European Cooperation In Science Research Articles

Materiality of Memorialisation: Mapping Migrant Women's Landmarks in Europe

This article investigates the memorialization of migrant women across transcultural landscapes, and analyses results from the Register of Migrant Women Landmarks in Europe (hereinafter RMWLE), central to the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) action project “Women on the Move” (CA19112 – WEMov). It serves as reference for subsequent research based on data from this Register, for which data collection is continuing. The RMWLE registers toponyms, such as monuments, plaques, streets and other infrastructures named after women with a significant history of migration. It honours aspects rarely prioritized in memorialisation agendas, which are skewed towards men’s stories, and towards the more linear biographies of sedentary figures whose European, national, and regional memorialisation have remained uncomplicated by migration. This Deep Data study reveals recurring patterns at the level of Europe in the memorialisation of these women migrants. The diversity of stories, the richness and the prominence of landmarks devoted to men compared to women is a subject well-covered in memorialisation studies. This unbalance is compounded by the data from our register which shows landmarks on women migrants that are sometime tokenized, often marginalized, and which reproduce the bias towards nurture and care that have besieged the memorialisation of women in general. It further shows that the memorialisation process and the political and cultural mechanisms of official celebration often work against the recognition of cross-border careers and stories. The intersectionality of the project, highlighting both gender and migration, uncovers a political landscape of toponyms – and we reflect on how this register can help combat cultural prejudice by recovering migration episodes. The RMWLE helps us reflect on the defining impact of migration episodes, a reality rarely underlined in the biographies of famous women. This article favours a storytelling approach, to counter dominant cultural narratives and knowledge practices.

Database of European vascular plants red lists as a contribution to more coherent plant conservation

We introduce the database of European vascular plant red lists, a compilation of red list categories designated to taxa during in-country conservation assessments. Version 1.0 of the database is a standalone static dataset with open access in an end-user friendly format. Its aim is to fulfil the objectives of European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action 18201, ConservePlants. The database synthesizes data across 42 red lists from 41 countries, with participation of 39 out of a total of 44 European countries and two additional Mediterranean countries. The database contains 51,109 records representing 21,481 original taxonomic names with 37 different red list categories. During data harmonisation, 20,312 of the original taxonomic names were assigned to 17,873 unique accepted taxonomic names with scientific authorships across 184 families, 1650 genera and 15,593 species; and red list categories were standardised to 13 unique categories. We see this database as a source of information in diverse plant conservation activities and suitable for various stakeholders.

Legislation and policy for involuntary mental healthcare across countries in the FOSTREN network: rationale, development of mapping survey and protocol.

Several countries are currently revising or have already revised their mental health laws to align with the global movement to reduce the use of coercive care. No government has yet fully implemented the recommendation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) to eliminate the use of coercion in mental healthcare. Consequently, the international field of mental health law and policy is in a degree of flux. To describe the rationale, development and protocol for a project that will map and examine how mental health laws, policies and service capacity across European countries relate to the use of coercive measures, including involuntary admissions and treatment, restraints and seclusion. This will help to better understand the current situation and explore future directions of policies regarding coercive care. The project is being carried out under the purview of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) action network, entitled FOSTREN (Fostering and Strengthening Approaches to Reducing Coercion in European Mental Health Services). A multidisciplinary group of experts developed a comprehensive survey assessing mental health laws, policies and service frameworks, based on World Health Organization and UNCRPD recommendations. The survey was piloted in three countries, revised and disseminated to 30 FOSTREN country representatives. The survey will provide data for three strands of work on legislation, policies and service-level context. A comprehensive evaluation will be conducted, drawing on findings from all work packages. The project could inform the development of strategies, interventions and legislation to address gaps and promote compliance with international standards.

Information ecosystems in early academic career building: how do researchers in the social sciences and humanities learn the tricks of the trade?

Early career investigators (ECIs) in the Social Sciences and Humanities need to receive adequate information so that they will be empowered to progress in their academic career and deal with the various evaluation processes that constitute an essential part of their professional development. This article relies on an informational-ecosystemic approach originally developed in the context of resilience studies and crisis communication and uses it as a theoretical framework to analyse and understand the “early academic career building information ecosystems” (EACBIEs), into which ECIs professionally develop. The characteristics of these ecosystems are then refined through the analysis of interviews conducted with ECIs from all around Europe in the framework of the European Network for Research Evaluation in Social Sciences and Humanities (ENRESSH), European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action. The analysis reveals the remarkable heterogeneity of the information ecosystems into which early career researchers have to build their career in Europe, articulating a diversity of formal, non-formal and informal learning environments, and several related information channels, as well as showing a geographical spread that covers institutional, national and international levels. Furthermore, although the diverse information channels at hand and geographical levels at which they operate appear in some cases to be complementary, and even mutually reinforcing, they can also, in other cases, be dysfunctional, fragmented and unfair to some extent.

Correlated Equilibria in Large Anonymous Bayesian Games

We consider multipopulation Bayesian games with a large number of players. Each player aims at minimizing a cost function that depends on this player’s own action, the distribution of players’ actions in all populations, and an unknown state parameter. We study the nonatomic limit versions of these games and introduce the concept of Bayes correlated Wardrop equilibrium, which extends the concept of Bayes correlated equilibrium to nonatomic games. We prove that Bayes correlated Wardrop equilibria are limits of action flows induced by Bayes correlated equilibria of the game with a large finite set of small players. For nonatomic games with complete information admitting a convex potential, we prove that the set of correlated and of coarse correlated Wardrop equilibria coincide with the set of probability distributions over Wardrop equilibria and that all equilibrium outcomes have the same costs. We get the following consequences. First, all flow distributions of (coarse) correlated equilibria in convex potential games with finitely many players converge to mixtures of Wardrop equilibria when the weight of each player tends to zero. Second, for any sequence of flows satisfying a no-regret property, its empirical distribution converges to the set of distributions over Wardrop equilibria, and the average cost converges to the unique Wardrop cost. Funding: This work was partially supported by European Cooperation in Science and Technology Action 16228 GAMENET. F. Koessler acknowledges the support of the Agence Nationale de la Recherche [Grant StratCom ANR-19-CE26-0010-01]. M. Scarsini acknowledges the support of the Gruppo Nazionale per l’Analisi Matematica, la Probabilità e le loro Applicazioni project [Grant CUP_E53C22001930001], the Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca Progetti di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale [Grant 2022EKNE5K], and the European Union-Next Generation EU, component M4C2, investment 1.1 (Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca Progetti di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza) [Grant P2022XT8C8]. T. Tomala gratefully acknowledges the support of the HEC foundation and Agence Nationale de la Recherche/Investissements d’Avenir [Grant ANR-11-IDEX-0003/Labex Ecodec/ANR-11-LABX-0047].

OFFICE BP MEASUREMENT USING CONICAL CUFFS IN OBESE CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

Objective: Findings from adult studies suggest that tronco-conical cuffs should be used for accurate blood pressure (BP) measurement in obese individuals with large arm circumference (AC). The aim of the present study was to examine differences in office blood pressure (BP) levels using conical cuffs compared to standard-shaped cylindrical cuffs in obese children and adolescents. Design and method: We performed an observational study enrolling 37 obese children and adolescents consequently recruited from the outpatient clinics of the Obesity Unit at General University Hospital Consortium of Valencia. The device used for the office BP measurements was OMRON HBP-1320 (HBP-1320-E). Middle AC was measured in all participants and the appropriate cuff size was selected among five sizes of conical and three sizes of regular cylindrical cuffs. Results: Mean participants’ age was 11.8±2.5 years, mean BMI was 28.8±3.4 kg/m2, BMI z-score was 2.1 ± 0.3, and mean AC was 30.0±3.6 cm. There was no statistical significance in BP levels measured by cylindrical compared to conical cuffs (mean difference cylindrical-conical cuff was -0.22±6.55 mmHg for SBP, -0.02±0.81 for SBP z-score, -0.70±4.95 mmHg for DBP, and -0.06±0.44 for DBP z-score). The analysis was repeated after excluding participants aged <9 years old, retrieving similar results. A significant positive association was found between the measurements obtained by cylindrical and conical cuffs in both mean and z-score SBP and DBP values (p <0.001). Bland-Altman analysis showed good agreement, with 94.6% of the values for all BP parameters, lying between the limits of agreement. No proportional bias was detected (p >0.05). Conclusions: The use of conical cuffs resulted in similar office BP levels in obese children and adolescents suggesting no advantage in enhancing tolerability and accuracy of office BP measurement in these patients. Although conical cuffs may be considered an alternative for office BP measurements in obese children, their reliability should be confirmed in larger populations and different settings. Acknowledgments: This abstract is based on the work of the COST Action HyperChildNET (CA19115), with the support of COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) and the Horizon 2020 Framework Program of the European Union.

A 20-year overview of fertility preservation in boys: new insights gained through a comprehensive international survey.

Twenty years after the inception of the first fertility preservation programme for pre-pubertal boys, what are the current international practices with regard to cryopreservation of immature testicular tissue? Worldwide, testicular tissue has been cryopreserved from over 3000 boys under the age of 18 years for a variety of malignant and non-malignant indications; there is variability in practices related to eligibility, clinical assessment, storage, and funding. For male patients receiving gonadotoxic treatment prior to puberty, testicular tissue cryopreservation may provide a method of fertility preservation. While this technique remains experimental, an increasing number of centres worldwide are cryopreserving immature testicular tissue and are approaching clinical application of methods to use this stored tissue to restore fertility. As such, standards for quality assurance and clinical care in preserving immature testicular tissue should be established. A detailed survey was sent to 17 centres within the recently established ORCHID-NET consortium, which offer testicular tissue cryopreservation to patients under the age of 18 years. The study encompassed 60 questions and remained open from 1 July to 1 November 2022. Of the 17 invited centres, 16 completed the survey, with representation from Europe, Australia, and the USA. Collectively, these centres have cryopreserved testicular tissue from patients under the age of 18 years. Data are presented using descriptive analysis. Since the establishment of the first formal fertility preservation programme for pre-pubertal males in 2002, these 16 centres have cryopreserved tissue from 3118 patients under the age of 18 years, with both malignant (60.4%) and non-malignant (39.6%) diagnoses. All centres perform unilateral biopsies, while 6/16 sometimes perform bilateral biopsies. When cryopreserving tissue, 9/16 centres preserve fragments sized ≤5 mm3 with the remainder preserving fragments sized 6-20 mm3. Dimethylsulphoxide is commonly used as a cryoprotectant, with medium supplements varying across centres. There are variations in funding source, storage duration, and follow-up practice. Research, with consent, is conducted on stored tissue in 13/16 centres. While this is a multi-national study, it will not encompass every centre worldwide that is cryopreserving testicular tissue from males under 18 years of age. As such, it is likely that the actual number of patients is even higher than we report. Whilst the study is likely to reflect global practice overall, it will not provide a complete picture of practices in every centre. Given the research advances, it is reasonable to suggest that cryopreserved immature testicular tissue will in the future be used clinically to restore fertility. The growing number of patients undergoing this procedure necessitates collaboration between centres to better harmonize clinical and research protocols evaluating tissue function and clinical outcomes in these patients. K.D. is supported by a CRUK grant (C157/A25193). R.T.M. is supported by an UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/S017151/1). The MRC Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh is supported by MRC (MR/N022556/1). C.L.M. is funded by Kika86 and ZonMW TAS 116003002. A.M.M.v.P. is supported by ZonMW TAS 116003002. E.G. was supported by the Research Program of the Research Foundation-Flanders (G.0109.18N), Kom op tegen Kanker, the Strategic Research Program (VUB_SRP89), and the Scientific Fund Willy Gepts. J.-B.S. is supported by the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation (TJ2020-0026). The work of NORDFERTIL is supported by the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation (PR2019-0123; PR2022-0115), the Swedish Research Council (2018-03094; 2021-02107), and the Birgitta and Carl-Axel Rydbeck's Research Grant for Paediatric Research (2020-00348; 2021-00073; 2022-00317; 2023-00353). C.E is supported by the Health Department of the Basque Government (Grants 2019111068 and 2022111067) and Inocente Inocente Foundation (FII22/001). M.P.R. is funded by a Medical Research Council Centre for Reproductive Health Grant No: MR/N022556/1. A.F. and N.R. received support from a French national research grant PHRC No. 2008/071/HP obtained by the French Institute of Cancer and the French Healthcare Organization. K.E.O. is funded by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the US National Institutes of Health HD100197. V.B-L is supported by the French National Institute of Cancer (Grant Seq21-026). Y.J. is supported by the Royal Children's Hospital Foundation and a Medical Research Future Fund MRFAR000308. E.G., N.N., S.S., C.L.M., A.M.M.v.P., C.E., R.T.M., K.D., M.P.R. are members of COST Action CA20119 (ANDRONET) supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). The Danish Child Cancer Foundation is also thanked for financial support (C.Y.A.). The authors declare no competing interests. N/A.

Unified Language for Knowledge Dissemination: The Vascular Ageing Glossary, an Initiative by VascAgeNet

ObjectivesIn general, a terminology shared and agreed by different stakeholders is important to facilitate communication and cooperation. This holds true in the field of vascular ageing for the benefit of global cardiovascular health. The need to promote a common language and understanding across this area was recognised by VascAgeNet, a collaborative network with relevant and diverse expertise in the vascular ageing field, supported by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology. To contribute to the spread of unified terms in the vascular ageing field, a glossary was created by VascAgeNet and this paper describes the systematic process used for its development.MethodsAn initial list of terms and preliminary definitions were collated from the network. A dedicated team was created to design the glossary development process, to facilitate its implementation and to maximise outreach and dissemination. The key steps of the process were to determine: (1) the target audience; (2) a list of priority terms; (3) a template structure for definitions; (4) methods for collecting feedback and (5) the dissemination plan.ResultsAn implementation strategy was provided for each key step and shared within the network; main decisions were agreed by all members of the glossary team. Small groups of definitions were released on a regular basis within a pilot phase including 19 terms (status: 05.09.2023) that were published openly at https://vascagenet.eu/official-glossary.ConclusionsThe strategy for creating the first Vascular Ageing Glossary has been successfully designed and developed within VascAgeNet. A pilot phase covering the first publicly available terms was completed. The glossary is a living document, available to the scientific community, which aims to unify the vascular ageing language.

Therapeutic drug monitoring of monoclonal antibodies in chronic inflammatory diseases: A snapshot of laboratories and applications across Europe.

The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) action ENOTTA (The European Network on Optimising Treatment with Therapeutic Antibodies in chronic inflammatory diseases) was launched in 2022. To pave the way for harmonization of analytical methods for quantitation of serum levels of therapeutic antibodies in research and clinical settings, ENOTTA recently performed an online survey mapping laboratories in the field. The survey, which contained 30 questions surrounding therapeutic drug monitoring of relevant drugs and anti-drug antibodies, was distributed via the ENOTTA and European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory networks. Among 63 respondents across Europe, 45 reported analytical activity, with a range of utilized methods. Future engagement of as many sites as possible will enable comparison of methodologies and facilitate progress in the field.

Severe sperm DNA fragmentation may persist for up to 3 years after cytotoxic therapy in patients affected by Hodgkin lymphoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Does sperm DNA recover from damage in all men after 2 years from the end of cytotoxic treatments? The current indication of 2 years waiting time for seeking natural pregnancy after cytotoxic treatment may not be adequate for all men, since severe sperm DNA damage is present in a proportion of subjects even after this timeframe. Data in the literature on sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) in lymphoma patients after cytotoxic treatments are scarce. The largest longitudinal study evaluated paired pre- and post-therapy (up to 24 months) semen samples from 34 patients while one study performed a longer follow-up (36 months) in 10 patients. The median/mean SDF values >24 months after therapy did not show significant differences but the studies did not explore the proportion of patients with severe DNA damage and the analysis was done on frozen-thawed samples. In this study, 53 Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and 25 non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) post-pubertal patients were included over a recruitment period of 10 years (2012-2022). Among them, 18 subjects provided paired semen samples for SDF analysis at the three time points. SDF was evaluated in patients before (T0) and after 2 (T2) and 3 years (T3) from the end of, cytotoxic treatments (chemotherapy alone or in combination with radiotherapy). A cohort of 79 healthy, fertile, and normozoospermic men >18 years old served as controls (recruited between 2016 and 2019). SDF was evaluated on fresh semen samples (i.e. spermatozoa potentially involved in natural conception) from patients and controls using TUNEL (terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling) assay coupled with flow cytometry. SDF median values were compared between groups: (i) HL and NHL patients versus controls at the three time points; (ii) HL versus NHL patients at baseline; and (iii) patients at T0 versus T2 and T3. Severe DNA damage (SDD) was defined for SDF levels above the 95th percentile of controls (50%) and the proportion of patients with SDD at all time points was established. At T0, patients displayed higher median SDF than controls, reaching statistical significance in the NHL group: 40.5% [IQR: 31.3-52.6%] versus 28% [IQR: 22-38%], P < 0.05. Comparing SDF pre-treatment to that post-treatment, HL patients exhibited similar median values at the three time points, whereas NHL showed significantly lower values at T3 compared to T0: 29.2% [IQR: 22-38%] versus 40.5% [IQR: 31.3-52.6%], P < 0.05. The proportion with SDD in the entire cohort at T2 was 11.6% and 13.3% among HL and NHL patients, respectively. At T3, only one in 16 NHL patients presented SDD. TUNEL assay requires at least 5 million spermatozoa to be performed; hence, severe oligozoospermic men were not included in the study. Although our cohort represents the largest one in the literature, the relatively small number of patients does not allow us to establish precisely the frequency of SDD at T2 which in our study reached 11-13% of patients. Our data provide further insights into the long-term effects of cytotoxic treatments on the sperm genome. The persistent severe DNA damage after 2 years post-treatment observed in some patients suggests that there is an interindividual variation in restoring DNA integrity. We propose the use of SDF as a biomarker to monitor the treatment-induced genotoxic effects on sperm DNA in order to better personalize pre-conceptional counseling on whether to use fresh or cryopreserved spermatozoa. This work was supported by grants from the Istituto Toscano Tumori (ITT), Fondazione Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, the European Commission-Reproductive Biology Early Research Training (REPROTRAIN). C.K., G.F., V.R., and A.R.-E. belong to COST Action CA20119 (ANDRONET) which is supported by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (www.cost.eu). The authors declare no conflict of interest. N/A.

DFT Studies on Cun/TiO2 (n=1-7) System for Water Splitting

Copper deposited on titania is active in numerous catalytic reactions, incl. water splitting [1]. The activity of the system depends on the size of the copper phase, whether it is present as single atoms, sub-nanometer clusters, or nanoparticles.The aim of the current contribution is to elucidate the relationship between the size of the copper active phase and its electronic and geometric properties by performing Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations with PBE functional and the def2-TZVP basis set.Theoretical model of the system comprised of a cluster model of anatase phase of titania – (TiO2)34 - with clusters of copper of varying sizes on top of it. The ground-state geometric and electronic structures were elucidated. Next, their redox and photochemical properties were determined: frontier (HOMO, LUMO) orbitals were defined, energy gaps, total and partial density of states were plotted and analysed. The interactions between components of the systems, in particular the influence of the support on the copper electronic structure, were investigated. Next, the reactivity of the metal phase towards typical intermediates observed during water splitting (H2O, OH, O, and H) was studied.The performed calculations demonstrated that the presence of metal determines the energetics and character of the frontier orbitals of the catalyst. The size of copper active phase influences the bond lengths and bond orders with studied reagents.Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the National Science Centre, Poland within Solar-Driven Chemistry project no 2019/01/Y/ST4/00024. This publication is based upon work from COST Action CA 18234 “Computational materials sciences for efficient water splitting with nanocrystals from abundant elements”, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). We gratefully acknowledge Polish high-performance computing infrastructure PLGrid (HPC Centers: ACK Cyfronet AGH) for providing computer facilities and support within computational grant no. PLG/2020/013927.Literature:[1] Cheng Cheng, Wei-Hai Fang, Run Long, and Oleg V. Prezhdo, JACS Au 2021, 1, 5, 550–559

Expert Revision of Key Elements for Clinical-Grade Production and Qualification of Perinatal Derivatives.

Perinatal derivatives have been proposed as adjunct therapeutic strategies or innovative treatments. Undoubtedly, perinatal derivatives can offer the opportunity and source material to isolate multipotent stem cells, but both maternal- and fetal-derived tissues can be processed and transformed into engineered tissues or advanced biomedical devices, whose potential remains to be fully elucidated. Promising preclinical and clinical results collected so far clearly foresee an escalation of such novel treatments. Market forecasts predict exponential growth in such advanced medicinal products during the next decade, with a pragmatic innovation for medicine into a more advanced biomedical version, enlarging the portfolio for treating a wide range of congenital and acute conditions. However, all these promising and fascinating therapeutic possibilities cannot gain a solid and recognized role in established medical practice without rigid and harmonized manufacturing strategies. The implementation of strategies according to guidelines and directives compiled by Regulatory Agencies, in conformity to (European) Pharmacopoeia and for Good Manufacturing Practice -conforming production of such products, represent critical steps required to translate perinatal technologies into effective therapeutic approaches. During the past 5 years, a panel of European experts and developers, gathered under the umbrella of the COST Sprint Action, supported by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology action, had the opportunity to revise and summarize experience and recommendations for a fruitful and proficient generation of perinatal biomedical products. In order to facilitate the creation and potential commercialization of perinatal bioengineered and advanced pharmaceutical products and technologies, such a collection of data and recommendations is described and discussed here.

History of national sex surveys in Europe.

The historical background of European national sex surveys dates back to the late 1960s and early 1970s when the first such surveys were conducted in Europe. That was an era of Western sexual revolution, a time of increasing openness to discussion and debate of sexual issues, and legal reforms in many countries. During this period, there was a growing interest in understanding sexual behaviour, attitudes, and modern contraceptive use in the general population. Evidence was also needed for sexuality education that was emerging in some European countries. Despite this need for evidence, only a few countries (Sweden, Finland, France) conducted national surveys on the topic in the early 1970's, becoming pioneers in national sex surveys in Europe and in the world. It was the HIV and AIDS epidemic of the 1980s that gave more researchers and funders the impetus to conduct sex studies in many European countries. As a result, medical perspectives on sexuality became prioritised around Europe. Balancing the perspectives of the diverse disciplines (including public health, sociology, psychology) that use the data from national sex surveys remains a challenge for the modern surveys. The European Sexual Medicine Network (ESMN) is a part of European cooperation in science and technology (COST), which includes a strand of work on national sex surveys among the adult population. Since 2021, a subgroup of nationally representative sex surveys, co-chaired by Osmo Kontula and Hanneke de Graaf have worked together to further the field. This submission is based on a review of the literature, combined with Kontula's personal reflections following a history of participation in European collaboration in this field since the early 1990s.

Inequality and growth impacts of climate change—insights from South Africa * *This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 821124 (NAVIGATE), the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No 101081369 (SPARCCLE), the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No.

The impact of climate change on economic growth has been the subject of numerous studies in recent years, with macro-econometric analyses estimating the effect of rising temperatures on gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates at the country-level. However, the distributional impact of warming on inequality and poverty at the micro-level remains relatively unexplored. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between temperature and inequality in South Africa at the national and sub-national level. Our analysis reveals a significant -shaped relationship between temperature and inequality indices, with inequality lowest at moderate temperatures (11 ∘C–18 ∘C) and increasing sharply as temperatures increase. We find that the optimal temperatures are lower for inequality measures than for income levels. This indicates that substantial increases in inequality are expected at higher temperatures compared to growth impacts. This effect is particularly noticeable for the poorer segments of the population, whose productivity and wages decline as temperatures increase, while the impact on the richer segments is less significant due to their greater adaptive capacity. In terms of mechanisms, we find that agricultural households are more likely to experience an increase in inequality due to warming. Our findings suggest that global warming has two adverse effects on hot countries: reducing average growth and increasing inequality. We compare the outcomes of the moderate RCP6.0 scenario to a reference scenario without warming and find that by the end of the century, the Gini coefficient in South Africa is expected to increase by 3–6 points, resulting in a potential welfare loss of approximately 50% when combined with the impact of warming on GDP (which alone can reach up to 43% by 2100 in South Africa). Our findings highlight the importance of investigating the distributional effects of climate change at the micro-level, particularly in low- or middle-income countries where vulnerable populations are more susceptible to its impacts.

ASL lexicon and reporting recommendations: A consensus report from the ISMRM Open Science Initiative for Perfusion Imaging (OSIPI).

The 2015 consensus statement published by the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) Perfusion Study Group and the European Cooperation in Science and Technology ( COST) Action ASL in Dementia aimed to encourage the implementation of robust arterial spin labeling (ASL) perfusion MRI for clinical applications and promote consistency across scanner types, sites, and studies. Subsequently, the recommended 3D pseudo-continuous ASL sequence has been implemented by most major MRI manufacturers. However, ASL remains a rapidly and widely developing field, leading inevitably to further divergence of the technique and its associated terminology, which could cause confusion and hamper research reproducibility. On behalf of the ISMRM Perfusion Study Group, and as part of the ISMRM Open Science Initiative for Perfusion Imaging (OSIPI), the ASL Lexicon Task Force has been working on the development of an ASL Lexicon and Reporting Recommendations for perfusion imaging and analysis, aiming to (1) develop standardized, consensus nomenclature and terminology for the broad range of ASL imaging techniques and parameters, as well as for the physiological constants required for quantitative analysis; and (2) provide a community-endorsed recommendation of the imaging parameters that we encourage authors to include when describing ASL methods in scientific reports/papers. In this paper, the sequences and parameters in (pseudo-)continuous ASL, pulsed ASL, velocity-selective ASL, and multi-timepoint ASL for brain perfusion imaging are included. However, the content of the lexicon is not intended to be limited to these techniques, and this paper provides the foundation for a growing online inventory that will be extended by the community as further methods and improvements are developed and established.

Shapley–Scarf Housing Markets: Respecting Improvement, Integer Programming, and Kidney Exchange

In a housing market of Shapley and Scarf, each agent is endowed with one indivisible object and has preferences over all objects. An allocation of the objects is in the (strong) core if there exists no (weakly) blocking coalition. We show that, for strict preferences, the unique strong core allocation “respects improvement”—if an agent’s object becomes more desirable for some other agents, then the agent’s allotment in the unique strong core allocation weakly improves. We extend this result to weak preferences for both the strong core (conditional on nonemptiness) and the set of competitive allocations (using probabilistic allocations and stochastic dominance). There are no counterparts of the latter two results in the two-sided matching literature. We provide examples to show how our results break down when there is a bound on the length of exchange cycles. Respecting improvements is an important property for applications of the housing markets model, such as kidney exchange: it incentivizes each patient to bring the best possible set of donors to the market. We conduct computer simulations using markets that resemble the pools of kidney exchange programs. We compare the game-theoretical solutions with current techniques (maximum size and maximum weight allocations) in terms of violations of the respecting improvement property. We find that game-theoretical solutions fare much better at respecting improvements even when exchange cycles are bounded, and they do so at a low efficiency cost. As a stepping stone for our simulations, we provide novel integer programming formulations for computing core, competitive, and strong core allocations. Funding: P. Biró gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund, OTKA [Grant K143858] and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences [Grant LP2021-2]. F. Klijn gratefully acknowledges financial support from AGAUR–Generalitat de Catalunya [Grants 2017-SGR-1359 and 2021-SGR-00416] and the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación [Grants ECO2017-88130-P and PID2020-114251GB-I00] (funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and the Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&amp;D (Barcelona School of Economics) [Grant CEX2019-000915-S]. Research visits related to this work were financed by COST Action [Grant CA15210 ENCKEP], supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology), http://www.cost.eu/ .

Forecast of Fine Particles in Chengdu under Autumn-Winter Synoptic Conditions.

We conducted an evaluation of the impact of meteorological factor forecasts on the prediction of fine particles in Chengdu, China, during autumn and winter, utilizing the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST)733 objective weather classification software and the Community Multiscale Air Quality model. This analysis was performed under four prevailing weather patterns. Fine particle pollution tended to occur under high-pressure rear, homogeneous-pressure, and low-pressure conditions; by contrast, fine particle concentrations were lower under high-pressure bottom conditions. The forecasts of fine particle concentrations were more accurate under high-pressure bottom conditions than under high-pressure rear and homogeneous-pressure conditions. Moreover, under all conditions, the 24 h forecast of fine particle concentrations were more accurate than the 48 and 72 h forecasts. Regarding meteorological factors, forecasts of 2 m relative humidity and 10 m wind speed were more accurate under high-pressure bottom conditions than high-pressure rear and homogeneous-pressure conditions. Moreover, 2 m relative humidity and 10 m wind speed were important factors for forecasting fine particles, whereas 2 m air temperature was not. Finally, the 24 h forecasts of meteorological factors were more accurate than the 48 and 72 h forecasts, consistent with the forecasting of fine particles.

Cultural sustainability in urban third places: Assessing the impact of 'Co-operation in Science and Technology' in cultural third places

Cultural sustainability, as a fourth dimension and independent aspect of sustainable development, has gained acceptance and has become an essential constituent of sustainable urban planning. The European Co-operation in Science and Technology (COST) integrated culture as a critical component and identified its three main roles: 'IN', FOR', 'AS' to achieve sustainable development goals. The new concept in urban design, namely the 'Third Place', seeks to include culture in integrated sustainability planning of urban spaces to support sociability and place attachment. Based on the (COST Action), the research aims to explore the three roles of culture in sustainable development (SD), and to develop a theoretical framework for cultural sustainability in the urban third place. The framework is applied to a selected urban third place (Briggate Street) in Leeds, UK, to test the validity of the extracted criteria and indicators. Visual surveys and interviews helped determine users' perceptions. The research concluded the critical role of cultural sustainability as part of the urban third place and the importance of the survey, which is clearly expressed in the cultural continuity s high results when compared to the lowest results of cultural vitality and behavioral shift of users. Finally, the research suggests a number of recommendations to improve the quality of urban third places and achieve cultural well-being while sustaining the cultural heritage of these places.

Engaging the Scientific Community, Authors and Publishers in FAIR Taxonomic Data Liberation: An Overview of Training Resources at Plazi

Since 2008, the not-for-profit organization Plazi*1, based in Switzerland, has been supporting and promoting the development of persistent and openly accessible digital taxonomic literature. To achieve this goal, Plazi makes use of in-house software tools for data mining and extraction from taxonomic publications, along with other partner institutions' tools and platforms, to liberate data on animals, plants, fungi, and more. In its mission to make taxonomic data FAIRly (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable*2) available to the community, Plazi has developed sets of training material and courses, which enable taxonomists, collection curators, students, technicians and others to participate in the process of taxonomic data liberation. The participation of several different members of the community is critcally important as data requires deep curation, often very specific to a particular field. Most recently, Plazi led a virtual 2-day workshop as part of the COST MOBILISE ACTION*3 (European Cooperation in Science and Technology - Mobilising Data, Policies and Experts in Scientific Collections) in Europe, along with two 4-day in-person workshops in Brazil and South Africa. Participants are issued certificates that entitle them to extract data on their own, thus multiplying the output of FAIR data using Plazi’s workflow. Plazi is also planning a new series of in-person courses for the scientific community in different regions of Brazil as well as courses for specific audiences interested in data reuse. These courses aim not only at training new certificate data liberators and data search platform users, but also at disseminating knowledge about the relevance of FAIR data, increasing the number of authors and publishers rethinking the future of scientific publications.

Omaveloxolone (SkyclarysTM) for patients with Friedreich’s ataxia

STRUCTURE: Omaveloxolone {N-[(4aS,6aR,6bS,8aR,12aS,14aR,14bS)-11-cyano-2,2,6a,6b, 9,9,12a-heptamethyl-10,14-dioxo-1,2,3,4,4a,5,6,6a,6b,7,8,8a,9,10,12a,14,14a,14b-octa-decahydropicen-4a-yl]-2,2-difluoropropanamide} is a semisynthetic triterpenoid based on the natural product oleanolic acid. It contains a highly reactive cyanoenone functionality, which binds covalently and reversibly by Michael addition to cysteines in proteins, such as the cysteine-based sensor protein Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1 (KEAP1). The molecular formula of omaveloxolone is C33H44F2N2O3 and its molecular weight is 554.7 g/mol. MECHANISM OF ACTION: The pathophysiology of Friedreich’s ataxia is associated with an expansion of GAA repeats in the first intron of FXN encoding the small mitochondrial protein frataxin (FXN), which has a role in mitochondrial homeostasis and iron metabolism. FXN deficiency leads to impaired mitochondrial function and increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) (1), in turn causing inflammation with further ROS production, creating a vicious cycle that ultimately results in cellular dysfunction (2). Omaveloxolone is an inducer of a network of endogenous cytoprotective proteins regulated by transcription factor nuclear factor-erythroid 2 p45-related factor 2 (NRF2), the master regulator of cellular redox homeostasis. At basal state, the levels of NRF2 are low due to its continuous proteasomal degradation (3) mediated by KEAP1, a substrate adapter of a Cullin-RING E3 ubiquitin ligase. Omaveloxolone (pink circle), via its cyanoenone functionality, binds to sensor cysteines (primarily C151) in KEAP1 and inactivates it (4). As a result, the newly synthesized NRF2 accumulates, forms a heterodimer with a small musculoaponeurotic fibrosarcoma (sMAF) protein, and induces transcription of its target genes by binding to the antioxidant response element (ARE) sequences in their regulatory regions. The NRF2-transcriptional network encompasses an array of broadly cytoprotective proteins (5), including those responsible for the biosynthesis of glutathione (GSH). Collectively, the NRF2 transcriptional targets counteract oxidative and inflammatory stress, and support proteostasis, mitochondrial function, and bioenergetics. Omaveloxolone also inhibits inflammation, in part via NRF2 (which inhibits transcription of proinflammatory genes) and, in part, due to its potential to bind to cysteines in proteins involved in inflammatory cascades (e.g., IKKβ, shown in beige). Omaveloxolone (also known as RTA-408); brand name is SKYCLARYS. Omaveloxolone is the first and only FDA-approved drug for patients with Friedreich’s ataxia. Omaveloxolone has received Orphan Drug, Fast Track, and Rare Pediatric Disease Designations from the FDA, and Orphan Drug Designation for the treatment of Friedreich’s ataxia from the European Commission. It is currently not approved outside of the USA. SKYCLARYS™ is approved in the USA by the FDA and is indicated for the treatment of Friedreich’s ataxia in adults and adolescents aged 16 years and older. The recommended dosage is 150 mg to be taken orally daily. Reata Pharmaceuticals. Headache (37%), nausea (33%), diarrhea (20%), abdominal pain (29%), fatigue (24%), musculoskeletal pain (20%), vomiting (16%), oropharyngeal pain (18%), influenza (16%), muscle spasms (14%), back pain (13%), decreased appetite (12%), rash (10%). The most common laboratory abnormalities (occurring in 37% of patients) are elevated aspartate/alanine transaminases. In clinical trials, most effects diminished or stopped after 12 weeks of treatment. 2014–2020: Phase 1 trials (NCT02029716, NCT03664453, NCT04008186) 2014–present: Phase 2 trials (NCT02255435, NCT02029729, NCT02142959, NCT02128113, NCT03902002, NCT02255422) February 2023: FDA approval for SKYCLARYS™ (omaveloxolone). We thank the Medical Research Council (MR/W023806/1 and MR/T014644/1), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and GlaxoSmithKline (BB/T508111/1, BB/X00029X/1, and BB/T017546/1), Tenovus Scotland (T19/30 and T22/08), Reata Pharmaceuticals, and Medical Research Scotland (PHD-50477-2021) for supporting our research and the COST Action CA20121, supported by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (www.cost.eu) (https://benbedphar.org/about-benbedphar/). A.T. D.-K. is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Evgen Pharma and collaborates with GlaxoSmithKline and Reata Pharmaceuticals. S.D.N. has no interests to declare.