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Revealing the manifestations of neoliberalism in academia : academic collective action in Turkey
Get PDFAcademic Collective Action (ACA) stands as a small-scale collective action for social change toward liberation, independence and equity in academia. Academic collectives in Turkey, as an example of ACA, prefigure building academia outside the university by emphasizing the extent to which neoliberal academia has already prepared the groundwork for more recent waves of oppression. In this research, we aim to reveal the manifestations of neoliberalism in ACA as captured with prominent social/political psychological concepts of collective action. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 21 dismissed academics to understand the social and political psychological processes in academic collectives. The narrations of ACA were accompanied by manifestations of neoliberalism as experienced by dismissed academics. We found that, as follows from the existing conceptual tools of collective action, neoliberalism serves as an embedded contextual factor in the process of ACA. This becomes mostly visible for grievances but also for collective identifications, politicization, motivations, finding/allocating resources and sustaining academic collectives. We provide a preliminary basis to understand the role of neoliberalism in organization, mobilization and empowerment dynamics of collective action.Peer reviewe
Spontaneous mammalian models for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia
Get PDFGlobally, the human population is ageing, and, consequently, the prevalence of major neurocognitive disorders is increasing, resulting in a greater need for novel dementia therapeutic interventions. Animal models are invaluable in studying underlying pathological processes in human diseases and with evidence for rising life expectancy in many domesticated animals studies have investigated neurocognitive disorders in several non-human species. Rodents have been used extensively as animal models, but this review will examine published literature suggesting candidate non-laboratory animal models for studying dementia, especially human Alzheimer's disease. Comparison of the physiological, pathological and clinical features of companion animals, farm animals and marine mammals shows that although many animals develop amyloid plaques and, to lesser degree, hyperphosphorylated tau protein, very few develop neurofibrillary tangles or neuronal loss to the same extent as humans with Alzheimer's disease. Several hypotheses are proposed as to why, as yet, no animals have been found to spontaneously develop Alzheimer's disease-like pathology to the same level as humans but highlight specific aspects where these models may be useful if developed further.Peer reviewe
Trajectory and trend of weight status, emotional wellbeing and sleep from infancy to childhood to adolescence in Scotland : an analysis of growing up in Scotland birth cohort 1
Get PDFBackground: Childhood obesity interventions often overlook sleep and emotional wellbeing, though research shows both are associated with weight status across childhood. The timing of their co-development and the most effective point for intervention remain poorly understood. The aim of this study was to examine the trajectories of sleep, weight status and emotional wellbeing using the Growing Up in Scotland birth cohort 1 dataset. Methods: This study conducted secondary data analyses from sweeps 1–10 (10 months-14 years). Sleep was assessed through main-carer and self-reports, covering duration, bedtime, fragmentation, insomnia symptoms and oversleeping. Weight status was evaluated using BMI percentiles from objective height and weight measurements. Emotional wellbeing was evaluated using the emotional symptoms subscale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Trajectories were categorised as stable, improving, or declining for wellbeing; stable, obesogenic or leptogenic for weight; and compared against age-specific recommendations for sleep. Results: Analyses from 4157 participants (50.2% male) showed that sleep duration declined with age, falling significantly below age-specific recommendations between 8 and 14 years. Bedtimes became later and more variable between 8 and 10 years, with insomnia symptoms and delayed sleep onset common by age 14. Obesogenic or fluctuating weight trajectories were observed in 51.2% of participants. Emotional wellbeing declined notably between 10 and 14 years. Conclusions: Declines in sleep and emotional wellbeing coincided with rising obesity rates between ages 10 and 12. Targeted intervention between ages 8 and 10 years offers a critical opportunity to mitigate risks of obesity, poor sleep and declining emotional wellbeing before adolescence.Peer reviewe
Biological nitrogen cycling within terrestrial hot springs : a Mars analogue system
Get PDFFunding: This work is funded by a UK Space Agency/STFC studentship grant ST/W002337/1. C.R.C acknowledges funding from Carnegie Trust Research Incentive Grant RIG008698. S.L.N acknowledges funding via her BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship (BB/V00560X/1), her University of Manchester Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Fellowship, and Royal Society Research Grant (RGS\R2\222350). E.E.S acknowledges funding from a NERC Frontiers grant (NE/V010824/1) and from a Leverhulme Trust grant (RPG-2022-313).Noachian-age (4.1–3.7Ga) hot spring deposits have been identified on Mars, in addition to fixed nitrogen compounds within Martian surface materials, yet the planet’s nitrogen cycle remains enigmatic and implicates the plausibility of a Martian biosphere. On Earth’s surface, nitrogen is cycled almost exclusively by biological processes which create distinctive isotopic fractionations. We combine geochemical and metagenomic analysis to investigate biological nitrogen cycling within four Mars analogue geothermal systems in Iceland ranging in temperature from 37.8 to 57.1 °C, and propose the geochemical parameters that control biological nitrogen fixation as the primary source of nitrogen into the microbial communities present. We find complete nitrogen fixation and ammonium assimilation gene clusters at all sites, which are also the most abundant nitrogen-cycling genes present. Isotopic fractionations (Δ15 N) of ∼6 ‰ between locally dissolved N2 gas and biomass are most parsimoniously explained by organisms relying on Mo-independent nitrogenases for fixation of dinitrogen (N2). This hypothesis is supported by the presence of genes encoding these enzymes in three out of four sites included in this study, in addition to the more commonly used MoFe nitrogenase. Finally, we find that molybdenum availability is low in the Icelandic hot springs investigated, and potentially therefore in Martian hot springs. This may inhibit conventional Mo-dependent nitrogen fixation in such settings and highlights the influence of wider geological conditions on local biochemistry.Peer reviewe
Quorum-sensing agr system of Staphylococcus aureus primes gene expression for protection from lethal oxidative stress
Get PDFFunding: This work was supported by NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases grants R01AI137336 (BS, IY, and VJT); R01AI140754 (BS and VJT); R01AI150893 and R01AI038446 (JNW); R01AI149350 (VJT); K08AI163457 (RJU), T32AR064184 (TKK), and R21AI153646 (DP); New Jersey Health Foundation PC 142–22 and New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research COCR22RBG005 grants (DP); and funds from the NYU Langone Health Antimicrobial-Resistant Pathogens Program (BS, AP, and VJT).The agr quorum-sensing system links Staphylococcus aureus metabolism to virulence, in part by increasing bacterial survival during exposure to lethal concentrations of H2O2, a crucial host defense against S. aureus. We now report that protection by agr surprisingly extends beyond post-exponential growth to the exit from stationary phase when the agr system is no longer turned on. Thus, agr can be considered a constitutive protective factor. Deletion of agr resulted in decreased ATP levels and growth, despite increased rates of respiration or fermentation at appropriate oxygen tensions, suggesting that Δagr cells undergo a shift towards a hyperactive metabolic state in response to diminished metabolic efficiency. As expected from increased respiratory gene expression, reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulated more in the agr mutant than in wild-type cells, thereby explaining elevated susceptibility of Δagr strains to lethal H2O2 doses. Increased survival of wild-type agr cells during H2O2 exposure required sodA, which detoxifies superoxide. Additionally, pretreatment of S. aureus with respiration-reducing menadione protected Δagr cells from killing by H2O2. Thus, genetic deletion and pharmacologic experiments indicate that agr helps control endogenous ROS, thereby providing resilience against exogenous ROS. The long-lived ‘memory’ of agr-mediated protection, which is uncoupled from agr activation kinetics, increased hematogenous dissemination to certain tissues during sepsis in ROS-producing, wild-type mice but not ROS-deficient (Cybb−/−) mice. These results demonstrate the importance of protection that anticipates impending ROS-mediated immune attack. The ubiquity of quorum sensing suggests that it protects many bacterial species from oxidative damage.Peer reviewe
Distinct rich and diverse clubs regulate coarse and fine binocular disparity processing : evidence from stereoscopic task-based fMRI
Get PDFFunding: This study received funding from the Department of Science and Technology - Cognitive Science Research Initiative Project #RP03962G, Govt. of India.While cortical regions involved in processing binocular disparities have been studied extensively, little is known on how the human visual system adapts to changing disparity magnitudes. In this paper, we investigate causal mechanisms of coarse and fine binocular disparity processing using fMRI with a clinically validated, custom anaglyph-based stimulus. We make use of Granger causality and graph measures to reveal the existence of distinct rich and diverse clubs across different disparity magnitudes. We demonstrate that Middle Temporal area (MT) plays a specialized role with overlapping rich and diverse characteristics. Next, we show that subtle interhemispheric differences exist across various brain regions, despite an overall right hemisphere dominance. Finally, we pass the graph measures through the decision tree and found that the diverse clubs outperform rich clubs in decoding disparity magnitudes. Our study sets the stage for conducting further investigations on binocular disparity processing, particularly in the context of neuro-ophthalmic disorders with binocular impairments.Peer reviewe
Miquel Martí i Polthe seduction of 'the difficult simplicity'
No full textThis article presents Miquel Martí i Pol as a poet whose work is intelligible, who regards poetry as a way of throwing light on our lives — as a form of knowledge — and, in his correspondence with Joan Vinyoli, advocates a poetry based on what he calls «difícil simplicitat». Therefore, the article places Martí i Pol outside the modern tradition of difficult, sometimes impenetrable poetry deemed necessary by T. S. Eliot, and written by Stéphane Mallarmé, Carles Riba, J. V. Foix or Eliot himself, among others.Peer reviewe
Nest building and circulating testosterone dynamics in male zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata
Get PDFFunding: This work was supported by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Fellowships to E.I (PIEF-GA-2013-625457) and M.H (101024039). This work was also supported by the UKRI Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Eastbio Doctoral Training Program to S.C.E and funding from BBSRC to S.D.H (BB/Y001311/1), S.L.M (BB/Y002121/1), and Roslin Institute Strategic Grant funding from BBSRC to S.L.M (BB/P013759/1 and BBS/E/RL/230001C).Despite its fundamental importance for avian reproduction, the hormonal mechanisms supporting nest building remain poorly understood. While nest building by both male and female builders requires circulating sex steroids, it is not clear whether these steroids are required throughout building. We, therefore, sought to determine circulating testosterone dynamics in male zebra finches during early breeding, specifically focusing on the nest building period. We collected plasma samples from two cohorts of birds at three of the following four timepoints: before (baseline), following pairing, during, and after nest building. To dissociate the end of nest building from incubation onset we daily removed any eggs laid and terminated nest building once we had sampled males during nest building. Male circulating testosterone levels remained stable following pairing with a female and throughout nest building. However, testosterone titers dropped once nest building had stopped. We also found evidence to suggest that, following pairing with a female, circulating testosterone titers can predict a male’s future readiness to build. Together, our data suggest that circulating testosterone is important throughout nest building, not decreasing until the end of nest building activities, perhaps through a ‘self-feedback’ mechanism.Peer reviewe
Disentangling nonrandom structure from random placement when estimating β-diversity through space or time
Get PDFFunding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; HORIZON EUROPE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (ISM). Grant Number: 894644; German Centre of Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv); German Research Foundation DFG (TE). Grant Number: 442032008; USA National Science Foundation (BJM, NJG). Grant Number: 2019470; ERC Advanced Grant (MetaChange) funded by the European Union (JMC).There is considerable interest in understanding patterns of β-diversity that measure the amount of change in species composition through space or time. Most hypotheses for β-diversity evoke nonrandom processes that generate spatial and temporal within-species aggregation; however, β-diversity can also be driven by random sampling processes. Here, we describe a framework based on rarefaction curves that quantifies the nonrandom contribution of species compositional differences across samples to β-diversity. We isolate the effect of within-species spatial or temporal aggregation on beta-diversity using a coverage standardized metric of β-diversity (βC). We demonstrate the utility of our framework using simulations and an empirical case study examining variation in avian species composition through space and time in engineered versus natural riparian areas. The primary strengths of our approach are that it provides an intuitive visual null model for expected patterns of biodiversity under random sampling that allows integrating analyses across α-, γ-, and β-scales. Importantly, the method can accommodate comparisons between communities with different species pool sizes, and it can be used to examine species turnover both within and between meta-communities.Peer reviewe
N,N'-Di(p-tolyl)-1,4-benzoquinonediimine (N,N'-Di-p-tolylcyclohexa-2,5-diene-1,4-diimine)
Get PDFThe title compound has been fully characterised by 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy which reveals (E) to (Z) isomerisation upon dissolution. In the solid state, X-ray diffraction shows exclusively the (E)-isomer with two geometrically near-identical independent molecules each with the outer rings tilted with respect to the central ring.Peer reviewe
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