Protracted Transition Research Articles

Multifunctional Bioactive Nanozyme Systems for Enhanced Diabetic Wound Healing.

The protracted transition from inflammation to proliferation in diabetic wound healing poses significant challenges, exacerbated by persistent inflammatory responses and inadequate vascularization. To address these issues, a novel nanozymatic therapeutic approach utilizing asymmetrically structured MnO₂-Au-mSiO₂@aFGF Janus nanoparticles is engineered. Nanozymes featuring a mSiO₂ head and MnO₂ extensions, into which acidic fibroblast growth factor (aFGF) is encapsulated, resulting in MnO₂-Au-mSiO₂@aFGF Janus nanoparticles (mSAM@aFGF), are synthesized. This nanozyme system effectively emulates enzymatic activities of catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalyzing degradation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and generating oxygen. In addition, controlled release of aFGF fosters tissue regeneration and vascularization. In vitro studies demonstrate that mSAM@aFGF significantly alleviates oxidative stress in cells, and enhances cell proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis. An injectable hydrogel based on photocrosslinked hyaluronic acid (HAMA), incorporating the nanozymatic ROS-scavenging and growth factor-releasing system, is developed. The HAMA-mSAM@aFGF hydrogel exhibits multifaceted benefits in a diabetic wound model, including injectability, wound adhesion, hemostasis, anti-inflammatory effects, macrophage polarization from M1 to M2 phenotype, and promotion of vascularization. These attributes underscore the potential of this system to facilitate transition from chronic inflammation to the proliferative phase of wound repair, offering a promising therapeutic strategy for diabetic wound management.

‘So that we can safeguard your lives’: the Jews of Aleppo between colonialism, nationalism, and Zionism, 1918–1946

ABSTRACT In the Middle East, as elsewhere, the protracted transition from empire to nation-state was accompanied by a brutal tide of ethnoreligious homogenisation. One of the more dramatic examples was the destruction of the Arab world’s millennia-old Jewish communities. While this destruction is often discussed only in reference to the creation of the State of Israel, this article proposes a complementary model for understanding it, a model predicated on these Jews’ status as ordinary, not exceptional, inhabitants of the Ottoman world, and the disruption caused by the end of the Ottoman empire and its replacement with European colonial rule. Using interwar Aleppo as a case study, this article demonstrates how the end of the Ottoman system of religious communities led to an extended period of dysfunction for Aleppo’s Jewish communal institutions. Under the French Mandate, this dysfunction left Aleppo’s Jews unable to contend with a succession of crises, including a three-way competition for the community’s loyalty between French administrators, Arab nationalists and the Zionist movement. This dysfunction set the stage for the community’s terminal crisis – the 1947 pogroms.

Stratified pathways to Italy's "latest-late" transition to adulthood.

During the last few decades, Western societies have undergone substantial social and demographic changes, and the transition to adulthood progressively moved from an early, contracted, and simple pattern to a late, protracted, and complex one. These trends have been extensively analyzed under the Second Demographic Transition framework, emphasizing the role of individual agency and ideational change. A growing parallel literature underlines social stratification, the gender revolution, and contextual opportunities as driving forces. This paper builds on this emerging literature to analyze trends of the transition to adulthood in Italy, a salient social and demographic context among the "lowest-low" fertility countries. Drawing from the European Social Survey 2018 data, I use Sequence Analysis to compute a taxonomy of ideal types of transition to adulthood and analyze their evolution across cohorts. These analyses show that the emergence of a late and protracted transition to adulthood, associated with "lowest-low" fertility levels, is stratified by gender and socioeconomic background. This study contributes to the growing literature on the social stratification of life course trajectories and the relevance of contextual opportunities and constraints by analyzing the transition to adulthood in a low-opportunity context from a longitudinal, stratified perspective.

Hot plutonism in a cold accretionary wedge: What terminated the Cadomian orogeny along the northern periphery of Gondwana?

The late Ediacaran to Cambrian end of the Cadomian accretionary orogeny was likely a complex cascade of events that culminated in the opening of the Rheic Ocean and formation of a passive margin along the northern Gondwana periphery. However, the geodynamic causes and kinematics of this protracted transition remain elusive. To address this issue, we examine the emplacement and tectonic setting of the ca. 524–523 Ma, shallow-level Kdyně gabbro to diorite pluton in the southwestern part of the Bohemian Massif as it represents the earliest event following the end of the Cadomian trench-sediment accretion at around 527 Ma. Our structural analysis combined with investigation of the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) suggests that the pluton was emplaced via magma wedging, some minor lateral expansion, and magmatic stoping, when the ascending magma utilized a network of orthogonal extension fractures (∼NNE–SSW and ∼WNW–ESE). Furthermore, the pluton is interpreted as an apical part of a dome located in an extensional stepover between two dextral transtensional zones, forming a large-scale structure resembling a metamorphic core complex. Nevertheless, our data imply that final pluton emplacement was controlled by magma buoyancy and less so by regional tectonic deformation. We suggest that these structural features together with the remarkably short time span between the end of Cadomian accretion and the earliest plutonism in the overall cold forearc region are compatible with slab break-off as the potential geodynamic cause of the necessary rapid heat input into the base of the host accretionary wedge. Taken together, the high-temperature events following Cadomian accretion, represented by the Kdyně pluton and other Cambrian plutons as young as ca. 505 Ma, suggest that magmatism may have been an important geodynamic driver of the Cambro–Ordovician rifting of northern Gondwana and that the rifting mode was active during at least the initial stages before being overridden by the slab pull force of the subducting Iapetus Ocean.

Calcium Isotopic Constraints on the Transition From Aragonite Seas to Calcite Seas in the Cambrian

AbstractThe primary mineralogy of marine carbonates has varied over geological time in concert with the secular evolution of global climate and seawater chemistry. Here, we employed a multi‐proxy geochemical and petrographic approach, including measuring the Ca isotope (δ44Ca) and Sr content of Ediacaran–Cambrian carbonates, to provide new insights into the timing of the transition from a “dolomite‐aragonite sea” to a “calcite sea” across the Ediacaran‐Cambrian transition. We find robust evidence for the persistence of an aragonite sea well into Cambrian Age 2 (and potentially up through Age 4). Together with an updated petrographic compilation of abiotic carbonate precipitates (i.e., ooids and cements), these new δ44Ca and Sr data provide further evidence that there was a protracted transition from aragonite seas to calcite seas in the Cambrian. We propose that this transition was mediated, in part, by changes in seawater Mg/Ca ratios potentially regulated by the global marine redox state and extents of authigenic clay precipitation.

Cultural Relations between Albania and Hungary During and after the Communist Dictatorship. A Brief Introduction

This paper presents various important aspects in the cultural relations between Albania and Hungary, both during the communist regime that lasted almost 50 years in Albania (1944-1992), and in the last thirty years (1993-2022), which are considered “the democracy years” in Albania, although they have rather been years of protracted transition. The paper presents important information about: a) Albanian students who were educated in Hungary; b) linguistic and literary publications created in the two countries, both in Albanian and Hungarian, and c) relations between the two countries, especially in education over the last 30 years.

РОЛЬ HR-БРЕНДА КОМПАНИИ КАК КЛЮЧЕВОЙ ФАКТОР КОНКУРЕНТОСПОСОБНОСТИ НА РОССИЙСКОМ РЫНКЕ

Currently, it is no longer enough for companies to simply provide a good product or service in order to be competitive in the market. The competition is getting stronger every year. There are more and more important factors in this struggle, one of which, sometimes decisive, is the quality of personnel. The task of attracting candidates who are interested in work and have high qualifications is becoming more and more complex. The authors investigate the employer brand, HR brand – the image of the company as an employer, formed from positive and negative reviews and opinions of current and departed employees and candidates who have ever been exposed to the HR component of the company or its business as a whole. In the conditions of the Russian market, this aspect is more relevant than abroad: due to the protracted transition from a wild economy with a high level of monopolization to a civilized market, the concept of an employer’s brand has been studied relatively recently. The features of the development of the company’s image in Russia, its priority, as well as the impact on the position of the organization and its competitiveness are the areas of research in the article.

Detailed reconstructions of India-Somalia plate motion, 60 Ma to present: Implications for Somalia plate absolute motion and India-Eurasia plate motion

Summary We estimate India-Somalia plate motion at 45 times since 60 Ma from ∼9,000 crossings of Carlsberg and northern Central Indian Ridge magnetic reversals C1 to C26 and numerous fracture zone crossings. The new rotations reveal at least seven significant spreading rate changes since ∼60 Ma, some previously unknown. The largest changes occurred before 46 Ma, when the forces acting on the India plate evolved rapidly due to the transition from subduction to continent-continent collision between India and Asia and the influence of the Reunion hotspot plume on the India plate. The new rotations reveal a gradual ∼50 percent decline in Carlsberg Ridge spreading rates from 57-52.7 Ma, but an end to the decline at ∼53 Ma, when spreading rates surged rapidly by up to 100 percent. From 52-46.7 Ma, Carlsberg Ridge spreading rates collapsed by ∼90 percent, possibly defining a protracted transition to continental collision between India and Asia. Significant kinematic events since 46.7 Ma have included a ∼25 percent spreading rate recovery from 42-40 Ma, ultraslow spreading from 38.6-33.2 Ma, a gradual rate doubling from 33-18 Ma, a ∼50 percent slowdown from 18-13 Ma, and apparently steady motion since 13 Ma. The new rotations successfully predict Carlsberg Ridge abyssal hill orientations for seafloor ages of 48-42 Ma and 20-0 Ma and Central Indian Ridge fracture zone traces for seafloor ages of 43 to 16 Ma, constituting useful tests of the rotation accuracies at these ages. When corrected for the movement of India relative to the Capricorn plate since 16 Ma, the new rotations also successfully restore magnetic lineations C13, C18, C20, and C21, and fracture zone segments from the Capricorn plate onto of their Somalia plate counterparts. This further confirms the accuracies of our new rotations back to C21n.1o (47.8 Ma), and validates a ∼16 Ma start date for India-Capricorn plate motion and published correction for India-Capricorn motion. Anticorrelated changes in India-Somalia and Antarctic-Somalia seafloor spreading rates from 37-18 Ma may be evidence that Somalia plate absolute motion changed during this period, possibly triggered by Somalia’s post-30-Ma detachment from the Arabian Peninsula or the kinematic effects of the Afar and/or Reunion mantle plumes on the Somalia plate. New India-Eurasia rotations that we estimate from an updated global plate circuit predict convergence rates from 53-47 Ma that are ∼30 percent faster than previous estimates and that decline ∼75 percent by ∼38 Ma. Changes in India-Somalia and India-Eurasia rates correspond closely with recently described Tibetan deformation pulses, consistent with linkages between all three. A joint inversion of Carlsberg and southern Central Indian ridge magnetic reversal and fracture zone data, including a correction for movement of the Capricorn plate relative to India, satisfactorily realigns the reconstructed magnetic lineations and fracture zones back to C23n.1n (50.7 Ma), but misfits some data by 100 km or more at earlier times. The misfits may be evidence for deformation within the IndoCapricorn and/or Somalia plates before 48 Ma or a misinterpretation of magnetic reversal and/or fracture zone data from times before 48 Ma.

Stratification of Youth Employment and Departure Abroad with the Purpose of Work: Kazakhstan and Neighboring Countries

Recently, especially given the consequences of COVID-19, external migration processes have become more intense. In Kazakhstan and other neighboring post-Soviet countries, a certain social imbalance is associated with the protracted transition period from the Soviet past to the social order and economy of the future. A widening gap exists between the countries of this region associated with geopolitics; for example, states have to choose the Western or Eastern geopolitical vector of development. Russia has a dramatic effect on the development, economy, and migration of neighboring states with a weaker economy. In this regard, the research focuses on the study of key drivers, factors, and reasons affecting this imbalance in the context of the social strata of Kazakhstan. Based on economic and statistical analysis methods, the study analyzes the current migration situation in Kazakhstan and the CIS region, assesses the level of adaptation of citizens of Kazakhstan to the changing environment and globalization that affects the young population; the mechanism of the influence of regional vectors of geopolitics on Kazakhstan is also determined. Apart from this, the current work examines the propensity of young people to migrate abroad (expressed using an integrated indicator) and provides a regression analysis of factors affecting its level. This allowed assessing the degree of influence of the youth unemployment rate and the general welfare of the country on the inclination to go overseas to find a better job. The paper concludes by arguing that the level of unemployment among the young population has a significant impact on its tendency to migrate. In particular, in Kazakhstan, migration abroad is primarily connected with the possibility to get better career prospects and living conditions provided by the host countries.The research results could be used to manage socio-political and socio-economic issues related to the migration of young people in Kazakhstan and neighboring countries and conduct further research related to analyzing macroeconomic indicators and other factors affecting migration processes.

Pathways to plant domestication in Southeast Anatolia based on new data from aceramic Neolithic Gusir H\xf6y\xfck

Southeast Anatolia is home to some of the earliest and most spectacular Neolithic sites associated with the beginning of cultivation and herding in the Old World. In this article we present new archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data from Gusir Höyük, an aceramic Neolithic habitation dating to the 12th-late 11th millennia cal BP. Our results show selective use of legume crop progenitors and nuts during the earlier part of this period, followed by the management of cereal and legume crop progenitors from the mid-11th millennium cal BP. This contrasts with data available from other Anatolian habitations indicating broad spectrum plant use with low crop progenitor inputs. Early aceramic Neolithic Anatolian plant and animal exploitation strategies were site-specific, reflecting distinctive identities and culinary choices rather than environmental constraints. A multivariate evaluation of wheat grain metrics alongside botanical and radiometric data indicate that early wheat domestication in southeast Anatolia occurred at a faster pace than predicted by current hypotheses for a protracted transition to farming in Southwest Asia. We argue that this phenomenon is best explained as a corollary of the increasing importance of cereals in feasting at southeast Anatolian sites characterised by increasing architectural complexity and elaboration during the 11th millennium cal BP.

Measuring the Socioeconomic Development of Selected Balkan Countries and Hungary: A Comparative Analysis for Sustainable Growth

The present research aimed to provide an extensive comparative analysis regarding the socioeconomic development paths of three selected Balkan countries—Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania—as well as Hungary, which was originally classified as a member of the Visegrad Four group in Central and Eastern Europe. In our paper, the Balkan states were analyzed along with Hungary, as it might be observed that since the 2008–2009 economic crisis, the latter’s economy has been increasingly diverging from that of the Visegrad club in several aspects. After having undergone a protracted transition crisis escalated by the collapse of the Soviet Union, the micro-region has exhibited a truly contradictious development trajectory including periods of relatively faster economic-growth-based catching up and significant fallback stages driven by numerous endogenous or exogenous shocks. The study assumed that the region’s most crucial vulnerability is the relatively high dependence on Foreign Direct Investment that contributes to the fluctuating nature of economic growth, and also, it might be viewed as an obstacle to long-term sustainable development. In the frames of the research, the authors present an alternative comparative method for specifying the actual level of economic development of the defined country group from economic, political and social perspectives, relying on the most recent data published by international organizations, NGOs and thinktanks. As a result, an aggregate ranking was established for the four countries based on 21 individual indices, taking into consideration their dependent market economy attributes and, also, unique patterns of economic growth. Furthermore, the study also provides a dynamic evaluation of the trends concerning the narrow approach of using ten indices for a protracted period, investigating whether Hungary has been converging, diverging or stagnating with respect to the three Visegrad and Balkan economies. To what extent are Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary and Romania still affected by the historical burden of the former regime, and what perspectives might they have for realizing convergence in the near future to the more developed economies?

To the issue of the nature of political power

It is emphasized by the author that the difficulties of the protracted transition period and the modern external and internal challengesfor Ukraine’s statehood, which more than ever require an effective and efficient public power, pressingly actualize the problemsof the nature of political power. The purpose of the article is to study the nature of political power and to clarify its structure and sources.Analyzing various definitions of power, the author draws attention to the consideration of power as a social phenomenon, as theability to subordinate the behavior and activities of people to the will of the whole society. This approach distinguishes the concept ofpower among other sociological categories. It is stressed that power is a volitional public relation, however, the will of the subject isalmost always determined by his or her interests.The essence of power is single, it is expressed by the dependence between the need to realize the interests of the subjects and thepossibility of their realization, controlled by the bearers of the dominant interests and expressing their dominant will. Structurally,power includes three essential elements: the dominant interest, the dominant will, expressing it, and the means of securing this dominance.Coercion as a means of securing the dominant interest and the dominant will, expressing it, is an indispensable indication ofpower. The degree of coercion can be different, from direct violence and suppression to the mere availability of the means of coercionand the potential threat of its use.Characterizing the qualities of power, the author considers its content basis, in addition to the essential one. Power manifests itselfnot only in violence, but also in the organization of common work, in social management. Power is the essence of administration. Theimpact of public administration on social processes is determined by the logic of the movement of interests of the corresponding modeof production.The issues of integrity of power, unity of power and separation of powers are considered. It is emphasized that the strength ofthe relationship of interests, power and administration is constantly measured by the outcome of the struggle of interests in the foundationsof civil society.It is proved that public administration is a relationship between the need to form the realization of the interests of members of astate-organized society and the opportunities that the state provides them as an official representative of society.

Excluded generation: the growing challenges of labor market insertion for Egyptian youth

ABSTRACT Youth in Egypt hold rising aspirations for their adult lives, yet face an increasingly uncertain and protracted transition from school to work and thus into adulthood. This paper investigates how labor market insertion has been evolving over time in Egypt and how the nature of youth transitions relates to gender and social class. The study examines 19,925 respondents from the 2012 wave of the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey. We demonstrate that recent youth cohorts face poorer chances of transitioning into a good job than previous cohorts, despite large increases in educational attainment. Social class is playing an increasing role in determining the success of the transition from school to work in Egypt. Whether youth successfully make transitions to formal jobs, embark on such transitions and fail, or pursue more traditional careers in informal employment or family businesses or farms depends on a complex and changing interaction between their own educational attainment and the resources of their families. In light of these findings, we discuss the policies that can help facilitate more successful transitions for struggling youth in Egypt.

Substantiation of the Priorities and Factors of the Formation of Competitive Advantages of the Process Industries of the Regional Agroindustrial Complex

Among the many distinctive features of the modern technical and economic situation of the reclamation industry, such as financial volatility, inconsistency of regulatory documents, there is also no effective mechanism for ensuring the country’s food security, there are flaws in the organizational, financial and credit policy, which brought down the technical level of production and technological processes ... In view of this, there is a need to mainstream a detailed study of the key problems of the agroindustrial complex (AIC) and the development of new theoretical and methodological principles and approaches to the organization of agroindustrial production. Such an approach should ensure the development of modern systems of resource-saving technologies, which will make it possible to carry out timely and deep processing of agri supplies, advance the facilities for attracting investments in priority production and agroprocessing, improve the quality and competitiveness of food and process industries, etc. The protracted transition in the agrarian sector to market relations can be explained by a narrow understanding of the essence of the market economy, measures and methods of their state regulation, which led to undesirable tendencies, ignoring national-historical features in the agrarian sector, etc., which makes it necessary to find an appropriate economic mechanism capable of guaranteeing the production of competitive products and ensuring high quality of production. On account of insufficient elaboration of many theoretical and methodological, methodical and practical aspects, the need for further research in the field of forecasting the sustainable development of the processing industry, complexity and non-systemic knowledge of the competitive functioning of the processing industries of the agroindustrial complex, we have determined its purpose and objectives.

A protracted Ediacaran–Cambrian transition: an ichnologic ecospace analysis of the Fortunian in Newfoundland, Canada

AbstractThe transition between the seemingly disparate Ediacaran and Cambrian faunas is both enigmatic and body-fossil poor. The Chapel Island Formation on the Burin Peninsula, Newfoundland, Canada, contains a rich diversity of ichnofossils, providing new insight into the nature of the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition and early Fortunian ecosystems. Five ichnoguilds are recognized within the Treptichnus pedum zone. Ichnologic data are analysed from an ecospace perspective, revealing a more protracted transition between Ediacaran and Cambrian ecosystems. Our analysis documents the appearance of limbs, vertical burrows and uncontroversial equilibrium structures, as well as the retention of ‘other’ feeding styles, such as microbial grazing and chemosynthesis.

The Role of Humans in a Protracted Transition From Hunting-Gathering to Plant Domestication in the Fertile Crescent.

The Role of Humans in a Protracted Transition From Hunting-Gathering to Plant Domestication in the Fertile Crescent.

Four decades of transition to first marriage in China: Economic reform and persisting marriage norms

This study draws on three waves (2012, 2013, and 2015) of pooled data from the China General Social Survey to examine two major dimensions of the transition to first marriage among four cohorts of youths, i.e., the transition tempos and the homogamy patterns. Key findings include: (1) There is no evidence of systematic delays in family formation among cohorts coming of age after reform, albeit moderate cross-cohort heterogeneity. Two cohorts are identified for their unique trajectories: The Cultural Revolution cohort with a relatively protracted transition process and the late reform cohort with a rather condensed marriage formation pattern, (2) respondents who belong to older cohorts, who are men, who have received higher education and hold urban hukou have lower risk in entering first marriage by a certain age, and (3) I recorded steady growing strengths of homogamy over cohorts, with the Ф parameters rising from 0.42 for the Cultural Revolution cohort to 0.56 for the late reform cohort. The overall message is that four decades of rapid economic development in post-reform China have failed to weaken persisting marriage norms and practices among young people, contrary to well-documented empirical evidence from many other national contexts. I ruminate on potential institutional and cultural mechanisms underlying such an intriguing phenomenon.

The role of hospice in the transition from hospital to home for technology-dependent children-A qualitative study.

To report parent and professional perspectives of step-down care in assisting the transition from hospital to home, within one children's hospice in a constituent country of the United Kingdom. In recent years, increasing numbers of children-dependent on long term assisted ventilation have been noted. Meeting the complex physical, emotional and social needs of the child and family is challenging. Many of these children spend extended periods in hospital even when medically stable. This was a qualitative study using an inductive, semantic analytic approach within a realist epistemology. Data collection was carried out in 2013. Interviews took place with parents (n=5) and focus groups with professionals (n=26) who had experience of step-down care. Multiple benefits of step-down in the hospice were clear. Both sets of accounts suggested that for children and families life was "on hold" in hospital. Hospice was considered a home-like environment where the child and family could "live again". Parents reflected that, in hospice they were "living, not existing" while professionals highlighted hospice as nurturing and empowering the whole family, promoting the child's development while safely meeting their clinical needs. The study highlights a number of crucial benefits to the child and family both in the immediate and longer terms. The collective perspectives therefore endorse hospice as a potential viable choice for these children and their families during the always difficult, usually protracted transition from hospital to home.

A coup foretold: Fernando Lugo and the lost promise of agrarian reform in Paraguay

AbstractThis paper offers a political economy interpretation of the “parliamentary coup” that took place in Paraguay in June 2012. It situates this analysis in the wider historical context of the protracted transition to democracy between 1989 and 2008, the rural class structure of the country, the changing character of contemporary agro‐extractive capitalism, and the long‐standing class struggle for redistributive land reform. By examining the Paraguayan agrarian reform impasse under the short‐lived government of Fernando Lugo (2008–2012) through an “interactive state/society” framework, this paper attempts to locate the sources of current social and political conflict in the country, and the demands of rival social groups. In doing so, the paper argues that the rise and fall of Lugo occurred in the context of structural legacies from the Stroessner era (1954–1989) that have remained largely unchanged and that coexist today with an expanding agro‐extractivist development model. They lead to the conceptualization of the continued “predatory” or “oligarchic” state in the country.

Excluded Generation: The Growing Challenges of Labor Market Insertion for Egyptian Youth

Youth in Egypt hold rising aspirations for their adult lives, yet face an increasingly uncertain and protracted transition from school to work and thus into adulthood. This paper investigates how labor market insertion has been evolving over time in Egypt and how the nature of youth transitions relates to gender and social class. We demonstrate that youth today face poorer chances of transitioning into a good job than previous generations, despite large increases in educational attainment. Social class is playing an increasing role in determining the success of the transition from school to work in Egypt. Whether youth successfully make transitions to formal jobs, embark on such transitions and fail, or pursue a traditional route to adulthood depends on a complex and changing interaction between their own educational attainment and the resources of their families. In light of these findings, we discuss the policies that can help facilitate successful transitions for struggling youth in Egypt.