Reproductive and developmental effects of phthalate diesters in females.

Phthalate diesters, widely used in flexible plastics and consumer products, have become prevalent contaminants in the environment. Human exposure is ubiquitous and higher phthalate metabolite concentrations documented in patients using medications with phthalate-containing slow release capsules raises concerns for potential health effects. Furthermore, animal studies suggest that phthalate exposure can modulate circulating hormone concentrations and thus may be able to adversely affect reproductive physiology and the development of estrogen sensitive target tissues. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review of the epidemiological and experimental animal literature examining the relationship between phthalate exposure and adverse female reproductive health outcomes. The epidemiological literature is sparse for most outcomes studied and plagued by small sample size, methodological weaknesses, and thus fails to support a conclusion of an adverse effect of phthalate exposure. Despite a paucity of experimental animal studies for several phthalates, we conclude that there is sufficient evidence to suggest that phthalates are reproductive toxicants. However, we note that the concentrations needed to induce adverse health effects are high compared to the concentrations measured in contemporary human biomonitoring studies. We propose that the current patchwork of studies, potential for additive effects and evidence of adverse effects of phthalate exposure in subsequent generations and at lower concentrations than in the parental generation support the need for further study

A CORRELATION STUDY ON TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION OF THE SCHOOL CLIMATE AND THEIR DEGREE OF WORK MOTIVATION AT ASSUMPTION COLLEGE SAMUTPRAKARN, THAILAND

This study sought to examine the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of the school climate and their degree of work motivation at Assumption College Samutprakarn, Thailand. The study evaluated the teachers’ perceptions on the school’s climate as well as their degree of work motivation in which Means and Standard Deviations were used for quantitative analysis. Finally, the relationship between these two constructs were analysed through Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient analysis. The study was conducted in the academic year of 2020 where 160 Thai teachers participated with the return rate of 91 percent from the total target population of 175. The result revealed that the teachers at Assumption College Samutprakarn had a relatively high perception and positive attitude towards the school climate. It also revealed that the teachers’ degree of work motivation on the basis of regulatory styles were relatively high on intrinsic (4.06), identified (4.15), and introjected (4.20). Furthermore, among the three recognized regulatory styles of motivation which had a high level of perception, introjected regulated type resulted to the highest mean score. However, they are moderately extrinsically motivated (3.42) as the data had shown. With regard to the study’s main purpose which was to examine the relationship between the teachers’ perception on the school climate and their work motivation, it revealed that the relationship between these two constructs were moderately positively correlated, r = .559, p < .05. The present study provided valuable information and extensive confirmation regarding the relationship between school climate and work motivation to which other researchers must further explore

Collateral Damage: How the War on Terror Hurts Charities, Foundations, and the People They Serve

This paper is the result of collaborative research conducted by OMB Watch and Grantmakers Without Borders. We believe charities in the United States and throughout the world play a key role in democratic systems by giving citizens a vehicle for participation, providing tools and information that help people get involved, and delivering assistance to those in need. Since Sept. 11, 2001, we have witnessed counterterrorism programs erode the freedom and ability of charities and their funders to carry out their missions and improve the lives of the world's people. We believe that this is damaging civil society in the United States and negatively impacting the nation's reputation and effectiveness on the global stage. We hope this paper will serve as a resource for charities, foundations, and policymakers as they seek to understand the impacts that counterterrorism measures have on charities and as they look to develop more equitable policies that protect the inherent rights of charities and the people the organizations serve

The impact on complication rates of delayed routine pessary reviews during the COVID-19 pandemic

INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: During the COVID-19 pandemic, guidance was issued in the United Kingdom advising a delay in routine pessary reviews. The impact of this has not been fully explored. The null hypothesis for this study is that delayed routine pessary reviews during the COVID-19 pandemic did not result in a statistically significant increase in complication rate. METHODS: A retrospective comparative cohort study was conducted in NHS Tayside, Scotland, involving 150 patients pre-pandemic and 150 patients during the COVID-19 pandemic (before exclusions). Their notes were reviewed identifying age, care provider, pessary type, length of pessary usage, review date, time elapsed since the previous review, bleeding/infection/ulceration, removal issues, pessary replacement and outcome. Patients excluded were those with no pessary in situ at review, reviews at ≤4 months and >8 months (pre-pandemic) and reviews at ≤8 months (COVID-19 pandemic). RESULTS: The pre-pandemic group (n=106) had average review times of 10.1,6.2 and 6.2 months for cubes, rings and all others. Overall rates of bleeding/infection/ulceration; reported removal issues; and pessary subsequently not replaced were 9.4%, 11.3% and 5.7% respectively. The COVID-19 pandemic group (n=125) had average review times of 14.7, 10.8 and 11.4 months for cubes, rings and all others. Overall rates of bleeding/infection/ulceration; reported removal issues; and pessary subsequently not replaced were 21.6%, 16.0%, and 12.0% respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, there was a significant increase in rates of bleeding/ulceration/infection (p=0.01). When individual pessaries were considered, this only remained true for rings (p=0.02). Our data would suggest that routine ring pessary reviews should not be extended beyond 6 months or risk bleeding/ulceration/infection

Preconditioning nonlocal multi-phase flow

We propose an efficient solver for saddle point problems arising from finite element approximations of nonlocal multi-phase Allen-Cahn variational inequalities. The solver is seen to behave mesh independently and to have only a very mild dependence on the number of phase field variables. In addition we prove convergence, in three GMRES iterations, of the approximation of the two phase problem, regardless of mesh size or interfacial width. Numerical results are presented that illustrate the competitiveness of this approach

A Novel Modelling Process in Chemistry: Merging Biological and Mathematical Perspectives to Develop Modelling Competences

Models are essential in science and therefore in scientific literacy. Therefore, pupils need to attain competency in the appropriate use of models. This so-called model–methodical competence distinguishes between model competence (the conceptual part) and modelling competence (the procedural part), wherefrom a definition follows a general overview of the concept of models in this article. Based on this, modelling processes enable the promotion of the modelling competence. In this context, two established approaches mainly applied in other disciplines (biology and mathematics) and a survey among chemistry teachers and employees of chemistry education departments (N = 98) form the starting point for developing a chemistry modelling process. The article concludes with a description of the developed modelling process, which by its design, provides an opportunity to develop students’ modelling competence

A53T-alpha-synuclein overexpression impairs dopamine signaling and striatal synaptic plasticity in old mice

BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD), the second most frequent neurodegenerative disorder at old age, can be caused by elevated expression or the A53T missense mutation of the presynaptic protein alpha-synuclein (SNCA). PD is characterized pathologically by the preferential vulnerability of the dopaminergic nigrostriatal projection neurons. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we used two mouse lines overexpressing human A53T-SNCA and studied striatal dysfunction in the absence of neurodegeneration to understand early disease mechanisms. To characterize the progression, we employed young adult as well as old mice. Analysis of striatal neurotransmitter content demonstrated that dopamine (DA) levels correlated directly with the level of expression of SNCA, an observation also made in SNCA-deficient (knockout, KO) mice. However, the elevated DA levels in the striatum of old A53T-SNCA overexpressing mice may not be transmitted appropriately, in view of three observations. First, a transcriptional downregulation of the extraneural DA degradation enzyme catechol-ortho-methytransferase (COMT) was found. Second, an upregulation of DA receptors was detected by immunoblots and autoradiography. Third, extensive transcriptome studies via microarrays and quantitative real-time RT-PCR (qPCR) of altered transcript levels of the DA-inducible genes Atf2, Cb1, Freq, Homer1 and Pde7b indicated a progressive and genotype-dependent reduction in the postsynaptic DA response. As a functional consequence, long term depression (LTD) was absent in corticostriatal slices from old transgenic mice. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Taken together, the dysfunctional neurotransmission and impaired synaptic plasticity seen in the A53T-SNCA overexpressing mice reflect early changes within the basal ganglia prior to frank neurodegeneration. As a model of preclinical stages of PD, such insights may help to develop neuroprotective therapeutic approaches