Previous research on Hungarian right-wing populism has documented how the present government has identified different groups and individuals as threats to innate national interests and values, ...drawing distinctions between the ‘nation’, illegal migrants, non-heteronormative persons, liberal enemies in Brussels, George Soros and others. At the same time, the Orbán government has exploited the country’s internal divisions which, for example, reflect long-standing contestations between liberal and conservative understandings of national identity and purpose. Employing a critical border studies perspective, this article explores Hungary’s illiberal practices of socio-cultural, spatial and temporal border-making. These are central to Hungary’s project of ‘illiberal democracy’ and the forging of a political environment that marginalizes alternative viewpoints and that extends into the organization of civil society and everyday life. European dimensions of the Hungarian regime’s border politics are also briefly discussed in terms of evoking liberal-conservative divides and Hungary’s claims for greater national recognition as a defender of Europe’s Christian heritage. In the concluding section, the potential significance of Hungarian illiberal politics in terms of an erosion of social cohesion both nationally and within the European Union will be considered.
Climate change and decadal variability are impacting marine fish and invertebrate species worldwide and these impacts will continue for the foreseeable future. Quantitative approaches have been ...developed to examine climate impacts on productivity, abundance, and distribution of various marine fish and invertebrate species. However, it is difficult to apply these approaches to large numbers of species owing to the lack of mechanistic understanding sufficient for quantitative analyses, as well as the lack of scientific infrastructure to support these more detailed studies. Vulnerability assessments provide a framework for evaluating climate impacts over a broad range of species with existing information. These methods combine the exposure of a species to a stressor (climate change and decadal variability) and the sensitivity of species to the stressor. These two components are then combined to estimate an overall vulnerability. Quantitative data are used when available, but qualitative information and expert opinion are used when quantitative data is lacking. Here we conduct a climate vulnerability assessment on 82 fish and invertebrate species in the Northeast U.S. Shelf including exploited, forage, and protected species. We define climate vulnerability as the extent to which abundance or productivity of a species in the region could be impacted by climate change and decadal variability. We find that the overall climate vulnerability is high to very high for approximately half the species assessed; diadromous and benthic invertebrate species exhibit the greatest vulnerability. In addition, the majority of species included in the assessment have a high potential for a change in distribution in response to projected changes in climate. Negative effects of climate change are expected for approximately half of the species assessed, but some species are expected to be positively affected (e.g., increase in productivity or move into the region). These results will inform research and management activities related to understanding and adapting marine fisheries management and conservation to climate change and decadal variability.
This essay contextualises Hungarian antipolitics of Europe as an element of radical conservative nation-building and as a reflection of the strategic use of borders. Two concrete examples of border ...politics will be elaborated that document shifts from EU-conformity to EU-contestation and the increasing political significance of culturalist arguments. These cases, moreover, are exemplary of the dual nature of then nationalist-conservative agenda which involves: 1) the implementation of an ethnopolitical and thus extraterritorial, de-bordered notion of nation and 2) the unilateral securitisation of Hungary's borders, for example with Serbia, in a self-proclaimed defence of European integrity. The research that informs this essay is based on a review of media sources, academic and policy-focused literature. The essay begins with a discussion of links between Hungarian euroscepticism and the radical conservative nation-building project and continues with an analysis of post-1989 border politics with regards to the areas mentioned above. Considerable attention will be devoted to the Hungarian government's politics of borders and contestations of European Union within the context of the so-called refugee crisis and wider debates regarding immigration and asylum.
Climate Change and Mental Health: A Scoping Review Charlson, Fiona; Ali, Suhailah; Benmarhnia, Tarik ...
International journal of environmental research and public health,
04/2021, Volume:
18, Issue:
9
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Climate change is negatively impacting the mental health of populations. This scoping review aims to assess the available literature related to climate change and mental health across the World ...Health Organisation's (WHO) five global research priorities for protecting human health from climate change. We conducted a scoping review to identify original research studies related to mental health and climate change using online academic databases. We assessed the quality of studies where appropriate assessment tools were available. We identified 120 original studies published between 2001 and 2020. Most studies were quantitative (
= 67), cross-sectional (
= 42), conducted in high-income countries (
= 87), and concerned with the first of the WHO global research priorities-assessing the mental health risks associated with climate change (
= 101). Several climate-related exposures, including heat, humidity, rainfall, drought, wildfires, and floods were associated with psychological distress, worsened mental health, and higher mortality among people with pre-existing mental health conditions, increased psychiatric hospitalisations, and heightened suicide rates. Few studies (
= 19) addressed the other four global research priorities of protecting health from climate change (effective interventions (
= 8); mitigation and adaptation (
= 7); improving decision-support (
= 3); and cost estimations (
= 1)). While climate change and mental health represents a rapidly growing area of research, it needs to accelerate and broaden in scope to respond with evidence-based mitigation and adaptation strategies.
Abstract
Transcription enhancers are essential activators of V(D)J recombination that orchestrate non-coding transcription through complementary, unrearranged gene segments. How transcription is ...coordinately increased at spatially distinct promoters, however, remains poorly understood. Using the murine immunoglobulin lambda (Igλ) locus as model, we find that three enhancer-like elements in the 3′ Igλ domain, Eλ3–1, HSCλ1 and HSE-1, show strikingly similar transcription factor binding dynamics and close spatial proximity, suggesting that they form an active enhancer hub. Temporal analyses show coordinate recruitment of complementary V and J gene segments to this hub, with comparable transcription factor binding dynamics to that at enhancers. We find further that E2A, p300, Mediator and Integrator bind to enhancers as early events, whereas YY1 recruitment and eRNA synthesis occur later, corresponding to transcription activation. Remarkably, the interplay between sense and antisense enhancer RNA is central to both active enhancer hub formation and coordinate Igλ transcription: Antisense Eλ3–1 eRNA represses Igλ activation whereas temporal analyses demonstrate that accumulating levels of sense eRNA boost YY1 recruitment to stabilise enhancer hub/promoter interactions and lead to coordinate transcription activation. These studies therefore demonstrate for the first time a critical role for threshold levels of sense versus antisense eRNA in locus activation.
Graphical Abstract
Graphical Abstract
Erasable conductive domain walls in insulating ferroelectric thin films can be used for non-destructive electrical read-out of the polarization states in ferroelectric memories. Still, the ...domain-wall currents extracted by these devices have not yet reached the intensity and stability required to drive read-out circuits operating at high speeds. This study demonstrated non-destructive read-out of digital data stored using specific domain-wall configurations in epitaxial BiFeO
thin films formed in mesa-geometry structures. Partially switched domains, which enable the formation of conductive walls during the read operation, spontaneously retract when the read voltage is removed, reducing the accumulation of mobile defects at the domain walls and potentially improving the device stability. Three-terminal memory devices produced 14 nA read currents at an operating voltage of 5 V, and operated up to T = 85 °C. The gap length can also be smaller than the film thickness, allowing the realization of ferroelectric memories with device dimensions far below 100 nm.
De-coding New Regionalism Scott, James W
2009, 20160513, 2009-01-01, 2016-05-13, 2016-05-18, 20090101
eBook
Bringing together comparative case studies from Central Europe and South America, this book focuses on 'new' regions - regions created as political projects of modernization and 're-scaling'. Through ...this approach it de-codes 'New Regionalism' in terms of its contributions to institutional change, while acknowledging its contested nature and contradictions. It questions whether these regions are merely a strategy of neo-liberal adjustment to changing political and economic conditions, or whether they are indicative of true reform, greater citizen participation and empowerment. It assesses whether these regions are really representing something new or whether they are a reconfiguration of traditional power relationships. It provides a timely critical analysis of 'region-building' and the extent to which national processes of decentralization and sub-national processes of regionalism can enhance the effectiveness and responsiveness of governance.
Background:
Despite increased awareness of the adverse impact of bullying on mental health, the prevalence of bullying in Australia is uncertain. The aim of the current study was to conduct a ...systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the prevalence of bullying (traditional and cyber) among Australian children and adolescents. This study synthesised bullying prevalence studies on victimisation experiences (being bullied) and perpetration experiences (bullying others).
Method:
A systematic review of electronic databases (A+ Education, EMBASE, ERIC, PubMed, PsycINFO and Scopus up to 27 May 2017) was conducted. In addition, reference lists of included studies, theses recorded at the National Library of Australia, and government websites were surveyed to identify local area data as well as state and nationally representative data. Overall, 898 studies were screened and out of the 126 studies assessed for eligibility, 46 satisfied the pre-determined inclusion criteria. Meta-analyses based on quality-effects models generated pooled prevalence estimates for each of the two types of bullying involvement (victimisation and perpetration), as well as distinct models for traditional bullying and cyberbullying experiences by the type of involvement.
Results:
Overall, the 12-month prevalence of bullying victimisation was 15.17% (95% confidence interval = 9.17, 22.30) and perpetration was 5.27% (95% confidence interval = 3.13, 7.92). The lifetime prevalence for traditional bullying victimisation was 25.13% (95% confidence interval = 18.73, 32.11) and perpetration was 11.61% (95% confidence interval = 7.41, 16.57). Cyberbullying victimisation and perpetration were less common with lifetime prevalence of 7.02% (95% confidence interval = 2.41, 13.54) and 3.45% (95% confidence interval = 1.13, 6.84), respectively.
Conclusion:
Bullying is common among children and adolescents in Australia. There is a need to improve the measurement of bullying using a standardised instrument and for prevalence estimates to be collected on a regular basis to assess change over time. Wide implementation of anti-bullying programmes in Australian schools is a viable public health approach for the prevention of mental health problems.
Given the integration of the City of London into the single market for financial services in the European Union (EU), theories of transnational governance would expect the United Kingdom (UK) to ...favour close regulatory alignment with the EU27 post-Brexit to maximise market access and financial stability. Surprisingly, however, the UK has consistently demanded regulatory flexibility in financial services and has accepted reduced market access. We argue that the explanation is twofold. First, UK preferences reflect the need to balance the competing demands of elected officials, the financial industry and financial regulators. Second, drawing on a bureaucratic politics perspective, we suggest that UK preferences have been strongly shaped by the importance to UK regulators of retaining autonomy over high-status policy competences. This article contributes to the broader literature on the politics of financial regulation by highlighting the added value of incorporating a bureaucratic politics perspective when explaining financial regulatory preferences.
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