Mechanical Properties of Frozen Glacial Tills due to Short Periods of Thawing

Due to the warming climate, glacier retreat has left massive glacial tills in steep gullies; ice in the soil is prone to change phase resulting in the decrease of the ice strength and bonding of soil particles; collapse of thawing tills can lead to debris flows with disastrous consequences for geotechnical infrastructures. To improve our understanding of the mechanics of thawing glacial tills, we conducted unconsolidated–undrained direct shear tests on glacial tills from Tianmo gully on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. Control specimens were not subjected to freeze–thaw action. A total of 648 specimens with three different dry densities, three initial water contents, and 18 thawing times were tested. Peak shear strength, peak stress to displacement ratio (0.857), and cohesion were the highest in frozen specimens. After a thawing time of 0.25 h, there was a marked decline in shear strength; maximum friction was 2.58, which was far below the value of cohesive strength. For thawing times of 0.25–4 h, peak strength varied little with thawing time, but cohesion decreased and internal friction angle increased with increasing thawing time. Our results indicate that thawing of the solid ice in the till during the initial phase of till thawing is the key control of peak till strength; the effect of ice on cohesion is greater during the initial phase of thawing and in loose tills. Moreover, frequent sediment recharge of gullies may be explained by the decrease of cohesion with increasing thawing time caused by short-term destruction of ice bonding.

Irrational use of azithromycin in typhoid endemic areas: A challenge on multidrug-resistant typhoid treatment

Typhoid is a food-borne fatal disease caused by Salmonella typhi. It causes inflammation of the intestine, resulting in diarrhoea, fever, headache, cough, and muscle pain. Improved hygiene has resulted in a marked decline in typhoid fever cases in many developed countries. However, significant typhoid cases emerge in low and middle-income countries annually, including Pakistan. Typhoid fever accounts for a larger percentage of acute febrile illnesses in Pakistan. Azithromycin is the only effective drug used in multidrug-resistant typhoid. The emergence of drug resistance typhoid has been of more significant concern in recent years due to its irrational use of azithromycin. It is considered the last antibiotic to eradicate multidrug-resistant typhoid fever from Pakistan. In this article, we express our concern of the irrational use of azithromycin in Pakistan and its effect on typhoid in the country.

Inheritance, gifts and the accumulation of wealth for low-income households

Many low-income households in rich countries have very little wealth, but the role of intergenerational wealth transmission in underpinning this deficit is not known. This article seeks to fill that gap by investigating patterns of past wealth transfer receipt for low-income versus other households in seven rich countries and assessing the contribution that these transfers, or their absence, make to current wealth levels. We find that households on low incomes are relatively disadvantaged in terms of intergenerational transfers received in the past, both in terms of the likelihood of having received any and the amounts received by those who do benefit from such transfers. The role that this disadvantage plays in the linkage between current low-income and low wealth is assessed and evidence presented that it is significant. Simulation of a universal wealth transfer scheme or ‘capital endowment’ on reaching adulthood for two countries shows that such a policy could lead to a marked decline in the proportion of low-income adults with negative or no wealth. This and alternative or complementary policy responses to these wealth deficits merit the most serious attention.

The Politics of Legal Abortion: From Direct Action to Dialogue

In her highly influential 1984 study Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood, Kristin Luker speculates that opposition to legal abortion among women was likely to be strongest among those who were full-time homemakers without a college education (Luker 1984, 163). But despite a marked decline in that demographic group and a well-documented rise in public support for gender equality since then, the rate of support for legal abortion has remained stubbornly fixed at between fifty and fifty-five percent (Shields 2012). This tepid support has coincided with a steep decline in abortion services in rural states, and ever more sweeping restrictions on abortion being tested in the courts (Rose 2006, 89). Karissa Haugeberg's Women against Abortion and Katie Watson's Scarlet A both seek to address this state of affairs, albeit in markedly different ways. Haugeberg provides a historical chronicle of the motives and strategies of certain key women activists in the fight against legal abortion, with an eye toward how their concerns “came to serve as blueprints to legislators and judges who continue to craft policies and laws that erode women's right to abortion” (Haugeberg, 8). Katie Watson draws upon her experience as an attorney and bioethicist to write a guide “intended to encourage and equip you to engage in respectful, productive, private conversation about your experience with, and opinion of, abortion” (Watson, 37). Though both authors reveal their support for legal abortion, both are concerned to understand the motives and goals of those who fight against it.

Course and Lethality of SARS-CoV2 Epidemic in Nursing Homes after Vaccination in Florence, Italy

Evidence on the effectiveness of SARS-CoV2 vaccines in nursing home (NHs) residents is limited. We examined the impact of the BNT162b2 mRNA SARS-CoV2 vaccine on the course of the epidemic in NHs in the Florence Health District, Italy, before and after vaccination. Moreover, we assessed survival and hospitalization by vaccination status in SARS-CoV2-positive cases occurring during the post-vaccination period. We calculated the weekly infection rates during the pre-vaccination (1 October–26 December 2020) and post-vaccination period (27 December 2020–31 March 2021). Cox analysis was used to analyze survival by vaccination status. The study involved 3730 residents (mean age 84, 69% female). Weekly infection rates fluctuated during the pre-vaccination period (1.8%–6.5%) and dropped to zero during the post-vaccination period. Nine unvaccinated (UN), 56 partially vaccinated (PV) and 35 fully vaccinated (FV) residents tested SARS-CoV2+ during the post-vaccination period. FV showed significantly lower hospitalization and mortality rates than PV and UV (hospitalization: FV 3%, PV 14%, UV 33%; mortality: FV 6%, PV 18%, UV 56%). The death risk was 84% and 96% lower in PV (HR 0.157, 95%CI 0.049–0.491) and FV (HR 0.037, 95%CI 0.006–0.223) versus UV. SARS-CoV2 vaccination was followed by a marked decline in infection rates and was associated with lower morbidity and mortality among infected NH residents.

Response of Growth and Grazing Rate of Nanoflagellates on Synechococcus spp. to Experimental Nutrient Enrichment

As important bacterivores in planktonic food webs, mixotrophic nanoflagellates cancause mortality in marine Synechococcus spp. Our previous study found that the pigmented nanoflagellate (PNF) has a significant grazing impact on Synechococcus spp. In the current study, we applied the dilution approach to test the growth and grazing rates of nanoflagellates on Synechococcus spp. We then compared the differences between experimental nutrient additions and in situ conditions in the coastal waters of the East China Sea during the summer season from July to September. The growth rates of Synechococcus spp. in the ambient environment were between 0.54 and 0.62 day−1, which were slightly higher than the 0.56 and 0.66 day−1 with nutrient enrichment in summer. In contrast, our nutrient enrichment experiments produced a marked decline approximately from 21% to 58%in the nanoflagellate grazing rate on Synechococcus spp. The reason was that the mixotrophic PNFs directly used the added nutrients and reduced their supply of nutrients from prey during the incubation experiments.

Fear of COVID-19 in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction

A marked decline in myocardial infarction (AMI) hospitalizations was observed worldwide during the COVID-19 outbreak. The pandemic may have generated fear and adverse psychological consequences in these patients, delaying hospital access. The main objective of the study was to assess COVID fear through the FCV-19S questionnaire (a self-report measure of seven items) in 69 AMI patients (65 ± 11 years, mean ± SD; 59 males). Females presented higher values of each FCV-19S item than males. Older subjects (>57 years, 25th percentile) showed a higher total score with respect to those in the first quartile. The percentage of patients who responded “agree” and “strongly agree” in item 4 (“I am afraid of losing my life because of the coronavirus”) and 3 (“My hands become clammy when I think about the coronavirus”) was significantly greater in the elderly than in younger patients. When cardiovascular (CV) patients were compared to a previously published general Italian population, patients with CV disease exhibited higher values for items 3 and 4. Measures should be put in place to assist vulnerable and high CV risk patients, possibly adding psychologists to the cardiology team.

Effect of Paper Mill Effluent on Lipid Profile of Freshwater Snake Headed Fish, Channa punctatus (Bloch, 1793)

Industrial effluents reaching the aquatic ecosystem through various routes like run-off, leaching, and direct discharge from factories are major causes of environmental pollution. These were reported to have a negative metabolic impact on different non-target aquatic organisms. Fish is a close inhabitant of the aquatic environment, serves as a useful model for assessing the effect of chemicals mixed in the aquatic environment. Channa punctatus Bloch (Actinopterygii: Channidae), one of the most common edible fish, if exposed to industrial effluents containing harmful substances, maybe a serious threat to human health. In the present study, an attempt was made to understand the effect of sublethal concentrations of paper mill effluent on lipid profiles of Channa punctatus after exposure to 96 hours. A significant increase was observed in total serum lipid, cholesterol, and phospholipid with decreased triglyceride levels. A significant increase was observed in the cholesterol and triglycerides levels, whereas total lipids and phospholipid levels showed a marked decline in the liver. Thus present study concludes that the estimation of the lipids profile of fish will certainly detect early signs of stress physiology concerning their habitat.

Retreating from Redistribution? Trends in Democratic Party Fidelity to Economic Equality, 1984–2020

During his presidency, Barack Obama described rising economic inequality as “the defining challenge of our time.” But a growing number of scholars and journalists argue that rising inequality is in part a result of the Democratic Party’s diminishing fidelity to an egalitarian economic agenda and its embrace of neoliberalism. In this article, we assess the veracity of this claim through a content analysis of all national Democratic Party platforms issued since 1984. We find that broad assertions of Democratic retreat from economic equality are for the most part exaggerated. Specifically, we argue that Democrats’ support for egalitarian policies has been complex and varied over time, with a marked decline under the influence of the New Democrats in the 1990s followed by a significant resurgence thereafter. However, while party support for equalizing policies has rebounded overall, the extent of the party’s commitment to specific policies varies according to the purported deservingness of beneficiaries. Our findings have important implications for debates concerning Democratic Party change, the politics of inequality, and the policy agenda of the Joe Biden administration.