showing 36 of ~574560 from 574555 documents
Understanding the Origins of Problem Geomagnetic Storms Associated with "Stealth" Coronal Mass Ejections.
2021
Geomagnetic storms are an important aspect of space weather and can result in significant impacts on space- and ground-based assets. The majority of strong storms are associated with the passage of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) in the near-Earth environment. In many cases, these ICMEs can be traced back unambiguously to a specific coronal mass ejection (CME) and solar activity on the frontside of the Sun. Hence, predicting the arrival of ICMEs at Earth from routine observations of CMEs and solar activity currently makes a major contribution to the forecasting of geomagnetic storms. However, it is clear that some ICMEs, which may also cause enhanced geomagnetic activity, cann…
Why and how to use enterprise social media platforms: The employee’s perspective
2021
Abstract Literature supports the relevance of knowledge sharing in a company. Considering that social media plays an important role in this process, this paper analyzes the antecedents and consequences of the use of enterprise social media platforms according to the employee's perception. Based on the Motivation-Opportunity-Ability framework and using two different methodologies (Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis), we find that three different combinations of motivation, opportunity and ability factors, combined in pairs, promote the use of enterprise social media platforms, leading to knowledge creation and task performance. T…
Minori di età e formazione dei giovani atleti : storia di una riforma incompiuta
2021
The paper analyses the recent reform of the Italian sport system that includes, for the first time, some new regulations about minors and young athletes. The work underlines that despite the attempt by the legislator, the result is still not satisfying due to the lack of a 'child-centred' perspective.
Alterations of panoramic radiomorphometric indices in children and adolescents with beta-thalassemia major: A fractal analysis study
2021
Background Beta-thalassemia major is an inherited disorder that can cause bone deformity and loss of bone mineral density. The objective of this study is to evaluate the cortical and trabecular mandibular bone morphology of children and adolescents who have beta-thalassemia major (ß-TM) using a fractal dimension (FD) analysis and different panoramic radiomorphometric indices with digital panoramic radiographic images (DPRIs). Material and Methods The study included 80 patients (with 40 patients each of ß-TM and control). The mandibular cortical width (MCW), panoramic mandibular index (PMI), mandibular cortical index (MCI), and simple visual estimation (SVE) were evaluated, and an FD analysi…
Adipose stem cell niche reprograms the colorectal cancer stem cell metastatic machinery.
2021
Obesity is a strong risk factor for cancer progression, posing obesity-related cancer as one of the leading causes of death. Nevertheless, the molecular mechanisms that endow cancer cells with metastatic properties in patients affected by obesity remain unexplored. Here, we show that IL-6 and HGF, secreted by tumor neighboring visceral adipose stromal cells (V-ASCs), expand the metastatic colorectal (CR) cancer cell compartment (CD44v6 + ), which in turn secretes neurotrophins such as NGF and NT-3, and recruits adipose stem cells within tumor mass. Visceral adipose-derived factors promote vasculogenesis and the onset of metastatic dissemination by activation of STAT3, which inhibits miR-200…
Alienation and nihilism in the “affluent society”: the topicality of Augusto Del Noce
2021
Del Noce’s thought unravels over several decades on the stimulation of the great historical events in the 20th century (Totalitarianism, the Second World War, the Cold War, the Second Vatican Council, the Historic Compromise in Italy, etc.). Del Noce tackles the major philosophers of his time in this long journey of meditation: from Maritain to Gilson, from Gentile to Gramsci, from Löwith to Lukács and from Voegelin to Croce, not forgetting the dialogue with the classics from Descartes to Rosmini, and Marx to Gioberti. In this paper, I will concentrate mainly on his reflections around the so-called “affluent society” where he has gathered together, prophetically, those nihilist and anti-Chr…
The Mediator Role of Feelings of Guilt in the Process of Burnout and Psychosomatic Disorders: A Cross-Cultural Study
2021
Burnout was recently declared by WHO as an “occupational phenomenon” in the International Classification of Diseases 11th revision (ICD-11), recognizing burnout as a serious health issue. Earlier studies have shown that feelings of guilt appear to be involved in the burnout process. However, the exact nature of the relationships among burnout, guilt and psychosomatic disorders remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediator role of feelings of guilt in the relationship between burnout and psychosomatic disorders, and perform a cross-cultural validation of the multi-dimensional model by Gil-Monte in two samples of teachers (Portuguese vs. Spanish). The study sample…
Incorporation mechanism of colloidal TiO2 nanoparticles and their effect on properties of coatings grown on 7075 Al alloy from silicate-based solutio…
2021
Plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) was applied using a pulsed unipolar waveform to produce Al2O3-TiO2 composite coatings from sol electrolytic solutions containing colloidal TiO2 nanoparticles. The sol solutions were produced by dissolving 1, 3, and 5 g/L of potassium titanyl oxalate (PTO) in a silicate solution. Scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy were applied to characterizing the coatings. Corrosion behavior of the coatings was investigated using polarization and impedance techniques. The results indicated that TiO2 enters the coating through all types of micro-discharging and is doped into the alumina phase. The higher…
Spaces, (Non-)Places, and Fluid Identities in Tim Winton’s Fiction
2021
One of the major issues addressed by postcolonial literature is identity crisis. In Australia, a multicultural country and a former settler colony, where the sense of belonging is particularly troubling, this literary theme has been exploited by writers to address the ambiguity of home and belonging. This article attempts to examine Tim Winton’s fiction and show how the writer explores the concepts of place and space to set his protagonists’ shattered selves in the postcolonial geography. The analysis of his fiction from the perspective of humanistic geography, Edward Relph’s concept of placelessness, and Marc Auge’s idea of non-place reveals that a simple categorization of Winton’s setting…
Post-fotografia etnografica
2021
È evidente come la nostra società tecnologica sia legata senza alcun dubbio alla diffusione delle immagini. Autori come Gottfried Boehm, John Mitchell, Hans Belting hanno indagato la natura dell'immagine ponendo le basi, negli anni Novanta, per l'idea di un pictorial turn, di una cultura totalmente dominata dalle immagini che è diventata adesso una possibilità tecnica reale su scala globale. Un nuovo statuto dell'immagine che si usa raccogliere sotto l'etichetta di iconic turner inserito nel più vasto campo visual culture studies. L'uso del termine cultura accanto a quello di visuale è indicativo dell'ampiezza del campo d'indagine che visual culture studies si prefiggono di ricercare: essi …
Changes in mental health during three waves of the COVID-19 pandemic: a repeated cross-sectional study among Polish university students
2021
Abstract Background Research indicates that mental health worsened during the Coronavirus crisis, in particular among women and university students. However, few longitudinal studies have so far investigated the changes in mental health outcomes across three subsequent waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this study aims to examine changes in mental health among university students. Methods A total of 1,961university students from Poland, at mean age 23.23 years (SD = 3.16, 57.47% of women) were included in this repeated cross-sectional study across three waves of the COVID-19 pandemic: W1 (n = 657), W2 (n = 654), and W3 (n = 650). They completed the online survey with the Generalized…
La importancia de los factores internos y externos en el éxito empresarial
2021
El aumento de la productividad de una determinada economía requiere mejoras en la productividad de sus empresas, lo que se traduce en un mayor éxito empresarial. Cabe señalar que una empresa encaminada hacia el éxito es más productiva. El objetivo del trabajo es analizar cómo influyen los factores internos y los externos a la empresa en su productividad laboral. En este trabajo, se aporta evidencia que permite reconocer la importancia de la calidad de la gestión empresarial, por un lado, y de los factores relacionados con el funcionamiento de los mercados e instituciones, por otro, en la determinación de la productividad de las empresas. Los resultados evidencian que las prácticas de gestió…
Nest guarding behaviour of a temperate wrasse differs between sites off Mediterranean CO2 seeps
2021
Abstract Organisms may respond to changing environmental conditions by adjusting their behaviour (i.e., behavioural plasticity). Ocean acidification (OA), resulting from anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), is predicted to impair sensory function and behaviour of fish. However, reproductive behaviours, and parental care in particular, and their role in mediating responses to OA are presently overlooked. Here, we assessed whether the nesting male ocellated wrasse Symphodus ocellatus from sites with different CO2 concentrations showed different behaviours during their breeding season. We also investigated potential re-allocation of the time-budget towards different behavioural act…
Biological activity and toxicity of plant nutraceuticals: an overview
2021
Plant nutraceuticals have currently been receiving international attention due to their potentially health-promoting effects when consumed as part of a varied diet, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-proliferative properties. These beneficial effects have been attributed to the presence of bioactive compounds naturally occurring in food or produced de novo through metabolic pathways. However, taken into account that nutraceuticals could be concentrated forms of the food or plants, it is probable to find undesirable substances utilized in crop protection, such as pesticides, and other contaminants (e.g. mycotoxins), which could be concentrated during the extraction process. H…
Factores desencadenantes del perjuicio de los simúlidos
2021
El incremento de los daños causados por los dípteros simúlidos, desde finales de la década de los 90, ha suscitado un interés especial en el estudio de este grupo de dípteros en nuestro país. Además de la importancia de los estudios faunísticos, para conocer las especies presentes en nuestros hábitats, resulta de interés conocer otros aspectos ligados a la incidencia de sus ataques tanto al ser humano como a las especies animales de interés veterinario. La revisión del estado actual de la familia Simuliidae en España ha permitido la confección del listado de las 52 especies presentes y sus mapas de distribución. Se han llevado a cabo estudios de eficacia de tratamientos biol…
A novel moniliformin derivative as pan-inhibitor of histone deacetylases triggering apoptosis of leukemia cells
2021
New and potent agents that evade multidrug resistance (MDR) and inhibit epigenetic modifications are of great interest in cancer drug development. Here, we describe that a moniliformin derivative (IUPAC name: 3-(naphthalen-2-ylsulfanyl)-4-{[(2Z)-1,3,3-trimethyl-2,3-dihydro-1H-indol-2-ylidene]methyl}cyclobut-3-ene-1,2-dione; code: MCC1381) bypasses P-gp-mediated MDR. Using transcriptomics, we identified a large number of genes significantly regulated in response to MCC1381, which affected the cell cycle and disturbed cellular death and survival. The potential targets of MCC1381 might be histone deacetylases (HDACs) as predicted by SwissTargetPrediction. In silico studies confirmed that MCC13…
Immunogenicity of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in older residents of a long-term care facility: relation with age, frailty and prior infection …
2021
Clinical and biological assessment of the COVID-19 vaccine efficacy in the frail population is of crucial importance. The study focuses on measuring the levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies before and after BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccination among long-term care facility (LTCF) elderly residents. We conducted a prospective, single-center, observational study among LTCF residents. The study protocol was based on three blood sample acquisitions: first taken at baseline—5 days before the first dose of the vaccine, second—20 days after the first dose, and third—12 days after the second shot of the vaccine. The comparison was made for two cohorts: patients with and without prior COVID-19 inf…
Nutritional parameters associated with prognosis in non-critically ill hospitalized covid-19 patients: the nutri-covid19 study
2021
Background & aims: To investigate the association between the parameters used in nutritional screening assessment (body mass index [BMI], unintentional weight loss [WL] and reduced food intake) and clinical outcomes in non-critically ill, hospitalized coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. Methods: This was a prospective multicenter real-life study carried out during the first pandemic wave in 11 Italian Hospitals. In total, 1391 patients were included. The primary end-point was a composite of in-hospital mortality or admission to ICU, whichever came first. The key secondary end-point was in-hospital mortality. Results: Multivariable models were based on 1183 patients with comple…
Mirror energy differences above the 0f7/2 shell: First γ-ray spectroscopy of the Tz = −2 nucleus 56Zn
2021
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Exploring the mediator role of self-critical rumination between emotion regulation and psychopathology: A validation study of the Self-Critical Rumin…
2021
Abstract Self-critical rumination is a negative and repetitive self-thinking process related to different disorders and negative psychological outcomes such as emotion dysregulation. The objectives of this study are twofold: (a) to examine the factor structure of the Spanish version of the Self-Critical Rumination Scale (SCRS), providing further evidence on its construct validity, and (b), to explore the mediator role of self-critical rumination between emotion dysregulation and psychopathology. A sample of 431 Spanish participants were recruited and completed online questionnaires. Confirmatory factor analysis, mediation analysis, and Pearson's correlations were conducted. A single factor …
L’accession à la propriété après les séparations : pourquoi un tel écart entre hommes et femmes ?
2021
À partir de l’enquête SRCV (Statistiques sur les Ressources et les Conditions de Vie), cet article se propose de décrire comment les séparations conjugales viennent renforcer les inégalités d’accession à la propriété entre hommes et femmes. Avant la rupture, les femmes ont des carrières moins rémunératrices que leur conjoint. Ces inégalités se creusent après la séparation, d’autant plus que les femmes ont davantage la garde des enfants. Elles ont donc des niveaux de vie plus faibles et des situations professionnelles plus précaires, leur permettant moins souvent de rester propriétaires. Par ailleurs, à caractéristiques égales, les hommes font davantage le choix de la propriété que les femme…
Characteristics of partial discharges in an experimental setup reproducing HVDC cable insulation operating conditions
2021
The occurrence of Partial Discharge (PD) inside a cavity subjected to HVDC voltage can be considered as one of the most likely sources of insulation ageing and failure. In practical applications, the recognition of PD under HVDC is more difficult than under AC stress because of the lower repetition rates and the impossibility to obtain a PD pattern synchronized with the waveform of the applied voltage. In this paper, the relationship between conduction phenomena in dielectrics and the occurrence of PD is investigated by means of a novel experimental setup. A couple of dielectric cells connected in series is subjected to various HVDC stress levels. The applied voltage is divided between the …
Magnesium and hypertension in old age
2021
Hypertension is a complex condition in which various actors and mechanisms combine, resulting in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications that today represent the most frequent causes of mortality, morbidity, disability, and health expenses worldwide. In the last decades, there has been an exceptional amount of experimental, epidemiological, and clinical studies confirming a close relationship between magnesium deficit and high blood pressure. Multiple mechanisms may help to explain the bulk of evidence supporting a protective effect of magnesium against hypertension and its complications. Hypertension increases sharply with advancing age, hence older persons are those most affected…
Entrepreneurial orientation and new product development performance in SMEs: The mediating role of business model innovation
2021
Abstract In the current business context, entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has been highlighted as key to improving firm performance. Despite the overall positive evidence on the association between EO and firm performance, scholars have stressed the importance of taking into account and properly managing intermediate capabilities. The present study analyses the link between EO and New Product Development (NPD) performance, considering Business Model Innovation (BMI) as a mediating variable. A sample of 400 Spanish SMEs is used to test the proposed research model through structural equation modelling and partial least squares analyses. Results reveal that EO contributes to BMI and NPD perfo…
Is the Short and Fast Step Test a safe and feasible tool for exploring anaerobic capacities of individuals with coronary heart disease in clinical pr…
2021
Background While its importance in daily living, the anaerobic metabolism is not taken into account in clinical practice. The lack of validated functional performance tests for patients with chronic disabilities may explain this defect. In this context, the Short and Fast Step Test (SFST) was recently developed and validated in healthy volunteers. Aim The purpose of this study was to investigate the safety, feasibility and reliability of the SFST, a functional test exploring anaerobic metabolism in coronary patients during cardiac rehabilitation. Design This study was a monocentric prospective study. Settings This study took place in the rehabilitation center of the University Hospital Cent…
Multi-mycotoxin occurrence in feed, metabolism and carry-over to animal-derived food products: A review
2021
The world requests for raw materials used in animal feed has been steadily rising in the last years driven by higher demands for livestock production. Mycotoxins are frequent toxic metabolites present in these raw materials. The exposure of farm animals to mycotoxins could result in undesirable residues in animal-derived food products. Thus, the potential ingestion of edible animal products (milk, meat and fish) contaminated with mycotoxins constitutes a public health concern, since they enter the food chain and may cause adverse effects upon human health. The present review summarizes the state-of-the-art on the occurrence of mycotoxins in feed, their metabolism and carry-over into animal …
Finnish late adolescents’ physical activity during COVID-19 spring 2020 lockdown
2021
Background Physical activity (PA) is recognised as one of the leading and effective strategies to prevent non-communicable diseases that boosts the immune system to fight against diseases. Closures of schools, sport clubs and facilities because of COVID-19 reduced the opportunities to participate in PA. We aimed to examine physical activity levels of late adolescents, the contexts to be physical active and its changes during the spring 2020 lockdown. Methods A national representative sample of late adolescents in general upper secondary school (n = 2408, females = 64%, mean age = 17.2y, SD = 0.63) completed self-report online surveys on PA behaviours between March and June 2020. Multinomina…
Halloysite nanotubes filled with salicylic acid and sodium diclofenac: effects of vacuum pumping on loading and release properties
2021
AbstractIn this work, we investigated the effects of the vacuum pumping on both the loading efficiencies and the release kinetics of halloysite nanotubes filled with drug molecules dissolved in ethanol. As model drugs, salicylic acid and sodium diclofenac were selected. For comparison, the loading of the drug molecules was conducted on platy kaolinite to explore the key role of the hollow tubular morphology on the filling mechanism of halloysite. The effects of the pressure conditions used in the loading protocol were interpreted and discussed on the basis of the thermodynamic results provided by Knudsen thermogravimetry, which demonstrated the ethanol confinement inside the halloysite cavi…
Rationale and design of the CRAFT (Continuous ReAssessment with Flexible ExTension in Rare Malignancies) multicenter phase II trial.
2021
Background Approvals of cancer therapeutics are primarily disease entity specific. Current molecular diagnostic approaches frequently identify actionable alterations in rare cancers or rare subtypes of common cancers for which the corresponding treatments are not approved and unavailable within clinical trials due to entity-related eligibility criteria. Access may be negotiated with health insurances. However, approval rates vary, and critical information required for a scientific evaluation of treatment-associated risks and benefits is not systematically collected. Thus clinical trials with optimized patient selection and comprehensive molecular characterization are essential for translati…
Strength and weakness of the Old English adjective
2021
Abstract As regards Old English, the inflectional strength and weakness are characterised by a kind of inconsistency. In the case of Old English adjectives these two inflectional properties appear to be different from those associated with nouns and verbs. In the case of the latter the two properties seem to be lexically determined while in the case of adjectives they appear to be determined by syntactic conditions. The traditional accounts of the Old English grammar attribute two paradigms to one adjectival lexical item. The analysis presented in this article postulates that one can actually speak about one adjectival inflection and what is traditionally presented as strong and weak adject…
Environmental Sustainability Approaches and Positive Energy Districts: A Literature Review
2021
During the last decade, increasing attention has been paid to the emerging concept of Positive Energy Districts (PED) with the aim of pushing the transition to clean energy, but further research efforts are needed to identify design approaches optimized from the point of view of sustainable development. In this context, this literature review is placed, with a specific focus on environmental sustainability within innovative and eco-sustainable districts. The findings show that some sustainability aspects such as sustainable food, urban heat islands mitigation and co-impacts, e.g., green gentrification, are not adequately assessed, while fragmented thinking limits the potential of circularit…
Droplet digital PCR as a tool for investigating dynamics of cryptic symbionts
2021
Abstract Interactions among symbiotic organisms and their hosts are major drivers of ecological and evolutionary processes. Monitoring the infection patterns among natural populations and identifying factors affecting these interactions are critical for understanding symbiont–host relationships. However, many of these interactions remain understudied since the knowledge about the symbiont species is lacking, which hinders the development of appropriate tools. In this study, we developed a digital droplet PCR (ddPCR) assay based on apicomplexan COX1 gene to detect an undescribed agamococcidian symbiont. We show that the method gives precise and reproducible results and enables detecting cryp…
Gaussianizing the Earth: Multidimensional Information Measures for Earth Data Analysis
2021
Information theory is an excellent framework for analyzing Earth system data because it allows us to characterize uncertainty and redundancy, and is universally interpretable. However, accurately estimating information content is challenging because spatio-temporal data is high-dimensional, heterogeneous and has non-linear characteristics. In this paper, we apply multivariate Gaussianization for probability density estimation which is robust to dimensionality, comes with statistical guarantees, and is easy to apply. In addition, this methodology allows us to estimate information-theoretic measures to characterize multivariate densities: information, entropy, total correlation, and mutual in…
Molecular mechanisms of hepatotoxic cholestasis by clavulanic acid: Role of NRF2 and FXR pathways.
2021
Treatment of β-lactamase positive bacterial infections with a combination of amoxicillin (AMOX) and clavulanic acid (CLAV) causes idiosyncratic drug-induced liver injury (iDILI) in a relevant number of patients, often with features of intrahepatic cholestasis. This study aims to determine serum bile acid (BA) levels in amoxicillin/clavulanate (A + C)-iDILI patients and to investigate the mechanism of cholestasis by A + C in human in vitro hepatic models. In six A + C-iDILI patients, significant elevations of serum primary conjugated BA definitely demonstrated A + C-induced cholestasis. In cultured human Upcyte hepatocytes and HepG2 cells, CLAV was more cytotoxic than AMOX, and, at subcytoto…
An Intercellular Flow of Glutathione Regulated by Interleukin 6 Links Astrocytes and the Liver in the Pathophysiology of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
2021
Oxidative stress has been proposed as a major mechanism of damage to motor neurons associated with the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Astrocytes are the most numerous glial cells in the central nervous system and, under physiological conditions, protect neurons from oxidative damage. However, it is uncertain how their reactive phenotype may affect motor neurons during ALS progression. In two different ALS mouse models (SOD1G93A and FUS-R521C), we found that increased levels of proinflammatory interleukin 6 facilitate glutathione (GSH) release from the liver to blood circulation, which can reach the astrocytes and be channeled towards motor neurons as a mechanism of anti…
Menetelmällistä rajankäyntiä ja tieteiden välisyyttä
2021
Marianne Silén: Sosiologian ja tilastotieteen rajoilla – faktorianalyysi rajakohteena. Acta electronica Universitatis Lapponiensis 301. Rovaniemi: Lapin yliopisto, 2021, 175 s. I S B N 978-952-337-248-1