United in Diversity, Divided in Adversity? Support for Right-Wing Eurosceptic Parties in the Face of Threat Differs Across Nations

This is the final version. Available on open access from Frontiers Media via the DOI in this recordThis article investigates whether the perceived threat of terrorism explains the support for right-wing Eurosceptic parties and Euroscepticism above and beyond other relevant variables, including perceived economic and immigration threats. We first examined the entire Eurobarometer samples of 2014 and 2015, and then conducted survey experiments in four EU countries, that is, UK (N=197), France (N=164), Italy (N=312), and Romania (N=144). Our findings suggest that the perceived threat of terrorism has a small effect on the negative attitudes towards the EU above and beyond the effect of immigration and economic threats and other basic control variables. The relationship between these variables varies across countries and it is less linear than we might expect

Competitive universities need to internationalize learning: perspectives from three European universities

The process of restructuring European universities in order to harmonize their educational systems is rapidly approaching a key milestone as 2010 looms large on the horizon. This paper describes an approach to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) based on a real case study of students that belong to five European Universities (University of Burgos, Technical University of Valencia, University of Valladolid, University of Basque Country and University of Applied Sciences Cologne). The objective of this paper is two-fold: on the one hand, to analyze from the student’s point of view how they value the restructuring of teaching as a result of the Bologna process and what are the implications for students with regards to both their academic qualifications and their future incorporation into the labour market; and, on the other hand, to deduce from the results obtained recommendations which may help to guide teachers towards successful internationalization and collaboration between interuniversity networks, as well as achieving greater standards of quality within university teaching. Only this would permit an environment in which students are capable of developing the necessary competences, and put into practice learning outcomes. The results show that students value communication, innovative proposals and cooperation between universities; the internationalization of knowledge between universities has been positively accepted and this has motivated research to place a stronger focus on this aspect; it impacts strongly on scientific productivity, improves the quality of education offered by the teaching staff, and leads to greater student mobility. This strategy is intrinsically linked to learning from local experiences shared by members of the same university as well as from more global experiences made available through inter-university networks. It implies being willing to listen, to communicate, to engage in dialogue and means that we must seek to understand the potential contributions from teachers, staff and students that make up each university.Peer Reviewe

Predicting two-year mortality from discharge after acute coronary syndrome: An internationally-based risk score.

BACKGROUND: Long-term risk of post-discharge mortality associated with acute coronary syndrome remains a concern. The development of a model to reliably estimate two-year mortality risk from hospital discharge post-acute coronary syndrome will help guide treatment strategies. METHODS: EPICOR (long-tErm follow uP of antithrombotic management patterns In acute CORonary syndrome patients, NCT01171404) and EPICOR Asia (EPICOR Asia, NCT01361386) are prospective observational studies of 23,489 patients hospitalized for an acute coronary syndrome event, who survived to discharge and were then followed up for two years. Patients were enrolled from 28 countries across Europe, Latin America and Asia. Risk scoring for two-year all-cause mortality risk was developed using identified predictive variables and forward stepwise Cox regression. Goodness-of-fit and discriminatory power was estimated. RESULTS: Within two years of discharge 5.5% of patients died. We identified 17 independent mortality predictors: age, low ejection fraction, no coronary revascularization/thrombolysis, elevated serum creatinine, poor EQ-5D score, low haemoglobin, previous cardiac or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, elevated blood glucose, on diuretics or an aldosterone inhibitor at discharge, male sex, low educational level, in-hospital cardiac complications, low body mass index, ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction diagnosis, and Killip class. Geographic variation in mortality risk was seen following adjustment for other predictive variables. The developed risk-scoring system provided excellent discrimination (c-statistic=0.80, 95% confidence interval=0.79-0.82) with a steep gradient in two-year mortality risk: >25% (top decile) vs. ~1% (bottom quintile). A simplified risk model with 11 predictors gave only slightly weaker discrimination (c-statistic=0.79, 95% confidence interval =0.78-0.81). CONCLUSIONS: This risk score for two-year post-discharge mortality in acute coronary syndrome patients ( www.acsrisk.org ) can facilitate identification of high-risk patients and help guide tailored secondary prevention measures

Connectivity between countries established by landbirds and raptors migrating along the African–Eurasian flyway

The conservation of long-distance migratory birds requires coordination between the multiple countries connected by the movements of these species. The recent expansion of tracking studies is shedding new light on these movements, but much of this information is fragmented and inaccessible to conservation practitioners and policy makers. We synthesized current knowledge on the connectivity established between countries by landbirds and raptors migrating along the African–Eurasian flyway. We reviewed tracking studies to compile migration records for 1229 individual birds, from which we derived 544 migratory links, each link corresponding to a species’ connection between a breeding country in Europe and a nonbreeding country in sub-Saharan Africa. We used these migratory links to analyze trends in knowledge over time and spatial patterns of connectivity per country (across species), per species (across countries), and at the flyway scale (across all countries and all species). The number of tracking studies available increased steadily since 2010 (particularly for landbirds), but the coverage of existing tracking data was highly incomplete. An average of 7.5% of migratory landbird species and 14.6% of raptor species were tracked per country. More data existed from central and western European countries, and it was biased toward larger bodied species. We provide species- and country-level syntheses of the migratory links we identified from the reviewed studies, involving 123 populations of 43 species, migrating between 28 European and 43 African countries. Several countries (e.g., Spain, Poland, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo) are strategic priorities for future tracking studies to complement existing data, particularly on landbirds. Despite the limitations in existing tracking data, our data and results can inform discussions under 2 key policy instruments at the flyway scale: the African–Eurasian Migratory Landbirds Action Plan and the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey in Africa and Eurasia.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCTinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

March1-dependent modulation of donor MHC II on CD103+ dendritic cells mitigates alloimmunity.

In transplantation, donor dendritic cells (do-DCs) initiate the alloimmune response either by direct interaction with host T cells or by transferring intact donor MHC to host DCs. However, how do-DCs can be targeted for improving allograft survival is still unclear. Here we show CD103+ DCs are the major do-DC subset involved in the acute rejection of murine skin transplants. In the absence of CD103+ do-DCs, less donor MHC-II is carried to host lymph nodes, fewer allogenic T cells are primed and allograft survival is prolonged. Incubation of skin grafts with the anti-inflammatory mycobacterial protein DnaK reduces donor MHC-II on CD103+DCs and prolongs graft survival. This effect is mediated through IL-10-induced March1, which ubiquitinates and decreases MHC-II levels. Importantly, in vitro pre-treatment of human DCs with DnaK reduces their ability to prime alloreactive T cells. Our findings demonstrate a novel therapeutic approach to dampen alloimmunity by targeting donor MHC-II on CD103+DCs

Direct, stereodivergent, and catalytic Michael additions of thioimides to α,β-unsaturated aldehydes – Total synthesis of Tapentadol

Direct and stereodivergent Michael additions of N-acyl 1,3-thiazinane-2-thiones to α,β-unsaturated aldehydes catalyzed by chiral nickel(II) complexes are reported. The reactions proceed with a remarkable regio-, diastereo-, and enantioselectivity, so access to any of the four potential Michael stereoisomers is granted through the appropriate choice of the chiral ligand of the nickel(II) complex. Simple removal of the heterocyclic scaffold furnishes a wide array of either syn or anti enantiomerically pure derivatives, which can be exploited for the asymmetric synthesis of biologically active compounds, as demonstrated in a new approach to tapentadol. In turn, a mechanism, based on theoretical calculations, is proposed to account for the stereochemical outcome of these transformations

Guía de elaboración de Biopreparados Agroecológicos para la producción vegetal y animal de Patagonia Norte

Consideramos que la agroecología es una ciencia transdisciplinaria, que se nutre a través de los aportes realizados por diferentes disciplinas (agronomía, economía ecológica, sociología, etnoecología) y los saberes de los agricultores. Permite abordar múltiples dimensiones relacionadas con los aspectos técnico-productivos, económicos, ecológicos, sociales, culturales y políticos mediante la implementación de un trabajo multiescalar haciendo foco en el análisis de un sistema de cultivo, para evaluar su estado de salud, pero, al mismo tiempo, ampliando la mirada a nivel de agroecosistema y su relación con el paisaje agroecológico de una región determinada. Además, la agroecología es pluriepistemológica, es decir, integra diferentes epistemias, o sea, diferentes formas de generar los conocimientos. No hay una sola forma de agroecología, no hay una sola forma de analizar la agroecología, ya que integra diferentes visiones de la generación de los conocimientos. La agroecología no es intensa en insumos sino que es intensa en la generación de estos entenderes, cómo se relacionan, cómo funcionan, cómo se establecen diferentes tipos de sinergias. Por ello, la agroecología es un espacio de diálogo y de construcción de conocimientos que permite realizar prácticas aplicadas al diseño y el manejo de los agroecosistemas tendientes a modificar el actual sistema agroalimentario global.Fil: Stuart, Ana Laura. Productora de Arroyón; ArgentinaFil: Urraza, Maria Soledad. Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria (INTA). Centro Regional Patagonia Norte; ArgentinaFil: Cecchini, Maria Valeria. Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria (INTA). Estacion Experimental Agropecuaria Valle Inferior. Agencia de Extension Rural San Javier; ArgentinaFil: Garabito, Fernando Gaston. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Bariloche. Agencia de Extensión Rural Picún Leufú; ArgentinaFil: Monje, Suyai. Municipalidad de Picún Leufú; ArgentinaFil: Gramaglia, Cesar Ivan. Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria (INTA). Estacion Experimental Agropecuaria Manfredi. Agencia de Extension Rural Villa Dolores; ArgentinaFil: Vazquez, Maria Esther. Zapala; ArgentinaFil: Aliaga, Elsa. Zapala; ArgentinaFil: Gallardo, Alejandra Beatriz. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Bariloche. Agencia de Extensión Rural Zapala; Argentin

Invertebrate traits, diversity and the vulnerability of groundwater ecosystems

Funding Information: This manuscript evolved from a workshop titled Trait‐based analyses in groundwater ecology and bioassessment held as part of the 24th International Conference on Subterranean Biology, 20–24th August 2018, University of Aveiro, Portugal. The workshop was supported by the conference organisers and the Macquarie University Species Spectrum Research Centre. Financial support was also provided to M.A.D. by the Portuguese government (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia; FCT) through the research unit UIDB/04085/2020 (CENSE). A.S.P.S.R. was supported by the VILLUM FONDEN (research grant 15471) and by Portuguese National Funds through Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia within the cE3c Unit funding UIDB/00329/2020. S.I.S. acknowledges funding through EU Operational Programme Research, Development and Education No. CZ.02.2.69/0.0/0.0/16_027/0008357, and by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic [grant number CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16 025/0007417]. K.L.K. was supported in part by Australian Research Council grant LP190100927. The comments of the Editor, Associate Editor and an anonymous reviewer greatly improved the MS. Open access publishing facilitated by Macquarie University, as part of the Wiley ‐ Macquarie University agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Functional Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society.Groundwater comprises the largest freshwater ecosystem on the planet. It has a distinct regime of extreme, yet stable environmental conditions that have favoured the development of similar morphological and functional traits in the resident invertebrate fauna (stygofauna). The analysis of community traits is increasingly used as an alternative to taxonomy-based assessments of biodiversity, especially for monitoring ecosystem status and linking the functions of organisms to ecological processes, yet it has been rarely applied to stygofauna and groundwater ecosystems. In this paper, we review the variation in functional traits among the invertebrate fauna of this important ecosystem. We focus on the stygofauna and processes of alluvium and fractured rock aquifers that are typified by small voids and fissures that constrain the habitats and environmental conditions. As a first step, we compare trait variability between groundwater and surface water invertebrate communities and then examine the significance of the ranges of these traits to the vulnerability of the ecosystem to change. Fifteen potentially useful functional traits are recognised. Eight of these have narrower ranges (i.e. exhibit fewer states, or attributes, of a particular trait) in groundwater than they do in surface water. Two traits have wider ranges. Our synthesis suggests that the relative stability of groundwater environments has led to low trait variability. The low biomass and low reproductive rate of stygofauna suggest that recovery potential following disturbance is likely to be low. For the purposes of both improved understanding and effective management, further work is needed to document additional functional traits and their states in groundwater fauna, enabling a better understanding of the relationship between response and effect traits in these ecosystems. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.publishersversionpublishe