NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Insights Into Human Intrahepatic NK Cell Function From Single Cell RNA Sequencing Datasets
No full textDiverse populations of natural killer (NK) cells have been identified in circulating peripheral blood and a wide variety of different tissues and organs. These tissue-resident NK cell populations are phenotypically distinct from circulating NK cells, however, functional
descriptions of their roles within tissues are lacking. Recent advances in single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) have enabled detailed transcriptional profiling of tissues
at the level of single cells and provide the opportunity to explore NK cell diversity within tissues. This review explores potential novel functions of human liver-resident (lr)NK cells identified in human liver scRNA-seq studies. By comparing these datasets we identified up-regulated and down-regulated genes associated with lrNK cells clusters. These genes encode a number of activating and inhibiting receptors, as well as signal transduction molecules, which highlight potential unique pathways that lrNK cells utilize to respond to stimuli within the human liver. This unique receptor repertoire of lrNK cells may confer the ability to regulate a number of immune cell populations, such as circulating monocytes and T cells, while avoiding activation by liver hepatocytes and Kupffer cells. Validating the
expression of these receptors on lrNK cells and the proposed cellular interactions within the human liver will expand our understanding of the liver-specific homeostatic roles of
this tissue-resident immune cell population
Comparing the paleoclimates of northwestern and southwestern Madagascar during the late Holocene: Implications for the role of climate in megafaunal extinction.
No full textThe relative importance of climate and humans in the
disappearance of the Malagasy megafauna remains
under debate. Data from southwestern Madagascar
imply aridifcation contributed substantially to the late
Holocene decline of the megafauna (the Aridifcation
Hypothesis). Evidence for aridifcation includes
carbon isotopes from tree rings, lacustrine charcoal
concentrations and pollen assemblages, and
changes in fossil vertebrate assemblages indicative
of a local loss of pluvial conditions. In contrast,
speleothem records from northwestern Madagascar
suggest that megafaunal decline and habitat change
resulted primarily from human activity including
agropastoralism (the Subsistence Shift Hypothesis).
Could there have been contrasting mechanisms of
decline in different parts of Madagascar? Or are we
lacking the precisely dated, high resolution records
needed to fully understand the complex processes
behind megafaunal decline?
Reconciling these contrasting hypotheses
requires additional climate records from southwestern
Madagascar. We recovered a stalagmite (AF2)
from Asafora Cave in the spiny thicket ecoregion,
~10 km from the southwest coast and just southeast
of the Velondriake Marine Reserve. U-series and
14C dating of samples taken from the core of this
stalagmite provide a highly precise chronology
of the changes in hydroclimate and vegetation in
this region over the past 3000 years. Speleothem
stable oxygen and carbon isotope analyses provide
insight into past rainfall variability and vegetation
changes respectively. We compare these records
with those for a stalagmite (AB2) from Anjohibe
Cave in northwestern Madagascar. Lastly, odds
ratio analyses of radiocarbon dates for extinct and
extant subfossils allow us to describe and compare
the temporal trajectories of megafaunal decline in
the southwest and the northwest. Combined, these
analyses allow us to test the Aridifcation Hypothesis
for megafaunal extinction.
The trajectories of megafaunal decline differed
in northwestern and southwestern Madagascar.
In the southwest, unlike the northwest, there is no
evidence of decoupling of speleothem stable carbon
and oxygen isotopes. Instead, habitat changes in
the southwest were largely related to variation in
hydroclimate (including a prolonged drought). The
megafaunal collapse here occurred in tandem with
the drought, and agropastoralism likely contributed
to that demise only after the megafauna had already
suffered drought-related population reduction.
Our results offer some support for the Aridifcation
Hypothesis, but with three caveats: frst, that there
was no island-wide aridifcation; second, that
aridifcation likely impacted megafaunal decline
only in the driest parts of Madagascar; and third,
that aridifcation was not the sole factor promoting
Comparing the paleoclimates of northwestern and southwestern
Madagascar during the late Holocene: Implications for the role of climate in megafaunal extinction Faina et al.: Comparing the paleoclimates of northwestern and southwestern Madagascar 109 megafaunal decline even in the dry southwest.
A number of megafaunal species survived the
prolonged drought of the first millennium, and then
likely succumbed to the activities of agropastoralists
The Effect of Audio-Visual Smiles on Social Influence in a Cooperative Human–Agent Interaction Task
No full textEmotional expressivity is essential for human interactions, informing both perception and decision-making. Here, we examine whether creating an audio-visual emotional channel mismatch influences decision-making in a cooperative task with a virtual character. We created a virtual character that was either congruent in its emotional expression (smiling in the face and voice) or incongruent (smiling in only one channel). People (N = 98) evaluated the character in terms of valence and arousal in an online study; then, visitors in a museum played the “lunar survival task” with the character over three experiments (N = 597, 78, 101, respectively). Exploratory results suggest that multi-modal expressions are perceived, and reacted upon, differently than unimodal expressions, supporting previous theories of audio-visual integration
Articles Beyond Marketisation: Towards a Relational Future of Professionalism in Probation After Transforming Rehabilitation
No full textThe Coalition Government pledged to maintain ‘professionalism’ in probation through its market-based Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) reforms; however, the recent decision to reverse these reforms came as the service’s professionalism has been downgraded and diminished. TR eroded the networks of relationships, between and among people and organisations, which constitute probation’s essence (Senior et al., 2016) – that is, its ability to overlay the distinct, but interlinked spheres of corrections, social welfare, treatment and the community. This paper looks to the future of professionalism in English and Welsh probation after TR. We argue that the service lies at a crossroads, between a continuation of the punitive and marketising policies imposed in recent decades, and opportunities to recapture its essence through a relational re-professionalisation agenda. We advocate for a strategic and evidence-based professionalism in probation practice that emphasises relational co-production. Here, a restorative practice model can support relationship building in client facing and multi-agency contexts, begin to rebuild relationships within the service and offset the worst excesses of other agendas
Marx, Foucault, and state–corporate harm: a case study of regulatory failure in Australian non-prescription medicine regulation
No full textRisk-based regulation has underpinned Australian prescription and non-prescription
medicine regulation for over three decades. However, data consistently demonstrate
high rates of non-compliance among non-prescription medicine sponsors, with most
breaches a result of inappropriate labelling and advertising, a lack of evidence to
substantiate therapeutic claims, and product formulation and manufacturing. This
paper seeks to understand why the regime fails to achieve compliance from non-prescription medicine sponsors. Using a state–corporate harm lens, and Marxist and
Foucauldian perspectives, it is argued that regulatory failure is the product of the
regime’s congruence with neoliberal governmentality. This governmentality is inextricably linked to a neoliberal market hegemony that attempts to minimize forms of
market intervention detrimental to the accumulation of capital
Some First Stars Were Red: Detecting Signatures of Massive Population III Formation through Long-term Stochastic Color Variations
No full textIdentifying stars formed in pristine environments (Population III) within the first billion years is vital to uncovering the earliest growth and chemical evolution of galaxies. Population III galaxies, however, are typically expected to be too faint and too few in number to be detectable by forthcoming instruments without extremely long integration times and/or extreme lensing. In an environment, however, where star formation is suppressed until a halo crosses the atomic-cooling limit (e.g., by a modest Lyman–Werner flux, high baryonic streaming velocities, and/or dynamical heating effects), primordial halos can form substantially more numerous and more massive stars. Some of these stars will in turn be accreting more rapidly than they can thermally relax at any given time. Using high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations of massive star formation in high-z halos, we find that such rapidly accreting stars produce prominent spectral features that would be detectable by the James Webb Space Telescope. The rapid-accretion episodes within the halo lead to stochastic reprocessing of 0%–20% of the total stellar emission into the rest-frame optical over long timescales, a unique signature which may allow deep observations to identify such objects out to z ∼ 10–13 using mid- and wide-band NIRCam colors alone
The Pandemic Economy. Exploring the change in new business license activity in Chicago, USA from March – September, 2020
No full textSince its emergence in 2019, the worldwide spread of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) has created a vast economic crisis as government lockdowns place considerable strain on businesses of all kinds – particularly those that rely on face-to-face contact, such as retail restaurants, and personal services. Given the recent emergence of the virus and lags in data collection and publication, the highest-quality fine-grained spatial datasets on economic behavior will not reflect virus-related impacts for at least a year. At the same time, in order to make evidence-based decisions on policies regarding continuing lockdown and/or re-opening policies, local governments and researchers need to understand neighborhood-level economic effects much sooner than that. This paper makes use of the point-level Chicago Business License dataset, which is updated on a weekly basis, to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on new business activity in the City of Chicago. The results indicate that on average, from March to September 2020, total monthly new business starts have declined by 33.4% compared to the monthly average of new starts in the City from January 2016 to December 2019. Food service and retail businesses have been hardest hit during this period, while chains of all types have seen larger average declines in new startup activity than independent businesses. These patterns demonstrate interesting intra-urban spatial heterogeneity; ZIP codes with the largest pandemic-related declines in new business activity tend to be have larger rates average rates of new business creation to begin with and also have less dense, diverse, and walkable built environments (defined in more detail below), while, interestingly, observed COVID-19 case rates do not appear to have an individually-significant impact on new business deficits
Constitutional rigidity: The Mexican experiment
No full textThe constitutional amendment mechanism of the Mexican Constitution of 1857 (reproduced
in the Constitution of 1917) and Article V of the US Constitution are very similar in design.
Both require a two-thirds majority of each of the houses of a bicameral Congress and ratification by the states (half of the state legislatures in Mexico and three-fourths in the United
States). Both articles were the result of an experiment aiming at striking the right balance
between rigidity and flexibility. Yet, while characterized by similar levels of formal rigidity,
these experiments have had the exact opposite effect. While the US Constitution has been
described as one of the world’s most rigid and has only been amended twenty-seven times,
the Mexican Constitution of 1917 has gone through over 700 amendments. Why are the
amendment rates so divergent? This article argues that Mexico’s amendment practice offers
an opportunity to deepen our knowledge about how non-institutional factors condition the
way amendment provisions work and, thus, to dispel the idea that amendment difficulty is
institutionally determined. In particular, there are at least three lessons that may be drawn
from the Mexican case: (i) constitutional scholarship needs to shift its attention to political
parties and party systems; (ii) unwritten rules influencing the behavior of party members
need further study; and (iii) we must carefully look at the agency of constitutional decision makers, specifically regarding the choices they make among different means to advance their
interests and agendas
Prevalence and predictors of medication non-adherence among people living with multimorbidity: a systematic review and meta-analysis
No full textObjectives This systematic review aimed to describe medication non-adherence among people living with multimorbidity according to the current literature, and synthesise predictors of non-adherence in this population.
Methods A systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses. PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL and PsycINFO were searched for relevant articles published in English language between January 2009 and April 2019. Quantitative studies reporting medication non-adherence and/or predictors of non-adherence among people with two or more chronic conditions were included in the review. A meta-analysis was conducted with a subgroup of studies that used an inclusive definition of multimorbidity to recruit participants, rather than seeking people with specific conditions. Remaining studies reporting prevalence and predictors of non-adherence were narratively synthesised.
Results The database search produced 10 998 records and a further 75 were identified through other sources. Following full-text screening, 178 studies were included in the review. The range of reported non-adherence differed by measurement method, at 76.5% for self-report, 69.4% for pharmacy data, and 44.1% for electronic monitoring. A meta-analysis was conducted with eight studies (n=8949) that used an inclusive definition of multimorbidity to recruit participants. The pooled prevalence of non-adherence was 42.6% (95% CI: 34.0 - 51.3%, k=8, I2=97%, p<0.01). The overall range of non-adherence was 7.0%–83.5%. Frequently reported correlates of non-adherence included previous non-adherence and treatment-related beliefs.
Conclusions The review identified a heterogeneous literature in terms of conditions studied, and definitions and measures of non-adherence used. Results suggest that future attempts to improve adherence among people with multimorbidity should determine for which conditions individuals require most support. The variable levels of medication non-adherence highlight the need for more attention to be paid by healthcare providers to the impact of multimorbidity on chronic disease self-management
Virtual Morris water maze: opportunities and challenges
No full textThe ability to accurately recall locations and navigate our environment relies on multiple cognitive mechanisms. The behavioural and neural correlates of spatial navigation have been repeatedly examined using different types of mazes and tasks with animals. Accurate performances of many of these tasks have proven to depend on specific circuits and brain structures and some have become the standard test of memory in many disease models. With the introduction of virtual reality (VR) to neuroscience research, VR tasks have become a popular method of examining human spatial memory and navigation. However, the types of VR tasks used to examine navigation across laboratories appears to greatly differ, from open arena mazes and virtual towns to driving simulators. Here, we examined over 200 VR navigation papers, and found that the most popular task used is the virtual analogue of the Morris water maze (VWM). Although we highlight the many advantages of using the VWM task, there are also some major difficulties related to the widespread use of this behavioural method. Despite the task’s popularity, we demonstrate an inconsistency of use – particularly with respect to the environmental setup and procedures. Using different versions of the virtual water maze makes replication of findings and comparison of results across researchers very difficult. We suggest the need for protocol and design standardisation, alongside other difficulties that need to be addressed, if the virtual water maze is to become the ‘gold standard’ for human spatial research similar to its animal counterpart