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Multi-touch technology is increasingly being used to support collaborative learning activities. However, to know how this technology can be used most effectively, we need to understand if collaborative interactions differ when groups are using multi-touch technology compared with other tools. In this paper, we compare the interactions of groups of 10 to 11-year-old students working collaboratively to solve three math problems in either a multi-touch or paper condition. The number of ideas raised, who proposed them and whether they were responded to, were coded to identify differences in idea development and interactions across conditions. Responses by students to ideas proposed by other students were coded. Results indicate that similar numbers of ideas were raised across conditions; student responses to ideas raised by other students were more likely to elaborate on the idea or combine it with other ideas in the multi-touch condition than in the paper condition. These results reinforce prior findings that show higher levels of collaborative engagement around ideas when using multi-touch than paper and extend our understanding of how this occurs.

Self-care is essential in the long-term management of chronic heart failure. Heart failure guidelines stress the importance of patient education on treatment adherence, lifestyle changes, symptom monitoring and adequate response to possible deterioration. Self-care is related to medical and person-centred outcomes in patients with heart failure such as better quality of life as well as lower mortality and readmission rates. Although guidelines give general direction for self-care advice, health care professionals working with patients with heart failure need more specific recommendations. The aim of the management recommendations in this paper is to provide practical advice for health professionals delivering care to patients with heart failure. Recommendations for nutrition, physical activity, medication adherence, psychological status, sleep, leisure and travel, smoking, immunization and preventing infections, symptom monitoring, and symptom management are consistent with information from guidelines, expert consensus documents, recent evidence and expert opinion. Jaarsma, T (corresponding author), Univ Linkoping, Fac Hlth Sci, Kungsgatan 40, S-60174 Norrkoping, Sweden. tiny.jaarsma@liu.se

The selective recognition of tyrosine residues in peptides is an appealing approach to inhibiting their tyrosine kinase (TK)‐mediated phosphorylation. Herein, we describe pseudopeptidic cages that efficiently protect substrates from the action of the Src TK enzyme, precluding the corresponding Tyr phosphorylation. Fluorescence emission titrations show that the most efficient cage inhibitors strongly bind the peptide substrates with a very good correlation between the binding constant and the inhibitory potency. Structural insights and additional control experiments further support the proposed mechanism of selective supramolecular protection of the substrates. Moreover, the approach also works in a completely different kinase‐substrate system. These results illustrate the potential of supramolecular complexes for the efficient and selective modulation of TK signaling., How to spare Tyr: The selective recognition of tyrosine residues by pseudopeptidic cages protects the substrates from Src kinase‐promoted phosphorylation. The Tyr kinase‐inhibiting activity of the cages can be satisfactorily explained by the formation of host‐guest complexes. This supramolecular approach represents an appealing alternative to modulating Tyr kinase activity by substrate recognition.

A comparative study on the self‐assembly of sexiphenyl‐dicarbonitrile on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite and single‐layer graphene on Cu(111) is presented. Despite an overall low molecule–substrate interaction, the close‐packed structures exhibit a peculiar shift repeating every four to five molecules. This shift has hitherto not been reported for similar systems and is hence a unique feature induced by the graphitic substrates.

The co‐occurrence of cancer and heart failure (HF) represents a significant clinical drawback as each disease interferes with the treatment of the other. In addition to shared risk factors, a growing body of experimental and clinical evidence reveals numerous commonalities in the biology underlying both pathologies. Inflammation emerges as a common hallmark for both diseases as it contributes to the initiation and progression of both HF and cancer. Under stress, malignant and cardiac cells change their metabolic preferences to survive, which makes these metabolic derangements a great basis to develop intersection strategies and therapies to combat both diseases. Furthermore, genetic predisposition and clonal haematopoiesis are common drivers for both conditions and they hold great clinical relevance in the context of personalized medicine. Additionally, altered angiogenesis is a common hallmark for failing hearts and tumours and represents a promising substrate to target in both diseases. Cardiac cells and malignant cells interact with their surrounding environment called stroma. This interaction mediates the progression of the two pathologies and understanding the structure and function of each stromal component may pave the way for innovative therapeutic strategies and improved outcomes in patients. The interdisciplinary collaboration between cardiologists and oncologists is essential to establish unified guidelines. To this aim, pre‐clinical models that mimic the human situation, where both pathologies coexist, are needed to understand all the aspects of the bidirectional relationship between cancer and HF. Finally, adequately powered clinical studies, including patients from all ages, and men and women, with proper adjudication of both cancer and cardiovascular endpoints, are essential to accurately study these two pathologies at the same time., We describe the co‐occurrence of cancer and heart failure (HF), their potential shared risk factors, and their pathophysiological mechanisms. We advocate intense interaction between cardiologists and oncologists to achieve unifying hypotheses and collaborative pre‐clinical and clinical studies.

Diabetes and metabolic syndrome are associated with the typical American high glycemia diet and result in accumulation of high levels of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), particularly upon aging. AGEs form when sugars or their metabolites react with proteins. Associated with a myriad of age‐related diseases, AGEs accumulate in many tissues and are cytotoxic. To date, efforts to limit glycation pharmacologically have failed in human trials. Thus, it is crucial to identify systems that remove AGEs, but such research is scanty. Here, we determined if and how AGEs might be cleared by autophagy. Our in vivo mouse and C. elegans models, in which we altered proteolysis or glycative burden, as well as experiments in five types of cells, revealed more than six criteria indicating that p62‐dependent autophagy is a conserved pathway that plays a critical role in the removal of AGEs. Activation of autophagic removal of AGEs requires p62, and blocking this pathway results in accumulation of AGEs and compromised viability. Deficiency of p62 accelerates accumulation of AGEs in soluble and insoluble fractions. p62 itself is subject to glycative inactivation and accumulates as high mass species. Accumulation of p62 in retinal pigment epithelium is reversed by switching to a lower glycemia diet. Since diminution of glycative damage is associated with reduced risk for age‐related diseases, including age‐related macular degeneration, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's, discovery of methods to limit AGEs or enhance p62‐dependent autophagy offers novel potential therapeutic targets to treat AGEs‐related pathologies., AGEs are toxic compounds formed by non‐enzymatic reactions between sugars and proteins. AGEs are prone to aggregate. Insoluble AGEs are efficiently removed via p62‐selective autophagy. The autophagic removal of AGEs is a conserved pathway, and the lack of p62 leads to accumulation of toxic AGEs in mouse and worms. Enhanced autophagy is protective against glycation‐derived damage. p62‐dependent autophagy offers novel potential therapeutic targets to treat AGEs‐related pathologies.

The solution of a structure of human Rab27a suffering from severe anisotropy and translational noncrystallographic symmetry was aided by identifying diffraction measurements with low information content., Data pathologies caused by effects such as diffraction anisotropy and translational noncrystallographic symmetry (tNCS) can dramatically complicate the solution of the crystal structures of macromolecules. Such problems were encountered in determining the structure of a mutant form of Rab27a, a member of the Rab GTPases. Mutant Rab27a constructs that crystallize in the free form were designed for use in the discovery of drugs to reduce primary tumour invasiveness and metastasis. One construct, hRab27aMut, crystallized within 24 h and diffracted to 2.82 Å resolution, with a unit cell possessing room for a large number of protein copies. Initial efforts to solve the structure using molecular replacement by Phaser were not successful. Analysis of the data set revealed that the crystals suffered from both extreme anisotropy and strong tNCS. As a result, large numbers of reflections had estimated standard deviations that were much larger than their measured intensities and their expected intensities, revealing problems with the use of such data at the time in Phaser. By eliminating extremely weak reflections with the largest combined effects of anisotropy and tNCS, these problems could be avoided, allowing a molecular-replacement solution to be found. The lessons that were learned in solving this structure have guided improvements in the numerical analysis used in Phaser, particularly in identifying diffraction measurements that convey very little information content. The calculation of information content could also be applied as an alternative to ellipsoidal truncation. The post-mortem analysis also revealed an oversight in accounting for measurement errors in the fast rotation function. While the crystal of mutant Rab27a is not amenable to drug screening, the structure can guide new modifications to obtain more suitable crystal forms.

Crystallographic methods are used to identify the primary mineral phase of pseudomorphs of crystals embedded in 3.48 Ga bedded carbonate-chert rocks from the Dresser Formation, Pilbara Craton, Australia. This identification provides valuable information on the chemical environments at the onset of life on Earth., Crystallography has a long history of providing knowledge and methods for applications in other disciplines. The identification of minerals using X-ray diffraction is one of the most important contributions of crystallography to earth sciences. However, when the crystal itself has been dissolved, replaced or deeply modified during the geological history of the rocks, diffraction information is not available. Instead, the morphology of the crystal cast provides the only crystallographic information on the original mineral phase and the environment of crystal growth. This article reports an investigation of crystal pseudomorphs and crystal casts found in a carbonate-chert facies from the 3.48 Ga-old Dresser Formation (Pilbara Craton, Australia), considered to host some of the oldest remnants of life. A combination of X-ray microtomography, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and crystallographic methods has been used to reveal the original phases of these Archean pseudomorphs. It is found with a high degree of confidence that the original crystals forming in Archean times were hollow aragonite, the high-temperature polymorphs of calcium carbonate, rather than other possible alternatives such as gypsum (CaSO4·2H20) and nahcolite (NaHCO3). The methodology used is described in detail.

Purpose To explore the strategies used by older people living in Ireland to obtain information about community health and social services. Methods A qualitative exploratory design was used. Focus groups (n = 3) were conducted with community dwelling older people (n = 17). A series of vignettes were used to guide discussion regarding hypothetical situations that approximated real-life scenarios for older people. Data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using content analysis. Results Obtaining information about community health and social services is an ongoing process that requires continuous commitment by older adults. Key strategies which emerged from the data included (i) taking a proactive stance towards accessing health information, (ii) making use of personal networks in your community and (iii) developing ‘insider’ knowledge. Conclusion Older people in this study had a proactive approach to obtaining health information and identified the importance of taking responsibility for managing their own needs. Despite this, obtaining basic information about community health and social services was a challenging and time-consuming process. Future research should focus on developing health literacy interventions that build upon and expand the strategies currently used by older people.

Summary Insect pollinators are essential for both the production of a large proportion of world crops and the health of natural ecosystems. As important pollinators, bumblebees must learn to forage on flowers to feed both themselves and provision their colonies.Increased use of pesticides has caused concern over sublethal effects on bees, such as impacts on reproduction or learning ability. However, little is known about how sublethal exposure to field‐realistic levels of pesticide might affect the ability of bees to visit and manipulate flowers.We observed the behaviour of individual bumblebees from colonies chronically exposed to a neonicotinoid pesticide (10 ppb thiamethoxam) or control solutions foraging for the first time on an array of morphologically complex wildflowers (Lotus corniculatus and Trifolium repens) in an outdoor flight arena.We found that more bees released from pesticide‐treated colonies became foragers, and that they visited more L. corniculatus flowers than controls. Interestingly, bees exposed to pesticide collected pollen more often than controls, but control bees learnt to handle flowers efficiently after fewer learning visits than bees exposed to pesticide. There were also different initial floral preferences of our treatment groups; control bees visited a higher proportion of T. repens flowers, and bees exposed to pesticide were more likely to choose L. corniculatus on their first visit.Our results suggest that the foraging behaviour of bumblebees on real flowers can be altered by sublethal exposure to field‐realistic levels of pesticide. This has implications for the foraging success and persistence of bumblebee colonies, but perhaps more importantly for the interactions between wild plants and flower‐visiting insects and ability of bees to deliver the crucial pollination services to plants necessary for ecosystem functioning.

Summary Declining populations of bee pollinators are a cause of concern, with major repercussions for biodiversity loss and food security. RNA viruses associated with honeybees represent a potential threat to other insect pollinators, but the extent of this threat is poorly understood. This study aims to attain a detailed understanding of the current and ongoing risk of emerging infectious disease (EID) transmission between managed and wild pollinator species across a wide range of RNA viruses. Within a structured large-scale national survey across 26 independent sites, we quantify the prevalence and pathogen loads of multiple RNA viruses in co-occurring managed honeybee (Apis mellifera) and wild bumblebee (Bombus spp.) populations. We then construct models that compare virus prevalence between wild and managed pollinators. Multiple RNA viruses associated with honeybees are widespread in sympatric wild bumblebee populations. Virus prevalence in honeybees is a significant predictor of virus prevalence in bumblebees, but we remain cautious in speculating over the principle direction of pathogen transmission. We demonstrate species-specific differences in prevalence, indicating significant variation in disease susceptibility or tolerance. Pathogen loads within individual bumblebees may be high and in the case of at least one RNA virus, prevalence is higher in wild bumblebees than in managed honeybee populations. Our findings indicate widespread transmission of RNA viruses between managed and wild bee pollinators, pointing to an interconnected network of potential disease pressures within and among pollinator species. In the context of the biodiversity crisis, our study emphasizes the importance of targeting a wide range of pathogens and defining host associations when considering potential drivers of population decline.

Este artículo está sujeto a una licencia CC BY-NC 4.0, This article analyses the review, acceptance and publication dates of a sample of 21,890 articles from 326 Ibero-American scientific journals from all subject areas and countries included in the Latindex Catalogue 2.0 and published between 2018 and 2020 (freely available as an open access dataset). The aim is to discover evaluation and publication times. The evaluation process takes a median of 110 days, the publication process, a median of 82 days, and the whole process, a median of 224 days. Statistical differences are found according to periodicity, subject areas, countries, existence of a printed version and article type (Call for Papers or General articles). From the data we find that the delay in publication is longer than publishers themselves report to the DOAJ. STEM areas present the most similarity in publication patterns, having a higher number of evaluation days (Ed) than publication days (Pd); Arts and Humanities present the opposite pattern, with a higher Pd than Ed. In the case of Social Sciences, the times are similar. General articles and Call for Papers articles differ in terms of Ed, but not Pd, indicating that Call for Papers revisions are faster.

It remains unclear how effective COVID-19 vaccinations will be in patients with weakened immunity due to diseases, transplantation, and dialysis. We conducted a systematic review comparing the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with solid tumor, hematologic malignancy, autoimmune disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and patients who received transplantation or dialysis. A literature search was conducted twice using the Medline/PubMed database. As a result, 21 papers were included in the review, and seropositivity rate was summarized by specific type of disease, transplantation, and dialysis. When different papers studied the same type of patient group, a study with a higher number of participants was selected. Most of the solid tumor patients showed a seropositivity rate of more than 80% after the second inoculation, but a low seropositivity was found in certain tumors such as breast cancer. Research in patients with certain types of hematological malignancy and autoimmune diseases has also reported low seropositivity, and this may have been affected by the immunosuppressive treatment these patients receive. Research in patients receiving dialysis or transplantation has reported lower seropositivity rates than the general population, while all patients with inflammatory bowel disease have converted to be seropositive. Meta-analysis validating these results will be needed, and studies will also be needed on methods to protect patients with reduced immunity from COVID-19. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This research surveys changing attitudes to drawing pedagogy, in the context of digitisation, moves toward student-centred learning in Art and Design Higher Education, and anecdotal reports of declining competence. Based on student, teacher and examiner’s experiences, it has been possible to gain insights into how drawing instruction has changed over the past generation. This paper examines the attitudes, values and concerns of students and educators regarding drawing instruction. The study reveals that, in the UK, drawing skills are considered to be gradually declining, while traditional notions of skill are called into question. Drawing as a means of visual recording, representation and communication remains valued, although no longer essential as it once was; while drawing to augment thought process, is increasingly recognised as an integral skill which enables innovation. The latter is rarely ‘taught’ but relies on core competencies that many lecturers fear are being eroded. Increasing value is placed on drawing ‘as process’, while provision is moving towards individualised instruction requiring students to work independently. While new technologies are a factor, this paper re-frames the issue as an imbalance between creative outcomes and creative process, with a disparity between school and university levels. This paper calls for a renewed emphasis on ‘drawing as process’ as preparation for university, and for further consideration of the core competencies underpinning the use of drawing as a tool of thought, and how these might be standardised.

This essay considers why Jewish antiquity largely fell outside the purview of ancient historians in the Germanies for over half a century, between 1820 and 1880, and examines the nature of those portraits that did, in fact, arise. To do so, it interrogates discussions of Jewish antiquity in this half century against the background of those political and national values that were consolidating across the German states. Ultimately, the paper claims ancient Jewish history did not provide a compelling model for the dominant (Protestant) German scholars of the age, which then prompted the decline of antique Judaism as a field of interest. This investigation into the political and national dimensions of ancient history both supplements previous lines of inquiry and complicates accounts that assign too much explanatory power to a regnant anti-Judaism or anti-Semitism in the period and place. Firstly, the analysis considers those reasons why so little attention was granted to Jewish history by ancient historians in the first place, as opposed to its relative prominence before ca. 1820. Second, the essay examines representations of ancient Judaism as fashioned by those historians who did consider the subject in this period. Surveying works composed not only for the upper echelons of scholarship but also for adolescents, women, and the laity, it scrutinizes a series of arguments advanced and assumptions embedded in universal histories, histories of the ancient world, textbooks of history, and dedicated histories to either Greece or Rome. Finally, the paper asserts the Jewish past did not conform to the values of cultural ascendancy, political autonomy, national identity, and religious liberty increasingly hallowed across the Germanies of the 19th century, on the one hand, and inscribed into the very enterprise of historiography, on the other. The perceived national and political failures of ancient Jews – alongside the ethnic or religious ones discerned by others – thus made antique Judaism an unattractive object of study in this period.

The discovery of a rare fly in a North London cemetery marks my entry point into a wider reflection on the value and significance of urban biodiversity. Using different indices of ecological endangerment, along with a critical reading of new materialist insights, this paper explores the cultural, political, and scientific significance of saproxylic (rotten wood) invertebrate communities in an urban context. The paper brings the fields of urban ecology and post-humanism into closer dialogue to illuminate aspects to urban nature that have not been systematically explored within existing analytical frameworks. We consider a series of intersecting worlds, both human and non-human, as part of a glimpse into saproxylic dimensions to urban nature under a putative transition to a new geo-environmental epoch., European Research Council

1. In a previous series of papers (Sutherland et al., 2018), we summarise the use of a range of social science methods in conservation decision making. Moon et al. (submitted) claim that the special issue risks narrowing the scope of social science research and suggest that we presented a limited perspective on the field. They thereby criticise the special issue for not doing something that it never intended to do in the first instance. We did not claim that the list of articles covered in the special issue is a comprehensive list (which it obviously is not) and we are unclear why anyone would think it is. 2. While we consider the Moon et al. (submitted) paper to be a useful contribution for conservation scientists as a supplementary paper, it serves less as a critique to the special issue. Moon et al.’s (submitted) paper makes very few direct and substantive criticisms of points raised in the special issue. We respond to areas of contention referring specifically to research philosophy, bias, and data reporting. 3. Moon et al. (submitted) criticise the set of papers for perpetuating an objectivist view of the world. We believe that it would be rather disconcerting for the research community if there were no social truths to discover. Rather, social science research methods conducted in specific places can be good ways of exploring how truths vary in different contexts. 4. We also note that Moon et al. (submitted) completely missed the point we were trying to make about psychological biases, which are quite different to the issues associated with researcher bias highlighted by them. 5. We encourage readers to pay close attention to the use of social science methods in conservation science. We reiterate, however, that the main purpose of the special issue was to ensure that social science methodologies for decision making are accessible for all conservation scientists to use, regardless of disciplinary background.

Over two decades, the checklist has risen to prominence in healthcare improvement. This paper contributes to the debate between its proponents and critics, making the case for an STS-informed understanding of the checklist that demonstrates the limitations of both the ‘checklist-as-panacea’ and ‘checklist-as-socially-determined’ positions. Attending to the checklist as a socio-material object endowed with affordances that call upon clinicians to act (Hutchby 2001, Allen 2012), the study revisits the efforts of a recent improvement initiative, the Enhanced Peri-Operative Care for High-risk patients (EPOCH) trial. Rather than a singularised simple tool, this study discusses four different and relationally enacted logics of the checklist as a stop and check tool, a clinical prompt, an audit tool, and a clinical record. Each logic is associated with specific temporality, beneficiaries, relationship to material forms, and interpellates (Law 2002) clinicians to initiate specific actions which can conflict. The paper seeks to make the case for intervention to improve such tools and consciously account for the consequences of their design and materiality and calls for supporting such settings and arrangements in which incoherences collected in tools can be locally negotiated.

This paper investigates the determinants of internal mobility across Spanish provinces of both foreigners and natives over the decade 2004-14. Building on an extended gravity model, our econometric strategy controls for multilateral resistance to migration by including different fixed effects structures. Additionally, the paper allows for some nonlinearities in the key economic determinants of migration, wages and unemployment. The main finding is that the impact of economic factors on internal migration is higher for foreigners than for natives; furthermore, the effect of these factors on internal migration is clearly nonlinear for the group of natives, while this only happens for foreigners when dyadic fixed effects of origin-destination are considered. Finally, the paper shows that the nature of the amenities with the greatest impact on internal movements differs between the two groups: foreigners look for social services and cultural amenities, whereas natives are more attracted by good climate conditions.

The Galileo E6 band operates at a nonprimary frequency band within the L-band. This presents challenging situations in the vicinity of other, legitimate, radiolocation services. This is the case for Air Traffic Control (ATC) radar, which is seen as an in-band–pulsed interference by a GNSS receiver. This paper provides a detailed study of the impact of such interference, as well as localization approaches. Particularly, the paper describes the ATC jamming event captured on a GNSS permanent station, its effects on a real receiver, and how it was tracked to localize the source of interference. An ultra low-cost array-based solution is prototyped, based on commercial off-the-shelf devices, that implements a two-element array. Experimental results are shown and discussed using real data, validating the localization performance of the prototype. © 2019 Institute of Navigation

OBJECTIVE: The collection and use of ordinal variables are common in many psychological and psychiatric studies. Although the models for continuous variables have similarities to those for ordinal variables, there are advantages when a model developed for modeling ordinal data is used such as avoiding "floor" and "ceiling" effects and avoiding to assign scores, as it happens in continuous models, which can produce results sensitive to the score assigned. This paper introduces and focuses on the application of the ordered stereotype model, which was developed for modeling ordinal outcomes and is not so popular as other models such as linear regression and proportional odds models. This paper aims to compare the performance of the ordered stereotype model with other more commonly used models among researchers and practitioners. METHODS: This article compares the performance of the stereotype model against the proportional odd and linear regression models, with three, four, and five levels of ordinal categories and sample sizes 100, 500, and 1000. This paper also discusses the problem of treating ordinal responses as continuous using a simulation study. The trend odds model is also presented in the application. RESULTS: Three types of models were fitted in one real-life example, including ordered stereotype, proportional odds, and trend odds models. They reached similar conclusions in terms of the significance of covariates. The simulation study evaluated the performance of the ordered stereotype model under four cases. The performance varies depending on the scenarios. CONCLUSIONS: The method presented can be applied to several areas of psychiatry dealing with ordinal outcomes. One of the main advantages of this model is that it breaks with the assumption of levels of the ordinal response are equally spaced, which might be not true.

This paper investigates a series of glyptic inscriptions attested on Crete at the end of the third and beginning of the second millennium BC, collectively referred to as the ‘Archanes Script’. These minute engravings are considered to represent the earliest appearance of writing west of Egypt, and the first ‘true’ writing in the Aegean. Though mentioned in passing in almost every study of Bronze Age Aegean writing, few scholars have ever offered a definition of what exactly they consider the ‘Archanes Script’ to be. No work or scholarly consensus exists delineating which signs constitute its signary, or even which documents comprise its corpus. Study of the seals as objects in their own right, examining script signs alongside associated iconography, material qualities and form, has been rare. This paper offers the first complete overview and re-definition of the Archanes Script since its discovery in the 1960s and initial definition by Paul Yule in 1980.

This paper explores the identity work practices of Thai Sikh businesspeople. The paper focuses on two important social identities in participants’ self-presentations – those derived from religious (Sikh) and western business discourses – and identifies powerful tensions in their hybrid identity work. Conducting discourse analysis on identity work practices within interview settings, the authors explore how participants resolve, accommodate or reject these discursive tensions while attempting stable and coherent hybrid self-presentations. They identify several different forms of hybridity, including what they term ‘equipollence’, which occurs when two equally powerful, contradictory discourses are incorporated in self-presentations, producing potentially irresolvable intersections and leading to a lack of coherence. Contributions are made to the literatures on religion and work, hybrid identity work processes and social identities.

The focus of this paper is on the Middle Euphrates: Dura-Europos as its best-known urban settlement; a series of villages known mostly from two papyrological dossiers situated along the river; and the military stations on the Euphrates. The paper asks questions about the impact (or lack of it) of the culture of Palmyra on the region's communities. It is argued that Dura-Europos remains our best case study for social and religious life in a Near Eastern small town under the Roman empire, and that the only evidence that actually makes the town look potentially ‘untypical’ is the idiosyncratic source material related to its Palmyrene inhabitants. The paper also questions the traditional periodization of Dura's history and puts forward the hypothesis that at two points during the so-called ‘Parthian phase’ Palmyrenes took advantage of a power vacuum along the Middle Euphrates and became the dominant military factor in the region.

There are tensions within formal education between imparting knowledge and the development of skills for handling that knowledge. In the primary school sector, the latter can also be squeezed out of the curriculum by a focus on basic skills such as literacy and numeracy. What happens when an explicit attempt is made to develop young children's reasoning—both in terms of their apparent cognitive abilities and their basic skills? This paper reports an independent evaluation of an in-class intervention called ‘Philosophy for Children’ (P4C), after just over one year of schooling. The intervention aims to help children become more willing and able to question, reason, construct arguments and collaborate with others. A group of 48 volunteer schools were randomised to receive P4C (22 schools) or act as a control for one year (26). This paper reports the CAT results for all pupils in years 4 and 5 initially, and the Key Stage 2 attainment in English and Maths for those starting in year 5. There was no school dropout. Individual attrition from a total of 3,159 pupils was around 11 percent—roughly equal between groups. There were small positive ‘effect’ sizes in favour of the P4C group in progress in reading (+0.12) and maths (+0.10), and even smaller perhaps negligible improvements in CAT scores (+0.07) and writing (+0.03). The results for the most disadvantaged (free school eligible) pupils were larger for attainment (+0.29 in reading, +0.17 writing and +0.20 maths), but not for CATs (–0.02). Observations and interviews suggest that the intervention was generally enjoyable and thought to be beneficial for pupil confidence. Our conclusion is that, for those wishing to improve attainment outcomes in the short term, an emphasis on developing reasoning is promising, especially for the poorest students, but perhaps not the most effective way forward. However, for those who value reasoning for its own sake, this evaluation demonstrates that using curriculum time in this way does not damage attainment (and may well enhance it and reduce the poverty gradient in attainment), and so suggests that something like P4C is an appropriate educational approach.

Objectives A systematic review was conducted to (1) investigate couple functioning after a pediatric cancer diagnosis and (2) examine theoretical and methodological tendencies and issues in this literature. Methods Searches of Web of Science, PubMed, Cochrane, PsycINFO, and Embase resulted in inclusion of 32 qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-method papers. Findings of these papers were extracted for summary. Results Most couples adapt well to the crisis of a pediatric cancer diagnosis in domains such as emotional closeness, support, marital satisfaction, and general marital adjustment. However, most experience difficulties in the domain of sexual intimacy, and reports on conflict are mixed across qualitative and quantitative studies. Conclusions This review illustrates the need for future research with a greater focus on the impact of a pediatric cancer diagnosis on the couple's functioning, conducted with the use of appropriate theoretical frameworks and based on both partners' reports. Improvements in research are needed to best inform couple-based interventions.

This paper evaluates the outcomes from an ambitious wildflower harvesting programme in South Africa's Western Cape, which has sought to achieve positive outcomes in terms of socio-economic development and biodiversity conservation. Indigenous wildflowers, harvested according to conservation principles, are processed into ‘Cape Flora’ bouquets and sold into international and domestic markets. The principal supply chain provides an example of ethical trade due to the explicit environmental and social standards that are required at local sites of production. The incorporation of such standards represents an attempt to engender economic and social upgrading within the value chain. In this sense, the programme is consistent with dominant policy discourses, which suggest that exploiting potentially profitable niches within international trade flows represents a ‘high road’ to economic growth and transformation. The paper focuses upon the job creation and social impacts of the programme in the context of efforts to overcome South Africa's deeply entrenched socio-economic disparities and high poverty levels. Despite impressive growth in production and exports during the global financial crisis, there have been mixed outcomes in terms of benefits to stakeholders at the upstream end of the supply chain. The paper concludes by considering the extent to which local initiatives operating under the framework of ethical trade possess the potential to facilitate effective social and economic upgrading.

This paper extends existing debate about the relationship between climate change and migration by locating this debate within the registers of race and difference. The paper argues that the discourse on climate change and migration generates a particular racial orientation to climate change called ‘white affect’. To make this argument, the paper connects up two related phenomena: racial neoliberalism and the relationship between affect and biopower. The white affect of climate change and migration discourse is here understood to be an ‘object-target’ of biopolitics. White affect thus becomes an important concept for understanding how racial neoliberalism functions through affective proxy.

The last decade has seen a significant upsurge of studies seeking to examine the impacts of port agents’ strategic decisions. The outcome has been a wide range of results and conclusions. The aim of this work is to provide a review of this recent research in the port industry that uses strategic interaction approaches from industrial organization and game theory. The paper concentrates on five topics: ownership, relationship between ports and their hinterlands, port authorities and port operators’ relations, capacity investment decisions, and port specialization. We present the objectives, methodologies and results of the papers reviewed, with special emphasis on how models are developed. The results are not always consistent between the works analyzed. On the one hand, this could be due to the complexity of the port industry and the high number of agents that intervene. Researchers need to simplify reality to build their models by imposing restrictive assumptions. On the other hand, results could be very sensitive to the techniques used or to the differences on the port environment of the countries of study. However, some conclusions can be extracted and they present a good starting point to develop more sophisticated models. Finally, we also propose avenues for future research.

This paper compares and contrasts state emergency responses to national security crises with responses deployed in a period of economic crisis. Specifically, this paper challenges the appropriateness and legitimacy of the standard emergency response of legislative (as distinct from judicial) deference to the executive when confronting such economic crises. This will be done by questioning the significance in periods of economic crisis of the two principal factors that justify deferring to the executive during a state of emergency pertaining to national security: (i) the necessity of the action taken; and (ii) that the executive has an expertise in decision making in the specific area in question. Ultimately, this paper questions the application of the emergency paradigm to economic crises, arguing that such responses are rarely temporary and instead usher in a ‘new normalcy’.

‘Energy security’ has quickly assumed a significant place in the lexicon of policy. Like other handy couplets for characterising socio-natural relations (such as carrying capacity and resource scarcity), energy security is a powerful framing device: it constructs worlds, normalises certain practices of resource use, and establishes grounds for intervention. In this paper, I explore some of the different ways in which energy (in)security is now being used, and reflect on the political work it currently performs. I highlight the historical conditions under which energy and security have become combined, the close association of energy security with crude oil imports, and the imprint that oil has left on the concept. Although geography has tended to interpret practices of security through either a territorial or biopolitical perspective, in this paper I consider how energy's securitisation proceeds through a set of imaginative and calculative practices (referred to here as ‘geo-metrics’). I use the language of ‘world-making’ to draw attention to the techno-political practices associated with securitising energy, and their capacity for constituting political ecological relations. I illustrate this with reference to a growing body of knowledge and expertise in the calculation and design of energy security indicators.

This paper investigates the impact of exporting and importing on productivity for UK plantsusing a combination of regression and propensity score matching. Unlike earlier papers, the data allows us to distinguish the effects of trade in goods and services. In confirmation of the results from other countries, we find that plants that both export and import have higher productivity than plants that only do one of these activities. In manufacturing, this is the case regardless of whether the trade is in goods or services (which suggests that servitisation of manufacturing is beneficial).In services, the results are more mixed and the benefits from involvement in international goods networks that are seen in manufacturing do not occur to the same extent (however, for the wholesale and retail sectors, trade in both goods and services is generally productivity enhancing).

This paper shapes and identifies the varieties and dynamics of service economies in the EU 25. By adopting a neo-Schumpeterian and evolutionary approach it contributes to enrich previous research dealing with national disparities from the perspective of services economic structures. Communalities across countries and time are detected and discussed at different levels of analysis. A wide set of models across the European region is found from an aggregated perspective. Moreover, the paper analyses the key dimensions explaining the different service models at sectoral level: structural change, knowledge and innovation, internationalisation and competition restrictions. The main result shows that structural composition of countries plays a prominent role, while heterogeneity is driven by dissimilarities in knowledge bases and innovative efforts across Europe.

This paper examines the politics of open defecation by focusing on everyday intersections of the body and infrastructure in the metabolic city, which produces profoundly unequal opportunities for fulfilling bodily needs. Specifically, it examines how open defecation emerges in Mumbai's informal settlements through everyday embodied experiences, practices and perceptions forged in relation to the materialities of informality and infrastructure. It does so by tracing the micropolitics of provision, access, territoriality and control of sanitation infrastructures; everyday routines and rhythms, both of people and infrastructures; and experiences of disgust and perceptions of dignity. It also examines open defecation as embodied spatial and temporal improvisations in order to investigate the socially differentiated efforts and risks that it entails. More broadly, the paper seeks to deepen understandings of the relationship between the body, infrastructure and the sanitary/unsanitary city.

This paper contextualises the relation between climate change and human migration using the concepts of neoliberalism, sovereignty and otherness. The paper is intended to provide a general account of climate change and migration research, which seeks to extend understanding of the relation beyond a focus on policy and policy-relevant research. The argument is that because the relation between climate change and migration is so vast, touching on so many aspects of life, the debate on climate change and migration needs to be pluralised. This is especially the case given the future-conditional nature of the relation between climate change and migration.

In this paper, we provide novel evidence on the effect of local unemployment rate on life satisfaction. With this, we contribute to the expanding literature that aims to understand the role of the local labor market's conditions for individual well-being. This information can be used to only analyze the impact of regional economic policies, as well as to understand individuals' behavior and reactions to policy changes. In concrete, we investigate how changes in local unemployment rate affect subjective well-being in Germany, allowing for the presence of spatial spillovers and considering the role played by regional borders. The results indicate that higher unemployment in the own local area of residence has a negative effect on satisfaction. Similarly, individuals' happiness negatively correlates with the unemployment rate in contiguous local areas, but only if these areas are located in the same Federal State as the one where the individual lives. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that these negative effects of local unemployment rate are larger for individuals with stronger ties to the job market and less secure jobs., The usual disclaimers apply. Antonio Di Paolo gratefully acknowledges funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation ECO2016-75805-R. Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell acknowledges funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation PID2020-114251GB-I00; the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI), through the Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (Barcelona School of Economics CEX2019-000915-S); Catalan Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR); and the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR) SGR1359.

The main objective of this paper is to introduce an Allen-type index of differentiation based on cost functions. With this index, we create an economic measure of product differentiation that quantifies differences between products. Applied research has some generally accepted economic measures, for example, the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index for market concentration, or the Gini coefficient for inequality. Product differentiation, however, does not yet have an established measure. Our objective is to fill that gap and introduce a measure that can be used in market-related applied research such as market power, antitrust, price indexes, or market strategy. To operationalize the index, we introduce the concept of a core product and use cost functions to measure the degree of differentiation from the core product. To demonstrate the use of the index, we study the effect of product differentiation on price formation in the airline industry using an enhanced hedonic model. The model is empirically tested on 103,980 observations of quarterly US domestic airfare data between 2002 and 2016 and shows that product differentiation has a significant effect on both price and mark-up

In patients with heart failure, the beneficial effects of drug and device therapies counteract to some extent ongoing cardiac damage. According to the net balance between these two factors, cardiac geometry and function may improve (reverse remodelling, RR) and even completely normalize (remission), or vice versa progressively deteriorate (adverse remodelling, AR). RR or remission predict a better prognosis, while AR has been associated with worsening clinical status and outcomes. The remodelling process ultimately involves all cardiac chambers, but has been traditionally evaluated in terms of left ventricular volumes and ejection fraction. This is the second part of a review paper by the Study Group on Biomarkers of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology dedicated to ventricular remodelling. This document examines the proposed criteria to diagnose RR and AR, their prevalence and prognostic value, and the variables predicting remodelling in patients managed according to current guidelines. Much attention will be devoted to RR in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction because most studies on cardiac remodelling focused on this setting.

Aim To study neurotransmitter status in children with early epileptic and developmental and epileptic encephalopathy (DEE) and to explore the clinical response to dopaminergic and serotoninergic therapies in a group of patients. Method Two hundred and five patients (111 males [54.1.%] and 94 females [45.9%], mean age 10 months at the onset of epilepsy [SD 1 year 1 month], range 0-3 year) with epileptic encephalopathy/DEE were recruited, including those with West syndrome, Ohtahara syndrome, early myoclonic encephalopathy, epilepsy of infancy with migrating focal seizures, myoclonic encephalopathy in non-progressive disorders, infantile spasms, Doose syndrome, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, Landau-Kleffner syndrome, and those unclassified. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) neurotransmitter studies and patients' medical records were reviewed. Additionally, we present clinical data of 10 patients with low CSF neurotransmitter levels who received dopaminergic/serotoninergic treatments. Results Abnormal neurotransmitter values were identified in 68 (33%) patients. 5-Hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) deficit was the most prevalent alteration (91%). Low CSF 5-HIAA levels were significantly higher in 1- to 3-year-old children. A negative significant correlation was found between 5-HIAA levels and epilepsy duration before CSF study (Spearman's rho=-0.191, p=0.007). Abnormalities in deep grey matter were associated with low levels of CSF homovanillic acid and 5-HIAA. Ten patients with low CSF neurotransmitter levels received dopamine and/or serotonin therapies. Six of them showed initial decrease of seizure frequency and severity and maintained improvement in some neurodevelopmental skills. Interpretation A considerable number of patients showed neurotransmitter abnormalities. Age at seizure onset and duration of epilepsy before CSF study were the principal factors related to neurotransmitter depletion. Early monoamine supplementation would seem advisable as a neuroprotective strategy. What this paper adds 5-Hydroxyindoleacetic acid homeostasis is especially vulnerable in patients with epileptic encephalopathy/developmental and epileptic encephalopathy. Age of seizure onset and duration of epilepsy are determinants of neurotransmitter depletion.

Recommendations represent the core messages of guidelines, and are particularly important when the body of scientific evidence is rapidly growing, as in the case of heart failure (HF). The main messages from two latest major HF guidelines, endorsed by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association/Heart Failure Society of America (ACC/AHA/HFSA), are partially overlapping, starting from the four pillars of treatment for HF with reduced ejection fraction. Some notable differences exist, in part related to the timing of recent publications (most notably, the Universal Definition of HF paper and the EMPEROR-Preserved trial), and in part reflecting differing views of the natural history of HF (with a clear differentiation between stages A and B HF in the ACC/AHA/HFSA guidelines). Different approaches are proposed to specific issues such as risk stratification and implantable cardioverter defibrillator use for primary prevention in HFrEF patients with non-ischaemic aetiology. The ACC/AHA/HFSA guidelines put a greater emphasis on some issues that are particularly relevant to the US setting, such as the cost-effectiveness of therapies and the impact of health disparities on HF care. A comparison between guideline recommendations may give readers a deeper understanding of the ESC and ACC/AHA/HFSA guidelines, and help them apply sensible approaches to their own practice, wherever that may be in the world. A comparison may possibly also help further harmonization of recommendations between future guidelines, by identifying why some areas have led to conflicting recommendation, even when ostensibly reviewing the same published evidence.

Cardiac remodelling refers to changes in left ventricular structure and function over time, with a progressive deterioration that may lead to heart failure (HF) development (adverse remodelling) or vice versa a recovery (reverse remodelling) in response to HF treatment. Adverse remodelling predicts a worse outcome, whilst reverse remodelling predicts a better prognosis. The geometry, systolic and diastolic function and electric activity of the left ventricle are affected, as well as the left atrium and on the long term even right heart chambers. At a cellular and molecular level, remodelling involves all components of cardiac tissue: cardiomyocytes, fibroblasts, endothelial cells and leucocytes. The molecular, cellular and histological signatures of remodelling may differ according to the cause and severity of cardiac damage, and clearly to the global trend toward worsening or recovery. These processes cannot be routinely evaluated through endomyocardial biopsies, but may be reflected by circulating levels of several biomarkers. Different classes of biomarkers (e.g. proteins, non-coding RNAs, metabolites and/or epigenetic modifications) and several biomarkers of each class might inform on some aspects on HF development, progression and long-term outcomes, but most have failed to enter clinical practice. This may be due to the biological complexity of remodelling, so that no single biomarker could provide great insight on remodelling when assessed alone. Another possible reason is a still incomplete understanding of the role of biomarkers in the pathophysiology of cardiac remodelling. Such role will be investigated in the first part of this review paper on biomarkers of cardiac remodelling.

Bleeding and thrombosis are major clinical problems with high morbidity and mortality. Treatment modalities for these diseases have improved in recent years, but there are many clinical questions remaining and a need to advance diagnosis, management, and therapeutic options. Basic research plays a fundamental role in understanding normal and disease processes, yet this sector has observed a steady decline in funding prospects thereby hindering support for studies of mechanisms of disease and therapeutic development opportunities. With the financial constraints faced by basic scientists, the ISTH organized a basic science task force (BSTF), comprising Scientific and Standardization Committee subcommittee chairs and co-chairs, to identify research opportunities for basic science in hemostasis and thrombosis. The goal of the BSTF was to develop a set of recommended priorities to build support in the thrombosis and hemostasis community and to inform ISTH basic science programs and policy making. The BSTF identified three principal opportunity areas that were of significant overarching relevance: mechanisms causing bleeding, innate immunity and thrombosis, and venous thrombosis. Within these, five fundamental research areas were highlighted: blood rheology, platelet biogenesis, cellular contributions to thrombosis and hemostasis, structure-function protein analyses, and visualization of hemostasis. This position paper discusses the importance and relevance of these opportunities and research areas, and the rationale for their inclusion. These findings have implications for the future of fundamental research in thrombosis and hemostasis to make transformative scientific discoveries and tackle key clinical questions. This will permit better understanding, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of hemostatic and thrombotic conditions. ispartof: JOURNAL OF THROMBOSIS AND HAEMOSTASIS vol:20 issue:6 pages:1496-1506 ispartof: location:England status: published

This paper examines the detailed performance of an Integrated-Damping-System (IDS) approach which was recently introduced to provide large damping levels by enabling two parts of a building to move independently through a parallel arrangement of springs and fluid viscous dampers. Extensive assessments into the characteristics and distribution of constituent dampers are illustrated through the dynamic response of a typical 300m central-core building. Besides examining the system performance under typical wind conditions and selected seismic excitations, five damper placement methods are assessed for various linear and nonlinear damper exponents. It is shown that intermediate exponents provide the best overall response. However, when the design targets a particular damping, deformation or acceleration related performance parameter, specific combinations of damper exponent and distribution can result in an optimal application. Most importantly, due to the underlying IDS nature, which acts as an inherent large-mass damper, the findings show that the overall performance is not highly sensitive to the damper placement and does not necessitate the use of an advanced distribution. Whilst specific placements can be adopted to refine targeted performance aspects where necessary, simple and practical uniform or stiffness proportional arrangements can be consistently employed with the IDS to provide a highly effective solution.

This paper examines the varying ways religious devotees utilize, negotiate, embrace and reject religious authorities in their everyday lives. Ethnographically exploring the ways that Orthodox Jews share reproductive-decisions with rabbinic authorities, I demonstrate how some sanctify rabbinic rulings, while others dismiss them, or continue to “shop around” until they find a rabbinic opinion that resonates with their personal desires. These negotiations of religious authority and ethical freedom are worked out across a biographical trajectory, opening new possibilities to explore how religious authority fluctuates and changes over the life-course. I argue that analysis of engagement with rabbis without attention to the inner-diversity of interpretations and practices perpetuates a hegemonic and over-harmonious picture of religious authority. Highlighting these variations, I show how the process of consultation was more significant than mere submission to religious rulings. Religious consultation, in itself, then constitutes a significant node for making an ethical Jewish life. Attending to these aspects of religious authority has great potential to further develop and contextualize the field of ethical freedom while complicating binary models of submission versus resistance. My approach demonstrates the need to broaden our anthropological tools to better understand the ways individuals share everyday decisions with mediators of authoritative knowledge.

The first approved COVID-19 vaccines include Pfizer/BioNTech BNT162B2, Moderna mRNA-1273 and AstraZeneca recombinant adenoviral ChAdOx1-S. Soon after approval, severe allergic reactions to the mRNA-based vaccines that resolved after treatment were reported. Regulatory agencies from the European Union, Unites States and the United Kingdom agree that vaccinations are contraindicated only when there is an allergy to one of the vaccine components or if there was a severe allergic reaction to the first dose. This position paper of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) agrees with these recommendations and clarifies that there is no contraindication to administer these vaccines to allergic patients who do not have a history of an allergic reaction to any of the vaccine components. Importantly, as is the case for any medication, anaphylaxis may occur after vaccination in the absence of a history of allergic disease. Therefore, we provide a simplified algorithm of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of severe allergic reactions and a list of recommended medications and equipment for vaccine centres. We also describe potentially allergenic/immunogenic components of the approved vaccines and propose a workup to identify the responsible allergen. Close collaboration between academia, regulatory agencies and vaccine producers will facilitate approaches for patients at risks, such as incremental dosing of the second injection or desensitization. Finally, we identify unmet research needs and propose a concerted international roadmap towards precision diagnosis and management to minimize the risk of allergic reactions to COVID-19 vaccines and to facilitate their broader and safer use.

While some papers report an increased risk of COVID-19 and worse outcomes1 in oncological patients, others have found no differences2 . We are not aware of studies assessing risk for COVID-19 and clinical outcomes of patients with Primary Cutaneous Lymphomas (PCL).

BACKGROUND Biogas is a valuable carbon-free renewable energy source that can be produced from anaerobic digestion of organic waste. Accordingly, biogas production is promoted worldwide in efforts to reduce carbon emissions and optimize the recovery of resources from waste streams. In this paper the biogas production from bioresidues collected in the capital area of Reykjavik was modelled in Aspen Plus v10. RESULTS Municipal solid waste (MSW), food waste (FW) and lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) were the feedstocks used in this research. A total of 16 scenarios were simulated at thermophilic temperature conditions of 55°C. Each scenario accounted for different inlet mass flows, varying the kind of feedstock, i.e. MSW, FW, LCB, or co-digestion of various feedstocks, using two model approaches: (i) one digestion stage and (ii) two stages coupled in series. Sizing, costing and environmental aspects were analysed for all the scenarios. A sensitivity analysis was carried out by changing the substrate concentration and studying its effect on the methane mass flow. Simulations showed biogas yields measured in millilitres per gram of volatile solids (VS) in the range 305.5-406.4 mL g-1 VS (single-stage approach); and biogas yields ranging from 64.78 to 358.8 mL g-1 VS (two-stage approach). Maximum methane yields were obtained using LCB as feedstock resulting in 106.0 mL g-1 VS. CONCLUSIONS From a technical viewpoint the highest biogas yield is obtained when using MSW whereas optimum calorific value of biogas and electrical power potential is achieved working in co-digestion of various feedstocks. This work was supported by the COST Action CA17133 ‘Imple-menting nature-based solutions for creating a resourceful circular city’ through the Short Term Scientific Missions (STSM) of the 2nd call with the topic of Circular Solutions in Reykjavik. The authors also acknowledge the support of the SORPA facility for providing the real data of waste management and for its interest. The authors especially appreciate the contribution of Thorleifur Thorbjornsson and Bjarni Hjardar.