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The polar regions provide valuable insights into the functioning of the Earth’s regulating systems. Conducting field research in such harsh and remote environments requires strong international cooperation, extended planning horizons, sizable budgets and long-term investment. Consequently, polar research is particularly vulnerable to societal and economic pressures during periods of austerity. The global financial crisis of 2008, and the ensuing decade of economic slowdown, have already adversely affected polar research, and the current COVID-19 pandemic has added further pressure. In this article we present the outcomes of a community survey that aimed to assess the main barriers and success factors identified by academic researchers at all career stages in response to these global crises. The survey results indicate that the primary barriers faced by polar early and mid-career researchers (EMCRs) act at institutional level, while mitigating factors are developed at individual and group levels. Later career scientists report pressure toward taking early retirement as a means of institutions saving money, reducing both academic leadership and the often unrecognized but vital mentor roles that many play. Gender and social inequalities are also perceived as important barriers. Reorganization of institutional operations and more effective strategies for long-term capacity building and retaining of talent, along with reduction in non-research duties shouldered by EMCRs, would make important contributions toward ensuring continued vitality and innovation in the polar research community.

This paper uses European high capitalization corporate data for the 1991–2019 period to demonstrate that a systematic active management portfolio based on the identification of value, profitability, and momentum factors can outperform competing benchmark strategies. Factor investment methodologies received significant attention in the literature in the U.S. market but their application to European corporates is more limited. The authors construct several systematic investment strategies combining different metrics measuring the three factors. Reported results show that a) combined (mixed/conditional) strategies deliver positive alphas and significantly outperform their pure strategy counterparts and b) while there exists a time changing performance of selected metrics the iterative combination of factors delivers the highest performance with average annualized compounded returns of up to about 17%.Three Key Takeaways:1. This paper documents the existence of alpha-generating factor strategies based on a combination of value, profitability, and momentum metrics. Combined (mixed/conditional) portfolios significantly outperform their pure strategy counterparts.2. The iterative combination of factors delivers the highest performance with annualized compounded returns of up to 17%.3. In line with the recent literature, we find decaying returns to factor strategies.

Increased life expectancy is usually associated with comorbidities, such as cardio and cerebrovascular disease causing impaired functionality. A common underlying cause of these comorbidities is vascular inflammation and injury. Elevated levels of circulating microvesicles (cMV), as a product of a hemostatic and inflammatory cell activation, could be direct mapping of an imbalanced hemostasis. In this manuscript, we aimed to investigate by liquid biopsy whether successful aging can be discriminated by cMV levels and phenotype. To this purpose, we included 135 community-dwelling octogenarians in a cross-sectional study. Successful aging was defined as good functional (Barthel Index > 90 points, and Lawton index score > 7/4 points for women and men, respectively) and cognitive status (Spanish version of the Mini-Mental State Examination -MEC- > 24 points) and no need for institutionalization. Total, annexin V positive (AV+), and AV– cMV from different cell origins from the vascular compartment were phenotypically characterized and quantified from fasting plasma samples by flow cytometry. Successful aging was associated with lower plasma concentrations of total and AV+ CD141+/CD41+-CD61+, and PAC1+/AV+, CD141+/AV+, and CD36+/AV– cMV. From these phenotypes, ROC curve analyses revealed that CD141+/AV+ and CD141+/CD41+-CD61+/AV+ endothelial- and platelet-derived cMV discriminate successful and non-successful aging with an AUC (95%CI) of 0.655 (0.551, 0.758), P = 0.005, and 0.638 (0.535, 0.741), P = 0.013, respectively. In conclusion, successful aging is associated with low levels of cMV released by endothelial cells and platelets, indicating lower endothelial cell inflammation and platelet activation. Our results contribute to the understanding of the link between unsuccessful aging, cognitive decline and vascular cell inflammatory disturbances.

Copyright of Qualitative Research in Education (2014-6418) is the property of Qualitative Research in Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Given the currently changing climate conditions it is of primary importance to optimise the management of hydropower resources. This paper proposes a framework in a dynamic setting to determine the water outflow that maximises the value of a water resource for a given reservoir. The model includes two sources of uncertainty, the water inventory determined mainly by the water inflow and the electricity prices. It is implemented under the stochastic optimal control approach and calibrated using monthly data of reservoir characteristics from ResOpsUs. The results indicate that the inventory dynamics are specially important in valuing reservoir resources. The application of optimal management policies guarantees the long-term sustainability of the reservoir. The possible effects of climate change are considered in a sensitivity analysis to changes in the price and water inventory dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent energy crisis has renewed interest in forecasting crude oil prices. This paper focuses on identifying the main drivers determining the evolution of crude oil prices and proposes a statistical learning forecasting algorithm based on regression analysis that can be used to generate future oil price scenarios. A combination of a generalized additive model with a linear transfer function with ARIMA noise is used to capture the existence of combinations of non-linear and linear relationships between selected input variables and the crude oil price. The results demonstrate that the physical market balance or fundamental is the most important metric in explaining the evolution of oil prices. The effect of the trading activity and volatility variables are significant under abnormal market conditions. We show that forecast accuracy under the proposed model supersedes benchmark specifications, including the futures prices and analysts' forecasts. Four oil price scenarios are considered for expository purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and objective: No autochthonous human cases of Japanese encephalitis (JE) have been reported to date in the European Union (EU). In this study, we assess the likelihood of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) introduction and transmission within the EU and propose outbreak response measures. Risk assessment: Given the global geographical distribution of JEV, the probability of virus introduction into the EU is currently very low, with viremic bird migration being the most plausible pathway of introduction. However, this likelihood would significantly increase if the virus were to become established in the Middle East, Caucasus, Central Asia or Africa. Considering the environmental conditions that are expected to be conducive for virus circulation, there is a high likelihood of virus transmission within the EU after its introduction in environmentally suitable areas. The spread of the virus within the EU would likely occur through the movement of wild birds, pigs and mosquitoes. Mitigation: To mitigate or potentially contain the emergence of JE in the EU, early detection of both human and animal cases will be crucial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physiotherapy involves the recovery of functionality and the reduction of disability in people affected by a physical and/or mental condition that does not allow their adequate interaction with their environment. In the middle of the 20th century, Physiotherapy became a profession inserted in the field of care and health care, so its exercise requires academic, ethical training and specific skills that allow the best possible exercise. This review presents a description of the current panorama of disability and Physiotherapy in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehending symbiont abundance among host species is a major ecological endeavour, and the metabolic theory of ecology has been proposed to understand what constrains symbiont populations.We parameterized metabolic theory equations to investigate how bird species' body size and the body size of their feather mites relate to mite abundance according to four potential energy (uropygial gland size) and space constraints (wing area, total length of barbs and number of feather barbs). Predictions were compared with the empirical scaling of feather mite abundance across 106 passerine bird species (26,604 individual birds sampled), using phylogenetic modelling and quantile regression.Feather mite abundance was strongly constrained by host space (number of feather barbs) but not by energy. Moreover, feather mite species' body size was unrelated to the body size of their host species.We discuss the implications of our results for our understanding of the bird–feather mite system and for symbiont abundance in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Avian malaria parasites are a highly diverse group that commonly infect birds and have deleterious effects on their hosts. Some parasite lineages are geographically widespread and infect many host species in many regions. Bird migration, natural dispersal, invasive species and human-mediated introductions into areas where competent insect vectors are present, are probably the main drivers of the current distribution of avian malaria parasites. Methods A total of 412 and 2588 wild house sparrows (Passer domesticus) were captured in 2012 and 2013 in two areas of the Iberian Peninsula (central and southern Spain, respectively). Genomic DNA was extracted from blood samples; parasite lineages were sequenced and identified by comparing with GenBank and/or MalAvi databases. Results Thirteen Plasmodium lineages were identified in house sparrows corresponding to three major clades. Five individuals were infected by the African Plasmodium lineage PAGRI02, which has been proposed to actively circulate only in Africa. Conclusions Despite the low prevalence of PAGRI02 in sparrows in Spain, our results suggest that the area of transmission of this parasite is more widespread than previously thought and covers both Africa and Europe. Further studies of the global distribution of Plasmodium lineages infecting wild birds are required to identify the current transmission areas of these parasites. This is vital given the current scenario of global change that is providing new opportunities for avian malaria transmission into areas where parasites were previously absent.

Background: Probable benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, spontaneously resolved (pBPPVsr), is a variant of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) in which there is no observable nystagmus and no vertigo with any positional maneuver. Objectives: To calculate the incidence pBPPVsr, compare the characteristics of the patients with pBPPVsr and BPPV not spontaneously resolved and describe the spontaneous resolution in the natural course of BPPV. Methods: Multicenter prospective descriptive study. During a one-year period, all patients with suspected BPPV that presented to the Neurotology Units of five participating centers were recruited. The incidence of pBPPVsr was calculated as a percentage of the total number of patients with BPPV. The prevalence of several variables was compared between pBPPVsr and BPPV not spontaneously resolved. The timing of spontaneous resolution was estimated using Kaplan-Meier curves. Results: 457 patients met the inclusion criteria. The incidence of pBPPVsr was 33.5%. It was significantly higher in males, in patients with normal bone mass and in patients who were not taking sulpiride. A rate of 18% of spontaneous resolution after the first month and 51% after the first year was found. This percentage did not change in a significant way after this moment. The curves for males, patients under 50 and patients with normal blood pressure decreased significantly faster. Conclusions: In our serie, BPPV spontaneously resolved in half of the patients with BPPV during the first year. This seemed to occur more commonly in males and could have been hindered by sulpiride intake, osteoporosis, advanced age and high blood pressure. Keywords: Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, Probable benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, spontaneously resolved, Osteoporosis, Sulpiride, Hypertension

Andrew Olivo-Payne,1 Alexandra Abdala-Figuerola,2 Erick Hernandez-Bogantes,3 Lucero Pedro-Aguilar,4 Elsie Chan,5 Daniel Godefrooij61Cornea and Refractive Surgery Department, Instituto De Oftalmología Fundación Conde De Valenciana, Mexico City, Mexico; 2Cornea Department, Grupo Oftalmologico Abdala-Figuerola, Barranquilla, Colombia; 3Cornea Department, Centro Ocular, Heredia, Costa Rica; 4Instituto De Oftalmología Fundación Conde De Valenciana, Mexico City, Mexico; 5Cornea Unit, Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, Centre for Eye Research Australia, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; 6Utrecht Cornea Research Group, Universitair Medisch Centrum Utrecht, Utrecht, NetherlandsAbstract: Keratoconus (KC) shows several distinctive features in clinical appearance, disease progression, and treatment in children compared with adults. Therefore, diagnostic, clinical care, and therapeutic approaches are different. However, pediatric keratoconus is often undiagnosed and thus untreated in many cases. Once diagnosis has been made, compliance with treatment recommendations is often poor. Pediatric keratoconus also tends to have more rapid progression than in adults; therefore, early detection and treatment are paramount to prevent serious vision impairment, which can affect the child’s development. This review of pediatric keratoconus discusses important issues such as worldwide epidemiology, clinical features in children compared to adults, and challenges in diagnosis and treatment and focuses on the most appropriate management strategies based on the best available current evidence.Keywords: cornea, pediatric, keratoconus, crosslinking, corneal transplant, ICRS