On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson reversed the precedent set forth by Roe v. Wade, empowering individual states to regulate abortion care. This aftermath of this ...ruling has given rise to widespread bans, limiting the accessibility of abortion services for patients and impeding providers' ability to deliver a comprehensive spectrum of reproductive health services. Of particular concern is the disproportionate impact on medically underserved groups, further heightening existing social and structural disparities in reproductive health.
We conducted a scoping review to broadly evaluate the clinical and public health impact of Dobbs on patients' access to abortion care and related reproductive health services, in addition to the training and clinical practice of healthcare providers. We searched eight bibliographic databases (PubMed, Scopus, Embase, PsycINFO, Google Scholar, Science Direct, JSTOR, and Web of Science) and three preprint servers (medRxiv, bioRxiv, and Europe PMC) using various combinations of keywords related to 'abortion', 'Dobbs', and 'Roe' on March 22, 2023. Four reviewers independently screened the studies based on pre-specified eligibility criteria and one reviewer performed data extraction for pre-identified themes. The search was conducted based on PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRSIMA-ScR) guidelines.
Eighteen studies, comprising 12 peer-reviewed articles and 6 study abstracts, met the inclusion criteria. The studies demonstrated that Dobbs increased demand for contraception, magnified existing travel- and cost-related barriers to access, further polarized views on abortion and complex family planning on social media (e.g., Twitter), and evoked substantial concerns among medical trainees regarding their scope of practice and potential legal repercussions for providing abortion care.
In the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson, further public health and clinical interventions are urgently needed to bridge disparities in abortion care and reproductive health, mitigating the deleterious consequences of this emerging public health crisis.
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-borne alphavirus known to cause epidemics resulting in predominantly symptomatic infections, which in rare cases cause long term debilitating arthritis and ...arthralgia. Significant progress has been made in understanding the roles of canonical RNA sensing pathways in the host recognition of CHIKV; however, less is known regarding antagonism of CHIKV by cytosolic DNA sensing pathways like that of cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS) and Stimulator of Interferon Genes (STING). With the use of cGAS or STING null cells we demonstrate that the pathway restricts CHIKV replication in fibroblasts and immune cells. We show that DNA accumulates in the cytoplasm of infected cells and that CHIKV blocks DNA dependent IFN-β transcription. This antagonism of DNA sensing is via an early autophagy-mediated degradation of cGAS and expression of the CHIKV capsid protein is sufficient to induce cGAS degradation. Furthermore, we identify an interaction of CHIKV nsP1 with STING and map the interaction to 23 residues in the cytosolic loop of the adaptor protein. This interaction stabilizes the viral protein and increases the level of palmitoylated nsP1 in cells. Together, this work supports previous publications highlighting the relevance of the cGAS-STING pathway in the early detection of (+)ssRNA viruses and provides direct evidence that CHIKV interacts with and antagonizes cGAS-STING signaling.
Abstract
At the interface between monolayer FeSe films and SrTiO
3
substrates the superconducting transition temperature (
T
c
) is unexpectedly high, triggering a surge of excitement. The mechanism ...for the
T
c
enhancement has been the central question, as it may present a new strategy for seeking out higher
T
c
materials. To reveal this enigmatic mechanism, by combining advances in high quality interface growth,
16
O
$$\leftrightarrow$$
↔
18
O isotope substitution, and extensive data from angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we provide striking evidence that the high
T
c
in FeSe/SrTiO
3
is the cooperative effect of the intrinsic pairing mechanism in the FeSe and interactions between the FeSe electrons and SrTiO
3
phonons. Furthermore, our results point to the promising prospect that similar cooperation between different Cooper pairing channels may be a general framework to understand and design high-temperature superconductors.
This study investigated the air pollution characteristics of synoptic-scale circulation in the Beijing megacity, and provided quantitative evaluation of the impacts of circulation patterns on air ...quality during the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. Nine weather circulation types (CTs) were objectively identified over the North China region during 2000–2009, using obliquely rotated T-mode principal component analysis (PCA). The resulting CTs were examined in relation to the local meteorology, regional transport pathways, and air quality parameters, respectively. The FLEXPART-WRF model was used to calculate 48-h backward plume trajectories for each CT. Each CT was characterized with distinct local meteorology and air mass origin. CT 1 (high pressure to the west with a strong pressure gradient) was characterized by a northwestern air mass origin, with the smallest local and southeasterly air mass sources, and CT 6 (high pressure to the northwest) had air mass sources mostly from the north and east. On the contrary, CTs 5, 8, and 9 (weak pressure field, high pressure to the east, and low pressure to the northwest, respectively) were characterized by southern and southeastern trajectories, which indicated a greater influence of high pollutant emission sources. In turn, poor air quality in Beijing (high loadings of PM10, BC, SO2, NO2, NOx, O3, AOD, and low visibility) was associated with these CTs. Good air quality in Beijing was associated with CTs 1 and 6. The average visibilities (with ±1σ) in Beijing for CTs 1 and 6 during 2000–2009 were 18.5 ± 8.3 km and 14.3 ± 8.5 km, respectively. In contrast, low visibility values of 6.0 ± 3.5 km, 6.6 ± 3.7 km, and 6.7 ± 3.6 km were found in CTs 5, 8, and 9, respectively. The mean concentrations of PM10 for CTs 1, 6, 5, 8, and 9 during 2005–2009 were 90.3 ± 76.3 μg m−3, 111.7 ± 89.6 μg m−3, 173.4 ± 105.8 μg m−3, 158.4 ± 90.0 μg m−3, and 151.2 ± 93.1 μg m−3, respectively. Analysis of the relationship between circulation pattern and air quality during the emission control period suggests that CTs are the primary drivers of day-to-day variations in pollutant concentrations over Beijing and its vicinity. During the Olympics period, the frequency of CT 6 was twice that of the mean in August from 2000 to 2009. This CT had northerly transport pathways and favorable meteorological conditions (e.g. frequent precipitation) for clean air during the Olympics. Assuming that relationships between CTs and air quality parameters in the same season are fixed in different years, the relative contributions of synoptic circulation to decreases in PM10, BC, SO2, NO2, NOx, CO, and horizontal light extinction during the Olympics were estimated as 19 ± 14%, 18 ± 13%, 41 ± 36%, 12 ± 7%, 10 ± 5%, 19 ± 11%, and 54 ± 25%, respectively.
The paper ‘The third-body approach: a mechanical view of wear’ by Maurice Godet (Wear, 100 (1984), pp 437–452) was perhaps the first to articulate clearly the key role of the rate of debris expulsion ...from a fretting contact in controlling the overall rate of wear. Whilst subsequent research over the past four decades has acknowledged this, the issue is generally addressed qualitatively rather than quantitatively. There are many parameters which will affect the rate of debris expulsion from a fretting contact, and amongst them is the physical size of the fretting contact. In this paper, for the first time, a physically-based relationship is proposed between the debris-expulsion-limited wear rate and the contact size. This relationship is able to account for differences in wear rates observed in tests conducted with different (and evolving) contact geometries (non-conforming contacts) over a range of durations, thus clearly demonstrating the validity of the approach.
•Wear volume in cylinder-on-flat contacts is geometrically consistent.•W-shaped wear scars transform to U-shaped scars as the number of cycles is increased.•Debris egress from the contact normally controls the wear rate of the system.•Instantaneous wear rate is to proportional to the inverse of the scar width.•The contact-geometry dependence of wear rate is fully reconciled via this methodology.
This paper investigates the probability density evolution process of a van der Pol-Duffing oscillator under Gaussian white noise. A path integration method is employed with the Gauss–Legendre ...integration scheme. In the path integration method, the short-time Gaussian approximation scheme is used for computing the one-step transition probability density. Two cases are considered with slight nonlinearity or strong nonlinearity in displacement. The stationary and non-stationary responses of the oscillator are studied. Compared with the simulation result, the path integration method can present a satisfactory probability density function (PDF) solution for each case. Different probability density evolution processes are observed correspondingly. In the case of slight nonlinearity, the PDF undergoes a clockwise motion around the origin. The peak region gradually expands and the PDF eventually forms a circle. By contrast, the strong nonlinearity drives the oscillator to oscillate around the limit cycle. In such a case, the PDF rapidly forms a circle. The circle keeps its shape and develops until the oscillator becomes stationary. More complicated phenomena can be studied by the adopted path integration method.
Previous studies have established the link between aberrant microRNA (miRNA) expression and hypoxia in various neoplasms. However, how these hypoxia-related miRNAs modulate tumor progression is still ...unclear. Therefore, the patterns of miRNA in colorectal carcinoma cell lines in response to hypoxia or not were first screened and the hypoxia-induced repression of the miR-15-16 cluster was confirmed. Then, this repression was found to be associated with high tumor stage and poor prognosis in colorectal carcinoma and is shown to promote tumor angiogenesis and metastasis by the loss of restriction of its target gene, fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF2). Moreover, the general and alterative promoters of the miR-15-16 host (deleted in lymphocytic leukemia 2, DLEU2) were mapped, and three c-Myc/Max binding sites in response to the hypoxia-induced repression of miR-15-16 were further identified. Finally, an enhanced stability of c-Myc/Max heterodimer promoted by increased hypoxia-inducible factor-2α (HIF-2α) was validated, and we also verified that the enhancement contributed to the hypoxia-induced repression of miR-15-16. In brief, the c-Myc-mediated transcriptional repression of miR-15-16 in hypoxia is induced by increased HIF-2α and promoted tumor angiogenesis and hematogenous metastasis by the further loss of post-transcriptional inhibition of FGF2. Our study provides a better understanding of the coping mechanisms in response to tumor hypoxia and may be helpful in developing an effective prognostic marker or treatment target against solid tumors.
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