Sex Differences in Symptom Presentation in Acute Coronary Syndromes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Background Timely recognition of patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) is important for successful treatment. Previous research has suggested that women with ACS present with different symptoms compared with men. This review assessed the extent of sex differences in symptom presentation in patients with confirmed ACS.

Toleration and prejudice-reduction: Two ways of improving intergroup relations.

While a large body of social psychological research has shed light on the nature of prejudice and how to reduce it, we argue that such work does not address situations of cultural or religious outgroup beliefs and practices that are considered incompatible with one's own. The present theoretical article contrasts a prejudice-reduction approach with a toleration-based approach to consider the differences each have with regard to the attitude object they focus upon, the perceived reasonableness of the attitude, and the behavioral consequences each may lead to. In doing so, we consider the psychological processes involved in whether the negative attitude leads to negative actions.

Climate projections for glacier change modelling over the Himalayas.

Glaciers are of key importance to freshwater supplies in the Himalayan region. Their growth or decline is among other factors determined by an interaction of 2-m air temperature (TAS) and precipitation rate (PR) and thereof derived positive degree days (PDD) and snow and ice accumulation (SAC). To investigate determining factors in climate projections, we use a model ensemble consisting of 36 CMIP5 general circulation models (GCMs) and 13 regional climate models (RCMs) of two Asian CORDEX domains for two different representative concentration pathways (RCP4.

Urinary Ethyl Glucuronide as Measure of Alcohol Consumption and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

Background Moderate alcohol consumption has been associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all-cause mortality compared with heavy drinkers and abstainers. To date, studies have relied on self-reported consumption, which may be prone to misclassification. Urinary ethyl glucuronide (EtG) is an alcohol metabolite and validated biomarker for recent alcohol consumption.

The c.1A > C start codon mutation in is associated with a protracted disease course.

Background: CLN3 disease is a disorder of lysosomal homeostasis predominantly affecting the retina and the brain. The severity of the underlying mutations in particularly determines onset and course of neurological deterioration. Given the highly conserved start codon code among eukaryotic species, we expected a variant in the start codon of to give rise to the classical, that is, severe, phenotype.

Measurements, models and drivers of incoming longwave radiation in the Himalaya.

Melting snow and glacier ice in the Himalaya forms an important source of water for people downstream. Incoming longwave radiation (LW) is an important energy source for melt, but there are only few measurements of LW at high elevation. For the modelling of snow and glacier melt, the LW is therefore often represented by parameterizations that were originally developed for lower elevation environments.

Implementation of a "real-world" learning health system: Results from the evaluation of the Connected Health Cities programme.

Background: The "learning health system" has been proposed to deliver better outcomes for patients and communities by analyzing routinely captured health information and feeding back results to clinical staff. This approach has been piloted in the Connected Health Cities (CHC) programme in four regions in the North of England. This paper presents the results of the evaluation of this program conducted between February and December 2018.

Sustainable intensification of crop residue exploitation for bioenergy: Opportunities and challenges.

Crop residue exploitation for bioenergy can play an important role in climate change mitigation without jeopardizing food security, but it may be constrained by impacts on soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks, and market, logistic and conversion challenges. We explore opportunities to increase bioenergy potentials from residues while reducing environmental impacts, in line with sustainable intensification. Using the case study of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany, we employ a spatiotemporally explicit approach combined with stakeholder interviews.

The Western Tibetan Vortex as an Emergent Feature of Near-Surface Temperature Variations.

Glaciers around the world are shrinking, yet in a region in northwestern High Mountain Asia (HMA), glaciers show growth. A proposed explanation for this anomalous behavior is related to the variability of the "Western Tibetan Vortex" (WTV), which correlates well with near-surface temperatures in northwestern HMA. Using analytical formulations and ERA5 reanalysis data, we show that the WTV is the change of wind field resulting from changes in near-surface temperature gradients in geostrophic flow and that it is not unique to northwestern HMA.

Navigating the dichotomy: The top public servant's craft.

How in their day-to-day practices do top public servants straddle the politics-administration dichotomy (PAD), which tells them to serve and yet influence their ministers at the same time? To examine this, we discuss how three informal 'rules of the game' govern day-to-day political-administrative interactions in the Dutch core executive: mutual respect, discretionary space, and reciprocal loyalty. Drawing from 31 hours of elite-interviews with one particular (authoritative) top public servant, who served multiple prime ministers, and supplementary interviews with his (former) ministers and co-workers, we illustrate the top public servants' craft of responsively and yet astutely straddling the ambiguous boundaries between 'politics' and 'administration'. We argue that if PAD-driven scholarship on elite administrative work is to remain relevant, it has to come to terms with the boundary-blurring impacts of temporal interactions, the emergence of 'hybrid' ministerial advisers, and the 'thickening' of accountability regimes that affects both politicians and public servants.

Subseismic to Seismic Slip in Smectite Clay Nanofoliation.

Smectite clays are the main constituent of slipping zones found in subduction zone faults at shallow depth (e.g., <1-km depth in the Japan Trench) and in the decollements of large landslides (e.

Support for collective action against refugees: The role of national, European, and global identifications, and autochthony beliefs.

To understand recent anti-refugee protests in Europe, we examined how different levels of inclusiveness of group identities (national, European, and global) are related to intentions to protest among native Europeans. We focused on the mediating role of autochthony (a belief that the first inhabitants of a territory are more entitled) and the moderating role of threat. Survey data from 11 European countries (=1,909) showed that national identification was positively associated with autochthony, and therefore, with the intention to protest against refugees.

Hedgehog proteins and parathyroid hormone-related protein are involved in intervertebral disc maturation, degeneration, and calcification.

Parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) and hedgehog signaling play an important role in chondrocyte development, (hypertrophic) differentiation, and/or calcification, but their role in intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration is unknown. Better understanding their involvement may provide therapeutic clues for low back pain due to IVD degeneration. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the role of PTHrP and hedgehog proteins in postnatal canine and human IVDs during the aging/degenerative process.

Gut Vibes in Parkinson's Disease: The Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis.

Background: The complexity of the pathogenic mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease (PD) is attributable to multifactorial changes occurring at a molecular level, influenced by genetics and environmental interactions. However, what causes the main hallmarks of PD is not well understood. Recent data increasingly suggest that imbalances in the gut microbiome composition might trigger and/or exacerbate the progression of PD.

Observing and Modeling Ice Sheet Surface Mass Balance.

Surface mass balance (SMB) provides mass input to the surface of the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets and therefore comprises an important control on ice sheet mass balance and resulting contribution to global sea level change. As ice sheet SMB varies highly across multiple scales of space (meters to hundreds of kilometers) and time (hourly to decadal), it is notoriously challenging to observe and represent in models. In addition, SMB consists of multiple components, all of which depend on complex interactions between the atmosphere and the snow/ice surface, large-scale atmospheric circulation and ocean conditions, and ice sheet topography.

Millennial-Scale Climate Variability and Dinoflagellate-Cyst-Based Seasonality Changes Over the Last ~150 kyrs at "Shackleton Site" U1385.

During the last glacial period, climate conditions in the North Atlantic region were determined by the alternation of relatively warm interstadials and relatively cool stadials, with superimposed rapid warming (Dansgaard-Oeschger) and cooling (Heinrich) events. So far little is known about the impact of these rapid climate shifts on the seasonal variations in sea surface temperature (SST) within the North Atlantic region. Here, we present a high-resolution seasonal SST record for the past 152 kyrs derived from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program "Shackleton" Site U1385, offshore Portugal.

Global 3-D Simulations of the Triple Oxygen Isotope Signature ΔO in Atmospheric CO.

The triple oxygen isotope signature ΔO in atmospheric CO, also known as its "O excess," has been proposed as a tracer for gross primary production (the gross uptake of CO by vegetation through photosynthesis). We present the first global 3-D model simulations for ΔO in atmospheric CO together with a detailed model description and sensitivity analyses. In our 3-D model framework we include the stratospheric source of ΔO in CO and the surface sinks from vegetation, soils, ocean, biomass burning, and fossil fuel combustion.

Long-term evolution of the Old Rhine estuary: Unravelling effects of changing boundary conditions and inherited landscape.

The long-term morphodynamic evolution of estuaries depends on a combination of antecedent topography and boundary conditions, including fluvial input, sea-level change and regional-landscape interactions. Identifying effects of such boundary conditions on estuary evolution is important to anticipate future changes in specific boundary conditions and for hindcasting with numerical and physical models. A comprehensive synthesis of the evolution of the former Old Rhine estuary is presented here, together with its boundary conditions over its full lifespan from 6,500 to 1,000 cal.

Employee cooperative behavior in organizations: a vignette experiment on the relationship between training and helping intentions.

The mutual-investment model predicts a positive relation between investments in training and employees' willingness to behave cooperatively. In this paper, we argue that the extent to which employees increase their cooperative behavior after receiving training depends on the type of training provided, the skillfulness of the employee and the cohesiveness of the team. Focusing on intentions to help coworkers as an indicator for cooperative behavior, we conducted a vignette experiment among 2388 employees working in 127 organizations from four European countries.

Aquaporin expression in the human and canine intervertebral disc during maturation and degeneration.

The intervertebral disc (IVD) is a highly hydrated tissue, the rich proteoglycan matrix imbibes water, enabling the disc to withstand compressive loads. During aging and degeneration increased matrix degradation leads to dehydration and loss of function. Aquaporins (AQP) are a family of transmembrane channel proteins that selectively allow the passage of water in and out of cells and are responsible for maintaining water homeostasis in many tissues.

Leaping the hurdles in developing regenerative treatments for the intervertebral disc from preclinical to clinical.

Chronic back and neck pain is a prevalent disability, often caused by degeneration of the intervertebral disc. Because current treatments for this condition are less than satisfactory, a great deal of effort is being applied to develop new solutions, including regenerative strategies. However, the path from initial promising idea to clinical use is fraught with many hurdles to overcome.

Amplicon sequencing of 42 nuclear loci supports directional gene flow between South Pacific populations of a hydrothermal vent limpet.

In the past few decades, population genetics and phylogeographic studies have improved our knowledge of connectivity and population demography in marine environments. Studies of deep-sea hydrothermal vent populations have identified barriers to gene flow, hybrid zones, and demographic events, such as historical population expansions and contractions. These deep-sea studies, however, used few loci, which limit the amount of information they provided for coalescent analysis and thus our ability to confidently test complex population dynamics scenarios.

Real-time whole-plant dynamics of heavy metal transport in and by gamma-ray imaging.

Heavy metals such as zinc are essential for plant growth, but toxic at high concentrations. Despite our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of heavy metal uptake by plants, experimentally addressing the real-time whole-plant dynamics of heavy metal uptake and partitioning has remained a challenge. To overcome this, we applied a high sensitivity gamma-ray imaging system to image uptake and transport of radioactive Zn in whole-plant assays of and the Zn hyperaccumulator .

Classical Cardiovascular Risk Factors and HIV are Associated With Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Adults From Sub-Saharan Africa: Findings From H3Africa AWI-Gen Study.

Background Studies on the determinants of carotid intima-media thickness ( CIMT ), a marker of sub-clinical atherosclerosis, mostly come from white, Asian, and diasporan black populations. We present CIMT data from sub-Saharan Africa, which is experiencing a rising burden of cardiovascular diseases and infectious diseases. Methods and Results The H3 (Human Hereditary and Health) in Africa's AWI-Gen (African-Wits-INDEPTH partnership for Genomic) study is a cross-sectional study conducted in adults aged 40 to 60 years from Burkina Faso, Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa.