Introduction to the Special Issue: Gendering Global Media Policy: Critical Perspectives on "Digital Agendas"

n/

Strategies for therapeutic amelioration of aberrant plasma Zn2+ handling in thrombotic disease: Targeting fatty acid/serum albumin-mediated effects

Funding: This research was funded by Leverhulme Trust, grant number RPG-2017-214; Bio-technology and Biological Sciences Research Council, grant number BB/J006467/1 and BB/V014684/1; British Heart Foundation, grant number FS/20/3/34956.The initiation, maintenance and regulation of blood coagulation is inexorably linked to the actions of Zn2+ in blood plasma. Zn2+ interacts with a variety of haemostatic proteins in the bloodstream including fibrinogen, histidine-rich glycoprotein (HRG) and high molecular weight kininogen (HMWK) to regulate haemostasis. The availability of Zn2+ to bind such proteins is controlled by human serum albumin (HSA), which binds 70-85% plasma Zn2+ under basal conditions. HSA also binds and transports non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs). Upon NEFA binding, there is a change in the structure of HSA which leads to a reduction in its affinity for Zn2+. This enables other plasma proteins to better compete for binding of Zn2+. In diseases where elevated plasma NEFA con-centrations are a feature, such as obesity and diabetes, there is a concurrent increase in hyper-coagulability. Evidence indicates that NEFA-induced perturbation of Zn2+-binding by HSA may contribute to the thrombotic complications frequently observed in these pathophysiological conditions. This review highlights potential interventions - both pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical - that may be employed to combat this dysregulation. Lifestyle and dietary changes have been shown to reduce plasma NEFA concentrations. Furthermore, drugs that in-fluence NEFA levels such as statins and fibrates may be useful in this context. In severely obese patients more invasive therapies such as bariatric surgery may be useful. Finally, other potential treatments such as chelation therapies, use of cholesteryl transfer protein (CETP) inhibitors, lipase inhibitors, fatty acid inhibitors and other treatments are highlighted, that with additional research and appropriate clinical trials, could prove useful in the treatment and management of thrombotic disease through amelioration of plasma Zn2+ dysregulation in high-risk individuals.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Handbook for SDG-Aligned Food Companies: Four Pillar Framework Standards

The world food system is in crisis. Outright hunger, unhealthy diets and malnutrition occur parallel to food losses and waste. Farming families in poor countries suffer from extreme poverty. And food production is environmentally unsustainable and increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather events caused by climate change. A historic change of direction is needed to bring about a new era of food system sustainability. Our work aims to help companies, investors and other stakeholders move towards a more sustainable food system that is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals. Transforming the world food system to achieve sustainability in all its dimensions is a major challenge. Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals will require managing major changes to the global food system responsibly, involving hundreds of millions of farmers and their families, global supply chains, thousands of food producing companies, diverse food production systems and local ecologies, food processing and a great diversity of food traditions and cultures. Food companies are engaged in food production, trade, processing, and consumer sales around the world. While they have distinct roles “from farm to fork,” they all share the same responsibility: to be part of the global transformation towards food system sustainability. For more on CCSI and SDSN’s work on corporate alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals, see our framework defining SDG-aligned business practices in the energy sector

Fluoride Chemistry in Tin Halide Perovskites

Tin is the frontrunner for substituting toxic lead in perovskite solar cells. However, tin suffers the detrimental oxidation of SnII to SnIV. Most of reported strategies employ SnF2 in the perovskite precursor solution to prevent SnIV formation. Nevertheless, the working mechanism of this additive remains debated. To further elucidate it, we investigate the fluoride chemistry in tin halide perovskites by complementary analytical tools. NMR analysis of the precursor solution discloses a strong preferential affinity of fluoride anions for SnIV over SnII, selectively complexing it as SnF4. Hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy on films shows the lower tendency of SnF4 than SnI4 to get included in the perovskite structure, hence preventing the inclusion of SnIV in the film. Finally, small-angle X-ray scattering reveals the strong influence of fluoride on the colloidal chemistry of precursor dispersions, directly affecting perovskite crystallization

Management of Chlamydia Cases in Australia (MoCCA): protocol for a non-randomised implementation and feasibility trial

INTRODUCTION: The sexually transmitted infection chlamydia can cause significant complications, particularly among people with female reproductive organs. Optimal management includes timely and appropriate treatment, notifying and treating sexual partners, timely retesting for reinfection and detecting complications including pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). In Australia, mainstream primary care (general practice) is where most chlamydia infections are diagnosed, making it a key setting for optimising chlamydia management. High reinfection and low retesting rates suggest partner notification and retesting are not uniformly provided. The Management of Chlamydia Cases in Australia (MoCCA) study seeks to address gaps in chlamydia management in Australian general practice through implementing interventions shown to improve chlamydia management in specialist services. MoCCA will focus on improving retesting, partner management (including patient-delivered partner therapy) and PID diagnosis. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: MoCCA is a non-randomised implementation and feasibility trial aiming to determine how best to implement interventions to support general practice in delivering best practice chlamydia management. Our method is guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research and the Normalisation Process Theory. MoCCA interventions include a website, flow charts, fact sheets, mailed specimen kits and autofills to streamline chlamydia consultation documentation. We aim to recruit 20 general practices across three Australian states (Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland) through which we will implement the interventions over 12–18 months. Mixed methods involving qualitative and quantitative data collection and analyses (observation, interviews, surveys) from staff and patients will be undertaken to explore our intervention implementation, acceptability and uptake. Deidentified general practice and laboratory data will be used to measure pre-post chlamydia testing, retesting, reinfection and PID rates, and to estimate MoCCA intervention costs. Our findings will guide scale-up plans for Australian general practice. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval was obtained from The University of Melbourne Human Research Ethics Committee (Ethics ID: 22665). Findings will be disseminated via conference presentations, peer-reviewed publications and study reports

Origin of Interface Limitation in Zn(O,S)/CuInS2‑Based Solar Cells

Copper indium disulfide CuInS2 grown under Cu rich conditions exhibits high optical quality but suffers predominantly from charge carrier interface recombination, resulting in poor solar cell performance. An unfavorable cliff like conduction band alignment at the buffer CuInS2 interface could be a possible cause of enhanced interface recombination in the device. In this work, we exploit direct and inverse photoelectron spectroscopy together with electrical characterization to investigate the cause of interface recombination in chemical bath deposited Zn O,S co evaporated CuInS2 based devices. Temperature dependent current voltage analyses indeed reveal an activation energy of the dominant charge carrier recombination path, considerably smaller than the absorber bulk band gap, confirming the dominant recombination channel to be present at the Zn O,S CuInS2 interface. However, photoelectron spectroscopy measurements indicate a small 0.1 eV spike like conduction band offset at the Zn O,S CuInS2 interface, excluding an unfavorable energy level alignment to be the prominent cause for strong interface recombination. The observed band bending upon interface formation also suggests Fermi level pinning not to be the main reason, leaving near interface defects as recently observed in Cu rich CuInSe2 as the likely reason for the performance limiting interface recombinatio

Serum Concentrations of Soluble Flt-1 Are Decreased among Women with a Viable Fetus and No Symptoms of Miscarriage Destined for Pregnancy Loss

Miscarriage is the most common complication of pregnancy. Pre-clinical miscarriage has an estimated incidence of 30%, whilst clinical miscarriage has an incidence of 12-15%. Two thirds of pregnancies lost to miscarriage are believed to be attributable to defective placentation, thus a number of studies have sought to identify markers of defective placentation that could be used as clinical biomarkers of miscarriage. Decreased soluble FMS-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt1), placental growth factor (PlGF), and soluble endoglin (sEng) in the maternal circulation during the first trimester have recently been proposed as potential markers of pregnancy loss. However, in these studies clinical samples were only obtained once women had presented with symptoms of miscarriage. In this study we prospectively screened serum samples collected from asymptomatic women with a viable fetus. We assessed maternal serum levels of sFlt1, PlGF and sEng across the first trimester of normal pregnancy and compared levels between women who continued to a live birth, to those who subsequently miscarried. Both sFlt1 and PlGF significantly (p≤0.05) increased across gestation in normal pregnancy with serum levels rising from 0.65±0.12 ng/ml at 6 weeks to 1.85±0.24 ng/ml at 12 weeks for sFlt1, and 57.2±19.2 pg/ml to 106±22.7 pg/ml for PlGF. sEng remained unchanged throughout the the first trimester. Importantly we detected a significant (35%, p≤0.05) decrease in sFlt1 levels between our control and miscarriage cohort, however there was significant overlap between cases and controls, suggesting serum sFlt1 is unlikely to be useful as a clinical biomarker in asymptomatic women. Nevertheless, our data suggests a dysregulation of angiogenic factors may be involved in the pathophysiology of miscarriage

Imaging cortical activity following affective stimulation with a high temporal and spatial resolution

Keil J, Adenauer H, Catani C, Neuner F. Imaging cortical activity following affective stimulation with a high temporal and spatial resolution. BMC Neuroscience. 2009;10(1):83.Background:The affective and motivational relevance of a stimulus has a distinct impact on cortical processing, particularly in sensory areas. However, the spatial and temporal dynamics of this affective modulation of brain activities remains unclear. The purpose of the present study was the development of a paradigm to investigate the affective modulation of cortical networks with a high temporal and spatial resolution. We assessed cortical activity with MEG using a visual steady-state paradigm with affective pictures. A combination of a complex demodulation procedure with a minimum norm estimation was applied to assess the temporal variation of the topography of cortical activity. Results: Statistical permutation analyses of the results of the complex demodulation procedure revealed increased steady-state visual evoked field amplitudes over occipital areas following presentation of affective pictures compared to neutral pictures. This differentiation shifted in the time course from occipital regions to parietal and temporal regions. Conclusion: It can be shown that stimulation with affective pictures leads to an enhanced activity in occipital region as compared to neutral pictures. However, the focus of differentiation is not stable over time but shifts into temporal and parietal regions within four seconds of stimulation. Thus, it can be crucial to carefully choose regions of interests and time intervals when analyzing the affective modulation of cortical activity

Foundations of Translational Ecology

Ecologists who specialize in translational ecology (TE) seek to link ecological knowledge to decision making by integrating ecological science with the full complement of social dimensions that underlie today\u27s complex environmental issues. TE is motivated by a search for outcomes that directly serve the needs of natural resource managers and decision makers. This objective distinguishes it from both basic and applied ecological research and, as a practice, it deliberately extends research beyond theory or opportunistic applications. TE is uniquely positioned to address complex issues through interdisciplinary team approaches and integrated scientist–practitioner partnerships. The creativity and context-specific knowledge of resource managers, practitioners, and decision makers inform and enrich the scientific process and help shape use-driven, actionable science. Moreover, addressing research questions that arise from on-the-ground management issues – as opposed to the top-down or expert-oriented perspectives of traditional science – can foster the high levels of trust and commitment that are critical for long-term, sustained engagement between partners

Fluoridchemie in Zinn‐Halogenid‐Perowskiten

Zinn ist der Top-Favorit für den Ersatz von giftigem Blei in Perowskit-Solarzellen. Allerdings kommt es dabei verstärkt zu der unerwünschten Oxidation von SnII zu SnIV. Die herkömmlichen Verfahren verwenden SnF2 in der Perowskit-Vorläuferlösung, um die Bildung von SnIV zu verhindern. Dennoch bleibt der Wirkmechanismus des Additivs unklar. Um diesen eingehender zu erläutern, untersuchen wir die Fluoridchemie in Zinn-Halogenid-Perowskiten mit einander ergänzenden Analyseverfahren. NMR-Spektroskopie der Vorläuferlösung offenbart eine stark bevorzugte Affinität der Fluoridanionen für SnIV gegenüber SnII, wodurch dieses selektiv als SnF4 komplexiert wird. Harte Röntgenphotoelektronenspektroskopie an Dünnschichten zeigt die geringere Bereitschaft von SnF4 gegenüber SnI4, in die Perowskit-Struktur eingebaut zu werden und verhindert somit den Einschluss von SnIV in der Dünnschicht. Abschließend offenbart Röntgen-Kleinwinkelstreuung den starken Einfluss vom Fluorid auf die kolloidale Chemie der Vorläuferlösungen, der sich direkt auf die darauffolgende Kristallisation auswirkt.European Research Council (ERC)Peer Reviewe