The World Health Organization has a mandate to compile and disseminate statistics on mortality, and we have been tracking the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic since the beginning of 2020. Reported statistics on COVID-19 mortality are problematic for many countries owing to variations in testing access, differential diagnostic capacity and inconsistent certification of COVID-19 as cause of death. Beyond what is directly attributable to it, the pandemic has caused extensive collateral damage that has led to losses of lives and livelihoods. Here we report a comprehensive and consistent measurement of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic by estimating excess deaths, by month, for 2020 and 2021. We predict the pandemic period all-cause deaths in locations lacking complete reported data using an overdispersed Poisson count framework that applies Bayesian inference techniques to quantify uncertainty. We estimate 14.83 million excess deaths globally, 2.74 times more deaths than the 5.42 million reported as due to COVID-19 for the period. There are wide variations in the excess death estimates across the six World Health Organization regions. We describe the data and methods used to generate these estimates and highlight the need for better reporting where gaps persist. We discuss various summary measures, and the hazards of ranking countries’ epidemic responses.
The current paper discusses three painted ground stone tools—two upper grinding stones and a bowlet—from the Early Bronze Age Ia2 rural settlement Fazael 4. All three items are utilitarian and potentially linked to food processing (particularly grinding stones). Their working surfaces were brush painted with a basket-like design composed of intersecting lines. While the decorations are frail, the items are complete and suitable for use, implying that the painting deliberately took them out of service. So far, this phenomenon is unparalleled in the contemporary southern Levant. We suggest that it underscores the tools’ social and symbolic significance as food processors and discuss this hypothesis as part of a broader phenomenon of food processing tools’ secondary use and decoration observed throughout late prehistory.
Quality control-associated proteolysis (QCAP) is a fundamental mechanism that maintains cellular homeostasis by eliminating improperly folded proteins. Here, damaged proteins that do not fold properly, are recognized by the ubiquitin-conjugating system that triggers their elimination by the 26S proteasome. How these proteins are selected for elimination is largely unknown. However, it has been suggested that cis-acting protein sequences, termed degrons, that are normally buried within the protein core are being exposed, resulting in the recruitment of the ubiquitin-conjugation machinery. To identify these cis-acting elements and learn about their unique features, we have developed an unbiased screening method that facilitates the determination of thousands of proteome-derived degrons. The application of a machine-learning algorithm further established the evolutionarily conserved amino acid preferences and secondary structure propensities of QCAP degrons. Here we provide details of the use of this new approach, including the setup, data acquisition, and analysis, and discuss its potential use for QCAP study in yeast and beyond.
How can the study of Zaydi jurisprudence help us understand the relationship between Imam Yaḥyā Ḥamīd al-Dīn (r. 1904-1948) and the Jews of Yemen? What sources are available for study? What further questions does the focus on dhimma law raise regarding Zaydi law and political thought?
Nanocomposites are constructed from a matrix material combined with dispersed nanosized filler particles. Such a combination yields a powerful ability to tailor the desired mechanical, optical, electrical, thermodynamic, and antimicrobial material properties. Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (SCNCs) are exciting potential fillers, as they display size-, shape-, and composition-controlled properties and are easily embedded in diverse matrices. Here we present their role as quantum photoinitiators (QPIs) in acrylate-based polymer, where they act as a catalytic radical initiator and endow the system with mechanical, photocatalytic, and antimicrobial properties. By utilizing ZnO nanorods (NRs) as QPIs, we were able to increase the tensile strength and elongation at break of poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) hydrogels by up to 85%, unlike the use of the same ZnO NRs acting merely as fillers. Simultaneously, we endowed the PEGDA hydrogels with post-polymerization photocatalytic and antimicrobial activities and showed their ability to decompose methylene blue and significantly eradicate antibiotic-resistant bacteria and viral pathogens. Moreover, we demonstrate two fabrication showcase methods, traditional molding and digital light processing printing, that can yield hydrogels with complex architectures. These results position SCNC-based systems as promising candidates to act as all-in-one photoinitiators and fillers in nanocomposites for diverse biomedical applications, where specific and purpose-oriented characteristics are required.
Nanocomposites are constructed from a matrix material combined with dispersed nanosized filler particles. Such a combination yields a powerful ability to tailor the desired mechanical, optical, electrical, thermodynamic, and antimicrobial material properties. Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (SCNCs) are exciting potential fillers, as they display size-, shape-, and composition-controlled properties and are easily embedded in diverse matrices. Here we present their role as quantum photoinitiators (QPIs) in acrylate-based polymer, where they act as a catalytic radical initiator and endow the system with mechanical, photocatalytic, and antimicrobial properties. By utilizing ZnO nanorods (NRs) as QPIs, we were able to increase the tensile strength and elongation at break of poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) hydrogels by up to 85%, unlike the use of the same ZnO NRs acting merely as fillers. Simultaneously, we endowed the PEGDA hydrogels with post-polymerization photocatalytic and antimicrobial activities and showed their ability to decompose methylene blue and significantly eradicate antibiotic-resistant bacteria and viral pathogens. Moreover, we demonstrate two fabrication showcase methods, traditional molding and digital light processing printing, that can yield hydrogels with complex architectures. These results position SCNC-based systems as promising candidates to act as all-in-one photoinitiators and fillers in nanocomposites for diverse biomedical applications, where specific and purpose-oriented characteristics are required.
The article deals with the ways in which the memoirs of Il’ia Ehrenburg, Nadezhda Mandelstam, Emma Gershtein, and Raisa Orlova testify to their authors’ life during the Stalinist terror and to the fates of their contemporaries who fell victim to persecutions. Ehrenburg compared his having avoided arrest during the years of terror to having drawn a lucky lottery ticket: indeed, though each of the four memoirists took various measures to escape repres-sions, a great deal depended on sheer luck. Nevertheless, there was also the authors’ partial concurrence with the ide-ology of the Soviet system. These are issues that Lidiia Ginzburg called ‘areas of identification’ or ‘points of compatibility’, that is, aspects of the Soviet reality with which even the criticsof the regime consented, feeling a genuine inner need to cultivate such consent.
Юры Бохан, Сяргей Сергачоў, Іна Соркіна, Вячаслаў Швед, Захар Шыбека
Пад навуковай рэдакцыяй прафэсара Захара Шыбекі Каардынатар навуковага праекту Рацібор Бягун
Аўтары раздзелаў манаграфіі даследуюць рознічны гандаль у Беларусі паводле адзінай структурнай мадэлі. Яна складаецца з пяці асноўных кірункаў.
1) Аналіз гістарыяграфіі і крыніц.
2) Агляд спажывецкага рынку, на якім фармаваўся і развіваўся гандаль.
3) Умовы, якія традыцыйна існавалі або былі створаны намаганнямі ўладаў для ажыццяўлення рознічнага гандлю. 4) Сам рознічны гандаль з асобым акцэнтам на дзейнасць і майстэрства гандляроў.
5) І нарэшце, на сцэну выводзіцца таксама важны актар рознічнага гандлю — спажывец з яго ўзаемаадносінамі з гандлярамі і роляй на спажывецкім рынку.
Першы том ахапляе пэрыяд ад сярэдзіны ХІІІ стагодзьдзя да 1861 году.
The authors of the chapters of the monograph study retail trade in Belarus according to a common structural model. It consists of five main directions: 1) Analysis of historiography and sources. 2) Overview of the consumer market, on which trade was formed and developed. 3) Conditions that traditionally existed or were created by the efforts of the authorities to implement retail trade. 4) The retail trade itself with a special emphasis on the activity and skills of traders. 5) And finally, an important actor of retail trade is also brought to the stage - the consumer with his relationship with traders and his role in the consumer market.
Monitoring and predicting the dynamics of abundance of species living in natural habitats is an important component stability analysis of ecosystem as well as dynamics and direction of change of biotic communities under global climate change and pressure of the alien species. The aim of the work was to build a matrix model and study the state of stabilisation of the dynamics of the bank vole population within the Leslie model. The object of the study was the population dynamics of Myodes glareolus Schrebe
מאמר זה מבקש למקד את המבט על הגישה החברתית ולנסח את האופנים השונים שבהם היא מציעה לנו לחשוב על שוליותם של אנשים עם מוגבלות בשוק העבודה השכירה. מניע מרכזי מאחורי מטרה זו הוא ההתרשמות כי בשיח המחקרי, המקצועי והציבורי יש לעיתים נטייה להצגה מונוליטית של הגישה החברתית, תוך טשטוש העושר התאורטי והאידיאולוגי הכלול בה (הולר,2018). ). כך למשל, נוכל לעיתים קרובות לשמוע חוקרים, קובעי מדיניות או אנשי מקצוע, כולל כותב מאמר זה, הטוענים כי הם מאמצים את ה"גישה החברתית של המוגבלות", מבלי לתת את הדעת לכך כי ניתן למצוא בתוך הגישה החברתית לא רק הסברים שונים לשוליות התעסוקתית של אנשים עם מוגבלות, אלא גם פתרונות שונים (ולעיתים מנוגדים) לשוליות זו. בשונה מכך, מאמר זה מבקש להראות כי בדומה לגישות ביקורתיות אחרות לשינוי חברתי, דוגמת הפמיניזם, הגישה החברתית של המוגבלות איננה עשויה מקשה רעיונית ואידיאולוגית אחת, וכי למעשה הניסיון להסביר את שוליותם של אנשים עם מוגבלות בחברה, וכך גם בשוק העבודה, והניסיון להציע פתרונות לשוליות זו, הובילו ליצירתם של מודלים תאורטיים ואידיאולוגיים שונים הנכללים תחת "מטריית" הגישה החברתית (Goodley, 2016). במאמר זה יוצגו שלושה מודלים מרכזיים שכאלו - מודל הזכויות, מודל הכלכלה הפוליטית והמודל התרבותי - המהווים אבן יסוד של הגישה החברתית של המוגבלות מאז התגבשותה (מתוך המאמר)
Such a combination yields a powerful ability to tailor the desired mechanical, optical, electrical, thermodynamic, and antimicrobial material properties. Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (SCNCs) are exciting potential fillers, as they display size-, shape-, and composition-controlled properties and are easily embedded in diverse matrices. Here we present their role as quantum photoinitiators (QPIs) in acrylate-based polymer, where they act as a catalytic radical initiator and endow the system with mechanical, photocatalytic, and antimicrobial properties. By utilizing ZnO nanorods (NRs) as QPIs, we were able to increase the tensile strength and elongation at break of poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) hydrogels by up to 85%, unlike the use of the same ZnO NRs acting merely as fillers. Simultaneously, we endowed the PEGDA hydrogels with post-polymerization photocatalytic and antimicrobial activities and showed their ability to decompose methylene blue and significantly eradicate antibiotic-resistant bacteria and viral pathogens. Moreover, we demonstrate two fabrication showcase methods, traditional molding and digital light processing printing, that can yield hydrogels with complex architectures. These results position SCNC-based systems as promising candidates to act as all-in-one photoinitiators and fillers in nanocomposites for diverse biomedical applications, where specific and purpose-oriented characteristics are required.
