Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology - 2021

Partisan polarization remains the dominant, seemingly unalterable condition of American politics. Republicans and Democrats agree on very little – and when they do, it often is in the shared belief that they have little in common.Yet the gulf that separates Republicans and Democrats sometimes obscures the divisions and diversity of views that exist within both partisan coalitions – and the fact that many Americans do not fit easily into either one.Republicans are divided on some principles long associated with the GOP: an affinity for businesses and corporations, support for low taxes and opposition to abortion. Democrats face substantial internal differences as well – some that are long-standing, such as on the importance of religion in society, others more recent. For example, while Democrats widely share the goal of combating racial inequality in the United States, they differ on whether systemic change is required to achieve that goal.These intraparty disagreements present multiple challenges for both parties: They complicate the already difficult task of governing in a divided nation. In addition, to succeed politically, the parties must maintain the loyalty of highly politically engaged, more ideological voters, while also attracting support among less engaged voters – many of them younger – with weaker partisan ties.Pew Research Center's new political typology provides a road map to today's fractured political landscape. It segments the public into nine distinct groups, based on an analysis of their attitudes and values. The study is primarily based on a survey of 10,221 adults conducted July 8-18, 2021; it also draws from several additional interviews with these respondents conducted since January 2020

Thermoregulation mechanisms and perspectives for validating thermal windows in pigs with hypothermia and hyperthermia: An overview

Specific anatomical characteristics make the porcine species especially sensitive to extreme temperature changes, predisposing them to pathologies and even death due to thermal stress. Interest in improving animal welfare and porcine productivity has led to the development of various lines of research that seek to understand the effect of certain environmental conditions on productivity and the impact of implementing strategies designed to mitigate adverse effects. The non-invasive infrared thermography technique is one of the tools most widely used to carry out these studies, based on detecting changes in microcirculation. However, evaluations using this tool require reliable thermal windows; this can be challenging because several factors can affect the sensitivity and specificity of the regions selected. This review discusses the thermal windows used with domestic pigs and the association of thermal changes in these regions with the thermoregulatory capacity of piglets and hogs

The Use of Virtual Reality Facilitates Dialectical Behavior Therapy® “Observing Sounds and Visuals” Mindfulness Skills Training Exercises for a Latino Patient with Severe Burns: A Case Study

Sustaining a burn injury increases an individual's risk of developing psychological problems such as generalized anxiety, negative emotions, depression, acute stress disorder, or post-traumatic stress disorder. Despite the growing use of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy® (DBT®) by clinical psychologists, to date, there are no published studies using standard DBT® or DBT® skills learning for severe burn patients. The current study explored the feasibility and clinical potential of using Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) enhanced DBT® mindfulness skills training to reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions of a patient with severe burn injuries. The participant was a hospitalized (in house) 21-year-old Spanish speaking Latino male patient being treated for a large (>35% TBSA) severe flame burn injury.Methods: The patient looked into a pair of Oculus Rift DK2 virtual reality goggles to perceive the computer-generated virtual reality illusion of floating down a river, with rocks, boulders, trees, mountains, and clouds, while listening to DBT® mindfulness training audios during 4 VR sessions over a 1 month period. Study measures were administered before and after each VR session.Results: As predicted, the patient reported increased positive emotions and decreased negative emotions. The patient also accepted the VR mindfulness treatment technique. He reported the sessions helped him become more comfortable with his emotions and he wanted to keep using mindfulness after returning home.Conclusions: Dialectical Behavioral Therapy is an empirically validated treatment approach that has proved effective with non-burn patient populations for treating many of the psychological problems experienced by severe burn patients. The current case study explored for the first time, the use of immersive virtual reality enhanced DBT® mindfulness skills training with a burn patient. The patient reported reductions in negative emotions and increases in positive emotions, after VR DBT® mindfulness skills training. Immersive Virtual Reality is becoming widely available to mainstream consumers, and thus has the potential to make this treatment available to a much wider number of patient populations, including severe burn patients. Additional development, and controlled studies are needed

Efficacy and Function of Feathers, Hair, and Glabrous Skin in the Thermoregulation Strategies of Domestic Animals

The objective of this review is to describe and analyze the effect of feathers, hair, and glabrous (hairless) skin on the thermoregulation of domestic and endotherm animals, especially concerning the uses and scope of infrared thermography (IRT), scientific findings on heat and cold stress, and differences among species of domestic animals. Clinical medicine considers thermoregulation a mechanism that allows animals to adapt to varying thermal environmental conditions, a process in which the presence of feathers, hair, or glabrous skin influences heat loss or heat retention, respectively, under hot and cold environmental conditions. Evaluating body temperature provides vital information on an individual’s physiological state and health status since variations in euthermia maintenance in vertebrates reflect a significant cellular metabolism deviation that needs to be assessed and quantified. IRT is a non-invasive tool for evaluating thermal responses under thermal stress conditions in animals, where the presence or absence of feathers, hair, and glabrous skin can affect readings and the differences detected. Therefore, anatomical regions, the characteristics of feathers, hair, glabrous skin such as structure, length, color, and extension, and strategies for dissipating or retaining heat together constitute a broad area of opportunity for future research into the phenomena of dermal thermoregulation in domestic species

Clinical usefulness of infrared thermography to detect sick animals: frequent and current cases

Infrared thermography (IRT) is a tool that has been studied extensively in the experimental medical field as a method for assessing surface thermal responses under various conditions. These may involve local inflammatory processes resulting from surgical procedures, wounds, neoplasms, pathologies, painful events, or stressful states in animals. IRT measures changes in blood flow in surface blood capillaries and the resulting heat radiation. In the clinical field, thermography has been used as a support method for detecting painful conditions. However, some guidelines indicate that it could be applied for assessing and monitoring animals in rehabilitation to quantify objectively possible improvements in their quality of life. Similarly, IRT makes it possible to assess the degree of circulation in dermal tissue, suggesting that it could be used to determine the degree of damage in traumatized tissue in cases of thromboembolic diseases and burns. This would be useful to distinguish between damaged and healthy tissue and thus determine the optimal therapy for burn patients. This review aims to analyze scientific evidence on the clinical applications of IRT for detecting diseases and assessing painful conditions. A literature search on different databases was performed to recover articles related to the application of IRT as a complementary diagnostic tool, and its potential for assisting in rehabilitation, monitoring wounds, and evaluating body temperature in domestic animals

Studies on the actin-binding protein HS1 in platelets

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The platelet cytoskeleton mediates the dramatic change in platelet morphology that takes place upon activation and stabilizes thrombus formation. The Arp2/3 complex plays a vital role in these processes, providing the protrusive force for lamellipodia formation. The Arp2/3 complex is highly regulated by a number of actin-binding proteins including the haematopoietic-specific protein HS1 and its homologue cortactin. The present study investigates the role of HS1 in platelets using HS1^-/-mice.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The present results demonstrate that HS1 is not required for platelet activation, shape change or aggregation. Platelets from HS1^-/-mice spread normally on a variety of adhesion proteins and have normal F-actin and Arp2/3 complex distributions. Clot retraction, an actin-dependent process, is also normal in these mice. Platelet aggregation and secretion is indistinguishable between knock out and littermates and there is no increase in bleeding using the tail bleeding assay.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study concludes that HS1 does not play a major role in platelet function. It is possible that a role for HS1 is masked by the presence of cortactin.</p

The hepatocyte growth factor induces an anti-inflammatory and repairing response in the cholestasis-induced colon damage

Aim: Cholestasis remains a partially characterized disease. Evidence has been gained that it is a systemic disease that begins in the liver but significantly impacts other organs and systems such as the kidney, heart, and intestine, among others. One of the primary damage mechanisms is the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which eventually leads to oxidative stress, impacting canalicular morphology and actin cytoskeleton changes that could worsen the problem. These characteristics are also observed in the kidney and intestine. The work focused on addressing the intestine effects of intrahepatic cholestasis induced by α-naphthyl isothiocyanate (ANIT) and the protective response of the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF). Methods: The 10- to 12-week-old CD1 male mice were treated with ANIT and then treated or not with HGF; intestine damage was addressed by histology, immunohistochemistry (IHC) of specific markers, oxidative stress, and apoptosis. Results: Results show changes in the intestine histology, particularly the colon and ileum, induced by the cholestasis. HGF treatment restored the histology presentation and reverted the oxidative damage, clearly indicating a healing response. This observation was supported by an increment in anti-inflammatory macrophages (CD163+) in the HGF treatment. Conclusions: The data prove that HGF induces a protective and repairing response in the intestine under cholestatic challenges

Contribution of the Neighborhood Environment and Obesity to Breast Cancer Survival: The California Breast Cancer Survivorship Consortium

Little is known about neighborhood attributes that may influence opportunities for healthy eating and physical activity in relation to breast cancer mortality. We used data from the California Breast Cancer Survivorship Consortium and the California Neighborhoods Data System to examine the neighborhood environment, body mass index, and mortality after breast cancer. We studied 8,995 African American, Asian American, Latina, and non-Latina White women with breast cancer. Residential addresses were linked to the CNDS to characterize neighborhoods. We used multinomial logistic regression to evaluate the associations between neighborhood factors and obesity, and Cox proportional hazards regression to examine associations between neighborhood factors and mortality. For Latinas, obesity was associated with more neighborhood crowding (Quartile 4 (Q4) vs. Q1: Odds Ratio (OR)=3.24; 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 1.50-7.00); breast cancer-specific mortality was inversely associated with neighborhood businesses (Q4 vs. Q1: Hazard Ratio (HR)=0.46; 95% CI: 0.25-0.85) and positively associated with multi-family housing (Q3 vs. Q1: HR=1.98; 95% CI: 1.20-3.26). For non-Latina Whites, lower neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) was associated with obesity (Quintile 1 (Q1) vs. Q5: OR=2.52; 95% CI: 1.31-4.84), breast cancer-specific (Q1 vs. Q5: HR=2.75; 95% CI: 1.47-5.12), and all-cause (Q1 vs. Q5: HR=1.75; 95% CI: 1.17-2.62) mortality. For Asian Americans, no associations were seen. For African Americans, lower neighborhood SES was associated with lower mortality in a nonlinear fashion. Attributes of the neighborhood environment were associated with obesity and mortality following breast cancer diagnosis, but these associations differed across racial/ethnic groups