Contradictory Effects Research Articles

Acknowledging Contradictions – Endorsing Change: Transforming the Urban Through Gardening

ABSTRACT The contradictions of commoning practices have recently gained increasing attention in critical research. As such, research has shown that collective practices of gardening in common produce contradictory effects not necessarily in line with progressive ideas of the common. Instead of a general dismissal of commoning due to its documented contradictions, I suggest looking beyond the naïve wishing away of contradictions by way of deploying Marxist dialectics as a research perspective from which to explicate and understand underlying processes. Rather than undermining the common's potential as a post-capitalist alternative, this article uses contradictions as an analytical lens through which the meaning of six contradictions of urban garden commons identified in the academic literature is explored. This article concludes that a conceptual focus on contradictions allows for a reflexive and critical research practice revealing the complexity of dialectical relations through which the practice of gardening propels changes but also the reproduction of existing relations.

Allostasis revisited: A perception, variation, and risk framework

The framework of allostasis, allostatic load and overload (i.e., stability through change) attempts to combine homeostasis processes in day-to-day responses of physiology and behavior. These include predictive changes in environment such as seasons, and facultative responses to perturbations. The latter can be severe, occur at any time, and may present considerable additional challenges to homeostasis. Hormonal cascades, such as the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal cortex (HPA) axis, play a key role in responses to perturbations across vertebrate taxa. Glucocorticoids have been implicated in these processes in relation to energy balance that plays a role in determining responses to energetic demand (allostatic load) and influencing subsequent physiology and behavior associated with coping. Circulating glucocorticoid levels are likely regulated in part based on an individual’s proximity to energetic crisis, identified as the perturbation resistance potential (PRP). In the model of allostatic load, PRP is quantified as the difference between available resources and all energetic costs of allostatic load such as daily routines, life history stages (breeding, migration, molt and so on), and the impact of environmental perturbations. PRP can change gradually or abruptly and may be reflected by spikes in blood hormone levels. The pattern of individual responsiveness to PRP may vary and has specific implications for the activation of mineralocorticoid vs glucocorticoid-type receptors, hormone metabolizing enzymes and other downstream factors in target tissues. However, PRP is a difficult metric to measure. Here, we examine the variety of cues that animals may use to inform them about the status of their PRP and probability of energetic crisis. We consider (1) elevation in glucocorticoids as an endocrine “decision,” and (2) error management strategies in evaluating responsiveness to cues that may reflect or predict an impending energetic crisis. The potential for differential receptor activation as well as further integrative “decisions” to determine the diverse and sometimes contradictory effects of receptor activation and its downstream actions are important to the consideration of error management. This perspective offers insight into the basis of intra- and inter-individual variability in responsiveness and opens an avenue toward improving compatibility of the allostasis model with more classical views on “stress”.

Contradictory effects of technological change across developed countries

AbstractWill productivity gains lead to technological unemployment in a region or to new prosperity? In our article, we formally show that under general assumptions the price elasticity of demand on product markets is decisive: technological change leads to employment growth if product demand is elastic and it leads to employment decline if product demand is inelastic. In our empirical analysis, we use industry‐level time series data on output, prices, employment, wages, and national income for nine countries (including Germany, UK, USA) to estimate aggregate Marshallian product demand functions based on IV regressions and state space models with time‐varying coefficients. The resulting income and price elasticities are used as inputs in a second step in which we estimate the employment effects of productivity changes as interactions with the elasticities. The results correspond to theoretical expectations: demand is generally inelastic and the employment effect of technological progress is therefore moderately negative.

Measuring redundancy: the relation between concord and complexity

AbstractSyntagmatic redundancy involves constructions in which a single meaning relates to more than one form in a clause or phrase. Redundancy has been claimed to facilitate language processing and acquisition, and to be a linguistic universal, because of these advantages. At the same time, the repeated expression of meaning has been argued to make languages more complex because of the violation of principles of economy and transparency. This paper first investigates the relation between redundancy and complexity by examining how redundancy scores on well-known metrics of complexity. This assessment shows that redundancy makes languages more complex according to metrics of objective complexity, while it has contradictory effects according to metrics of subjective complexity. To empirically test whether redundancy makes acquisition and processing easier or harder, a cross-linguistically valid way of measuring redundancy first needs to be established. The second part of the paper involves an attempt in this direction. It presents a typological study on cross-linguistic variation in four types of concord, showing that languages differ with respect to the number and types of redundancy constructions they allow. The ranking of the 50 sample languages as to their redundancy-based complexity serves as a testable hypothesis for acquisition and processing research.

Calcium Overload or Underload? The Effects of Doxorubicin on the Calcium Dynamics in Guinea Pig Hearts

The severe doxorubicin (DOXO) side effect of cardiomyopathy limits it clinical application as an effective anticancer drug. Although Ca2+ overload was postulated as one of the mechanisms for this toxicity, its role was, however, disputable in terms of the contractile dysfunction. In this work, the dynamics of the intracellular Ca2+ signal were optically mapped in a Langendorff guinea pig heart. We found that DOXO treatment: (1) Delayed the activation of the Ca2+ signal. With the reference time set at the peak of the action potential (AP), the time lag between the peak of the Ca2+ signal and AP (Ca-AP-Lag) was significantly prolonged. (2) Slowed down the intracellular Ca2+ releasing and sequestering process. Both the maximum rising (MRV) and falling (MFV) velocity of the Ca2+ signal were decreased. (3) Shortened the duration of the Ca2+ signal in one cycle of Ca2+ oscillation. The duration of the Ca2+ signal at 50% amplitude (CaD50) was significantly shortened. These results suggested a reduced level of intracellular Ca2+ after DOXO treatment. Furthermore, we found that the effect of tachypacing was similar to that of DOXO, and, interestingly, DOXO exerted contradictory effects on the tachypaced hearts: it shortened the Ca-AP-Lag, accelerated the MRV and MFV, and prolonged the CaD50. We, therefore, concluded that DOXO had a different effect on intracellular Ca2+. It caused Ca2+ underload in hearts with sinus rhythm; this might relate to the contractile dysfunction in DOXO cardiomyopathy. It led to Ca2+ overload in the tachypaced hearts, which might contribute to the Ca2+-overload-related toxicity.

Numerical investigation on the performance of internal flow and atomization in the recessed gas-centered swirl coaxial injectors

Recessed gas-centered swirl coaxial (GCSC) injector has been widely applied in the liquid rocket engine (LRE), and its internal flow and atomization have a significant impact on the combustion downstream. The oxygen (gas)-kerosene (liquid) two-phase flow in the recessed chamber of GCSC injectors under the conditions of back pressure of 17 MPa is numerically simulated by the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method. The liquid film, atomization and gas-liquid two-phase flow fields are obtained for liquid flow with or without swirling. The atomization of liquid kerosene does not have typical atomization characteristic of a swirling injector but accomplishes in the recessed chamber by action of pneumatic force. The swirling flow in the outer injector is helpful to achieve higher gas-to-liquid axial momentum ratio for good atomization performance and smaller injector size as well as lower gas-to-liquid momentum ratio for longer liquid-film length and more steady mass flowrate. The droplet sizes of the spray, the length of liquid film and the sizes of GCSC injectors decrease with increase of the gas-to-liquid (axial) momentum ratio, while the liquid mass flowrate in the outer injector becomes much unstable due to a recirculation flow adjacent to the exit of outer injector. Therefore, it is found that increasing the gas-to-liquid (axial) momentum ratio has two contradictory effects on improving atomization performance and promoting combustion instability. To balance these contradiction influences, the corresponding limits of the gas-to-liquid (axial) momentum ratio for well-working GCSC injectors are defined in this paper. The lower and upper limits of the gas-to-liquid momentum ratio are 7.6 and 14, and the gas-to-liquid axial momentum ratio corresponds to 17.6 and 31. In actual engineering project, the gas-to-liquid (axial) momentum ratios of the GCSC injector investigated in this paper is 9 (20). It indicates that the limits proposed in this paper are reasonable.

‘Are we doing Cátedra de Paz?’ Teacher perspectives on enacting peace education in Bogotá, Colombia

ABSTRACT In 2015, the Colombian Ministry of Education introduced the Cátedra de Paz (CdP), a national policy that seeks to contribute to human rights, citizenship, violence prevention, and peaceful conflict resolution. In the context of a decentralized education system, schools have significant autonomy to adapt the policy to local contexts. Relatively little research to date has documented the enactment, evaluation, or impact of the CdP. This study aims to understand how educators have interpreted this national mandate, and the extent to which the policy has prompted and expanded teaching and learning opportunities about conflict, peace, and justice. We explore the perspectives of 46 teachers working in public schools across 19 of Bogotá’s 20 localities, several years into the creation of the CdP and in the midst of a contentious national peace process. The paper shows a range of enactment formats and uneven impact on teachers’ existing commitments to peace education. We conclude that the CdP has had a contradictory effect on school-based practices, legitimizing the importance of peace education as a national imperative, while marginalizing efforts within schools as individualized and bound to the social sciences subject.

Review of Holy Science: The Biopolitics of Hindu Nationalism

Review of Holy Science: The Biopolitics of Hindu Nationalism Sunhay You (bio) Banu Subramaniam’s Holy Science: The Biopolitics of Hindu Nationalism, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2019 Building on the insights of feminist, queer, postcolonial, science and technology, and religion studies, Holy Science deconstructs the binary between science and religion to reveal their entangled formations and uneven effects—the consequences of colonial legacies that privilege science over religion as a universally objective mode of knowledge production. In present-day postcolonial India, Hindu nationalism takes shape through the rhetoric of science to consolidate and integrate India’s past with its future destiny. The five case studies and chapters that make up the book present thick descriptions delineating how the rhetoric of science and religion come together to both clarify and amplify the hindutva of Hindu nationalism, an ideology that naturalizes “a great and grand Hindu past where science, technology, and philosophy thrived” (7). In this imaginary, Hinduism coheres with modern capitalism, neoliberalism, Western science, and technology to beckon a return to India’s prosperous past in the present. Offering analyses of scientific studies that undergird and extend the goals of Hindu nationalism, Subramaniam engages in an “experimental humanities,” a methodological approach that brings together the “empiricism and analytic conventions of experiments from the sciences and the rhetorical and contextual analyses from the humanities” (34). For instance, in her fourth chapter, “Biocitizenship in Neoliberal Times,” Subramaniam delineates how state investments in Indigenous medical systems (IMS) such as Ayurveda seek to establish the scientific basis of India’s ancient spiritual healing practices. Advances in Western science are to affirm what has already been discovered and intuited in India through more spiritual means of inquiry. Notably, using science to legitimize India’s cultural and historical authority has contradictory effects. While disrupting [End Page 278] colonial hierarchies of knowledge, the medicalization of Ayurveda also fortifies a vision of a unified Indian people with shared genetic origins and health concerns. Hindu nationalism ends up reinforcing the disenfranchising structures of the neoliberal and bionational governance that propounds the biological basis of nationhood and individuated citizenship. In this manner, studies in genomics and IMS can amplify essentialist politics of difference that buttress hierarchies of caste and sex in biological terms. India’s Vedic tradition, upon which Hinduism and Indigenous medical systems are based, valorizes India’s origins and serves as the basis of what Subramaniam terms “archaic modernity.” The “archaic” becomes synonymous with “modernity” as the past becomes the way of the future. The first chapter, “Home and the World: The Modern Lives of the Vedic Sciences,” reviews how the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mobilized archaic modernity to gain state control and majority support at the dawn of the new millennium. However, this revamped image of Hinduism as synonymous with scientific and technological advancement reinvests in an essentialist gender hierarchy. These competing forces collide in the revival of Vaastushastra, an ancient Indian science for harmonizing living spaces in accordance with the five elements (water, earth, fire, air, and space). Subramaniam notes that this architectural science and style, marketed toward women, has gained much traction as a status symbol. As a gendered site of neoliberal consumerism, Vaastushastra redomesticates women as the bearers of tradition within the home and nation. In chapter 2, “Colonial Legacies, Postcolonial Biologies: The Queer Politics of (Un)Natural Sex,” Subramaniam delves into the Judeo-Christian roots of the biological sciences, especially those that dictate the organic basis of sexual difference and heteronormative sexual reproduction. This legacy lives on in the Indian Penal Code 377 (IPC 377), which identifies any form of “unnatural” intercourse as a criminal offense. Despite its colonial roots, the IPC 377 has garnered the support of Hindu nationalists, who align with its historical investments in eugenics and in identifying and penalizing “undesirable” citizen subjects along the lines of caste, religion, and class. Hindu nationalist lawyers have gone on to defend the code in court, describing nonheteronormative sex acts as abject markers of British and Muslim degeneracy, complicity, and anti-nationalism. While the code has changed to permit consensual gay sex and acknowledge a third gender for transgender people, it sustains the religious-scientific language of the “unnatural” as a...

A Longitudinal Study on Students’ Foreign Language Anxiety and Cognitive Load in Gamified Classes of Higher Education

Using gamification as an instructional intervention to manage students’ learning emotions has become a trending topic. Meanwhile, the cognitive load resulting from gamified learning environments may impact learning emotions negatively. In order to clarify students’ foreign language anxiety and cognitive load in a gamified English as a foreign language class, this study designed a gamified flipped learning context in a Chinese university and conducted five surveys, three semi-structured interviews, and consecutive in-class observation in 15 sessions. This study has the following findings: First, neither the foreign language anxiety nor the cognitive load of the students changed significantly through the entire course; second, the game elements produced contradictory effects on the students’ multiple-sourced foreign language anxiety (communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation, and lack of self-confidence); third, the introduction of games had transient effects on extraneous cognitive load, and the immersion in games indirectly influenced the intrinsic and germane cognitive load; in addition, foreign language anxiety and cognitive load correlated in a complicated and dynamic manner as a result of diverse gamification factors. These findings are expected to provide useful insights for researchers into the significance of utilizing gamification in emotion management while taking cognitive dimensions into account from both the collective and the individual perspectives.

“They just need to empower themselves:” reproducing queer (neo)liberalism in LGBTS Empowerment discourses of representatives of LGBTS Human Rights NGOs in Ghana

ABSTRACT In this article, I examine how LGBT empowerment is discursively constructed within the material context of postcolonial Ghana, arguing that LGBT empowerment emerges as a contentious site of “glocalized assemblage” that condenses multiple meanings and spatio-temporal histories of colonization, gender, and sexuality to produce contradictory and paradoxical effects on Sassoi. I explain how neoliberal frames of governmentality are embedded in LGBT-centred empowerment programmes through discursive evocations of community, personal responsibility and human rights education. In conclusion, I argue for queer (post)colonial approaches to LGBT empowerment that open up spaces for radical imaginations to social change in Ghana and across the Global South.

Species' movement influence responses to habitat fragmentation

AbstractAimHuman conversion of land leads to habitat loss and fragmentation. The effects of habitat loss are well‐established, but the effects of fragmentation beyond those of habitat loss, “fragmentation per se” (FPS), are intensely debated. One area of debate is how different species might respond to FPS. We will answer whether FPS have more negative effects on species that spend more time in the matrix and less on species with higher potential patch encounter rates.LocationVirtual landscapes.MethodsWe simulated the effects of FPS on multiple species with different movement characteristics. All species moved with a random walk (RW), a correlated RW (CRW), or a habitat‐dependent walk (HDW). Species also had increasing habitat bias which caused individuals to have a higher probability of moving into a more suitable habitat. The walk type modified the rate at which species encountered habitat patches. Increased bias caused individuals to spend more time in suitable habitats and less time in the matrix between patches. All species experienced higher mortality in less suitable habitats. We analysed FPS effects on species for whom the fragmented focal habitat was the most suitable.ResultsWith bias, the species diversity of RW species declined with FPS, while FPS had little effect on the species diversity of species moving by CRW. For HDW species, spending less time in the matrix (moderate movement bias) caused species diversity to increase with FPS, but to decline with high bias.Main conclusionsThese results suggest that even for species that are dependent on fragmented habitat, FPS does not have a unidirectional effect. FPS can have a positive effect on species with high patch encounter rates (HDW with moderate bias) as their functional connectivity increases. These results help to explain why different studies show contradictory effects of FPS on biodiversity.

Renovation as innovation: Repurposing human antibacterial peptide LL-37 for cancer therapy.

In many organisms, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) display wide activities in innate host defense against microbial pathogens. Mammalian AMPs include the cathelicidin and defensin families. LL37 is the only one member of the cathelicidin family of host defense peptides expressed in humans. Since its discovery, it has become clear that they have pleiotropic effects. In addition to its antibacterial properties, many studies have shown that LL37 is also involved in a wide variety of biological activities, including tissue repair, inflammatory responses, hemotaxis, and chemokine induction. Moreover, recent studies suggest that LL37 exhibits the intricate and contradictory effects in promoting or inhibiting tumor growth. Indeed, an increasing amount of evidence suggests that human LL37 including its fragments and analogs shows anticancer effects on many kinds of cancer cell lines, although LL37 is also involved in cancer progression. Focusing on recent information, in this review, we explore and summarize how LL37 contributes to anticancer effect as well as discuss the strategies to enhance delivery of this peptide and selectivity for cancer cells.

New perspectives on the regulation of germinal center reaction via αvβ8- mediated activation of TGFβ.

Transforming growth factor-β (TGFβ) is a long-known modulator of immune responses but has seemingly contradictory effects on B cells. Among cytokines, TGFβ has the particularity of being produced and secreted in a latent form and must be activated before it can bind to its receptor and induce signaling. While the concept of controlled delivery of TGFβ signaling via αvβ8 integrin-mediated activation has gained some interest in the field of mucosal immunity, the role of this molecular mechanism in regulating T-dependent B cell responses is just emerging. We review here the role of TGFβ and its activation, in particular by αvβ8 integrin, in the regulation of mucosal IgA responses and its demonstrated and putative involvement in regulating germinal center (GC) B cell responses. We examine both the direct effect of TGFβ on GC B cells and its ability to modulate the functions of helper cells, namely follicular T cells (Tfh and Tfr) and follicular dendritic cells. Synthetizing recently published works, we reconcile apparently conflicting data and propose an innovative and unified view on the regulation of the GC reaction by TGFβ, highlighting the role of its activation by αvβ8 integrin.

Psychological price perception may exert a weaker effect on purchasing decisions than previously suggested: Results from a large online experiment fail to reproduce either a left-digit or perceptual-fluency effect.

Retail store prices are frequently set to either a just-below (e.g., $1.99) or rounded to (e.g., $2.00) integer levels. Previous studies proposed two price-perception effects that may underly such psychological pricing strategies. First, the left-digit effect (LDE) assumes consumers read prices left-to-right. Cognitive limitations let consumers overweight the impact of digits on the left side of the price while underweighting digits on the right side of the price. This effect appears to conflict with the contradictory perceptual fluency effect (PFE), which proposes that a rounded price is more perceptual fluent and, thus, more attractive to consumers. To address these paradoxical effects, we conducted an online experiment with 266 participants making a total of 4788 purchasing decisions where we systematically varied the purchasing prices of otherwise identical lottery tickets across two price levels. Against expectations, we found no support for either of the two price-perception effects. We propose three possible explanations of these null results.

Transformational Excellence: A Synthesis of Lean and Stress Management Intervention Research with Evidence-Based Actionable Guidelines

The philosophy of lean is creating value for the customer through organization-wide continuous improvement, reducing resource consumption (i.e., waste), and improving flow times across value stream processes while maintaining respect for people. Despite numerous studies identifying lean practice contributions to improvements in operating performance metrics, the body of literature devoting attention to the human aspect of lean reveals contradictory effects on the physical and mental health and well-being of employees. Stress management interventions (SMIs) have been shown to offer benefits for physical and mental health well-being. The objectives of this manuscript are to (1) identify the gap in the extant lean literature between the physical and mental health benefits of lean research, (2) review the relevant SMI research, and (3) utilize this review to identify and synthesize evidence-based actionable guidelines that advance transformational excellence with respect for people. These objectives proffer a significant contribution to the existing body of lean knowledge.

The contingent roles of market turbulence and organizational innovativeness on the relationships among interfirm trust, formal contracts, interfirm knowledge sharing and firm performance

PurposePrior research on interfirm collaborations has demonstrated that trust and contract are two central governance mechanisms that influence a firm’s knowledge sharing decision and the subsequent effect on performance. However, we know little about how effective these mechanisms are in different market conditions and levels of organizational innovativeness. This study aims to advance the literature on interfirm knowledge sharing by exploring these contingencies and by providing an alternative explanation of the contradictory effects of knowledge sharing on firm performance.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected 156 firms’ relationships with their suppliers in two batches from 300 firms in the 2017 list of Statistics in the Zhejiang province in China. The authors used unstructured interviews and formal questionnaires to collect data from these firms.FindingsMarket turbulence served as a boundary condition for the effect of interfirm trust and formal contracts on knowledge sharing. Both interfirm trust and formal contracts, as governance mechanisms, are effective in raising interfirm knowledge sharing only when the firms operate in high turbulent markets. On the contrary, knowledge sharing negatively affected firm performance when firms exhibit low organizational innovativeness. Moreover, a three-way interaction among market turbulence, organizational innovativeness and knowledge sharing revealed that when market turbulence and organizational innovativeness were both low, interfirm knowledge sharing was detrimental to firm performance.Practical implicationsBased on the results, this study recommends managers consider external (market turbulence) and internal (organizational innovativeness) when firms decide to share knowledge and benefit from such activities.Originality/valueThis study extends prior research on the determinant of knowledge sharing and clarifies the inconsistent findings of knowledge sharing on firm performance. Thus, strategic organizational leaders need to pay attention to when they need to share information with suppliers to best benefit from those collaborations.

The Role of Statins (HMG-CoA Reductase Inhibitors) on Insulin Secretion from the Islets of Langerhans: A Systematic Review

Context: Statins are administered to decrease atherosclerosis in patients with coronary heart disease. These drugs enhance the risk of diabetes by affecting islets insulin secretion. Objectives: Therefore, this systematic review investigates the effect of statins on insulin secretion of islets of Langerhans in the related original studies. Methods: A preliminary search was performed in the PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and ProQuest databases. The search strategy terms were statin (hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA reductase inhibitors), insulin secretion, and islets of Langerhans. The search elements were evaluated using the Mesh term system. Limits were used to include only review articles and no limits were set on language. The quality of the method and risk of bias was assessed by its tool. Results: After removing irrelevant articles to the subject, 20 articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria. In vivo studies revealed that pravastatin and rosuvastatin increase and decrease islets insulin secretion, while atorvastatin and fluvastatin reduced this variable, and pitavastatin had no effect. The results of in vitro studies showed that pravastatin and induced both increasing and decreasing effects on insulin secretion from the pancreatic islet cells. Also, administration of atorvastatin, rosuvastatin, fluvastatin, pitavastatin, simvastatin, and lovastatin decreased islet insulin secretion in the medium. Conclusions: Pravastatin could enhance pancreatic islet insulin secretion while other statins reduced this variable. Finally, the contradictory effect of statins on islets’ insulin secretion can indicate the existence of laboratory and clinical research in this regard.

Contradictory effect of climate change on American and European populations of Impatiens capensis Meerb. - is this herb a global threat?

AimsThe present study is the first-ever attempt to generate information on the potential present and future distribution of Impatiens capensis (orange balsam) under various climate change scenarios. Moreover, the differences in bioclimatic preferences of native and non-native populations were evaluated. LocationGlobal. TaxonAngiosperms. MethodsA database of I. capensis localities was compiled based on the public database – the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), herbarium specimens, and a field survey in Poland. The initial dataset was verified, and each record was assigned to one of two groups – native (3664 records from North America) or non-native (750 records from Europe and the western part of North America). The analyses involved bioclimatic variables in 2.5 arc-minutes of interpolated climate surface downloaded from WorldClim v. 2.1. MaxEnt version 3.3.2 was used to conduct the ecological niche modeling based on presence-only observations of I. capensis. Forecasts of the future distribution of the climatic niches of the studied species in 2080–2100 were made based on climate projections developed by the CNRM/CERFACS modeling and Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate (MIROC-6). Main conclusionsDistribution models created for “present time” showed slightly broader potential geographical ranges of both native and invasive populations of orange balsam. On the other hand, some areas (e.g. NW Poland, SW Finland), settled by the species, are far outside the modeled climate niche, which indicates a much greater adaptation potential of I. capensis. In addition, the models have shown that climate change will shift the native range of orange balsam to the north and the range of its European populations to the northwest. Moreover, while the coverage of niches suitable for I. capensis in America will extend due to climate change, the European populations will face 31–95 % habitat loss.

Fabrication of FexCoCrAlNi medium and high entropy layers on a carbon steel through TIG cladding

FexCoCrAlNi medium and high entropy layers were fabricated on a carbon steel using multilayer TIG cladding. The Fe content of the deposited layers decreased by moving away from the substrate due to the dilution effect. FexCoCrAlNi (with x>1) medium entropy alloys (MEAs) with a major Fe-rich BCC and minor Fe–Al–Ni-rich FCC phases developed in the inner parts of the fabricated layers. No intermetallic compounds appeared in MEAs. Microstructural assessments revealed that a FeCoCrAlNi high entropy alloy (HEA) containing Al–Ni-rich BCC and Fe–Cr-rich FCC crystal structures was achieved in the upper part of the deposited layers. It was found that Fe–Cr and Al–Ni pairs had contradictory effects on stabilizing crystal structure in MEAs and HEA. The Al–Ni pair was FCC-phase stabilizer in MEA while it was responsible for the formation of BCC phase in HEA. The microhardness of the deposited layers increased successively to reach 430 HV in the HEA due to the solid solution strengthening and formation of BCC phase with high-entropy characteristics.

Association between salivary oxytocin levels and the amygdala and hippocampal volumes.

Salivary oxytocin levels have been widely measured and studied in relation to social behavior because of procedural simplicity and noninvasiveness. Although the relationship between oxytocin levels in the blood and the hippocampus and amygdala is now becoming clear with reliable blood oxytocin studies, few studies have examined the relationship between salivary oxytocin and the brain function and structure. This study aimed to investigate whether the salivary oxytocin level is associated with the volume of the amygdala and hippocampus in 178 adults (92 women and 86 men) in their third to seventh decade of life. We performed volumetric analysis of the amygdala and hippocampus using FreeSurfer and measured salivary oxytocin levels using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The results showed contradictory effects of the salivary oxytocin level on the amygdala volume by sex and no significant effect on the hippocampal volume. Specifically, men showed a positive correlation between the salivary oxytocin level and amygdala volume, whereas women showed a negative correlation between the salivary oxytocin level and amygdala volume. The present study's finding of sex differences in the association between salivary oxytocin and brain structure supports previous findings that there are sex differences in the oxytocin system.