אתר זה משתמש בקובצי Cookie כדי לעזור לנו להעניק לך את החוויה הטובה ביותר כשאתה מבקר באתר שלנו. על ידי המשך השימוש באתר זה, אתה מסכים לשימוש שלנו בעוגיות אלו.
This paper examines the decline in food expenditure after retirement by quantiles of the consumption distribution, by gender, and by pre-retirement employment status. The decline in food expenditure after retirement is smaller among those who were employees than among those who were self-employed, but only for females. Males who did not work did not experience a decline in food expenditure when they crossed the official retirement age, while females who did not work decreased their food expenditure in parts of the consumption distribution. These results are consistent with the two common explanations of the decline in consumption after retirement: inadequate savings and substitution of time for money. Public policy should target the inadequate savings phenomenon in order to make food consumption more sustainable during retirement.
This chapter explores the role of education processes in the construction of youth collective identities in 21st-century mainland China. Drawing on the results of a growing body of anthropological work and on data from two field studies among Han (Chinese) high school students conducted over the past decade or so, the discussion highlights the key role of ethnographic research in uncovering contemporary tensions within China’s educational agendas, and the conflicting forces shaping youth nationalism and global outlook. In particular, the chapter underscores the intersection between Chinese youth social positioning and perceived life chances, their attitudes toward official narratives of the “nation,” and their readiness to align themselves with the national collectivity.
The prevalence of obesity and obesity-related pathologies is lower in frequent cannabis users compared to non-users. It is well established that the endocannabinoid system has an important role in the development of obesity. We recently demonstrated that prolonged oral consumption of purified Δ-9 Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), but not of cannabidiol (CBD), ameliorates diet-induced obesity and improves obesity-related metabolic complications in a high-fat diet mouse model. However, the effect of commercially available medical cannabis oils that contain numerous additional active molecules has not been examined. We tested herein the effects of THC- and CBD-enriched medical cannabis oils on obesity parameters and the gut microbiota composition of C57BL/6 male mice fed with either a high-fat or standard diet. We also assessed the levels of prominent endocannabinoids and endocannabinoid-like lipid mediators in the liver. THC-enriched extract prevented weight gain by a high-fat diet and attenuated diet-induced liver steatosis concomitantly with reduced levels of the lipid mediators palmitoyl ethanolamide (PEA) and docosahexaenoyl ethanolamide (DHEA) in the liver. In contrast, CBD-enriched extract had no effect on weight gain, but, on the contrary, it even exacerbated liver steatosis. An analysis of the gut microbiota revealed that mainly time but not treatment exerted a strong effect on gut microbiota alterations. From our data, we conclude that THC-enriched cannabis oil where THC is the main constituent exerts the optimal anti-obesity effects.
The prevalence of obesity and obesity-related pathologies is lower in frequent cannabis users compared to non-users. It is well established that the endocannabinoid system has an important role in the development of obesity. We recently demonstrated that prolonged oral consumption of purified Δ-9 Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), but not of cannabidiol (CBD), ameliorates diet-induced obesity and improves obesity-related metabolic complications in a high-fat diet mouse model. However, the effect of commercially available medical cannabis oils that contain numerous additional active molecules has not been examined. We tested herein the effects of THC- and CBD-enriched medical cannabis oils on obesity parameters and the gut microbiota composition of C57BL/6 male mice fed with either a high-fat or standard diet. We also assessed the levels of prominent endocannabinoids and endocannabinoid-like lipid mediators in the liver. THC-enriched extract prevented weight gain by a high-fat diet and attenuated diet-induced liver steatosis concomitantly with reduced levels of the lipid mediators palmitoyl ethanolamide (PEA) and docosahexaenoyl ethanolamide (DHEA) in the liver. In contrast, CBD-enriched extract had no effect on weight gain, but, on the contrary, it even exacerbated liver steatosis. An analysis of the gut microbiota revealed that mainly time but not treatment exerted a strong effect on gut microbiota alterations. From our data, we conclude that THC-enriched cannabis oil where THC is the main constituent exerts the optimal anti-obesity effects.
On the Mongolian plateau, the period between the collapse of the Kitan Empire (c. 1125 CE) and the rise of the Mongol empire (1206 CE) is still poorly understood. Although events leading up to the rise of Chinggis Khan's initial Mongol state are recorded in a number of historical sources, these accounts often look backwards over decades or even centuries from the perspective of a mature empire already made. Archaeology provides one path towards a better understanding of the circumstances, people, and polities contemporaneous with the collapse of the Kitan Empire and emergence of the Jurchen Jin and Mongol states. The eastern reaches of the Mongolian plateau is a region that can speak to these events based on the material record of archaeology. The Mongol-Israeli-American Archaeological Project has surveyed and excavated along Kitan frontier ‘long-walls’ in the northeast of Mongolia since 2018. One of our fortuitous discoveries was a well-furnished burial interred within the enclosure wall of a Kitan era frontier fortress. Analysis of this grave reveals that it likely postdates the use of the fortress and provides important information a
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a hyperinflammatory condition caused by recent SARS-CoV-2 infection, but the underlying immunological mechanisms driving this distinct syndrome are unknown.We utilized high dimensional flow cytometry, cell-free (cf) DNA, and cytokine and chemokine profiling to identify mechanisms of critical illness distinguishing MIS-C from severe acute COVID-19 (SAC).Compared to SAC, MIS-C patients demonstrated profound innate immune cell death and features of emergency myelopoiesis (EM), an understudied phenomenon observed in severe inflammation. EM signatures were characterized by fewer mature myeloid cells in the periphery and decreased expression of HLA-DR and CD86 on antigen presenting cells. IL-27, a cytokine known to drive hematopoietic stem cells towards EM, was increased in MIS-C, and correlated with immature cell signatures in MIS-C. Upon recovery, EM signatures decreased, and IL-27 plasma levels returned to normal levels. Despite profound lymphopenia, we report a lack of cfDNA released by adaptive immune cells and increased CCR7 expression on T cells indicative of egress out of peripheral blood.Immune cell signatures of EM combined with elevated innate immune cell-derived cfDNA levels distinguish MIS-C from SAC in children and provide mechanistic insight into dysregulated immunity contributing towards MIS-C, offering potential diagnostic and therapeutic targets.
Drawing on a wide variety of Chinese-language publications and in-depth interviews with high-school students, Mobilising China's One-Child Generation provides systematic evidence of the spread of martial logic and techniques into Chinese schools. The book explores how China has implemented Patriotic Education and National Defence Education programmes to foster love for the nation and the Party-state, mobilise the population to fight modern wars in the information age, and encourage youth to join the army. It studies how these programmes present the tropes of war and the military to youth, and how they are related to shifting constructions of gender and the national collectivity. It also documents students' varied perceptions–and notably contestations–of this militarised ethos, complicating our understanding of popular nationalism and militarisation processes in this authoritarian global power.
Groups of people in pain evoke our empathic reactions. Yet how does one empathize with a group? Here, we aim to identify psychological mechanisms that underlie empathic reactions to groups. We theorize that because empathy is an egocentric process routed through the self, people are strongly attuned to the impact on each individual, and less so to the number of individuals affected. In five pre-registered experiments, involving different types of stimuli and valences of the outcomes, we repeatedly find that participants' level of empathy depends on the pain experienced by each individual, but not on the number of individuals in the group. The experiments support our hypothesis. They also add to alternative explanations such as psychophysical numbing and strategic regulation of negative emotions, providing valuable insights into the phenomenon of scope insensitivity. The findings also bear implications for the ongoing debate on the role of empathy in public policy decisions.
Combining textual analysis, cultural contextualization, and the history of ideas, this essay excavates the complex “literal sense” of Emma Lazarus’s iconic sonnet, “The New Colossus.” Beginning with the deliberate misreading of the statue’s intended and acknowledged signification and noting the poem’s network of contrarieties, the essay dwells on the contrast between the “wretched refuse” on Ward’s Island and decadent Gilded Age exhibition where the poem was first read; it goes on to argue that the poem disables the connection between progress and poverty, reinvigorates the rhetoric of asylum, points to the Hebraic roots of American history, and reimagines American modernity as a benign merging of contrarieties.
January 2024: Michael P. Kramer is Professor Emeritus in the Department of English Literature and Linguistics at Bar-Ilan University. He has authored and edited numerous works on Jewish and American literature. His most recent book is an annotated translation of S.Y. Agnon’s And the Crooked Shall be Made Straight.
The late 8th century BCE lmlk stamp seal impressions on jar handles are among the most distinctive epigraphic findings in Judah. Currently, they comprise more than two thousand provenanced items from throughout the Judahite territory. While three of the four words engraved below the word lmlk, “(belonging) to the king,” refer to well-known Judahite cities—Hebron, Ziph, and Socoh—the fourth—mmšt— remains incomprehensible since it was first sighted in 1868. In this study, I argue that mmšt is not the name of a city but the expression “from (the?) maś’ēt”—masoretized מִמַּשְׂאֵת—spelled without the aleph. The maś’ēt was a huge and unique ad hoc collection of agricultural products initiated by King Hezekiah as part of his preparations for the anticipated invasion of the Assyrian army following his rebellion. These products were subsequently distributed in jars, whose handles were stamped with the inscription “(belonging) to the king – from (the?) maś’ēt.”
Description of many-electron systems with a fractional electron number (Ntot) and fractional spin (Mtot) is of great importance in physical chemistry, solid-state physics, and materials science. In this Letter, we provide an exact description of the zero-temperature ensemble ground state of a general, finite, many-electron system and characterize the dependence of the energy and the spin-densities on both Ntot and Mtot, when the total spin is at its equilibrium value. We generalize the piecewise-linearity principle and the flat-plane condition and determine which pure states contribute to the ground-state ensemble. We find a new derivative discontinuity, which manifests for spin variation at a constant Ntot, as a jump in the Kohn–Sham potential. We identify a previously unknown degeneracy of the ground state, such that the total energy and density are unique, but the spin-densities are not. Our findings serve as a basis for development of advanced approximations in density functional theory and other many-electron methods.
BACKGROUND: Enterococcal meningitis in children is rare, and its clinical presentation, laboratory characteristics and outcomes are not well defined. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of Enterococcal meningitis cases during 2002-2023 at our tertiary center. RESULTS: We identified 10 cases in children aged 2 weeks to 15 years (median age: 8 months). Seven children were males and 9 had comorbidities, including a ventriculoperitoneal shunt in 5 children. All children with shunt infections presented with nonspecific signs and symptoms. While 8 children presented with fever, only 3 had signs of meningeal irritation and altered consciousness. Cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis was evident in almost all children with a median of 173 cells/mL. Nine cases were due to Enterococcus faecalis, and 1 case was due to E. faecium. All 5 children with ventriculoperitoneal shunt underwent shunt removal and replacement. All children recovered without documented sequelae. CONCLUSIONS: Enterococcal meningitis is rare, especially in healthy neonates. It typically occurs following neurosurgical interventions and may only present with fever and shunt malfunction, without overt meningeal signs and with mild inflammation. The prognosis is favorable.
Abstract The use of alternative nutritional sources is an important topic for animal production such as poultry. This study examined the effect of replacing soybean meal with sunflower leaf meal in the diet of laying shaver brown pullets. A total of 30 laying birds were assigned to three treatments of 0% (as control group), 10% and 15% MSFLM inclusion. Four eggs per replicate were randomly taken for three consecutive days at two weeks interval for five times, and 18 weeks individuals were selected after 40 days of experimental time. External parameters of the eggs (egg weight, egg length, egg breadth and egg shape index, shell thickness), and body parameters (Final body weight, weight gain), feed intake and hen day production were measured. For egg length, egg breadth and shell thickness showed significant difference (p
Dhrithi Deshpande, Chhugani, Karishma , Ramesh, Tejasvene , Pellegrini, Matteo , Shiffman, Sagiv , Abedalthagafi, Malak S, Alqahtani, Saleh , Ye, Jimmie , Liu, Xiaole Shirley, Leek, Jeffrey T, Brazma, Alvis , Ophoff, Roel A, Rao, Gauri , Butte, Atul J, Moore, Jason H, Katritch, Vsevolod , ו Mangul, Serghei . 2024. “The Evolution Of Computational Research In A Data-Centric World”. Cell, 187, 17, Pp. 4449-4457. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2024.07.045. תקציר
Computational data-centric research techniques play a prevalent and multi-disciplinary role in life science research. In the past, scientists in wet labs generated the data, and computational researchers focused on creating tools for the analysis of those data. Computational researchers are now becoming more independent and taking leadership roles within biomedical projects, leveraging the increased availability of public data. We are now able to generate vast amounts of data, and the challenge has shifted from data generation to data analysis. Here we discuss the pitfalls, challenges, and opportunities facing the field of data-centric research in biology. We discuss the evolving perception of computational data-driven research and its rise as an independent domain in biomedical research while also addressing the significant collaborative opportunities that arise from integrating computational research with experimental and translational biology. Additionally, we discuss the future of data-centric research and its applications across various areas of the biomedical field.
