The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in physical isolation measures in many parts of the world. In Australia, nationwide restrictions included staying at home, unless seeking ...medical care, providing care, purchasing food, undertaking exercise, or attending work in an essential service. All undergraduate university classes transitioned to online, mostly home-based learning. We, therefore, examined the effect of isolation measures during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia (March/April) on diet (24-h recall) and physical activity (Active Australia Survey) patterns in third-year biomedical students. Findings were compared with students enrolled in the same course in the previous two years. In females, but not males, energy intake was ~20% greater during the pandemic, and snacking frequency and energy density of consumed snacks also increased compared with 2018 and 2019. Physical activity was impacted for both sexes during the pandemic with ~30% fewer students achieving "sufficient" levels of activity, defined by at least 150 min over at least five sessions, compared with the previous two years. In a follow-up study six to eight weeks later (14-18% response rate), during gradual easing of nationwide restrictions albeit continued gym closures and online learning, higher energy intake in females and reduced physical activity levels in both sexes persisted. These data demonstrate the health impacts of isolation measures, with the potential to affect long-term diet and activity behaviours.
Despite the remarkable evolutionary success of insects at colonizing every conceivable terrestrial and aquatic habitat, only five Halobates (Heteroptera: Gerridae) species (~0.0001% of all known ...insect species) have succeeded at colonizing the open ocean - the largest biome on Earth. This remarkable evolutionary achievement likely required unique adaptations for them to survive and thrive in the challenging oceanic environment. For the first time, we explore the morphology and behavior of an open-ocean Halobates germanus and a related coastal species H. hayanus to understand mechanisms of these adaptations. We provide direct experimental evidence based on high-speed videos which reveal that Halobates exploit their specialized and self-groomed body hair to achieve extreme water repellence, which facilitates rapid skating and plastron respiration under water. Moreover, the grooming behavior and presence of cuticular wax aids in the maintenance of superhydrophobicity. Further, reductions of their body mass and size enable them to achieve impressive accelerations (~400 ms
) and reaction times (~12 ms) to escape approaching predators or environmental threats and are crucial to their survival under harsh marine conditions. These findings might also inspire rational strategies for developing liquid-repellent surfaces for drag reduction, water desalination, and preventing bio-fouling.
Background: There has been increasing interest in the concept that exposures to environmental chemicals may be contributing factors to the epidemics of diabetes and obesity. On 11–13 January 2011, ...the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Division of the National Toxicology Program (NTP) organized a workshop to evaluate the current state of the science on these topics of increasing public health concern. Objective: The main objective of the workshop was to develop recommendations for a research agenda after completing a critical analysis of the literature for humans and experimental animals exposed to certain environmental chemicals. The environmental exposures considered at the workshop were arsenic, persistent organic pollutants, maternal smoking/nicotine, órgano tins, phthalates, bisphenol A, and pesticides. High-throughput screening data from Toxicology in the 21st Century (Tox21) were also considered as a way to evaluate potential cellular pathways and generate hypotheses for testing which and how certain chemicals might perturb biological processes related to diabetes and obesity. Conclusions: Overall, the review of the existing literature identified linkages between several of the environmental exposures and type 2 diabetes. There was also support for the "developmental obesogen" hypothesis, which suggests that chemical exposures may increase the risk of obesity by altering the differentiation of adipocytes or the development of neural circuits that regulate feeding behavior. The effects may be most apparent when the developmental exposure is combined with consumption of a high-calorie, high-carbohydrate, or high-fat diet later in life. Research on environmental chemical exposures and type 1 diabetes was very limited. This lack of research was considered a critical data gap. In this workshop review, we outline the major themes that emerged from the workshop and discuss activities that NIEHS/NTP is undertaking to address research recommendations. This review also serves as an introduction to an upcoming series of articles that review the literature regarding specific exposures and outcomes in more detail.
Traditional treatments for type 1 and type 2 diabetes are often associated with side effects, including weight gain and hypoglycaemia that may offset the benefits of blood glucose lowering. The ...kidneys filter and reabsorb large amounts of glucose, and urine is almost free of glucose in normoglycaemia. The sodium-dependent glucose transporter (SGLT)-2 in the early proximal tubule reabsorbs the majority of filtered glucose. Remaining glucose is reabsorbed by SGLT1 in the late proximal tubule. Diabetes enhances renal glucose reabsorption by increasing the tubular glucose load and the expression of SGLT2 (as shown in mice), which maintains hyperglycaemia. Inhibitors of SGLT2 enhance urinary glucose excretion and thereby lower blood glucose levels in type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The load-dependent increase in SGLT1-mediated glucose reabsorption explains why SGLT2 inhibitors in normoglycaemic conditions enhance urinary glucose excretion to only ~50% of the filtered glucose. The role of SGLT1 in both renal and intestinal glucose reabsorption provides a rationale for the development of dual SGLT1/2 inhibitors. SGLT2 inhibitors lower blood glucose levels independent of insulin and induce pleiotropic actions that may be relevant in the context of lowering cardiovascular risk. Ongoing long-term clinical studies will determine whether SGLT2 inhibitors have a safety profile and exert cardiovascular benefits that are superior to traditional agents.
Gender diversity and bank misconduct Arnaboldi, F.; Casu, B.; Gallo, A. ...
Journal of corporate finance,
December 2021, 2021-12-00, Volume:
71
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
This paper investigates whether gender-diverse bank boards can play a role in preventing costly misconduct episodes. We exploit the fines received by European banks from US regulators to reduce ...endogeneity issues related to supervisory and governance mechanisms. We show that greater female representation significantly reduces the frequency of misconduct fines, equivalent to savings of $7.48 million per year. Female directors are more influential when they reach a critical mass and are supported by women in leadership roles. The mechanism through which gender diversity affects board effectiveness in preventing misconduct stems from the ethicality and risk aversion of the female directors, rather than their contribution to diversity. The findings are robust to alternative model specifications, proxies for gender diversity, reverse causality, country and bank controls, and sub-sample analyses.
•We show that greater female representation significantly reduces the frequency of misconduct fines.•The impact is equivalent to savings of $7.48 million per year.•Female directors are more influential if they reach a critical mass and are supported by women in leadership roles.•The misconduct-reducing effect of female directors appears related to ethicality and risk aversion, rather than diversity.
The precise arrangement and nature of atoms drive electronic phase transitions in condensed matter. To explore this tenuous link, we developed a true biaxial mechanical deformation device working at ...cryogenic temperatures, compatible with x-ray diffraction and transport measurements, well adapted to layered samples. Here we show that a slight deformation of TbTe
can have a dramatic influence on its Charge Density Wave (CDW), with an orientational transition from c to a driven by the a/c parameter, a tiny coexistence region near a = c, and without space group change. The CDW transition temperature T
displays a linear dependence with
while the gap saturates out of the coexistence region. This behaviour is well accounted for within a tight-binding model. Our results question the relationship between gap and T
in RTe
systems. This method opens a new route towards the study of coexisting or competing electronic orders in condensed matter.
Following the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus pandemic, numerous studies identified the striking link between diabetes mellitus and influenza disease severity. Typically, influenza virus is a self-limiting ...infection but in individuals who have a pre-existing chronic illness, such as diabetes mellitus, severe influenza can develop. Here, we discuss the latest clinical and experimental evidence for the role of diabetes in predisposing the host to severe influenza. We explore the possible mechanisms that underlie this synergy and highlight the, as yet, unexplored role that blood glucose oscillations may play in disease development. Diabetes is one of the world's fastest growing chronic diseases and influenza virus represents a constant and pervasive threat to human health. It is therefore imperative that we understand how diabetes increases influenza severity in order to mitigate the burden of future influenza epidemics and pandemics.
Peer review, commonly used in grant funding decisions, relies on scientists’ ability to evaluate research proposals’ quality. Such judgments are sometimes beyond reviewers’ discriminatory power and ...could lead to a reliance on subjective biases, including preferences for lower risk, incremental projects. However, peer reviewers’ risk tolerance has not been well studied. We conducted a cross-sectional experiment of peer reviewers’ evaluations of mock primary reviewers’ comments in which the level and sources of risks and weaknesses were manipulated. Here we show that proposal risks more strongly predicted reviewers’ scores than proposal strengths based on mock proposal evaluations. Risk tolerance was not predictive of scores but reviewer scoring leniency was predictive of overall and criteria scores. The evaluation of risks dominates reviewers’ evaluation of research proposals and is a source of inter-reviewer variability. These results suggest that reviewer scoring variability may be attributed to the interpretation of proposal risks, and could benefit from intervention to improve the reliability of reviews. Additionally, the valuation of risk drives proposal evaluations and may reduce the chances that risky, but highly impactful science, is supported.
MLK3 kinase activates multiple mitogen-activated protein kinases and plays a critical role in cancer cell migration and invasion. In the tumor microenvironment, prometastatic factors drive breast ...cancer invasion and metastasis, but their associated signaling pathways are not well-known. Here, we provide evidence that MLK3 is required for chemokine (CXCL12)-induced invasion of basal breast cancer cells. We found that MLK3 induced robust phosphorylation of the focal adhesion scaffold paxillin on Ser 178 and Tyr 118, which was blocked by silencing or inhibition of MLK3-JNK. Silencing or inhibition of MLK3, inhibition of JNK, or expression of paxillin S178A all led to enhanced Rho activity, indicating that the MLK3-JNK-paxillin axis limits Rho activity to promote focal adhesion turnover and migration. Consistent with this, MLK3 silencing increased focal adhesions and stress fibers in breast cancer cells. MLK3 silencing also decreased the formation of breast cancer lung metastases in vivo, and breast cancer cells derived from mouse lung metastases showed enhanced Ser 178 paxillin phosphorylation. Taken together, our findings suggest that the MLK3-JNK-paxillin signaling axis may represent a potential therapeutic target and/or prognostic marker in breast cancer metastasis.
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