324139 research outputs found
Sort by
Increased C-Reactive Protein Concentrations During Menstruation May Be Important for the Pathophysiology of Endometriosis and Possibly for Adhesion Formation—A Systematic Review
Get PDFObjectives: The peritoneal cavity is a cavity outside the bloodstream, with a specific hormonal, immunological and microbiological micro-environment distinct from plasma. The mesothelial cells lining the peritoneal cavity react within seconds to minor trauma, such as blood, with retraction, acute inflammation and later inflammation. This mesothelial cell retraction exposes the basal membrane, facilitating the implantation of tumour cells. Acute inflammation enhances adhesion formation after surgery and causes pain. The aim of the review was to check the hypothesis that retrograde menstruation, occurring in most women, is sufficient to cause some peritoneal irritation. Design: A systematic review of menstrual C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations, a non-specific marker of peritoneal inflammation (PROSPERO ID 536306). Results: All articles (n = 8) showed a variable increase in CRP concentrations during the menstrual and early follicular phase of 80 ± 36%. Conclusions: CRP concentrations are slightly increased during menstruation and the early follicular phase. This increase is likely due to retrograde menstruation, causing mesothelial cell retraction and acute pelvic inflammation. It seems logical that mesothelial cell retraction facilitates endometrial cell implantation and accounts for the anatomical distribution of endometriosis lesions. Acute pelvic inflammation may enhance postoperative adhesion formation
The Political Chimera: Was Bangladesh’s Sheikh Hasina Regime Fascist, Authoritarian, Populist or a Mix of all Three?
Get PDFThe fall of Sheikh Hasina’s long-ruling Awami League government in August 2024 has sparked the debate on whether Bangladesh’s government was fascist, authoritarian, populist, or a hybrid of all three. This article re-evaluates that inquiry through a comparative and postcolonial lens. It utilises established theories of fascism and contemporary reinterpretations that examine fascism’s morphological persistence in modern authoritarian populism. Simultaneously, it interacts with the extensive regime-type literature concerning populism as both ideology and style, as well as hybrid or competitive authoritarianism. This study suggests that Hasina’s Bangladesh represented a fascist–authoritarian–populist amalgamation: a civilian autocracy maintained through emotional mobilisation, developmental nationalism, and digital coercion. It contextualises the Bangladeshi case within the political modernity of the global South. Also, through analyses of legal changes and co-optation of the judiciary, this paper shows the total control that the Hasina regime was able to exercise on the state institutions, which were hollowed out but still kept up in a performative capacity to keep up a ‘democratic’ veneer. The research concludes that the Hasina regime cannot be readily categorised within a singular typology; rather, it reflects a postcolonial form of authoritarian populism characterised by fascist characteristics
A radical–polar crossover approach to complex nitrogen heterocycles via the triplet state
Get PDFThe transition from radical to ionic reactivity is a key design feature of many photochemical reactions, enabling complex transformations not possible under either mechanistic regime alone. Ground-state alkenes are common substrates in existing methods of this type, serving as radical acceptors to generate open-shell intermediates from which the radical–polar crossover (RPC) event is oxidatively or reductively triggered by a photocatalyst. Here, we describe an alternative RPC mechanism proceeding via an alkene triplet diradical. In this transformation, an iodine radical liberated during a homolytic aromatic substitution step functions as a single-electron oxidant to generate an iminium electrophile that can be intercepted en route to complex natural product-like amines. An enantioselective variant of the reaction, enabled by an oxidatively installed sulfinyl leaving group, points to the generality of this underdeveloped pattern of diradical reactivity, paving the way to other triplet-state reactions that incorporate both one- and two-electron bond-forming processes
Comparative analysis of deep mutational scanning datasets in enteroviruses A and B identifies functional divergence and therapeutic targets
Get PDFDeep mutational scanning (DMS) can define functional constraints acting on viral proteomes by quantifying the effects of mutations on viral fitness. However, DMS analyses do not discern type-specific from species-level constraints, limiting their utility in understanding how selective pressures change as viral families diversify. Here we show that comparison of DMS datasets from related viruses can overcome these limitations. By contrasting two proteome-wide DMS datasets from prototypical members of the enterovirus A and B species, we identify evolutionary constraints at the species level to occur across core enzymatic machinery and capsid assembly interfaces. In contrast, type-level constraints are observed across host-interaction sites in both structural and non-structural proteins. Furthermore, we find DMS data to reflect both type- and species-level evolutionary signatures in nature yet diverge at conserved hotspots subjected to selection pressures that are lacking in vitro. Finally, we highlight the utility of comparative DMS studies for drug discovery by identifying a mutationally constrained pocket in the 2C helicase that is conserved across all major human enterovirus species. Our findings provide a framework for dissecting evolutionary pressures acting at different evolutionary scales and for guiding the rational design of broad-spectrum therapeutics with high barriers to resistance
Tuning the orientation of self-assembled CsPbBr3 perovskite nanoplatelet superlattices through ligand engineering
No full textRaw data for research pape
Addressing context-specific energy modelling risks and dynamics in low- and middle-income countries
Get PDFEnergy modelling tools guide energy transition planning, yet critical questions persist regarding their application in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). These countries face the complex challenge of meeting growing energy needs in ways that are affordable, sustainable and resilient, while also advancing broader, long-term development goals in uncertain financial, geopolitical and climatic contexts. Here we highlight that innovation in modelling practice is required to adequately analyse current planning challenges and avoid the risks of misaligned policy advice. Framed through three features of modelling practice—choice of paradigm, modelling process and pluralism of expertise—we identify priority areas for methodological advancement. This means innovation across energy planning related to context-specificity, system dynamics and uncertainties, as well as integration with connected systems. To mainstream innovation, we propose a focus on ensuring data and modelling availability, prioritizing support for modelling in low-planning-capacity contexts, and expanding networks of practice that support LMIC modelling
The role of implicit learning in L2 morphosyntax: an artificial-grammar language learning experiment
Get PDFThere is sustained interest in exploring implicit learning in second language acquisition (SLA). Previously, Williams and his colleagues (2004, 2005, 2009) demonstrated the involvement of implicit learning in grammatical form-meaning mappings. However, Hama and Leow (2010) revisited Williams’ study, finding that participants failed to learn novel form-meaning connections implicitly. Additionally, Williams (2004) touched on the potential relationship between implicit learning and learners’ gendered language background, but his later studies found no evidence for this relationship. In view of these conflicting results, the present study identified several methodological flaws of existing studies and modified the experimental design accordingly to probe into this topic in a more refined manner. The emphasis of this research lies in the role of implicit learning in the acquisition of L2 morphosyntax. Drawing on an artificial-determiner paradigm proposed by Williams (2005), this study worked with forty Chinese native speakers with English as their second language. All instructions and experimental materials were in English. Participants were introduced to four artificial articles: gi, ro, ul, and ne, which were taken as determiners to modify nouns. They were told that the determiner usage depended on whether the modified nouns referred to animals or humans. However, what was unknown to the participants was that gi was used to modify nouns related to predators, while ul was used to modify those associated with prey. Similarly, ro was accompanied by nouns of powerful roles, yet ne was for those denoting powerless roles (i.e. the hidden rule). The present study adopted a mixed method design to investigate the occurrence of implicit learning, L2 learners’ consciousness of the hidden rule, and the relationship between consciousness and L2 learners’ gendered language background. The results suggested that L2 learners could learn the hidden rule of the artificial-determiner system implicitly. Thirty-one of forty participants remained unaware of the hidden rule at the end of the experiment, but their accuracy rate of target items was significantly above the chance level. In general, the aware group outperformed the unaware group in the test task. L2 learners’ consciousness of the hidden rule was found to be unrelated to their prior knowledge of gendered language. These findings supported the involvement of implicit learning in acquiring L2 morphosyntax, especially free grammatical morphemes. It would be advisable if L2 teachers could provide L2 learners with a supportive environment to promote implicit learning
Prediction of incident heart failure in established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease: the SMART2-HF model
Get PDFBackground and aims: Patients with established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) are at high risk of developing heart failure (HF). However, incident HF is not part of the risk assessment of current guideline-recommended models. The aim of this study was to develop and externally validate the SMART2-HF model for prediction of incident HF in patients with ASCVD. Methods: SMART2-HF was developed in 7698 individuals with established ASCVD (coronary, cerebrovascular, or peripheral artery disease, or abdominal aortic aneurysm) but without prior HF from the UCC-SMART cohort. Cox proportional hazards models including sex-predictor interactions and with age as the time scale were derived to estimate the 10-year and lifetime risk of incident HF (hospitalization for HF or HF-related death), accounting for competing non-HF mortality. Predictors, limited to routinely available clinical characteristics, were aligned with the SMART2 risk model for recurrent cardiovascular risk in the same population. External validation was performed in 240 741 patients with ASCVD from six data sources: the Clinical Practice Research Datalink, the HUNT3 study, the SWEDEHEART Registry, the ASCVD-Particles cohort, the Estonian Biobank and the international REACH Registry. Results: During a median follow-up of 11.2 years (interquartile range 6.1–16.4 years), 1031 incident HF events (13%) occurred in the UCC-SMART cohort. In the external validation data sources, a total of 24 885 incident HF events (10%) occurred. The pooled C-statistic was 0.696 (95% confidence interval 0.674–0.717), with consistent performance in subgroups by sex and type of ASCVD. Predicted risks matched observed incidence in external validation. Conclusions: The SMART2-HF model enables the prediction of incident HF in patients with ASCVD. Aligned with the guideline-recommended SMART2 model for recurrent cardiovascular risk, SMART2-HF can be used as a complementary tool in this population
Kicking away the green ladder: the asymmetric sovereign risk from nature degradation
Get PDFThis paper investigates the uneven consequences of nature and biodiversity loss for the cost of sovereign government borrowing. A growing literature documents the adverse economic consequences of climate change. However, little attention has been devoted to the influence of nature degradation on sovereign bond yield spreads, which determine government’s funding costs and fiscal policy space. Employing panel interactive fixed effects and quantile regressions with latent factors, we extend the literature to the nature context with three proxies for countries’ nature-related financial vulnerability. Across 28 advanced and 25 emerging economies over the 2000-2020 period and 2, 5, and 10-year bond maturities, our results indicate substantial average impacts from within-country degradation for sovereign borrowing costs whilst controlling for conventional economic and institutional determinants, and common global financial factors. Our second-stage heterogeneity analysis reveals significant variation in impacts. We find that countries with elevated sovereign risk are disproportionally impacted by nature vulnerability, up to three times the average marginal effect of forty-to-fifty basis points for countries in the 90th percentile of borrowing costs. Our novel empirical results underline the asymmetric macro-criticality of nature for sovereign borrowing costs with disproportional effects that exacerbate existing macro-financial fragilities. Yet the financial effects are unlikely to be confined to debt-distressed, high-risk and nature-dependent countries, considering the integrated nature of global supply chains and sovereign debt markets
The extension of the taxon cycle model to island plants: insights from the Canarian vascular flora
No full textTaxon cycle models describe eco-evolutionary patterns of lineage colonization, diversification, and decline across archipelagos, inferring an important role for competition amongst ecologically similar taxa in driving concurrent niche changes. Hitherto described in detail only for animal taxa (notably ants and land birds), we extend the application of taxon cycle analysis to the flora of the Canary Islands, in the process describing several variants on the classic model. Our analysis is based on the premise that taxon cycle dynamics are driven by interactions within closely related species, represented here by congenerics. We compiled distributional and phylogenetic data for 556 species (59% of the native vascular flora), enabling us to allocate the members of each colonist lineage to one of five taxon cycle distributional stages (colonization and range expansion, diversification, range contraction and further diversification, becoming threatened, and extinction). We then grouped the genera into six models: classic taxon cycle (23% of flora), intra-lineage taxon cycle (39%), spontaneous taxon cycle (22%), incomplete taxon cycle (4%), evolutionary stasis (5%), and no taxon cycle (6%). We discuss the drivers that may be shaping these distributions and evaluate how well they conform to the taxon cycle paradigm. We also highlight the use and limitations of stem and crown ages as a tool to test or refine taxon cycle attributions. Our analyses demonstrate that the taxon cycle provides a plausible framework for the analysis of the flora of an oceanic archipelago, while highlighting that both its general applicability and the mechanisms responsible for it will require further independent verification