Coverage and Framing of Emerging STI and STEM by Four Major Nigerian Newspapers and Implications for National Development

In Nigeria, there is a gross deficit of empirical research on emerging STI content in the media. This study investigated four prominent newspapers in Nigeria to ascertain the extent to which STEM and emerging STI are covered and framed. We posed the following research questions covering reportage, sourcing, framing, and implications. The methodology involved a content/framing analyses of Daily Trust, Leadership, The Guardian and The Punch. A census sampling of 728 newspaper issues was conducted covering a period of six months spanning between December 1, 2020 and May 31, 2021. The results indicate a near zero coverage of emerging STI in the four dailies. Other results show that of the eight areas of STEM examined, medical/health sciences (48%), agricultural sciences (24%) and ICTs/engineering (19%) received more coverage. Earth/environmental sciences, physical and chemical sciences, marine, space, and mathematical sciences were accorded near zero coverage. On sourcing of STEM stories in the four dailies, 54% was sourced in-house by the journalists, 33% came from national STI institutions, while 13% was obtained from foreign and internet sources. On framing, 42% of STEM stories were framed in terms of health, risk, and safety; 39% in economic and political frame, while academic, environmental, ethical and “other frames scored between 7% and below. The conclusion of the study is that newspaper coverage of emerging STI was near zero reflecting and projecting the dismal status of emerging STI in Nigeria while the coverage and framing of STEM depicted the media agenda of concentration on medical, agricultural, and ICT endeavours to the neglect of others

Coverage and Framing of Emerging STI and STEM by Four Major Nigerian Newspapers and Implications for National Development

In Nigeria, there is a gross deficit of empirical research on emerging Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) content in the media. This paper focuses on investigating four prominent newspapers in Nigeria to ascertain the extent to which Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and emerging STI are covered and framed. We posed research questions covering reportage, sourcing, framing, and implications. The methodology involved content/framing analysis of Daily Trust, Leadership, The Guardian, and The Punch newspapers. A census sampling of 728 newspaper issues was conducted covering a period of six months spanning between December 1, 2020, and May 31, 2021. The results indicate a near zero coverage of emerging STI in the four dailies. Other results show that of the eight areas of STEM examined, medical/health sciences (48%), agricultural sciences (24%), and ICTs/engineering (19%) received more coverage. Earth/environmental sciences, physical and chemical sciences, marine, space, and mathematical sciences were accorded near zero coverage. On sourcing of STEM stories in the four dailies, 54% was sourced in-house by the journalists, 33% came from national STI institutions, while 13% was obtained from foreign and internet sources. On framing, 42% STEM stories were framed in terms of health, risk, and safety; 39% in economic and political frame; while academic, environmental, ethical and “other” frames scored between 7% and below. The conclusion of the study is that newspaper coverage of emerging STI was near zero reflecting and projecting the dismal status of emerging STI in Nigeria while the coverage and framing of STEM depicted the media agenda of concentration on medical, agricultural, and ICT endeavours to the neglect of others. Deeper coverage and broader framing of emerging STI are germane to national development

Coverage and Framing of Emerging STI and STEM by Four Major Nigerian Newspapers and Implications for National Development

In Nigeria, there is a gross deficit of empirical research on emerging STI content in the media. This study investigated four prominent newspapers in Nigeria to ascertain the extent to which STEM and emerging STI are covered and framed. We posed the following research questions covering reportage, sourcing, framing, and implications. The methodology involved a content/framing analyses of Daily Trust, Leadership, The Guardian and The Punch. A census sampling of 728 newspaper issues was conducted covering a period of six months spanning between December 1, 2020 and May 31, 2021. The results indicate a near zero coverage of emerging STI in the four dailies. Other results show that of the eight areas of STEM examined, medical/health sciences (48%), agricultural sciences (24%) and ICTs/engineering (19%) received more coverage. Earth/environmental sciences, physical and chemical sciences, marine, space, and mathematical sciences were accorded near zero coverage. On sourcing of STEM stories in the four dailies, 54% was sourced in-house by the journalists, 33% came from national STI institutions, while 13% was obtained from foreign and internet sources. On framing, 42% of STEM stories were framed in terms of health, risk, and safety; 39% in economic and political frame, while academic, environmental, ethical and “other frames scored between 7% and below. The conclusion of the study is that newspaper coverage of emerging STI was near zero reflecting and projecting the dismal status of emerging STI in Nigeria while the coverage and framing of STEM depicted the media agenda of concentration on medical, agricultural, and ICT endeavours to the neglect of others

Integrated Central Blood Pressure-aortic Stiffness Risk Categories and Cardiovascular Mortality in End-stage Renal Disease

BACKGROUND: Our aim was to study the predictive power of integrated central blood pressure-aortic stiffness (ICPS) risk categories on cardiovascular (CV) mortality in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. METHODS: This is a secondary analysis of a prospective study of 91 ESRD patients on hemodialysis therapy. At baseline, pulse wave velocity (PWV), central systolic blood pressure (cSBP) and central pulse pressure (cPP) were measured and patients were followed up for CV mortality for a median 29.5 months. Based on the shape of the association of each individual ICPS parameter with the CV outcome, patients were assigned ICPS scores: one point was given, if either the cSBP value was in the 3rd, or if the PWV or cPP was in the 2nd or 3rd tertiles (ICPS range: 0–3). We then evaluated the role of ICPS risk categories (average: 0–1, high: 2, very high: 3 points) in the prediction of CV outcomes using Cox proportional hazard regression analysis and compared its discrimination (Harrell’s C) to that of each of its components. RESULTS: We found a strong dose–response association between ICPS risk categories and CV outcome (high risk HR = 2.62, 95% CI: 0.82–8.43, p for trend = 0.106; very high risk HR = 10.03, 95% CI: 1.67–60.42, p = 0.02) even after adjustment for multiple potential confounders. ICPS risk categories had a modest discrimination (C: 0.622, 95% CI: 0.525–0.719) that was significantly better than that of cSBP (dC: 0.061, 95% CI: 0.006–0.117). CONCLUSIONS: The ICPS risk categories may improve the identification of ESRD patients with high CV mortality risk

COI metabarcoding of zooplankton species diversity for time-series monitoring of the NW Atlantic continental shelf

© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Bucklin, A., Batta-Lona, P., Questel, J., Wiebe, P., Richardson, D., Copley, N., & O’Brien, T. COI metabarcoding of zooplankton species diversity for time-series monitoring of the NW Atlantic continental shelf. Frontiers in Marine Science, 9, (2022): 867893, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.867893.Marine zooplankton are rapid-responders and useful indicators of environmental variability and climate change impacts on pelagic ecosystems on time scales ranging from seasons to years to decades. The systematic complexity and taxonomic diversity of the zooplankton assemblage has presented significant challenges for routine morphological (microscopic) identification of species in samples collected during ecosystem monitoring and fisheries management surveys. Metabarcoding using the mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase I (COI) gene region has shown promise for detecting and identifying species of some – but not all – taxonomic groups in samples of marine zooplankton. This study examined species diversity of zooplankton on the Northwest Atlantic Continental Shelf using 27 samples collected in 2002-2012 from the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank, and Mid-Atlantic Bight during Ecosystem Monitoring (EcoMon) Surveys by the NOAA NMFS Northeast Fisheries Science Center. COI metabarcodes were identified using the MetaZooGene Barcode Atlas and Database (https://metazoogene.org/MZGdb) specific to the North Atlantic Ocean. A total of 181 species across 23 taxonomic groups were detected, including a number of sibling and cryptic species that were not discriminated by morphological taxonomic analysis of EcoMon samples. In all, 67 species of 15 taxonomic groups had ≥ 50 COI sequences; 23 species had >1,000 COI sequences. Comparative analysis of molecular and morphological data showed significant correlations between COI sequence numbers and microscopic counts for 5 of 6 taxonomic groups and for 5 of 7 species with >1,000 COI sequences for which both types of data were available. Multivariate statistical analysis showed clustering of samples within each region based on both COI sequence numbers and EcoMon counts, although differences among the three regions were not statistically significant. The results demonstrate the power and potential of COI metabarcoding for identification of species of metazoan zooplankton in the context of ecosystem monitoring.This publication resulted in part from support provided by the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR). Funds were also contributed by the U.S. National Science Foundation (Grant OCE-1840868) and by national SCOR committees

The impact of currently recommended antihypertensive therapy on depression and other psychometric parameters: preliminary communication.

AIMS: Current evidence on the psychological effects of antihypertensive medications is controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of current antihypertensive medication on different psychometric parameters and on serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) level. METHODS: Psychometric, haemodynamic, arterial stiffness and laboratory parameters were evaluated before and 3 months after the initiation of antihypertensive medication in untreated hypertensive patients (HT, n=31), and once in healthy controls (CONT, n=22). Subjects completed the following psychometric tests: Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAM-A), Symptom Checklist 90 Revised (SCL-90), Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris, and San Diego Autoquestionnaire, Big Five Inventory, Pain Vigilance and Awareness Questionnaire and Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire. Amlodipine and/or perindopril compounds were preferred medications. Serum BDNF was measured with ELISA. RESULTS: Brachial systolic blood pressure, as well as pulse wave velocity were significantly improved in the HT group over the 3-month follow-up (153.3+/-15.9 mmHg vs. 129.5+/-10.0 mmHg and 8.2+/-1.4 m/s vs 7.5+/-1.6 m/s, respectively). Similarly, we found improvements in BDI (0.73 points) and in several Scl-90 subscales. Serum BDNF was not different between CONT and HT and did not change for therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that initiation of currently recommended antihypertensive medications in newly diagnosed patients may have a significant impact on psychological well-being of patients and could influence quality of life as well

Synthetic, enzyme kinetic, and protein crystallographic studies of C-[béta]-D-glucopyranosyl pyrroles and imidazoles reveal and explain low nanomolar inhibition of human liver glycogen phosphorylase

LBK

Loss of TET2 in human hematopoietic stem cells alters the development and function of neutrophils

Somatic mutations commonly occur in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Some mutant clones outgrow through clonal hematopoiesis (CH) and produce mutated immune progenies shaping host immunity. Individuals with CH are asymptomatic but have an increased risk of developing leukemia, cardiovascular and pulmonary inflammatory diseases, and severe infections. Using genetic engineering of human HSCs (hHSCs) and transplantation in immunodeficient mice, we describe how a commonly mutated gene in CH, TET2, affects human neutrophil development and function. TET2 loss in hHSCs produce a distinct neutrophil heterogeneity in bone marrow and peripheral tissues by increasing the repopulating capacity of neutrophil progenitors and giving rise to low-granule neutrophils. Human neutrophils that inherited TET2 mutations mount exacerbated inflammatory responses and have more condensed chromatin, which correlates with compact neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) production. We expose here physiological abnormalities that may inform future strategies to detect TET2-CH and prevent NET-mediated pathologies associated with CH

The PARP inhibitor rucaparib blocks SARS-CoV-2 virus binding to cells and the immune reaction in models of COVID-19

\ua9 2024 The Author(s). British Journal of Pharmacology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Pharmacological Society.Background and Purpose: To date, there are limited options for severe Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus. As ADP-ribosylation events are involved in regulating the life cycle of coronaviruses and the inflammatory reactions of the host; we have, here, assessed the repurposing of registered PARP inhibitors for the treatment of COVID-19. Experimental Approach: The effects of PARP inhibitors on virus uptake were assessed in cell-based experiments using multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2. The binding of rucaparib to spike protein was tested by molecular modelling and microcalorimetry. The anti-inflammatory properties of rucaparib were demonstrated in cell-based models upon challenging with recombinant spike protein or SARS-CoV-2 RNA vaccine. Key Results: We detected high levels of oxidative stress and strong PARylation in all cell types in the lungs of COVID-19 patients, both of which negatively correlated with lymphocytopaenia. Interestingly, rucaparib, unlike other tested PARP inhibitors, reduced the SARS-CoV-2 infection rate through binding to the conserved 493–498 amino acid region located in the spike-ACE2 interface in the spike protein and prevented viruses from binding to ACE2. In addition, the spike protein and viral RNA-induced overexpression of cytokines was down-regulated by the inhibition of PARP1 by rucaparib at pharmacologically relevant concentrations. Conclusion and Implications: These results point towards repurposing rucaparib for treating inflammatory responses in COVID-19