Predator-Induced Vertical Behavior of a Ctenophore

Although many studies have focused on Mnemiopsis leidyi predation, little is known about the role of this ctenophore as prey when abundant in native and invaded pelagic systems. We examined the response of the ctenophore M. leidyi to the predatory ctenophore Beroe ovata in an experiment in which the two species could potentially sense each other while being physically separated. On average, M. leidyi responded to the predator’s presence by increasing variability in swimming speeds and by lowering their vertical distribution. Such behavior may help explain field records of vertical migration, as well as stratified and near-bottom distributions of M. leidyi

An Anti-Human ICAM-1 Antibody Inhibits Rhinovirus-Induced Exacerbations of Lung Inflammation

Human rhinoviruses (HRV) cause the majority of common colds and acute exacerbations of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Effective therapies are urgently needed, but no licensed treatments or vaccines currently exist. Of the 100 identified serotypes, ∼90% bind domain 1 of human intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) as their cellular receptor, making this an attractive target for development of therapies; however, ICAM-1 domain 1 is also required for host defence and regulation of cell trafficking, principally via its major ligand LFA-1. Using a mouse anti-human ICAM-1 antibody (14C11) that specifically binds domain 1 of human ICAM-1, we show that 14C11 administered topically or systemically prevented entry of two major groups of rhinoviruses, HRV16 and HRV14, and reduced cellular inflammation, pro-inflammatory cytokine induction and virus load in vivo. 14C11 also reduced cellular inflammation and Th2 cytokine/chemokine production in a model of major group HRV-induced asthma exacerbation. Interestingly, 14C11 did not prevent cell adhesion via human ICAM-1/LFA-1 interactions in vitro, suggesting the epitope targeted by 14C11 was specific for viral entry. Thus a human ICAM-1 domain-1-specific antibody can prevent major group HRV entry and induction of airway inflammation in vivo

Are Happiness and Life Satisfaction Different Across Religious groups? Exploring Determinants of Happiness and Life Satisfaction

This study explores whether different religions experience different levels of happiness and life satisfaction and in case this is affected by country economic and cultural environment. Using World Value Survey (from 1981 to 2014), this study found that individual religiosity and country level of development play a significant role in shaping people’s subjective well-being (SWB). Protestants, Buddhists and Roman Catholic were happier and most satisfied with their lives compared to other religious groups. Orthodox has the lowest SWB. Health status, household’s financial satisfaction and freedom of choice are means by which religious groups and governments across the globe can improve the SWB of their citizens. Keywords: happiness; life satisfaction; religion; religious differences; cultur

The Evolution of Compact Binary Star Systems

We review the formation and evolution of compact binary stars consisting of white dwarfs (WDs), neutron stars (NSs), and black holes (BHs). Binary NSs and BHs are thought to be the primary astrophysical sources of gravitational waves (GWs) within the frequency band of ground-based detectors, while compact binaries of WDs are important sources of GWs at lower frequencies to be covered by space interferometers (LISA). Major uncertainties in the current understanding of properties of NSs and BHs most relevant to the GW studies are discussed, including the treatment of the natal kicks which compact stellar remnants acquire during the core collapse of massive stars and the common envelope phase of binary evolution. We discuss the coalescence rates of binary NSs and BHs and prospects for their detections, the formation and evolution of binary WDs and their observational manifestations. Special attention is given to AM CVn-stars -- compact binaries in which the Roche lobe is filled by another WD or a low-mass partially degenerate helium-star, as these stars are thought to be the best LISA verification binary GW sources.Comment: 105 pages, 18 figure

Risk propensity in the foreign direct investment location decision of emerging multinationals

A distinguishing feature of emerging economy multinationals is their apparent tolerance for host country institutional risk. Employing behavioral decision theory and quasi-experimental data, we find that managers’ domestic experience satisfaction increases their relative risk propensity regarding controllable risk (legally protectable loss), but decreases their tendency to accept non-controllable risk (e.g., political instability). In contrast, firms’ potential slack reduces relative risk propensity regarding controllable risk, yet amplifies the tendency to take non-controllable risk. We suggest that these counterbalancing effects might help explain observation that risk-taking in FDI location decisions is influenced by firm experience and context. The study provides a new understanding of why firms exhibit heterogeneous responses to host country risks, and the varying effects of institutions

Evidence for 'critical slowing down' in seagrass:a stress gradient experiment at the southern limit of its range

The theory of critical slowing down, i.e. the increasing recovery times of complex systems close to tipping points, has been proposed as an early warning signal for collapse. Empirical evidence for the reality of such warning signals is still rare in ecology. We studied this on Zostera noltii intertidal seagrass meadows at their southern range limit, the Banc d'Arguin, Mauritania. We analyse the environmental covariates of recovery rates using structural equation modelling (SEM), based on an experiment in which we assessed whether recovery after disturbances (i.e. seagrass & infauna removal) depends on stress intensity (increasing with elevation) and disturbance patch size (1 m(2) vs. 9 m(2)). The SEM analyses revealed that higher biofilm density and sediment accretion best explained seagrass recovery rates. Experimental disturbances were followed by slow rates of recovery, regrowth occurring mainly in the coolest months of the year. Macrofauna recolonisation lagged behind seagrass recovery. Overall, the recovery rate was six times slower in the high intertidal zone than in the low zone. The large disturbances in the low zone recovered faster than the small ones in the high zone. This provides empirical evidence for critical slowing down with increasing desiccation stress in an intertidal seagrass system

Phacoemulsification Alone versus Phacoemulsification Combined with Trabeculectomy for Primary Angle-Closure Glaucoma

Surgical outcomes of phacoemulsification only and phacoemulsification combined with trabeculectomy were compared in patients with primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG). Clinical records of 41 consecutive patients were retrospectively reviewed, and there was no difference in best-corrected visual acuity and intraocular pressure preoperatively and at the final follow-up in both study groups. Regarding the number of anti-glaucoma medications, it was higher in the phacoemulsification combined with trabeculectomy group preoperatively than the phacoemulsification only group (p = 0.045), but both groups were taking similar quantities of medication at the final follow-up (p = 0.6). In addition, postoperative hypotony (two cases) occurred only after phacoemulsification combined with trabeculectomy, but not after phacoemulsification only. In one case after phacoemulsification only, a second operation was needed. There were no additional postoperative complications. In conclusion, both phacoemulsification only and phacoemulsification combined with trabeculectomy showed good surgical outcomes in PACG patients. Both procedures might be equally effective in treating patients with PACG

H-SynEx: Using synthetic images and ultra-high resolution ex vivo MRI for hypothalamus subregion segmentation

A preprint version of the article is archived on this institutional repository under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). It has not been certified by peer review. You are advised to consult the version of record published by Elsevier on 25 Sep 2025 at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artmed.2025.103271 .The preprint version is also available at arXiv:2401.17104v2 [eess.IV] for this version), https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.17104. Submission history: From: Livia Rodrigues [view email]: [v1] Tue, 30 Jan 2024 15:36:02 UTC (2,991 KB); [v2] Mon, 1 Jul 2024 22:33:32 UTC (5,149 KB).The hypothalamus is a small structure located in the center of the brain and is involved in significant functions such as sleeping, temperature, and appetite control. Various neurological disorders are also associated with hypothalamic abnormalities. Automated image analysis of this structure from brain MRI is thus highly desirable to study the hypothalamus in vivo. However, most of the automated segmentation tools currently available focus exclusively on T1w images. In this study, we introduce H-SynEx, a machine learning method for automated segmentation of hypothalamic subregions that generalizes across different MRI sequences and resolutions without retraining. H-synEx was trained with synthetic images built from label maps derived from ultra-high resolution ex vivo MRI scans, allowing finer-grained manual segmentation when compared with 1 mm isometric in vivo images. We validated our method using Dice Coefficient (DSC) and Average Hausdorff distance (AVD) across in vivo images from six different datasets with six different MRI sequences (T1, T2, proton density, quantitative T1, fractional anisotropy, and FLAIR). Statistical analysis compared hypothalamic subregion volumes in controls, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) subjects using the Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (AUROC) and the Wilcoxon rank sum test. Our results show that H-SynEx successfully leverages information from ultra-high resolution scans to segment in vivo from different MRI sequences. Our automated segmentation was able to discriminate controls versus patients with Alzheimer’s disease on FLAIR images with 5 mm spacing. H-SynEx is openly available at https://github.com/liviamarodrigues/hsynex.L. Rodrigues acknowledges the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (88887.716540/2022-00). M. Bocchetta is supported by a Fellowship award from the Alzheimer’s Society, UK (AS-JF-19a-004-517). J.E. Iglesias acknowledges NIH 1RF1MH123195, 1R01AG070988, and a grant from the Jack Satter foundation. L. Rittner acknowledges CNPq 313598/2020-7 and FAPESP 2013/07559-3. S. Appenzeller acknowledges CAPES Print , CAPES 001 e BRAINN

Improving prehospital trauma management for skiers and snowboarders - need for on-slope triage?

Background Injuries from skiing and snowboarding became a major challenge for emergency care providers in Switzerland. In the alpine setting, early assessment of injury and health status is essential for the initiation of adequate means of care and transport. Nevertheless, validated standardized protocols for on-slope triage are missing. This article can assist in understanding the characteristics of injured winter sportsmen and exigencies for future on-slope triage protocols. Methods Six-year review of trauma cases in a tertiary trauma centre. Consecutive inclusion of all injured skiers and snowboarders aged >15 (total sample) years with predefined, severe injury to the head, spine, chest, pelvis or abdomen (study sample) presenting at or being transferred to the study hospital. Descriptive analysis of age, gender and injury pattern. Results Amongst 729 subjects (total sample) injured from skiing or snowboarding, 401 (55%, 54% of skiers and 58% of snowboarders) suffered from isolated limb injury. Amongst the remaining 328 subjects (study sample), the majority (78%) presented with monotrauma. In the study sample, injury to the head (52%) and spine (43%) was more frequent than injury to the chest (21%), pelvis (8%), and abdomen (5%). The three most frequent injury combinations were head/spine (10% of study sample), head/thorax (9%), and spine/thorax (6%). Fisher's exact test demonstrated an association for injury combinations of head/thorax (p < 0.001), head/abdomen (p = 0.019), and thorax/abdomen (p < 0.001). Conclusion The data presented and the findings from previous investigations indicate the need for development of dedicated on-slope triage protocols. Future research must address the validity and practicality of diagnostic on-slope tests for rapid decision making by both professional and lay first responders. Thus, large-scale and detailed injury surveillance is the future research priority

Mission-oriented public policy and the new evaluation culture

In this chapter, our aim is to develop a framework to improve public policy-related evaluation practice for a more adaptive and anticipatory evaluation approach, better in tune with complex interactions and interdependencies that have emerged on our policy agenda today. One of the features of this space for interactions that is public policy is its mission orientation. Such an orientation is accompanied by the evolution of public policy instruments, which in turn necessitate new evaluation approaches. We are convinced that this requires developing a conceptual framework, which can be taken forward to test and further operationalise in situations where similar systemic transformations for policy development are elaborated upon. Based on our work on public-sector leadership, we are proposing a framework for evaluation in a more mission-driven and systems-based perspective. The framework seeks to take better into consideration the diversity of policy interventions at our disposal, ranging from traditional budgetary or legislative instruments to experimentation and piloting. Changes are identified in the very characteristics of the societal problems we are trying to solve, as well as in the nature of policy, both subsequently requiring a more multifaceted scope of evaluation, an emerging practice being towards a more mission-oriented one as well as a more nuanced approach depending on whether one is interested in the multi-organisational performance, policy service delivery or quality of outputs and impacts from policy initiatives and projects. The focus of evaluation in turn ranges from the accountability to evaluation criteria, timescale, motivation, as well as type of intervention used.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed