The precarity trap:Modelling non-democratic journalistic practices beyond media capture

How and why does legacy news media move from protecting to undermining democracy? Several studies argue that journalism can facilitate and shape democratic backsliding. However, evidence is scarce and, to some extent, limited to the content analysis of news outputs and editorials. The causal mechanisms of an anti-democratic role for the press and how it is operationalised into specific processes of news production remain largely misunderstood. Using 36 semi-structured qualitative interviews and three case studies, this paper analyses journalistic practices and role perceptions in Brazil within a period of constant decline in the quality of democracy (2016-2021). The results show that labour precarity is a crucial driver in journalistic practices capable of damaging democracy, which challenges previous assumptions that media capture is mostly influenced by the political economy of news organisations. This research also indicates that journalists are not homogeneously dominated by the interests of elites and can engage with them on their own terms to advance personal agendas

PsyCog:A computerised mini battery for assessing cognition in psychosis

Despite the functional impact of cognitive deficit in people with psychosis, objective cognitive assessment is not typically part of routine clinical care. This is partly due to the length of traditional assessments and the need for a highly trained administrator. Brief, automated computerised assessments could help to address this issue. We present data from an evaluation of PsyCog, a computerised, non-verbal, mini battery of cognitive tests. Healthy Control (HC) ( N = 135), Clinical High Risk (CHR) ( N = 233), and First Episode Psychosis (FEP) ( N = 301) participants from a multi-centre prospective study were assessed at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months. PsyCog was used to assess cognitive performance at baseline and at up to two follow-up timepoints. Mean total testing time was 35.95 min (SD = 2.87). Relative to HCs, effect sizes of performance impairments were medium to large in FEP patients (composite score G = 1.21, subtest range = 0.52-0.88) and small to medium in CHR patients (composite score G = 0.59, subtest range = 0.18-0.49). Site effects were minimal, and test-retest reliability of the PsyCog composite was good (ICC = 0.82-0.89), though some practice effects and differences in data completion between groups were found. The present implementation of PsyCog shows it to be a useful tool for assessing cognitive function in people with psychosis. Computerised cognitive assessments have the potential to facilitate the evaluation of cognition in psychosis in both research and in clinical care, though caution should still be taken in terms of implementation and study design. </p

Hyaluronan in mesenchymal stromal cell lineage differentiation from human pluripotent stem cells:application in serum free culture

BACKGROUND: Hyaluronan (HA) is an extracellular glycosaminoglycan polysaccharide with widespread roles throughout development and in healthy and neoplastic tissues. In pluripotent stem cell culture it can support both stem cell renewal and differentiation. However, responses to HA in culture are influenced by interaction with a range of cognate factors and receptors including components of blood serum supplements, which alter results. These may contribute to variation in cell batch production yield and phenotype as well as heighten the risks of adventitious pathogen transmission in the course of cell processing for therapeutic applications. MAIN: Here we characterise differentiation of a human embryo/pluripotent stem cell derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cell (hESC/PSC-MSC)-like cell population by culture on a planar surface coated with HA in serum-free media qualified for cell production for therapy. Resulting cells met minimum criteria of the International Society for Cellular Therapy for identification as MSC by expression of. CD90, CD73, CD105, and lack of expression for CD34, CD45, CD14 and HLA-II. They were positive for other MSC associated markers (i.e.CD166, CD56, CD44, HLA 1-A) whilst negative for others (e.g. CD271, CD71, CD146). In vitro co-culture assessment of MSC associated functionality confirmed support of growth of hematopoietic progenitors and inhibition of mitogen activated proliferation of lymphocytes from umbilical cord and adult peripheral blood mononuclear cells, respectively. Co-culture with immortalized THP-1 monocyte derived macrophages (Mɸ) concurrently stimulated with lipopolysaccharide as a pro-inflammatory stimulus, resulted in a dose dependent increase in pro-inflammatory IL6 but negligible effect on TNFα. To further investigate these functionalities, a bulk cell RNA sequence comparison with adult human bone marrow derived MSC and hESC substantiated a distinctive genetic signature more proximate to the former.CONCLUSION: Cultivation of human pluripotent stem cells on a planar substrate of HA in serum-free culture media systems is sufficient to yield a distinctive developmental mesenchymal stromal cell lineage with potential to modify the function of haematopoietic lineages in therapeutic applications.</p

The Values in Crisis Project:A three-wave panel study in Germany and the United Kingdom

This article introduces the data from the Values in Crisis project conducted in Germany and the United Kingdom. The project seized the COVID-19 pandemic as a natural experiment to investigate whether, how and to what extent people’s moral values change as a result of a disruptive event of massive order and global scale. An online panel survey measured individuals’ experiences with COVID-19, moral values, personality traits and social orientations at three different stages throughout the pandemic: at its onset (Wave 1: April–May 2020), one year later amidst the pandemic (Wave 2: February–March 2021), and two years later towards its end (Wave 3: February–April 2022). The samples for Wave 1 were drawn using quota sampling along gender, age group, level of education, and country region for the population aged 16 and above in Germany (NDE,W1 = 2,005), and 18 and above in the UK (NUK,W1 = 2,033). The samples for Wave 2 consist of re-contacted participants at a retention rate of 63.99% for Germany (NDE,W1–2 = 1,283) and 56.57% for the UK (NUK,W1–2 = 1,150). The samples for Wave 3 comprise of re-contacted participants at a retention rate of 43.74% in Germany (NDE,W1–3 = 877) and 37.73% in the UK (NUK,W1–3 = 767) as well as newly recruited participants (NDE,W3 = 381, NUK,W3 = 461). The data can be used for various secondary analyses on the topics covered in the survey.</p

GOLD Depression Study

Inflammation has been linked to depression in the general population. People living with HIV are at three times greater risk for depression, and experience elevated inflammation despite antiretroviral therapy. We investigated whether inflammatory biomarkers in the brain and the blood may mediate the association between HIV status and depressive symptoms. We recruited 60 young people living with and without HIV in Cape Town, South Africa. Participants completed the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) as a measure of depressive symptoms, underwent magnetic resonance spectroscopy to quantify choline and myo-inositol in three brain regions, and provided a blood serum sample in which we quantified concentrations of blood biomarkers of inflammation and neurogenesis

Don’t Roll the Dice, Ask Twice: The Two-Query Distortion of Matching Problems and Beyond

In most social choice settings, the participating agents express their preferences over the different alternatives in the form of linear orderings. While this clearly simplifies preference elicitation, it inevitably leads to poor performance with respect to optimizing a cardinal objective, such as the social welfare, since the values of the agents remain virtually unknown. This loss in performance because of lack of information is measured by the notion of distortion. A recent array of works put forward the agenda of designing mechanisms that learn the values of the agents for a small number of alternatives via queries, and use this limited extra information to make better-informed decisions, thus improving distortion. Following this agenda, in this work we focus on a class of combinatorial problems that includes most well-known matching problems and several of their generalizations. For problems such as One-Sided Matching, Two-Sided Matching, General Graph Matching, and Short Cycle Packing, we design two-query mechanisms that achieve the best-possible worst-case distortion in terms of social welfare, and outperform the best-possible expected distortion achieved by randomized ordinal mechanisms. Our results extend to problems like k-Constrained Resource Allocation, General Graph k-Matching, and k-Clique Packing, when k is restricted to be any constant

Mixed anion control of negative thermal expansion in a niobium oxyfluoride

A significant change in thermal expansion with anion composition has been identified in the niobium oxyfluoride, NbO2−xF1+x from 0 &lt; x &lt; 0.6. Fluorine doping leads to a transition from positive thermal expansion to unusual zero and negative thermal expansion caused by transverse anionic vibrations. This work has consequences for the development of advanced technological materials with tuneable low thermal expansion and is the first example of the use of multiple anions to control thermal expansion

A spatially resolved single-cell lung atlas integrated with clinical and blood signatures distinguishes COVID-19 disease trajectories

COVID-19 is characterized by a broad range of symptoms and disease trajectories. Understanding the correlation between clinical biomarkers and lung pathology during acute COVID-19 is necessary to understand its diverse pathogenesis and inform more effective treatments. Here, we present an integrated analysis of longitudinal clinical parameters, peripheral blood markers, and lung pathology in 142 Brazilian patients hospitalized with COVID-19. We identified core clinical and peripheral blood signatures differentiating disease progression between patients who recovered from severe disease compared with those who succumbed to the disease. Signatures were heterogeneous among fatal cases yet clustered into two patient groups: "early death" (&lt;15 days until death) and "late death" (&gt;15 days). Progression to early death was characterized systemically and in lung histopathological samples by rapid endothelial and myeloid activation and the presence of thrombi associated with SARS-CoV-2+ macrophages. In contrast, progression to late death was associated with fibrosis, apoptosis, and SARS-CoV-2+ epithelial cells in postmortem lung tissue. In late death cases, cytotoxicity, interferon, and T helper 17 (TH17) signatures were only detectable in the peripheral blood after 2 weeks of hospitalization. Progression to recovery was associated with higher lymphocyte counts, TH2 responses, and anti-inflammatory-mediated responses. By integrating antemortem longitudinal blood signatures and spatial single-cell lung signatures from postmortem lung samples, we defined clinical parameters that could be used to help predict COVID-19 outcomes.</p

Accelerating Progress Towards the 2030 Neglected Tropical Diseases Targets: How Can Quantitative Modeling Support Programmatic Decisions?

Over the past decade, considerable progress has been made in the control, elimination, and eradication of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Despite these advances, most NTD programs have recently experienced important setbacks; for example, NTD interventions were some of the most frequently and severely impacted by service disruptions due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Mathematical modeling can help inform selection of interventions to meet the targets set out in the NTD road map 2021–2030, and such studies should prioritize questions that are relevant for decision-makers, especially those designing, implementing, and evaluating national and subnational programs. In September 2022, the World Health Organization hosted a stakeholder meeting to identify such priority modeling questions across a range of NTDs and to consider how modeling could inform local decision making. Here, we summarize the outputs of the meeting, highlight common themes in the questions being asked, and discuss how quantitative modeling can support programmatic decisions that may accelerate progress towards the 2030 targets

Dynamics of magnetization growth and relaxation in ferrofluids

The dynamics of the growth and relaxation of the magnetization in ferrofluids are determined using theory based on the Fokker-Planck-Brown equation, and Brownian-dynamics simulations. Magnetization growth starting from an equilibrium nonmagnetized state in zero field, and following an instantaneous application of a uniform field of arbitrary strength, is studied with and without interparticle interactions. Similarly, magnetization relaxation is studied starting from an equilibrium magnetized state in a field of arbitrary strength, and following instantaneous removal of the field. In all cases, the dynamics are studied in terms of the time-dependent magnetization ⁡(). The field strength is described by the Langevin parameter , the strength of the interparticle interactions is described by the Langevin susceptibility , and the individual particles undergo Brownian rotation with time . For noninteracting particles, the average growth time decreases with increasing due to the torque exerted by the field, while the average relaxation time stays constant at ; with vanishingly weak fields, the timescales coincide. The same basic picture emerges for interacting particles, but the weak-field timescales are larger due to collective particle motions, and the average relaxation time exhibits a weak, nonmonotonic field dependence. A comparison between theoretical and simulation results is excellent for noninteracting particles. For interacting particles with =1 and 2, theory and simulations are in qualitative agreement, but there are quantitative deviations, particularly in the weak-field regime, for reasons that are connected with the description of interactions using effective fields