Zur Integration von Tieren in wohlfahrtsökonomische Analysen

Insbesondere die zunehmende Diskussion um die Probleme und Regulierung landwirtschaftlicher Nutztierhaltung hat dazu geführt, dass in den letzten Jahren zahlreiche ökonomische Analysen veröffentlicht wurden, die das Wohlbefinden von Tieren zum Thema haben (z. B. Köhler 2005; Makdisi 2011; Schrader 2009; Wille 2011). Allen diesen Arbeiten ist gemein, dass das Wohlbefinden der Tiere indirekt berücksichtigt wird. Das Wohlbefinden der Tiere beeinflusst die wohlfahrtsökonomische Beurteilung eines Sachverhalts dann, und nur dann, wenn es Menschen gibt, denen das tierische Wohl 'etwas wert' ist. Die Motive dafür können durchaus über ein enges Nutzenkalkül hinausgehen und moralisch oder altruistisch begründet sein. Dieser Ansatz ist sicherlich zufriedenstellender als wenn man Tiere nur unter dem Aspekt ihrer kommerziellen Nützlichkeit (im weitesten Sinn) berücksichtigen würde, gleichwohl trägt er nicht der Forderung Rechnung, Tiere und Menschen moralisch analog zu berücksichtigen. Diese Forderung ist in Bezug auf empfindungsfähige Tiere nicht nur von den utilitaristischen Vorvätern der Wohlfahrtsökonomie erhoben worden, sie wird auch von den meisten Tierethikern vertreten. Es überwiegt die Meinung, dass man innerhalb ökonomischer Analysen dieser Forderung nicht Rechnung tragen kann. Aus ökonomischer Sicht gelte '(farm animals’) value and importance is derived explicitly from what the contribute to economic output' (McInerney 2004) und '(animals’) preferences and wellbeing have relevance only to the extent that they are important to (humans)' (ebd.), weshalb Ökonomen '(have to) assign zero value to the welfare of any sentinent life with no spending power' (Frank 2002). Wir schließen uns dieser Meinung nicht an, sondern wollen mit unserem Beitrag den Kreis der wenigen ökonomischen Arbeiten erweitern, die über den anthropozentrischen Rahmen hinausgehen. Unser Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, wie man innerhalb der Wohlfahrtsökonomie einen Eigenwert der Tiere berücksichtigen kann

Evaluation of the 100,000 Homes Campaign in Chicago Final Quantitative Data Report

The AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) partnered with CURL to conduct a process evaluation of the Chicago 100,000 Homes Campaign, with a focus on outreach and housing  coordination. Qualitative analysis consisted of observations, telephone and in person interviews, as well as, focus groups. Quantitative analysis consisted of analyzing participant data and administrative records. The evaluation is informing key stakeholders of Chicago's homeless system in their efforts to develop a centralized housing placement system citywide.

Automatic covariance pattern analysis outperforms visual reading of 18 F‐fluorodeoxyglucose‐positron emission tomography (FDG‐PET) in variant progressive supranuclear palsy

Background: To date, studies on positron emission tomography (PET) with F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) in progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) usually included PSP cohorts overrepresenting patients with Richardson's syndrome (PSP-RS). Objectives: To evaluate FDG-PET in a patient sample representing the broad phenotypic PSP spectrum typically encountered in routine clinical practice. Methods: This retrospective, multicenter study included 41 PSP patients, 21 (51%) with RS and 20 (49%) with non-RS variants of PSP (vPSP), and 46 age-matched healthy controls. Two state-of-the art methods for the interpretation of FDG-PET were compared: visual analysis supported by voxel-based statistical testing (five readers) and automatic covariance pattern analysis using a predefined PSP-related pattern. Results: Sensitivity and specificity of the majority visual read for the detection of PSP in the whole cohort were 74% and 72%, respectively. The percentage of false-negative cases was 10% in the PSP-RS subsample and 43% in the vPSP subsample. Automatic covariance pattern analysis provided sensitivity and specificity of 93% and 83% in the whole cohort. The percentage of false-negative cases was 0% in the PSP-RS subsample and 15% in the vPSP subsample. Conclusions: Visual interpretation of FDG-PET supported by voxel-based testing provides good accuracy for the detection of PSP-RS, but only fair sensitivity for vPSP. Automatic covariance pattern analysis outperforms visual interpretation in the detection of PSP-RS, provides clinically useful sensitivity for vPSP, and reduces the rate of false-positive findings. Thus, pattern expression analysis is clinically useful to complement visual reading and voxel-based testing of FDG-PET in suspected PSP. (C) 2023 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society

Advances in Problematic Usage of the Internet Research – A Narrative Review by Experts from the European Network for Problematic Usage of the Internet

© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Global concern about problematic usage of the internet (PUI), and its public health and societal costs, continues to grow, sharpened in focus under the privations of the COVID-19 pandemic. This narrative review reports the expert opinions of members of the largest international network of researchers on PUI in the framework of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action (CA 16207), on the scientific progress made and the critical knowledge gaps remaining to be filled as the term of the Action reaches its conclusion. A key advance has been achieving consensus on the clinical definition of various forms of PUI. Based on the overarching public health principles of protecting individuals and the public from harm and promoting the highest attainable standard of health, the World Health Organisation has introduced several new structured diagnoses into the ICD-11, including gambling disorder, gaming disorder, compulsive sexual behaviour disorder, and other unspecified or specified disorders due to addictive behaviours, alongside naming online activity as a diagnostic specifier. These definitions provide for the first time a sound platform for developing systematic networked research into various forms of PUI at global scale. Progress has also been made in areas such as refining and simplifying some of the available assessment instruments, clarifying the underpinning brain-based and social determinants, and building more empirically based etiological models, as a basis for therapeutic intervention, alongside public engagement initiatives. However, important gaps in our knowledge remain to be tackled. Principal among these include a better understanding of the course and evolution of the PUI-related problems, across different age groups, genders and other specific vulnerable groups, reliable methods for early identification of individuals at risk (before PUI becomes disordered), efficacious preventative and therapeutic interventions and ethical health and social policy changes that adequately safeguard human digital rights. The paper concludes with recommendations for achievable research goals, based on longitudinal analysis of a large multinational cohort co-designed with public stakeholders.Peer reviewe

ELM: the status of the 2010 eukaryotic linear motif resource

Linear motifs are short segments of multidomain proteins that provide regulatory functions independently of protein tertiary structure. Much of intracellular signalling passes through protein modifications at linear motifs. Many thousands of linear motif instances, most notably phosphorylation sites, have now been reported. Although clearly very abundant, linear motifs are difficult to predict de novo in protein sequences due to the difficulty of obtaining robust statistical assessments. The ELM resource at http://elm.eu.org/ provides an expanding knowledge base, currently covering 146 known motifs, with annotation that includes >1300 experimentally reported instances. ELM is also an exploratory tool for suggesting new candidates of known linear motifs in proteins of interest. Information about protein domains, protein structure and native disorder, cellular and taxonomic contexts is used to reduce or deprecate false positive matches. Results are graphically displayed in a ‘Bar Code’ format, which also displays known instances from homologous proteins through a novel ‘Instance Mapper’ protocol based on PHI-BLAST. ELM server output provides links to the ELM annotation as well as to a number of remote resources. Using the links, researchers can explore the motifs, proteins, complex structures and associated literature to evaluate whether candidate motifs might be worth experimental investigation

Genomic correlates of glatiramer acetate adverse cardiovascular effects lead to a novel locus mediating coronary risk

Glatiramer acetate is used therapeutically in multiple sclerosis but also known for adverse effects including elevated coronary artery disease (CAD) risk. The mechanisms underlying the cardiovascular side effects of the medication are unclear. Here, we made use of the chromosomal variation in the genes that are known to be affected by glatiramer treatment. Focusing on genes and gene products reported by drug-gene interaction database to interact with glatiramer acetate we explored a large meta-analysis on CAD genome-wide association studies aiming firstly, to investigate whether variants in these genes also affect cardiovascular risk and secondly, to identify new CAD risk genes. We traced association signals in a 200-kb region around genomic positions of genes interacting with glatiramer in up to 60 801 CAD cases and 123 504 controls. We validated the identified association in additional 21 934 CAD cases and 76 087 controls. We identified three new CAD risk alleles within the TGFB1 region on chromosome 19 that independently affect CAD risk. The lead SNP rs12459996 was genome-wide significantly associated with CAD in the extended meta-analysis (odds ratio 1.09, p = 1.58×10-12). The other two SNPs at the locus were not in linkage disequilibrium with the lead SNP and by a conditional analysis showed p-values of 4.05 × 10-10 and 2.21 × 10-6. Thus, studying genes reported to interact with glatiramer acetate we identified genetic variants that concordantly with the drug increase the risk of CAD. Of these, TGFB1 displayed signal for association. Indeed, the gene has been associated with CAD previously in both in vivo and in vitro studies. Here we establish genome-wide significant association with CAD in large human samples.This work was supported by grants from the Fondation Leducq (CADgenomics: Understanding CAD Genes, 12CVD02), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the framework of the e:Med research and funding concept (e:AtheroSysMed, grant 01ZX1313A-2014 and SysInflame, grant 01ZX1306A), and the European Union Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 under grant agreement no HEALTH-F2-2013-601456 (CVgenes-at-target). Further grants were received from the DFG as part of the Sonderforschungsbereich CRC 1123 (B2). T.K. was supported by a DZHK Rotation Grant. I.B. was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) cluster of excellence ‘Inflammation at Interfaces’. F.W.A. is supported by a Dekker scholarship-Junior Staff Member 2014T001 - Netherlands Heart Foundation and UCL Hospitals NIHR Biomedical Research Centre

TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits - the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants - determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits - almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms