Abstract
Anthropogenic impacts in groundwater ecosystems remain poorly known. Climate change is omnipresent, while groundwater salinization poses serious long-term environmental problems in arid and ...semi-arid regions, and is exacerbated by global warming. Both are present threats to the conservation of groundwater ecosystems, which harbour highly specialized species, with peculiar traits and limited geographic distributions. We tested the temperature and salinity tolerance of groundwater-adapted invertebrates to understand the effect of global warming and salinization in groundwater ecosystems. We used species representative of groundwater-adapted crustaceans: two copepods (harpacticoid and cyclopoid) and one syncarid, endemic to Australia. Our results show that 50% of the populations died at salt concentrations between 2.84 to 7.35 g NaCl/L after 96 h, and at 6.9 °C above the ambient aquifer temperature for copepods and more than 10 °C for syncarids. Both copepods were more sensitive to temperature and NaCl than the syncarid. We calculated a salinity risk quotient of 9.7 and predicted the risk of loss of 10% of syncarid and 20% of copepod population abundances under a worst-case scenario of global warming predictions for 2070. These results highlight that both salinity and temperature increases pose a risk to the ecological integrity of groundwater ecosystems.
Abstract This article analyses the use of a locally developed assessment tool designed to generate aggregated data to evaluate the work of a psychiatric and addiction clinic. The use of tools, ...methods and interventions in the Swedish social services is usually based on recommendations in national guidelines established by the National Board of Health and Welfare (NBHW). Thus, a locally produced and systematically used assessment tool provides an interesting deviant case for discussing knowledge production and use from the perspective of evidence‐based practice. The assessment tool was characterised by the specific psychiatric and addiction clinic context, where local needs and prerequisites were prioritised over the recommendations found in NBHW guidelines. The empirics comprise interviews with 12 professionals who used the tool, where experience of using the tool was analysed using a thematic analysis. The findings can be summarised in three main conclusions. First, tinkering of tools and methods is not necessarily associated with limited practice applicability or relevance. Second, professionals are more likely to appreciate a tool if that tool is designed with a treatment and conversation rationality in mind. Third, rather than perceived as more valid than other types of knowledge, NBHW‐recommended tools are associated with a certain shape or style – but a shape or style that is permeated by legitimacy.
Scholars have proposed that immigrant optimism explains why some immigrant students outperform their United States‐born peers academically. Yet, immigrant optimism has not been directly measured. ...This study aims to test the immigrant optimism hypothesis by operationalizing it using the Children’s Hope Scale. Using structural equation modeling, the author examined the associations between hope, immigrant generation, citizenship status, and academic outcomes among a sample of 2,369 Latino 14‐ to 17‐year‐old students. Though no difference by immigrant generation was found, undocumented students were more hopeful than their documented peers. This finding suggests that the documentation status has an indirect relative effect on academic outcomes via hope. This article reexamines the immigrant optimism as a resource that could be fostered among Latino youth, regardless of immigrant status.
Experimental trials in organisms ranging from yeast to humans have shown that various forms of reducing food intake (caloric restriction) appear to increase both overall and healthy lifespan, ...delaying the onset of disease and slowing the progression of biomarkers of aging. The gut microbiota is considered one of the key environmental factors strongly contributing to the regulation of host health. Perturbations in the composition and activity of the gut microbiome are thought to be involved in the emergence of multiple diseases. Indeed, many studies investigating gut microbiota have been performed and have shown strong associations between specific microorganisms and metabolic diseases including overweight, obesity, and type 2 diabetes mellitus as well as specific gastrointestinal disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and even cancer. Dietary interventions known to reduce inflammation and improve metabolic health are potentiated by prior fasting. Inversely, birth weight differential host oxidative phosphorylation response to fasting implies epigenetic control of some of its effector pathways. There is substantial evidence for the efficacy of fasting in improving insulin signaling and blood glucose control, and in reducing inflammation, conditions for which, additionally, the gut microbiota has been identified as a site of both risk and protective factors. Accordingly, human gut microbiota, both in symbiont and pathobiont roles, have been proposed to impact and mediate some health benefits of fasting and could potentially affect many of these diseases. While results from small‐N studies diverge, fasting consistently enriches widely recognized anti‐inflammatory gut commensals such as Faecalibacterium and other short‐chain fatty acid producers, which likely mediates some of its health effects through immune system and barrier function impact.
Background: Time restricted eating (TRE) involves eating all food within a specified window (4 to 10 h) and water fasting for the rest of the day. TRE produces several metabolic health benefits, but ...concerns have been raised regarding the impact of this diet on reproductive hormone levels in women. Objective: Accordingly, we conducted this study to examine how TRE impacts estradiol, estrone, progesterone, DHEA, androstenedione, testosterone, and SHBG concentrations in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Methods: This is a secondary analysis of an 8-week TRE study (4-6 h eating window, 18-20 h fasting window daily) conducted in adults with obesity. Male participants and perimenopausal women were excluded. Female subjects were classified into two groups based on menstrual status: premenopausal (n = 12), or postmenopausal (n = 11). Results: After 8 weeks, body weight decreased in premenopausal women (-3 ± 1%) and postmenopausal women (-3 ± 1%) (main effect of time, p < 0.001), with no difference between groups (no group ' time interaction). Levels of testosterone, androstenedione, SHBG did not change in either group of women (no group ' time interaction). DHEA concentrations decreased (p < 0.05) in premenopausal (-14 ± 9%) and postmenopausal women (-13 ± 10%; main effect of time, p = 0.03). Estradiol, estrone, and progesterone were only measured in postmenopausal women, and remained unchanged by week 8. Conclusions: These findings suggest that short-term TRE has little effect on reproductive hormone levels in premenopausal and postmenopausal with obesity. However, these findings still require confirmation by well-powered RCT that specifically examines the effect of fasting on the reproductive health of women of various ages.
This scientific commentary refers to ‘Hippocampal-subfield microstructures and their relation to plasma biomarkers in Alzheimer's disease’ by Shahid et al. (https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awac138).
Stigmatisation has been recognised as a major factor influencing the fortunes of populist radical right (PRR) parties. While scholars have examined it by taking parties as units of analysis, this ...study focuses on the individual level by asking Which PRR party members are more likely to feel stigmatised? After offering a novel theoretical explanation for feelings of stigmatisation based on the personal networks in which PRR grassroots members are embedded, it then investigates stigma using an original membership survey of about 7,000 members of the Sweden Democrats (SD) and interviews with 30 of them. The survey results show that the higher the educational qualification PRR grassroots members have achieved, the more likely they will feel stigmatised. In addition, those who have never had any relatives and/or friends in the SD, and those who are employed in the public sector, are more likely to consider membership discrediting. The interview data shed light on the survey results, by illustrating how public employees and university students find it hard to be open about their membership as they are surrounded by people with left‐wing views. By contrast, having relatives and/or friends who are members of the party reduces the stigma of joining PRR parties, becoming active in them, and talking about politics in public. Along with countering some of the prevailing wisdom about stigmatisation in PRR parties, the findings contribute to our understanding of PRR grassroots membership, which has long been an overlooked topic in the literature.
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