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Using a dataset of higher education institutional alliances within the framework of the European University initiative (EUi), we test empirically whether the policy-defined goal of a relative balance between "excellence and inclusiveness" within the scheme has been achieved. Specifically, we provide a descriptive and analytical account of the diversity of the higher education institutions (HEIs) participating in the EUi, the composition of--as well as the mechanisms behind--the formation of individual alliances. We observe that alliance formation activated the deep sociological mechanisms of hierarchisation, with the alliances largely reproducing the existing "hierarchy of European HEIs." Specifically, we argue that the global-level stratification hierarchy cast by rankings influences the participation of individual institutions and--although to a more limited extent--the formation/structure of the alliances. Further, we demonstrate that the EUi has strengthened existing ties since most alliances thus far have built on existing forms of collaboration. However, we also show empirically that some of the distinctive policy design measures, namely the requirement for broad geographical coverage and generically framed rules for participation, as well as opening the initiative to new alliances and encouraging enlargement of the existing ones, have generated opportunities for involvement of the lower-status institutions. This broadened the scope of the EUi beyond the core of top-ranked research universities located in the knowledge production centres of Europe. We suggest that these observations may have important implications for how the intended extension of the EUi may be implemented in the future.

The Specola Museum is housed on the premises of the old Palermo Observatory, founded in 1790, and preserves most of the observatory’s cultural heritage. Environmental monitoring following the activation of air conditioning systems in 2018 revealed significant deviations from the historic thermo-hygrometric trends, with particularly dangerous fluctuations in relative humidity. A notable example of the impact of these changes is a 19th-century painted wooden Model of Mars, displayed in the Merz Hall since 2021. In less than two years, the Model has shown progressive damage to its paint layers. Conservation actions have been adopted to stop the deterioration process, but the risk of further deterioration phenomena involving other objects is expected to increase substantially in the absence of intervention. This paper presents the outcomes of a preliminary study on the thermo-hygrometric conditions in the Merz Hall. Based on the European Standard EN 15757: 2010 and the Italian Legislative decree of 10 May 2001, safe ranges for temperature and relative humidity have been identified for the long-term preservation of the collection. These findings will inform future climate management strategies in the museum.

This Article contends that the evolving approach of the inter-American human rights system toward the human rights of Indigenous peoples and persons of African descent, including their economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights, presents a key opportunity for U.S. civil society actors to expand beyond the dominant framework of civil rights discourse and domestic litigation. At the same time, it recognizes that developments in inter-American standards present challenges for engagement with the U.S. government, which has resisted accountability for racial discrimination and rejected the recognition of economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights. This Article will be particularly relevant to scholars and advocates interested in the intersection of the international human rights framework with the domestic legal, political, and social frameworks in the United States, as well as with the struggles of communities for social justice and human rights.

The objective of this study was to examine the catalytic pyrolysis process of three distinct types of biomasses: baru endocarp (ENB), macaúba endocarp (ENM), and macaúba epicarp (EPM). This was performed with the aim of optimizing the production of hydrocarbons and other volatile compounds of interest through the use of different catalysts. The catalysts utilized in this study were calcium oxide (CaO), phosphate mining waste (PO), niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5), and Ni/Nb2O5. The methodology entailed pyrolyzing the biomass at temperatures spanning from 508 °C to 791 °C, utilizing a micropyrolyzer in conjunction with a gas chromatograph with mass spectrometry (GC/MS) for product analysis. An experimental design was implemented to assess the impact of catalyst concentration and temperature on the yield and composition of the volatile products. The findings demonstrated that CaO was efficacious in deoxygenating the compounds, particularly at elevated temperatures, thereby promoting the generation of saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons. In contrast, Nb2O5 was effective in the formation of oxygenated compounds, particularly carboxylic acids and phenols. Ni/Nb2O5 has been shown to be effective in the production of cyclic, aromatic, alkadienes, and alkenes hydrocarbons. Phosphate mining waste exhibited moderate performance, with potential for specific applications at high temperatures, with important production of cyclic, aromatic, and alkane hydrocarbons. Among the biomasses, EPM demonstrated the greatest potential for hydrocarbon production, indicating its suitability for the development of advanced biofuels. This study advances our understanding of the catalytic pyrolysis of alternative biomasses and underscores the pivotal role of catalysts in optimizing the process, offering invaluable insights for the sustainable production of biofuels and interest in renewable chemicals.

ABSTRACT Three unsteady aerodynamic tools at different levels of fidelity and computational cost were used to investigate the unsteady aerodynamic behavior of a delta kite applied to airborne wind energy. The first tool is an in‐house unsteady panel method that is fast but delivers low to mid fidelity predictions. The second tool uses the open‐source CFD code SU2 to solve the unsteady Reynolds‐averaged Navier–Stokes equations with the k−ω SST turbulence model. At an intermediate level of fidelity, a semiempirical dynamic stall model that combines the panel method with a phenomenological dynamic stall module is proposed. The latter has free parameters that are fine‐tuned with CFD results from the second tool. The research on the dynamic stall model has been inspired by two flight test campaigns suggesting dynamic stall phenomena possibly driven by the periodic variation of the angle of attack (aerodynamic pitching motion) during crosswind maneuvers. The recorded inflow along the flight path was prescribed in the three aerodynamic tools. As expected, the price to pay for the low computational cost of the panel method is its inability to capture the dynamic stall phenomenon. The results from unsteady CFD qualitatively matched the experimental data identifying a leading‐edge vortex that forms and detaches cyclically during the pitching motion. Using RANS data, the semiempirical tool was fined‐tuned to reproduce the dynamic stall behavior, becoming an accurate and fast aerodynamic tool for coupling with any kite flight simulator. Further discussions on the effects of kite aerostructural deflections are included.

Studies on language shift in Singapore have focused on the language use within ethnic communities. However, despite increasing numbers of interethnic marriages, very few studies have explored the effect of such marriages on LS. This article explores the language practices within Malay-Chinese mixed marriages and examines how language policies in these marriages and families are negotiated. Through the analysis of surveys and interviews with 16 Malay-Chinese interethnic families, this study found that English transcends both Malay and Mandarin in terms of language use in all domains. The linguistic choices of participants are also dependent on their interlocutors. Parental ideologies, both overt and covert, point to Mandarin being perceived as important for their children's future while Malay was perceived to be a more familial language. This paper also highlights the influence government policies have on Singaporeans' perceptions on the status of languages. The data points unambiguously to language shift in progress within these families, away from either Mandarin or Malay towards English.

Techniques that enable precise manipulations of subsets of neurons in the fly central nervous system (CNS) have greatly facilitated our understanding of the neural basis of behavior. Split-GAL4 driver lines allow specific targeting of cell types in Drosophila melanogaster and other species. We describe here a collection of 3060 lines targeting a range of cell types in the adult Drosophila CNS and 1373 lines characterized in third-instar larvae. These tools enable functional, transcriptomic, and proteomic studies based on precise anatomical targeting. NeuronBridge and other search tools relate light microscopy images of these split-GAL4 lines to connectomes reconstructed from electron microscopy images. The collections are the result of screening over 77,000 split hemidriver combinations. Previously published and new lines are included, all validated for driver expression and curated for optimal cell-type specificity across diverse cell types. In addition to images and fly stocks for these well-characterized lines, we make available 300,000 new 3D images of other split-GAL4 lines.

In the last decades, research from cognitive science, clinical psychology, psychiatry, and social neuroscience has provided mounting evidence that several social cognitive abilities are impaired in people with schizophrenia and contribute to functional difficulties and poor clinical outcomes. Social dysfunction is a hallmark of the illness, and yet, social cognition is seldom assessed in clinical practice or targeted for treatment. In this article, 17 international experts, from three different continents and six countries with expertise in social cognition and social neuroscience in schizophrenia, convened several meetings to provide clinicians with a summary of the most recent international research on social cognition evaluation and treatment in schizophrenia, and to lay out primary recommendations and procedures that can be integrated into their practice. Given that many extant measures used to assess social cognition have been developed in North America or Western Europe, this article is also a call for researchers and clinicians to validate instruments internationally and we provide preliminary guidance for the adaptation and use of social cognitive measures in clinical and research evaluations internationally. This effort will assist promoting scientific rigor, enhanced clinical practice, and will help propel international scientific research and collaboration and patient care.

A Sprague-Dawley rat model was utilized to elucidate perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS) toxicokinetics with a goal of developing an in vivo approach for quantifying PFAS relative bioavailability in impacted soil. Following single dose administration (gavage) of ∼ 0.2–2000 µg kg−1 BW of PFOA, PFOS or PFHxS, differences in PFAS blood, organ and excreta concentrations were observed over 120 h although linear dose responses were determined for area under the blood plasma time curves (AUC; PFOA, PFHxS), liver accumulation (LA: PFOS) and urinary excretion (UE; PFOA, PFHxS). Oral and intravenous dose (∼20 µg kg−1 body weight) comparisons highlighted the high absolute bioavailability of PFOA (AUC: 100.3 ± 23.4 %; UE: 94.7 ± 26.6 %), PFOS (LA: 102.9 ± 15.6 %) and PFHxS (AUC: 88.3 ± 15.1 %; UE: 90.9 ± 7.3 %). Two spiked (14C-PFOA: 4360 ± 218 µg kg−1) and two PFAS impacted soils (PFOS: 1880–2250 µg kg−1; PFHxS: 61.2–65.5 µg kg−1) were utilized to measure PFAS relative bioavailability in soil matrices. In all soils, PFAS relative bioavailability was > 86 % (PFOA: 87.0–90.9 %; PFOS: 86.1–90.4 %; PFHxS: 86.5–97.0 %) although the method could quantify bioavailability reductions (25.6–88.9 %) when hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions were enhanced through the addition of carbon-based amendments (5–10 % w/w).

The potent immunostimulatory effects of toll-like receptor 8 (TLR8) agonism in combination with PD-1 blockade have resulted in various preclinical investigations, yet the mechanism of action in humans remains unknown. To decipher the combinatory mode of action of TLR8 agonism and PD-1 blockade, we employed a unique, open-label, phase 1b pre-operative window of opportunity clinical trial (NCT03906526) in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients. Matched pre- and post-treatment tumor biopsies from the same lesion were obtained. We used single-cell RNA sequencing and custom multiplex staining to leverage the unique advantage of same-lesion longitudinal sampling. Patients receiving dual TLR8 agonism and anti-PD-1 blockade exhibited marked upregulation of innate immune effector genes and cytokines, highlighted by increased CLEC9A+ dendritic cell and CLEC7A/SYK expression. This was revealed via comparison with a previous cohort from an anti-PD-1 blockade monotherapy single-cell RNA sequencing study. Furthermore, in dual therapy patients, post-treatment mature dendritic cells increased in adjacency to CD8+ T-cells. Increased tumoral cytotoxic T-lymphocyte densities and expanded CXCL13+CD8+ T-cell populations were observed in responders, with increased tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs) across all three patients. This study provides key insights into the mode of action of TLR8 agonism and anti-PD-1 blockade immune targeting in HNSCC patients.

Background: In the last decade, the kynurenine pathway (KP) has gained attention in the pathogenesis of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia being at the croassroad between neuroinflammation and glutamatergic and cholinergic neurotransmission. However, clinical findings are scarse and conflicting, and the specific contributions of these two systems to the neurobiology of cognitive symptoms are far from being elucidated. Furthermore, little is known about the molecular underpinnings of non-pharmacological interventions for cognitive improvement, including rehabilitation strategies. Methods: The current study examined 72 patients with schizophrenia, divided in two clusters depending on the severity of the cognitive impairment, with the aim to evaluate the impact of inflammatory biomarkers and KP metabolites depending on cognitive functioning. Moreover, we studied their possible link to the cognitive outcome in relation to sessions of cognitive remediation therapy (CRT) and aerobic exercise (AE) in a longitudinal arm of 42 patients. Results: Neuroinflammation appeared to exert a more pronounced influence on cognition in patients exhibiting a higher cognitive functioning, contrasting with the activation of the KP, which had a greater impact on individuals with a lower cognitive profile. Cognitive improvements after the treatments were negatively predicted by levels of TNF-α and positively predicted by the 3-hydroxykynurenine (3−HK)/kynurenine (KYN) ratio, an index of the kynurenine-3-monooxygenase (KMO) enzyme activity. Conclusion: Overall, these findings add novel evidence on the biological underpinnings of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia pointing at a differential role of neuroinflammation and KP metabolites in inducing cognitive deficits depending on the cognitive reserve and predicting outcomes after rehabilitation.