Institutional analysis of actors involved in the governance of innovative contracts for agri-environmental and climate schemes.

In this study, we used institutional analysis to investigate the design of innovative contracts for agri-environmental and climate schemes. The aim of such contracts is to better incentivize farmers for the provision of environmental public goods in comparison to current 'mainstream' contracts. For the analysis, we differentiated four contract types: result-based, collective, land tenure, and value chain contracts.

Metadata to describe the dataset on involved actors and their roles in the governance of innovative contracts for agri-environmental and climate schemes.

Agri-environmental and climate schemes are an important policy instrument in the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union to maintain biodiversity and safeguard ecosystem services provision for human wellbeing. In the presented dataset, we analyzed 19 innovative contracts for agri-environmental and climate schemes from six European countries, representing examples of four different contract types: result-based, collective, land tenure, and value chain contracts. Our analytical approach comprised three steps: In the first step, we used a method mix combining literature review, web search, and expert consultation to identify potential case examples for the innovative contracts.

Participatory research in times of COVID-19 and beyond: Adjusting your methodological toolkits.

Solving grand environmental societal challenges calls for transdisciplinary and participatory methods in social-ecological research. These methods enable co-designing the research, co-producing the results, and co-creating the impacts together with concerned stakeholders. COVID-19 has had serious impacts on the choice of research methods, but reflections on recent experiences of "moving online" are still rare.

Building community resilience in a context of climate change: The role of social capital.

Social capital is considered important for resilience across social levels, including communities, yet insights are scattered across disciplines. This meta-synthesis of 187 studies examines conceptual and empirical understandings of how social capital relates to resilience, identifying implications for community resilience and climate change practice. Different conceptualisations are highlighted, yet also limited focus on underlying dimensions of social capital and proactive types of resilience for engaging with the complex climate change challenge.

Agri-environmental collaboratives as bridging organisations in landscape management.

In recent years, landscape and its management has become a focus of policies and academic conceptualisation. Landscape is understood as a concept of interconnected natural and human systems. Its management must take into account the dynamic interdependencies and diverging interests of various stakeholders at different levels.

Local and regional partnerships in natural resource management: the challenge of bridging institutional levels.

Although collaboration and multi-stakeholder partnerships have become a common feature in natural resource management throughout the world, various problems are associated with attempts to up-scale community-based natural resource management from the local to the regional level. To analyze the reasons behind these problems, this article reports on two examples of collaboratives in Australia: local Landcare groups, and regional natural resource management (NRM) bodies. Recent government-induced changes have shifted the focus from local Landcare group action to strategic planning and implementation by regional NRM bodies.

Induced expression of lectin-like oxidized ldl receptor-1 in vascular smooth muscle cells following Chlamydia pneumoniae infection and its down-regulation by fluvastatin.

Microorganisms such as Chlamydia pneumoniae have been shown to infect vascular cells and are believed to contribute to vascular inflammation and atherosclerotic plaque development. Plasma levels of oxidized low density lipoprotein (oxLDL) have received considerable attention as potential predictors of prognosis in atherosclerotic diseases. Lectin-like oxidized LDL receptor-1 (LOX-1) is one of the major receptors for oxidized LDL.

Stakeholder involvement in agri-environmental policy making--learning from a local- and a state-level approach in Germany.

Recent European regulations for rural development emphasise the requirement to involve stakeholder groups and other appropriate bodies in the policy-making process. This paper presents two cases involving stakeholder participation in agri-environmental development and policy making, targeted at different policy-making levels. One study was undertaken in Lower Saxony where a local partnership developed and tested an agri-environmental prescription, which was later included in the state's menu of agri-environmental schemes.

Chlamydia pneumoniae decreases smooth muscle cell proliferation through induction of prostaglandin E2 synthesis.

Chlamydia pneumoniae may modulate the proliferation of smooth muscle cells (SMC) in atherosclerotic plaques. Conditioned medium from C. pneumoniae-infected SMC decreased the proliferation of uninfected SMC.

Increased production of matrix metalloproteinases 1 and 3 by smooth muscle cells upon infection with Chlamydia pneumoniae.

Atherosclerosis has been linked to Chlamydia pneumoniae infection. In atherosclerotic arteries chlamydiae infect macrophages, endothelial cells, and smooth muscle cells (SMC). It has been suggested that the proteolysis of the extracellular matrix by matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) is involved in the destabilisation and rupture of atherosclerotic plaques.

Role of interferon-stimulated gene factor 3gamma and beta interferon in HLA class I enhancement in synovial fibroblasts upon infection with Chlamydia trachomatis.

Chlamydia trachomatis infection can cause reactive arthritis that is associated with the persistence of chlamydial organisms in the joint. Fibroblasts of the synovial membrane represent host cells for Chlamydia during articular infection. In this study we investigated the expression of HLA class I molecules in synovial fibroblasts following infection with C.