Increasing evidence of women’s under-representation in some scientific disciplines is prompting researchers to expand our understanding of this social phenomenon. Moreover, any countermeasures ...proposed to eliminate this under-representation should be tailored to the actual reasons for this different participation. Here, we take a multi-dimensional approach to assessing gender differences in science by representing scientific communities as social networks, and using data analytics, complexity science methods, and semantic methods to measure gender differences in the context, the attitude and the success of scientists. We apply this approach to four scientific communities in the two fields of computer science and information systems using the network of authors at four different conferences. For each discipline, one conference is based in Italy and attracts mostly Italians, while one conference is international in both location and participants. The present paper provides evidence against common narratives that women’s under-representation is due to women’s limited skills and/or less social centrality.
Abstract
In catalysis science stability is as crucial as activity and selectivity. Understanding the degradation pathways occurring during operation and developing mitigation strategies will ...eventually improve catalyst design, thus facilitating the translation of basic science to technological applications. Herein, we reveal the unique and general degradation mechanism of metallic nanocatalysts during electrochemical CO
2
reduction, exemplified by different sized copper nanocubes. We follow their morphological evolution during operation and correlate it with the electrocatalytic performance. In contrast with the most common coalescence and dissolution/precipitation mechanisms, we find a potential-driven nanoclustering to be the predominant degradation pathway. Grand-potential density functional theory calculations confirm the role of the negative potential applied to reduce CO
2
as the main driving force for the clustering. This study offers a novel outlook on future investigations of stability and degradation reaction mechanisms of nanocatalysts in electrochemical CO
2
reduction and, more generally, in electroreduction reactions.
d-Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) is known for its hallucinogenic properties and psychotic-like symptoms, especially at high doses. It is indeed used as a pharmacological model of psychosis in ...preclinical research. The goal of this review was to understand the mechanism of action of psychotic-like effects of LSD. We searched Pubmed, Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar and articles' reference lists for preclinical studies regarding the mechanism of action involved in the psychotic-like effects induced by LSD. LSD's mechanism of action is pleiotropic, primarily mediated by the serotonergic system in the Dorsal Raphe, binding the 5-HT
receptor as a partial agonist and 5-HT
as an agonist. LSD also modulates the Ventral Tegmental Area, at higher doses, by stimulating dopamine D₂, Trace Amine Associate receptor 1 (TAAR₁) and 5-HT
. More studies clarifying the mechanism of action of the psychotic-like symptoms or psychosis induced by LSD in humans are needed. LSD's effects are mediated by a pleiotropic mechanism involving serotonergic, dopaminergic, and glutamatergic neurotransmission. Thus, the LSD-induced psychosis is a useful model to test the therapeutic efficacy of potential novel antipsychotic drugs, particularly drugs with dual serotonergic and dopaminergic (DA) mechanism or acting on TAAR₁ receptors.
Highlights ► MF59 is a safe and well established vaccine adjuvant. ► The mechanism of action of adjuvants is often poorly defined. ► A key component of the mechanism of action of MF59 is cellular ...recruitment to the injection site. ► MF59 creates a local immunocompetent environment at the injection site.
Human expansions motivated by the spread of farming are one of the most important processes that shaped cultural geographies during the Holocene. The best known example of this phenomenon is the ...Neolithic expansion in Europe, but parallels in other parts of the globe have recently come into focus. Here, we examine the expansion of four archaeological cultures of widespread distribution in lowland South America, most of which originated in or around the Amazon basin and spread during the late Holocene with the practice of tropical forest agriculture. We analyze spatial gradients in radiocarbon dates of each culture through space-time regressions, allowing us to establish the most likely geographical origin, time and speed of expansion. To further assess the feasibility of demic diffusion as the process behind the archaeological expansions in question, we employ agent-based simulations with demographic parameters derived from the ethnography of tropical forest farmers. We find that, while some expansions can be realistically modeled as demographic processes, others are not easily explainable in the same manner, which is possibly due to different processes driving their dispersal (e.g. cultural diffusion) or problematic/incomplete archaeological data.
Technologies to address antimicrobial resistance Baker, Stephen J.; Payne, David J.; Rappuoli, Rino ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS,
12/2018, Volume:
115, Issue:
51
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Bacterial infections have been traditionally controlled by antibiotics and vaccines, and these approaches have greatly improved health and longevity. However, multiple stakeholders are declaring that ...the lack of new interventions is putting our ability to prevent and treat bacterial infections at risk. Vaccine and antibiotic approaches still have the potential to address this threat. Innovative vaccine technologies, such as reverse vaccinology, novel adjuvants, and rationally designed bacterial outer membrane vesicles, together with progress in polysaccharide conjugation and antigen design, have the potential to boost the development of vaccines targeting several classes of multidrug-resistant bacteria. Furthermore, new approaches to deliver small-molecule antibacterials into bacteria, such as hijacking active uptake pathways and potentiator approaches, along with a focus on alternative modalities, such as targeting host factors, blocking bacterial virulence factors, monoclonal antibodies, and microbiome interventions, all have potential. Both vaccines and antibacterial approaches are needed to tackle the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and both areas have the underpinning science to address this need. However, a concerted research agenda and rethinking of the value society puts on interventions that save lives, by preventing or treating life-threatening bacterial infections, are needed to bring these ideas to fruition.
Microarray studies have shown recently that microbial infection leads to extensive changes in the Drosophila gene expression programme. However, little is known about the control of most of the fly ...immune‐responsive genes, except for the antimicrobial peptide (AMP)‐encoding genes, which are regulated by the Toll and Imd pathways. Here, we used oligonucleotide microarrays to monitor the effect of mutations affecting the Toll and Imd pathways on the expression programme induced by septic injury in Drosophila adults. We found that the Toll and Imd cascades control the majority of the genes regulated by microbial infection in addition to AMP genes and are involved in nearly all known Drosophila innate immune reactions. However, we identified some genes controlled by septic injury that are not affected in double mutant flies where both Toll and Imd pathways are defective, suggesting that other unidentified signalling cascades are activated by infection. Interestingly, we observed that some Drosophila immune‐responsive genes are located in gene clusters, which often are transcriptionally co‐regulated.
The call for health-promoting nutraceuticals and functional foods containing bioactive compounds is growing. Among the great diversity of functional phytochemicals, polyphenols and, more recently, ...bioactive peptides have stood out as functional compounds. The amount of an ingested nutrient able to reach the bloodstream and exert the biological activity is a critical factor, and is affected by several factors, such as food components and food processing. This can lead to unclaimed interactions and/or reactions between bioactive compounds, which is particularly important for these bioactive compounds, since some polyphenols are widely known for their ability to interact and/or precipitate proteins/peptides. This review focuses on this important topic, addressing how these interactions could affect molecules digestion, absorption, metabolism and (biological)function. At the end, it is evidenced that further research is needed to understand the true effect of polyphenol-bioactive peptide interactions on overall health outcomes.
The brain is capable of massively parallel information processing while consuming only ∼1-100 fJ per synaptic event. Inspired by the efficiency of the brain, CMOS-based neural architectures and ...memristors are being developed for pattern recognition and machine learning. However, the volatility, design complexity and high supply voltages for CMOS architectures, and the stochastic and energy-costly switching of memristors complicate the path to achieve the interconnectivity, information density, and energy efficiency of the brain using either approach. Here we describe an electrochemical neuromorphic organic device (ENODe) operating with a fundamentally different mechanism from existing memristors. ENODe switches at low voltage and energy (<10 pJ for 10
μm
devices), displays >500 distinct, non-volatile conductance states within a ∼1 V range, and achieves high classification accuracy when implemented in neural network simulations. Plastic ENODes are also fabricated on flexible substrates enabling the integration of neuromorphic functionality in stretchable electronic systems. Mechanical flexibility makes ENODes compatible with three-dimensional architectures, opening a path towards extreme interconnectivity comparable to the human brain.
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