The spatially uneven diffusion of remote jobs in Europe

The paper maps the spatially uneven diffusion of working from home across 30 European countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. We summarise the determinants of remote working and show that its uptake was lower than in the US, and substantially uneven across/within countries, with most remote jobs concentrated in cities and capital regions. We then apply a variance decomposition procedure to investigate whether the uneven distribution of remote jobs can be attributed to individual or territorial factors. Results underscore the importance of composition effects as, compared to intermediate-density and rural areas, cities hosted more workers in occupations/sectors more amenable to working remotely. Overall, findings highlight how working from home is unlikely to substantially alter the current patterns of spatial inequality between core urban areas and peripheral rural regions

Great or grim? Disagreement about Brexit, economic expectations and household spending

Does political polarization influence economic expectations and behaviour? Utilizing British household surveys and administrative data, we find a strong polarization of economic expectations and behaviour between pro- and anti-Brexit supporters after the once-in-alifetime EU Referendum. We show that the Brexit vote led to a large and long-lasting divergence between Leavers and Remainers in their assessment of the general economic situation, personal circumstances, and spending intentions. Furthermore, on average, a 10% difference in the share of leave voters across local authorities is respectively associated with a 5.98% and 0.78% increase in the gap in the per capita housing transaction volume and licensed automobile stock after the referendum

Evolutionary dynamics of N-person Hawk-Dove games

In the animal world, the competition between individuals belonging to different species for a resource often requires the cooperation of several individuals in groups. This paper proposes a generalization of the Hawk-Dove Game for an arbitrary number of agents: the N-person Hawk-Dove Game. In this model, doves exemplify the cooperative behavior without intraspecies conflict, while hawks represent the aggressive behavior. In the absence of hawks, doves share the resource equally and avoid conflict, but having hawks around lead to doves escaping without fighting. Conversely, hawks fight for the resource at the cost of getting injured. Nevertheless, if doves are present in sufficient number to expel the hawks, they can aggregate to protect the resource, and thus avoid being plundered by hawks. We derive and numerically solve an exact equation for the evolution of the system in both finite and infinite well-mixed populations, finding the conditions for stable coexistence between both species. Furthermore, by varying the different parameters, we found a scenario of bifurcations that leads the system from dominating hawks and coexistence to bi-stability, multiple interior equilibria and dominating doves

Numerical analysis on longitudinal seismic responses of high-speed railway bridges isolated by friction pendulum bearings

As to analyze the effects of friction pendulum bearings (FPB) on the responses of simply supported bridges on a high-speed railway under longitudinal earthquakes, a spatially integrated track-bridge model with a CRTS II slab ballastless track and FPB was established by using the OpenSEES software. The seismic responses under different ground motions were calculated and compared with those using common spherical steel bearings. The comparison results show that the combination of FPB and the CRTS II slab ballastless track is more reasonable. Namely, using FPB can effectively protect the bridge and track structures. Moreover, the rails, fasteners, CA layer and piers are perfectly protected by multi-layer isolation mechanics, induced by FPB and sliding layer, even under strong earthquakes. Finally, 0.05 is identified to be the best value for the friction coefficient of FPB under longitudinal earthquakes

TCF21 is related to testis growth and development in broiler chickens

Additional file 1: Table S1. Generations of NEAUHLF chickens used for the different analyses in the current study

Irisin attenuates angiotensin II-induced atrial fibrillation and atrial fibrosis via LOXL2 and TGFβ1/Smad2/3 signaling pathways

Objective(s): Irisin was reported as a cardioprotective and anti-oxidative effector, while the effect on atrial fibrosis is unknown. The current research examined irisin’s function in atrial fibrillation (AF); atrial fibrosis brought on by Ang II can be suppressed, thus lessening the risk of developing AF. Materials and Methods: 246 individuals were enrolled in the present case-control study. Chinese AF patients (n=126), 83 of whom were paroxysmal AF (PAF), 43 patients with persistent AF (PeAF), and 120 healthy controls. Saline or Ang II (2.0 mg/kg/day) was subcutaneously injected into healthy male C57BL/6 mice for four weeks. Once daily for four weeks, intraperitoneal injections of exogenous irisin (500 g/kg/day) were administered. Results: In comparison to PAF patients and healthy controls (all P<0.05), PeAF patients had significantly higher rates of heart failure (HF), large left atrial size (LAD), hypertrophic protein B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), malondialdehyde (MDA), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (CTX-I), and transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGF-β1), while superoxide dismutase (SOD) level was low. Expression of irisin was decreased in AF patients’ serum and Ang II-infused mice. Exogenous irisin dramatically reduced apoptosis, atrial fibrosis, atrial inflammation, and the susceptibility to AF caused by Ang II. In the atrial tissue, irisin inhibited Ang II-induced fibroblast transdifferentiation, LOXL2, TGF-β1, collagen production, and phosphorylation of Smad2/3. Conclusion: The study results speculated that irisin could be a potential AF target, and it inhibited atrial fibrosis and significantly impaired increased AF susceptibility through inactivation of LOXL2 and the TGF-β/Smad pathway

Efficacy of radiomics model based on the concept of gross tumor volume and clinical target volume in predicting occult lymph node metastasis in non-small cell lung cancer

ObjectiveThis study aimed to establish a predictive model for occult lymph node metastasis (LNM) in patients with clinical stage I-A non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) based on contrast-enhanced CT.MethodsA total of 598 patients with stage I–IIA NSCLC from different hospitals were randomized into the training and validation group. The “Radiomics” tool kit of AccuContour software was employed to extract the radiomics features of GTV and CTV from chest-enhanced CT arterial phase pictures. Then, the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analysis was applied to reduce the number of variables and develop GTV, CTV, and GTV+CTV models for predicting occult lymph node metastasis (LNM).ResultsEight optimal radiomics features related to occult LNM were finally identified. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves of the three models showed good predictive effects. The area under the curve (AUC) value of GTV, CTV, and GTV+CTV model in the training group was 0.845, 0.843, and 0.869, respectively. Similarly, the corresponding AUC values in the validation group were 0.821, 0.812, and 0.906. The combined GTV+CTV model exhibited a better predictive performance in the training and validation group by the Delong test (p&lt;0.05). Moreover, the decision curve showed that the combined GTV+CTV predictive model was superior to the GTV or CTV model.ConclusionThe radiomics prediction models based on GTV and CTV can predict occult LNM in patients with clinical stage I–IIA NSCLC preoperatively, and the combined GTV+CTV model is the optimal strategy for clinical application

Loss of Angiopoietin-like 7 diminishes the regeneration capacity of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells

© 2015 Xiao et al.; licensee Biomed Central. Successful expansion of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) would benefit the use of HSC transplants in the clinic. Angiopoietin-like 7 promotes the expansion of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC) in vitro and ex vivo. However, the impact of loss of Angptl7 on HSPCs in vivo has not been characterized. Here, we generated Angptl7-deficient mice by TALEN-mediated gene targeting and found that HSC compartments in Angptl7-null mice were compromised. In addition, wild type (WT) HSPCs failed to repopulate in the BM of Angptl7-null mice after serial transplantations while the engraftment of Angptl7-deficient HSPCs in WT mice was not impaired. These results suggest that Angptl7 is required for HSPCs repopulation in a non-cell autonomous manner.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex