National identification, perceived threat, and dehumanization as antecedents of negative attitudes toward immigrants in Australia and Canada

The interplay of nationalistic threat perceptions, dehumanizing beliefs and intergroup emotions, and anti-immigrant sentiment is analyzed in a cross-national context with Australian (N=124) and Canadian (N=126) samples. National identification was linked to negative attitudes toward immigrants indirectly, via perceptions of immigrants as being in threatening zero-sum relationships with citizens. In turn, perceived zero-sum threat was associated with dehumanizing beliefs and emotions about immigrants. Significant baseline differences in hostility were observed across the samples, but the relationships among the variables were not moderated by participants' nationality. The study contributes to the literature examining how negative emotions and attitudes may serve to legitimize intergroup competition

Author Correction: Transcriptomic and cellular decoding of regional brain vulnerability to neurogenetic disorders

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper

Prolonged COVID-19 symptom duration in people with systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases: results from the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance Vaccine Survey

OBJECTIVE: We investigated prolonged COVID-19 symptom duration, defined as lasting 28 days or longer, among people with systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARDs). METHODS: We analysed data from the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance Vaccine Survey (2 April 2021-15 October 2021) to identify people with SARDs reporting test-confirmed COVID-19. Participants reported COVID-19 severity and symptom duration, sociodemographics and clinical characteristics. We reported the proportion experiencing prolonged symptom duration and investigated associations with baseline characteristics using logistic regression. RESULTS: We identified 441 respondents with SARDs and COVID-19 (mean age 48.2 years, 83.7% female, 39.5% rheumatoid arthritis). The median COVID-19 symptom duration was 15 days (IQR 7, 25). Overall, 107 (24.2%) respondents had prolonged symptom duration (≥28 days); 42/429 (9.8%) reported symptoms lasting ≥90 days. Factors associated with higher odds of prolonged symptom duration included: hospitalisation for COVID-19 vs not hospitalised and mild acute symptoms (age-adjusted OR (aOR) 6.49, 95% CI 3.03 to 14.1), comorbidity count (aOR 1.11 per comorbidity, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.21) and osteoarthritis (aOR 2.11, 95% CI 1.01 to 4.27). COVID-19 onset in 2021 vs June 2020 or earlier was associated with lower odds of prolonged symptom duration (aOR 0.42, 95% CI 0.21 to 0.81). CONCLUSION: Most people with SARDs had complete symptom resolution by day 15 after COVID-19 onset. However, about 1 in 4 experienced COVID-19 symptom duration 28 days or longer; 1 in 10 experienced symptoms 90 days or longer. Future studies are needed to investigate the possible relationships between immunomodulating medications, SARD type/flare, vaccine doses and novel viral variants with prolonged COVID-19 symptoms and other postacute sequelae of COVID-19 among people with SARDs

Considerações sobre a influência da análise das demonstrações no ciclo do pedido logístico: análise do caso Atofina Brasil

O principal objetivo deste estudo consistiu em identificar a influência da análise das demonstrações contábeis utilizadas no processo de estabelecimento do limite de crédito a um cliente, no ciclo do pedido logístico. Para a consecução deste trabalho, foi realizado um estudo de caso, de caráter descritivo, na Atofina Brasil, empresa do setor químico. Verificou-se, pelo estudo de caso, que o analista de crédito utiliza diversas fontes de informações como meio de subsidiar o processo decisório de estabelecimento do limite de crédito, sendo uma delas as demonstrações contábeis. Com relação às demonstrações contábeis no ciclo do pedido da Atofina Brasil, foi verificado que o período de tempo necessário para a análise de crédito não está relacionado à qualidade das informações contábeis. Isso porque o analista de crédito considera que as demonstrações contábeis apresentam adequadamente a situação econômico-financeira da empresa.This study aimed to identify the influence of financial statement analysis, used in the process of establishing customer credit limits, as a part of the logistic order cycle. Thus, a descriptive case study was carried out at Atofina Brazil, a company in the chemical industry. On the basis of this case study, we observed that the credit analyst uses various information sources as a support in process of deciding about credit limit establishment, one of which are financial statements. With respect to the impact of financial statements on the order cycle of Atofina Brazil, it was verified that the time period needed for the credit analysis process is not related to accounting information quality, because the credit analyst considers that financial statements offer an adequate representation of the company's economic and financial situation

A Novel Neurotrophic Drug for Cognitive Enhancement and Alzheimer's Disease

Currently, the major drug discovery paradigm for neurodegenerative diseases is based upon high affinity ligands for single disease-specific targets. For Alzheimer's disease (AD), the focus is the amyloid beta peptide (Aß) that mediates familial Alzheimer's disease pathology. However, given that age is the greatest risk factor for AD, we explored an alternative drug discovery scheme that is based upon efficacy in multiple cell culture models of age-associated pathologies rather than exclusively amyloid metabolism. Using this approach, we identified an exceptionally potent, orally active, neurotrophic molecule that facilitates memory in normal rodents, and prevents the loss of synaptic proteins and cognitive decline in a transgenic AD mouse model

Clinical development of new drug-radiotherapy combinations.

In countries with the best cancer outcomes, approximately 60% of patients receive radiotherapy as part of their treatment, which is one of the most cost-effective cancer treatments. Notably, around 40% of cancer cures include the use of radiotherapy, either as a single modality or combined with other treatments. Radiotherapy can provide enormous benefit to patients with cancer. In the past decade, significant technical advances, such as image-guided radiotherapy, intensity-modulated radiotherapy, stereotactic radiotherapy, and proton therapy enable higher doses of radiotherapy to be delivered to the tumour with significantly lower doses to normal surrounding tissues. However, apart from the combination of traditional cytotoxic chemotherapy with radiotherapy, little progress has been made in identifying and defining optimal targeted therapy and radiotherapy combinations to improve the efficacy of cancer treatment. The National Cancer Research Institute Clinical and Translational Radiotherapy Research Working Group (CTRad) formed a Joint Working Group with representatives from academia, industry, patient groups and regulatory bodies to address this lack of progress and to publish recommendations for future clinical research. Herein, we highlight the Working Group's consensus recommendations to increase the number of novel drugs being successfully registered in combination with radiotherapy to improve clinical outcomes for patients with cancer.National Institute for Health ResearchThis is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2016.7

Preventing Violence in Seven Countries: Global Convergence in Policies

Do governments take the measures that are supported by the best scientific evidence available? We present a brief review of the situation in: Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Our findings show surprisingly similar developments across countries. While all seven countries are moving towards evidence-based decision making regarding policies and programs to prevent violence, there remain a number of difficulties before this end can be achieved. For example, there continue to be few randomized controlled trials or rigorous quasi-experimental studies on aggression and violence. Results from experimental research are essential to both policy makers and researchers to determine the effectiveness of programs as well as increase our knowledge of the problem. Additionally, all noted that media attention for violence is high in their country, often leading to management by crisis with the result that policies are not based on evidence, but instead seek to appease public outrage. And perhaps because of attendant organizational problems (i.e., in many countries violence prevention was not under the guise of one particular agency or ministry), most have not developed a coordinated policy focusing on the prevention of violence and physical aggression. It is hypothesized that leaders in democratic countries, who must run for election every 4 to 6 years, may feel a need to focus on short-term planning rather than long-term preventive policies since the costs, but not the benefits for the latter would be incurred while they still served in office. We also noted a general absence of expertise beyond those within scientific circles. The need for these ideas to be more widely accepted will be an essential ingredient to real and sustaining change. This means that there must be better communication and increased understanding between researchers and policy makers. Toward those ends, the recent establishment of the Campbell Collaboration, formed to provide international systematic reviews of program effectiveness, will make these results more available and accessible to politicians, administrators and those charged with making key policy decision