Idiosyncratic Effects Research Articles

Finding Predictors of Azathioprine-Induced Pancreatitis in Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Azathioprine (AZA)-induced pancreatitis (AIP) is a common, idiosyncratic adverse effect whose incidence and risk factors data in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients are not fully clarified. We aimed to establish the incidence, clinical course and identify risk factors for AIP. A retrospective study including all IBD patients on AZA between January 2013 and July 2020 was conducted. Patients with AIP were considered. Azathioprine-induced pancreatitis occurred in 33 patients (7.5%; 442 patients on AZA). The mean time receiving AZA until AIP was 25 days, with a mean dose of 88 mg. All patients had a mild course of disease, which resolved with suspension of AZA and with no complications. Smoking (P = 0.02), single daily dose of AZA (P < 0.001), and concomitant budesonide (P = 0.001) were risk factors for AIP. In multivariate analysis, concomitant treatment with budesonide (odds ratio, 5.3; P = 0.002) and single daily dose of AZA (odds ratio, 3.8; P = 0.002) were the only predictors of AIP. Although AIP was a relatively common adverse effect, it presented a mild course in all patients. Smoking, concomitant use of budesonide, and single-dose regimen of AZA should be avoided in IBD patients treated with AZA.

Authoritarianism vs. democracy: Simulating responses to disease outbreaks

Disease outbreaks force the governments to rapid decisions. However, the stream of decision-making could be costly in terms of the democratic representativeness. The goal of the paper is to investigate the trade-off between pluralism of preferences and the time required to approach a decision. To this aim we develop and test a modified version of the Hegselmann and Krause (2002) model to capture these two characteristics of the decisional process in different institutional contexts. Using a twofold geometrical institutional setting, we simulate the impact of disease outbreaks to check whether countries exhibit idiosyncratic effects, depending on their institutional frameworks. Main findings are that the degree of pluralism is not necessarily associated with worse performances in managing emergencies, provided that the political debate is mature enough.

A generalist nematode destabilises plant competition: no evidence for direct effects, but strong evidence for indirect effects on rhizobium abundance.

Difficulties quantifying pathogen load and mutualist abundance limit our ability to connect disease dynamics to host community ecology. For example, specific predictions about how differential pathogen load is hypothesised to drive host competitive outcomes are rarely tested. Additionally, although infection is known to affect mutualists, we rarely measure the magnitude of pathogen effects on mutualist abundance across host competitive contexts. We tested for both mechanisms in a plant-rhizobia-nematode system. We paired the legume Medicago lupulina with intraspecific and interspecific plant competitors, with and without a generalist nematode parasite Meloidogyne sp. Relative change in plant biomass was used to determine how nematode inoculation affected plant competitive outcomes. We counted nematode galls to test for direct effects of parasitism on plant competition and rhizobia nodules to test for indirect effects of nematode presence on rhizobium abundance. Parasites were destabilising despite similar nematode load across competition treatments. During interspecific compared with intraspecific competition, nematode inoculation decreased nodulation on M. lupulina, increased nodulation on Trifolium repens and had no effect on nodulation on Chamaecrista fasciculata. We found no support for hypothesised direct effects of nematode load on competitive outcomes and strong but idiosyncratic indirect effects of nematode inoculation on rhizobium abundance.

Differential priority effects impact taxonomy and functionality of host-associated microbiomes.

Most multicellular eukaryotes host complex communities of microorganisms, but the factors that govern their assembly are poorly understood. The settlement of specific microorganisms may have a lasting impact on community composition, a phenomenon known as the priority effect. Priority effects of individual bacterial strains on a host's microbiome are, however, rarely studied and their impact on microbiome functionality remains unknown. We experimentally tested the effect of two bacterial strains (Pseudoalteromonas tunicata D2 and Pseudovibrio sp. D323) on the assembly and succession of the microbial communities associated with the green macroalga Ulva australis. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing and qPCR, we found that both strains exert a priority effect, with strain D2 causing initially strong but temporary taxonomic changes and strain D323 causing weaker but consistent changes. Consistent changes were predominately facilitatory and included taxa that may benefit the algal host. Metagenome analyses revealed that the strains elicited both shared (e.g., depletion of type III secretion system genes) and unique (e.g., enrichment of antibiotic resistance genes) effects on the predicted microbiome functionality. These findings indicate strong idiosyncratic effects of colonizing bacteria on the structure and function of host-associated microbial communities. Understanding the idiosyncrasies in priority effects is key for the development of novel probiotics to improve host condition.

The malleability of international entrepreneurial cognitions: a natural quasi-experimental study on voluntary and involuntary shocks

PurposeThe authors investigate the durability of international entrepreneurial cognitions. Specifically, they examine how advanced business education and the Covid-19 pandemic influence international entrepreneurial orientation disposition (IEOD), and subsequently entrepreneurial intentions (EIs), to better understand the psychological dynamics underpinning the drivers of international entrepreneurship.Design/methodology/approachAgainst the backdrop of emerging entrepreneurial cognition and international entrepreneurial orientation research, the authors theorize that both a planned business education intervention (voluntary) and an unforeseeable radical environmental (involuntary) change constitute cognitive shocks impacting the disposition and intention to engage in entrepreneurial efforts. The authors use pre- and post-Covid-19 panel data (n = 233) and uniquely identify the idiosyncratic cognitive effects of Covid-19 through changes in the OCEAN personality assessment.FindingsFindings demonstrate that when individuals' perceived psychological impact of Covid-19 is low, business education increases IEOD. Conversely, the effects of a strongly perceived Covid-19 impact reduce the risk-taking and proactiveness components of the IEOD scale. The authors trace the same effects forward to EIs.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper contributes to a greater understanding of the resilience of entrepreneurial dispositions through an empirical test of the IEOD scale and shows its boundary conditions under planned intervention as well as unplanned externally induced shock.Practical implicationsThe study offers a first benchmark to practitioners of the malleability of international entrepreneurial dispositions and discusses the potential to encourage international entrepreneurial behaviour and the individual-level dispositional risk posed by exogenous shocks.Originality/valueThe study uniquely employs a baseline measure of all our constructs pre-Covid-19 to discern and isolate the pandemic impact on entrepreneurial dispositions and intentions, responding to recent calls for more experimental designs in entrepreneurship research.

Muslim bias or fear of fundamentalism? A survey experiment in five Western European democracies

Several studies have shown that attitudes toward immigrants to Europe are marked by a Muslim bias. More recently, Helbling and Traunmüller (2020) have suggested that this Muslim bias is in fact driven by a religiosity bias and thus that the strength of migrant’ religiosity has a bigger effect on attitudes towards them than their nominal faith. The aim of this paper is to replicate and expand Helbling and Traunmüller with a fresh full factorial survey experiment, fielded in 2016/17. We go beyond the limitations of Helbling and Traunmüller, who study the effects of nominal faith, religiosity, and Nigerian as well as Bulgarian immigrants in Great Britain, by including Austria, Germany, France, and Switzerland to rule out idiosyncratic context effects. Moreover, we distinguish between labor migrants and refugees and include Syrian origin. For different groups of migrants in all five countries, our results confirm that the Muslim bias is mainly driven by the degree of migrants’ and refugees’ religiosity: secular and devout Muslims are viewed more positively than both Muslim and Christian fundamentalists.

On the Robustness of Idiosyncratic Volatility Effect

On the Robustness of Idiosyncratic Volatility Effect

Impact of Stand and Landscape Management on Forest Pest Damage.

One promising approach to mitigate the negative impacts of insect pests in forests is to adapt forestry practices to create ecosystems that are more resistant and resilient to biotic disturbances. At the stand scale, local stand management practices often cause idiosyncratic effects on forest pests depending on the environmental context and the focal pest species. However, increasing tree diversity appears to be a general strategy for reducing pest damage across several forest types. At the landscape scale, increasing forest heterogeneity (e.g., intermixing different forest types and/or age classes) represents a promising frontier for improving forest resistance and resilience and for avoiding large-scale outbreaks. In addition to their greater resilience, heterogeneous forest landscapes frequently support a wide range of ecosystem functions and services. A challenge will be to develop cooperation and coordination among multiple actors at spatial scales that transcend historical practices in forest management.

Grand challenges in developing countries: Context, relationships, and logics

Grand challenges in developing countries: Context, relationships, and logics

Securities Analyst Attention and Idiosyncratic Volatility Effect: Empirical Research on China Stock Market

In the A-share market, which is dominated by retail investors, most investors lack financial market expertise. Securities analysts’ attention to listed companies has become a reference for investors’ transactions. Based on the data of non-financial listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets from 1997 to 2020, this paper empirically studies the influence of analyst attention on the idiosyncratic volatility effect by means of portfolio analysis and Fama-Macbeth regression analysis. The results show that: Firstly, A-share market has a significant idiosyncratic volatility effect, and it still exists after adding company, market, annual and industry variables; Secondly, Analyst attention will significantly reduce the idiosyncratic volatility effect, and it still exists significantly after adding company, market, annual, and industry control variables; the research conclusions provide practical guidance for explaining the idiosyncratic volatility effect and the forecast of analyst attention.

Correlation Between Freight Transport Industry and Economic Growth – Panel Analysis of CEE Countries

The paper tests for statistical association between employment and value added of freight transport industry and its component activities against overall economy in a ten-year panel ranging from 2008 to 2017 of the thirteen newest European Union member countries. In this paper, the nature of correlation between economic growth as the independent variable and freight transport industry as a dependent variable is examined. To achieve stationarity, and to lose autocorrelation and the idiosyncratic effects, the variables are first differenced. The results of the “Granger causality” tests show the null hypothesis of no-causation may be rejected for most conjectures with high F-Statistics as well as high statistical significance. The results of the Panel EGLS cross-section fixed effects do not reject the results gained by the Granger test, and the same may be said for the Panel Generalised Method of Moments First Differences test. The result of the Arellano-Bond test shows no serial correlation in the residuals. It has been concluded that changes in overall economy (value added and employment) have a significant and measurably strong impact on freight transportation and warehousing sector. This conclusion is useful in assessing future impacts on freight transport industry, especially as a consequence of contingent events.

Migrating Objects and Wanderers between Worlds: Cosmopolitan Selves in Edmund de Waal’s The Hare with Amber Eyes

Edmund de Waal‘s widely acclaimed family memoir The Hare with Amber Eyes (2010) is a hybrid text that fuses biography, autobiography and the biography of objects and interlaces these with critical reflections on art, transnationality, cross-cultural communication and the development of cosmopolitan identities. This article examines the central role of the collection of netsuke synecdochally evoked in the book’s title that not only provides the pivotal structural element but also the major conceptual focus of the text. I argue that this idiosyncratic gravitational centre effects the permeability of generic boundaries by establishing an intricate relationality between the narrative’s different protagonists, who continuously decentre and reconfigure each other. Moreover, the art objects’ own history of migration and multiple belonging becomes a blueprint for de Waal’s construction of his Jewish ancestors’ highly mobile and cosmopolitan selves, which sidesteps the narrowly circumscribed vision of national or religious identities. The full extent of these connections is revealed through an examination of the author’s artistic vision, his ceramic art and art criticism. Finally, I will read The Hare with Amber Eyes as an act of restitution in a two-fold sense: as an attempt to undo the politically motivated erasure of some of his ancestors’ traces and as a historical reminder of lived forms of cosmopolitanism that can speak to contemporary debates around globalisation and migration.

Nonhost species reduce parasite infection in a focal host species within experimental fish communities.

The dilution effect describes the negative association between host biodiversity and the risk of infectious disease. Tests designed to understand the relative roles of host species richness, host species identity, and rates of exposure within experimental host communities would help resolve ongoing contention regarding the importance and generality of dilution effects. We exposed fathead minnows to infective larvae of the trematode, Ornithodiplostomum ptychocheilus in minnow‐only containers and in mixed containers that held 1–3 other species of fish. Parasite infection was estimated as the number of encysted worms (i.e., brainworms) present in minnows following exposure. The results of exposure trials showed that nonminnow fish species were incompatible with O. ptychocheilus larvae. There was no reduction in mean brainworm counts in minnows in mixed containers with brook sticklebacks or longnose dace. In contrast, brainworm counts in minnows declined by 51% and 27% in mesocosms and aquaria, respectively, when they co‐occurred with emerald shiners. Dilution within minnow + shiner containers may arise from shiner‐induced alterations in minnow or parasite behaviors that reduced encounter rates between minnows and parasite larvae. Alternatively, shiners may act as parasite sinks for parasite larvae. These results highlight the role of host species identity in the dilution effect. Our results also emphasize the complex and idiosyncratic effects of host community composition on rates of parasite infection within contemporary host communities that contain combinations of introduced and native species.

Light competition and phenological adaptation of annual plants to a changing climate

Shifting flowering seasons is a global effect of climate change that can have important long-term evolutionary and demographic effects on plant communities. Life history optimization theory can be a valuable tool to assert the adaptive value and fitness effects of observed phenological shifts, but takes plant-plant competition rarely into account. Here we combine energy allocation models with evolutionary game theory to assess how size-asymmetric competition for light can influence phenological adaptations and fitness responses to a changing climate – here represented as changes of the start, end and intensity of the growing season. We focus on annual plants which, due to their short generation times, are particularly likely to exhibit rapid demographic and evolutionary responses to environmental change. We find that while light competition favors late flowering times, it does not affect the direction of selection in the climate changes scenarios considered here. We predict, however, that plants adapted to light competition face more detrimental fitness consequences if the growing season advances, becomes shorter or less intense. We also show that adaptation to changing growing seasons under light competition can favor increased investment in vegetative growth with the counterintuitive side effect that seed production is reduced at the same time. In sum, our study highlights several effects of light competition that may help to interpret phenological trends and idiosyncratic fitness effects of climate change in wild plant communities.

P595 Finding predictors of azathioprine-induced pancreatitis in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

Abstract Background Azathioprine (AZA)-induced pancreatitis (AIP) is a common, idiosyncratic side effect, whose incidence, clinical course and risk factors data in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients are scarce. We aimed to establish the incidence, describe the clinical course and identify risk factors for AIP. Methods Retrospective study including all IBD patients on AZA between January 2013 and July 2020. Patients with AIP were considered. Demographic, clinical, biochemical and imaging data were collected. Results AIP occurred in 33 patients (7.5%; 442 patients on AZA): 81.8% had Crohn’s disease, 54.5% were male, and the mean age was 35±13 years. The mean time under AZA till AIP was 25±11 days, with a mean dosage of 88±44mg. Eighteen patients (54.4%) were hospitalized, with a mean hospital stay of 4±2days. All patients had a mild course of disease which resolved with suspension of AZA, and with no complications or need of invasive interventions or complications. Smoking (p=0.02), single daily dose of AZA (p&amp;lt;0.001) and concomitant treatment with budesonide (p=0.001) were risk factors for AIP. In multivariate analysis, concomitant treatment with budesonide (OR: 5.3; p=0.002) and single daily dose of AZA (OR: 4.8; p=0.002) were the only predictors of AIP. Conclusion Although AIP was a relatively common side effect, it presented a mild course in all patients. Smoking, concomitant treatment with budesonide and single daily dose of AZA were risk factors for AIP. This study suggests that smoking, concomitant use of budesonide and single dose regimen of AZA should be avoided in IBD patients treated with AZA.

Patch isolation and periodic environmental disturbances have idiosyncratic effects on local and regional population variabilities in meta-food chains

While habitat loss is a known key driver of biodiversity decline, the impact of other landscape properties, such as patch isolation, is far less clear. When patch isolation is low, species may benefit from a broader range of foraging opportunities, but are at the same time adversely affected by higher predation pressure from mobile predators. Although previous approaches have successfully linked such effects to biodiversity, their impact on local and metapopulation dynamics has largely been ignored. Since population dynamics may also be affected by environmental disturbances that temporally change the degree of patch isolation, such as periodic changes in habitat availability, accurate assessment of its link with isolation is highly challenging. To analyze the effect of patch isolation on the population dynamics on different spatial scales, we simulate a three-species meta-food chain on complex networks of habitat patches and assess the average variability of local populations and metapopulations, as well as the level of synchronization among patches. To evaluate the impact of periodic environmental disturbances, we contrast simulations of static landscapes with simulations of dynamic landscapes in which 30 percent of the patches periodically become unavailable as habitat. We find that increasing mean patch isolation often leads to more asynchronous population dynamics, depending on the parameterization of the food chain. However, local population variability also increases due to indirect effects of increased dispersal mortality at high mean patch isolation, consequently destabilizing metapopulation dynamics and increasing extinction risk. In dynamic landscapes, periodic changes of patch availability on a timescale much slower than ecological interactions often fully synchronize the dynamics. Further, these changes not only increase the variability of local populations and metapopulations, but also mostly overrule the effects of mean patch isolation. This may explain the often small and inconclusive impact of mean patch isolation in natural ecosystems.

Neurobehavioral, neurochemical and synaptic plasticity perturbations during postnatal life of rats exposed to chloroquine in-utero

Despite reports that quinoline antimalarials including chloroquine (Chq) exhibit idiosyncratic neuropsychiatric effects even at low doses, the drug continues to be in widespread use during pregnancy. Surprisingly, very few studies have examined the potential neurotoxic action of Chq exposure at different points of gestation or how this phenomenon may affect neurophysiological well-being in later life. We therefore studied behavior, and the expression of specific genes and neurochemicals modulating crucial neural processes in offspring of rats exposed to prophylactic dose of Chq during different stages of gestation. Pregnant rats were injected 5 mg/kg/day (3 times) of Chq either during early- (first week), mid- (second week), late- (third week), or throughout- (all weeks) gestation, while controls received PBS injection. Behavioral characterization of offspring between postnatal days 15–20 in the open field, Y-maze, elevated plus and elevated zero mazes revealed that Chq evoked anxiogenic responses and perturbed spatial memory in rats, although locomotor activity was generally unaltered. In the prefrontal cortex (PFC), hippocampus and cerebellum of rats prenatally exposed to Chq, RT-qPCR analysis revealed decreased mRNA expression of presynaptic marker synaptophysin, which was accompanied by downregulation of postsynaptic marker PSD95. Synaptic marker PICK1 expression was also downregulated in the hippocampus but was unperturbed in the PFC and cerebellum. In addition to recorded SOD downregulation in cortical and hippocampal lysates, induction of oxidative stress in rats prenatally exposed to Chq was corroborated by lipid peroxidation as evinced by increased MDA levels. Offspring of rats infused with Chq at mid-gestation and weekly treatment throughout gestation were particularly susceptible to neurotoxic changes, especially in the hippocampus. Interestingly, Chq did not cause histopathological changes in any of the brain areas. Taken together, our findings causally link intrauterine exposure to Chq with postnatal behavioral impairment and neurotoxic changes in rats.

Multiple diversity facets of crucial microbial groups in biological soil crusts promote soil multifunctionality

AbstractAimMicrobial diversity is one of the most important factors for maintaining the performance of multiple functions in soils (multifunctionality). However, existing studies typically consider the taxonomic richness or Shannon diversity of the entire community. We know little about the connection network of taxonomic and phylogenetic facets of diversity and their collective impact on multifunctionality. In this study, the linkages of effects of diversity within functional groups were disentangled in drylands.LocationThe central Tibetan Plateau.Time periodPresent.Major taxa studiedPhototrophs and diazotrophs (mainly cyanobacteria).MethodsGiven the carbon‐ and nitrogen‐limited nature of drylands, we conducted a high‐throughput sequencing of C/N‐fixing functional groups from biocrusts and evaluated multiple facets of diversity (i.e., richness, evenness and phylogeny‐related trait dissimilarity), together with seven crucial variables of soil functioning to calculate multifunctionality. The relationships between multifaceted diversity and abundance with individual functions and multifunctionality were validated by a set of solid statistical analyses.ResultsWe found that the integrated biodiversity index was a stronger predictor of multifunctionality than richness. The divergent performance of different facets of diversity determined the idiosyncratic effect of each functional group on soil multifunctionality. Moreover, the evaluation of functional significance at the species level gave important clues on the trade‐offs and redundancy in each functional group, explaining the distinct patterns of effects of diversity. Richness was the dominant factor for diazotrophs to maximize multifunctionality, whereas phylogenetic dissimilarity was the essential one for phototrophs.Main conclusionsOur study demonstrated that multiple facets of diversity should be considered when assessing the effects of biodiversity. In contrast to the community level, within‐functional group measures might adequately capture the features of diversity that are most correlated with soil multifunctionality. Our results provide a perspective to bridge the gap between taxonomic and trait‐based approaches for elucidating the biodiversity–ecosystem function relationship.

POS-014 DOXAZOCINE-INDUCED LUPUS NEPHROPATHY

Drug-induced lupus (DIL) refers to an idiosyncratic side effect of numerous, apparently unrelated medications, in which symptoms overlap with those of systemic lupus erythematosus. Over 100 drugs have been linked to DIL to date and the list is growing. Like idiopathic lupus erythematosus, DIL has systemic, subacute cutaneous, and chronic cutaneous forms. We report the first case of lupus nephrothy related to Doxazocine treatment.

Extreme returns and idiosyncratic risks: evidence from an emerging market

In this paper, we show that there is a negative premium for MAX stocks in the Korean stock market. However, there is no evidence that the MAX effect overwhelms the effects of idiosyncratic risk. When we control for idiosyncratic risk, the negative relationship between extreme returns and future returns is less robust. Rather, the cross-effect of the extreme returns and the idiosyncratic risk factors explains the negative premium. Furthermore, our results are not fully explained by the exposure to the market timing and economic state. Overall, both the extreme return and idiosyncratic risk effects appear to coexist in the Korean stock market, but they are not independently.