Perfect Storm Research Articles

НЕКОТОРЫЕ АСПЕКТЫ ВЕГЕТАТИВНОГО РАЗМНОЖЕНИЯ ПЕРСПЕКТИВНЫХ СОРТОВ HIBISCUS X MOSCHEUTOS L.

Hibiscus x moscheutos L. is a promising decorative perennial for inclusion in green plantings in the southern regions of Russia. Currently, there is no data available on the most effective methods of propagating hibiscus in the conditions of southern gardening in Russia. Since 2014, FSBSI «North Caucasian Federal Scientific Center of Horticulture, Viticulture, Wine-making» (Krasnodar) has been carrying out work on introduction and variety study of H. x moscheutos. The collection includes 47 varieties. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the potential of vegetative propagation of promising varieties using the herbaceous cuttings method. The study included 18 varieties and hybrids. In the experiment 2 cutting periods were studied: 1st period – spring (II-III decade of May), 2nd period – summer (III decade of June – 1st decade of July (control). It was established that herbaceous cuttings can be carried out in 2 periods – in the II decade of May, with the placement of mother bushes in protected ground, and in the III decade of June, with the preparation of cuttings from mother plants growing in open ground. For most varieties, spring cuttings are preferable. In this case, young plants overwinter better, and the yield of marketable seedlings after 1 year of growing in pots is higher. During wintering of plants of summer cuttings, a high percentage of death was observed, which is associated with the low winter hardiness of young plants. A significant decrease in the yield of marketable seedlings after 1 year of growing in plants of summer cuttings was detected in the following varieties: Berry Awersome, Midnithe Marvell, Plam Flambe, Perfect Storm – a decrease in the yield of seedlings of I grade was observed by almost 2 times in comparison with plants rooted in spring. The best performance in herbaceous cuttings was found in the following varieties: Cherry Cheescake, Cranberry Crush, Peppermint Schnapps, Jazzberry Jam, Summer in Paradise, Krasny Rusanova, Hybrid № 5. These cultivars combine in their genotype adaptability to abiotic stress factors and increased productivity of uterine bushes during cuttings and provide a high yield of marketable seedlings when grown in pots. Key words: ROSEMALLOW (HIBISCUS MOSCHEUTOS), VEGETATIVE REPRODUCTION, HERBACEOUS CUTTINGS, POT CULTURE

A Perfect Storm?: The Association of Vitamin D with Injury Incidence among Acrobatics and Tumbling Athletes

A Perfect Storm?: The Association of Vitamin D with Injury Incidence among Acrobatics and Tumbling Athletes

Assessing compounding climate-related stresses and development pathways on the power sector in the central U.S.

Future configurations of the power system in the central region of the USA are dependent on relative costs of alternative power generation technologies, energy and environmental policies, and multiple climate-induced stresses. Higher demand in the summer months combined with compounding supply shocks in several power generation technologies can potentially cause a “perfect storm” leading to failure of the power system. Potential future climate stress must be incorporated in investment decisions and energy system planning and operation. We assess how projected future climate impacts on the power system would affect alternative pathways for the electricity sector considering a broad range of generation technologies and changes in demand. We calculate a “potential supply gap” metric for each pathway, system component, and sub-region of the US Heartland due to climate-induced effects on electricity demand and power generation. Potential supply gaps range from 5% in the North Central region under mild changes in climate to 21% in the Lakes-Mid Atlantic region under more severe climate change. We find increases in electricity demand to be more important in determining the size of the potential supply gap than stresses on power generation, while larger shares of renewables in the power system contribute to lower supply gaps. Our results provide a first step toward considering systemic climate impacts that may require changes in managing the grid or on potential additional capacity/reserves that may be needed.

Obesity: the perfect storm for heart failure.

Obesity condition causes morphological and functional alterations involving the cardiovascular system. These can represent the substrates for different cardiovascular diseases, such as atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, sudden cardiac death, and heart failure (HF) with both preserved ejection fraction (EF) and reduced EF. Different pathogenetic mechanisms may help to explain the association between obesity and HF including left ventricular remodelling and epicardial fat accumulation, endothelial dysfunction, and coronary microvascular dysfunction. Multi-imaging modalities are required for appropriate recognition of subclinical systolic dysfunction typically associated with obesity, with echocardiography being the most cost-effective technique. Therapeutic approach in patients with obesity and HF is challenging, particularly regarding patients with preserved EF in which few strategies with high level of evidence are available. Weight loss is of extreme importance in patients with obesity and HF, being a primary therapeutic intervention. Sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors have been recently introduced as a novel tool in the management of HF patients. The present review aims at analysing the most recent studies supporting pathogenesis, diagnosis, and management in patients with obesity and HF.

COTS: The Inevitable March to the Van Allen Belts

The space industry is experiencing the perfect storm - lowering customer budgets, increased competition and pressure to become more sustainable and responsible. “The final frontier” needs to rapidly clean up its act, regulate and become more responsible. This perfect storm has had an interesting effect on the demands for satellite capability, especially for small satellite providers. It has led to customers making more demanding requirements, smaller budgets, shorter schedules, and more challenging orbital environments. The rapid drive to get technology to market is creating a gradual shift away from “fully space qualified” EEE parts for low-cost missions – even for harsh LEO environments – due to their high cost and long qualification time before they reach the market. By developing “reliable COTS” systems, specifically designed for harsher LEO environments, satellite providers are able to significantly cut costs, offer customers the flexibility they need and also stay at the crest of the technology wave. Achieving this is not an easy feat - significant design effort and quality control needs to be applied to ensure safe operations within these harsh environments, to both preserve the space environment from debris and to ensure a return on investment though increased system lifetimes. Keywords: Space Sustainability, Radiation, COTS, High LEO, Low Cost

Creative collaborations can support students’ mental health

BURLINGTON, VERMONT — The traumas and losses of the pandemic combined with the pressures and pervasiveness of social media and technology use combined to create the perfect storm in college students’ lives. That left many students’ mental health in tatters, placing more demand on counseling centers, which were already stretched thin. And it's not going away soon. It takes about seven years to work through a trauma and about one to two years to work through the loss of a loved one — but that's when support systems are available to help, according to Jeremy Butler, Chief Innovation Officer at Integrated Community Alternatives Network, a nonprofit organization (www.ican.family).

Creative collaborations can support students’ mental health

BURLINGTON, VERMONT — The traumas and losses of the pandemic combined with the pressures and pervasiveness of social media and technology use to create the perfect storm in college students’ lives. That left many students’ mental health in tatters, placing more demand on counseling centers, which had already been stretched thin. And it's not going away soon. It takes about seven years to work through a trauma and about one to two years to work through the loss of a loved one — but that's when support systems are available to help, according to Jeremy Butler, Chief Innovation Officer at Integrated Community Alternatives Network (ICAN), a nonprofit organization (www.ican.family).

Creative collaborations can support students’ mental health

BURLINGTON, VERMONT — The traumas and losses of the pandemic combined with the pressures and pervasiveness of social media and technology use to create the perfect storm in college students’ lives. That left many students’ mental health in tatters, placing more demand on counseling centers, which were already stretched thin. And it's not going away soon. It takes about seven years to work through a trauma and about one to two years to work through the loss of a loved one — but that's when support systems are available to help, according to Jeremy Butler, Chief Innovation Officer at Integrated Community Alternatives Network, a nonprofit organization (www.ican.family).

The perfect storm: Cutaneous leishmaniasis in troops deployed in the Atlantic forest of Argentina.

American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) is the most prevalent form of leishmaniasis, associated with an ulcerative and stigmatizing mucocutaneous pathology. This study assessed the incidence of Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis in members of the Argentine Army who were exposed to sandfly bites in Iguazú National Park (INP), northeastern Argentina, during an outbreak of ACL in 2019, and the presence of Leishmania in rodents, opossums and phlebotomine sandflies collected in the area of exposure. Samples from military personnel, wild animals and phlebotomine sandflies were analysed. A total of 20 (40%) patients among the Army personnel and two Akodon montensis rodents (11%) were positive for the presence of Leishmania sp. genes by PCR, while Nyssomyia whitmani and Migonemyia migonei, competent vectors of Leishmania, were also found at the same site. Sequences of hsp70 DNA fragments obtained from human samples confirmed the identity of L. (V.) braziliensis. The risk to which military personnel carrying out activities in the forest are exposed is highlighted, and this risk extends to any worker and visitor who circulates without protection in the INP, coming into contact with transmission "hot spots" due to the concentration of vectors, reservoirs and/or parasites.

The Mediterranean Storm-petrel, Bluefin Tuna fish-farms and the storm Gloria: the ‘perfect storm’

In 2021 we published a six-year study (2015–2020) of the occurrence of the Mediterranean Storm-petrel Hydrobates pelagicus spp. melitensis around a Mediterranean Bluefin Tuna Thun- nus thynnus fish-farm, where high concentrations took place during spring and summer. Great abundances of storm-petrels were recorded in 2020, with more than 100 individuals registered throughout April–August, whereas in previous years only a few individuals had been detected in June–July. These figures suggest either an increasing trend of storm-petrel occurrence in the area (i.e. by learning) or an exceptional episode, probably related to storm Gloria in January 2020. Here, we present the results of censuses undertaken in 2021–2022 whose numbers were lower than those registered in 2020 in May–July. This supports the idea that the events occurring in southern Catalonia after storm Gloria created the ‘perfect storm’ for storm-petrels in this area.

Conflicts in Gaza and around the world create a perfect storm for infectious disease outbreaks.

Conflicts in Gaza and around the world create a perfect storm for infectious disease outbreaks.

Cardiovascular dysfunction in individuals living with spinal cord injury who are susceptible to sympathetic denervation and sleep-related breathing disorders: “the perfect storm”

Cardiovascular dysfunction in individuals living with spinal cord injury who are susceptible to sympathetic denervation and sleep-related breathing disorders: “the perfect storm”

Electronic Cigarette Use and Anxiety Among College Students: "Trapped in That Cycle".

Electronic cigarette use is the most prevalent form of tobacco among young college adults between 18 and 25 years old. In addition, during the young adult years, mental health issues surface, such as anxiety. As a result of these factors, it is imperative to describe the experience of electronic cigarettes among college students to better understand the cycle of addiction among electronic cigarette users. This study aims to explore and describe the experience of electronic cigarette use among college students who report feelings of anxiety. A qualitative descriptive study design with the Roy Adaptation Model as the theoretical framework was used to describe the experience. The setting was at one medium-sized private university on the east coast of the United States. Twenty participants met the study inclusion criteria of traditional undergraduate students aged 18-25 years. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, a smoking status questionnaire, a self-report feelings of anxiety questionnaire, and a semistructured interview guide. Data analysis synthesized three themes: the perfect storm, the power of ripping the nic, and trapped in that cycle. It was found through interviews that feelings of anxiety and the vape culture, along with the college experience, led to the powerful draw to electronic cigarette use among this population. This study reflects findings that the college life experience, the vape culture, and the feelings of anxiety contribute to electronic cigarette use and, finally, lead to intense addiction.

(Dis)honorably discharged: identifying policy gaps in military-civilian reintegration.

Despite the substantial transition assistance available for honorably separating servicemembers, 75% of US veterans report difficulties with the transition to civilian life. For the 16% of veterans who separate with less-than-honorable discharges, these difficulties are compounded by the lack of structural support from the US military. Social stigma, limited transition programming, and loss of benefits create a perfect storm of barriers for these discharged servicemembers. These barriers compound with post-service mental and physical health challenges to contribute to cycles of misconduct that can result in criminal incarceration. Further, because most of these veterans lack health benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs due to their discharge status, this population is substantially understudied from a public health perspective. However, actionable policy paths forward and federal policy change offer opportunity to soften the landing for these veterans and meet their legitimate needs for care.

Corporate Responses to Racial Unrest Editors’ Introduction

The year 2020 set into motion a perfect storm that would lead to the global panic ignited by the murder of George Floyd in late May of that year. The COVID-19 virus impacted billions of people around the world. With many forced to shelter in place at home, some Americans for the first time (and an exhaustingly innumerable time for others) observed up close the inequality apparent in American policing. On average, Black Americans are 2.9 times more likely to be shot and killed by the police, with very few officers held accountable and prosecuted for these deaths.1 One cannot make sense of this special section on Corporate Responses to Racial Unrest without an examination of this fact and the events leading up to Floyd’s murder. Statistically speaking, however, the year 2020 did not signal anything unusual. In that year, according to Statistica.com, U.S. police killed 1,020 people. Fatalities had been rising steadily from 981 in 2017 to 983 in 2018 and 999 in 2019. 2 It is not immediately apparent how best to interpret these numbers. What justifies police use of deadly force, and in turn, what is an acceptable rate of police killings per year? Or is this even a productive line of thought? The effectiveness of police power in the United States has been a standing debate since the foundations of American government.3 And the nature of inequality marked by race within policing has been demonstrated countless times in the literature.4 Reforming the phenomenon of “policing” in the United States, however, though simple to call for, is complicated to enact—not least owing to the “blue wall of silence” that protects police officers from the consequences of misconduct and the near-term spikes in crime and expenses that the very communities who are most disadvantaged by current policing practices are forced to bear.

Can African environmental ethics help in weathering Gardiner’s storm?

African environmental ethics (AEE) encompasses specific features that make it well-equipped to tackle many of the ethical issues posed by climate change. In particular, the African prescription to foster harmonious relations between oneself and other humans, non-human animals and nature as a whole, and the African notion of land ownership enable AEE to offer the moral and theoretical resources needed to deal with the climate change problem. I use Stephen Gardiner’s analysis - which likens climate change to a perfect moral storm - to show that traditional AEE can handle climate change’s most challenging aspects. Since, as Gardiner proposes, we lack an ethical theory capable of responding to the challenges posed by this perfect moral storm, it is significant to show the benefits that the African ethical approach offers in this regard. Such a systematic analysis, that uses Gardiner’s storm as a basis, has not been undertaken before.

A NOVEL 3D-PRINTED DUAL-MOBILITY IMPLANT: RESULTS UP TO SEVEN YEARS IN CLINICAL PRACTICE

Dual mobility (DM) is an established bearing option in Total Hip Arthroplasty (THA). The traditional mono-block DM designs have limited ability for additional fixation, whereas the modular DM designs allow additional screw fixation but limit internal diameter and have the potential to generate metal debris. We report the early results of a CoCrMo alloy mono-block implant manufactured by additive technology with a highly porous ingrowth surface to enhance primary fixation and osseointegration.Prospective follow-up of the DuplexTM implant first inserted in March 2016 enrolled into Beyond Compliance (BC). Primary outcome measure was all-cause revision and secondary outcomes dislocation, peri-prosthetic fracture (PPF) and Oxford Hip Score (OHS). Patients were risk stratified and all considered to be high risk for instability. Complications were identified via hospital records, clinical coding linkage using national database and via BC website.159 implants in 154 patients with a mean age 74.0 years and a maximum F/U of 7 years. Survivorship for all-cause revision 99.4% (95% CI 96.2–99.8). One femoral only revision. Mean gain in OHS 27.4. Dislocation rate 0.6% with a single event. Patients with a cemented Polished taper stem (PTS) had a Type B PPF rate of 2.1% requiring revision/fixation. Compared to conventional THA this cohort was significantly older (74.0 vs 68.3 years), more co-morbidity (ASA 3 46.5% vs 14.4%) and more non-OA indications (32.4% vs 8.5%). Every patient had at least one risk factor for falling and >50% of cohort had 4 or more risk factors using NICE tool.We believe our results demonstrate that risk stratification successfully aids implant selection to prevent dislocation in high-risk patients. This novel design has provided excellent early results in a challenging cohort where individuals are very different to the “average” THA patient. NJR data on DM has reported an increase in revision for PPF. A “perfect storm” maybe created using DM in high-risk falls risk population. This re-enforces the need to consider all patient and implant factors when deciding bearing selection.

Creative collaborations can support students’ mental health

BURLINGTON, VERMONT — The traumas and losses of the pandemic combined with the pressures and pervasiveness of social media and technology use to create the perfect storm in college students’ lives. That left many students’ mental health in tatters, placing more demand on counseling centers, which were already stretched thin. And it's not going away soon. It takes about seven years to work through a trauma and about one to two years to work through the loss of a loved one — but that's when support systems are available to help, according to Jeremy Butler, Chief Innovation Officer at Integrated Community Alternatives Network, a nonprofit organization (www.ican.family).

ALS' Perfect Storm: C9orf72-Associated Toxic Dipeptide Repeats as Potential Multipotent Disruptors of Protein Homeostasis.

Protein homeostasis is essential for neuron longevity, requiring a balanced regulation between protein synthesis and degradation. The clearance of misfolded and aggregated proteins, mediated by autophagy and the ubiquitin-proteasome systems, maintains protein homeostasis in neurons, which are post-mitotic and thus cannot use cell division to diminish the burden of misfolded proteins. When protein clearance pathways are overwhelmed or otherwise disrupted, the accumulation of misfolded or aggregated proteins can lead to the activation of ER stress and the formation of stress granules, which predominantly attempt to restore the homeostasis by suppressing global protein translation. Alterations in these processes have been widely reported among studies investigating the toxic function of dipeptide repeats (DPRs) produced by G4C2 expansion in the C9orf72 gene of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). In this review, we outline the modalities of DPR-induced disruptions in protein homeostasis observed in a wide range of models of C9orf72-linked ALS/FTD. We also discuss the relative importance of each DPR for toxicity, possible synergies between DPRs, and discuss the possible functional relevance of DPR aggregation to disease pathogenesis. Finally, we highlight the interdependencies of the observed effects and reflect on the importance of feedback and feedforward mechanisms in their contribution to disease progression. A better understanding of DPR-associated disease pathogenesis discussed in this review might shed light on disease vulnerabilities that may be amenable with therapeutic interventions.

Who cares about the carers? A call to action on behalf of mothers of disabled children.

This 'perspective' article is an urgent call to action on behalf of mothers (and indeed fathers) of disabled children in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so draws attention to the 'perfect storm' experienced by United Kingdom-based parents of reduced support and increased stress, coupled with the effects of isolation. It also illuminates some of the impact of actions taken, and not taken, during and after the pandemic and the enduring effects for working parent-carers. In doing so I argue that, despite facing these extreme challenges, these parents have been a neglected group from both a policy and research perspective. The call to action therefore extends to society, employers, and to the research community.