740 research outputs found
Inheritance and Inequality Among Nomads of South Siberia
At the headwaters of the Yenisei River in Tuva and northern Mongolia, nomadic pastoralists move between camps in a seasonal rotation that facilitates their animals\u27 access to high-quality grasses and shelter. The use and informal ownership of these camps depending on season helps illustrate evolutionary and ecological principles underlying variation in property relations. Given relatively stable patterns of precipitation and returns to capital improvement, families generally benefit from reusing the same camps year after year. We show that locations with higher economic defensibility and capital investmentâwinter camps and camps located in mountain/river valleysâare claimed and inherited more frequently than summer camps and camps located in open steppe. Camps are inherited patrilineally and matrilineally at a ratio of 2 : 1. Despite its practical importance, camp inheritance is not associated with livestock wealth today, which is better predicted by education and wealth outside the pastoral economy. The relationship between the livestock wealth of parents and their adult children is significantly positive, but relatively low compared to other pastoralists. The degree of inequality in livestock wealth, however, is very close to that of other pastoralists. This is understandable considering the durability and defensibility of animal wealth and economies of scale common across pastoralists.
This article is part of the theme issue âEvolutionary ecology of inequalityâ
A Panel of Papers Examining COVID-19 Masking and Vaccination Advertisements
This panel of papers harnesses persuasion theories to examine the content of masking and vaccination advertisements and public service announcements concerning COVID-19. The first paper describes major persuasion approaches, the rationale for the studies, and the methodology. The second and third papers describe the results of the content analyses, along with their implications for media messages on COVID and future research on these topics
Farmers Markets and the Local Food System: The Case of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
In order to examine and obtain a better understanding of the local food system within Adams County, Pennsylvania, this study explores the characteristics and perspectives of the customers and vendors at the farmers markets in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Survey findings from the Gettysburg Farmers Market and the three Adams County Farmers Markets include customer demographic information, perspectives and shopping behavior as well as vendor product information, farm size and location and preference for market management. Introductory background information on the Farm Bill and the influence of agricultural practices on the environment, human health and nutrition and the relationship between farmers markets and the local economy are offered in order to emphasize the value of a well-managed local food system. Conclusions provide evidence that lower income and lower education levels are not sufficiently represented at all the markets and food stamp programs are being underutilized. This study suggests employing additional marketing to target underrepresented demographic groups, public transportation to potentially inaccessible market locations and increased advertisement and encouragement of food stamp programs at all markets in order to expand the customer base and increase access to healthy, local foods for less advantaged citizens. The results from this study are intended to offer evidence that will promote and facilitate market management, strengthen customer/vendor relationships and encourage better ties between the local community and local food systems at the farmers markets within Gettysburg in Adams County, Pennsylvania
Functional MRI Evaluation of Multiple Neural Networks Underlying Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders.
Functional MRI studies have identified a distributed set of brain activations to be asso ciated with auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH). However, very little is known about how activated brain regions may be linked together into AVH-generating networks. Fifteen volunteers with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder pressed buttons to indicate onset and offset of AVH during fMRI scanning. When a general linear model was used to compare blood oxygenation level dependence signals during periods in which subjects indicated that they were versus were not experiencing AVH ( AVH-on versus AVH-off ), it revealed AVH-related activity in bilateral inferior frontal and superior temporal regions; the right middle temporal gyrus; and the left insula, supramarginal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, and extranuclear white matter. In an effort to identify AVH-related networks, the raw data were also processed using independent component analyses (ICAs). Four ICA components were spatially consistent with an a priori network framework based upon published meta-analyses of imaging correlates of AVH. Of these four components, only a network involving bilateral auditory cortices and posterior receptive language areas was significantly and positively correlated to the pattern of AVH-on versus AVH-off. The ICA also identified two additional networks (occipital-temporal and medial prefrontal), not fully matching the meta-analysis framework, but nevertheless containing nodes reported as active in some studies of AVH. Both networks showed significant AVH-related profiles, but both were most active during AVH-off periods. Overall, the data suggest that AVH generation requires specific and selective activation of auditory cortical and posterior language regions, perhaps coupled to a release of indirect influence by occipital and medial frontal structures
Ibrutinib Unmasks Critical Role of Bruton Tyrosine Kinase in Primary CNS Lymphoma.
Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) links the B-cell antigen receptor (BCR) and Toll-like receptors with NF-ÎșB. The role of BTK in primary central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma (PCNSL) is unknown. We performed a phase I clinical trial with ibrutinib, the first-in-class BTK inhibitor, for patients with relapsed or refractory CNS lymphoma. Clinical responses to ibrutinib occurred in 10 of 13 (77%) patients with PCNSL, including five complete responses. The only PCNSL with complete ibrutinib resistance harbored a mutation within the coiled-coil domain of CARD11, a known ibrutinib resistance mechanism. Incomplete tumor responses were associated with mutations in the B-cell antigen receptor-associated protein CD79B
What is the 'problem' that outreach work seeks to address and how might it be tackled? Seeking theory in a primary health prevention programme
<b>Background</b> Preventive approaches to health are disproportionately accessed by the more affluent and recent health improvement policy advocates the use of targeted preventive primary care to reduce risk factors in poorer individuals and communities. Outreach has become part of the health service response. Outreach has a long history of engaging those who do not otherwise access services. It has, however, been described as eclectic in its purpose, clientele and mode of practice; its effectiveness is unproven. Using a primary prevention programme in the UK as a case, this paper addresses two research questions: what are the perceived problems of non-engagement that outreach aims to address; and, what specific mechanisms of outreach are hypothesised to tackle these.<p></p>
<b>Methods</b> Drawing on a wider programme evaluation, the study undertook qualitative interviews with strategically selected health-care professionals. The analysis was thematically guided by the concept of 'candidacy' which theorises the dynamic process through which services and individuals negotiate appropriate service use.<p></p>
<b>Results</b> The study identified seven types of engagement 'problem' and corresponding solutions. These 'problems' lie on a continuum of complexity in terms of the challenges they present to primary care. Reasons for non-engagement are congruent with the concept of 'candidacy' but point to ways in which it can be expanded.<p></p>
<b>Conclusions</b> The paper draws conclusions about the role of outreach in contributing to the implementation of inequalities focused primary prevention and identifies further research needed in the theoretical development of both outreach as an approach and candidacy as a conceptual framework
Outcomes linked to eligibility for stem cell transplantation trials in diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis
OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to explore outcomes in a cohort of dcSSc patients fulfilling eligibility criteria for stem cell transplantation (SCT) studies but receiving standard immunosuppression. METHODS: From a large single-centre dcSSc cohort (nâ=â636), patients were identified using the published SCT trials' inclusion criteria. Patients meeting the trials' exclusion criteria were excluded. RESULTS: Of the 227 eligible patients, 214 met the inclusion criteria for ASTIS (Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation International Scleroderma), 82 for SCOT (Scleroderma: Cyclophosphamide Or Transplantation) and 185 for the UPSIDE (UPfront autologous haematopoietic Stem cell transplantation vs Immunosuppressive medication in early DiffusE cutaneous systemic sclerosis) trial, and 66 were excluded based on age >65âyears, low diffusing capacity of the lungs for carbon monoxide (DLco), pulmonary hypertension or creatinine clearance <40âml/min. The mean follow-up time was 12âyears (s.d. 7). Among the eligible patients, 103 (45.4%) died. Survival was 96% at 2âyears, 88% at 5âyears, 73% at 10âyears and 43% at 20âyears. Compared with this 'SCT-eligible' cohort, those patients who would have been excluded from SCT trials had a worse long-term survival (97% at 2âyears, 77% at 5âyears, 52% at 10âyears and 15% at 20âyears, log rank Pâ<â0.001). Excluded patients also had a significantly worse long-term event-free survival. Hazard of death was higher in patients with higher age at onset [hazard ratio (HR) 1.05, Pâ<â0.001], higher ESR at baseline (HR 1.01, Pâ=â0.025) and males (HR 2.12, Pâ=â0.008). CONCLUSION: SCT inclusion criteria identify patients with poor outcome despite current best practice treatment. Patients meeting the inclusion criteria for SCT but who would have been excluded from the trials because of age, pulmonary hypertension, poor kidney function or DLco <40% had worse outcomes
Discovery, Timing, and Multiwavelength Observations of the Black Widow Millisecond Pulsar PSR J1555-2908
We report the discovery of PSR J1555-2908, a 1.79 ms radio and gamma-ray
pulsar in a 5.6 hr binary system with a minimum companion mass of 0.052
. This fast and energetic ( erg/s)
millisecond pulsar was first detected as a gamma-ray point source in Fermi LAT
sky survey observations. Guided by a steep spectrum radio point source in the
Fermi error region, we performed a search at 820 MHz with the Green Bank
Telescope that first discovered the pulsations. The initial radio pulse timing
observations provided enough information to seed a search for gamma-ray
pulsations in the LAT data, from which we derive a timing solution valid for
the full Fermi mission. In addition to the radio and gamma-ray pulsation
discovery and timing, we searched for X-ray pulsations using NICER but no
significant pulsations were detected. We also obtained time-series r-band
photometry that indicates strong heating of the companion star by the pulsar
wind. Material blown off the heated companion eclipses the 820 MHz radio pulse
during inferior conjunction of the companion for ~10% of the orbit, which is
twice the angle subtended by its Roche lobe in an edge-on system.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, accepted by Ap
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Ancestral absence of electron transport chains in Patescibacteria and DPANN
© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Beam, J. P., Becraft, E. D., Brown, J. M., Schulz, F., Jarett, J. K., Bezuidt, O., Poulton, N. J., Clark, K., Dunfield, P. F., Ravin, N. V., Spear, J. R., Hedlund, B. P., Kormas, K. A., Sievert, S. M., Elshahed, M. S., Barton, H. A., Stott, M. B., Eisen, J. A., Moser, D. P., Onstott, T. C., Woyke, T., & Stepanauskas, R. Ancestral absence of electron transport chains in Patescibacteria and DPANN. Frontiers in Microbiology, 11, (2020): 1848, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2020.01848.Recent discoveries suggest that the candidate superphyla Patescibacteria and DPANN constitute a large fraction of the phylogenetic diversity of Bacteria and Archaea. Their small genomes and limited coding potential have been hypothesized to be ancestral adaptations to obligate symbiotic lifestyles. To test this hypothesis, we performed cellâcell association, genomic, and phylogenetic analyses on 4,829 individual cells of Bacteria and Archaea from 46 globally distributed surface and subsurface field samples. This confirmed the ubiquity and abundance of Patescibacteria and DPANN in subsurface environments, the small size of their genomes and cells, and the divergence of their gene content from other Bacteria and Archaea. Our analyses suggest that most Patescibacteria and DPANN in the studied subsurface environments do not form specific physical associations with other microorganisms. These data also suggest that their unusual genomic features and prevalent auxotrophies may be a result of ancestral, minimal cellular energy transduction mechanisms that lack respiration, thus relying solely on fermentation for energy conservation.This work was funded by the USA National Science Foundation grants 1441717, 1826734, and 1335810 (to RS); and 1460861 (REU site at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences). RS was also supported by the Simons Foundation grant 510023. TW, FS, and JJ were funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, a DOE Office of Science User Facility supported under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. NR group was funded by the Russian Science Foundation (grant 19-14-00245). SS was funded by USA National Science Foundation grants OCE-0452333 and OCE-1136727. BH was funded by NASA Exobiology grant 80NSSC17K0548
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