The political roots of domestic environmental sabotage

In this paper, we demonstrate that when environmentalist niche parties compete in a given constituency over a number of elections, but continually fail to win seats, then environmental sabotage becomes more frequent in that constituency. When mainstream tactics fail, radical tactics are used more frequently. Using a new data-set on the success rates of all Green Party candidates in US states, we show that environmental sabotage occurs more often when Green Party candidates fail to win even minor offices. This is true even when we control for other political expressions of environmentalism, such as interest group activity, and when we define ‘success’ through votes not seats. We discuss the implications of this for environmental politics, for social movements and democracy, and for political violence in the US.Security and Global Affair

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele

How radical environmental sabotage impacts US elections

In this paper we examine the impact of forceful or violent environmental sabotage (FVES) on U.S. elections. We argue that voters see ideological similarities between groups that engage in FVES and other nonviolent environmental organizations, like the Green Party. This means that when an environmentalist organization engages in FVES, it has a negative impact on voter attitudes toward all environmental organizations. Moreover, this negative impact will be stronger if environmentalists had previously made electoral progress, and so they cannot use the excuse that democratic methods had failed and they were forced to turn to FVES. We demonstrate this by showing that when FVES occurs, Green Party candidates tend to win a lower share of the vote in the next election. However, this effect is conditional on the prior electoral history of the Green Party. If the Green Party has a poor electoral record, then sabotage has little effect, but if the Green Party has a better electoral record, then voters are less forgiving of sabotage. We find no evidence that FVES effects Republican or Democratic vote shares. We conclude that different organizations within the same social movement are connected in ways that impact electoral outcomes.FGGA – Publicaties zonder aanstelling Universiteit Leide

Haptoglobin HP2-2 genotype, α-thalassaemia and acute seizures in children living in a malaria-endemic area

Polymorphisms of the haptoglobin (HP) gene and deletions in α-globin gene (α-thalassaemia) are common in malaria-endemic Africa. The same region also has high incidence rates for childhood acute seizures. The haptoglobin HP2-2 genotype has been associated with idiopathic generalized epilepsies and altered iron metabolism in children with α-thalassaemia can potentially interfere with neurotransmission and increase the risk of seizures. We investigated the hypothesis that the HP2-2 genotype and the common African α-globin gene deletions are associated with the increased risk of seizures. 288 children aged 3–156 months admitted with acute seizures to Kilifi District Hospital (Kenya), were matched for ethnicity to an equal number of community controls. The proportion of cases (72/288 [25.0%]) and controls (80/288 [27.8%]) with HP2-2 genotype was similar, p = 0.499. The allele frequency of HP2 gene in cases (49.3%) and controls (48.6%) was also similar, p = 0.814. Similarly, we found no significant difference between the proportion of cases (177/267 [66.3%]) and controls (186/267 [69.7%]) with deletions in α-globin gene (p = 0.403). Among cases, HP2-2 polymorphism and deletions in α-globin gene were neither associated with changes in the type, number or duration of seizures nor did they affect outcome. We conclude that the HP2-2 polymorphism and deletions in α-globin gene are not risk factors for acute seizures in children. Future studies should examine other susceptibility genes

Cross-sectional and longitudinal evaluation of plasma glial fibrillary acidic protein to detect and predict clinical syndromes of Alzheimer's disease

Introduction: This study examined plasma glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) as a biomarker of cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease (AD) with and against plasma neurofilament light chain (NfL), and phosphorylated tau (p-tau)181+231. Methods: Plasma samples were analyzed using Simoa platform for 567 participants spanning the AD continuum. Cognitive diagnosis, neuropsychological testing, and dementia severity were examined for cross-sectional and longitudinal outcomes. Results: Plasma GFAP discriminated AD dementia from normal cognition (adjusted mean difference = 0.90 standard deviation [SD]) and mild cognitive impairment (adjusted mean difference = 0.72 SD), and demonstrated superior discrimination compared to alternative plasma biomarkers. Higher GFAP was associated with worse dementia severity and worse performance on 11 of 12 neuropsychological tests. Longitudinally, GFAP predicted decline in memory, but did not predict conversion to mild cognitive impairment or dementia. Discussion: Plasma GFAP was associated with clinical outcomes related to suspected AD and could be of assistance in a plasma biomarker panel to detect in vivo AD. © 2023 The Authors. Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring published by Wiley Periodicals, LLC on behalf of Alzheimer's Association.Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]