Coevolution of religious and political authority in Austronesian societies

Authority, an institutionalized form of social power, is one of the defining features of the large-scale societies that evolved during the Holocene. Religious and political authority have deep histories in human societies and are clearly interdependent, but the nature of their relationship and its evolution over time is contested. We purpose-built an ethnographic dataset of 97 Austronesian societies and used phylogenetic methods to address two long-standing questions about the evolution of religious and political authority: first, how these two institutions have coevolved, and second, whether religious and political authority have tended to become more or less differentiated. We found evidence for mutual interdependence between religious and political authority but no evidence for or against a long-term pattern of differentiation or unification in systems of religious and political authority. Our results provide insight into how political and religious authority have worked synergistically over millennia during the evolution of large-scale societies

Reactive oxygen species produced by myeloid cells in psoriasis as a potential biofactor contributing to the development of vascular inflammation.

Psoriasis is an immune-mediated inflammatory skin disease driven by interleukin-17A (IL-17A) and associated with cardiovascular dysfunction. We used a severe psoriasis mouse model of keratinocyte IL-17A overexpression (K14-IL-17Aind/+ , IL-17Aind/+ control mice) to investigate the activity of neutrophils and a potential cellular interconnection between skin and vasculature. Levels of dermal reactive oxygen species (ROS) and their release by neutrophils were measured by lucigenin-/luminol-based assays, respectively. Quantitative RT-PCR determined neutrophilic activity and inflammation-related markers in skin and aorta. To track skin-derived immune cells, we used PhAM-K14-IL-17Aind/+ mice allowing us to mark all cells in the skin by photoconversion of a fluorescent protein to analyze their migration into spleen, aorta, and lymph nodes by flow cytometry. Compared to controls, K14-IL-17Aind/+ mice exhibited elevated ROS levels in the skin and a higher neutrophilic oxidative burst accompanied by the upregulation of several activation markers. In line with these results psoriatic mice displayed elevated expression of genes involved in neutrophil migration (e.g., Cxcl2 and S100a9) in skin and aorta. However, no direct immune cell migration from the psoriatic skin into the aortic vessel wall was observed. Neutrophils of psoriatic mice showed an activated phenotype, but no direct cellular migration from the skin to the vasculature was observed. This suggests that highly active vasculature-invading neutrophils must originate directly from the bone marrow. Hence, the skin-vasculature crosstalk in psoriasis is most likely based on the systemic effects of the autoimmune skin disease, emphasizing the importance of a systemic therapeutic approach for psoriasis patients

Is the Good Polity Attainable? Measuring the Quality of Democracy

This article introduces a discussion on defining, measuring, and assessing the quality of democracy. Providing a short overview of the papers of the Symposium, it places them within a broader context of current academic debate on various methodological, theoretical, and policy outreach dimensions of the topic

Using motivational techniques to reduce cardiometabolic risk factors in long term psychiatric inpatients: A naturalistic interventional study

Background People with severe mental illness have markedly reduced life expectancy; cardiometabolic disease is a major cause. Psychiatric hospital inpatients have elevated levels of cardiometabolic risk factors and are to a high degree dependent of the routines and facilities of the institutions. Studies of lifestyle interventions to reduce cardiometabolic risk in psychiatric inpatients are few. The current study aimed at assessing the feasibility and effects of a lifestyle intervention including Motivational Interviewing (MI) on physical activity levels, cardiometabolic risk status and mental health status in psychotic disorder inpatients. Methods Prospective naturalistic intervention study of 83 patients at long term inpatient psychosis treatment wards in South-Eastern Norway. Patients were assessed 3–6 months prior to, at start and 6 months after a life-style intervention program including training of staff in MI, simple changes in routines and improvements of facilities for physical exercise. Assessments were done by clinical staff and included level of physical activity, motivation, life satisfaction, symptom levels (MADRS, AES-C, PANSS, and GAF) as well as anthropometric and biochemical markers of cardiometabolic risk. A mixed model was applied to analyze change over time. Results A total of 88% of patients received MI interventions, with a mean of 2.5 MI interventions per week per patient. The physical activity level was not increased, but activity level was positively associated with motivation and negatively associated with positive symptoms. Triglyceride levels and number of smokers were significantly reduced and a significant decrease in symptom levels was observed. Conclusions The current results suggest that a simple, low cost life-style intervention program focusing on motivational change is feasible and may reduce symptoms and improve lifestyle habits in psychosis patients in long term treatment facilities. Similar programs may easily be implemented in other psychiatric hospitals.submittedVersio

Missing the Unhealthy? Examining Empirical Validity of Material Deprivation Indices (MDIs) Using a Partial Criterion Variable

This study investigates the empirical validity of the material deprivation indices (MDIs) using a partial criterion variable, namely UHCNIR (unmet health care need due to inadequate resources). This alternative approach helps to assess absolute validity (Type I and II errors) and sources of error in the measurement of poverty for a specific aspect of poverty (in this case inability to receive adequate health care due to affordability problems). A simple mismatch analysis identifies a sizable group, around 1% of the adult EU population, missed by MDIs despite being in UHCNIR. A majority of this 1% experiences not only UHCNIR but also multiple other deprivations, commonly reports having some difficulties making ends meet, and prevalently has a disability or a chronic health problem. The analysis reveals that MDIs miss specifically those "unhealthy poor" since these measures do not include a relevant item, and thus cannot adjust for different needs and costs in health care and account for the distinct poverty experiences of these people. Therefore, the main methodological assumption of MDIs, identifying the people in poverty with only a limited set of key deprivation indicators is not supported by this empirical analysis

Are public and private social expenditures complementary?

Most analyses of social protection are focussed on public arrangements. However, social effort is not restricted to the public domain; all kinds of private arrangements can be substitutes to public programs. OECD-data indicate that accounting for private social benefits and the impact of the tax system on social expenditure has an equalising effect on levels of social effort across a number of countries. This suggests complementarity between public and private social expenditures. Changes in the public/private mix in social protection will, however, have distributional effects. We expect that private schemes will generate less income redistribution than public programs. In this paper we will perform an empirical analysis. Using comparative international data we analyse whether there is a relationship between public and private social expenditures, and the distribution of income. We find a negative relationship between net public social expenditures and income inequality, but a positive relationship between net private social expenditures and income inequality across countries. In fact, when we incorporate private social security expenditures, the impact of total social expenditure on the income distribution becomes statistically trivial. We conclude that changes in the public/private mix in the provision of social protection may affect the redistributive impact of the welfare state