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Bio-Compositional and Microstructural Changes in Rabbit Knee Collateral Ligaments Eight Weeks After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Transection
No full textInjury to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is common in young, active individuals. It has the potential to lead to post-traumatic osteoarthritis. However, the effects of ACL injury on the bio-composition and microstructure of the knee's collateral ligaments have been poorly explored. In this study, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) imaging and quantitative polarized light microscopy (qPLM) were used to identify the respective changes in bio-composition and collagen fiber arrangements of the knee's collateral ligaments. To mimic an ACL trauma, unilateral ACL transection surgery was performed on either the left or right knee of 6 mature New Zealand white rabbits. Lateral and medial collateral ligaments were harvested from the transected and contralateral knees 8 weeks after the ACL transection surgery. At the same time, collateral ligaments of 4 age-matched, healthy rabbits were collected from the right and left knees. From acquired FTIR images, the relative collagen and proteoglycan contents of the collateral ligaments were estimated and compared between the transected, contralateral, and control knees. The results revealed lower collagen and higher proteoglycan content in ACL-transected collateral ligaments compared to collateral ligaments of contralateral and control group knees. Additionally, qPLM revealed a more disorganized collagen fiber matrix, accompanied by increased crimp angles and longer crimp lengths following ACL transection. This study provides novel insight into the bio-compositional and microstructural alterations of collateral ligaments following ACL injury, highlighting the importance of considering the structure-function properties of collateral ligaments in treatment planning aimed at restoring normal knee joint function after ACL injury
Opinion Formation and Political Polarization
No full text·Public opinion is essential for democratic societies, but social media changes how opinion is formed. ·Affective polarization – the phenomenon that individuals develop strong emotional attachments to their own political group and strong dislike and bias toward political outgroups – is growing in many democratic societies. ·Affective polarization may make individuals more susceptible to believe in and share political misinformation, suggesting that this type of polarization may be detrimental for information processing and information sharing in democratic societies. ·Another potential consequence of affective polarization is that it may influence what political opinions individuals take on various issues, and that it may increase ideological polarization in the electorate, for example on issues like climate chang
Alcohol Consumption and Atrial Fibrillation Risk : An Overview of Systematic Reviews and Network Meta-Analysis
No full textISSUES: Although alcohol consumption is linked to atrial fibrillation (AF), the relationship across different intake levels and between sexes remains unclear. This study presents the first network meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies bringing greater precision to these associations.APPROACH: A systematic review identified five meta-analyses on alcohol and AF risk. From these, 13 cohort studies totalling over 80 million person-years were included in a random-effects network meta-analysis, including sex-stratified analyses.KEY FINDINGS: Compared to low-level consumption (< 12 g/day), moderate intake (12-< 24 g/day) slightly increased AF risk (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.07; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.04-1.10), similar at 24-< 36 g/day (HR = 1.09; 95% CI 1.00-1.20). No significant risk increase was observed for 36-< 60 g/day. Heavy consumption (≥ 60 g/day) showed the highest risk (HR = 2.84; 95% CI 1.57-5.14). Non-drinkers ('Former', 'Never' or 'Occasional') had HRs near 1, except 'None', which showed a slight increase (HR = 1.08; 95% CI 1.04-1.11).IMPLICATIONS: In males, moderate consumption increased AF risk slightly, while heavy intake had a more pronounced effect (HR = 1.49; 95% CI 1.22-1.81). In females, moderate intake had no significant effect, but heavy intake significantly increased risk (HR = 2.53; 95% CI 1.05-6.08).CONCLUSION: This network meta-analysis shows a nonlinear relationship between alcohol consumption and AF risk. Low-level or occasional intake poses the lowest risk. In males, moderate consumption slightly increases AF risk, while in females, risk rises substantially only with heavy intake. These findings support limiting alcohol consumption to reduce AF risk and highlight the need for further sex-stratified studies and consideration of sex-specific recommendations.REGISTRATION: This network meta-analysis is a split review of an overview of reviews examining alcohol-attributable health and social harms, registered under PROSPERO ID442338
Camp : a modular metagenomics analysis system for integrated multistep data exploration
No full textComputational analysis of large-scale metagenomics sequencing datasets provides valuable isolate-level taxonomic and functional insights from complex microbial communities. However, the ever-expanding ecosystem of metagenomics-specific methods and file formats makes designing scalable workflows and seamlessly exploring output data increasingly challenging. Although one-click bioinformatics pipelines can help organize these tools into workflows, they face compatibility and maintainability challenges that can prevent replication. To address the gap in easily extensible yet robustly distributable metagenomics workflows, we have developed the Core Analysis Modular Pipeline (CAMP), a module-based metagenomics analysis system written in Snakemake, with a standardized module and directory architecture. Each module can run independently or in sequence to produce target data formats (e.g. short-read preprocessing alone or followed by de novo assembly), and provides output summary statistics reports and Jupyter notebook-based visualizations. We applied CAMP to a set of 10 metagenomics samples, demonstrating how a modular analysis system with built-in data visualization facilitates rich seamless communication between outputs from different analytical purposes. The CAMP ecosystem (module template and analysis modules) can be found at https://github.com/Meta-CAMP
Evolution of Indigenous Peoples' Rights as Human Rights : Contribution by Sámi Rights Cases at UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies
No full textSvensk barnrätt : Introduktion till barnkonventionen som avtal och lag
No full textSvensk barnrätt ger en grundläggande introduktion till juridik som ämne och till Förenta nationernas konvention om barnets rättigheter (barnkonventionen). Bokens kapitel rör frågor om barns rättigheter inom ämnena familjerätt, socialrätt, utbildningsrätt, migrationsrätt, straffrätt, utsökningsrätt och hyresrätt. Sätten som barns rättigheter fått uttryck inom de olika rättsområdena skiljer sig åt. Inom vissa områden har artiklar i barnkonventionen fått direkt genomslag i svensk lagstiftning. På andra av de behandlade områdena har barnets rättigheter endast fått genomslag genom praxis från våra högsta domstolar. Därutöver är barnkonventionens artiklar 1–42 svensk lag sedan 1 januari 2020. Boken ger läsaren en övergripande bild av svensk rätt och dess förhållande till barns rättigheter samt dess olika uttryck
Some Further Thoughts on the Illegal US Attack on Venezuela: Self-Defence, Cyber, and Continuing Coercion
No full textVaccine protection against COVID-19 mortality in relation to time since last booster dose among nursing home residents in Sweden - A case-control study over 35 months
No full textBACKGROUND: The implementation of COVID-19 vaccination among older persons at nursing homes has lowered the infection-associated mortality considerably, but emerging virus variants and decline in vaccine-induced immunity over time necessitate examination of future booster dosing strategies. The overall aim of this study was to assess vaccine protection against COVID-19 mortality in relation to time elapsed since the last booster dose.METHODS: All older persons living in nursing homes in Sweden at any time point December 27th, 2020 - December 4th, 2023 were included. For each case (5256 COVID-19 and 85,745 all-cause deaths), up to 10 controls were sampled randomly from this population, matched with respect to birth year, sex and county. The matched case-control sets were analyzed for vaccination history with conditional logistic regression, with further adjustment for co-morbidties and prior SARS-CoV-2 infection.FINDINGS: Vaccination status (unvaccinated vs. vaccinated), ≥ 90 days since last vaccine dose, a co-morbidity score ≥ 2, and no previous SARS-CoV-2 infection were associated with death occurring within 30 days of a positive test. The odds ratio (OR) for COVID-19 death was 2.4 (95 % confidende interval [CI] 1.8-3.2) when contrasting at least 365 days with less than 90 days since the last vaccine dose.INTERPRETATION: Waning vaccine protection was observed already 90 days after the last vaccine dose among older people living in nursing homes. The reported ORs imply that more than one third of all COVID-19 deaths could in the investigated setting have been possible to prevent by more frequent vaccine boosting during 2022-2023