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Several transnational corporations, investors, international organizations, and philanthropies have formed coalitions to respond to global social and environmental challenges. Do these coalitions, consisting of large-scale actors, have the capacity to contribute to the sustainability transformations that are needed, or do they perpetuate the same systemic dynamics that created the problems in the first place? We investigate this question by comparing publicly available information from five coalitions working on financial and food systems sustainability.
Technical Summary
This paper examines whether large-scale actor coalitions (LSACs) may contribute to transformations toward equitable and sustainable futures. We use a ‘rapid assessment’ 20-variable framework to collect and analyze empirical data from five food and finance coalitions to identify their roles and capacities for transformative change. Our results indicate that LSACs implement distinct strategies to reach their goals. More specifically, due to their diverse set-ups, LSACs have the ability to raise awareness of sustainability issues, utilize ties to push forward agendas, engage in institutional policy-shaping processes, experiment with solutions, and showcase promising niche initiatives. We identify ways that LSACs’ actions can enable efforts of other change-makers who aim to change the food and finance systems and contribute to systems with high and diverse capacities for transformative change. We also discuss why the roles and lack of certain capacities of LSACs might hinder the creation of enabling conditions for transformative change within the food and finance sectors.
Social Media Summary
Coalitions consisting of powerful actors have a range of transformative capacities that, under certain conditions, can support systemic transformations within their sectors.
In response to the concerns of a growing number of crises, we trace the temporal trends, distribution, and co-occurrences of shocks – sudden events with noticeable impacts – on 175 countries from 1970 to 2019. Our analysis shows that shocks have not evolved uniformly over time and space: after becoming more co-occurring between 1970 and 2000, they then showed a regionally dependent shift in patterns. Our results highlight that regional differentiation is not incidental but constitutive of polycrisis dynamics, and that any effort to theorize, anticipate, or navigate polycrisis must account for this spatial heterogeneity.
Technical Summary.
Polycrisis has emerged as a new property of the Anthropocene. Defined as the convergence of crises across multiple systems, polycrisis calls for a paradigm shift in how crises are perceived and managed. Characterizing polycrisis dynamics is the first step in that direction but is made difficult by the complex and non-linear mechanisms at play. To overcome this challenge, we adopt a social-ecological systems approach to decompose polycrisis dynamics into two interrelated processes: shocks – sudden events with noticeable impacts, and creeping changes – slow processes that have a potential significant impact on society or the biosphere. We then develop and analyse a harmonized database capturing the occurrence of six categories of shocks (climatic, geophysical, ecological, economic, technological, and conflict-related) across 175 countries between 1970 and 2019. Our analysis reveals a significant rise in shock co-occurrences until 2000, particularly at the intersection of conflict, climate, and technological disruptions. After 2000, co-occurrence began plateauing or declining in all regions, yet at different levels. Our findings highlight the importance of a regionalized and typologically nuanced approach to understanding polycrisis. Our work also paves the way to an integration of polycrisis theory and multi-hazard methodologies for developing a more effective and crisis management ecosystem.
Social Media Summary.
Dynamics of the polycrisis reveal regional differences, with a possible shift in the interaction of shocks from 2000.
Declining labor force participation of older men throughout the 20th century and recent increases in participation have generated substantial interest in understanding the effect of public pensions on retirement. The National Bureau of Economic Research's International Social Security (ISS) Project, a long-term collaboration among researchers in a dozen developed countries, has explored this and related questions. The project employs a harmonized approach to conduct within-country analyses that are combined for meaningful cross-country comparisons. The key lesson is that the choices of policy makers affect the incentive to work at older ages and these incentives have important effects on retirement behavior.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing One Health crisis that can be impacted by other challenges of sustainable development, such as climate change, but few interventions have been assessed with a systems-wide lens. The objectives of this study were to use a previously defined fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) of the Swedish One Health system to: 1) identify areas in the system to target interventions; and 2) test the potential ability and viability of interventions to reduce AMR under a changing climate. The FCM, based on participatory modelling workshops and literature scan, was used to assess the sustainability of eight interventions under potential climate change conditions. Network metrics were calculated to describe the system structure and identify highly impactful nodes. The network metrics identified high-leverage nodes including alternative productions systems and good farming practices. None of the scenarios evaluated were able to adequately reduce AMR within the system. Overall, fuzzy cognitive mapping provides an innovative way to analyse the AMR system, identify high-leverage interventions, and examine potential impact of interventions using a broader systems lens.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) causes worsening health, environmental, and financial burdens. Modelling complex issues such as AMR is important, however, how well such models and data cover the broader One Health system is unknown. Our study aimed to identify models of AMR across the One Health system (objective 1), and data to parameterize such models (objective 2) to inform a future model of the AMR in the Swedish One Health system. Based on an expert-derived qualitative description of the system, an extensive literature scan was performed to identify models and data from peer-reviewed and grey literature sources. Models and data were extracted, categorized in an Excel database, and visually represented on the existing qualitative model to illustrate coverage. The articles identidied described 106 models in various parts of the One Health system; 54 were AMR-specific. Few multi-level, multi-sector models, and models within the animal and environmental sectors, were identified. We identified 414 articles containing data to parameterize the models. Data gaps included the environment and broad, ill-defined, or abstract ideas (e.g., human behaviour). In conclusion, no models addressed the entire system, and many data gaps were found. Existing models could be integrated into a mixed-methods model in the interim.
Consumption of traditional foods is decreasing amid a lifestyle transition in Greenland as incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) increases. In homozygous carriers of a TBC1D4 variant, conferring postprandial insulin resistance, the risk of T2D is markedly higher. We investigated the effects of traditional marine diets on glucose homoeostasis and cardio-metabolic health in Greenlandic Inuit carriers and non-carriers of the variant in a randomised crossover study consisting of two 4-week dietary interventions: Traditional (marine-based, low-carbohydrate) and Western (high in imported meats and carbohydrates). Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT, 2-h), 14-d continuous glucose and cardio-metabolic markers were assessed to investigate the effect of diet and genotype. Compared with the Western diet, the Traditional diet reduced mean and maximum daily blood glucose by 0·17 mmol/l (95 % CI 0·05, 0·29; P = 0·006) and 0·26 mmol/l (95 % CI 0·06, 0·46; P = 0·010), respectively, with dose-dependency. Furthermore, it gave rise to a weight loss of 0·5 kg (95 % CI; 0·09, 0·90; P = 0·016) relative to the Western diet and 4 % (95 % CI 1, 9; P = 0·018) lower LDL:HDL-cholesterol, which after adjustment for weight loss appeared to be driven by HDL elevation (0·09 mmol/l (0·03, 0·15), P = 0·006). A diet–gene interaction was indicated on insulin sensitivity in the OGTT (p = 0·093), which reflected a non-significant increase of 1·4 (–0·6, 3·5) mmol/l in carrier 2-h glucose. A Traditional diet marginally improved daily glycaemic control and plasma lipid profile compared with a Westernised diet in Greenlandic Inuit. Possible adverse effects on glucose tolerance in carriers of the TBC1D4 variant warrant further studies.
Building on the embedding of an n-abelian category $\mathscr {M}$ into an abelian category $\mathcal {A}$ as an n-cluster-tilting subcategory of $\mathcal {A}$, in this paper, we relate the n-torsion classes of $\mathscr {M}$ with the torsion classes of $\mathcal {A}$. Indeed, we show that every n-torsion class in $\mathscr {M}$ is given by the intersection of a torsion class in $\mathcal {A}$ with $\mathscr {M}$. Moreover, we show that every chain of n-torsion classes in the n-abelian category $\mathscr {M}$ induces a Harder–Narasimhan filtration for every object of $\mathscr {M}$. We use the relation between $\mathscr {M}$ and $\mathcal {A}$ to show that every Harder–Narasimhan filtration induced by a chain of n-torsion classes in $\mathscr {M}$ can be induced by a chain of torsion classes in $\mathcal {A}$. Furthermore, we show that n-torsion classes are preserved by Galois covering functors, thus we provide a way to systematically construct new (chains of) n-torsion classes.
Frieze patterns, as introduced by Coxeter in the 1970s, are closely related to cluster algebras without coefficients. A suitable generalization of frieze patterns, linked to cluster algebras with coefficients, has only briefly appeared in an unpublished manuscript by Propp. In this paper, we study these frieze patterns with coefficients systematically and prove various fundamental results, generalizing classic results for frieze patterns. As a consequence, we see how frieze patterns with coefficients can be obtained from classic frieze patterns by cutting out subpolygons from the triangulated polygons associated with classic Conway–Coxeter frieze patterns. We address the question of which frieze patterns with coefficients can be obtained in this way and solve this problem completely for triangles. Finally, we prove a finiteness result for frieze patterns with coefficients by showing that for a given boundary sequence there are only finitely many (nonzero) frieze patterns with coefficients with entries in a subset of the complex numbers without an accumulation point.
Cluster categories and cluster algebras encode two dimensional structures. For instance, the Auslander–Reiten quiver of a cluster category can be drawn on a surface, and there is a class of cluster algebras determined by surfaces with marked points.
Cluster characters are maps from cluster categories (and more general triangulated categories) to cluster algebras. They have a tropical shadow in the form of so-called tropical friezes, which are maps from cluster categories (and more general triangulated categories) to the integers.
This paper will define higher dimensional tropical friezes. One of the motivations is the higher dimensional cluster categories of Oppermann and Thomas, which encode (d + 1)-dimensional structures for an integer d ⩾ 1. They are (d + 2)-angulated categories, which belong to the subject of higher homological algebra.
We will define higher dimensional tropical friezes as maps from higher cluster categories (and more general (d + 2)-angulated categories) to the integers. Following Palu, we will define a notion of (d + 2)-angulated index, establish some of its properties, and use it to construct higher dimensional tropical friezes.
Weight gain among psychiatric inpatients is a widespread phenomenon. This change in body mass index (BMI) can be caused by several factors. Based on recent research, we assume the following factors are related to weight gain during psychiatric inpatient treatment: psychiatric medication, psychiatric diagnosis, sex, age, weight on admission and geographic region of treatment.
876 of originally recruited 2328 patients met the criteria for our analysis. Patients were recruited and examined in mental health care centres in Nigeria (N=265), Japan (N=145) and Western-Europe (Denmark, Germany and Switzerland; N=466).
There was a significant effect of psychiatric medication, psychiatric diagnoses and geographic region, but not age and sex, on BMI changes. Geographic region had a significant effect on BMI change, with Nigerian patients gaining significantly more weight than Japanese and Western European patients. Moreover, geographic region influenced the type of psychiatric medication prescribed and the psychiatric diagnoses. The diagnoses and psychiatric medication prescribed had a significant effect on BMI change.
In conclusion, we consider weight gain as a multifactorial phenomenon that is influenced by several factors. One can discuss a number of explanations for our findings, such as different clinical practices in the geographical regions (prescribing or admission strategies and access-to-care aspects), as well as socio-economic and cultural differences.
OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: To investigate the prognostic value of left ventricular mitral annular longitudinal displacement (LD) measured with color tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) in a large population suffering from acute coronary syndrome (ACS). METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: In total, 501 ACS patients underwent an echocardiography within 9 days after a percutaneous coronary intervention. Regional LD was obtained from the 6 mitral annular regions with TDI and GLD was calculated as an average. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: During a median follow-up time of 4.4 years 46 ACS patients suffered CVD. Mean value of GLD in the population was 8.11mm (±2.4). GLD and LD obtained from the inferior wall remained significant independent predictors after multivariate adjustment for clinical parameters, GLD (HR: 1.43, 95% CI: 1.12–1.82, p=0.014, per 1mm decrease), inferior LD (HR: 1.38, 95% CI: 1.14–1.66, p=0.001). Furthermore, inferior wall LD was the primary source of prognostic information in GLD since only inferior LD remained significant when both measures were included in the same model: GLD (HR: 0.95, 95% CI: 0.64–1.40, p=0.781); inferior LD (HR: 1.60, 95% CI: 1.15–2.22, p=0.005). Of all walls, only inferior wall LD remained as an independent predictor after multivariate adjustment. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: GLD provides independent prognostic information in ACS patients over and beyond all conventional echocardiographic measures. Regional inferior LD was the primary source of prognostic information gained from GLD. GLD proved to be a better predictor of cardiovascular events than conventional echocardiographic measures. This could lead to better risk stratification in the clinical setting and open up for earlier intervention in high-risk individuals.
Antipsychotics are associated with a polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, torsades de pointes, which, in the worst case, can lead to sudden cardiac death. The QT interval corrected for heart rate (QTc) is used as a clinical proxy for torsades de pointes. The QTc interval can be prolonged by antipsychotic monotherapy, but it is unknown if the QTc interval is prolonged further with antipsychotic polypharmaceutical treatment. Therefore, this study investigated the associations between QTc interval and antipsychotic monotherapy and antipsychotic polypharmaceutical treatment in schizophrenia, and measured the frequency of QTc prolongation among patients.
Methods
We carried out an observational cohort study of unselected patients with schizophrenia visiting outpatient facilities in the region of Central Jutland, Denmark. Patients were enrolled from January of 2013 to June of 2015, with follow-up until June of 2015. Data were collected from clinical interviews and clinical case records.
Results
Electrocardiograms were available for 65 patients, and 6% had QTc prolongation. We observed no difference in average QTc interval for the whole sample of patients receiving no antipsychotics, antipsychotic monotherapy, or antipsychotic polypharmaceutical treatment (p=0.29). However, women presented with a longer QTc interval when receiving polypharmacy than when receiving monotherapy (p=0.01). A limitation of this study was its small sample size.
Conclusions
We recommend an increased focus on monitoring the QTc interval in women with schizophrenia receiving antipsychotics as polypharmacy.
The present study investigates the photobiont diversity of the boreal felt lichen, Erioderma pedicellatum. Previously sampled genetic data from Newfoundland were reanalyzed and new sequence data (16S rDNA, rbcLX) of the boreal felt lichen from Alaska (USA), Kamchatka (Russia), and North Trøndelag (Norway) were generated. The highest genetic diversity of the photobiont is found in Alaska and Kamchatka, indicating that these may be the primary sources of the species in the Northern Hemisphere. In Newfoundland, the photobiont of E. pedicellatum was screened on leaves of the symbiotic liverwort Frullania asagrayana and it was found to occur on trees where no other lichens were present, demonstrating that the geographical distribution, and possibly also the ecological requirement of the photobiont of E. pedicellatum, is wider than that of the lichen phenotype. Finally, a postulated association between the occurrence of the vegetatively reproducing Coccocarpia palmicola and the occurrence of the compatible photobiont of E. pedicellatum on the same tree could not be established.
Plant lignans are diphenolic compounds ingested with whole grains and seeds and converted to enterolignans by the colonic microbiota. In the present study, we investigated absorption and metabolism of plant lignans and enterolignans in vivo after consumption of cereal-based diets. Six pigs fitted with catheters in the mesenteric artery and portal vein and with a flow probe attached to the portal vein along with twenty pigs for quantitative collection of urine were used for this study. The animals were fed bread based on wheat flour low in plant lignans and three lignan-rich breads based on whole-wheat grain, wheat aleurone flour or rye aleurone flour. Plant lignans and enterolignans in plasma were monitored daily at fast after 0–3 d of lignan-rich intake, and on the 4th day of lignan-rich intake a 10-h profile was completed. Urine samples were collected after 11 d of lignan-rich diet consumption. The concentrations of plant lignans were low at fast, and was 1·2–2·6 nmol/l after switching from the low-lignan diet to the lignan-rich diets. However, on the profile day, the concentration and quantitative absorption of plant lignans increased significantly from 33 nmol/h at fast to 310 nmol/h 0–2·5 h after ingestion with a gradual increase in the following periods. Quantitatively, the absorption of plant lignans across diets amounted to 7 % of ingested plant lignans, whereas the urinary excretion of plant lignans was 3 % across diets. In conclusion, there is a substantial postprandial uptake of plant lignans from cereals, suggesting that plant lignans are absorbed from the small intestine.
The (usual) Caldero–Chapoton map is a map from the set of objects of a category to a Laurent polynomial ring over the integers. In the case of a cluster category, it maps reachable indecomposable objects to the corresponding cluster variables in a cluster algebra. This formalizes the idea that the cluster category is a categorification of the cluster algebra. The definition of the Caldero–Chapoton map requires the category to be 2-Calabi-Yau, and the map depends on a cluster-tilting object in the category. We study a modified version of the Caldero–Chapoton map which requires only that the category have a Serre functor and depends only on a rigid object in the category. It is well known that the usual Caldero–Chapoton map gives rise to so-called friezes, for instance, Conway–Coxeter friezes. We show that the modified Caldero–Chapoton map gives rise to what we call generalized friezes and that, for cluster categories of Dynkin type A, it recovers the generalized friezes introduced by combinatorial means in recent work by the authors and Bessenrodt.
Fortification with the essential trace element iodine is widespread worldwide. In the present study, results on iodine excretion and intake of iodine-rich foods from a cross-sectional study carried out in 2004–5, 4 to 5 years after the implementation of mandatory iodine fortification, were compared with data in a study carried out in 2008–10. The 2008–10 study was a follow-up of a cross-sectional study carried out before iodine fortification was implemented. Participants in the cross-sectional studies were randomly selected. Both studies were carried out in the cities of Aalborg and Copenhagen in Denmark. The median urinary iodine concentration decreased in women from 97 μg/l (n 2862) to 78 μg/l (n 2041) (P< 0·001). The decrease persisted after adjustment for age, city and education, and if expressed as estimated 24 h iodine excretion. The prevalence of users of iodine containing dietary supplements increased from 29·4 to 37·3 % (P< 0·001). The total fluid intake increased in women (P< 0·001), but the intake of other iodine-rich foods did not change. The median urinary iodine concentration did not change in men (114 μg/l (n 708) and 107 μg/l (n 424), respectively), while the total fluid intake decreased (P= 0·001). Iodine content was measured in milk sampled in 2000–1 and in 2013. The iodine content was lower in 2013 (12 (sd 3) μg/100 g) compared with that in 2000–1 (16 (sd 6) μg/100 g) (P< 0·001). In conclusion, iodine excretion in women has decreased below the recommended level. The reason might probably, at least partly, be a decreased content of iodine in milk.
Two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP TXNIP and SNP ARNT), both on chromosome 4, have been reported to be associated with roundworm (Ascaris suum) burden in pigs. In the present study, we selected pigs with two SNP TXNIP genotypes (AA; n = 24 and AB; n = 24), trickle-infected them with A. suum from 8 weeks of age until necropsy 8 weeks later, and tested the hypothesis that pigs with the AA genotype would have higher levels of resistance than pigs of AB genotype. We used different indicators of resistance (worm burden, fecal egg counts (FEC), number of liver white spots and A. suum-specific serum IgG antibody levels). Pigs of the AA genotype had lower mean macroscopic worm burden (2·4 vs 19·3; P = 0·06), lower mean total worm burden (26·5 vs 70·1; P = 0·09) and excreted fewer A. suum eggs at week 8 PI (mean number of eggs/g feces: 238 vs 1259; P = 0·14) than pigs of the AB genotype, as expected based on prior associations. The pigs were also genotyped at another locus (SNP ARNT) which showed a similar trend. This study provides suggestive evidence that resistant pigs may be selected using a genetic marker, TXNIP, and provides further support to the quantitative trait locus on chromosome 4.
Traditional Inuit dietary patterns have been found to be beneficial for CVD but have not been investigated in relation to glucose intolerance. We examined the association between dietary patterns and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and impaired fasting glucose (IFG).
Design
Cross-sectional design with a priori derived dietary patterns from an FFQ resulted in five patterns: imported meat (n 196), traditional food (n 601), balanced diet (n 126), unhealthy diet (n 652) and standard diet (n 799).
Setting
Associations between dietary patterns and glucose-related outcomes were tested by linear and logistic regression analyses. Data included: dietary intake by FFQ, waist circumference, ethnicity, frequency of alcohol intake and smoking, physical activity, and oral glucose tolerance test results. Fasting participants and those without diagnosed T2DM were classified into normal glucose tolerance, IGT, IFG or T2DM. HOMA-IR (homeostatic model assessment–insulin resistance index) and HOMA-β (homeostatic model assessment of β-cell function) were calculated.
Subjects
Data included 2374 Inuit, aged 18+ years.
Results
Participants with a traditional dietary pattern had higher fasting plasma glucose (mean 5·73 (95 % CI 5·68, 5·78) mmol/l, P < 0·0001) and lowest HOMA-β (48·66 (95 % CI 46·86, 50·40), P < 0·0001). The traditional diet gave significantly higher odds for IFG and T2DM than the balanced diet, imported meat diet, standard diet and unhealthy diet.
Conclusions
Traditional food was positively associated with T2DM, IFG and fasting plasma glucose, and negatively associated with β-cell function, compared with a standard diet. The imported meat diet seemed the best in relation to glucose intolerance, with lowest fasting plasma glucose and lowest odds for IFG and T2DM.
Stability conditions on triangulated categories were introduced by Bridgeland as a ‘continuous’ generalisation of t-structures. The set of locally-finite stability conditions on a triangulated category is a manifold that has been studied intensively. However, there are mainstream triangulated categories whose stability manifold is the empty set. One example is Dc(k[X]/(X2)), the compact derived category of the dual numbers over an algebraically closed field k. This is one of the motivations in this paper for introducing co-stability conditions as a ‘continuous’ generalisation of co-t-structures. Our main result is that the set of nice co-stability conditions on a triangulated category is a manifold. In particular, we show that the co-stability manifold of Dc(k[X]/(X2)) is ℂ.