The complex tectonic evolution of the Alps-Apennines transition zone in NW Italy is still a matter of debate. In this work, we analyze the 2021–2022 seismic sequences around Genoa to understand how ...convergence between Africa and Europe is presently accommodated across the Alps-Apennines transition zone. The map-view distribution of HypoDD-relocated seismic events reveals a NE-SW alignment for the Savignone seismic sequence, and NNW-SSE alignments for the Borzonasca and Bargagli sequences. The Borzonasca seismic sequence plots in correspondence of the Villalvernia-Varzi-Ottone Fault, which is often considered as the boundary between the Alps and the Apennines, whereas no seismicity is documented along the Sestri-Voltaggio Fault. The main-shock focal solutions are invariably strike-slip, with near-vertical NNW-SSE and NE-SW to ENE-WSW nodal planes. The evident earthquake alignments in the study area mark active, km-scale fault planes in the upper crust, pointing to a scenario of distributed strike-slip deformation in the transition zone between the Alps and the Apennines. The NE-SW faults are inherited structures that underwent major Neogene rotations and are no longer suitably oriented to accommodate the northward motion of Adria relative to Europe. The Bargagli seismic sequence may reflect the formation of new NNW-SSE strike-slip faults in the upper crust that are more suitably oriented to accommodate the present-day stress field, consistent with the seismotectonic framework outlined by recent works in the nearby regions of the Adria-Europe plate-boundary zone. Our results highlight the important role of strike-slip faulting in the Adria-Europe plate boundary zone not only in the past, but also during its present-day evolution.
•A detailed seismotectonic study of the 2021–2022 seismic sequences around Genoa.•Earthquake alignments marking active km-scale fault planes in the upper crust.•The 2021–2022 main-shock focal solutions are invariably strike-slip.•A major role of strike-slip faulting in the Adria-Europe plate boundary zone.
This paper analyses the spillover effects oil price movements to consumer prices of transportation services in 27 EU countries, employing fixed-effects panel data estimation on the period from 2020 ...to 2023. This is the period of a sudden surge in global crude oil prices driven primarily by supply bottlenecks and the conflict in Ukraine. We analyze spillover effects on transport services prices as an aggregate, and separately for different modes of passenger transport, which include air passenger transport, sea and waterway passenger transport and railway passenger transport. We find that the effect of crude oil price on the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) of transport services is positive and statistically significant at 5% level. However, the effect of crude oil price on HICP of transport services varies across countries and different modes of passenger transport. The effect of crude oil price increase is less pronounced for road transport than for air and sea and waterway passenger transport, while the highest effect is estimated for air passenger transport. In contrast, recent oil price shock did not have a statistically significant effect on HICP of passenger railway transport. Overall, recent oil price shock had a limited impact on consumer prices of transport services in the EU. This can be mainly attributed to the implementation of targeted policy measures across the EU aimed at mitigating the inflationary effects of the global energy crisis.
Background
United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 will transition to pass/fail score by 2022. We aim to investigate US medical students’ perspectives on the potential implications ...this transition would have on their education and career opportunities.
Methods
A cross-sectional study investigating US medical students’ perspectives on the implications of transition of the USMLE Step 1 exam to pass/fail. Students were asked their preferences regarding various aspects of the USMLE Step 1 examination, including activities, educational opportunities, expenses regarding preparation for the examination, and future career opportunities.
Results
215 medical students responded to the survey, 59.1% were women, 80.9% were allopathic vs. 19.1% osteopathic students. 34.0% preferred the USMLE Step 1 to be graded on a pass/fail score, whereas 53.5% preferred a numeric scale. Osteopathic vs. allopathic students were more likely to report that the pass/fail transition will negatively impact their residency match (aOR = 1.454, 95% CI: 0.515, 4.106) and specialty of choice (aOR = 3.187, 95% CI: 0.980, 10.359). 57.7% of respondents reported that the transition to a pass/fail grading system will change their study habits.
Conclusions
The transition of the USMLE Step 1 to a pass/fail system has massive implications on medical students and residency programs alike. Though the majority of medical students did not prefer the USMLE Step 1 to have a pass/fail score, they must adapt their strategies to remain competitive for residency applications. Residency programs should create a composite score based off all aspects of medical students’ applications in order to create a holistic and fair evaluation and ranking system.
Two main nonpharmaceutical policy strategies have been used in Europe in response to the COVID‐19 epidemic: one aimed at natural herd immunity and the other at avoiding saturation of hospital ...capacity by crushing the curve. The two strategies lead to different results in terms of the number of lives saved on the one hand and production loss on the other hand. Using a susceptible–infected–recovered–dead model, we investigate and compare these two strategies. As the results are sensitive to the initial reproduction number, we estimate the latter for 10 European countries for each wave from January 2020 till March 2021 using a double sigmoid statistical model and the Oxford COVID‐19 Government Response Tracker data set. Our results show that Denmark, which opted for crushing the curve, managed to minimize both economic and human losses. Natural herd immunity, sought by Sweden and the Netherlands does not appear to have been a particularly effective strategy, especially for Sweden, both in economic terms and in terms of lives saved. The results are more mixed for other countries, but with no evident trade‐off between deaths and production losses.
Numerous studies examine corporate boards of directors' composition and firm performance. Far less is known about the factors influencing university boards' composition and university outcomes. This ...paper fills this void by examining the relationship between university board selection processes and constituent representation, board composition in terms of size and demographic composition, and the influence of board composition on institutional outcomes. We find that institutional sector, Carnegie classification, and wealth predict board size, and that institutions with larger boards tend to have more favorable institutional outcomes. Board gender and racial composition is less correlated with outcomes than is board size.
Authorities in the economic field (European Commission and US Federal Trade Commission) focus on the level of market concentration and establish limits in order to promote competition. However, ...sports authorities do not seem to pay the same attention to competitive balance in the national leagues, given the results achieved in the major leagues and limited interventions and regulations in this area. How are the major European football leagues evaluated based on the limits set for market concentration in the United States or the European Union? Following this line, we undertook a comparative analysis using the distance to competitive balance index, whose range is the unit interval, and define it as a function in a metric space. The comparative analysis shows, as in other studies, the high and ever‐growing concentration of the results of these leagues over the past 25 years. With the European Commission and US Federal Trade Commission criteria, about one in three seasons would have been highly concentrated in the period analysed, and half in the last 10 seasons. Thus, it would seem reasonable that mechanisms that encourage competitiveness are considered.
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•Low dose deltamethrin (DLM) effects have been reported in developing rodents.•Rats treated with DLM from P3-20 showed effects on NMDA-NR2A and NMDA-NR2B.•DLM increased apoptosis in ...the dentate gyrus by TUNEL staining.•DLM altered hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP).•DLM has multiple long-term effects on rat brain after early exposure.
Pyrethroid pesticides are widely used and can cause long-term effects after early exposure. Epidemiological and animal studies reveal associations between pyrethroid exposure and altered cognition following prenatal and/or neonatal exposure. However, little is known about the cellular effects of such exposure. Sprague Dawley rats were gavaged with 0 or 1.0 mg/kg deltamethrin (DLM), a Type II pyrethroid, in corn oil (dose volume 5 mL/kg) once per day from postnatal day (P) 3–20 and assessed shortly after dosing ended or as adults. No effects of DLM exposure were found on striatal dopaminergic markers, nor on AMPA receptor subunits or on NMDA-NR1. However, DLM increased NMDA-NR2A and decreased NMDA-NR2B levels in the hippocampus, in males but not females. Additionally, adult hippocampal CA1 long-term potentiation was increased in DLM-treated males but not females. Potassium stimulated extracellular glutamate release in the hippocampus was not affected using in vivo microdialysis. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) showed increased apoptotic cells in the dentate gyrus of male rats, in the absence of changes in cleaved caspase-3 at P21. Proinflammatory cytokines interferon gamma trended up in striatum, interleukin-1β trended down in nucleus accumbens, IL-13 trended up in hippocampus, and keratinocyte chemoattractant/human growth-regulated oncogene (KC/GRO or CXCL1) was significantly increased in the hippocampus in male DLM-treated rats on P20. The data point to the developing hippocampus as a susceptible region to DLM-induced adverse effects.
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•High throughput screening of chemicals identified a diverse array of FXR agonists and antagonists.•FXR agonists and antagonists identified through Tox21 screening were confirmed ...using orthogonal assays.•Co-factor recruitment and in vivo induction of FXR responsive genes was evaluated.•Demonstrated the molecular complexity of FXR:ligand interactions.•Confirmation of in vitro assays with vivo assessments aid in translational toxicology.
Toxicology in the 21st Century (Tox21) is a federal collaboration employing a high-throughput robotic screening system to test 10,000 environmental chemicals. One of the primary goals of the program is prioritizing toxicity evaluations through in vitro high-throughput screening (HTS) assays for large numbers of chemicals already in commercial use for which little or no toxicity data is available. Within the Tox21 screening program, disruption in nuclear receptor (NR) signaling represents a particular area of interest. Given the role of NR’s in modulating a wide range of biological processes, alterations of their activity can have profound biological impacts. Farnesoid X receptor (FXR) is a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily that has demonstrated importance in bile acid homeostasis, glucose metabolism, lipid homeostasis and hepatic regeneration. In this study, we re-evaluated 24 FXR agonists and antagonists identified through Tox21 using select orthogonal assays. In transient transactivation assays, 7/8 putative agonists and 4/4 putative inactive compounds were confirmed. Likewise, we confirmed 9/12 antagonists tested. Using a mammalian two hybrid approach we demonstrate that both FXR agonists and antagonists facilitate FXRα-coregulator interactions suggesting that differential coregulator recruitment may mediate activation/repression of FXRα mediated transcription. Additionally, we tested the ability of select FXR agonists and antagonists to facilitate hepatic transcription of FXR gene targets Shp and Bsep in a teleost (Medaka) model. Through application of in vitro cell-based assays, in silico modeling and in vivo gene expressions, we demonstrated the molecular complexity of FXR:ligand interactions and confirmed the ability of diverse ligands to modulate FXRα, facilitate differential coregulator recruitment and activate/repress receptor-mediated transcription. Overall, we suggest a multiplicative approach to assessment of nuclear receptor function may facilitate a greater understanding of the biological and mechanistic complexities of nuclear receptor activities and further our ability to interpret broad HTS outcomes.
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