Environmental aspects of internal migration in Tanzania

In recent years, the issue of the nexus of climate change and human migration has attracted a growing amount of interest among scholars and policy makers. Using individual-level data from the Tanzania National Panel Survey conducted in 2008\u20132009, we examine the roles played by droughts or floods, crop diseases, and severe water shortages in inter-district migration in Tanzania. Findings reveal that droughts or floods and crop diseases are associated with an overall decrease in the likelihood of inter-district mobility, providing support for the \u201cenvironmental scarcity\u201d hypothesis. Yet migration becomes a likely response to droughts and floods among individuals with no education suggesting mobility is a key livelihood strategy among those most disadvantaged. Future examination of domestic migration-environment processes at the individual-level is critical for informed policy and programs

The role of cognitive frames towards circular economy practices in SMEs

Frame of the research: The paper explores how organizations are able to manage potential competing logics in the HORECA and Hospitality sectors. In such sectors, mainly characterized by SMEs and where the effect of brand and corporate reputation is not comparable with some manufacturing sectors operating in the B2B market, finding an equilibrium between the economic and environmental need is crucial in order to truly embrace environmental sustainability. Purpose of the paper: The development of an integrative cognitive framework in management where environmental and economic views are strictly enwound, is crucial for supporting the transition towards a more circular economy. The paper explores the drivers for developing such integrative view for the managers of SMEs operating in the hospitality sectors. Methodology: The research is grounded on original data collected by a survey of 252 Italian SMEs operating in the hospitality sector. Adopting a structural equation model, we tested the drivers that can contribute to create respectively an environmental and economic logic in managers, whether the co-presence of these logics is able to generate an integrative view and, as a consequence, the influence of such view on the adoption of pro-environmental practices. Findings: The results confirm the environmental concern being a driver of environmental logic, the importance of the environmental logic and the economic one as determinants of the integrative view and the importance of such view in adopting pro-environmental practices. Research limits: The study is focused on a specific geographical context. The number of drivers of environmental internalization could be expanded. Practical implications: The study contributes to the steam of research on sustainability among SMEs by stressing how intangible factors are crucial for reaching environmental embeddedness. Originality of the paper: Understanding how organizations are able to manage potential competing logics in an integrative cognitive framework is still unexplored, mainly in the Hospitality sectors. In such sectors finding an equilibrium between the economic and the environmental need is crucial for really embracing environmental sustainability

The relationship between self-efficacy and health-related quality of life in Multiple Sclerosis patients

Background and Objectives Multiple sclerosis (MS) has a broad spectrum of physical, social, psychological effects and significant impact on quality of life (QoL). Several studies has showed the importance of self-efficacy as a predictor of QoL in patients with MS.This study aims at evaluating the robustness of the relationship between self-efficacy and QoL. Specifically it aims to test whether such relation will vanish under the following conditions: using a general measure of self-efficacy and controlling for level of impairment defined as a broad construct dealing with physical, social and working changes due to the illness condition. Methods One hundred-fifty five participants responded to a questionnaire, including QoL and general self-efficacy measures, socio demographic and clinical variables. Two nested structural equation models that differ for the presence or absence of the path connecting self-efficacy and QoL was estimated.Results and Conclusions The hypothesis of the vanishing of the relationship between self-efficacy and QoL had to be rejected. These results support the genuineness of this relation and emphasize the importance of interventions promoting self-efficacy to improve QoL in chronic diseases such as MS. From a methodological perspective this study is an example of the usefulness of formative indicators in QoL studies

The Supersymmetric Ward-Takahashi Identity in 1-Loop Lattice Perturbation Theory. I. General Procedure

The one-loop corrections to the lattice supersymmetric Ward-Takahashi identity (WTi) are investigated in the off-shell regime. In the Wilson formulation of the N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills (SYM) theory, supersymmetry (SUSY) is broken by the lattice, by the Wilson term and is softly broken by the presence of the gluino mass. However, the renormalization of the supercurrent can be realized in a scheme that restores the continuum supersymmetric WTi (once the on-shell condition is imposed). The general procedure used to calculate the renormalization constants and mixing coefficients for the local supercurrent is presented. The supercurrent not only mixes with the gauge invariant operator $T_\mu$. An extra mixing with other operators coming from the WTi appears. This extra mixing survives in the continuum limit in the off-shell regime and cancels out when the on-shell condition is imposed and the renormalized gluino mass is set to zero. Comparison with numerical results are also presented.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures. Typos error correcte

A discussion forum on how to return to “Tradition” today

UIDB/04038/2020 UIDP/04038/2020After the publication of Hobsbawm and Ranger’s groundbreaking The Invention of Tradition and ten years after Noyes’ essay, Tradition: Three Traditions, what do we, as specialists of European cultures, have to say about “tradition”? This forum invites a selection of scholars coming from various thematic fields and countries to think about the concept of tradition, considered as one of our first conceptual tools and ethnographic objects of investigation. The authors reflexively discuss in which ways their research experiences challenge their own perceptions, understanding, and reframing of tradition. More than mapping new and allegedly new – or better “recycled” – ways in which social, ethnic, religious, or political groups use and manipulate traditions, the authors also address their perplexities with the notion of tradition. They thus add a specific layer of reflection, touching on temporality, methodology, and theoretical frames, to their practices of folklore and ethnology today.publishersversionpublishe

Evaluation Of The Methanogenic Potential Of Two Lignocellulosic Crops

Biogas production can be considered an important technology for the sustainable use of agricultural biomass as a renewable energy source even more when the substrates for anaerobic digestion are crop residues, livestock residues or energy crops that don’t compete with food crops for land use. The aims of this study were to evaluate the production of biogas and biomethane from two lignocellulosic crops suitable for the Mediterranean environment (Arundo donax L. and Saccharum spontaneum subsp. aegyptiacum (Willd.) Hack) and the efficiency of a thermal pretreatment to increase the biomethane production. The purpose of the pretreatment is to break the recalcitrant lignin layer, so that the cellulose and hemicellulose present in the biomass are hydrolyzed by microorganisms and converted into simple sugars to achieve greater energy yield

VKORC1 and CYP2C9 polymorphisms related to adverse events in case-control cohort of anticoagulated patients

Vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) are highly effective but have a narrow therapeutic index and require routine monitoring of the INR. The primary aim of pharmacogenetics (PGx) is to optimize patient care, achieving drug treatments that are personalized according to the genetic profile of each patient. The best-characterized genes involved in VKA PGx involve pharmacokinetics (VKORC1) and pharmacodynamics (CYP2C9) of VKA metabolism. The role of these genes in clinical outcomes (bleeding and thrombosis) during oral anticoagulant (OAC) therapy is controversial. The aim of the present study was to evaluate any potential association between genotype VKORC1 and CYP2C9 and adverse events (hemorrhagic and/or thrombotic), during initiation and long-term VKA treatment, in Caucasian patients. Furthermore, we aimed to determine if the concomitant prescription of other selected drugs affected the association between genotype and adverse events.We performed a retrospective, matched case-control study to determine associations between multiple gene variants, drug intake, and any major adverse effects in anticoagulated patients, monitored in 2 Italian anticoagulation clinics.Our results show that anticoagulated patients have a high risk of adverse events if they are carriers of 1 or more genetic polymorphisms in the VKORC1 (rs9923231) and CYP2C9 (rs1799853 and rs1057910) genes.Information on CYP2C9 and VKORC1 variants may be useful to identify individualized oral anticoagulant treatment for each patient, improve management and quality of VKA anticoagulation control, and monitor drug surveillance in pharmacovigilance programs

Transcription factor binding sites are genetic determinants of retroviral integration in the human genome.

Gamma-retroviruses and lentiviruses integrate non-randomly in mammalian genomes, with specific preferences for active chromatin, promoters and regulatory regions. Gene transfer vectors derived from gamma-retroviruses target at high frequency genes involved in the control of growth, development and differentiation of the target cell, and may induce insertional tumors or pre-neoplastic clonal expansions in patients treated by gene therapy. The gene expression program of the target cell is apparently instrumental in directing gamma-retroviral integration, although the molecular basis of this phenomenon is poorly understood. We report a bioinformatic analysis of the distribution of transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs) flanking >4,000 integrated proviruses in human hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic cells. We show that gamma-retroviral, but not lentiviral vectors, integrate in genomic regions enriched in cell-type specific subsets of TFBSs, independently from their relative position with respect to genes and transcription start sites. Analysis of sequences flanking the integration sites of Moloney leukemia virus (MLV)- and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-derived vectors carrying mutations in their long terminal repeats (LTRs), and of HIV vectors packaged with an MLV integrase, indicates that the MLV integrase and LTR enhancer are the viral determinants of the selection of TFBS-rich regions in the genome. This study identifies TFBSs as differential genomic determinants of retroviral target site selection in the human genome, and suggests that transcription factors binding the LTR enhancer may synergize with the integrase in tethering retroviral pre-integration complexes to transcriptionally active regulatory regions. Our data indicate that gamma-retroviruses and lentiviruses have evolved dramatically different strategies to interact with the host cell chromatin, and predict a higher risk in using gamma-retroviral vs. lentiviral vectors for human gene therapy applications

Hypericum scruglii Bacch., Brullo & Salmeri, a Potential Natural Remedy for Fibromyalgia: A Narrative Review

Abstract: Fibromyalgia (FM) is a disorder of central pain processing marked by widespread chronic pain together with fatigue, sleep disturbances, cognitive dysfunction, and depressive episodes. Tested treatments have expressed limited efficacy. Oxidative stress plays a role in the pathology of FM, while multiple neurotransmitters are involved in this syndrome. Antidepressants are used as conventional treatment, especially those with double action on serotonin and norepinephrine that leads to an increased risk of a manic switch. It should be noted that fibromyalgia is high-frequency comorbidity in bipolar disorder. This narrative review, given the limited literature, consisted of animal and in vitro studies, which aims to highlight the positive aspects of Hypericum scruglii as a potential remedy against FM. Many in vitro and clinical studies confirm the Hypericum genus as a natural antidepressant resource. The use of Hypericum derivatives in various acute and chronic diseases has been known for a long time. It is reported that the phloroglucinol derivatives from Hypericum longistylum improve and accelerate the differentiation of neural progenitor cells. The advantage of Hypericum scruglii is that it owns greater antioxidant potential than other species of the Hypericum genus. Suggestions for improving the oral bioavailability of very poor water-soluble molecules of hypericum extracts are also described in this pape

Salinomycin potentiates the cytotoxic effects of TRAIL on glioblastoma cell lines

Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) has been reported to exhibit therapeutic activity in cancer. However, many tumors remain resistant to treatment with TRAIL. Therefore, small molecules that potentiate the cytotoxic effects of TRAIL could be used for combinatorial therapy. Here we found that the ionophore antibiotic salinomycin acts in synergism with TRAIL, enhancing TRAIL-induced apoptosis in glioma cells. Treatment with low doses of salinomycin in combination with TRAIL augmented the activation of caspase-3 and increased TRAIL-R2 cell surface expression. TRAIL-R2 upmodulation was required for mediating the stimulatory effect of salinomycin on TRAIL-mediated apoptosis, since it was abrogated by siRNA-mediated TRAIL-R2 knockdown. Salinomycin in synergism with TRAIL exerts a marked anti-tumor effect in nude mice xenografted with human glioblastoma cells. Our results suggest that the combination of TRAIL and salinomycin may be a useful tool to overcome TRAIL resistance in glioma cells and may represent a potential drug for treatment of these tumors. Importantly, salinomycin+TRAIL were able to induce cell death of well-defined glioblastoma stem-like lines