Building a Social Mandate for Climate Action: Lessons from COVID-19

The COVID-19 imposed lockdown has led to a number of temporary environmental side effects (reduced global emissions, cleaner air, less noise), that the climate community has aspired to achieve over a number of decades. However, these benefits have been achieved at a massive cost to welfare and the economy. This commentary draws lessons from the COVID-19 crisis for climate change. It discusses whether there are more sustainable ways of achieving these benefits, as part of a more desirable, low carbon resilient future, in a more planned, inclusive and less disruptive way. In order to achieve this, we argue for a clearer social contract between citizens and the state. We discuss how COVID-19 has demonstrated that behaviours can change abruptly, that these changes come at a cost, that we need a ‘social mandate’ to ensure these changes remain in the long-term, and that science plays an important role in informing this process. We suggest that deliberative engagement mechanisms, such as citizens’ assemblies and juries, could be a powerful way to build a social mandate for climate action post-COVID-19. This would enable behaviour changes to become more accepted, embedded and bearable in the long-term and provide the basis for future climate action

Pichinde virus induces microvascular endothelial cell permeability through the production of nitric oxide

This report is the first to demonstrate infection of human endothelial cells by Pichinde virus (PIC). PIC infection induces an upregulation of the inducible nitric oxide synthase gene; as well as an increase in detectable nitric oxide (NO). PIC induces an increase in permeability in endothelial cell monolayers which can be abrogated at all measured timepoints with the addition of a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, indicating a role for NO in the alteration of endothelial barrier function. Because NO has shown antiviral activity against some viruses, viral titer was measured after addition of the NO synthase inhibitor and found to have no effect in altering virus load in infected EC. The NO synthase inhibition also has no effect on levels of activated caspases induced by PIC infection. Taken together, these data indicate NO production induced by Pichinde virus infection has a pathogenic effect on endothelial cell monolayer permeability

A luteinizing hormone receptor intronic variant is significantly associated with decreased risk of Alzheimer's disease in males carrying an apolipoprotein E ε4 allele

Genetic and biochemical studies support the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele as a major risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD), though ~50% of AD patients do not carry the allele. APOE transports cholesterol for luteinizing hormone (LH)-regulated steroidogenesis, and both LH and neurosteroids have been implicated in the etiology of AD. Since polymorphisms of LH beta-subunit (LHB) and its receptor (LHCGR) have not been tested for their association with AD, we scored AD and age-matched control samples for APOE genotype and 14 polymorphisms of LHB and LHCGR. Thirteen gene-gene interactions between the loci of LHB, LHCGR, and APOE were associated with AD. The most strongly supported of these interactions was between an LHCGR intronic polymorphism (rs4073366; lhcgr2) and APOE in males, which was detected using all three interaction analyses: linkage disequilibrium, multi-dimensionality reduction, and logistic regression. While the APOE ε4 allele carried significant risk of AD in males [p = 0.007, odds ratio (OR) = 3.08(95%confidence interval: 1.37, 6.91)], ε4-positive males carrying 1 or 2 C-alleles at lhcgr2 exhibited significantly decreased risk of AD [OR = 0.06(0.01, 0.38); p = 0.003]. This suggests that the lhcgr2 C-allele or a closely linked locus greatly reduces the risk of AD in males carrying an APOE ε4 allele. The reversal of risk embodied in this interaction powerfully supports the importance of considering the role gene-gene interactions play in the etiology of complex biological diseases and demonstrates the importance of using multiple analytic methods to detect well-supported gene-gene interactions

Can electronic search engines optimize screening of search results in systematic reviews: an empirical study

BACKGROUND: Most electronic search efforts directed at identifying primary studies for inclusion in systematic reviews rely on the optimal Boolean search features of search interfaces such as DIALOG(® )and Ovid™. Our objective is to test the ability of an Ultraseek(® )search engine to rank MEDLINE(® )records of the included studies of Cochrane reviews within the top half of all the records retrieved by the Boolean MEDLINE search used by the reviewers. METHODS: Collections were created using the MEDLINE bibliographic records of included and excluded studies listed in the review and all records retrieved by the MEDLINE search. Records were converted to individual HTML files. Collections of records were indexed and searched through a statistical search engine, Ultraseek, using review-specific search terms. Our data sources, systematic reviews published in the Cochrane library, were included if they reported using at least one phase of the Cochrane Highly Sensitive Search Strategy (HSSS), provided citations for both included and excluded studies and conducted a meta-analysis using a binary outcome measure. Reviews were selected if they yielded between 1000–6000 records when the MEDLINE search strategy was replicated. RESULTS: Nine Cochrane reviews were included. Included studies within the Cochrane reviews were found within the first 500 retrieved studies more often than would be expected by chance. Across all reviews, recall of included studies into the top 500 was 0.70. There was no statistically significant difference in ranking when comparing included studies with just the subset of excluded studies listed as excluded in the published review. CONCLUSION: The relevance ranking provided by the search engine was better than expected by chance and shows promise for the preliminary evaluation of large results from Boolean searches. A statistical search engine does not appear to be able to make fine discriminations concerning the relevance of bibliographic records that have been pre-screened by systematic reviewers

Transmission of Avian Influenza A Viruses among Species in an Artificial Barnyard

Waterfowl and shorebirds harbor and shed all hemagglutinin and neuraminidase subtypes of influenza A viruses and interact in nature with a broad range of other avian and mammalian species to which they might transmit such viruses. Estimating the efficiency and importance of such cross-species transmission using epidemiological approaches is difficult. We therefore addressed this question by studying transmission of low pathogenic H5 and H7 viruses from infected ducks to other common animals in a quasi-natural laboratory environment designed to mimic a common barnyard. Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) recently infected with H5N2 or H7N3 viruses were introduced into a room housing other mallards plus chickens, blackbirds, rats and pigeons, and transmission was assessed by monitoring virus shedding (ducks) or seroconversion (other species) over the following 4 weeks. Additional animals of each species were directly inoculated with virus to characterize the effect of a known exposure. In both barnyard experiments, virus accumulated to high titers in the shared water pool. The H5N2 virus was transmitted from infected ducks to other ducks and chickens in the room either directly or through environmental contamination, but not to rats or blackbirds. Ducks infected with the H7N2 virus transmitted directly or indirectly to all other species present. Chickens and blackbirds directly inoculated with these viruses shed significant amounts of virus and seroconverted; rats and pigeons developed antiviral antibodies, but, except for one pigeon, failed to shed virus

Exploring the journey to services

Firms are increasingly providing services to complement their product offerings. The vast majority of studies on the service journey, also known as servitization or service transition, examine the challenges and enablers of the process of change through cases studies. Investigations that provide an in-depth longitudinal analysis of the steps involved in the service journey are much rarer. Such a detailed understanding is required in order to appreciate fully how firms can leverage the enablers while overcoming the challenges of servitization. This study investigates what does a service journey look like? It analyzes in some detail the actual service journeys undertaken by three firms in the well-being, engineering and learning sectors. The paper offers four contributions. First, in the change literature, there are two dominant theories: The punctuated equilibrium model and the continuous change model. This study demonstrates that servitization follows a continuous change rather than a punctuated equilibrium. It shows that such continuous change is neither logical nor structured but much more emergent and intuitive in nature. Second, the study provides empirical evidence to support a contingency view of the dominance and sequencing of the different process models of change across the change journey. Third, this research shows the pace of service development and when the coexistence of basic, intermediate and complex services occurs. Finally, it contributes to the literature in the service field by presenting three actual service journeys and the associated seven stages of the service strategy model that organizations should consider when managing their service journeys

Prenatal Prediction of Poor Maternal and Offspring Outcomes: Implications for Selection into Intensive Parent Support Programs

This study examined the predictive ability of mother’s age, antenatal depression, education, financial difficulties, partner status, and smoking for a range of poor maternal and offspring outcomes assessed up to 61 months postnatally. Outcomes obtained from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) were maternal postnatal depression at 8 weeks (n = 10,070), never breastfeeding (n = 7,976), feelings of poor attachment (n = 8,253) and hostility (n = 8,159) at 47 months, and not in employment, education or training (NEET, n = 8,265) at 61 months. Only a small proportion of women with each outcome were aged less than 20 years when they were pregnant. At least half of the women experiencing these outcomes, and up to 74.7% of women with postnatal depression, could be identified if they had at least one of the predictors measured during pregnancy (age < 20, depression, education less than O level, financial difficulties, no partner, or smoking). Model discrimination was poor using maternal age only (area under the receiver operator characteristic (AUROC) curve approximately 0.52), except for never breastfeeding (0.63). Discrimination improved (AUROC: 0.80, 0.69, 0.62, 0.60, 0.66 for depression, never breastfeeding, poor attachment, hostility and NEET, respectively) when all six predictors were included in the model. Calibration improved for all outcomes with the model including all six predictors, except never breastfeeding where even age alone demonstrated good calibration. Factors other than young maternal age, including education, smoking and depression during pregnancy should be considered in identifying women and their offspring likely to benefit from parenting support interventions

C. elegans Germ Cells Show Temperature and Age-Dependent Expression of Cer1, a Gypsy/Ty3-Related Retrotransposon

Virus-like particles (VLPs) have not been observed in Caenorhabditis germ cells, although nematode genomes contain low numbers of retrotransposon and retroviral sequences. We used electron microscopy to search for VLPs in various wild strains of Caenorhabditis, and observed very rare candidate VLPs in some strains, including the standard laboratory strain of C. elegans, N2. We identified the N2 VLPs as capsids produced by Cer1, a retrotransposon in the Gypsy/Ty3 family of retroviruses/retrotransposons. Cer1 expression is age and temperature dependent, with abundant expression at 15°C and no detectable expression at 25°C, explaining how VLPs escaped detection in previous studies. Similar age and temperature-dependent expression of Cer1 retrotransposons was observed for several other wild strains, indicating that these properties are common, if not integral, features of this retroelement. Retrotransposons, in contrast to DNA transposons, have a cytoplasmic stage in replication, and those that infect non-dividing cells must pass their genomic material through nuclear pores. In most C. elegans germ cells, nuclear pores are largely covered by germline-specific organelles called P granules. Our results suggest that Cer1 capsids target meiotic germ cells exiting pachytene, when free nuclear pores are added to the nuclear envelope and existing P granules begin to be removed. In pachytene germ cells, Cer1 capsids concentrate away from nuclei on a subset of microtubules that are exceptionally resistant to microtubule inhibitors; the capsids can aggregate these stable microtubules in older adults, which exhibit a temperature-dependent decrease in egg viability. When germ cells exit pachytene, the stable microtubules disappear and capsids redistribute close to nuclei that have P granule-free nuclear pores. This redistribution is microtubule dependent, suggesting that capsids that are released from stable microtubules transfer onto new, dynamic microtubules to track toward nuclei. These studies introduce C. elegans as a model to study the interplay between retroelements and germ cell biology

Training in crisis communication and volcanic eruption forecasting:Design and evaluation of an authentic role-play simulation

We present an interactive, immersive, authentic role-play simulation designed to teach tertiary geoscience students in New Zealand to forecast and mitigate a volcanic crisis. Half of the participating group (i.e., the Geoscience Team) focuses on interpreting real volcano monitoring data (e.g., seismographs, gas output etc.) while the other half of the group (i.e., the Emergency Management Team) forecasts and manages likely impacts, and communicates emergency response decisions and advice to local communities. These authentic learning experiences were aimed at enhancing upper-year undergraduate students’ transferable and geologic reasoning skills. An important goal of the simulation was specifically to improve students’ science communication through interdisciplinary team discussions, jointly prepared, and delivered media releases, and real-time, high-pressure, press conferences. By playing roles, students experienced the specific responsibilities of a professional within authentic organisational structures. A qualitative, design-based educational research study was carried out to assess the overall student experience and self-reported learning of skills. A pilot and four subsequent iterations were investigated. Results from this study indicate that students found these role-plays to be a highly challenging and engaging learning experience and reported improved skills. Data from classroom observations and interviews indicate that the students valued the authenticity and challenging nature of the role-play although personal experiences and team dynamics (within, and between the teams) varied depending on the students’ background, preparedness, and personality. During early iterations, observation and interviews from students and instructors indicate that some of the goals of the simulation were not fully achieved due to: A) lack of preparedness, B) insufficient time to respond appropriately, C) appropriateness of roles and team structure, and D) poor communication skills. Small modifications to the design of Iterations 3 and 4 showed an overall improvement in the students’ skills and goals being reached. A communication skills instrument (SPCC) was used to measure self-reported pre- and post- communication competence in the last two iterations. Results showed that this instrument recorded positive shifts in all categories of self-perceived abilities, the largest shifts seen in students who participated in press conferences. Future research will be aimed at adapting this curricula to new volcanic and earthquake scenarios