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Enablers and barriers to implementing effective disaster risk management according to good governance principles: Lessons from Central Vietnam
Get PDFDespite the increasing frequency and intensity of natural hazard-induced disasters, global disaster risk governance predominantly focuses on theoretical frameworks and broad policies, with a noticeable gap in the effective local implementation of strategies grounded in good governance principles. This research aims to address this gap by evaluating the alignment of local disaster risk management policies with key good governance principles including: accountability, collaboration, transparency, information sharing, decentralization and autonomy, responsiveness and flexibility. Using Thua Thien Hue province in Central Vietnam, a region highly vulnerable to natural hazards, as a case study, this research combines legal document analysis and expert interviews to assess both enablers and barriers in disaster risk management. The findings identify several enablers, including clear legal frameworks, public transparency in resource allocation, active multi-stakeholder collaboration, and localized governance approaches that empower community involvement. However, persistent barriers include accountability gaps due to the lack of enforceable sanctions and incentives for proactive disaster prevention. Collaborative efforts remain predominantly government-led, with limited engagement from the private sector. Challenges in information sharing arise from insufficient dissemination of risk maps and hazard assessments at the community level. Decentralization and autonomy efforts struggle with personnel shortages and inadequate training. Responsiveness and flexibility suffer from the failure to adequately integrate vulnerability scenarios into legal frameworks. These findings highlight the importance of addressing barriers while leveraging existing enablers to strengthen governance frameworks in hazard-prone regions, providing valuable lessons that can be adapted to other disaster-prone areas globally
Effects of corticothalamic feedback depend on visual responsiveness and stimulus type
Get PDFIn the dorsolateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) of the thalamus, stimulus-driven signals combine with modulatory inputs such as corticothalamic (CT) feedback and behavioral state, but their impact in shaping dLGN activity is debated. We recorded extracellular responses in the dLGN of mice viewing a movie stimulus, while photosuppressing CT feedback and tracking locomotion and pupil size. Using generalized linear models fit to single neuron responses, we found that including CT feedback and behavioral state improved model predictions, especially for a subpopulation of neurons poorly responsive to the movie. Intriguingly, the impact of CT feedback was stronger without a patterned visual stimulus. Finally, for neurons sensitive to CT feedback, visual stimuli could be more easily discriminated when CT feedback was suppressed. Together, these results show that the effects of modulatory inputs in dLGN depend on visual responsiveness and stimulus type, with CT feedback affecting sensitivity and reliability, potentially to tune the thalamic relay
How is global commerce affecting the gender composition of employment? A firm-level analysis of the effects of exposure to gender norms via trade and FDI
Get PDFGlobal firms have a higher share of female employees than domestic non-exporters. To explain this fact, this paper tests whether international trade and FDI are channels through which norms regarding gender (in)equality are transmitted from customers and investors to firms. We employ pooled cross-sectional data from 2007–2016 for around 28,000 firms in 104 different countries. We compare global versus non-global firms in the same market to study the influence of firms’ exposure to gender norms in commercial partner countries. The results show a race to the top for low- and mid-level jobs and the opposite for top managerial positions
Assur 2024: Continuing the excavations in the New Town and other research across the site
No full textThis second volume of the series “Exploring Assur” presents the results achieved at Assur, modern Qal’at Sherqat, chiefly in its New Town, through fieldwork and analyses undertaken in 2024 by the Assur Excavation Project. Edited by Karen Radner and Andrea Squitieri, the book contains contributions by Mustafa Ahmad, Mark Altaweel, Silvia Amicone, Alessandra Cellerino, Katleen Deckers, Eileen Eckmeier, Kay Ehling, Jörg Fassbinder, Rafał A. Fetner, Enrico Foietta, Eduardo Garzanti, Helen Gries, Veronica Hinterhuber, Doğa Karakaya, F. Janoscha Kreppner, Marta Lorenzon, John MacGinnis, Alessio Palmisano, Jana Richter, Jens Rohde, Claudia Sarkady, Michaela Schauer, Poppy Tushingham, Melis Uzdurum and Marco Wolf.
New information, including a further 15 radiocarbon dates, is presented for the Parthian-period cemetery, the Hellenistic Building A, and the Neo-Assyrian Building B unearthed in the trench NT1. The new trench NT2 brought to light a newly discovered drainage shaft for the entire New Town’s wastewater, which was built during its original construction in the mid-second millennium BC, punching through the bedrock. This shaft was used and maintained until the end of the Assyrian occupation of the city. A charcoal sample radiocarbon-dated to 770-541 calBC was identified as oak (quercus), which must have been imported to Assur. A pottery sherd bears a fragmentary Neo-Assyrian cuneiform inscription running in three lines from the vessel’s rim to its bottom; the text is neither a straightforward dedication nor statement of ownership although it mentions an individual and a group of associated persons. After the fall of the Assyrian Empire, the shaft gradually filled up until the end of Assur’s Parthian-period occupation, especially with workshop waste from metal and ceramic production. We were therefore able to retrieve a well stratified pottery sequence for the two millennia long occupation period of the New Town.
In trench NT1, some of the newly excavated burials from the Parthian-period cemetery contain unglazed clay bathtub sarcophagi of a type already well known from the Neo-Assyrian period. Some of them show clear signs of repair, and this may indicate that antique sarcophagi were reused in the Parthian period, as already Walter Andrae had suggested. The cemetery was looted in antiquity, and two large water jars were likely left behind by the looters in the Early Islamic period, as the vessels’ characteristic honeycomb decoration allows their dating to the 8th century AD.
Important finds from the sizable Building A below that cemetery include a coin of either Antiochus VIII. (125–96 BC) or his son Antiochus XII. (87–83/82 BC), in any case a late Seleucid piece, and the fragment of an imported Attic echinus bowl, one of the most popular forms of the Hellenistic vessel typology, whose non-local origin was also confirmed by the chemical and petrographic ceramic analysis; both finds further secure the Hellenistic dating of Building A. “Room 5” of the previous Iraqi excavations of 2002 could be shown to be Building A’s deep grain silo. The flotation samples yielded further material for the ongoing plant identification, including the newly identified wild plant astragalus sp. (milkvetch).
Also in trench NT1, a new room of the enormous Neo-Assyrian Building B was excavated that can be identified as a reception room. It provided a good amount of flotation material that provided more radicarbon datings and deepened our knowledge of the domesticated and wild plants in use at Assur during the late Neo-Assyrian period.
Furthermore, in the temple district of Assur, we took corings from the holy-of-holies of the sanctuaries of the gods Ishtar and Ashur to shed light on their construction history. While inconclusive for the Ashur temple, drilling in the cella of the Ishtar temple exposed a 1 m thick layer of non-local sand that had been deposited directly beneath the first sanctuary of the Early Dynastic Period. The use of imported sand likely served the ritual purification of the site.
In addition to the detailed presentation of the new excavation results, the book contains chapters on the ongoing erosion damage to the archaeological site, on the coring and geophysical prospecting programmes (in 2024 with a focus on earth resistivity tomography), on the typological, chemical and petrographical analyses of the pottery, on the small finds and the cuneiform texts (largely bricks from the surface), on the brick recipes from different periods based on their geochemical analysis, on the human remains, and on the ancient plant life and use (based on the analysis of charcoals, flotation light fractions and phytholiths)
A gentling program decreases fear-related behaviour towards humans but not towards novel objects in broiler chickens
Get PDFThe human-animal-relationship is a crucial aspect of good animal welfare. Improvements in this regard might be particularly relevant for chickens, as their relationship with humans in commercial husbandry conditions is often limited to brief animal inspections (visual contact) on a daily basis. Regular human contact can potentially reduce fear responses towards humans in chickens, but to achieve this, a long period of several weeks of habituation is usually required. In this study, we investigated whether a short period of ‘gentling’ (i.e. standardised human-animal interactions that the chicks are likely to perceive as positive) within the first 3 days of life would be sufficient to reduce fear responses towards humans in broiler chickens. Six groups of ca. 220 (214 – 254) day-old broiler chicks each were exposed to a gentling program by a human after arrival. The same number of control groups received no human contact apart from routine husbandry procedures. We performed three behavioural tests on the chickens to assess their fear of humans. A stationary person test (SPT) measured the voluntary approach to a standing human, an avoidance distance test (ADT) measured the avoidance behaviour towards an approaching human while a touch test (TT) measured the approach behaviour towards a squatting person followed by the measurement of the avoidance behaviour from the approaching hand. Additionally, a novel object test (NOT) was performed to assess whether a potential fear reduction would be limited to humans. The tests were conducted at three different ages of the chickens (day 7, 21 and 36). In all human-related tests, chickens of the gentled groups showed less avoidance and more approach behaviour towards the human than chickens of the control groups (SPT: p = 0.004, ADT: p = 0.001, TT: p = 0.035). The results of the NOT showed statistically no significant behavioural differences between the gentling and control groups (p = 0.205), confirming that the chicks' fear responses are not generalised but specific to human-related tests. The present study suggests that gentle handling of chickens during the first 3 days of life can improve the human-animal-relationship for at least 36 days
In vivo comparison of resin infiltration outcomes under different light conditions: A randomized controlled clinical trial
Get PDFObjective
Success of resin infiltration for the masking of MIH-lesions remains difficult to predict, prompting suggestions to adjust the treatment protocol. This exploratory in vivo study aims to evaluate whether monitoring the resin infiltration process using transmitted light, compared to ambient light, enables a better estimation of when the infiltration process is completed, and to assess how the treatment success, i.e. masking effect and infiltration proportion, is influenced accordingly.
Methods
15 patients with 19 MIH-lesions, diagnosed according to EAPD diagnostic criteria, were enrolled. MIH-lesions were randomly assigned to two treatment groups. In one group resin infiltration progression was monitored under transmitted light, whereas in the second group ambient light was used, representing the standard procedure. Pictures were taken before infiltration and when progression became evident until infiltration was judged to be completed. Infiltration proportion and color difference between the opacity and surrounding sound enamel were calculated and analyzed using the independent-sample t-test with a level of significance of p < 0.05.
Results
Compared to the ambient light group, the transmitted light group showed a significantly higher infiltration time (17.7 ± 8.2 min vs. 9.3 ± 1.6 min); a significantly higher mean infiltration proportion (97.6 ± 2.8% vs. 83.9 ± 9.7%) and a significantly better masking effect (i.e. lower mean color difference (∆E) between effected and sound enamel: 4.5 ± 2.4 vs. 7.5 ± 3.3).
Conclusion
Transillumination-guided resin infiltration required prolonged infiltration time but led to an increased infiltration proportion and improved masking effects.
Clinical significance
Transillumination guided resin infiltration enables a more accurate judgement as to when the infiltration process has been completed, which leads, through extension of the infiltration time, to a significantly higher mean infiltration proportion and provides favorable esthetic outcomes
A cis-regulatory element controls expression of histone deacetylase 9 to fine-tune inflammasome-dependent chronic inflammation in atherosclerosis
Get PDFCommon genetic variants in a conserved cis-regulatory element (CRE) at histone deacetylase (HDAC)9 are a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, including stroke and coronary artery disease. Given the consistency of this association and its proinflammatory properties, we examined the mechanisms whereby HDAC9 regulates vascular inflammation. HDAC9 bound and mediated deacetylation of NLRP3 in the NACHT and LRR domains leading to inflammasome activation and lytic cell death. Targeted deletion of the critical CRE in mice increased Hdac9 expression in myeloid cells to exacerbate inflammasome-dependent chronic inflammation. In human carotid endarterectomy samples, increased HDAC9 expression was associated with atheroprogression and clinical plaque instability. Incorporation of TMP195, a class IIa HDAC inhibitor, into lipoprotein-based nanoparticles to target HDAC9 at the site of myeloid-driven vascular inflammation stabilized atherosclerotic plaques, implying a lower risk of plaque rupture and cardiovascular events. Our findings link HDAC9 to atherogenic inflammation and provide a paradigm for anti-inflammatory therapeutics for atherosclerosis
Risks of electromagnetic fields from the perspective of general practitioners and pediatricians
Get PDFBackground:
Although there is little evidence for adverse health effects due to exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) below legal limits, worries regarding these effects are relatively frequent in the general population. For many individuals, general practitioners (GPs) and pediatricians are the first point of contact with the health system. Therefore, it is essential to understand their EMF risk perception.
Methods:
We conducted a cross-sectional mixed methods study inviting 3,000 GPs and 2,000 pediatricians sampled from the German Federal Medical Registry, of which 614 (12.3%) participated in an online survey and 25 participated in focus groups. We estimated the prevalence of high risk perception, poor subjective knowledge regarding EMF, and the relevance of EMF in their everyday work correcting for non-response by Multilevel Regression and Poststratification.
Results:
About a quarter of physicians indicated high risk perception regarding health and EMF. Relevance was low, with about 40% of GPs and about 20% of pediatricians reporting EMF-related consultations during the last year. About 60% of physicians had poor subjective knowledge. Many physicians said they could not rule out the possibility of adverse health effects of EMF due to insufficient knowledge and expressed a need for information to address this knowledge gap.
Conclusions:
A substantial part of GPs and pediatricians with high risk perception are physicians with poor subjective knowledge regarding EMF who cannot completely rule out EMF below legal limits as a cause of unspecific, unclear symptoms, and who are therefore open to patients’ suggestions of EMF as a potential cause
Treating sleep disturbances in refugees and asylum seekers: results from a randomized controlled pilot trial evaluating the STARS group intervention
Get PDFBackground: Sleep disturbances are highly prevalent in traumatized refugees and often persist despite treatment, and adapted scalable interventions are needed. The group intervention ‘Sleep Training adapted for Refugees’ (STARS) is a culturally- and context-sensitive approach based on evidence-based treatments for sleep disturbances (e.g. CBT-I, IRT). This study evaluated the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of STARS.
Method: A randomized-controlled trial (STARS vs. waitlist) with 47 young male Afghan refugees was conducted in a routine clinical setting (DRKS-ID: DRKS00024419) with pre-, post- and 3-month follow-up assessments. The primary outcome was insomnia severity (Insomnia Severity Index); secondary outcomes included PTSD, anxiety and depression symptoms, nightmares, coping with nightmares, fear of sleep, selected sleep diary measures, and quality of life. The data were analysed using mixed models.
Results: Adherence to STARS was high (dropout = 17.4%, average attended sessions = 77%) as was client satisfaction (MCSQ-4 = 12.74, SDCSQ-4 = 2.08). A medium to large significant effect of time was observed for insomnia severity (d = 0.96) and most secondary measures (except nightmares and fear of sleep). However, there was no significant interaction with condition at post-treatment for the primary outcome (d = 0.29) and most secondary outcomes; the only exceptions were increased coping with nightmares, decreased daytime sleep, and time in bed.
Conclusions: STARS appears feasible for treating sleep disturbances in traumatized refugees in a routine clinical setting, showing moderate to large within-group effects. However, it was not superior to the waitlist, likely due to unexpected improvements in the waitlist group. Adjustments to STARS may enhance its efficacy. Further research is needed to determine how STARS can be a scalable add-on treatment for sleep disturbances in traumatized refugees and asylum seekers