bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Combined effects of chronic PM2.5 exposure and habitual exercise on cancer mortality: a longitudinal cohort study
Authors: Bo Yacong , Yu Tsung , Chang Ly-Yun , Guo Cui , Lin Changqing , Zeng Yiqian , Huang Bo , Tam Tony , Lau Alexis K H , Wong Samuel Y S , Lao Xiang Qian 
Published: September 2021

Abstract

Background
Exercise may increase the inhalation and deposition of air pollutants, which may counteract its beneficial effects. We thus examined the combined effects of chronic exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and habitual exercise on the risk of death from cancer in Taiwan.

Patients and methods
A total of 384 128 adults (≥18 years of age) were recruited for a medical screening programme between 2001 and 2016, yielding 842 384 medical-examination records. All participants were followed up until 31 May 2019. Vital data were obtained from the National Death Registry of Taiwan and the ambient PM2.5 exposure was estimated using a satellite-based spatiotemporal model. Information on habitual exercise was collected using a standard self-administered questionnaire. The time-dependent Cox-regression model was used to evaluate the combined effects.

Results
A greater amount of habitual exercise was associated with lower risk of death from cancer, whilst a higher level of PM2.5 exposure was associated with a higher risk of death from cancer. The inverse associations of habitual exercise with death from cancer were not modified by chronic exposure to PM2.5. The participants in the group with a high level of exercise and a low level of PM2.5 exposure exhibited a 35% lower risk of death from cancer than those in the group with a low level of exercise and a high level of PM2.5 exposure (95% confidence interval: 28%, 42%).

Conclusions
Increased levels of exercise and reduced exposure levels of PM2.5 are associated with a lower risk of death from cancer. Habitual exercise reduces the risk of death from cancer regardless of the levels of chronic PM2.5 exposure. Our results indicate that habitual exercise is a suitable health-promotion strategy even for people who reside in moderately polluted regions.
The Impact of Real-Time Whole-Genome Sequencing in Controlling Healthcare-Associated SARS-CoV-2 Outbreaks
Authors: Francis Rodric V , Billam Harriet , Clarke Mitch , Yates Carl , Tsoleridis Theocharis , Berry Louise , Mahida Nikunj , Irving William L , Moore Christopher , Holmes Nadine , Ball Jonathan K , Loose Matthew , McClure C Patrick ,   COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium
Published: September 2021

Abstract
Nosocomial severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections have severely affected bed capacity and patient flow. We utilized whole-genome sequencing (WGS) to identify outbreaks and focus infection control resources and intervention during the United Kingdom’s second pandemic wave in late 2020. Phylogenetic analysis of WGS and epidemiological data pinpointed an initial transmission event to an admission ward, with immediate prior community infection linkage documented. High incidence of asymptomatic staff infection with genetically identical viral sequences was also observed, which may have contributed to the propagation of the outbreak. WGS allowed timely nosocomial transmission intervention measures, including admissions ward point-of-care testing and introduction of portable HEPA14 filters. Conversely, WGS excluded nosocomial transmission in 2 instances with temporospatial linkage, conserving time and resources. In summary, WGS significantly enhanced understanding of SARS-CoV-2 clusters in a hospital setting, both identifying high-risk areas and conversely validating existing control measures in other units, maintaining clinical service overall.
Quantifying the Impact of COVID-19 Nonpharmaceutical Interventions on Influenza Transmission in the United States
Authors: Qi Yuchen , Shaman Jeffrey , Pei Sen 
Published: September 2021

AbstractBackgroundNonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) have been implemented to suppress transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Evidence indicates that NPIs against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may also have effects on transmission of seasonal influenza.MethodsIn this study, we use an absolute humidity-driven susceptible-infectious-recovered-susceptible (SIRS) model to quantify the reduction of influenza incidence and transmission in the United States and US Department of Health and Human Services regions after implementation of NPIs in 2020. We investigate long-term effect of NPIs on influenza incidence by projecting influenza transmission at the national scale over the next 5 years, using the SIRS model.ResultsWe estimate that incidence of influenza A/H1 and B, which circulated in early 2020, was reduced by more than 60% in the United States during the first 10 weeks following implementation of NPIs. The reduction of influenza transmission exhibits clear geographical variation. After the control measures are relaxed, potential accumulation of susceptibility to influenza infection may lead to a large outbreak, the scale of which may be affected by length of the intervention period and duration of immunity to influenza.ConclusionsHealthcare systems need to prepare for potential influenza patient surges and advocate vaccination and continued precautions.
From kolkHoz to pulpit: Rashida abïstay and female religious authority in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia
Authors: Garipova Rozaliya 
Published: September 2021

Abstract
This article focuses on the life and activities of Rashida Iskhaki, an ordinary Soviet woman from a kolkhoz near Kazan who became one of the most authoritative religious figures in Soviet and post-Soviet Tatarstan. Her path-breaking career demonstrates the development of the institution of female religious authority, abïstay, in post-WWII Russia and under the anti-religious Soviet regime. While the male religious elite was decimated before the war and remained under strict state control in the post-war period, women played a crucial role in the transmission of Islamic knowledge. Making use of public and private spaces Rashida Iskhaki developed into a full-fledged religious authority among the Muslims of Kazan. She contributed immensely to the formation of the female and male religious elite of early post-Soviet Russia. She and other women actively connected Muslims in and around the city of Kazan through home classes and majlises. The article suggests rethinking the dichotomies between ‘male’ and ‘female’ spheres, between ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’ Islam and argues that contemporary abïstays are very much a ‘Soviet phenomenon’, whose authority developed in the conditions of the Soviet regime and its collapse.
The chromatin remodelling ATPase BRAHMA interacts with GATA-family transcription factor GNC to regulate flowering time in Arabidopsis
Authors: Yang Jie , Xu Yingchao , Wang Jianhao , Gao Sujuan , Huang Yisui , Hung Fu-Yu , Li Tao , Li Qing , Yue Lin , Wu Keqiang , Yang Songguang 
Published: September 2021

Abstract
BRAHMA (BRM) is the ATPase of the SWItch/Sucrose Non-Fermentable (SWI/SNF) chromatin remodelling complex, which is indispensable for transcriptional inhibition and activation, associated with vegetative and reproductive development in Arabidopsis thaliana. Here, we show that BRM directly binds to the chromatin of SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CONSTANS 1 (SOC1), which integrates multiple flowering signals to regulate floral transition, leading to flowering. In addition, genetic and molecular analysis showed that BRM interacts with GNC (GATA, NITRATE-INDUCIBLE, CARBON METABOLISM INVOLVED), a GATA transcription factor that represses flowering by directly repressing SOC1 expression. Furthermore, BRM is recruited by GNC to directly bind to the chromatin of SOC1. The transcript level of SOC1 is elevated in brm-3, gnc, and brm-3/gnc mutants, which is associated with increased histone H3 lysine 4 tri-methylation (H3K4Me3) but decreased DNA methylation. Taken together, our results indicate that BRM associates with GNC to regulate SOC1 expression and flowering time.
International Environmental Law
Authors: Rajamani Lavanya , Peel Jacqueline 
Published: September 2021

Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of international environmental law, which is the legal and regulatory framework devised by the community of sovereign states to address global environmental problems. These problems include the potential for runaway climate change, vanishing biodiversity, increasing freshwater scarcity, and severe degradation of marine resources and ocean ecosystems. In the last decade, international environmental law has acquired further breadth, depth, nuance, complexity, and reach. In particular, it is more deeply interconnected with policy and legal efforts in many other fields, including international trade and investment, human rights and migration, energy, disaster response, armed conflict, technology innovation and intellectual property protection. The chapter then explores and illustrates the ways in which international environmental law has evolved over the last decade. It highlights how the field has adapted to a changing geo-political context, as well as to the possibilities and limits of global regulation in addressing the complex, polycentric, and intractable nature of environmental harms.
Instrument Choice
Authors: Driesen David 
Published: September 2021

Abstract
This chapter addresses the problem of choosing environmental law instruments in international environmental law. It begins with a discussion of the various environmental protection instruments, such as environmental benefit trading, pollution taxes, subsidies, and traditional regulation. The chapter suggests that, for the most part, international environmental law has left the choice between traditional regulation and market-based instruments to nation-states. Efforts to create new international environmental law focus more upon forging agreement about goals than on how to achieve goals, since states play such a huge role in implementation and countries can achieve any given goal in a variety of ways. But some devices, which some experts treat as environmental instruments—such as subsidies, liability, and trade sanctions—more often become part of international environmental law. The chapter then discusses the extent to which the desire for international environmental benefit trading has driven a departure from the norm of leaving the choice between market mechanisms and traditional standards to implementing polities.
Economics
Authors: Faure Michael 
Published: September 2021

AbstractThis chapter explains that the starting point for the economic approach to both domestic as well as international environmental law is that environmental problems (including but not limited to environmental pollution) constitute a market failure. From this economic perspective transboundary environmental pollution emerges. Moreover, global environmental quality is, from an economic perspective, a so-called public good of which all states will benefit. But since no state can exclude others from benefitting from this global environmental good, there is a danger of ‘free-riding’ as a result of which this global public good (environmental quality) may be insufficiently produced. These starting points provide a basis for the emergence of international environmental law, more particularly treaty law. However, a classic paradigm in what has become known as the law and economics literature is the Coase Theorem. The chapter then addresses the likelihood of Coasean solutions to emerge as a remedy to transboundary environmental pollution. It also looks at reasons for states to conclude treaties.
The Role of Science
Authors: Johnston Sam 
Published: September 2021

AbstractThis chapter reflects on the crucial and multifaceted role of science in international environmental law, identifying and framing its challenges, threats, and problems. The role of science in international environmental law has been the subject of vigorous debate, focusing around competing claims concerning the need for action in almost every area of environmental regulation, such as climate change, restrictions on use of areas or resources such as fisheries, and restrictions on ‘dangerous’ substances such as genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The developing jurisprudence on the role of science in international environmental law articulated by various international tribunals such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) highlights the important role that science plays in this field. The chapter then considers how science has influenced international environmental law and in turn, how international environmental law has contributed to the promotion of science. An emerging issue highlighted in the chapter is the increasing politicization of science and the need to understand the limitations of science.
Differentiation
Authors: Cullet Philippe 
Published: September 2021

Abstract
This chapter explores differential treatment, which is one of the main instruments that exist in international environmental law to foster equity. It builds on ideas of global distributive justice and helps to rebalance some of the most visible inequalities arising between formally equal states of very different size, power, and natural resource endowments. The principle that reflects differential treatment in international environmental law is that of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR). The chapter discusses the conceptual bases for and development of differential treatment. This confirms the significance of the break proposed to the traditional international legal framework and explains the continuing opposition to differential treatment by some countries. The chapter then highlights the different manifestations of differential treatment in international environmental law and shows that differential treatment pervades the whole field. It also looks at some of the critiques of differentiation and the forms of differential treatment that have evolved over the past couple of decades.
Good Faith
Authors: Shibata Akiho 
Published: September 2021

AbstractThis chapter studies the principle of good faith, which has been declared by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as ‘a well-established principle of international law’. Through judicial pronouncements and state practice, it has come to acquire concrete legal content. The principle of good faith is closely linked to the concept of legal security; it provides certainty and foreseeability in society, and as such is fundamental and necessary to any legal system. The chapter examines the role that the principle of good faith could play, first, in general international law relating to the environment, focusing on three broad areas of environmental treaty performance, environmental cooperation, and due diligence. It then considers the more concrete role that the principle of good faith could play within multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) as special legal regimes. Finally, the chapter analyses two concrete contexts within which the principle of good faith could be engaged to perform specific normative functions in the operation of MEAs, namely in non-compliance and ‘pledge and review’ mechanisms.
Business and Industry
Authors: Richardson Benjamin J. , Sjåfjell Beate 
Published: September 2021

Abstract
This chapter studies how, in the study of international environmental law, business corporations are typically viewed as actors under the auspices of various regulatory regimes developed by nation-states, or recognized as having some tacit influence over the agenda setting and implementation of such regimes. This perspective might also acknowledge the limited accountability of corporations under international law. Another perspective is the business sector's initiative in shaping its own environmental agenda, often in the name of ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR). The chapter then surveys the role of corporate law and corporate governance in shaping environmental performance, and introduces the goals, mechanisms, and actors of the global CSR movement. It examines the governance of business in international environmental law, including corporate liability for wrongdoing. The chapter also looks at examples of new forms of multi-stakeholder environmental collaboration involving the business sector.
India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan
Authors: Ghosh Shibani 
Published: September 2021

AbstractThis chapter focuses on international environmental law (IEL) in the courts of India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Review of the case law reveals that Indian courts have led the adoption of the IEL principles in this region, with occasional references to IEL by Bangladeshi and Pakistani courts. This appears to follow the trend of non-environmental cases, where also the Bangladeshi and Pakistani judiciary is more reluctant than the Indian courts to turn to international law. Although courts in the three countries have engaged with IEL, it has mostly been at a superficial level. Their reliance on IEL is not always accompanied by strong judicial reasoning, making it difficult to determine their content and scope, and even their relevance in particular scenarios. Given development imperatives in these countries, courts are often faced with the ‘economy/development versus environment’ question. In such situations, the courts rely on IEL in an instrumental fashion in support of the final outcome of the case, rather than engaging with the substantive content of the IEL principle.
The natural occurring Y129F polymorphism in Rhizopus oryzae (R. arrhizus) Cyp51Ap accounts for its intrinsic voriconazole resistance
Authors: Macedo Daiana , Leonardelli Florencia , Cabeza Matias S , Gamarra Soledad , Garcia-Effron Guillermo 
Published: September 2021

Abstract

Rhizopus oryzae (heterotypic synonym: R. arrhizus) intrinsic voriconazole and fluconazole resistance has been linked to its CYP51A gene. However, the amino acid residues involved in this phenotype have not yet been established. A comparison between R. oryzae and Aspergillus fumigatus Cyp51Ap sequences showed differences in several amino acid residues. Some of them were already linked with voriconazole resistance in A. fumigatus. The objective of this work was to analyze the role of two natural polymorphisms in the intrinsic voriconazole resistance phenotype of R. oryzae (Y129F and T290A, equivalent to Y121F and T289A seen in triazole-resistant A. fumigatus). We have generated A. fumigatus chimeric strains harboring different R. oryzae CYP51A genes (wild-type and mutants). These mutant R. oryzae CYP51A genes were designed to carry nucleotide changes that produce mutations at Cyp51Ap residues 129 and 290 (emulating the Cyp51Ap protein of azole susceptible A. fumigatus). Antifungal susceptibilities were evaluated for all the obtained mutants. The polymorphism T290A (alone or in combination with Y129F) had no impact on triazole MIC. On the other hand, a &gt; 8-fold decrease in voriconazole MICs was observed in A. fumigatus chimeric strains harboring the RoCYP51Ap-F129Y. This phenotype supports the assumption that the naturally occurring polymorphism Y129F at R. oryzae Cyp51Ap is responsible for its voriconazole resistance phenotype. In addition, these chimeric mutants were posaconazole hypersusceptible. Thus, our experimental data demonstrate that the RoCYP51Ap-F129 residue strongly impacts VRC susceptibility and that it would be related with posaconazole-RoCYP51Ap interaction.

Lay summary
Rhizopus oryzae is intrinsically resistant to voriconazole, a commonly used antifungal agent. In this work, we analyze the role of two natural polymorphisms present in the target of azole drugs. We established that F129 residue is responsible of the intrinsic voriconazole resistance in this species.
A 15.5 GHz detection of the galaxy cluster minihalo in RXJ1720.1+2638
Authors: Perrott Yvette C , Carvalho Pedro , Elwood Patrick J , Grainge Keith J B , Green David A , Javid Kamran , Jin Terry Z , Rumsey Clare , Saunders Richard D E 
Published: September 2021

ABSTRACT
RXJ1720.1+2638 is a cool-core, ‘relaxed-appearing’ cluster with a minihalo previously detected up to 8.4 GHz, confined by X-ray-detected cold fronts. We present observations of the minihalo at 13–18 GHz with the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager telescope, simultaneously modelling the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich signal of the cluster in conjunction with Planck and Chandra data in order to disentangle the non-thermal emission of the minihalo. We show that the previously reported steepening of the minihalo emission at 8.4 GHz is not supported by the AMI data and that the spectrum is consistent with a single power law up to 18 GHz. We also show the presence of a larger scale component of the minihalo extending beyond the cold fronts. Both of these observations could be explained by the ‘hadronic’ or ‘secondary’ mechanism for the production of relativistic electrons, rather than the currently favoured ‘re-acceleration’ mechanism and/or multiple episodes of jet activity from the active galactic nucleus in the brightest cluster galaxy.
Streamlined CRISPR genome engineering in wild-type bacteria using SIBR-Cas
Authors: Patinios Constantinos , Creutzburg Sjoerd C A , Arifah Adini Q , Adiego-Pérez Belén , Gyimah Evans A , Ingham Colin J , Kengen Servé W M , van der Oost John , Staals Raymond H J 
Published: September 2021

Abstract
CRISPR-Cas is a powerful tool for genome editing in bacteria. However, its efficacy is dependent on host factors (such as DNA repair pathways) and/or exogenous expression of recombinases. In this study, we mitigated these constraints by developing a simple and widely applicable genome engineering tool for bacteria which we termed SIBR-Cas (Self-splicing Intron-Based Riboswitch-Cas). SIBR-Cas was generated from a mutant library of the theophylline-dependent self-splicing T4 td intron that allows for tight and inducible control over CRISPR-Cas counter-selection. This control delays CRISPR-Cas counter-selection, granting more time for the editing event (e.g. by homologous recombination) to occur. Without the use of exogenous recombinases, SIBR-Cas was successfully applied to knock-out several genes in three wild-type bacteria species (Escherichia coli MG1655, Pseudomonas putida KT2440 and Flavobacterium IR1) with poor homologous recombination systems. Compared to other genome engineering tools, SIBR-Cas is simple, tightly regulated and widely applicable for most (non-model) bacteria. Furthermore, we propose that SIBR can have a wider application as a simple gene expression and gene regulation control mechanism for any gene or RNA of interest in bacteria.