Radical right populist parties have often been treated as “pariahs,” being excluded from coalition politics in parliamentary democracies. We argue that negative rhetoric targeted at radical right ...populist parties in legislative debates is used by the established parties to distance themselves from such parties and that the incentives to do so depend on the political context. Using sentiment analysis of speeches in the Swedish Riksdag from 2010 to 2022, we find that rhetoric targeted toward the radical right Sweden Democrats is more negative than speech concerning other parties on average. We also find that this negative rhetoric declined over time, particularly from the center-right parties, as the formerly marginal Sweden Democrats gained more seats and became a potential partner for cooperation. Our analysis demonstrates how tracking parliamentary discourse provides insights into changing party dynamics. Our findings suggest that, as the prospects for populists' pariah status change, rhetoric from established parties reflects this shifting role in party politics, with enduring negativity accompanied by reduced hostility among the center-right parties with the greatest potential for cooperation.
We describe four SARS-CoV-2 re-infections with a B.1.351 variant in 2021, in healthcare workers (HCWs) previously infected in 2020, before detection of this variant in Europe. Cases live in France, ...near the border with Luxembourg, where variants B.1.351 and B.1.1.7 circulated. All work in the same hospital unit where a cluster of COVID 19 with B1.351 variant occurred, affecting patients and HCWs. Before the cluster onset, HCWs used surgical masks, as per recommendations. After cluster onset, HCWs used FFP2 masks.
The majority of emissions from aviation come from the combustion of the fuel required to operate each flight. Keeping the fuel consumption required for a safe flight to the absolute minimum is ...therefore the simplest and most effective way to ensure that emissions from that flight are kept to a minimum. In practice, however, the fuel load is determined by each aircraft operator on the basis of a number of criteria maximizing first cost efficiency, rather than fuel savings. In this context, tankering is the practice of carrying more fuel than is necessary for the safe execution of the flight to avoid or minimize refueling at the destination airport. It offers an economic advantage when there is a significant difference in fuel prices between the departure and arrival airports, but considerably increases the amount of emissions produced, because the more fuel an aircraft carries, the heavier it is, and carrying this extra weight increases its fuel consumption. This paper presents the steps followed by EUROCONTROL in conducting a first study to estimate the number of times this practice would offer an economic benefit and the amount of extra CO2 emissions that would result. This study, limited to flights up to 1500 and 2500 NM, corresponding mainly to short and medium-haul flights, estimates that, in 2018, 21% of ECAC (In this paper, ECAC refers to the geographical region defined by the 44 member states that signed the European Civil Aviation Conference) flights would perform fuel tankering beneficially. This would represent a net saving of 265 M€ per year for the airlines, but the burning of 286,000 tonnes of additional fuel (equivalent to 0.54% of ECAC jet fuel used), or 901,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. At a time when aviation is challenged for its contribution to climate change, the use of fuel tankering for economic reasons is therefore highly questionable.
Methanol is used commercially as a stabilizer in solutions of formaldehyde to prevent its precipitation. However, the methanol content of commercially available formaldehyde solutions differs from ...one supplier to another. The pH, dilution and R/F ratio have been demonstrated to be interdependent variables that can be manipulated to tailor the porous properties of RF carbon xerogels. This work considers the methanol contained in formaldehyde solutions as a new variable to be studied in conjunction with those just mentioned. For the purpose of this study, the influence of methanol on the final porous properties of RF carbon xerogels has been evaluated. It was found that carbon xerogels synthesized using formaldehyde solutions with lower concentrations of methanol showed a higher total pore volume and pore size, and in turn, a lower density and a greater porosity. The porosity of RF carbon xerogels could therefore be radically modified depending on the commercial formaldehyde solution used for their synthesis.
•Designing porosity in RF xerogels•Role of methanol as stabilizer in formaldehyde solutions•Enhancing porosity of RF xerogels by minimizing methanol content
The polymerization reaction that takes place between resorcinol and formaldehyde is spontaneous but slow. For this reason, compounds are often used to increase the reaction rate and reduce the ...synthesis time. These compounds can be basic or acidic and their nature and concentration can be used to modify the mechanisms of the reaction and the final properties of the materials. In this work, the differences in the final properties of the organic xerogels obtained with basic or acid boosters have been studied. It was found that, irrespective of the nature of the booster, none of the end-product materials showed any differences in their chemical properties. Moreover, the concentrations of the components of the precursor solution (i.e., monomers, water, and methanol) were observed to have the same effect on the porous properties of the materials regardless of whether an acidic or a basic booster was used. However, differences in the porous properties were observed. It was found that the methanol content was crucial to tailor the porosity over the entire nanoscale when an acidic booster is used. These results are of great importance as acidic boosters allows to decrease synthesis time and, hence, to produce more competitive materials.
Graphical abstract
Resorcinol-Formaldehyde xerogels are organic polymers that can be easily tailored to have specific properties. These materials are composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, and have a surface that is ...very rich in oxygen functionalities, and is therefore very hydrophilic. Their most interesting feature is that they may have the same chemical composition but a different porous texture. Consequently, the influence of porous characteristics, such as pore volume, surface area or pore size can be easily assessed. In this work, a commonly used desiccant, silica gel, is compared with organic xerogels to determine their rate and capacity of water adsorption, and to evaluate the role of surface chemistry versus porous texture. It was found that organic xerogels showed a higher rate of moisture adsorption than silica gel. Pore structure also seems to play an important role in water adsorption capacity. The OX-10 sample, whose porosity was mainly composed of micro-mesoporosity displayed a water adsorption capacity two times greater than that of the silica gel, and three times higher than that of the totally macroporous xerogel OX-2100. The presence of feeder pores (mesopores) that facilitate the access to the hydrophilic surface was observed to be the key factor for a good desiccant behaviour. Neither the total pore volume nor the high surface area (i.e. high microporosity) of the desiccant sample, is as important as the mesopore structure.
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•RF xerogels showed a higher rate of moisture adsorption than silica gel.•Surface chemistry is important for a good desiccant due to the hydrophilic character.•Mesopore structure is the key factor for a high water adsorption capacity.
Resorcinol-formaldehyde carbon xerogels were synthesized by means of microwave heating by using precursor solutions with pH values ranging from 3 to 7 and adding various amounts of sodium sulfate, ...hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide and Span80. It was found that the amount of additive that can be introduced depends to a large extent on the final pH of the precursor solution. Characterization of the porous structure of the carbon xerogels thus synthesized demonstrated that their porosity was modified by interactions between the additives and the polymeric structure of the xerogels. It is worth noting that carbonaceous materials with a pore size that could not be obtained by merely modifying the pH could be synthesized by adding different types of additive, with the result that a significant improvement of the porous properties of the carbon xerogels was achieved. The addition of sodium sulfate increased the size of the clusters and pores due to repulsive forces created between the additive and resorcinol anions. Hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide gave rise to a dense branched structure with pores of a small size attributable to forces of attraction between the cations of the additive and resorcinol anions. In contrast, the presence of Span80 in the precursor solution produced a condensation reaction between the resorcinol and the additive, as a result of which the amount of resorcinol available for the sol–gel reaction was reduced.
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•Effect of amount and type of surfactant on the porosity of carbon xerogels.•The amount of surfactant able to use depends on the pH of the precursor solution.•Anionic surfactants promote larger pores due to repulsive forces with monomers.•Cationic surfactants promote smaller pores due to attractive forces with monomers.•Non-ionic surfactants take part in the polymerization competing with formaldehyde.
Healthcare workers (HCWs) from COVID-19 pandemic hotspots across the globe have reported mental health problems, including anxiety, depression, or sleep problems. Many studies have focused on ...identifying modifiable risk factors, such as being afraid of getting infected or reporting shortage of personal protective equipment, but none have explored the role of protective factors.
This cross-sectional study used an online survey to describe the association between three potentially protective factors (self-reported resilience, self-perceived social support from colleagues at work, and self-perceived social support from relatives and friends) and three mental health outcomes, namely psychological distress, depression symptoms, and death thoughts in a large sample of Spanish HCWs during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We recruited 2372 respondents between April 26th and June 22nd, 2020. Resilience and self-perceived social support were inversely associated with mental health problems (psychological distress, depression symptoms, and death thoughts), after adjusting for potential sources of confounding.
Resilience and self-perceived social support might protect HCWs against negative mental health outcomes. Public health strategies targeting these modifiable determinants might help to reduce the impact of the pandemic on HCWs’ mental health.
Baricitinib has shown efficacy in hospitalized patients with COVID-19, but no placebo-controlled trials have focused specifically on severe/critical COVID, including vaccinated participants.
...Bari-SolidAct is a phase-3, multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, enrolling participants from June 3, 2021 to March 7, 2022, stopped prematurely for external evidence. Patients with severe/critical COVID-19 were randomised to Baricitinib 4 mg once daily or placebo, added to standard of care. The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality within 60 days. Participants were remotely followed to day 90 for safety and patient related outcome measures.
Two hundred ninety-nine patients were screened, 284 randomised, and 275 received study drug or placebo and were included in the modified intent-to-treat analyses (139 receiving baricitinib and 136 placebo). Median age was 60 (IQR 49-69) years, 77% were male and 35% had received at least one dose of SARS-CoV2 vaccine. There were 21 deaths at day 60 in each group, 15.1% in the baricitinib group and 15.4% in the placebo group (adjusted absolute difference and 95% CI - 0.1% - 8·3 to 8·0). In sensitivity analysis censoring observations after drug discontinuation or rescue therapy (tocilizumab/increased steroid dose), proportions of death were 5.8% versus 8.8% (- 3.2% - 9.0 to 2.7), respectively. There were 148 serious adverse events in 46 participants (33.1%) receiving baricitinib and 155 in 51 participants (37.5%) receiving placebo. In subgroup analyses, there was a potential interaction between vaccination status and treatment allocation on 60-day mortality. In a subsequent post hoc analysis there was a significant interaction between vaccination status and treatment allocation on the occurrence of serious adverse events, with more respiratory complications and severe infections in vaccinated participants treated with baricitinib. Vaccinated participants were on average 11 years older, with more comorbidities.
This clinical trial was prematurely stopped for external evidence and therefore underpowered to conclude on a potential survival benefit of baricitinib in severe/critical COVID-19. We observed a possible safety signal in vaccinated participants, who were older with more comorbidities. Although based on a post-hoc analysis, these findings warrant further investigation in other trials and real-world studies. Trial registration Bari-SolidAct is registered at NCT04891133 (registered May 18, 2021) and EUClinicalTrials.eu ( 2022-500385-99-00 ).
The global burden associated with antimicrobial resistance is of increasing concern. The aim of this study was to evaluate risk factors associated with multidrug-resistant (MDR) infection and its ...clinical impact in a cohort of patients with healthcare-associated (HCA) bacteremic urinary tract infections (BUTI).
This is a post-hoc analysis a prospective multicenter study of patients with HCA-BUTI (ITUBRAS-2). The primary outcome was MDR profile. Secondary outcomes were clinical response (at 48-72h and at hospital discharge) and length of hospital stay from onset of BUTI. Logistic regression was used to evaluate variables associated with MDR profile and clinical response. Length of hospital stay was evaluated using multivariate median regression.
443 episodes were included, of which 271 (61.17%) were classified as expressing an MDR profile. In univariate analysis, MDR profile was associated with E. coli episodes (OR 3.13, 95% CI 2.11-4.69, p<0.001) and the extensively drug-resistant (XDR) pattern with P. aeruginosa etiology (OR 7.84, 95% CI 2.37-25.95; p=0.001). MDR was independently associated with prior use of fluoroquinolones (aOR 2.43; 95% CI 1.25-4.69), cephalosporins (aOR 2.14; 95% CI 1.35-3.41) and imipenem or meropenem (aOR 2.08; 95% CI 1.03-4.20) but not with prior ertapenem. In terms of outcomes, MDR profile was not associated with lower frequency of clinical cure, but with longer hospital stay.
MDR profile was independently associated with prior use of fluoroquinolones, cephalosporins, imipenem and meropenem, but not with prior ertapenem. MDR-BUTI episodes were not associated with worse clinical cure, although was independently associated with longer duration of hospital stay.
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