bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Suicidal ideation, suicide literacy and stigma, disclosure expectations and attitudes toward help‐seeking among university students: The impact of schizotypal personality traits
Authors: Fekih‐Romdhane Feten , Amri Amani , Cheour Majda
Published: September 2021

Background

Similarly to patients with schizophrenia, non‐clinical individuals with schizotypal traits have been reported to show an increased risk for suicide‐related outcomes. We aimed to assess suicidal ideation, and to determine factors that may have associations with help‐seeking attitudes in high schizotypal individuals as compared to low schizotypal individuals.

Method

We carried out a cross‐sectional survey. The Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire, the attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help scale–short form, the disclosure expectations scale, the scale of suicide ideation, the stigma of suicide scale‐short form, the literacy of suicide scale, and the depression anxiety stress scales were administered to 504 college students. A total of 51 students were classified in the high‐schizotypy group, and 50 were classified in the low‐schizotypy group.

Results

High‐schizotypal students experienced significantly more suicidal ideation, had greater literacy of suicide, had more glorification of suicide, had higher anticipated risks of disclosure and more negative help‐seeking attitudes than low‐schizotypal students. After controlling for sociodemographic (age, gender, income and tobacco use) and psychosocial variables (personal psychiatric history, family history of suicide, personal history of suicide attempt[s]), depression and suicide ideation), disclosure expectations had both a significant negative independent effect through anticipated risks, and a positive independent effect through anticipated benefits, on high‐schizotypal students' help‐seeking attitudes.

Conclusion

The apprehension and reluctance to seek help found in high‐schizotypal students highlight an urgent need to further understand barriers to help‐seeking among at‐risk adolescents, and what may motivate them to reach out for support when they are more at‐risk for suicide.
Self‐deceptionabout truthfulness
Authors: Sleat Matt
Published: September 2021

Contemporary political discourse is awash with concerns about truthfulness, understood as the virtue of making sure that our beliefs are true, in political life. The central argument of this paper is that it is not only possible for us to be self‐deceived as to our own truthfulness but that there is good reason to suspect certain aspects of the way we understand and value truthfulness make it something which we may be particularly prone to being self‐deceived about. If that is correct, then not only do we have further reason for thinking that self‐deception in politics may be more common than we might like to think, it also (a) helps us understand why claims about truthfulness seem more likely to perpetuate and intensify conflicts in politics; (b) suggests that the possibility of our being self‐deceived about our truthfulness stands sufficiently independent of our first‐order beliefs, be they true or false, such that it is likely to appear across the various political divides rather than being exclusive to one group; and (c) requires us to reconsider the problem represented by “post‐truth” politics and the responses that might be appropriate to it.
Slower environmental cycles maintain greater life‐history variation within populations
Authors: Park John S. , Wootton J. Timothy
Published: September 2021

Populations in nature are comprised of individual life histories, whose variation underpins ecological and evolutionary processes. Yet the forces of environmental selection that shape intrapopulation life‐history variation are still not well‐understood, and efforts have largely focused on random (stochastic) fluctuations of the environment. However, a ubiquitous mode of environmental fluctuation in nature is cyclical, whose periodicities can change independently of stochasticity. Here, we test theoretically based hypotheses for whether shortened (‘Fast’) or lengthened (‘Slow’) environmental cycles should generate higher intrapopulation variation of life history phenotypes. We show, through a combination of agent‐based modelling and a multi‐generational laboratory selection experiment using the tidepool copepod Tigriopus californicus, that slower environmental cycles maintain higher levels of intrapopulation variation. Surprisingly, the effect of environmental periodicity on variation was much stronger than that of stochasticity. Thus, our results show that periodicity is an important facet of fluctuating environments for life‐history variation.
The position of x‐ray beam‐centring affects radiographic measurements of palmar angle and sole thickness on radiographs of the equine thoracic distal limb
Authors: Staples E. , Porter Erin , Mendoza P. , Trolinger‐Meadows K. , Colee J. , Morton A.
Published: September 2021

Background

Different locations of x‐ray beam centring on the equine distal limb for lateromedial and dorsopalmar radiographs of the equine digit may affect clinically relevant radiographic measurements.

Objectives

To evaluate the effects of two different locations of x‐ray beam centring on lateromedial and dorsopalmar radiographic measurements of the equine digit and to assess intra‐ and inter‐observer variability of measurements.

Study design

Prospective, observational and method comparison.

Methods

Comparisons were made of nine measurements on orthogonal radiographs acquired from 24 unshod equine feet at two locations of x‐ray beam centring: coronary band and hoof–ground interface. Radiographic measurements were obtained by three observers of varied equine veterinary experience and made in triplicate by a board‐certified veterinary radiologist.

Results

Radiographs acquired with x‐ray beam centred at the coronary band and hoof–ground interface produced differences in the mean measurements of palmar angle, defined as the angle created by the palmar processes of the distal phalanx relative to the ground surface, on the lateromedial projection (p = 0.002), and medial (p < 0.001) and lateral (p < 0.001) sole thickness on the dorsopalmar projection. There was less variability of palmar angle (p = 0.039) and more superimposition of the palmar processes (p < 0.001) with the x‐ray beam centred at the hoof–ground interface.

Main limitations

The study population was homogeneous and only included horses without outwardly visible abnormalities of the foot. Anatomic measurements were not used for comparison due to the nonterminal nature of the study.

Conclusions

Centring the x‐ray beam at the hoof–ground interface produces more repeatable and smaller radiographic measurements of palmar angle and sole thickness when compared to centring the x‐ray beam centred at the coronary band. The distal phalangeal palmar processes are more superimposed with the more distal x‐ray beam centring. The strong inter‐ and intraobserver variability support the use of these nine radiographic measurements by practitioners of all levels of experience.
Myeloid cells in retinal and brain degeneration
Authors: Guo Michelle , Schwartz Turner D. , Dunaief Joshua L. , Cui Qi N.
Published: September 2021

Retinal inflammation underlies multiple prevalent ocular and neurological diseases. Similar inflammatory processes are observed in glaucomatous optic neuropathy, age‐related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, posterior uveitis, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease. In particular, human and animal studies have demonstrated the important role microglia/macrophages play in initiating and maintaining a pro‐inflammatory environment in degenerative processes impacting vision. On the other hand, microglia have also been shown to have a protective role in multiple central nervous system diseases. Identifying the mechanisms underlying cell dysfunction and death is the first step toward developing novel therapeutics for these diseases impacting the central nervous system. In addition to reviewing recent key studies defining important mediators of retinal inflammation, with an emphasis on translational studies that bridge this research from bench to bedside, we also highlight a promising therapeutic class of medications, the glucagon‐like peptide‐1 receptor agonists. Finally, we propose areas where additional research is necessary to identify mechanisms that can be modulated to shift the balance from a neurotoxic to a neuroprotective retinal environment.
Death‐feigning behaviours increase survival rate of littoral cladocerans under predation by odonate larvae
Authors: Yamada Sayumi , Urabe Jotaro
Published: September 2021

Because littoral cladocerans are common prey for odonate larvae, they are ideal organisms to examine prey and predator interactions in aquatic habitats. Although death‐feigning behaviour observed in littoral cladocerans is viewed as a trait to reduce predation risk, no study has examined the effectiveness of death‐feigning at reducing mortality. We studied the effectiveness of death‐feigning behaviour by two littoral cladocerans, Chydorus sphaericus and Oxyurella tenuicaudis, against the odonate larvae of Sympetrum frequens.

We first examined how the odonate larvae detected the prey and found that the larvae consumed active cladocerans, even under dark conditions, but they did not consume anaesthetised cladocerans, indicating that the larvae detect the prey using mechanical cues such as vibrational currents created by the prey individuals.

We then observed behavioural events of odonate larvae and prey cladocerans using a video‐recording system to count the number of cladocerans that showed death‐feigning behaviours when odonate larvae attacked and those that were not consumed when they showed death‐feigning behaviours.

We observed a total of 1,099 behavioural events in prey–predator interactions. On average, the odonate larvae pursued 63% of the cladocerans encountered, attacked 89% of the cladocerans pursued, and successfully captured only 29% of the cladocerans with the first attack. Among the cladocerans that were not captured, 38% of the individuals continually swam, but 62% ceased to move and exhibited death‐feigning behaviours. The odonate larvae's capture rate for cladocerans exhibiting the death‐feigning behaviours fell significantly short of that for cladocerans that were continually swimming.

The experiments clearly showed that the littoral cladocerans' death‐feigning behaviour effectively decreased predation rate by odonate larvae. The results suggest that the death feigning serves as an adaptive behaviour to reduce mortality risk in littoral cladocerans under predation by such predators that can detect prey using mechanical cues such as those of vibrational currents.
Agricultural breadbaskets shift poleward given adaptive farmer behavior under climate change
Authors: Franke James A. , Müller Christoph , Minoli Sara , Elliott Joshua , Folberth Christian , Gardner Charles , Hank Tobias , Izaurralde Roberto Cesar , Jägermeyr Jonas , Jones Curtis D. , Liu Wenfeng , Olin Stefan , Pugh Thomas A.M. , Ruane Alex C. , Stephens Haynes , Zabel Florian , Moyer Elisabeth J.
Published: September 2021

Modern food production is spatially concentrated in global “breadbaskets.” A major unresolved question is whether these peak production regions will shift poleward as the climate warms, allowing some recovery of potential climate‐related losses. While agricultural impacts studies to date have focused on currently cultivated land, the Global Gridded Crop Model Intercomparison Project (GGCMI) Phase 2 experiment allows us to assess changes in both yields and the location of peak productivity regions under warming. We examine crop responses under projected end of century warming using seven process‐based models simulating five major crops (maize, rice, soybeans, and spring and winter wheat) with a variety of adaptation strategies. We find that in no‐adaptation cases, when planting date and cultivar choices are held fixed, regions of peak production remain stationary and yield losses can be severe, since growing seasons contract strongly with warming. When adaptations in management practices are allowed (cultivars that retain growing season length under warming and modified planting dates), peak productivity zones shift poleward and yield losses are largely recovered. While most growing‐zone shifts are ultimately limited by geography, breadbaskets studied here move poleward over 600 km on average by end of the century under RCP 8.5. These results suggest that agricultural impacts assessments can be strongly biased if restricted in spatial area or in the scope of adaptive behavior considered. Accurate evaluation of food security under climate change requires global modeling and careful treatment of adaptation strategies.
Differential effects of altered precipitation regimes on soil carbon cycles in arid versus humid terrestrial ecosystems
Authors: Wang Bin , Chen Yali , Li Yan , Zhang Hui , Yue Kai , Wang Xingchang , Ma Yuandan , Chen Jian , Sun Meng , Chen Zhuo , Wu Qiqian
Published: September 2021

Changes in precipitation regimes have significant effects on soil carbon (C) cycles; however, these effects may vary in arid versus humid areas. Additionally, the corresponding details of soil C cycles in response to altered precipitation regimes have not been well documented. Here, a meta‐analysis was performed using 845 pairwise observations (control vs. increased or decreased precipitation) from 214 published articles to quantify the responses of the input process of exogenous C, the contents of various forms of C in soil, and the soil‐atmosphere C fluxes relative to increased or decreased precipitation. The results showed that the effects of altered precipitation regimes did not differ between rainfall and snowfall. Increased precipitation significantly enhanced the soil C inputs, pools and outputs by 18.17%, 18.50%, and 21.04%, respectively, while decreased precipitation led to a significant decline in these soil C parameters by 10.18%, 9.96%, and 17.98%, respectively. The effects of increased precipitation on soil C cycles were more significant in arid areas (where mean annual precipitation, MAP <500 mm), but the effects of decreased precipitation were more significant in humid areas (where MAP ≥500 mm), indicating that the original MAP partially determined the responses of the soil C cycles to altered precipitation regimes. This study implies that for the same of precipitation variation, soil C cycles respond at different magnitudes: not only should the direction (decrease vs. increase) be counted but also the region (arid vs. humid) should be considered. These results deepened our understanding on regional differentiation in soil C cycles under climate change scenarios.
Deoxycholic acid delays the wound healing of colonic epithelial cells via transmembrane G‐protein‐coupled receptor 5
Authors: Azuma Yuka , Uchiyama Kazuhiko , Sugaya Takeshi , Yasuda Takeshi , Hashimoto Hikaru , Kajiwara‐Kubota Mariko , Sugino Satoshi , Kitae Hiroaki , Torii Takashi , Mizushima Katsura , Doi Toshifumi , Inoue Ken , Dohi Osamu , Yoshida Naohisa , Kamada Kazuhiro , Ishikawa Takeshi , Takagi Tomohisa , Konishi Hideyuki , Naito Yuji , Itoh Yoshito
Published: September 2021

Background and Aim

Efficient intestinal wound healing is essential for good prognoses of ulcerative colitis (UC). Although bile acids and the transmembrane G‐protein‐coupled receptor (TGR) 5 have been reported to affect wound healing in intestinal epithelial cells, the detailed underlying mechanisms are unclear. Here, we investigated the role of TGR5 in wound healing in the context of colonic epithelial cells in the presence of bile acids.

Methods

The expression of TGR5 in the colonic epithelium of both a dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)‐induced colitis mouse model (recovery phase), and UC patients in clinical remission, was evaluated. Young adult mouse colonic epithelial (YAMC) cells were then used to evaluate wound healing after treatment with deoxycholic acid (DCA); TGR5 was silenced in YAMC cells via shRNA‐transfection, and a wound‐healing assay in the presence of DCA was performed. Furthermore, we investigated the role of the activation of AKT in the context of wound healing.

Results

The expression of TGR5 was decreased in the colonic epithelium of both mice with DSS‐induced colitis and UC patients. Additionally, DCA significantly delayed wound healing in YAMC cells but not in TGR5 silenced ones. Of note, the DCA‐induced activation of AKT signaling in YAMC cells was inhibited by TGR5 silencing, and AKT inhibitors prevented the wound healing delay induced by DCA.

Conclusions

Overall, we show that DCA delays wound healing in the context of colonic epithelial cells through AKT activation. These results may support the development of new therapeutic approaches for epithelial regeneration in UC.
Development of multi‐class computer‐aided diagnostic systems using the NICE/JNET classifications for colorectal lesions
Authors: Okamoto Yuki , Yoshida Shigeto , Izakura Seiji , Katayama Daisuke , Michida Ryuichi , Koide Tetsushi , Tamaki Toru , Kamigaichi Yuki , Tamari Hirosato , Shimohara Yasutsugu , Nishimura Tomoyuki , Inagaki Katsuaki , Tanaka Hidenori , Yamashita Ken , Sumimoto Kyoku , Oka Shiro , Tanaka Shinji
Published: September 2021

Background and Aim

Diagnostic support using artificial intelligence may contribute to the equalization of endoscopic diagnosis of colorectal lesions. We developed computer‐aided diagnosis (CADx) support system for diagnosing colorectal lesions using the NBI International Colorectal Endoscopic (NICE) classification and the Japan NBI Expert Team (JNET) classification.

Methods

Using Residual Network as the classifier and NBI images as training images, we developed a CADx based on the NICE classification (CADx‐N) and a CADx based on the JNET classification (CADx‐J). For validation, 480 non‐magnifying and magnifying NBI images were used for the CADx‐N and 320 magnifying NBI images were used for the CADx‐J. The diagnostic performance of the CADx‐N was evaluated using the magnification rate.

Results

The accuracy of the CADx‐N for Types 1, 2, and 3 was 97.5%, 91.2%, and 93.8%, respectively. The diagnostic performance for each magnification level was good (no statistically significant difference). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of the CADx‐J were 100%, 96.3%, 82.8%, 100%, and 96.9% for Type 1; 80.3%, 93.7%, 94.1%, 79.2%, and 86.3% for Type 2A; 80.4%, 84.7%, 46.8%, 96.3%, and 84.1% for Type 2B; and 62.5%, 99.6%, 96.8%, 93.8%, and 94.1% for Type 3, respectively.

Conclusions

The multi‐class CADx systems had good diagnostic performance with both the NICE and JNET classifications and may aid in educating non‐expert endoscopists and assist in diagnosing colorectal lesions.
Clathrin light chains regulate hypocotyl elongation by affecting the polarization of the auxin transporter PIN3 in Arabidopsis
Authors: Hu Tianwei , Yin Shoupeng , Sun Jingbo , Linghu Yuting , Ma Jiaqi , Pan Jianwei , Wang Chao
Published: September 2021

PIN‐FORMED (PIN)‐dependent directional auxin transport is crucial for plant development. Although the redistribution of auxin mediated by the polarization of PIN3 plays key roles in modulating hypocotyl cell expansion, how PIN3 becomes repolarized to the proper sites within hypocotyl cells is poorly understood. We previously generated the clathrin light chain clc2‐1 clc3‐1 double mutant in Arabidopsis thaliana and found that it has an elongated hypocotyl phenotype compared to the wild type. Here, we performed genetic, cell biology, and pharmacological analyses combined with live‐cell imaging to elucidate the molecular mechanism underlying the role of clathrin light chains in hypocotyl elongation. Our analyses indicated that the defects of the double mutant enhanced auxin maxima in epidermal cells, thus, promoting hypocotyl elongation. PIN3 relocated to the lateral sides of hypocotyl endodermal cells in clc2‐1 clc3‐1 mutants to redirect auxin toward the epidermal cell layers. Moreover, the loss of function of PIN3 largely suppressed the long hypocotyl phenotype of the clc2‐1 clc3‐1 double mutant, as did treatment with auxin transport inhibitors. Based on these data, we propose that clathrin modulates PIN3 abundance and polarity to direct auxin flux and inhibit cell elongation in the hypocotyl, providing novel insights into the regulation of hypocotyl elongation.
Correlative light and volume electron microscopy (vCLEM): How community participation can advance developing technologies
Authors: Guerin Christopher J. , Lippens Saskia
Published: September 2021

Correlative light and electron microscopy is a valuable tool to image samples across resolution scales and link data on structure and function. While studies using this technique have been available since the 1960s, recent developments have enabled applying these workflows to large volumes of cells and tissues. Much of the development in this area has been facilitated through the collaborative efforts of microscopists and commercial companies to bring the methods, hardware and image processing technologies needed into laboratories and core imaging facilities. This is a prime example of how what was once a niche area can be brought into the mainstream of microscopy by the efforts of imaging pioneers who push the boundaries of possibility.
Criss‐crossing autism spectrum disorder and adult neurogenesis
Authors: Bicker Frank , Nardi Leonardo , Maier Jannik , Vasic Verica , Schmeisser Michael J.
Published: September 2021

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) comprises a group of multifactorial neurodevelopmental disorders primarily characterized by deficits in social interaction and repetitive behavior. Although the onset is typically in early childhood, ASD poses a lifelong challenge for both patients and caretakers. Adult neurogenesis (AN) is the process by which new functional neurons are created from neural stem cells existing in the post‐natal brain. The entire event is based on a sequence of cellular processes, such as proliferation, specification of cell fate, maturation, and ultimately, synaptic integration into the existing neural circuits. Hence, AN is implicated in structural and functional brain plasticity throughout life. Accumulating evidence shows that impaired AN may underlie some of the abnormal behavioral phenotypes seen in ASD. In this review, we approach the interconnections between the molecular pathways related to AN and ASD. We also discuss existing therapeutic approaches targeting such pathways both in preclinical and clinical studies. A deeper understanding of how ASD and AN reciprocally affect one another could reveal important converging pathways leading to the emergence of psychiatric disorders.

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Technology‐facilitated sexual assault in children and adolescents; is there a cause for concern? Fourteen years of experience at a metropolitan forensic paediatric medical service
Authors: Rowse Janine , Mullane Siobhan , Bassed Richard , Tully Joanna
Published: September 2021

Aim

To quantify and characterise sexual assaults occurring after 12–17‐year‐old children connect with an alleged offender online (technology‐facilitated sexual assault: TFSA) examined at a paediatric forensic medical service in Melbourne, Australia between 2014 and 2020. To compare these findings to a previous 7‐year audit (2007–2013) to determine if there has been an increase in TFSA over the last 14 years.

Methods

A retrospective audit was undertaken of medical records of children aged 12–17 who underwent forensic medical examinations at the Victorian Forensic Paediatric Medical Service following an allegation of sexual assault, between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2020. Cases identified as being technology facilitated were further analysed. Results from 2014 to 2020 7‐year cohort were then compared to an existing audit over the preceding 7‐year period (2007–2013).

Results

Of 515 sexual assault cases between 2014 and 2020, 70 (14%) victims reported connecting with the offender on a technological platform, compared to 4% of cases between 2007 and 2013. In 2019 and 2020, TFSA comprised almost one‐fifth of caseload. Of the 70 TFSA cases, the majority occurred at the first face‐to‐face meeting following a variable period of online communication. Approximately one‐third of TFSA's occurred at the offender's residence, and another third in a public place (park, public toilets). Technological platforms used evolved over the 14‐year study period.

Conclusions

The proportion of TFSA caseload seen at an Australian paediatric forensic medical service increased over the last 14 years, with common characteristics to these sexual assaults suggested.
Acute sleep loss alters circulating fibroblast growth factor 21 levels in humans: A randomised crossover trial
Authors: Mateus Brandão Luiz Eduardo , Espes Daniel , Westholm Jakub Orzechowski , Martikainen Teemu , Westerlund Nestori , Lampola Lauri , Popa Alexandru , Vogel Heike , Schürmann Annette , Dickson Suzanne L. , Benedict Christian , Cedernaes Jonathan
Published: September 2021

The hormone fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) modulates tissue metabolism and circulates at higher levels in metabolic conditions associated with chronic sleep–wake disruption, such as type 2 diabetes and obesity. In the present study, we investigated whether acute sleep loss impacts circulating levels of FGF21 and tissue‐specific production, and response pathways linked to FGF21. A total of 15 healthy normal‐weight young men participated in a randomised crossover study with two conditions, sleep loss versus an 8.5‐hr sleep window. The evening before each intervention, fasting blood was collected. Fasting, post‐intervention morning skeletal muscle and adipose tissue samples underwent quantitative polymerase chain reaction and DNA methylation analyses, and serum FGF21 levels were measured before and after an oral glucose tolerance test. Serum levels of FGF21 were higher after sleep loss compared with sleep, both under fasting conditions and following glucose intake (~27%–30%, p = 0.023). Fasting circulating levels of fibroblast activation protein, a protein which can degrade circulating FGF21, were not altered by sleep loss, whereas DNA methylation in the FGF21 promoter region increased only in adipose tissue. However, even though specifically the muscle exhibited transcriptional changes indicating adverse alterations to redox and metabolic homeostasis, no tissue‐based changes were observed in expression of FGF21, its receptors, or selected signalling targets, in response to sleep loss. In summary, we found that acute sleep loss resulted in increased circulating levels of FGF21 in healthy young men, which may occur independent of a tissue‐based stress response in metabolic peripheral tissues. Further studies may decipher whether changes in FGF21 signalling after sleep loss modulate metabolic outcomes associated with sleep or circadian disruption.
Experts, naturalism, and democracy
Authors: Lavazza Andrea , Farina Mirko
Published: September 2021

Experts often play a fundamental role in decision‐making processes. They are the bearers of an epistemic authority, which is primarily grounded on what we may call scientific naturalism. The main tenets of this view can clash though with other values characterising our pluralist societies. This may lead to conflicts but also to a devaluation or to a rejection of the sort of knowledge and advise offered by experts. In this paper we propose a new accommodation between scientific naturalism and the values of our democratic societies. In Section 1, we present a case study highlighting the problematicity of experts' decisions based on mere epistemic soundness. In Section 2, we frame our analysis of expertise in the context of a post‐truth world. Section 3 looks at the relations between scientific naturalism and democracy, while Section 4 focuses on the potential clash between scientific naturalism and the normative character of other forms of knowledge. In Sections 5 and 6, we present practical instances of this clash (additional case studies), involving religious, bioethical, and cultural values. We show that in some cases these values ought to be granted full citizenship in a democratic state. This, (Section 7), leads us to a stalemate that seems to threaten the functioning of modern democracies. In Section 8, to overcome this stalemate, we propose to resort to a more inclusive form of naturalism, namely liberal naturalism. This form of naturalism cannot do without experts' scientific recommendations and yet does not end up excluding (a priori) alternatives forms of knowledge. We conclude, Section 9, by advocating a more liberal ecology of mechanisms for the regulation of decision‐making processes; one that also encompasses socially inclusive (not necessarily scientific) processes of deliberation and judgment.
Effects of vatinoxan on xylazine‐induced pulmonary alterations in sheep
Authors: Adam Magdy , Lindén Jere , Raekallio Marja , Meller Anna , Mannerström Bettina , Abu‐Shahba Ahmed , Seppänen‐Kaijansinkko Riitta , Salla Kati
Published: September 2021

It was hypothesized that premedication with vatinoxan, a peripheral α2‐adrenoceptor antagonist, would mitigate xylazine‐induced pulmonary alterations in sheep. Fourteen adult sheep were allotted into two equal groups and premedicated with either vatinoxan (750 µg/kg IV) or saline and sedated 10 min later with xylazine (500 µg/kg IV). Arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2) was measured and respiratory rate (RR) counted at intervals. The sheep were euthanized with IV pentobarbital 10 min after xylazine administration. The severity of pulmonary parenchymal alterations was assessed and graded grossly and histologically and correlations of the morphological changes with SpO2evaluated. Following xylazine injection, SpO2was significantly higher and RR significantly lower with vatinoxan than with saline and the sheep administered vatinoxan exhibited significantly smaller quantities of tracheal foam than those receiving saline. No significant differences in macroscopic oedema scores were detected between treatments. In contrast, the vatinoxan‐treated animals exhibited significantly graver microscopic interstitial alveolar oedema and haemorrhage than saline‐treated animals. The histological severity scores did not correlate with changes in SpO2. In conclusion, xylazine induced a marked reduction in SpO2which was abolished by the prior administration of vatinoxan. The histologically detected alterations after pentobarbital euthanasia with vatinoxan premedication need to be studied further.
Impacts of Nile Perch (Lates niloticus) overfishing on the technical efficiency of fishers in the Tanzania portion of Lake Victoria
Authors: Mkuna Eliaza , Baiyegunhi Lloyd J. S.
Published: September 2021

The present study employed the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Propensity Score Matching (PSM) techniques to assess the impacts of Nile perch overfishing on the technical efficiency of fishers, based on a survey of 268 fishers across ten landing sites in the Tanzanian portion of Lake Victoria. The DEA results indicated overall that Nile perch fishers exhibited an average technical efficiency of 30%, indicating a high level of inefficiency. There were no statistically significant differences in the technical efficiencies within the range of 0%–10% and 21%–30% for Nile perch fishers who were overfishing and those who were not overfishing, attributed to the fisher's mobility across the lake. Further, the mode of propulsion and being a member of a fishery organization were found to be statistically significant factors influencing the inefficiency of Nile perch fishers. In addition, results from the Probit estimates of the PSM indicated that being a member of a fishery organization, the quantity of Nile perch harvested per trip, the age of a fishing vessel (boat), the gillnet mesh size and the cost of fishing inputs had statistically significant effects influencing the probability of Nile perch overfishing. However, further results indicated Nile perch overfishing did not have a statistically significant impact on the technical efficiency of fishers. Thus, it is recommended that there is a need to monitor and formalize fisher's mobility as one of the alternatives for co‐management of the lake. Overfishing could be controlled without necessarily affecting the technical efficiency of Nile perch fishers through training and access to proper fishing gears.
Mountain biogeography coming full circle: a new ‘3D’ floristic approach provides units for reconstructing evolutionary trajectories
Authors: Muellner‐Riehl Alexandra N. , Favre Adrien
Published: September 2021

This article is a Commentary on Li et al. (2021), 232: 1424–1435.
Obesity and mortality among endometrial cancer survivors: A systematic review and meta‐analysis
Authors: Kokts‐Porietis Renée L. , Elmrayed Seham , Brenner Darren R. , Friedenreich Christine M.
Published: September 2021

Excess body fat is a major risk factor for endometrial cancer incidence, but its impact on recurrence and survival remains unclear. The aim of this systematic review and meta‐analysis was to assess the association between excess body fat with recurrence, cancer‐specific, and all‐cause mortality among endometrial cancer survivors. We searched MEDLINE and EMBASE databases up to July 2021. Risk of bias was assessed with the Ottawa Newcastle Scale. Random effects models estimated pooled hazard ratios for the main associations between body mass index (BMI) and survival outcomes and stratified by endometrial cancer type. Potential heterogeneity and publication bias were evaluated with sensitivity analyses, funnel plots, and Egger's test. Forty‐six studies were included, of which 45 estimated body fat with BMI and six used direct waist circumference measures or CT/MRI scans. Higher BMI (≥30 kg/m2) was associated with increased all‐cause mortality (HR = 1.34, 95%CI = 1.12–1.59) and recurrence (HR = 1.28, 95%CI = 1.06–1.56). In sub‐group analysis, associations between higher BMI and all‐cause mortality were observed for both Types I and II survivors, while recurrence associations were only significant among Type I cases. Obesity at endometrial cancer diagnosis was associated with increased cancer recurrence and all‐cause mortality among endometrial cancer survivors but not endometrial cancer‐specific mortality.
Error traps in pediatric difficult airway management
Authors: Sohn Lisa , Peyton James , von Ungern‐Sternberg Britta S , Jagannathan Narasimhan
Published: September 2021

Difficult airway management in children is associated with significant morbidity. This narrative review on error traps in airway management aims to highlight the common pitfalls and proposes solutions to optimize best practices for pediatric difficult airway management. We have categorized common errors of pediatric difficult airway management into three main error traps: preparation, performance, and proficiency, and present potential strategies to improve patient safety and successful tracheal intubation in infants and children with difficult airways.
Establishment of wildflower strips in a wide range of environments: a lesson from a landscape‐scale project
Authors: Stroot Lukas , Brinkert Annika , Hölzel Norbert , Rüsing Alina , Bucharova Anna
Published: September 2021

Wildflower strips established on arable fields or intensively used grassland are an important tool for supporting biodiversity in impoverished landscapes. They provide ecosystem services like resources for pollinators, and, if they are based on perennial native plants, also plant diversity as well as nesting and wintering habitats for insects. To successfully create such wildflower strips, it is important to understand parameters that restrain establishment of the target plant species. Here we studied initial plant establishment at 45 experimental plots located in recently established wildflower strips across a broad variety of environmental conditions, complemented by 32 control plots in adjacent intensively used grasslands. All strips were seeded with a nearly identical seed mixture of native species, and thus, differences in vegetation were largely driven by environmental factors. We recorded vegetation and related it to soil parameters, seeding season, and previous use. Establishment of wildflower strips nearly doubled plant species richness in comparison with adjacent grasslands. Seeded species established better on former arable land than in intensively used grasslands, but also in grasslands, nearly half of the species from the seed mixture established. Sown species were more abundant in wildflower strip seeded in fall. The success of the seeded species was largely independent of soil parameters. In summary, the initial establishment of perennial wildflower strips is likely to be successful in a wide range of soil conditions, but further monitoring is needed to understand the vegetation development over the whole time period these strips are supposed to persist for.
Protecting forests or saving trees? The EU's regulatory approach to global deforestation
Authors: Henn Elisabeth V.
Published: September 2021

Given the poor problem‐solving effectiveness of international environmental law and a decline in multilateralism, unilateral approaches to halting deforestation globally have acquired increasing significance. Within this context, the European Union (EU) has adopted the EU Timber Regulation and the first and second Renewable Energy Directive, all of which have extraterritorial implications. Given continuing high rates of deforestation, the European Union has also been assessing which mix of instruments might prove more effective in preventing global deforestation. This article contextualizes these regulatory endeavours, analyses the specific interactions and features of existing instruments under EU law, such as due diligence obligations, sustainability criteria, certification schemes and bilateral agreements, and discusses the challenges arising from World Trade Organization (WTO) law regarding potentially more effective mandatory instruments. It finds that while the existing framework contains promising pathways for future regulation, designing sustainability criteria that are technically meaningful and also feasible from the perspective of WTO law requires greater policy coherence.
Monetary policy and inflation–output variability in Sri Lanka: Lessons for developing economies
Authors: Mayandy Kesavarajah , Middleditch Paul
Published: September 2021

This paper considers the impact of monetary policy on the inflation–output variability trade‐off for Sri Lanka and in doing so, draws lessons for the formulation of early‐stage monetary policy in developing economies. We examine how this trade‐off has changed across different monetary policy episodes, and investigate the persistence of economic shocks on the variability of inflation and output. After exploring the contribution of monetary policy towards macroeconomic performance more generally, we use the experience of Sri Lanka to suggest that more recently formed central banks in developing economies should focus on inflation variability, especially where the impact of demand and supply shocks is less persistent.
Stalled at Friendship Station: Under Ancient Desert Skies, the Socialist Silk Road, and Cinematic Collaboration on the Eve of the Sino‐Soviet Split
Authors: TYERMAN EDWARD
Published: September 2021

This article contributes to an emerging history of socialist world cinema by uncovering the forgotten story of a Sino‐Soviet cinematic collaboration from 1957–58: a film expedition that travelled the route of a proposed railway line linking Almaty in Kazakhstan, via Xinjiang, to Lanzhou in western China. At the height of the Sino‐Soviet “honeymoon” in the 1950s, this 2,800km “Road of Friendship” was celebrated as a revival of the ancient Silk Road for an age of industrialized, international socialism. Co‐produced by the Moscow and Shanghai scientific‐popular film studios, the film had two directors, the Soviet veteran Vladimir Shneiderov and the Chinese novice Qin Zhen. The film they created appeared under two names: while its Chinese title, Almaty‐Lanzhou (Alamutu‐Lanzhou), spoke in neutral tones of connection and modernization, the Russian title, Under Ancient Desert Skies (Pod nebom drevnikh pustyn'), evoked the exotic allure of a motor expedition along the traces of the Silk Road. My excavation of the Road of Friendship and the film that celebrated its construction offers a case study in the aspirations and limitations of Sino‐Soviet collaboration in the mid‐1950s. In particular, the history of both railway and film illuminate the role of Xinjiang as a frontier region where the ideals of internationalist collaboration confronted a longer history of imperial contestation between the Russian and Chinese states in Central Asia. Grounded in archival materials, this reconstruction of the project foregrounds both the politics and the poetics of collaboration: both the production history of the film, and the way that the film itself stages and performs its own ideals of collaborative “friendship.” Collaboration, it becomes clear from the film and its production materials, was both an important ideal and a fraught business. The Road of Friendship itself, meanwhile, fell victim to the Sino‐Soviet Split of the early 1960s. The two sides were supposed to connect at the town of Druzhba (Dostyk, “Friendship”) on the Sino‐Soviet border, but the Chinese branch only reached Druzhba in 1990—just in time for the collapse of the USSR. Today the Lanzhou—Almaty rail route constitutes a central link in China's Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, another reimagining of the Silk Road for twenty‐first‐century global capitalism.
A Common Space of International Work: Disability Activism, Socialist Internationalism, and the Russian Union of the Blind
Authors: GALMARINI MARIA CRISTINA
Published: September 2021

After the Second World War, blind activists in Eastern Europe were busy rebuilding their prewar advocacy movements and integrating them in the administrative structure and ideological apparatus of the emerging socialist states. As they set up their new national programs, these activists also attributed great significance to international cooperation. They recognized the value that could be derived from international relations not only with the Soviet Union but also across the entire socialist camp, and moved fast to build an intra‐socialist, shared space of blind advocacy. In particular, blind activists from East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary launched a series of initiatives aimed at cementing their commonality of goals and making the exchange of disability knowledge practically possible among them. These included International Sport Competitions of Blind Youth, blind vacationers' exchange programs, and formal agreements of cultural collaboration. All their international work, however, would have been of little use had the Russian Blind Union refused to be involved in it. Analyzing the personal letters, internal reports, and official public statements written by various Russian and East European blind activists, in this article I discuss the ways in which the Russian Blind Union entered the international scene of socialist blind activism and shaped its development. In the context of Khrushchev's broader shifts to revamp the domestic and international realities of Soviet life, Russian blind activists joined the network of contacts that their Eastern European colleagues had built and took up a commanding role in it. They began to use international work both to advance the propaganda goals of their government and to improve their own national advocacy movement. In doing that, they significantly augmented the meaning of socialist blind internationalism as a theater of cultural diplomacy, while also reinforcing its framing as a socialist learning space, an opportunity that would benefit the blind people of the socialist world. Their encounters with Eastern European colleagues allowed Russian activists to compare notes and expand their conceptual horizons; they exposed both the achievements and the limits of the Soviet approach to disability; and they suggested that there was much that Russians could learn from other countries. Studying these processes, historians can not only better assess Soviet claims of superiority and the paradoxes of socialist cultural exchanges, but also think about the specific meaning of these contacts for blind activist–a group that we rarely associate with internationalism during the Cold War. Ultimately, as I argue in this article, transnational socialist encounters taught Russian blind activists to balance their identity as state officers and cultural diplomats with their motives as disability advocates.
An Air Map for World Cinema: Aeroflot as an Infrastructure for Cinematic Internationalism
Authors: RAZLOGOVA ELENA
Published: September 2021

The expansion of global air travel in the Cold War era fueled diverse forms of state‐sponsored internationalism, including international writers' congresses, concert tours, and especially art and film festivals. Film festivals served as a key stage for cultural competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as the main way for decolonized Asian and African states to showcase their new national cinemas. The Soviet state airline, Aeroflot, shaped international participation at the Moscow International Film Festival (1959‐) and Global South participation at the Tashkent Festival for Asian, African, and Latin American Cinema in Uzbekistan (1968‐). This article analyzes Aeroflot as an infrastructure for cinematic internationalism. The socialist economics of air travel shaped “world cinema maps” that emerged at Moscow and Tashkent. Aeroflot enabled Soviet cinematic diplomacy, but also constrained it: it delayed Tashkent festival's expansion to Latin America, where the airline had few inroads. For local publics, films brought in airplane luggage at the last minute provided uncensored transnational cinematic experiences that occasionally elided not just Soviet, but also Syrian or American diplomatic control. Aeroflot's inefficiencies put foreign delegates face‐to‐face with Soviet everyday life and reproduced global inequalities: filmmakers from the Global South, whose travel was covered by their Soviet hosts, were at the mercy of Aeroflot's delays, while festival guests from Western Europe and the United States could count on their own national airlines for transportation. Free Aeroflot tickets ensured nearly comprehensive participation of Global South nations, in order to promote Soviet filmmaking as the model for emergent Asian and African cinemas. Yet Third Worldist alliances forged at Moscow and Tashkent—among African organizers of the Pan‐African Federation of Filmmakers, or between Cuban and Vietnamese militant cineastes—often bypassed, contradicted, or exceeded Soviet diplomatic goals. More broadly, I argue that Soviet official internationalism—its technologies, bureaucracies, and expenditures—should be analyzed as an infrastructure that enabled multiple internationalist projects, some conceived elsewhere and working toward goals tangential or inimical to Soviet state purposes. Much existing work on Soviet internationalism zeros in on the state's attempts to win the “hearts and minds” of Soviet or foreign citizens. Conversely, the infrastructural approach focuses on informal transnational alliances and personal ties built on Soviet terrain, while also accounting for Soviet institutional, economic, and technological power that shaped the “contact zones” where these encounters took place.