributed to the theory around the morality of corporate behaviour by demonstrating that a corporation’s behaviour can be analysed by applying our moral framework. Our findings are significant because, by identifying the ways corporations justify or obscure their actions, we provide a useful tool for stakeholders, regulators, and civil society to assess corporate moral behaviour.</p
Do countries with similar environmental impact share values? An integrated analysis to inform environmental education
No full textUnderstanding which values associate with sustainable outcomes is essential for rethinking environmental education (EE). This study investigates whether countries with high human development but low environmental impact share distinctive value patterns that could inform EE frameworks. Using an integrative approach, we combined data from two sustainability databases –the Global Footprint Network and the Sustainable Development Index– with the European Values Study/World Values Survey (2017–2022). A total of 591 categorical variables were analysed using Cramér's V to identify significant differences between low, medium, and high environmental impact country groups, selected among countries with high and very high human development. Results show that religiosity, spirituality, and intergenerational household structures associate with lower environmental impact, while secular-rational and individualistic orientations align with higher impact. Non-denominational spirituality also emerges as significant across contexts, suggesting that spiritual and relational worldviews may be overlooked resources for sustainability policy and education. By contrast, pro-environmental attitudes and indicators of subjective well-being, such as happiness, freedom, and health, do not consistently differentiate between impact groups. Additional factors such as insularity and average national temperature further relate to sustainability outcomes, highlighting the interplay of cultural and structural dimensions. These findings suggest that current EE frameworks may be too narrowly focused on cognitive and attitudinal factors. To be effective, EE must incorporate spiritual, moral, and communal dimensions, engaging with the plurality of worldviews that guide human–environment relations. More nuanced sustainability indicators, sensitive to cultural and contextual diversity, are needed to better understand and foster comprehensive pathways towards sustainability.</p
Natural daylight during office hours improves glucose control and whole-body substrate metabolism
No full textBecause 80%–90% of our time is spent indoors and daylight is the main synchronizer of the central biological clock, the chronic lack of daylight is increasingly considered as a risk factor for metabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes. In a randomized crossover design (NCT05263232), 13 individuals with type 2 diabetes were exposed to natural daylight facilitated through windows vs. constant artificial lighting during office hours for 4.5 consecutive days. Continuous glucose monitoring revealed that participants spent more time in the normal glucose range, and whole-body substrate metabolism shifted toward a greater reliance on fat oxidation during daylight. Primary myotubes cultured from skeletal muscle biopsies displayed a phase advance after daylight exposure. Multi-omic analyses revealed daylight-induced differences in serum metabolites, lipids, and monocyte transcripts. Our findings suggest that natural daylight exposure has a positive metabolic impact on individuals with type 2 diabetes and could support the treatment of metabolic diseases.</p
Genetic Insights in Hindbrain Abnormalities Through Network Analysis Expose Key Biological Pathways in Hindbrain Development
No full textThe number of known developmental disorders affecting the hindbrain is rapidly increasing due to advances in neuroimaging and genetic technologies. Nevertheless, it remains largely unknown why the development of the hindbrain is affected in many genetic disorders. We aim to unveil new insights into the biological pathways essential for hindbrain development by investigation of the pathogenetics of hindbrain abnormalities. In this work, an updated gene list of abnormalities of the hindbrain was generated, and genes were subsequently grouped according to most prevalent association in (1) predominantly cerebellar, (2) cerebellar and brainstem and (3) brainstem malformations. Brain-specific gene co-expression networks were generated to identify functional relationships and novel genes that were not yet linked to hindbrain malformations. The results showed that shared biological pathways underlie distinct hindbrain processes, even when cells originate from different primordia. Key players in hindbrain development include genes encoding transcription factors and extracellular signaling molecules. Notably, brainstem abnormalities are biologically distinct, with a smaller role for ciliogenesis. Through co-expression analysis, we identified candidate genes for hindbrain malformations including TRRAP and NCAM1. The identification of essential biological pathways in this study uncovers additional important challenges in genetic hindbrain malformations, such as how defects in apparently ubiquitous processes result in brain-specific phenotypes, and how timing and repair mechanisms influence the pathogenesis of affected pathways.</p
Parental Age Effects on Offspring Telomere Length Across Vertebrates:A Meta-Analysis
No full textTelomeres shorten with advancing age in numerous species, and shorter telomeres are linked to increased mortality risk. While parental age at conception can influence offspring telomere length, the magnitude and direction of this effect differ across studies, species, and parental sexes. To understand how parental age influences offspring telomere length across vertebrates, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine the effects of paternal and maternal age at conception on offspring telomere length, incorporating 99 effect sizes from 30 human studies and 49 effect sizes from 12 non-human vertebrate studies. There was a positive overall parental age effect on offspring telomere length within human studies, while no effect was found in non-human vertebrate studies after adjusting for study, estimate, and phylogenetic effects. Considerable heterogeneity was attributed mainly to between-study variance in human studies and to phylogeny in non-human studies. Parental age effect estimates were correlated with the laboratory methods used for measuring telomere length in all studies. In human studies, the interaction between parental and offspring sex affected the parental age effect estimates, and estimates derived from leukocytes were less positive than those from other cells. In non-human vertebrates, parental age effects were less negative when the parents' identity was controlled for in the study. Publication biases suggest overestimation of the parental age effect in human studies. We recommend that future research be conducted on a broader range of taxa, test for within-parent effects, and follow standardised reporting practices to enhance data comparability.</p