Ageism in Hiring Decisions: Sense of Purpose as a Mitigating Strategy

Discrimination against older adults in the workplace is a pervasive issue that has important consequences for older adults, leading to lower well-being (Stokes & Moorman, 2020) and worse job outcomes (Macdonald & Levy, 2016). One area where discrimination manifests is in hiring practices, and thus research is needed to understand factors that impact willingness to hire older adults. One potential intervention target to reduce age discrimination in hiring is sense of purpose. Sense of purpose manipulations have previously been successful in increasing one’s comfort with diversity (Burrow & Hill, 2013), and thus may prove successful in combatting age discrimination in the workplace. Therefore, the current studies sought to understand whether sense of purpose was related to ageist attitudes and hiring decisions, and how a purpose manipulation might serve as a tool to combat discrimination in hiring. Across two studies (n = 594, MAge = 27.20), participants were shown the resumé of either an older adult applicant (62-years-old) or younger adult applicant (32-years-old), and were asked how hireable they would rate the applicant. The research found that the purpose manipulation did effectively increase individuals’ sense of purpose. In addition, the research found that sense of purpose was negatively related to ageist attitudes. However, the purpose manipulation was unsuccessful in reducing ageist attitudes, and had no effect on ageist discrimination in hiring. These results suggest that while sense of purpose is negatively related to ageist attitudes, manipulating purpose may not be an effective tool to reduce ageist attitudes or discrimination.

Tubulin and Tubulin Posttranslational Modifications in Alzheimer’s Disease and Vascular Dementia

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD) are the two most common forms of dementia in older people. Although these two dementia types differ in their etiology, they share many pathophysiological and morphological features, including neuronal loss, which is associated with the microtubule (MT) destabilization. Stabilization of MTs is achieved in different ways: through interactions with MT binding proteins (MTBP) or by posttranslational modifications (PTMs) of tubulin. Polyglutamylation and tyrosination are two foremost PTMs that regulate the interaction between MTs and MTBPs, and play, therefore, a role in neurodegeneration. In this review, we summarize key information on tubulin PTMs in relation to AD and VaD and address the importance of studying further the tubulin code to reveal sites of potential intervention in development of novel and effective dementia therapy.

D-Limonene Inhibits the Occurrence and Progression of LUAD by Suppressing Lipid Metabolism Dysregulation Induced by PM2.5 Exposure

Background: PM2.5 exposure is associated with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), but the mechanism is unclear. The lack of understanding impedes our effort on prevention. This study examined a possible mechanism of lung cancer caused by PM2.5 exposure, and aimed to find a potential intervention for people living in PM2.5 polluted regions.Methods: PM2.5 was collected near South-North elevated way in Shanghai city. Lung adenocarcinoma cells, pulmonary epithelial cell and mice were exposed to PM2.5 or D-limonene for 48h and two month separately. Cell morphology, abilities of invasion, migration and proliferation, pulmonary fibrosis level were assessed. Lipid metabolism changes were also studied in 11,564 lung cancer patients.Results: PM2.5 exposure induced accumulation of lipid droplets in LUAD cells which was accompanied by increased malignant cellular behaviors and disrupted lipid metabolism. PM2.5 exposure of LUAD led to cleaved N-SREBP1 translocation from the cytoplasm to nucleus, which upregulated the expression of FASN and ACACA. These changes increased lipid accumulation in LUAD. D-limonene, a natural monoterpene, was found to inhibit the changes in lipid metabolism through upregulating the expression of miR-195, a reported tumor suppressor that inhibited the expression of SREBP1, FASN and ACACA specifically induced by PM2.5 exposure. Same changes were also observed in normal lung epithelial cells and normal lung tissue from mice after PM2.5 exposure, and the changes were inhibited by D-limonene treatment. Furthermore, in a cohort of 11,564 lung cancer patients, significant lipid metabolism disorders were observed in high, compared to low, PM2.5 polluted areas, and a small human intervention trial showed that serum miR-195 was upregulated after oral intake of D-limonene.Conclusion: Our study reveals a potential intervention target for LUAD that is related to PM2.5 exposure-induced lipid metabolism disturbance and that D-limonene may inhibit the disruption through the upregulation of miR-195, which suggests a novel low-cost preventive intervention for people living in PM2.5 polluted regions.

The vision of sustainable sport in a backcasting research

It is now becoming widely accepted that our economy has reached the limits both in terms of the carrying capacity of our planet and in terms of bringing real social justice to the table. Degrowth is a research area that aims to transcend mainstream approaches. While moving beyond the growth paradigm would entail serious changes in all areas of social life and Degrowth research extends into most of them, the transformation of sports is not among them. Neither is Degrowth a recognised concept among those who deal with sports. The participatory backcasting research introduced in this paper attempts to fill this void. In the backcasting project, master students of sports economics envisioned the sustainable future of sports and identified potential intervention steps that lead towards such normative states. This paper describes the results and assesses those elements that aim for strong sustainability. The results show that relocalisation and the sharing economy are the most accepted Degrowth concepts in a normative scenario on sustainable sports in this group. At the same time, the paper offers frameworks of thoughts for those who want to move beyond the slogans of sustainability either as responsible citizens or in positions related to the world of sports.

Emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and potential intervention approaches

The major variant of concerns (VOCs) have shared mutations in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike proteins, mostly on the S1 unit and resulted in higher transmissibility rate and affect viral virulence and clinical outcome. The spike protein mutations and other non-structural protein mutations in the VOCs may lead to escape approved vaccinations in certain extend. We will discuss these VOC mutations and discuss the need for combination therapeutic strategies targeting viral cycle and immune host responses.

A Multi-Party Contract Signing Solution Based on Blockchain

Fair digital signature of contracts and agreements is an essential process in any electronic commerce scenario, and therefore also in data marketplaces, where the relationships and agreements among the different parties (consumers and providers) are more dynamic. In multi-party contract signing, N parties wish to sign a contract in a such a way that either all signatories obtain evidence of the signing or none obtains conflicting evidence regarding the honest signatories; the exchange must be fair. In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based multi-party contract signing protocol. This solution does not require the existence or potential intervention of a trusted third party (TTP), thus avoiding the difficulty of N signatories agreeing upon a TTP. In addition, this proposal meets the necessary requirements: fairness, timeliness, non-repudiation of origin, and non-repudiation of receipt. Furthermore, confidentiality can be easily achieved. To minimize costs associated with the use of blockchain, it should be invoked in the case of exception (analogous to optimistic solutions with a TTP) and by only one of the N signatories. However, when the use of blockchain is required, we show that its cost is within perfectly manageable margins.