Major Gateway Research Articles

Rapid Down‐Slope Transport of Fresh Dissolved Organic Matter to the Deep Ocean in the Eastern North Atlantic

AbstractIntense convective mixing in the central North Atlantic is a major gateway for dissolved organic matter (DOM) into the deep ocean, sustaining elevated dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations. Rapid down‐slope transport on adjacent Irish and Hebrides Margins represents another, less‐explored mechanism contributing to the deep‐sea DOM reservoir. Our analyses of solid‐phase extractable DOM (SPE‐DOM) in bottom waters in this region showed 7–11 μM higher DOC concentration and 190–330 years youngerSPE‐DOM radiocarbon ages compared to similar depths in the open eastern North Atlantic. We estimated a down‐slope DOC flux of 43 Tg C yr−1 from the Irish and Hebrides shelves. During transport, conservative mixing, dominated by physical rather than biological/chemical processes, determined the molecular DOM composition, while minor particulate organic matter degradation introduced less‐refractory DOM with terrigenous characteristics. Thus, rapid down‐slope transport emerges as an efficient conduit for delivering fresh DOM into the deep ocean.

How common is emergency department as a death place in Portugal and who is more likely to die there?

Abstract Background Most people would prefer to die at home but most die in hospitals or other healthcare settings. Some of the latter deaths may have taken place in Emergency Departments (EDs), as EDs are a major hospital gateway. However, EDs have not been consistently categorised as a place of death (PoD) across countries. Portugal is an exception. This study aimed to examine trends in deaths at EDs in Portugal from 2015 to 2021, identifying who is more likely to die at the ED. Methods We obtained national death certificate data on PoD for 2015 to 2021 from the the Portuguese General-Directorate for Health. We analysed the percentage of deaths taking place at the ED by sex, age group (0-17y, 18-49y, 50-69y, 70-79y, ≥80y), underlying cause of death (cancer, dementia, and other causes) and year of death. Results 804.971 people died in Portugal from 2015-2021 (50.1% male; 0.4% aged 0-17y, 58.0% aged ≥80y; 23.3% died from cancer, 5.6% from dementia, and 71.1% from other causes). Of these, 13.2% died at the ED. The percentage of ED deaths was higher in female (13.7% vs. 12.8% in male), in adults (13.3% vs. 9.0% in children), in those dying from dementia (15.7% compared to 9.6% in cancer and 14.3% in other causes). The percentage of ED deaths rose from 10.6% in 2015 to 14.3% in 2021, increasing steadily over time (average 0.6 percentual points per year, representing 1069 additional deaths per year). Conclusions One in every ten deaths in Portugal happens at ED and this is increasing. Patients with non-cancer conditions are more likely to die at the ED, in particular those dying from dementia. To understand if this reality compares with other countries, we are developing a pioneering international classification of place of death which includes the ED. Funding: European Research Council (agreement nr. 948609). Key messages • Emergency department (ED) is a significant PoD in Portugal and has increased from 10.6% to 14.3% (2015-2021). Non-cancer patients, especially those with dementia, more likely to die at ED. • This study highlights the need for an international place of death classification to compare emergency department death trends across countries.

Examining the influence mechanisms of gateway ports on inland ports in the context of Port regionalization - A case study of the Yangtze River Port system

This study examines the influence of gateway seaports on inland ports within a river port system, focusing on the Yangtze River port system as a case study. The research initially employs a fixed-effects panel model to confirm the overall positive impact of Shanghai Port on Yangtze River inland ports. Subsequently, using Panel data model with individual-specific slopes, this study reveal that Shanghai Port positively affects each inland port, but the magnitude of this impact varies significantly. The research further employs a panel threshold regression model to dissect the mechanisms through which Shanghai Port influences inland ports in terms of geographical, operational, and economic distances. In terms of geographical distance, the influence of Shanghai Port on the throughput of Yangtze inland ports diminishes as the navigational distance increases. Notably, inland ports located downstream on the Yangtze River are the first and most impacted, marking the downstream area as an early influencer in the port regionalization process. As to operational distance, Shanghai Port exerts a stronger influence on inland ports with higher throughput levels, as opposed to those with lower throughput. With respect to economic distance, inland ports in cities with higher economic development are found to be less influenced by Shanghai Port compared to those in less economically developed regions. This nuanced understanding provides invaluable insights into the interconnectedness of major gateway ports and their inland counterparts.

HIV-infected Latin American asylum seekers in Madrid, Spain, 2022: A prospective cohort study from a major gateway in Europe.

BackgroundRecent migration trends have shown a notable entry of Latin American asylum seekers to Madrid, Spain.AimTo characterise the profile of asylum-seeking Latin American migrants who are living with HIV in Spain and to outline the barriers they face in accessing HIV treatment.MethodsA prospective cohort study was conducted between 2022 and 2023 with a 6-month follow-up period. Latin American asylum seekers living with HIV were recruited mainly from non-governmental organisations and received care at an HIV clinic in a public hospital in Madrid.ResultsWe included 631 asylum seekers. The primary countries of origin were Colombia (30%), Venezuela (30%) and Peru (18%). The median age was 32 years (interquartile range (IQR): 28-37), and 553 (88%) were cis men of which 94% were men who have sex with men. Upon their arrival, 49% (n = 309) lacked social support, and 74% (n = 464) faced barriers when attempting to access the healthcare system. Upon entry in Europe, 500 (77%) participants were taking antiretroviral therapy (ART). At their first evaluation at the HIV clinic, only 386 (61%) had continued taking ART and 33% (n = 209) had detectable plasma HIV-1 RNA levels. Six months later, 99% took ART and 98% had achieved an undetectable viral load.ConclusionsLatin American asylum seekers living with HIV in Madrid, Spain encountered barriers to healthcare and to ART. One-third of these individuals presented detectable HIV viral load when assessed in the HIV clinic, highlighting this as an important public health issue.

Back to the Future: Winnipeg’s Reinvention from Borderland Trade and Transportation Gateway to Globalized Trade and Transportation Hub

ABSTRACT Winnipeg’s location at almost the geographical center of the North American continent has historically made it an important transportation focal point with connections that have integrated the city with places and regions beyond its southern Manitoba boundaries. Winnipeg is also both a borderland city, with historically important links to American centers to the south, and a regional gateway and hub, with strong connections to the rest of Canada. This paper explores the history of Winnipeg as a transportation and trading center and focuses on its early borderland associations with the upper Midwest and northern Plains, its emergence and decline as the major metropolis and gateway to the Canadian West, and its recent efforts to draw upon the past in order to reinvent itself as a Great Plains, North American, and global trade and transportation hub. In doing so, the essay adds to the pre-existing literature that exists regarding Winnipeg as a historical trade center by examining how governments and businesses have integrated and managed globalization processes and geographical features in their desire to make the city more competitive. In particular, it focuses on the role that Winnipeg’s inland dry port – CentrePoint Canada – plays in achieving this objective.

Cretaceous Crust in the Scotia Sea: Missing Pieces in a Geological Puzzle?

AbstractThe interplay between regional tectonics and the development of a major ocean gateway between the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean has resulted in numerous paleogeographic reconstruction studies that describe the Cenozoic tectonic history of the Scotia Sea region. Despite the multitude of published tectonic reconstructions and the variety of geological and geophysical data available from the Scotia Sea, the geological history remains ambiguous. We present a comparative paleogeographic analysis of previously published tectonic reconstructions to identify agreements and conflicts between these reconstructions. We propose an alternative model to explain the Cenozoic evolution of the Scotia Sea region. The paleogeographic comparison shows that most reconstructions agree on the tectonic evolution of the South Scotia Ridge and the East Scotia Ridge. Major differences between the reconstructions are the role of the westward subducting plate below the South Sandwich plate, and the age and origin of the Central Scotia Sea. Tectonic reconstructions assume that the Central Scotia Sea is either part of a Cenozoic back‐arc basin, or a captured piece of Cretaceous oceanic crust. We propose a new alternative tectonic reconstruction that brings these two prevailing hypotheses elegantly together. Here, we identified new geographical blocks consisting of thinned continental or Cretaceous oceanic fragments that originate from the Paleo‐Pacific Weddell Sea gateway from high‐resolution bathymetry. These fragments are now part of the Central Scotia Sea and have been affected by early back‐arc tectonic activity of the South Sandwich subduction zone, leading locally to the formation of Cenozoic‐aged crust in the Central Scotia Sea.

A non-canonical visual cortical-entorhinal pathway contributes to spatial navigation

Visual information is important for accurate spatial coding and memory-guided navigation. As a crucial area for spatial cognition, the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) harbors diverse spatially tuned cells and functions as the major gateway relaying sensory inputs to the hippocampus containing place cells. However, how visual information enters the MEC has not been fully understood. Here, we identify a pathway originating in the secondary visual cortex (V2) and directly targeting MEC layer 5a (L5a). L5a neurons served as a network hub for visual processing in the MEC by routing visual inputs from multiple V2 areas to other local neurons and hippocampal CA1. Interrupting this pathway severely impaired visual stimulus-evoked neural activity in the MEC and performance of mice in navigation tasks. These observations reveal a visual cortical-entorhinal pathway highlighting the role of MEC L5a in sensory information transmission, a function typically attributed to MEC superficial layers before.

Diffusion and Oligomerization States of the Muscarinic M1 Receptor in Live Cells─The Impact of Ligands and Membrane Disruptors.

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are a major gateway to cellular signaling, which respond to ligands binding at extracellular sites through allosteric conformational changes that modulate their interactions with G proteins and arrestins at intracellular sites. High-resolution structures in different ligand states, together with spectroscopic studies and molecular dynamics simulations, have revealed a rich conformational landscape of GPCRs. However, their supramolecular structure and spatiotemporal distribution is also thought to play a significant role in receptor activation and signaling bias within the native cell membrane environment. Here, we applied single-molecule fluorescence techniques, including single-particle tracking, single-molecule photobleaching, and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, to characterize the diffusion and oligomerization behavior of the muscarinic M1 receptor (M1R) in live cells. Control samples included the monomeric protein CD86 and fixed cells, and experiments performed in the presence of different orthosteric M1R ligands and of several compounds known to change the fluidity and organization of the lipid bilayer. M1 receptors exhibit Brownian diffusion characterized by three diffusion constants: confined/immobile (∼0.01 μm2/s), slow (∼0.04 μm2/s), and fast (∼0.14 μm2/s), whose populations were found to be modulated by both orthosteric ligands and membrane disruptors. The lipid raft disruptor C6 ceramide led to significant changes for CD86, while the diffusion of M1R remained unchanged, indicating that M1 receptors do not partition in lipid rafts. The extent of receptor oligomerization was found to be promoted by increasing the level of expression and the binding of orthosteric ligands; in particular, the agonist carbachol elicited a large increase in the fraction of M1R oligomers. This study provides new insights into the balance between conformational and environmental factors that define the movement and oligomerization states of GPCRs in live cells under close-to-native conditions.

TGFß1 Stimulates Lymphatic Endothelial Cells to Produce IL7 and IL15, Which Act as Chemotactic Factors for Breast Cancer Cells with Mesenchymal Properties

The lymphatic system is a major gateway for tumor cell dissemination but the mechanisms of how tumor cells gain access to lymphatic vessels are not completely understood. Breast cancer cells undergoing epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) gain invasive and migratory properties. Overexpression of the cytokine transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ1), a potent inducer of EMT, is frequently detected in the tumor microenvironment and correlates with invasion and lymph metastasis. Recently, we reported that TGFβ1 stimulated breast cancer cells with mesenchymal properties to migrate in a targeted fashion towards the lymphatic system via CCR7/CCL21-mediated chemotaxis, similar to dendritic cells during inflammation. Here, we aimed to identify additional chemotactic factors and corresponding receptors that could be involved in guiding breast cancer cells through the lymphatic system. Through a combination of RNA sequencing analysis, database screening and invasion assays we identified IL7/IL7R and IL15/IL15R as pairs of chemokines and receptors with potential roles in promoting chemotactic migration of breast cancer cells with mesenchymal properties towards the lymphatics. The results demonstrate the capacity of TGFβ1 to orchestrate crosstalk between tumor cells and lymphatic endothelial cells and warrant further studies to explore the roles of IL7 and IL15 in promoting lymph metastasis of breast cancer.

Distribution of copper-binding ligands in Fram Strait and influences from the Greenland Shelf (GEOTRACES GN05)

The Fram Strait represents the major gateway of Arctic Ocean waters towards the Nordic Seas and North Atlantic Ocean and is a key region to study the impact of climate change on biogeochemical cycles. In the region, information about trace metal speciation, such as copper, is scarce. This manuscript presents the concentrations and conditional stability constants of copper-binding ligands (LCu and log KcondCu2+L) in the water column of Fram Strait and the Greenland shelf (GEOTRACES cruise GN05). Cu-binding ligands were analysed by Competitive Ligand Exchange-Adsorptive Cathodic Stripping Voltammetry (CLE-ACSV) using salicylaldoxime (SA) as competitive ligand. Based on water masses and the hydrodynamic influences, three provinces were considered (coast, shelf, and Fram Strait) and differences were observed between regions and water masses. The strongest variability was observed in surface waters, with increasing LCu concentrations (mean values: Fram Strait = 2.6 ± 1.0 nM; shelf = 5.2 ± 1.3 nM; coast = 6.4 ± 0.8 nM) and decreasing log KcondCu2+L values (mean values: Fram Strait = 15.7 ± 0.3; shelf = 15.2 ± 0.3; coast = 14.8 ± 0.3) towards the west. The surface LCu concentrations obtained above the Greenland shelf indicate a supply from the coastal environment to the Polar Surface Water (PSW) which is an addition to the ligand exported from the central Arctic to Fram Strait. The significant differences (in terms of LCu and log KcondCu2+L) between shelf and coastal samples were explained considering the processes which modify ligand concentrations and binding strengths, such as biological activity in sea-ice, phytoplankton bloom in surface waters, bacterial degradation, and meltwater discharge from 79NG glacier terminus. Overall, the ligand concentration exceeded those of dissolved Cu (dCu) and kept the free copper (Cu2+) concentrations at femtomolar levels (0.13–21.13 fM). This indicates that Cu2+ toxicity limits were not reached and dCu levels were stabilized in surface waters by organic complexes, which favoured its transport to the Nordic Seas and North Atlantic Ocean and the development of microorganism.

Harnessing environmental DNA to reveal biogeographical patterns of non-indigenous species for improved co-governance of the marine environment in Aotearoa New Zealand

Aotearoa New Zealand’s Northern region is a major gateway for the incursion and establishment of non-indigenous species (NIS) populations due to high numbers of recreational and commercial vessels. This region also holds a unique marine ecosystem, home to many taonga (treasured) species of cultural and economic importance. Regular surveillance, eradication plans and public information sharing are undertaken by local communities and governmental organizations to protect these ecosystems from the impact of NIS. Recently, considerable investments went into environmental DNA (eDNA) research, a promising approach for the early detection of NIS for complementing existing biosecurity systems. We applied eDNA metabarcoding for elucidating bioregional patterns of NIS distributions across a gradient from harbors (NIS hotspots) to open seas (spreading areas). Samples were collected during a research cruise sailing across three Aotearoa New Zealand harbors, Waitematā, Whangārei and Pēwhairangi (Bay of Islands), and their adjacent coastal waters. The small-ribosomal subunit (18S rRNA) and mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) genes were screened using the online Pest Alert Tool for automated detection of putative NIS sequences. Using a probabilistic modelling approach, location-dependent occupancies of NIS were investigated and related to the current information on species distribution from biosecurity surveillance programs. This study was collaboratively designed with Māori partners to initiate a model of co-governance within the existing science system.

“Is COVID-19 a hoax?”: auditing the quality of COVID-19 conspiracy-related information and misinformation in Google search results in four languages

PurposeAccurate information is the basis for well-informed decision-making, which is particularly challenging in the dynamic reality of a pandemic. Search engines are a major gateway for obtaining information, yet little is known about the quality and scientific accuracy of information answering conspiracy-related queries about COVID-19, especially outside of English-speaking countries and languages.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted an algorithmic audit of Google Search, emulating search queries about COVID-19 conspiracy theories in 10 different locations and four languages (English, Arabic, Russian, and Hebrew) and used content analysis by native language speakers to examine the quality of the available information.FindingsSearching the same conspiracies in different languages led to fundamentally different results. English had the largest share of 52% high-quality scientific information. The average quality score of the English-language results was significantly higher than in Russian and Arabic. Non-English languages had a considerably higher percentage of conspiracy-supporting content. In Russian, nearly 40% of the results supported conspiracies compared to 18% in English.Originality/valueThis study’s findings highlight structural differences that significantly limit access to high-quality, balanced, and accurate information about the pandemic, despite its existence on the Internet in another language. Addressing these gaps has the potential to improve individual decision-making collective outcomes for non-English societies.

Integrating spatial statistics and machine learning to identify relationships between e-commerce and distribution facilities in Texas, US

This paper proposes a novel analytical framework that integrates spatial statistics and machine learning techniques to identify relationships between e-commerce and distribution facilities. The framework includes centrographic analysis, global and local spatial association measurements, and a recently popularized interpretable machine learning approach – gradient boosting decision trees (GBDT) – to analyze warehousing location choices. We apply this framework to ZIP Codes Business Patterns data from 2003 to 2016 in three large metropolitan areas in Texas, US (i.e., Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, and Houston). The thematic maps reveal the spatial clustering of areas with higher e-commerce activity but lower logistics facility coverage. It is worth noting that we do not observe logistics sprawl in the study region. The GBDT results show that industrial activities and transportation network accessibility are key factors influencing warehousing location choices. We also find that the relationship between warehouses and e-commerce establishments is weaker in Houston, a major maritime gateway for goods entering and leaving, as compared to Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin. Implications for local freight transportation planners and decision-makers are discussed.

What do online reviews communicate? An evidence from emerging economy

PurposeOnline brand is becoming a popular and major gateway for consumers for booking various services specifically when they travel for several purposes. The present study aims to explore whether exposure to two separate yet similar modes of communication intervene consumer's brand trust and their subsequent loyalty intention toward the brand. The study further aims to investigate whether consumer's price consciousness has any influence on association between brand trust and brand loyalty in the process of decision -making.Design/methodology/approachThe present study follows a different approach to data collection. The data have been retrieved from online brand (Oyo) page on Facebook through Google Form application. In all, 289 useable responses were retrieved from the travelers aged between 18 and 30. Structural equation modeling using SPSS 25.0 and Amos 26.0 has been applied to examine the effects of brand communication and online reviews on brand loyalty through brand trust.FindingsEmpirical evidence supports that even after having strong brand communication, online reviews play a crucial role in consumer's brand loyalty through brand trust. The study further reveals that price consciousness acts as a significant moderator in the relationship between consumer's brand trust and brand loyalty.Practical implicationsThe current research contributes to the online brand and marketing knowledge by empirically showing the pertinence of consumer–brand relationship in an online brand context through a parsimonious model by examining how the two distinct mechanisms of communication influences consumer brand trust and loyalty intention.Originality/valueThe parsimonious framework of consumer–brand relationship adds to explicating the dual marketing challenges of communication and to draw a positive consumer response (i.e. consumer brand loyalty). The study attempts to examine the impact of two distinct yet identical modes of communication which facilitate shaping consumer brand trust that reinforce the strategic value of the circumstance and equips it with solid theoretical structure within an endeavor of the strategic significance of online brand managers.

The old Seoul Station as a performative space: undoing the archive in the city

ABSTRACT The old Seoul Station was established in 1925 as part of the Japanese effort to expand into Manchuria through the Korean Peninsula. The colonial-era edifice (then called Gyeongseong Station) served as a major gateway for this ambition. During South Korea’s rapid industrialization in the 1960s and 1970s, the station became a major entry point for a massive rural population who migrated to the capital city to realize their “Seoul dream.” The building ceased to be used as a train station in 2004 and fell into some disrepair, but was restored in 2011 as a multi-genre cultural site, Culture Station 284 [Munhwayok 284]. A variety of exhibitions, performances, workshops, and talks are still held there. The old Seoul Station both symbolized and enabled mobility, migration, modernization, and urbanization; today, its space operates amidst complex layers of time and history, at the center of conflicting desires. Culture Station 284 remains a symbol of colonial exploitations and expansions and also provides a real artistic and intellectual portal into the world of today. In this article, I examine how this historic architecture departs from and complicates the notion of an archive. Regarding the building as a performative, fluid space allows it to be reiterated, reborn, and regenerated into various strands of narrative and also allows it agency within the processes of structuring and transmitting disparate forms of identities and desires. I argue that such a performative reading allows us to view the architectural space as always moving between past and present, fiction and reality.

Superficial-layer versus deep-layer lateral entorhinal cortex: Coding of allocentric space, egocentric space, speed, boundaries, and corners.

Entorhinal cortex is the major gateway between the neocortex and the hippocampus and thus plays an essential role in subserving episodic memory and spatial navigation. It can be divided into the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) and the lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC), which are commonly theorized to be critical for spatial (context) and non-spatial (content) inputs, respectively. Consistent with this theory, LEC neurons are found to carry little information about allocentric self-location, even in cue-rich environments, but they exhibit egocentric spatial information about external items in the environment. The superficial and deep layers of LEC are believed to mediate the input to and output from the hippocampus, respectively. As earlier studies mainly examined the spatial firing properties of superficial-layer LEC neurons, here we characterized the deep-layer LEC neurons and made direct comparisons with their superficial counterparts in single unit recordings from behaving rats. Because deep-layer LEC cells received inputs from hippocampal regions, which have strong selectivity for self-location, we hypothesized that deep-layer LEC neurons would be more informative about allocentric position than superficial-layer LEC neurons. We found that deep-layer LEC cells showed only slightly more allocentric spatial information and higher spatial consistency than superficial-layer LEC cells. Egocentric coding properties were comparable between these two subregions. In addition, LEC neurons demonstrated preferential firing at lower speeds, as well as at the boundary or corners of the environment. These results suggest that allocentric spatial outputs from the hippocampus are transformed in deep-layer LEC into the egocentric coding dimensions of LEC, rather than maintaining the allocentric spatial tuning of the CA1 place fields.

The bacterial secretosome for bacterial envelope biogenesis.

The Gram-negative bacterial envelope is a robust line of defence against physical and chemical environmental stress, including antibiotics. Therefore, its biogenesis is of considerable interest, as well as a target to address the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance. All bacterial proteins are synthesised in the cytosol, so inner- and outer-membrane proteins, and periplasmic residents have to be transported to their final destinations via specialised protein machineries. The Sec translocon, a ubiquitous integral inner-membrane complex, is key to this process as the major gateway for protein transit from the cytosol to the cell envelope; this can be achieved during their translation, or afterwards. Proteins need to be directed into the inner-membrane (usually co-translational), otherwise SecA utilises ATP and the proton-motive-force (PMF) to drive proteins across the membrane post-translationally. These proteins are then picked up by chaperones for folding in the periplasm, or delivered to the β-barrel assembly machinery (BAM) for incorporation into the outer-membrane. The core hetero-trimeric SecYEG-complex forms the hub for an extensive network of interactions that regulate protein transport and quality control. My talk will overview recent work on the association of the translocons of the inner- (Sec) and outer-membrane (BAM), along with periplasmic chaperones for the formation of the bacterial secretosome. I will describe our findings on the structure, dynamics and orchestration of this inter-membrane assembly for efficient passage of proteins into the inner-membrane, periplasm and outer-membrane - critical for efficient envelope biogenesis.

Migration in Libya: A spatial network analysis

Libya is the African country with the highest proportion of migrants and it is the major migration gateway to Europe. Since the fall of Gaddafi’s regime in 2011, Libya has been experiencing a prolonged period of instability and conflict which has also affected migration flows. This paper provides the first analytical study of the networks of irregular migrants toward, within, and from Libya since the beginning of the Second Civil War in 2014. We use longitudinal-geolocalised data on migrants’ movements and combine tools taken from spatial statistics and network analysis to reconstruct the network of migrants’ international movements towards and from Libya, and the network of migrants’ internal movements within Libya. Employing the information obtained from these networks, we map the different migrant routes within the country, we provide evidence that migrants sort into routes according to their nationality, and we show how these routes have evolved over time. Moreover, using a Separable Temporal Exponential Random Graph (STERG) model, we document that migrants are more likely to move towards areas with higher economic opportunities, lower level of conflict intensity, more same country-of-origin migrants, and connecting to multiple routes. Our analysis shows how to combine migration data with insights from spatial statistics and network analysis in order to reconstruct migrants’ movements.

A bacterial secretosome for regulated envelope biogenesis and quality control?

The Gram-negative bacterial envelope is the first line of defence against environmental stress and antibiotics. Therefore, its biogenesis is of considerable fundamental interest, as well as a challenge to address the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance. All bacterial proteins are synthesised in the cytosol, so inner- and outer-membrane proteins, and periplasmic residents have to be transported to their final destinations via specialised protein machinery. The Sec translocon, a ubiquitous integral inner-membrane (IM) complex, is key to this process as the major gateway for protein transit from the cytosol to the cell envelope; this can be achieved during their translation, or afterwards. Proteins need to be directed into the inner-membrane (usually co-translational), otherwise SecA utilises ATP and the proton-motive-force (PMF) to drive proteins across the membrane post-translationally. These proteins are then picked up by chaperones for folding in the periplasm, or delivered to the β-barrel assembly machinery (BAM) for incorporation into the outer-membrane. The core hetero-trimeric SecYEG-complex forms the hub for an extensive network of interactions that regulate protein delivery and quality control. Here, we conduct a biochemical exploration of this 'secretosome' -a very large, versatile and inter-changeable assembly with the Sec-translocon at its core; featuring interactions that facilitate secretion (SecDF), inner- and outer-membrane protein insertion (respectively, YidC and BAM), protein folding and quality control (e.g. PpiD, YfgM and FtsH). We propose the dynamic interplay amongst these, and other factors, act to ensure efficient envelope biogenesis, regulated to accommodate the requirements of cell elongation and division. We believe this organisation is critical for cell wall biogenesis and remodelling and thus its perturbation could be a means for the development of anti-microbials.

The Impact of Air Cargo on Regional Economic Development: Evidence from Chinese Cities

This study explored the impact of the air cargo industry on the regional economy by regressing panel data for 91 prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2019. By using the total employment and the employment of the 19 sub-industries as indicators of regional economic development, results show that only the growth of employment in the manufacturing sector is significantly and positively associated with the growth of air cargo volume. This study then explores the heterogeneity of the impact of air cargo on manufacturing employment in different types of cities by using a dummy variable interaction term and finds that in terms of the elasticity of growth of air cargo on manufacturing employment, southwest, and northwest regions are significantly higher than other regions, inland cities are significantly higher than coastal port cities, and major gateway cities are significantly lower than non-major gateway cities. Our research shows that air cargo development can lead to manufacturing industry clustering, while air cargo infrastructure development is more important for the economic development of inland regions and secondary gateway cities.