Teratomorphism of pollen of Larix sibirica Ledeb. (Pinaceae Lindl.) in the Arctic urbanized territory

This article presents data of palynological research of Larix sibirica Ledeb. (Pinaceae Lindl) in the Arctic climate of Murmansk city, located in the Far North of Russia. The purpose of this study is to research the teratogenesis of the Larix sibirica pollen in the conditions of the Arctic climate and technogenic pollution of the city of Murmansk and holding the palynoindication of the environment. In the tested samples of pollen of L. sibirica, five morphological anomalies of the development were defined: pollen without protoplast, with plasmolysed protoplast, with damaged exine, giant pollen grains and dwarfed. The proportion of teratomorphs in the samples varies from 76 to 81%, which is above the control values of 2.5 – 3 times. Most of the abnormal grains are represented by pollen with plasmolysed protoplast (58 – 64%) and without protoplast (11 – 18%). Giant, dwarf pollen grains and pollen with exine damage are much less common. High level of teratogenesis of L. sibirica allows us to draw a conclusion about the critical level of pollution of the city environment

Tales of resilience: voices from detention and imprisonment in Russia

As the exposure to state violence could have long-term negative consequences onthe survivors, we analyzed which optics and measures could be used regardless of thevulnerabilities of the individual, their social status and institutional context. We examine the ways in which law enforcement system challenges individuals and measures used to practice resilience. We use the concept of resilience withintorturing environment to achieve our goal. Various actors of Russian law enforcementand penitentiary systems – detainees and prisoners, their family members, human rights activists, state agents etc. – participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews, which we coded basing on grounded theory. Measures employed by survivors to exercise resilience involve regaining bodily control (both by exercise and self-harm), having projections for future (by threats of legal prosecution or publicity), exploiting bureaucracy to one’s advantage, controlling information flow (by bluffing), controlling material evidence, employing allies and preserving the meaning of “normal self”.We believe that our findings can have practical applications, e.g. for preventing some of the negative consequences of torture by training vulnerable individuals to employ resilient strategies. Describing the way to interpret the power imbalances inherent to the torture environment might also be helpful for appreciating even the smallest acts, including the choice not to act

Albiglutide and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (Harmony Outcomes): a double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trial

Background: Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists differ in chemical structure, duration of action, and in their effects on clinical outcomes. The cardiovascular effects of once-weekly albiglutide in type 2 diabetes are unknown. We aimed to determine the safety and efficacy of albiglutide in preventing cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke. Methods: We did a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial in 610 sites across 28 countries. We randomly assigned patients aged 40 years and older with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (at a 1:1 ratio) to groups that either received a subcutaneous injection of albiglutide (30–50 mg, based on glycaemic response and tolerability) or of a matched volume of placebo once a week, in addition to their standard care. Investigators used an interactive voice or web response system to obtain treatment assignment, and patients and all study investigators were masked to their treatment allocation. We hypothesised that albiglutide would be non-inferior to placebo for the primary outcome of the first occurrence of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke, which was assessed in the intention-to-treat population. If non-inferiority was confirmed by an upper limit of the 95% CI for a hazard ratio of less than 1·30, closed testing for superiority was prespecified. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02465515. Findings: Patients were screened between July 1, 2015, and Nov 24, 2016. 10 793 patients were screened and 9463 participants were enrolled and randomly assigned to groups: 4731 patients were assigned to receive albiglutide and 4732 patients to receive placebo. On Nov 8, 2017, it was determined that 611 primary endpoints and a median follow-up of at least 1·5 years had accrued, and participants returned for a final visit and discontinuation from study treatment; the last patient visit was on March 12, 2018. These 9463 patients, the intention-to-treat population, were evaluated for a median duration of 1·6 years and were assessed for the primary outcome. The primary composite outcome occurred in 338 (7%) of 4731 patients at an incidence rate of 4·6 events per 100 person-years in the albiglutide group and in 428 (9%) of 4732 patients at an incidence rate of 5·9 events per 100 person-years in the placebo group (hazard ratio 0·78, 95% CI 0·68–0·90), which indicated that albiglutide was superior to placebo (p<0·0001 for non-inferiority; p=0·0006 for superiority). The incidence of acute pancreatitis (ten patients in the albiglutide group and seven patients in the placebo group), pancreatic cancer (six patients in the albiglutide group and five patients in the placebo group), medullary thyroid carcinoma (zero patients in both groups), and other serious adverse events did not differ between the two groups. There were three (<1%) deaths in the placebo group that were assessed by investigators, who were masked to study drug assignment, to be treatment-related and two (<1%) deaths in the albiglutide group. Interpretation: In patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, albiglutide was superior to placebo with respect to major adverse cardiovascular events. Evidence-based glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists should therefore be considered as part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes. Funding: GlaxoSmithKline

Port intermodal transportation : Port of Stockholm hinterland scenario analysis

Population growth, urbanization, globalization of human migration, consumerism; technical and information technology development - are just a few trends of the modern society that set challenges to transport geography. To meet growing market demands new technologies and services were developed. With the introduction of ISO containers shipping performance got a tremendous boost for development. Container standardization made it possible to unify transportation and transshipment technologies, to rationalize ship space utilization and develop sustainable logistic chains between countries and continents. Intermodal transportation is proven to be profitable and sustainable on the long distances, while on short distances road transportation is still more attractive and is continued to be used for high varieties of purposes. This master thesis is an attempt to show that intermodal transport may be successfully used for some special cases of short-distance transportation. One of these special cases is intermodal transportation from ports located in urban areas. The aim of this project was to analyze feasibility of the intermodal short distance transportation in regards to the port of Stockholm. For this purpose, the current logistic system of the port of Stockholm was analyzed and an intermodal system that can be used for the future port operation was evaluated. The goal of the case study conducted in the thesis was to understand how efficiency and environmental factors of port logistics network may be improved. To achieve these goals an extensive analysis was performed concerning current demand and flow distributions, available and proposed infrastructure in the region

Local and regional experiences of remote work and multilocality

This report aims to provide a deeper understanding of how the spatial trends associated with increased remote work are affecting Nordic municipalities and regions. It explores the usefulness and reliability of available statistical data for understanding the effects of increased remote work at the regional and local level. Further, it draws directly on the experiences of regional and local stakeholders to understand the effects, challenges and opportunities, and planning responses associated with increased remote work

The pollen as bioindicator of the genotoxicity of environment

In recent years the male gametes of plants are used for biotesting in ecotoxicology. High proportion of sterile pollen is the indicator of environmental pollution and the presence of mutagens, which cause genetic disturbances. The viability of pollen of Gorodkov’s rowan (Sorbus gorodkovii Pojark) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) in the vicinity of environmentally hazard enterprises of the Arctic cities of the Murmansk region have been studied. The following parameters were considered: the number of fertile and sterile pollen and their percentage ratio, the sterility index, and palynotoxic effect of the pollution. High content of the abortive pollen of S. gorodkovii (55–65%), the sterility index (2.1–2.4) and the palynotoxic effect (38.2–50%) indicates the mutagenicity and genotoxicity of the emissions of the Murmansk thermal power plants, that leads to the formation of sterile male gametes. High level of sterility of P. sylvestris pollen (42.5–50.7%), the index of sterility (1.4–1.7) and the palynotoxic effect (19.1–29.8%) indicates, that emissions of the mining and processing plant "Apatit" containes the mutagenic chemicals that have a genotoxic effect on the pine male gametophyte. The pollen of plants can be used for bioindication of environment as the indicator of the impact of gametopathogenic factors

Essential rural services in the Nordic Region : – Challenges and opportunities

The Nordic countries have similar approaches to social welfare, and the Nordic model differs from many other approaches by being underpinned by a ‘social contract’ – a foundation that supports a handful of core public services. This social contract has developed into welfare states, in which certain basic needs and services are the collective responsibility of local, regional or national government (cf. Dølvik et al., 2015). The Nordic model and social contract have in this way taken responsibility for fulfilling key human needs such as education and healthcare

Locomotion-induced gain of visual responses cannot explain visuomotor mismatch responses in layer 2/3 of primary visual cortex

Summary: The aim of this work is to provide a comment on a recent paper by Muzzu and Saleem (2021), which claims that visuomotor mismatch responses in mouse visual cortex can be explained by a locomotion-induced gain of visual halt responses. Our primary concern is that without directly comparing these responses with mismatch responses, the claim that one response can explain the other appears difficult to uphold, more so because previous work finds that a uniform locomotion-induced gain cannot explain mismatch responses. To support these arguments, we analyze layer 2/3 calcium imaging datasets and show that coupling between visual flow and locomotion greatly enhances mismatch responses in an experience-dependent manner compared with halts in non-coupled visual flow. This is consistent with mismatch responses representing visuomotor prediction errors. Thus, we conclude that while feature selectivity might contribute to mismatch responses in mouse visual cortex, it cannot explain these responses

Investigating the use of plasma pTau181 in retired contact sports athletes

BACKGROUND: Considering the wide range of outcomes following sport-related concussions, biomarkers are needed to detect underlying pathological changes. The objective was to analyze the use of plasma phosphorylated tau 181 (pTau181) as a non-invasive measure of underlying brain changes in a cohort of retired contact sports athletes at risk of neurodegeneration. METHODS: Fifty-four retired contact sport athletes and 27 healthy controls whose blood plasma was analyzed for pTau181 were included. A portion (N = 21) of retired athletes had a 2-years follow-up visit. All participants had completed a neuropsychological battery and MRI imaging. RESULTS: Plasma pTau181 was significantly higher in retired athletes compared to healthy controls (8.94 ± 5.08 pg/mL vs. 6.00 ± 2.53 pg/mL, respectively; 95% BCa CI 1.38-4.62; p = 0.02); and was significantly associated with fornix fractional anisotropy values only in the athletes group (β = - 0.002; 95% BCa CI - 0.003 to - 0.001; p = 0.002). When the retired athletes cohort was divided into high vs. normal pTau181 groups, the corpus callosum (CC) volume and white-matter integrity was significantly lower in high pTau181 compared to older healthy controls (CC volume: 1.57 ± 0.19 vs. 2.02 ± 0.32, p = 0.002; CC medial diffusivity: 0.96 ± 0.04 × 10-3 mm2/s vs. 0.90 ± 0.03 × 10-3 mm2/s, p = 0.003; CC axial diffusivity: 1.49 ± 0.04 × 10-3 mm2/s vs. 1.41 ± 0.02 × 10-3 mm2/s, p < 0.001, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Although high plasma pTau181 levels were associated with abnormalities in CC and fornix, baseline pTau181 did not predict longitudinal changes in regional brain volumes or white-matter integrity in the athletes. pTau181 may be useful for identifying those with brain abnormalities related to repeated concussion but not for predicting progression