“Pro-life” in the Czech Republic – What Kind of Europeanization Is Present?

This paper attempts to show what effects Europeanization has had on the pro-life movement in the Czech Republic. The first section of the text outlines a multifaceted concept of institutional theory based on historical institutionalist ideas. Next, it looks at one specific institutional process, Europeanization, informed by the work of Radaelli as well as della Porta’s and Caiani’s work on mobilization in the European Union. The following section defines the relevant actors in the Czech pro-life movement. Finally, the paper applies this concept of Europeanization of social movements to the Czech pro-life case. The paper concludes with observations that Europeanization of the Czech pro-life movement is uneven, manifesting itself among some actors, though not all, and in some areas of Europeanization. Charitable organizations as well as one highly visible activist group are highly associated with processes of Europeanization; on the other hand, in most cases, other activist groups in the pro-life movement in the Czech Republic are more highly influenced by more general trends in interest-group internationalization. These insights may pave the way for additional research on trends both of the European pro-life movement as a whole, as well as serving as a touchstone for improving such theoretical concepts as “Europeanization” vis-à-vis “globalization” or “European integration”.This paper attempts to show what effects Europeanization has had on the pro-life movement in the Czech Republic. The first section of the text outlines a multifaceted concept of institutional theory based on historical institutionalist ideas. Next, it looks at one specific institutional process, Europeanization, informed by the work of Radaelli as well as della Porta’s and Caiani’s work on mobilization in the European Union. The following section defines the relevant actors in the Czech pro-life movement. Finally, the paper applies this concept of Europeanization of social movements to the Czech pro-life case. The paper concludes with observations that Europeanization of the Czech pro-life movement is uneven, manifesting itself among some actors, though not all, and in some areas of Europeanization. Charitable organizations as well as one highly visible activist group are highly associated with processes of Europeanization; on the other hand, in most cases, other activist groups in the pro-life movement in the Czech Republic are more highly influenced by more general trends in interest-group internationalization. These insights may pave the way for additional research on trends both of the European pro-life movement as a whole, as well as serving as a touchstone for improving such theoretical concepts as “Europeanization” vis-à-vis “globalization” or “European integration”

Fixed-dose combination therapy for the prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases.

BACKGROUND: Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) is the leading cause of death and disability worldwide, yet ASCVD risk factor control and secondary prevention rates remain low. A fixed-dose combination of blood pressure- and cholesterol-lowering and antiplatelet treatments into a single pill, or polypill, has been proposed as one strategy to reduce the global burden of ASCVD. OBJECTIVES: To determine the effect of fixed-dose combination therapy on all-cause mortality, fatal and non-fatal ASCVD events, and adverse events. We also sought to determine the effect of fixed-dose combination therapy on blood pressure, lipids, adherence, discontinuation rates, health-related quality of life, and costs. SEARCH METHODS: We updated our previous searches in September 2016 of CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, ISI Web of Science, and DARE, HTA, and HEED. We also searched two clinical trials registers in September 2016. We used no language restrictions. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomised controlled trials of a fixed-dose combination therapy including at least one blood pressure-lowering and one lipid-lowering component versus usual care, placebo, or an active drug comparator for any treatment duration in adults 18 years old or older, with no restrictions on presence or absence of pre-existing ASCVD. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Three review authors independently selected studies for inclusion and extracted the data for this update. We evaluated risk of bias using the Cochrane 'Risk of bias' assessment tool. We calculated risk ratios (RR) for dichotomous data and mean differences (MD) for continuous data with 95% confidence intervals (CI) using fixed-effect models when heterogeneity was low (I2 < 50%) and random-effects models when heterogeneity was high (I2 ≥ 50%). We used the GRADE approach to evaluate the quality of evidence. MAIN RESULTS: In the initial review, we identified nine randomised controlled trials with a total of 7047 participants and four additional trials (n = 2012 participants; mean age range 62 to 63 years; 30% to 37% women) were included in this update. Eight of the 13 trials evaluated the effects of fixed-dose combination (FDC) therapy in populations without prevalent ASCVD, and the median follow-up ranged from six weeks to 23 months. More recent trials were generally larger with longer follow-up and lower risk of bias. The main risk of bias was related to lack of blinding of participants and personnel, which was inherent to the intervention. Compared with the comparator groups (placebo, usual care, or active drug comparator), the effects of the fixed-dose combination treatment on mortality (FDC = 1.0% versus control = 1.0%, RR 1.10, 95% CI 0.64 to 1.89,  I2 = 0%, 5 studies, N = 5300) and fatal and non-fatal ASCVD events (FDC = 4.7% versus control = 3.7%, RR 1.26, 95% CI 0.95 to 1.66, I2 = 0%, 6 studies, N = 4517) were uncertain (low-quality evidence). The low event rates for these outcomes and indirectness of evidence for comparing fixed-dose combination to usual care versus individual drugs suggest that these results should be viewed with caution. Adverse events were common in both the intervention (32%) and comparator (27%) groups, with participants randomised to fixed-dose combination therapy being 16% (RR 1.16, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.25, 11 studies, 6906 participants, moderate-quality evidence) more likely to report an adverse event . The mean differences in systolic blood pressure between the intervention and control arms was -6.34 mmHg (95% CI -9.03 to -3.64, 13 trials, 7638 participants, moderate-quality evidence). The mean differences (95% CI) in total and LDL cholesterol between the intervention and control arms were -0.61 mmol/L (95% CI -0.88 to -0.35, 11 trials, 6565 participants, low-quality evidence) and -0.70 mmol/L (95% CI -0.98 to -0.41, 12 trials, 7153 participants, moderate-quality evidence), respectively. There was a high degree of statistical heterogeneity in comparisons of blood pressure and lipids (I2 ≥ 80% for all) that could not be explained, so these results should be viewed with caution. Fixed-dose combination therapy improved adherence to a multidrug strategy by 44% (26% to 65%) compared with usual care (4 trials, 3835 participants, moderate-quality evidence). AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: The effects of fixed-dose combination therapy on all-cause mortality or ASCVD events are uncertain. A limited number of trials reported these outcomes, and the included trials were primarily designed to observe changes in ASCVD risk factor levels rather than clinical events, which may partially explain the observed differences in risk factors that were not translated into differences in clinical outcomes among the included trials. Fixed-dose combination therapy is associated with modest increases in adverse events compared with placebo, active comparator, or usual care but may be associated with improved adherence to a multidrug regimen. Ongoing, longer-term trials of fixed-dose combination therapy will help demonstrate whether short-term changes in risk factors might be maintained and lead to expected differences in clinical events based on these changes

HST Imaging of the Host Galaxies of High Redshift Radio-Loud Quasars

We present rest-frame UV and Ly-alpha images of spatially-resolved structures around five high-redshift radio-loud quasars obtained with the WFPC2 camera on the Hubble Space Telescope. We find that all five quasars are extended and this "fuzz" contains ~5-40% of the total continuum flux and 15-65% of the Ly-alpha flux within a radius of about 1.5 arcsec. The rest-frame UV luminosities of the hosts are log lambda P_lambda = 11.9 to 12.5 solar luminosities (assuming no internal dust extinction), comparable to the luminous radio galaxies at similar redshifts and a factor 10 higher than both radio-quiet field galaxies at z~2-3 and the most UV-luminous low redshift starburst galaxies. The Ly-alpha luminosities of the hosts are (in the log) approximately 44.3-44.9 erg/s which are also similar to the those of luminous high redshift radio galaxies and considerably larger than the Ly-alpha luminosities of high redshift field galaxies. To generate the Ly-alpha luminosities of the hosts would require roughly a few percent of the total observed ionizing luminosity of the quasar. We find good alignment between the extended Ly-alpha and the radio sources, strong evidence for jet-cloud interactions in two cases, again resembling radio galaxies, and what is possibly the most luminous radio-UV synchrotron jet in one of the hosts at z=2.110.Comment: 36 pages (latex, aas macros), 3 figures (3 gif and 10 postscript files), accepted for publication in the the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Serie

Resolving the Formation of Protogalaxies. II. Central Gravitational Collapse

Numerous cosmological hydrodynamic studies have addressed the formation of galaxies. Here we choose to study the first stages of galaxy formation, including non-equilibrium atomic primordial gas cooling, gravity and hydrodynamics. Using initial conditions appropriate for the concordance cosmological model of structure formation, we perform two adaptive mesh refinement simulations of ~10^8 M_sun galaxies at high redshift. The calculations resolve the Jeans length at all times with more than 16 cells and capture over 14 orders of magnitude in length scales. In both cases, the dense, 10^5 solar mass, one parsec central regions are found to contract rapidly and have turbulent Mach numbers up to 4. Despite the ever decreasing Jeans length of the isothermal gas, we only find one site of fragmentation during the collapse. However, rotational secular bar instabilities transport angular momentum outwards in the central parsec as the gas continues to collapse and lead to multiple nested unstable fragments with decreasing masses down to sub-Jupiter mass scales. Although these numerical experiments neglect star formation and feedback, they clearly highlight the physics of turbulence in gravitationally collapsing gas. The angular momentum segregation seen in our calculations plays an important role in theories that form supermassive black holes from gaseous collapse.Comment: Replaced with accepted version. To appear in ApJ v681 (July 1

Host Galaxy Evolution in Radio-Loud AGN

We investigate the luminosity evolution of the host galaxies of radio-loud AGN through Hubble Space Telescope imaging of 72 BL Lac objects, including new STIS imaging of nine z > 0.6 BL Lacs. With their intrinsically low accretion rates and their strongly beamed jets, BL Lacs provide a unique opportunity to probe host galaxy evolution independent of the biases and ambiguities implicit in quasar studies. We find that the host galaxies of BL Lacs evolve strongly, consistent with passive evolution from a period of active star formation in the range 0.5 <~ z <~ 2.5, and inconsistent with either passive evolution from a high formation redshift or a non-evolving population. This evolution is broadly consistent with that observed in the hosts of other radio-loud AGN, and inconsistent with the flatter luminosity evolution of quiescent early types and radio-quiet hosts. This indicates that active star formation, and hence galaxy interactions, are associated with the formation for radio-loud AGN, and that these host galaxies preferentially accrete less material after their formation epoch than galaxies without powerful radio jets. We discuss possible explanations for the link between merger history and the incidence of a radio jet.Comment: 37 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ, for full PDF incl. figures see http://www.ph.unimelb.edu.au/~modowd/papers/odowdurry2005.pd

Cosmological Studies with Radio Galaxies and Supernovae

Physical sizes of extended radio galaxies can be employed as a cosmological "standard ruler", using a previously developed method. Eleven new radio galaxies are added to our previous sample of nineteen sources, forming a sample of thirty objects with redshifts between 0 and 1.8. This sample of radio galaxies are used to obtain the best fit cosmological parameters in a quintessence model in a spatially flat universe, a cosmological constant model that allows for non-zero space curvature, and a rolling scalar field model in a spatially flat universe. Results obtained with radio galaxies are compared with those obtained with different supernova samples, and with combined radio galaxy and supernova samples. Results obtained with different samples are consistent, suggesting that neither method is seriously affected by systematic errors. Best fit radio galaxy and supernovae model parameters determined in the different cosmological models are nearly identical, and are used to determine dimensionless coordinate distances to supernovae and radio galaxies, and distance moduli to the radio galaxies. The distance moduli to the radio galaxies can be combined with supernovae samples to increase the number of sources, particularly high-redshift sources, in the samples. The constraints obtained here with the combined radio galaxy plus supernovae data set in the rolling scalar field model are quite strong. The best fit parameter values suggest a value of omega is less than about 0.35, and the model parameter alpha is close to zero; that is, a cosmological constant provides a good description of the data. We also obtain new constraints on the physics of engines that power the large-scale radio emission.Comment: 32 pages. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Referral pathways for TIA patients avoiding hospital admission : a scoping review

Objective: To identify the features and effects of a pathway for emergency assessment and referral of patients with suspected transient ischaemic attack (TIA) in order to avoid admission to hospital.Design: Scoping review.Data sources: PubMed, CINAHL Web of Science, Scopus.Study selection: Reports of primary research on referral of patients with suspected TIA directly to specialist outpatient services.Data extraction: We screened studies for eligibility and extracted data from relevant studies. Data were analysed to describe setting, assessment and referral processes, treatment, implementation and outcomes.Results: 8 international studies were identified, mostly cohort designs. 4 pathways were used by family doctors and 3 pathways by emergency department physicians. No pathways used by paramedics were found. Referrals were made to specialist clinic either directly or via a 24-hour helpline. Practitioners identified TIA symptoms and risk of further events using a checklist including the ABCD2 tool or clinical assessment. Antiplatelet medication was often given, usually aspirin unless contraindicated. Some patients underwent tests before referral and discharge. 5 studies reported reduced incident of stroke at 90 days, from 6–10% predicted rate to 1.3–2.1% actual rate. Between 44% and 83% of suspected TIA cases in these studies were referred through the pathways.Conclusions: Research literature has focused on assessment and referral by family doctors and ED physicians to reduce hospitalisation of patients with TIA. No pathways for paramedical use were reported. We will use results of this scoping review to inform development of a paramedical referral pathway to be tested in a feasibility trial