838 research outputs found

    Foreign Fighters, Volunteers, and Mercenaries: Non-State Actors and Narratives in Ukraine

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    When Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Russia's unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine was launched to pursue the "de-Nazification" of Ukraine, it evoked a level of "gaslighting"—attempting to make others question their own reality—that has come to define the Kremlin's approach to geopolitics. Just as Russia bombed hospitals in Aleppo and casually blamed the atrocities on "terrorists," Moscow now seeks to stoke the flames of transnational far-right extremism and violence in support of the atrocities it is committing in Mariupol and elsewhere throughout Ukraine. Rather than fighting against neo-Nazis, Putin has been supporting far-right extremists, including white supremacists, for years. Russia has nurtured neo-Nazis and used mercenaries and other extremists to wage a separatist war in Ukraine, while also seeking to execute Russian foreign policy abroad, and has deployed disinformation and misinformation tools to manipulate the narratives.

    IL-1 and iNOS gene expression and NO synthesis in the superior region of meniscal explants are dependent on the magnitude of compressive strains

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    OBJECTIVE: Partial meniscectomy is known to cause osteoarthritis (OA) of the underlying cartilage as well as alter the load on the remaining meniscus. Removal of 30-60% of the medial meniscus increases compressive strains from a maximum of approximately 10% to almost 20%. The goal of this study is to determine if meniscal cells produce catabolic molecules in response to the altered loading that results from a partial meniscectomy. METHOD: Relative changes in gene expression of interleukin-1 (IL-1), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and subsequent changes in the concentration of nitric oxide (NO) released by meniscal tissue in response to compression were measured. Porcine meniscal explants were dynamically compressed for 2 h at 1 Hz to simulate physiological stimulation at either 10% strain or 0.05 MPa stress. Additional explants were pathologically stimulated to either 0% strain, 20% strain or, 0.1 MPa stress. RESULTS: iNOS and IL-1 gene expression and NO release into the surrounding media were increased at 20% compressive strain compared to other conditions. Pathological unloading (0% compressive strain) of meniscal explants did not significantly change expression of IL-1 or iNOS genes, but did result in an increased amount of NO released compared to physiological strain of 10%. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that meniscectomies which reduce the surface area of the meniscus by 30-60% will increase the catabolic activity of the meniscus which may contribute to the progression of OA

    Rapid-acting antidepressants and the regulation of TrkB neurotrophic signalling-Insights from ketamine, nitrous oxide, seizures and anaesthesia

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    Increased glutamatergic neurotransmission and synaptic plasticity in the prefrontal cortex have been associated with the rapid antidepressant effects of ketamine. Activation of BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) receptor TrkB is considered a key molecular event for antidepressant-induced functional and structural synaptic plasticity. Several mechanisms have been proposed to underlie ketamine's effects on TrkB, but much remains unclear. Notably, preliminary studies suggest that besides ketamine, nitrous oxide (N2O) can rapidly alleviate depressive symptoms. We have shown nitrous oxide to evoke TrkB signalling preferentially after the acute pharmacological effects have dissipated (ie after receptor disengagement), when slow delta frequency electroencephalogram (EEG) activity is up-regulated. Our findings also demonstrate that various anaesthetics and sedatives activate TrkB signalling, further highlighting the complex mechanisms underlying TrkB activation. We hypothesize that rapid-acting antidepressants share the ability to regulate TrkB signalling during homeostatically evoked slow-wave activity and that this mechanism is important for sustained antidepressant effects. Our observations urge the examination of rapid and sustained antidepressant effects beyond conventional receptor pharmacology by focusing on brain physiology and temporally distributed signalling patterns spanning both wake and sleep. Potential implications of this approach for the improvement of current therapies and discovery of novel antidepressants are discussed.Peer reviewe

    Search for narrow resonances in dilepton mass spectra in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV and combination with 8 TeV data

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    Search for new physics with dijet angular distributions in proton-proton collisions at root S = 13 TeV

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    Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

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    Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

    Search for light bosons in decays of the 125 GeV Higgs boson in proton-proton collisions at root s=8 TeV

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    Search for supersymmetry in events with photons and missing transverse energy in pp collisions at 13 TeV

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    Mechanical stability of the CMS strip tracker measured with a laser alignment system

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