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Histological assessment of endoscopic biopsies in inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] plays an important role in clinical management, investigative studies, and clinical trials. Scoring schemes consisting of multiple histological items and offering considerable precision are widely available. However, definitions of histological abnormalities are often inconsistent. Furthermore, interobserver variability for their recognition and assessment may be high. The European Crohn's and Colitis Organisation [ECCO] formed an expert panel to explore definitions of histological abnormalities in IBD, with the aim of improving the quality of diagnosis and facilitating development of scoring schemes. The process confirmed that the current definitions often have no evidence base and vary between sources. Using available evidence and expert knowledge, the panel produced a series of ECCO consensus position statements on histological features in IBD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims The utility of real-world data is dependent on the quality and homogeneity of reporting. We aimed to develop a core outcome set for real-world studies in adult patients with inflammatory bowel disease [IBD]. Methods Candidate outcomes and outcome measures were identified and categorised in a systematic review. An international panel including patients, dietitians, epidemiologists, gastroenterologists, nurses, pathologists, radiologists, and surgeons participated in a modified Delphi consensus process. A consensus meeting was held to ratify the final core outcome set. Results A total of 26 panellists from 13 countries participated in the consensus process. A total of 271 items [130 outcomes, 141 outcome measures] in nine study domains were included in the first-round survey. Panellists agreed that real-world studies on disease activity should report clinical, endoscopic, and biomarker disease activity. A disease-specific clinical index [Harvey–Bradshaw Index, Partial Mayo Score, Simple Clinical Colitis Activity Index] should be used, rather than physician global assessment. In ulcerative colitis [UC], either the UC Endoscopic Index of Severity or the Mayo Endoscopic Score can be used, but there was no consensus on an endoscopic index for Crohn's disease, nor was there consensus on the use of the presence of ulcers. There was consensus on using faecal calprotectin and C-reactive protein. There was no consensus on the use of histology in real-world studies. Conclusions A core outcome set for real-world studies in IBD has been developed based on international multidisciplinary consensus. Its adoption will facilitate synthesis in the generation of real-world evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the main targets of drug therapy for ulcerative colitis [UC] are endoscopic and clinical remission. However, there is active discussion about the additional advantages of including histological remission as a target. Accumulating evidence indicates that microscopic activity persists in endoscopically quiescent UC, that histological changes may lag behind clinical remission after treatment, and that absence of histological activity predicts lower rates of relapse, hospitalization, surgery and subsequent neoplasia. Obtaining useful information from mucosal biopsies in this setting depends on accurate and consistent evaluation of histological features. However, there is no standardization of biopsy procedures, histological sample processing technique or histological scoring systems, and there is no agreement on the definitions of histological remission, response or activity. Accordingly, a consensus expert panel convened by the European Crohn's and Colitis Organisation [ECCO] reviewed the literature and agreed a number of position statements regarding harmonization of UC histopathology. The objective was to provide evidence-based guidance for the standardization and harmonization of procedures, definitions and scoring systems for histology in UC, and to reach expert consensus where possible. We propose the absence of intraepithelial neutrophils, erosion and ulceration as a minimum requirement for the definition of histological remission. For randomized control trials we recommend the use of the Robarts histopathology index [RHI] or the Nancy index [NI]. For observational studies or in clinical practice we recommend the use of the NI. To predict the risk of future neoplasia in UC, cumulative histological scores over time are more useful than single scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The management of inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] is complex, and requires tight control of disease activity, close monitoring to avoid treatment side effects, health care professionals with expertise in IBD, and an interdisciplinary, holistic approach. Despite various efforts to standardise structures, processes, and outcomes, 1–8 and due to the high variability at the local, national, and international levels, there are still no clear definitions or outcome measures available to establish quality of care standards for IBD patients which are applicable in all contexts and all countries. For this reason, the European Crohn's and Colitis Organisation [ECCO] supported the construction of a list of criteria summarising current standards of care in IBD. The list comprises 111 quality standard points grouped into three main domains [structure n = 31, process n = 42, outcomes n = 38] and is based on scientific evidence, interdisciplinary expert consensus, and patient-oriented perspectives. The list of proposed criteria is intended to represent the position of ECCO regarding the optimum quality of care that should be available to patients. Since health care systems and regulations vary considerably between countries, this list may require adaptation at local and national levels. It is recognised that not all these criteria that have been identified as optimal will be available in every unit. However, ECCO will continue its efforts to develop and coordinate projects and initiatives that will help to guarantee optimal quality of care for all IBD patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The importance of a holistic approach with a comprehensive multidisciplinary team, including nutritional and psychosocial support, is becoming well recognised as a key contributor to optimal care in paediatric infammatory bowel disease [IBD]. The Paediatric committee of ECCO [P-ECCO] aimed to determine important components that would contribute to quality of care in a paediatric IBD centre [henceforth 'quality items']. Methods: First, a list of items has been generated by a Delphi group of 111 international paediatric IBD experts. Through an iterative process, the group graded and ranked the items according to their perceived relative contribution to quality care. We then surveyed 101 paediatric IBD centres affliated with the Porto and Interest groups of ESPGHAN in Europe and with the ImproveCareNow registry in North America, exploring the availability of the retained items in their centres. Results: A total of 68 items were generated and reduced to a list of 60 ranked order items, grouped in six domains: Facility, Personnel, Management, Supportive Services, Patient Support and Accessibility, and Academia and Communications. Of the retained items, 52 [88%] were present in most of the 101 high-performing paediatric IBD centres, and there was a trend for increased availability with increased patient volume at the centres. Conclusion: In this P-ECCO study, we attempted to tabulate, for the frst time in paediatrics, 60 quality items that paediatric IBD referral centres may wish to include. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study regarding the production of a multi-fiber modifying enzyme from Mamillisphaeria sp. BCC8893. It mentions that the Mamillisphaeria sp. BCC8893 was optimized in submerged fermentation using a response-surface methodology. Result reveals the characteristics of the complex multi-fiber modifying enzyme utilized in refining and suggests its potential for local on-site enzyme production for the development an environmentally refining process in the pulp industry.

The medical management of inflammatory bowel disease has changed considerably over time with wider use of immunosuppressant therapy and the introduction of biological therapy. To what extent this change of medical paradigms has influenced and modified the disease course is incompletely known. To address this issue, an extensive review of the literature has been carried out on time trends of hospitalization, surgery, infections, cancer, and mortality rates in inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] patients. Preference was given to population-based studies but, when data from these sources were limited, large cohort studies and randomised controlled trials were also considered. In general, data on hospitalisation rates are strikingly heterogeneous and conflicting. In contrast, the consistent drop in surgery/colectomy rates suggests that the growing use of immunosuppressants and biological agents has had a positive impact on the course of IBD. Most clinical trial data indicate that the risk of serious infections is not increased in patients treated with anti-tumour necrosis factor alpha [TNFa] agents, but a different picture emerges from cohort studies. The use of thiopurines increases the risk for non-melanoma skin cancers and to a lesser extent for lymphoma and cervical cancer [absolute risk: low], whereas no clear increase in the cancer risk has been reported for anti-TNF agents. Finally, the majority of studies reported in the literature do not reveal any increase in mortality with immunosuppressant therapy or biologicals/anti-TNF agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in the neuropsychology and neuropsychiatry of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) has escalated in the past decade, as evidenced by the accompanying 10 special topic papers from research groups in the UK, France, North America and Australia addressing a wide range of theoretical and clinical issues. The first part of this review deals with the confusing terminologies that have been used in the area and argues for the retention of the term FTD as the general clinical label, with further subcategorization into the three principal clinical syndromes seen at presentation: frontal variant FTD (often called dementia of frontal type), semantic dementia and progressive non-fluent aphasia. Each of these syndromes has a characteristic profile of presenting clinical features, but may be accompanied by any one of five types of non-Alzheimer pathological change. There have also been significant advances in the genetics of FTD with the identification of tau gene mutations on chromosome 17 in some familial cases. The remarkable story of the discovery of these, the tau gene mutations, is briefly described. Part II of this review ([sup Hodges and Miller, 2001]) sets the special issue papers within the context of advances in the neuropsychology of frontal variant FTD and semantic dementia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The second part of this review, which accompanies 10 special topic articles dedicated to frontotemporal dementia (FTD), describes some of the advances in understanding frontal variant FTD (fvFTD) and semantic dementia, and the theoretical insights gained into normal cognitive processes from the study of these syndromes. Recent work has clarified the neuropsychiatric features that distinguish fvFTD from Alzheimer's and has begun to spread light on the underlying deficits in social judgement, theory of mind, processing of emotional stimuli and decision making. With regard to central aspects of cognitive processing, such as memory, patients with fvFTD may have a distinctive profile of performance on tests of explicit and implicit memory, and contrary to current views some patients may even have a severe amnesic syndrome. There is also growing evidence that despite relatively well preserved general language skills, patients with fvFTD have particular problems with verb processing. Although there is agreement regarding the key features of semantic dementia, much controversy has surrounded the issue of whether the cognitive findings favour an explanation in terms of progressive breakdown of a central amodal semantic store or differential involvement of verbal and non-verbal systems. Other topics discussed include the impact of semantic breakdown on phonological processes and episodic memory. We also review recent structural and functional neuroimaging findings in semantic dementia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Part I. Discusses historical and contemporary views about the behavioral and physiological significance of orbital frontal cortex (OFC). Important functions of OFC; Interests of clinical and basic neuroscientists in the discussion of OFC and its diverse roles in human behavior and adaptation; Special topics of OFC.

Objective To summarise frequency, type, and heterogeneity of patient-reported outcomes measures [PROMs] in papers reporting on outcomes after ileal pouch anal anastomosis [IPAA]. Background Prevalence of ulcerative colitis [UC] has risen in Western countries, and one in three patients requires surgery. IPAA is a frequently performed procedure for UC, and a lack of standardisation is manifest in reporting outcomes for inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] despite the clear need for inclusion of PROMs as primary outcomes in IBD trials. Methods Scopus, Pubmed, and Web of Science databases were searched from January 2010 to January 2023 for studies investigating outcomes in IPAA surgery. The primary outcome was the proportion of studies reporting outcomes for IPAA surgery for UC, which included PROMs. Results The search identified a total of 8028 studies which, after de-duplication and exclusion, were reduced to 79 articles assessing outcomes after IPAA surgery. In all 44 [55.7%] reported PROMs, with 23 including validated questionnaires and 21 papers using authors' questions, 22 different PROMs were identified, with bowel function as the most investigated item. The majority of studies [67/79, 85%] were retrospective, only 14/79 [18%] were prospective papers and only two were [2.5%] randomised, controlled trials. Conclusions Only half of the papers reviewed used PROMs. The main reported item is bowel function and urogenital, social, and psychological functions are the most neglected. There is lack of standardisation for use of PROMs in IPAA. Complexity of UC and of outcomes after IPAA demands a change in clinical practice and follow-up, given how crucial PROMs are, compared with their non-routine use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global policymaking often seeks to create processes for the effective delivery of public goods and services. What happens when individuals critique or dissent such policies? In this paper, we examine the case of two activists—Greta Thunberg and Disha Ravi—who have been mobilizing attention toward climate change since their teenage years, and who have been both celebrated and vilified for it. While climate change policies emphasize the importance of gender mainstreaming and youth participation, reactions garnered by these two activists are instructive in highlighting the narrow notion of "participation" that undergirds climate policy. Specifically, we show that Greta and Disha's tactics do not readily jive with the postfeminist, neoliberal conceptualization of youth participation that emphasizes apolitical exercise of citizenship; valorizes girls' activism only insofar as it enhances national economic growth; and views girls as symbols of hopeful futurities. Greta and Disha are instead what we call, "policy dissidents," whose activism creates "tactical crevices." We theorize tactical crevices as tentative and fleeting interruptions by the powerless that puncture prevailing logics through strikes and protests, and through consumption of discourses and materials in ways that those in power do not intend. The paper contributes to the study of girl activism broadly, and to notions of youth engagement (or disengagement) specifically, within the spheres of local and global politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How is authority legitimated when global policy leads to the delegation of implementation and monitoring tasks to private actors? This paper shows that putting private actors at the forefront of compliance gives them significant interpretation autonomy, with knock-on effects for how rule-making authority is legitimated. I show that actors can mobilize to claim expertise based on their practice in, and input to, transnational administration and that professional associations are important arenas for establishing and legitimating these claims. The paper explores these dynamics through an empirical focus on the global anti-money laundering regime. Revolving around the Financial Action Task Force, the regime to tackle illicit finance has been a highly political process with a global reach. Yet it relies heavily on financial institutions to put systems in place that control the flow of money. This puts private compliance officers at the forefront of transnational administration. The paper shows that compliance officers have responded to the demands of this role by professionally organizing. Focusing on the largest professional association, the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists or ACAMS, a US-based association with a global program and membership, the paper explains that professionalization mechanisms have helped demarcate practice boundaries and support the expertise claims of private sector employees. By becoming the experts, these officers can claim pragmatic authority over what global policy rules and standards mean and how they can be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2021 American Rescue Plan included the temporary expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC)--the largest individual income tax credit program in the United States--for most families with children. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, how did the public perceive this social policy benefit for families, especially in relation to other traditional social programs? By focusing on the CTC, an understudied policy area, and presenting original survey data, this paper first shows that, while the majority of respondents favored the CTC, levels of support for these benefits were lower than support for other social programs. Second, the paper suggests that, compared to older people and people with disabilities, Americans view families as part of the "undeserving" population. Third, by presenting panel data, we show that there is no change in levels of CTC support even among recipients of these benefits. Overall, these findings shed light on important challenges to the development and implementation of family policy in the USA, as well as the possibility of recalibrating the US liberal welfare state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The worldwide explosion of social welfare has been described as the "quiet revolution" of our time. This paper analyses the expansion of social welfare in India during the early part of the 2000s. What explains this expansion of encompassing social welfare in India, following a history of disparate and fragmented social policies? The answer, I argue, lies in recognizing the importance of the "politics of the poor," the ensemble of negotiations that encompass both electoral participation and contentious politics vis-à-vis the political institutions in India. The paper develops this argument by drawing together insights from discursive institutionalism, Indian politics, and the politics of welfare literature. Doing so enables me to examine the ways in which poor people's political practices were interpreted by India's parliamentarians to justify the legislation of India's flagship social welfare program the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. I analyze the discourses communicated through 78 parliamentary debates in English and Hindi to enact the law. I blend this analysis with process tracing of electoral behavior of India's poor and the Maoist insurrection that exploded in the country's poorest districts at the turn of the century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between policy compliance, the emergence of alternate epistemes and authorities in online spaces, and the decline of trust and legitimacy in democratic institutions. Drawing on insights from public policy, regulation theory, and political theory, the paper critically engages with scholarship on "policy-takers" to illuminate the tensions of compliance and legitimacy in liberal states. It proposes a compliance--legitimacy matrix that identifies the features of policy compliance--including consent, legitimacy, expertise, and trust--and their relationship to the disaggregation of policy knowledge. The article applies this framework to a case study of social media posts that respond to policy information during the management of the Covid-19 pandemic in Australia. Through analysis of these posts, the study reveals the distrust in "the science" and experts advocated by government and the calls from skeptic groups for noncompliance with public health measures. The paper argues that public policy faces an epistemic crisis of public confidence, with significant downstream consequences for compliance with public policy initiatives that has been brought on both by the failures of states to cultivate trust in science and the government. The compliance--legitimacy matrix offers a useful tool for policymakers to anticipate and address objections from policy-takers and to preempt and diffuse their fears. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term intake of procyanidins has been suggested to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, and sensory function decline associated with aging. However, most of the ingested procyanidins are not absorbed and are excreted in the feces, so the mechanism of their beneficial impact is unknown. Procyanidins are the components of astringency in plant foods and their stimulation appears to be directly transmitted to the central nervous system via sensory nerves. Recent attention has been focused on the taste receptors expressed in the extra-oral gastrointestinal tract may regulate homeostasis via the neuroendocrine system. In this paper, we have reviewed recent findings on the relationship between the astringency of procyanidins and their bioregulatory effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to add to the debate on the varieties of neoliberalism and the homogenizing effects of megaproject-based urban development. It examines the acculturation of the growth imperative as the master discourse that supports the development and implementation of two projects aimed at transforming the centers of Tampere, Finland, and Ł 'od'z, Poland. The selected cities shared similar traits as industrial centers in the past, but their current socioeconomic situation is entirely different. Tampere holds the title of "Finland's most likeable city," while rapidly depopulating Ł 'od'z was labeled the "Polish Detroit." Nevertheless, both municipalities became attracted by the idea of boosting their development through implementing large-scale infrastructural investments to reshape their centers. Inspired by discursive institutionalism, which defines discourse as a set of policy ideas and values, and interactive policy communication and formulation processes, the paper reconstructs and compares the strategic visions of Tampere's "Five Star City Centre" and "The New Centre of Ł 'od'z." It demonstrates how the proponents of the projects discursively forced consent around proposed ideas. Namely, it shows how the issues of complexity, risk, and potential conflict of the two megaprojects have been addressed. On a conceptual level, the paper shows how policy convergence can be discursively facilitated in different socioeconomic, cultural, and political circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the recent debate on megaprojects (MPs), greater attention is devoted to the functioning of the interorganizational and multiactor networks that are one of the most innovative features in recent years. The complexity of these structures brings out governability issues for an MP's management. Mutual recognition and consent become elements capable of inaugurating more collaborative processes and practices to reduce organizational and management criticalities in MPs. This paper focuses on a neglected relational dimension, namely legitimacy. We argue that legitimacy is instead the central dimension that attributes effectiveness and capacity for action to the organizations involved. Legitimacy regulates the relationship between various organizations--and especially--between organizations and the public sphere. Institutionalist theory assigns a central role to legitimacy in the construction of social processes, defining it as a generalized form of social acceptance toward an actor, an idea, or a project. In this paper, we hypothesize that the legitimacy attributed and "held" by the stakeholders is a crucial element in countering three critical aspects of MPs, namely the uncertainty, complexity, and conflict acting on the construction of public consensus and the quality of relationships between the participating stakeholders. We verify our hypothesis by analyzing a cross-border MP, the Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link between Germany and Denmark. The paper concentrates on the mechanisms with which stakeholders can acquire legitimacy using the Eriksen discursive legitimation scheme. These mechanisms are different (evidence-based, public participation, and legislators' command) and produce different outcomes in terms of increasing or containing these three criticalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since megaprojects are costly, impactful, and often contentious policymaking processes, scholars have started to look at policy narratives as instruments that actors use strategically to justify their preferences and achieve their goals. But is this really the case? Do actors always adopt a narrative to support their goals? Do they develop arguments that are consistent with their official goals and in a timely manner? This paper suggests that, when megaprojects are not salient, narratives are likely to be strategically nonused or used in a hypocritical way, as such strategies better fit the process-related goals of significant actors. Such a claim is illustrated by a case study on the construction of a new high-speed railway line and station in the city of Florence (Italy). Relying on content and discourse analysis of official documents, and experts' interviews, the paper shows that, despite favorable premises for the emergence of a battle of narratives, this never took place, as some of the proponents choose to nonuse a strategic narrative, while others occasionally publicly used arguments to jeopardize the whole project. In turn, opponents effectively developed a strategic narrative that, differently from other similar cases, mostly relied on technical arguments and emplotment. Hence, the case study generates hypotheses that could be tested in further studies on the conditions under which a coalitional dynamic emerges and the role played by policy narratives in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Special Issue and its seven contributions seek to shift the gaze of public policy scholarship toward the authorities, legitimacies, and influences of transnational actors on the creation and implementation of global policy and its transnational administration. It is, in large part, both a demonstration of the analytical and explanatory value of accounting for the influence of non-state actors on global issues as well as a normative reflection on what this means for already tenuous connections between publics and those that make decisions on their behalf in global forums. This Issue breaks with heterodox public policy approaches that center on the capabilities of states and international organizations to determine and to deliver global public policy and outcomes. Instead, we widen our gaze to capture the influence of transnational actors such as global commissions, transnational public–private partnerships, philanthropic foundations, non-government organization networks, domestic associations with global influence, quasi-judicial authorities, and global citizen activists. The articles discuss the impact of transnational actors on the policy and administrative spaces of global actors and states alike. By dispensing with the notion that the state and state-created international organizations are the primary locus for public policy and public administration scholarship, the included papers conclude with the implications for scholarship on transnational actor authorities and legitimacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intensification of efforts by state and nonstate actors to address issues affecting global health has produced a patchwork of transnational regulatory governance. Within this field, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are expected to perform authoritative roles in holding business actors to account and enhance the democratic legitimacy of institutions via their participation in governance processes. While there exists a large body of conceptual and empirical research on global business regulation and private authority, we surprisingly know little about the governance functions of NGOs engaged in influencing the practices of corporations that produce health-harming commodities. This knowledge gap is especially pronounced in the issue area of noncommunicable diseases. This article begins to address this gap by mapping the networks of NGOs that engage in regulatory activities (rule-setting, monitoring, and enforcement) related to the (ultra)processed food and alcohol industries. We identify the networks of NGOs involved in global policy making across health, regulatory standards, and multistakeholder initiatives using nonstate actor submissions to consultations held by World Health Organization, UN Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), and the UN Global Compact. This paper examines NGO governance functions and their patterns of engagement and participation across institutional spheres. Overall, the article makes a twofold contribution to existing debates. First, we identify the governance functions through which NGOs attempt to hold corporations to account, contrasting their "watchdog" function with other governance functions. Second, we examine the representation of NGOs, highlighting asymmetries in participation of NGOs in the Global North and South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global public–private partnerships (PPPs) have become prominent in efforts to address global challenges, particularly in the health field. In the scholarly literature, global PPPs have been conceptualized as arenas for voluntary public–private cooperation rather than agents of global governance. This paper challenges this approach, arguing that a sub-class of highly institutionalized partnerships have developed into transnational bureaucracies that, much like international organizations, can draw from their administrative capacities to exercise agency and gain and consolidate authority over time. To substantiate this argument, I present an in-depth analysis of five global health partnerships that played a leading role in the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A), the initiative that sought to coordinate the global response to covid-19. Based on extensive document review and analysis of the ACT-A PPPs —Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation, Unitaid, and The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics — I show how these partnerships' leadership role during the pandemic emerged from a decade long build-up of PPP agency. These organizations gained administrative capacities that enabled them to increase their authority vis-à-vis their donors, boards, and other external actors through three interlinked strategies: (a) developing greater financial autonomy; (b) expanding their mandates (including toward pandemic preparedness and response); and (c) establishing inter-partnership cooperation and mutual representation to other forums. My analysis suggests the need for future research to consider highly institutionalized PPPs as agents of global governance and to explore empirically and theoretically the consequences of their rising authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Global Commissions of Inquiry" have usually been associated with the multilateral initiatives of governments and international organizations. However, various styles of "global commission" have emerged over time. During the COVID-19 pandemic, global commissions have been a key aspect of the COVID-19 international policy landscape, quickly emerging, in 2020 and 2021, to corral knowledge and evidence. These include "formal" commissions, such as the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response and the Global Commission for Post-Pandemic Policy, and "informal" commissions, including the Reform for Resilience and The Lancet Covid Commissions. This paper considers whether these Commissions have been engines for new ideas and global policy knowledge or whether this "chorus" of COVID Commissions represented a "clutter" of ideas at a time when global policy focus was needed. Global Commissions, in general, deserve greater scholarly attention to their design and the construction of their legitimate authority as hybrid and private commissions enter global policy making alongside official commissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foundations are one of the oldest organizational forms globally; their number and resources, as well as their socio-political and economic importance, have steadily continued to grow. Yet, foundations' attributes, activities, and actual achievements remain underexplored and poorly understood. This is particularly noticeable in the context of global policy and transnational administration, an area where foundations tend to be subliminal players, acting as a widely unrecognized socio-political undercurrent. Addressing the resulting need for better and alternative conceptualizations of foundations, our paper uses French pragmatic sociology of critique (FPSC), a non-structuralist, post-Bourdesian, approach to sociology, to theorize philanthropic foundations within the policy agora. Through FPSC, we present foundations as a composite setup of activity, where critically reflexive actors bring normative ideologies and knowledge to policy, providing a new avenue for how scholarship can interpret and critique foundations and their influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government information activities are often thought to be motivated by a classic calculus of blame minimization and credit maximization. However, the precise interactions of "blame" and "credit" communication activities in government are not well understood, and questions abound about how they are deployed in practice. This paper uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) machine-learning sentiment analysis of a unique dataset composed of several thousand tweets of high-level political leaders in four OECD countries--namely the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and Canada--during 2020-2022 to examine the relationships existing between "blame" and "credit" communication strategies and their relation to the changing severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, both in an objective and subjective sense. In general, the study suggests that during this high-impact, long-lasting, and waxing and waning crisis, political leaders acted in accordance with theoretical expectations when it came to communicating credit seeking messages during the periods when the COVID situation was thought to be improving, but they did not exclusively rely upon communicating blame or scapegoating when the situation was considered to be deteriorating. The consequences of this finding for blame and credit-based theories of government communication are then discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of policy capacity is often used to explain the success or failure of governments or countries in conceiving of, developing, and implementing policies, but is often poorly systematised. Wu et al provide a framework for understanding types of policy capacity, arguing that three kinds of capacity, distributed across policy systems, are needed for effective implementation. This paper applies that framework to a discussion of China, a country that has been managing a fundamental transformation since at least the late 1970s, which has underpinned the country's growth and development. The paper focuses on a subset of China's reforms - reforms to the healthcare system since the 1990s. Discussion of policy capacity shows (1) that policy capacity is dynamic and adaptive, in response to changing challenges due to rapid transformation in the country; (2) that the development and distribution of capacities has, overall, been government-directed, with strong research and analytical support from public think tanks and universities; (3) that understanding of policy capacity is evolving, with government paying increasing attention to the need to develop a learning state and society in response to increasingly complex problems of development. Examination of the Chinese case has relevance for how other countries develop and adapt policy capacities over time to manage rapid transformation, uncertainty and shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the changes in conceptualizing and investigating the many mechanisms of the orbital frontal and related cortex in the issues of the periodical `Neurocase.' Multiple streams of sensory-perceptual information arriving in the orbital frontal cortex and their convergence; Importance of impaired learning and reversal of stimulus-reinforcement associations in humans with orbital frontal damage and behavioral disturbance.

The article discusses the results of a study characterizing the cellobiose dehydrogenase (CDH) enzyme from the white-rot basidiomycete Trametes hirsuta. The molecular weight of the enzyme was 92kDa. The potential of using CDH for the biological treatment of wood chips without negative effects on paper strength is explored.

Postoperative recurrence [POR] after an ileocolonic resection with ileocolonic anastomosis is frequently encountered in patients with Crohn's disease. The 8th Scientific Workshop of ECCO reviewed the available evidence on the pathophysiology and risk factors for POR. In this paper, we discuss published data on the role of the microbiome, the mesentery, the immune system and the genetic background. In addition to investigating the causative mechanisms of POR, identification of risk factors is essential to tailor preventive strategies. Potential clinical, surgical and histological risk factors are presented along with their limitations. Emphasis is placed on unanswered research questions, guiding prevention of POR based on individual patient profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biologic agents and oral small molecules are the mainstays of inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] management. However, an unmet clinical need remains for additional agents with novel mechanism of action which are effective, safe, and disease-modifying; this is due to the substantial proportion of patients who do not respond, lose response, or develop intolerance to currently marketed products. microRNAs [miRNAs] that play a role in the modulation of signal transduction pathways implicated in the development of IBD hold the potential to be used as therapeutic targets. Recently, a novel first-in-class compound, obefazimod, originally conceived as a human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] infection drug, has shown great promise in phase II induction trials for ulcerative colitis [UC] patients. Findings from the maintenance phases of trials showed that long-term obefazimod treatment provides continued improvement in clinical symptoms of disease, with a substantial proportion of patients in clinical remission, and an overall good safety profile. With a novel mechanism of action, obefazimod is an orally available small molecule with anti-inflammatory properties through the specific and selective upregulation of miR-124 expression. The aim of this paper is to critically review the available evidence related to pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, and to discuss the potential clinical implications of this first-in-class oral small molecule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy advice has been the subject of ongoing research in the policy sciences as it raises fundamental issues about what constitutes policy knowledge, expertise, and their effects on policymaking. This introduction reviews the existing literature on the subject and introduces the themes motivating the articles in the issue. It highlights the need to consider several key subjects in the topic in the contemporary era: namely the challenge of legitimacy, that of values, and the challenge of politics. The papers in the issue shed light on the ongoing delegitimization of conventional knowledge providers, the problem of the normative basis of experts' advice, the increasing politicization of expertise in policymaking, and the relevance of political context in influencing not only the role of experts but also whether or not their advice is accepted and implemented. It is argued that these modern challenges, when not addressed, reinforce trends toward the inclusion of antidemocratic values and uninformed ideas in contemporary policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Think tanks and their roles in rendering expertise in policy advice have been the subject of historical and ongoing research in policy sciences. However, the widening trend of digital behaviors of think tanks in the social media era is yet to be investigated. While social media is reshaping the political ecology and challenging conventional sources of knowledge, it also serves as a potential channel for think tanks to publicly share their expertise and policy advice with the public and decision-makers, thus evolving into "digital advocators." Based on social media big data methods, this paper has constructed two sets of new think tank indicators with "network centrality" of social media accounts and "ripple effect" of social media citations from Facebook and Twitter to capture and observe the digital activities of 207 prominent think tanks in 62 countries or regions. We have concluded that think tanks have displayed their opinion and values and increased visibility as digital advocators by spreading expertise on social media platforms with online marketing skills. With various values and ideas, social media not only is hosting massive policy advocacy activities and being an expertise spreading arena for think tanks but has also been changing the ecology of the think tank industry and expertise markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of the complexities of problem-solving, experts are gaining centrality in policymaking (Weiss, 1979). At the same time, they are increasingly challenged in their legitimacy, which is not only technical but also political. Challenges to the legitimacy of experts suggest that other types of legitimacy are important for policymaking. Issues of legitimacy are particularly important for sound policymaking when the authority of experts and the value of evidence are contested and when the debate over policy solutions is particularly conflictual and ideological. In this paper, I use three exploratory cases of the use of expertise in education policy in Italy to show how policymakers design different advisory committees to enhance different types of legitimacy (epistemic, bureaucratic, and political). The findings suggest that while policymakers design advisory committees primarily to meet their legitimacy needs, the legitimacy of a decision requires different types of sources to generate consent and to allow for the impact of expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper challenges the conventional understanding among many legal ethicists that environmental harm can be a necessary, if regrettable, collateral effect of lawyerly work. It argues that lawyers sometimes do things that cost society too much and that legal ethics (being the rules of ethical conduct set out by regulators of lawyers and broader theories of 'good' lawyering) has the potential to act as a mediator on lawyers' environmental harm-causing action. The paper begins by examining lawyers' formal rules of professional conduct in England & Wales, showing how those rules require lawyers to provide active counselling to clients but do not fully address clients' legally permissible choices that may result in environmental harm. The paper then turns to theories of legal ethics that go beyond these baseline rules. Here, I argue that the dominant 'Standard Conception' of lawyers as neutral technicians is not only implausible in the context of environmental law but also fundamentally incomplete. The paper also considers the ethical implications of a lawyer's initial decision to represent a client. The commonly held belief that 'Everyone deserves legal advice' often masks a simple ethical choice, where lawyers prioritise commercial concerns over environmental considerations, unburdened by more complex ethical constraints. However, this rationalisation rests on unsound premises and frequently clashes with lawyers' personal moral boundaries; a problem I label 'Meatloaf Lawyering'. Ultimately, I argue that lawyers have significant ethical agency and that their professional obligations do not impede (and sometimes require) an active, ethically responsible stance towards environmental harms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent literature on indicators as technology of global governance has shown the power of numbers in shaping knowledge and policy priorities. But not all indicators have powerful effects; some remain invisible. Are such indicators an obverse of powerful indicators? Are the same process of indirect exercise of power to indirectly achieve social and economic effects at work? This paper explores the case of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator 3.d.1 for the target to build national capacity for pandemic preparedness (target 3d) as a case study of invisible indicators. This indicator has had little traction, despite its relevance in the context of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The paper explores the reasons that explain this paradox through the framework of epistemic infrastructures. It argues that the indicator--the State Party Self-Assessment Report (SPAR) score--was an inconvenient tool for the powerful actors in the global health community as it turned out to be an extremely poor predictor of COVID-19 response performance. It would have exposed not only the failings of the powerful countries that lead the policy agenda for pandemic preparedness but also the legitimacy of their expertise and the paradigm of global health security as an approach to governing health risks. The analysis highlights the tight relationship between power and the use of indicators in global governance. While indicators are increasingly used by powerful actors to reframe policy narratives, the indicator of pandemic preparedness has been kept invisible to maintain their existing framing. It thus illustrates the resilience of power structures in epistemic infrastructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governing by indicators has emerged as the predominant mode of global public policy. Consequently, global governance has become a field in which different indicators compete for policymakers' and public attention. This begs a question--what makes some indicators successful when others become irrelevant? This paper explores this problem through the inquiry into the measurement of multidimensional poverty in Sustainable Development Goal 1 ("End poverty in all its forms everywhere"). In the field historically dominated by the World Bank's dollar-per-day metric (currently 1.9$), multidimensional poverty measurement gained prominence, becoming one of the key measures of global poverty. By tracking the pathways to success of multidimensional poverty measurement--through qualitative interviews with actors in International Organisations this paper argues that the key quality of successful indicators is their ability to become parts of the broader epistemic infrastructure, linking political institutions, actors (including experts and policymakers), and data and statistics. The paper brings the focus on a specific set of actors--statistical entrepreneurs--who advocate for innovations in measurement and work toward creating such infrastructures, thus indirectly promoting new policy ideas reflected in the metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the findings of an experiment to isolate pilloin 5-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (1) from Diplomorpha ganpi stems. It notes the commercial use of D. ganpi for the preparation of paper products. The researchers cited the identification of 19 other phenolic compounds aside from the newly isolated flavonoid.

The Michigan State University Archives and Historical Collections hold a rich trove of personal papers and business records of Charles H. Hackley (1837-1905), Thomas Hume (1848-1920), and their various enterprises. The papers (80 cubic feet; 1859-1955) document the involvement of two families through three generations in lumbering and other businesses in the United States and Canada. Promising opportunities for research in forest history (among other subjects) are revealed in the major Hackley-Hume operations, centered in Muskegon, Michigan, and later in the sequoia forests of California's Sierra Nevada. The collection is well organized and features two useful finding aids for researchers. Based on the papers and secondary sources; 7 illus., 10 notes.

Until the end of the last century, the pulp and paper industry showed little interest in forest policy. The American Paper Makers Association (APMA), formed in 1878, first referred to forest policy at its 1891 meeting. The APMA created a section devoted to "problems connected with pulpwood supply" in 1920. The establishment of the Forest Industries Council in 1943 met the urgent need for a policy coordinating committee to represent the industry of pulpwood and solid wood as a whole. Some independent committees were established over the next two decades in order to permit swift or continuous action on important issues facing the industry. Since the 1970's, the trade associations recognized new challenges presented by the environmental movement and the need to effectively represent the industry to the public and the government.

Early sources of newsprint for American newspapers were forests of northeastern United States and Canada. Paper mills in those regions could produce enough newsprint for both countries. Pine trees of southeastern United States were considered unsuitable for newsprint because they were presumed to have a high resin content. Charles Holmes Herty (d. 1938) was a prominent Georgia chemist who discovered that the presumption about the unsuitability of pines for newsprint was erroneous. He organized and ran a research laboratory that worked out a process for making newsprint from pines. Primary and secondary sources; 11 photos, 64 notes.

The mobilization of narratives is essential in integrating people and constructing identities that help in navigating complexity, uncertainty, and conflictuality. This paper explores how comparisons are used as a discursive tool to shape narratives and bring about changes in policy and society, using the High Speed Two megaproject in the UK as a case study. We examine the comparisons that promoters and protesters employ in an organizational setting. In particular, we explore how the narratives that result from these comparisons--on questions including the need for the megaproject, the benefits of the megaproject, alternatives to the megaproject, and issues of noise, sustainability, compensation, and branding--help their efforts to organize. The research highlights how comparisons serve as an important cue in discourse and how different forms of comparison can help to create narratives and shape policy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the politics of scale associated with the top-down planning of large hydraulic infrastructures in the Tigris--Euphrates basin. Against the backdrop of a worsening water crisis and the lack of cooperation between riparian countries, dams and reservoirs across the transboundary river system are sites of contestation between competing claims over dwindling and disputed resources. Drawing on post-structuralist insights from human geography on the politics of scale and the literature on megaprojects, it is argued here that hydraulic infrastructures are materially and discursively implicated in the construction of waterscapes at different scales to sustain broader political imaginaries. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and with a focus on the autonomous Region of Kurdistan in Iraq, the analysis juxtaposes the narratives deployed by state- and non-state actors to support or counter the development of additional dams. While, on the one hand, the Kurdistan Regional Government portrays hydraulic infrastructures as a vital source of security and well-being within the overarching nationalist narrative of Kurdish self-determination, on the other hand, transnational civil society groups under the umbrella of the Save the Tigris and Iraqi Marshes Campaign have mobilized against the adverse impact of megaprojects and appealed to the common Mesopotamian heritage in order to de-escalate political tensions within the transboundary river basin. In both cases, hydraulic infrastructures provide a framework for political action to secure recognition of rights and assert the appropriate scale of governance. Furthermore, bottom-up resistance is accompanied by the promotion of a participatory and inclusive approach to shared waters. From this perspective, the spatial politics of megaprojects intersect with issues of identity, equity, and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Megaprojects are increasingly common across countries and attract substantial political attention from a variety of actors. Recent studies have highlighted the need to move from an understanding of megaprojects as linear and rational processes towards a more nuanced approach that accounts for non-linear and conflictual aspects. Participatory governance is often proposed as a valuable resource in this regard. In this paper, we investigate the setting and design of two participatory venues operating in the context of the implementation of the Lyon-Turin high-speed railway megaproject: the Italian Observatory for the Turin-Lyon Railway and the French Public Inquiry. Empirical evidence shows that the Italian case featured substantial structural barriers to effective democratic participation. As for the French case, while better designed and implanted in its context, it featured important agentic limitations that undermined its democratic potential. On the basis of our case study, we therefore argue that both the Observatory for the Turin-Lyon Railway and Public Inquiry failed to promote democratic participation. We thus propose a deliberative approach to (the study of) of megaprojects. Whereas deliberative democratic ideas command growing interest across disciplines, these have found only limited application in the study of megaprojects. We contend that a deliberative democratic approach holds promise to improve the democratic and epistemic qualities of decision making on megaprojects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, striking racial disparities in COVID-19 infection and mortality rates were one of the core patterns of the virus. These racial disproportionalities were a result of structural factors--laws, rules, and practices embedded in economic, social, and political systems. Public policy is central among such structural features. Policies distribute advantages, disadvantages, benefits, and burdens in ways that generate, reinforce, or redress racial inequities. Crucially, public policy is a function of power relations, so understanding policy decisions requires attentiveness to power. This paper asseses statistical associations between racial power and state anti-eviction policies. Charting the timing of state policy responses between March 2020 and June 2021, I examine correlations between response times and racial power as reflected in state populations, voting constituencies, legislatures, and social movement activities. Ultimately, I do not find any significant associations. The null results underscore the complexities and difficulties of studying race, power, and public policy with theoretical nuance and empirical care. While the findings leave us with much to learn about how racial power operates, the conceptualization and theorizing offered in the paper, instructively underscore the value of centering racial power in analyses of public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the p-alkylphenols removal from aqueous solutions by using both mushroom tyrosinase and chitosan beads. Through the increase of either the tyrosinase concentration or the amount of added chitosan beads, the removal of p-alkylphenols was enhanced and their removal values reached to greater than 93 except for 4-tert-pentylphenol. The study found out that the technique is applicable to remove 4-n-octylphenol and 4-n-nonylphenol as suspected endocrine disrupting chemicals.