Women city managers face a glass cliff as local governments are more likely to hire them when budgets are collapsing

While women have become much more likely to obtain leadership positions in local governments since the 1970s, new research finds that they may be facing a glass cliff in municipal management. Using data from Florida local governments, Lang Kate Yang, Laura Connolly, and Jennifer M. Connolly write that women are more likely to be hired as municipal managers when budgets are in decline, which in turn is linked to a higher probability that they will leave their role, compared to men in the same position

Design of a chimeric ACE-2/Fc-silent fusion protein with ultrahigh affinity and neutralizing capacity for SARS-CoV-2 variants

BACKGROUND: As SARS-CoV-2 continues to mutate into Variants of Concern (VOC), there is growing and urgent need to develop effective antivirals to combat COVID-19. Monoclonal antibodies developed earlier are no longer capable of effectively neutralizing currently active VOCs. This report describes the design of variant-agnostic chimeric molecules consisting of an Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE-2) domain mutated to retain ultrahigh affinity binding to a wide variety of SARS-CoV-2 variants, coupled to an Fc-silent immunoglobulin domain that eliminates antibody-dependent enhancement and extends biological half-life. METHODS: Molecular modeling, Surrogate Viral Neutralization tests (sVNTs) and infection studies of human airway organoid cultures were performed with synthetic chimeras, SARS-CoV-2 spike protein mimics and SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants B.1.1.214, BA.1, BA.2 and BA.5. RESULTS: ACE-2 mutations L27, V34 and E90 resulted in ultrahigh affinity binding of the LVE-ACE-2 domain to the widest variety of VOCs, with KDs of 93 pM and 73 pM for binding to the Alpha B1.1.7 and Omicron B.1.1.529 variants, and notably, 78fM, 133fM and 1.81pM affinities to the Omicron BA.2, BA2.75 and BQ.1.1 subvariants, respectively. sVNT assays revealed titers of ≥4.9 ng/ml, for neutralization of recombinant viral proteins corresponding to the Alpha, Delta and Omicron variants. The values above were obtained with LVE-ACE-2/mAB chimeras containing the FcRn-binding Y-T-E sequence which extends biological half-life 3-4-fold. CONCLUSIONS: The ACE-2-mutant/Fc silent fusion proteins described have ultrahigh affinity to a wide variety of SARS-CoV-2 variants including Omicron. It is proposed that these chimeric ACE-2/mABs will constitute variant-agnostic and cost-effective prophylactics against SARS-CoV-2, particularly when administered nasally

Who Publishes in “Predatory” Journals?

Many open access journals have a reputation for being of low quality and being dishonest with regard to peer review and publishing costs. Such journals are labeled “predatory” journals. This study examines author profiles for some of these “predatory” journals as well as for groups of more well-recognized open access journals. We collect and analyze the publication record, citation count, and geographic location of authors from the various groups of journals. Statistical analyses verify that each group of journals has a distinct author population. Those who publish in “predatory” journals are, for the most part, young and inexperienced researchers from developing countries. We believe that economic and sociocultural conditions in these developing countries have contributed to the differences found in authorship between “predatory” and “nonpredatory” journals

Trends and Patterns of Urodynamic Studies in U.S. Women, 2000–2012

To estimate utilization rates for cystometrograms and describe trends in urodynamic procedures among U.S. women from 2000 to 2012

The Lantern Vol. 54, No. 2, Spring 1988

• Burning the Christmas Guests • A Song in Time • I Ask a Question • As If Raggedy Anne • One Man\u27s Escape • Gypsy Caravan • Apartment 14B • The College Inferno • Somewhere Under Manhattan • Trumped • Sunday • In Quest of Creativity • Imperfect Healing • The Game • The Hunger • Peanuts on the Beach • Battlefield Prom • Confessions of the Untrained Eye • Animal Attraction • Street Lamps • Hey, Old Man • In Search of Self-Actualization • Cousin Joe Bob\u27s First Visit to Pulsationshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/lantern/1132/thumbnail.jp

New energy geographies : a case study of yoga, meditation and healthfulness

Beginning with a routine day in the life of a practitioner of yoga and meditation and emphasising the importance of nurturing, maintaining and preventing the dissipation of diverse ‘energies’, this paper explores the possibilities for geographical health studies which take seriously ‘new energy geographies’. It is explained how this account is derived from in-depth fieldwork tracing how practitioners of yoga and meditation find times and spaces for these practices, often in the face of busy urban lifestyles. Attention is paid to the ‘energy talk’ featuring heavily in how practitioners describe the benefits that they perceive themselves to derive from these practices, and to claims made about ‘energies’ generated during the time-spaces of these practices which seemingly flow, usually with positive effects, into other domains of their lives. The paper then discusses the implications of this energy talk in the context of: (a) critically reviewing conventional approaches to studying ‘energy geographies’; (b) identifying an alertness to the likes of ‘affective energies’ surfacing in recent theoretically-attuned works of human geography (and cognate disciplines); and (c) exploring differing understandings of energy/energies extant in geographical studies of health and in step with the empirical research materials presented about yoga, meditation and healthfulness. While orientated towards explicitly geographical inquiries, the paper is intended as a statement of interest to the wider medical humanities

The Lantern Vol. 51, No. 2, Spring 1985

• Electric Pink • Derby Day • Conversation • Seasons of Sonnets • Long After Killing Us • Haunting Memory • Sacrifice • Is This Positive Enough? • My Teddy Bear • A Gentleman of Ten • Hartman Center • Yesterday\u27s Child • Mors Pueris • Momentary Reflections • Children Sleeping • There\u27s No Place Like Home • I Set My Pleasures Adrift • The Beer Can • Fragments of an Epic • Actaeon • She Sleeps • Chicago • Death Light • Tea With Louise • Balance • The Rivers • Chapel • The Hour of Prayer • Une Fille / Une Femme • A One-Way Mirror • Nonconformity • Cada Noche, Lloro • Reflections on an Empty House Down the Street • Evening Melancholy • Abandoned Road • Big Boy • Baby Brothers • Metro Oscuro • Chuchoterhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/lantern/1126/thumbnail.jp