Iron is an essential component of the erythrocyte protein hemoglobin and is crucial to oxygen transport in vertebrates. In the steady state, erythrocyte production is in equilibrium with erythrocyte ...removal. In various pathophysiological conditions, however, erythrocyte life span is compromised severely, which threatens the organism with anemia and iron toxicity. Here we identify an on-demand mechanism that clears erythrocytes and recycles iron. We show that monocytes that express high levels of lymphocyte antigen 6 complex, locus C1 (LY6C1, also known as Ly-6C) ingest stressed and senescent erythrocytes, accumulate in the liver via coordinated chemotactic cues, and differentiate into ferroportin 1 (FPN1, encoded by SLC40A1)-expressing macrophages that can deliver iron to hepatocytes. Monocyte-derived FPN1(+)Tim-4(neg) macrophages are transient, reside alongside embryonically derived T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain containing 4 (Timd4, also known as Tim-4)(high) Kupffer cells (KCs), and depend on the growth factor Csf1 and the transcription factor Nrf2 (encoded by Nfe2l2). The spleen, likewise, recruits iron-loaded Ly-6C(high) monocytes, but these do not differentiate into iron-recycling macrophages, owing to the suppressive action of Csf2. The accumulation of a transient macrophage population in the liver also occurs in mouse models of hemolytic anemia, anemia of inflammation, and sickle cell disease. Inhibition of monocyte recruitment to the liver during stressed erythrocyte delivery leads to kidney and liver damage. These observations identify the liver as the primary organ that supports rapid erythrocyte removal and iron recycling, and uncover a mechanism by which the body adapts to fluctuations in erythrocyte integrity.
Most research in environmental psychology is conducted in individualistic countries and focuses on factors pertaining to individuals. It is yet unclear whether these findings also apply to more ...collectivistic countries, in which group factors might play a prominent role. In the current paper, we test the individual-focused value-identity-behaviour pathway, in which personal biospheric values relate to pro-environmental actions via environmental self-identity, in an individualistic and a collectivistic country. Furthermore, we test in both countries whether a new group-focused pathway also exists, in which group values relate to pro-environmental behaviour via environmental group identity, particularly in collectivistic countries. Questionnaire studies were conducted among Dutch (
= 161) and Chinese (
= 168) students. Our results indicated that personal biospheric values, mostly via environmental self-identity, predict pro-environmental behaviour in both countries. We also found initial support for our newly proposed value-identity-behaviour pathway at the group level, particularly in China. Yet, in both countries, the association between group-level variables and pro-environmental behaviour was weaker than for personal-level variables, and partly overlapped with personal-level variables. Our findings show the relevance of personal- and group-level factors in understanding pro-environmental behaviour in both individualistic and collectivistic countries, which has strong theoretical and practical implications, particularly for developing international strategies to promote pro-environmental actions across the world.
Cities all over the world are trying to divert municipal waste away from landfill and fossil fuel-assisted incineration and toward circular economies where waste is converted into new resources. ...Residential food waste is the most challenging sub-stream, as it is the worst culprit in producing greenhouse gases in landfill and incineration, and it is almost impossible to have residents separate it cleanly at source. Here we investigate the outstanding diversion results of Shanghai Municipality since the introduction of the July 2019 Municipal Regulations, of over 9600 tons per day of clean food waste, still maintained two years later. In particular, we question why they might have increased so sharply after July 2019 and examine historic policies to determine broad policy intentions, their implementations, and officially reported tonnages of different resulting waste streams. It was found that many prior steps included infrastructure building and piloting different behavioral approaches. However, the July 2019 policy brought in legal responsibilities to very clearly defined roles for each stakeholder—including for the residents to sort and for local governances to support them—and this pulled all the operational elements together. The immediate and sustained jumps in clean food waste collection fed biogas production (0.1–1.0 GWh/day) and energy-from-waste (less wet) (5.4–8.6 GWh/day).
Hyperosmotic stress may result in osmotic volume loss from the body to the environment in animals that cannot control the water permeability of their integument. Euryhaline animals (which have a wide ...tolerance range of environmental salinities) have generally evolved the ability to counteract cell volume shrinkage by accumulating inorganic and organic osmolytes within their cells to balance internal and external osmolalities. Molluscs use very different combinations of amino acids and amino acid derivatives to achieve this goal.
is a neritid gastropod that is distributed not only in limnic habitats in Europe but also in brackish waters (e.g. along the shoreline of the Baltic Sea). Animals from brackish sites survive better in high salinities than animals from freshwater locations. The results of the present study indicate that these differences in salinity tolerance cannot be explained by differences in the general ability to accumulate amino acids as organic osmolytes. Although there may be differences in the metabolic pathways involved in osmolyte accumulation in foot muscle tissue, the two groups of animals accumulate amino acid mixtures equally well when stepwise acclimated to their respective maximum tolerable salinity for extended periods. Among these amino acids, alanine and proline, as well as the osmolyte urea, hold a special importance for cell volume preservation in
under hyperosmotic stress. It is possible that the accumulation of various amino acids during hyperosmotic stress occurs via hydrolysis of storage proteins, while alanine and proline are probably newly synthesised under conditions of hyperosmotic stress in the animals.
The concept of meaning-making is increasingly identified as a crucial process and an entry point for sustainability transformations in a wide range of contexts and approaches, but it has not yet been ...studied in this field as an independent concept. In other literature, meaning-making has recently been focused on, yielding valuable information on how to better conceptualize and design events to trigger transformations. Furthermore, that study indicated the presence of underlying mechanisms of meaning-making, which might provide further design insights and theoretical underpinning. Here we investigate those underlying mechanisms, in a case which spans the two literatures. Village leaders in Botswana underwent the specialist shared-values crystallization group process within the WeValue InSitu approach and underwent a sustainability transformation, producing a significantly superior climate change adaptation plan. Using micro-concepts from Personal Knowledge Theory for line-by-line fine-toothed analysis, we reveal mechanisms underlying meaning-making by individuals and the group. The findings show two distinct types of micro-meaningmaking sequences were found: one was assimilative and a rarer one adaptive, involving participants modifying some premises. This distinction allows the micromoment of individual transformation to be identified, allowing ex and ante study to understand better what happened beforehand to cause it, and how it led onward to group and wider transformations. Another finding was that paired cognitive and communicative processes make up iterative meaning-making sequences where individuals take in new stimuli, understand tacitly, articulate the new meaning moreexplicitly, and repeat. Micro-meaning-making thus appears to be micro-integration between aspects of knowledge: tacit/explicit; external/internal. Design implications involve better considerations on assisting participants to access their own tacit spaces; to ensure they have shared experiences which allow intersubjective interactions to trigger and accelerate individual and collective meaning-making; that this space is protected from interruptions such as latecomers, stop–starting the session, and facilitators inserting personal content.
•Contribution to literature gap in understandings of capacity-building process.•The complex interrelationship among stakeholders in the process is highlighted.•Capacity-building is characterized by ...interconnected understandings and descriptions.•Capacity-building appears to be an iterative and reinforcing process.•Calls for in-depth examination of factors shaping the capacity-building process.
In recent decades, development discourse has increasingly acknowledged the importance of participation and ownership of development programs at the local level. As the discourse has advanced, terms such as community-driven development and community capacity-building (CCB) have become widely used and attracted significant funding. Yet, despite the prominent place CCB has come to occupy in development discourse and practice, relatively little attention has been given to the process of capacity-building at the level of the community, particularly as it is understood by key protagonists. The authors present a descriptive case-study of two CCB programs in Yunnan, China, examining how capacity is understood by the key protagonists at the level of individuals, institutions, and communities, and which capacities are identified as built at each level. The authors show that while there are expected differences in the perceptions of the CCB process and outcomes at different levels, there are also clear overlaps, and that capacities develop simultaneously at different levels, in an interactive and mutually reinforcing manner. The results suggest that the interconnection across levels may be very important to study further. This study helps fill a gap in the CCB literature and contributes insights that could improve the effectiveness of community development projects. In addition, it provides insight into the specific case of CCB in China, where literature has tended to focus on institutional capacity and relationships between civil society organizations and the government rather than process and outcomes at the community level.
Modeling age‐related neurodegenerative disorders with human stem cells are difficult due to the embryonic nature of stem cell‐derived neurons. We developed a chemical cocktail to induce senescence of ...iPSC‐derived neurons to address this challenge. We first screened small molecules that induce embryonic fibroblasts to exhibit features characteristic of aged fibroblasts. We then optimized a cocktail of small molecules that induced senescence in fibroblasts and cortical neurons without causing DNA damage. The utility of the “senescence cocktail” was validated in motor neurons derived from ALS patient iPSCs which exhibited protein aggregation and axonal degeneration substantially earlier than those without cocktail treatment. Our “senescence cocktail” will likely enhance the manifestation of disease‐related phenotypes in neurons derived from iPSCs, enabling the generation of reliable drug discovery platforms.
Fathi et al developed a “senescence cocktail” by screening small molecules on fibroblasts and hPSC‐derived cortical neurons for reduced expression of H3K9Me3, HP1γ, LAP2β, decreased mitochondrial activity and increased protein aggregation and beta galactosidase activity. This senescence cocktail induced senescence in hPSC‐derived motor neurons and degenerative changes in ALS (TDP43 G298S) iPSC‐derived motor neurons.
Higher education institutions have an important role to play in the transition towards a more sustainable global society. In this context, many universities have embarked on a journey towards ...‘sustainability’, and there has been increasing research on related processes of organizational change. There is evidence that ‘human’ factors have an important role to play in change processes and numerous case studies capture how these occur, but there is little synthesis of qualitative research in this area. We present a meta-ethnography of 13 qualitative studies from peer reviewed academic publications. Using a grounded approach, we identified nine themes which we then synthesized in order to develop an in-depth understanding of organizational change processes for sustainability. This led to the identification of a number of hidden contradictions and tensions that seem to characterize such processes. These contradictions and tensions lead to recurring barriers to change and issues that can undermine the very sustainability of change processes. These issues are also influenced by the perception of who has power to affect change, networks and institutional structures. We discuss the implications for research and practice and suggest the need to recognize existing tensions and contradictions through reflexive practice and genuine dialogue as well as developing flexible structures and moving towards ‘double loop’ learning within institutions. The meta-ethnography presents a look beyond the surface of what has become an increasingly important area of institutional change in higher education, helps to inform practice, and contributes to emerging research imperatives.
•We carried out a meta-ethnographic synthesis of 13 qualitative studies.•The synthesis highlights the presence of recurring contradictions and tensions.•Change processes are influenced by perceptions of who has power, networks and structures.•Issues that stem from the nature of sustainability initiatives and can undermine them.•Institutions need more reflexive practice, genuine dialogue and flexible structures.
Great efforts have been made to manage and restore native prairies to protect native species, enrich biodiversity, protect ecological resilience, and maintain ecosystem services. Much of this has ...been focused on preventing degradation from overgrazing and crop conversion. Understanding the consequences of management polices is important to identify best practices. Previous research has compared restoration outcomes from variable intensity grazing, prescribed fire, and grazing removal. However, few studies have explored the optimal durations of management practices and variation in restoration outcomes among vegetation communities. This study evaluates whether the impact of grazing cessation and reintroduction varies among native vegetation communities and measures the effective time periods of grazing cessation and reintroduction. Restoration outcomes were evaluated using four biophysical indicators (fresh biomass, soil organic matter, green cover, and litter cover) and two vegetation indices (normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and normalized difference water index (NDWI)) measured from Landsat images using seasonal Kalman filter and raster time series analysis. The results show that: (i) Grazing cessation increased soil organic matter and green cover while decreasing fresh biomass compared to moderate grazing management, while grazing reintroduction influences those indicators in an opposite direction; (ii) The effective time period for prairie conservation is about 11–14 years and varies among vegetation communities and biophysical indicators; (iii) The effective intensity of grazing cessation is highest in valley grassland, moderate in upland grassland, and mildest in sloped grassland; (iv) Grazing reintroduction returned the three native vegetation communities to the initial condition (i.e., the stage in 1985 before large grazers were removed), with less time than the time consumed for grazing cessation to restore the prairie ecosystem to the maximum changes; (v) Grazing reintroduction effectively influences upland and valley grasslands for 7 to 9 years, varying from different indicators, while it continuously affected sloped grassland with no clear time lag; (vi) The intensity of grazing reintroduction was strongest in sloped grassland, moderate in upland grassland, and mildest in valley grassland. The results of this study suggest expected time periods for prairie management methods to achieve results.
Reduction of environmental problems needs durable transformative changes in behaviour, and developments in Transformative Learning are increasingly called for, to achieve them. Only recently has a ...method been demonstrated to routinely produce transformations in behaviour - a significant step forward - but they are not focused in specific thematic directions, and rarely environmental, which leaves the research need still unanswered. Here, we present an exploration of the use of that method (which involved values-crystallization of groups) with prior Nudging, with the aim of increasing the environmentally-themed transformed behaviours. The Nudging used was one open question about the environment in participants’ current roles, plus a short questionnaire about current environmental behaviours, which also provided baseline data. Comparison with 3–4-days post-event interviews revealed most of the reported transformative behaviours were indeed environmental, such as waste sorting, water and electricity conservation, found retained via further 14-56-days post-event interviews. These results, from two separate groups of participants, suggest that the Nudging_Plus_Values-crystallization approach may be useful for pro-environmental practitioners in sustainability. Furthermore, the process involved of influencing choice spaces via Nudging, in values-crystallization events, deserves further studies to confirm causation and understand linkages between Nudging, reflection, values-crystallization, and Transformative Learning because it is likely that the process can be easily transferred to many different types of behaviour change programs, which will be of interest to a wide range of researchers and practitioners.
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