Plants Causing Toxic Myopathies.

Boxelder and sycamore maple contain hypoglycin A (HGA), the toxic metabolite of which, MCPA-CoA, inhibits fatty acid ß-oxidation, causing seasonal pasture myopathy (SPM) or atypical myopathy (AM), respectively. White snakeroot and rayless goldenrod contain multiple benzofuran ketones (BFKs). The identity/toxicity of BFKs appear variable, possibly involving interactions between toxins/toxic metabolites, but ultimately inhibit cellular energy metabolism. Unthrifty horses grazing sparse pastures during the fall appear predisposed to these plant-associated, frequently fatal, toxic myopathies. Toxidromes are characterized by varying degrees of rhabdomyolysis and cardiac myonecrosis, with plant toxins remaining toxic in hay and being excreted in milk.

Toxigenic Endophyte-Infected Tall Fescue and Ergot Alkaloids.

"Fescue toxicosis" and reproductive ergotism present identical toxidromes in late-gestational mares and, likely, other equids. Both toxic syndromes are caused by ergopeptine alkaloids (EPAs) of fungal origin, and they are collectively referred to as equine ergopeptine alkaloid toxicosis (EEPAT). EPAs are produced by either a toxigenic endophyte (Epichloë coenophiala) in tall fescue and/or a nonendophytic fungus (Claviceps purpurea), infecting small grains and grasses. EEPAT can cause hypoprolactinemia-induced agalactia/dysgalactia, prolonged gestation, dystocia, and other reproductive abnormalities in mares, as well as failure of passive transfer in their frequently dysmature/overmature/postmature foals. Prevention relies on eliminating exposures and/or reversing hypoprolactinemia.

Temporal and spatial variations of air pollution across China from 2015 to 2018.

This study investigated concentrations of PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, CO and O3, and air quality index (AQI) values across 368 cities in mainland China during 2015-2018. The study further examined relationships of air pollution status with local industrial capacities and vehicle possessions. Strong correlations were found between industrial capacities (coal, pig iron, crude steel and rolled steel) and air pollution levels. Although statistical and significant reductions of PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, CO and AQI values were observed in response to various laws and regulations in industrial sectors, both particle and gaseous pollutants still had annual average concentrations above recommended limits. In order to further reduce air pollution, more efforts can be done to control traffic emissions caused by minicars and heavy trucks, which was revealed after investigating 16 vehicle types. This was also consistent with the apparent air quality improvement during the COVID-19 lockdown period in China in 2020, despite industrial operations being still active at full capacities.

Primary health care, the Declaration of Astana and COVID-19.

Four decades after the Declaration of Alma-Ata, its vision of health for all and strategy of primary health care are still an inspiration to many people. In this article we evaluate the current status of primary health care in the era of the Declaration of Astana, the sustainable development goals, universal health coverage and the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. We consider how best to guide greater application of the primary health care strategy, reflecting on tensions that remain between the political vision of primary health care and its implementation in countries. We also consider what is required to support countries to realize the aspirations of primary health care, arguing that national needs and action must dominate over global preoccupations. Changing contexts and realities need to be accommodated. A clear distinction is needed between primary health care as an inspirational vision and set of values for health development, and primary health care as policy and implementation space. To achieve this vision, political action is required. Stakeholders beyond the health sector will often need to lead, which is challenging because the concept of primary health care is poorly understood by other sectors. Efforts on primary health care as policy and implementation space might focus explicitly on primary care and the frontline of service delivery with clear links and support to complementary work on social determinants and building healthy societies. Such efforts can be partial but important implementation solutions to contribute to the much bigger political vision of primary health care.

Quarante ans après la Déclaration d'Alma-Ata, sa vision en matière de santé universelle et sa stratégie de soins de santé primaires demeurent une inspiration pour de nombreuses personnes. Dans cet article, nous évaluons l'état actuel des soins de santé primaires à l'ère de la Déclaration d'Astana, des objectifs de développement durable, de la couverture maladie universelle et de la pandémie de maladie à coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). Nous tentons de déterminer quel est le meilleur moyen de favoriser une application plus vaste de la stratégie de soins de santé primaires, en tenant compte des tensions qui subsistent entre la vision politique des soins de santé primaires et leur mise en œuvre dans les différents pays. Nous identifions également les éléments qui aident les pays à concrétiser les aspirations liées aux soins de santé primaires, et affirmons que les besoins et actions à l'échelle nationale doivent primer sur les préoccupations internationales. L'évolution des contextes et des réalités doit être prise en considération. Il est impératif d'opérer une nette distinction entre les soins de santé primaires comme source d'inspiration et ensemble de valeurs guidant le développement sanitaire d'une part, et comme espace politique et de mise en œuvre de l'autre. Pour y parvenir, des actes politiques sont indispensables. Des intervenants n'appartenant pas au secteur de la santé devront souvent prendre l'initiative, ce qui représente un défi car le concept des soins de santé primaires suscite l'incompréhension dans les autres secteurs. Les efforts en matière d'espace politique et de mise en œuvre pourraient se concentrer explicitement sur les soins de santé primaires et la première ligne des prestations de service, avec des liens clairement établis et un soutien aux travaux complémentaires consacrés aux déterminants sociaux et à la création d'une société saine. De tels efforts peuvent offrir des solutions partielles mais essentielles à l'élaboration d'une vision politique bien plus large des soins de santé primaires.

Cuatro décadas después de la Declaración de Almá Atá, su visión de la salud para todos y su estrategia de atención primaria de salud siguen siendo una inspiración para muchas personas. En este artículo se evalúa el estado actual de la atención primaria de salud en la era de la Declaración de Astaná, los objetivos de desarrollo sostenible, la cobertura sanitaria universal y la pandemia de la enfermedad por coronavirus de 2019. Se analiza la mejor manera de orientar una mayor aplicación de la estrategia de atención primaria de salud al estudiar las tensiones que subsisten entre la visión política de la atención primaria de salud y su aplicación en los países. También se analiza lo que se requiere para ayudar a los países a materializar las aspiraciones de la atención primaria de salud al argumentar que las necesidades y las medidas nacionales deben prevalecer sobre las preocupaciones mundiales. Se deben tener en cuenta los contextos y las realidades cambiantes. Hay que establecer una clara diferencia entre la atención primaria de salud como visión inspiradora y conjunto de valores para el desarrollo de la salud, y la atención primaria de salud como entorno normativo y de aplicación. Por consiguiente, se requiere la adopción de medidas políticas para hacer realidad esta visión. Con frecuencia, las partes interesadas que no pertenecen al sector sanitario tendrán que tomar la iniciativa, lo que supone un reto porque el concepto de atención primaria de salud no se comprende bien en otros sectores. Los esfuerzos relacionados con la atención primaria como entorno normativo y de aplicación se podrían centrar de manera explícita en la atención primaria y en la prestación de servicios de primera línea a través de vínculos claros y el apoyo a la labor complementaria sobre los determinantes sociales y la construcción de sociedades sanas. Esos esfuerzos pueden ser soluciones parciales pero importantes de aplicación para contribuir a la visión política mucho más amplia de la atención primaria de salud.

Highly Enantioselective, Organocatalytic, and Scalable Synthesis of a Rare cis,cis-Tricyclic Diterpenoid.

A highly enantioselective, organocatalytic, and scalable synthesis of a very unusual cis-decalin-cis-hydrindane tricyclic diterpenoid system has been achieved. Despite the prevalent pharmacological space that the related trans,trans and trans,cis-systems occupy, there have been no reports of an asymmetric synthesis of the cis,cis systems in the literature until now. We demonstrate the flexibility of our approach not only through access to a diverse range of products, all of which are attained in exceptionally high selectivities, but also by showing their easy conversion to the corresponding trans,cis-system and other derivatives.

Changing global policy to deliver safe, equitable, and affordable care for women's cancers.

Breast and cervical cancer are major threats to the health of women globally, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries. Radical progress to close the global cancer divide for women requires not only evidence-based policy making, but also broad multisectoral collaboration that capitalises on recent progress in the associated domains of women's health and innovative public health approaches to cancer care and control. Such multisectoral collaboration can serve to build health systems for cancer, and more broadly for primary care, surgery, and pathology. This Series paper explores the global health and public policy landscapes that intersect with women's health and global cancer control, with new approaches to bringing policy to action. Cancer is a major global social and political priority, and women's cancers are not only a tractable socioeconomic policy target in themselves, but also an important Trojan horse to drive improved cancer control and care.

Assessment of health professional education across five Asian countries-a protocol.

BACKGROUND: There is an increasing consensus globally that the education of health professionals is failing to keep pace with scientific, social, and economic changes transforming the healthcare environment. This catalyzed a movement in reforming education of health professionals across Bangladesh, China, India, Thailand, and Vietnam who jointly volunteered to implement and conduct cooperative, comparative, and suitable health professional education assessments with respect to the nation's socio-economic and cultural status, as well as domestic health service system. METHODS: The 5C network undertook a multi-country health professional educational study to provide its countries with evidence for HRH policymaking. Its scope was limited to the assessment of medical, nursing, and public health education at three levels within each country: national, institutional, and graduate level (including about to graduate students and alumni). RESULTS: This paper describes the general issues related to health professional education and the protocols used in a five-country assessment of medical, nursing, and public health education. A common protocol for the situation analysis survey was developed that included tools to undertake a national and institutional assessment, and graduate surveys among about-to-graduate and graduates for medical, nursing, and public health professions. Data collection was conducted through a mixture of literature reviews and qualitative research. CONCLUSIONS: The national assessment would serve as a resource for countries to plan HRH-related future actions.

Forecasting imbalances in the global health labor market and devising policy responses.

BACKGROUND: The High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth released its report to the United Nations Secretary-General in September 2016. It makes important recommendations that are based on estimates of over 40 million new health sector jobs by 2030 in mostly high- and middle-income countries and a needs-based shortage of 18 million, mostly in low- and middle-income countries. This paper shows how these key findings were developed, the global policy dilemmas they raise, and relevant policy solutions. METHODS: Regression analysis is used to produce estimates of health worker need, demand, and supply. Projections of health worker need, demand, and supply in 2030 are made under the assumption that historical trends continue into the future. RESULTS: To deliver essential health services required for the universal health coverage target of the Sustainable Development Goal 3, there will be a need for almost 45 million health workers in 2013 which is projected to reach almost 53 million in 2030 (across 165 countries). This results in a needs-based shortage of almost 17 million in 2013. The demand-based results suggest a projected demand of 80 million health workers by 2030. CONCLUSIONS: Demand-based analysis shows that high- and middle-income countries will have the economic capacity to employ tens of millions additional health workers, but they could face shortages due to supply not keeping up with demand. By contrast, low-income countries will face both low demand for and supply of health workers. This means that even if countries are able to produce additional workers to meet the need threshold, they may not be able to employ and retain these workers without considerably higher economic growth, especially in the health sector.

National spending on health by source for 184 countries between 2013 and 2040.

BACKGROUND: A general consensus exists that as a country develops economically, health spending per capita rises and the share of that spending that is prepaid through government or private mechanisms also rises. However, the speed and magnitude of these changes vary substantially across countries, even at similar levels of development. In this study, we use past trends and relationships to estimate future health spending, disaggregated by the source of those funds, to identify the financing trajectories that are likely to occur if current policies and trajectories evolve as expected. METHODS: We extracted data from WHO's Health Spending Observatory and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation's Financing Global Health 2015 report. We converted these data to a common purchasing power-adjusted and inflation-adjusted currency. We used a series of ensemble models and observed empirical norms to estimate future government out-of-pocket private prepaid health spending and development assistance for health. We aggregated each country's estimates to generate total health spending from 2013 to 2040 for 184 countries. We compared these estimates with each other and internationally recognised benchmarks. FINDINGS: Global spending on health is expected to increase from US$7·83 trillion in 2013 to $18·28 (uncertainty interval 14·42-22·24) trillion in 2040 (in 2010 purchasing power parity-adjusted dollars). We expect per-capita health spending to increase annually by 2·7% (1·9-3·4) in high-income countries, 3·4% (2·4-4·2) in upper-middle-income countries, 3·0% (2·3-3·6) in lower-middle-income countries, and 2·4% (1·6-3·1) in low-income countries. Given the gaps in current health spending, these rates provide no evidence of increasing parity in health spending. In 1995 and 2015, low-income countries spent $0·03 for every dollar spent in high-income countries, even after adjusting for purchasing power, and the same is projected for 2040. Most importantly, health spending in many low-income countries is expected to remain low. Estimates suggest that, by 2040, only one (3%) of 34 low-income countries and 36 (37%) of 98 middle-income countries will reach the Chatham House goal of 5% of gross domestic product consisting of government health spending. INTERPRETATION: Despite remarkable health gains, past health financing trends and relationships suggest that many low-income and lower-middle-income countries will not meet internationally set health spending targets and that spending gaps between low-income and high-income countries are unlikely to narrow unless substantive policy interventions occur. Although gains in health system efficiency can be used to make progress, current trends suggest that meaningful increases in health system resources will require concerted action. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Weekend specialist intensity and admission mortality in acute hospital trusts in England: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Increased mortality rates associated with weekend hospital admission (the so-called weekend effect) have been attributed to suboptimum staffing levels of specialist consultants. However, evidence for a causal association is elusive, and the magnitude of the weekend specialist deficit remains unquantified. This uncertainty could hamper efforts by national health systems to introduce 7 day health services. We aimed to examine preliminary associations between specialist intensity and weekend admission mortality across the English National Health Service. METHODS: Eligible hospital trusts were those in England receiving unselected emergency admissions. On Sunday June 15 and Wednesday June 18, 2014, we undertook a point prevalence survey of hospital specialists (consultants) to obtain data relating to the care of patients admitted as emergencies. We defined specialist intensity at each trust as the self-reported estimated number of specialist hours per ten emergency admissions between 0800 h and 2000 h on Sunday and Wednesday. With use of data for all adult emergency admissions for financial year 2013-14, we compared weekend to weekday admission risk of mortality with the Sunday to Wednesday specialist intensity ratio within each trust. We stratified trusts by size quintile. FINDINGS: 127 of 141 eligible acute hospital trusts agreed to participate; 115 (91%) trusts contributed data to the point prevalence survey. Of 34,350 clinicians surveyed, 15,537 (45%) responded. Substantially fewer specialists were present providing care to emergency admissions on Sunday (1667 [11%]) than on Wednesday (6105 [42%]). Specialists present on Sunday spent 40% more time caring for emergency patients than did those present on Wednesday (mean 5·74 h [SD 3·39] vs 3·97 h [3·31]); however, the median specialist intensity on Sunday was only 48% (IQR 40-58) of that on Wednesday. The Sunday to Wednesday intensity ratio was less than 0·7 in 104 (90%) of the contributing trusts. Mortality risk among patients admitted at weekends was higher than among those admitted on weekdays (adjusted odds ratio 1·10, 95% CI 1·08-1·11; p<0·0001). There was no significant association between Sunday to Wednesday specialist intensity ratios and weekend to weekday mortality ratios (r -0·042; p=0·654). INTERPRETATION: This cross-sectional analysis did not detect a correlation between weekend staffing of hospital specialists and mortality risk for emergency admissions. Further investigation is needed to evaluate whole-system secular change during the implementation of 7 day services. Policy makers should exercise caution before attributing the weekend effect mainly to differences in specialist staffing. FUNDING: National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research Programme.

Should All Cases of High-Grade Serous Ovarian, Tubal, and Primary Peritoneal Carcinomas Be Reclassified as Tubo-Ovarian Serous Carcinoma?

INTRODUCTION: The dualistic theory of ovarian carcinogenesis proposes that epithelial "ovarian" cancer is not one entity with several histological subtypes but a collection of different diseases arising from cells of different origin, some of which may not originate in the ovarian surface epithelium. METHODS: All cases referred to the Pan-Birmingham Gynaecological Cancer Centre with an ovarian, tubal, or primary peritoneal cancer between April 2006 and April 2012 were identified from the West Midlands Cancer Registry. Tumors were classified into type I (low-grade endometrioid, clear cell, mucinous, and low-grade serous) and type II (high-grade serous, high-grade endometrioid, carcinosarcoma, and undifferentiated) cancers. RESULTS: Ovarian (83.5%), tubal (4.3%), or primary peritoneal carcinoma (12.2%) were diagnosed in a total of 583 woman. The ovarian tumors were type I in 134 cases (27.5%), type II in 325 cases (66.7%), and contained elements of both type I and type II tumors in 28 cases (5.7%). Most tubal and primary peritoneal cases, however, were type II tumors: 24 (96.0%) and 64 (90.1%), respectively. Only 16 (5.8%) of the ovarian high-grade serous carcinomas were stage I at diagnosis, whereas 240 (86.6%) were stage III+. Overall survival varied between the subtypes when matched for stage. Stage III low-grade serous and high-grade serous carcinomas had a significantly better survival compared to clear cell and mucinous cases, P = 0.0134. There was no significant difference in overall survival between the high-grade serous ovarian, tubal, or peritoneal carcinomas when matched for stage (stage III, P = 0.3758; stage IV, P = 0.4820). CONCLUSIONS: Type II tumors are more common than type I and account for most tubal and peritoneal cancers. High-grade serous carcinomas, whether classified as ovarian/tubal/peritoneal, seem to behave as one disease entity with no significant difference in survival outcomes, therefore supporting the proposition of a separate classification of "tubo-ovarian serous carcinoma".

Monitoring intervention coverage in the context of universal health coverage.

Monitoring universal health coverage (UHC) focuses on information on health intervention coverage and financial protection. This paper addresses monitoring intervention coverage, related to the full spectrum of UHC, including health promotion and disease prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliation. A comprehensive core set of indicators most relevant to the country situation should be monitored on a regular basis as part of health progress and systems performance assessment for all countries. UHC monitoring should be embedded in a broad results framework for the country health system, but focus on indicators related to the coverage of interventions that most directly reflect the results of UHC investments and strategies in each country. A set of tracer coverage indicators can be selected, divided into two groups-promotion/prevention, and treatment/care-as illustrated in this paper. Disaggregation of the indicators by the main equity stratifiers is critical to monitor progress in all population groups. Targets need to be set in accordance with baselines, historical rate of progress, and measurement considerations. Critical measurement gaps also exist, especially for treatment indicators, covering issues such as mental health, injuries, chronic conditions, surgical interventions, rehabilitation, and palliation. Consequently, further research and proxy indicators need to be used in the interim. Ideally, indicators should include a quality of intervention dimension. For some interventions, use of a single indicator is feasible, such as management of hypertension; but in many areas additional indicators are needed to capture quality of service provision. The monitoring of UHC has significant implications for health information systems. Major data gaps will need to be filled. At a minimum, countries will need to administer regular household health surveys with biological and clinical data collection. Countries will also need to improve the production of reliable, comprehensive, and timely health facility data. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary.

Monitoring progress towards universal health coverage at country and global levels.

Universal health coverage (UHC) has been defined as the desired outcome of health system performance whereby all people who need health services (promotion, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliation) receive them, without undue financial hardship. UHC has two interrelated components: the full spectrum of good-quality, essential health services according to need, and protection from financial hardship, including possible impoverishment, due to out-of-pocket payments for health services. Both components should benefit the entire population. This paper summarizes the findings from 13 country case studies and five technical reviews, which were conducted as part of the development of a global framework for monitoring progress towards UHC. The case studies show the relevance and feasibility of focusing UHC monitoring on two discrete components of health system performance: levels of coverage with health services and financial protection, with a focus on equity. These components link directly to the definition of UHC and measure the direct results of strategies and policies for UHC. The studies also show how UHC monitoring can be fully embedded in often existing, regular overall monitoring of health sector progress and performance. Several methodological and practical issues related to the monitoring of coverage of essential health services, financial protection, and equity, are highlighted. Addressing the gaps in the availability and quality of data required for monitoring progress towards UHC is critical in most countries.

Uncovering space-independent communities in spatial networks.

Many complex systems are organized in the form of a network embedded in space. Important examples include the physical Internet infrastructure, road networks, flight connections, brain functional networks, and social networks. The effect of space on network topology has recently come under the spotlight because of the emergence of pervasive technologies based on geolocalization, which constantly fill databases with people's movements and thus reveal their trajectories and spatial behavior. Extracting patterns and regularities from the resulting massive amount of human mobility data requires the development of appropriate tools for uncovering information in spatially embedded networks. In contrast with most works that tend to apply standard network metrics to any type of network, we argue in this paper for a careful treatment of the constraints imposed by space on network topology. In particular, we focus on the problem of community detection and propose a modularity function adapted to spatial networks. We show that it is possible to factor out the effect of space in order to reveal more clearly hidden structural similarities between the nodes. Methods are tested on a large mobile phone network and computer-generated benchmarks where the effect of space has been incorporated.

Dynamics of technology emergence in innovation networks.

To create the next innovative product, participants in science need to understand which existing technologies can be combined, what new science must be discovered, and what new technologies must be invented. Knowledge of these often arrives by means of expert consensus or popularity metrics, masking key information on how intellectual efforts accumulate into technological progress. To address this shortcoming, we first present a method to establish a mathematical link between technological evolution and complex networks: a path of events that narrates innovation bottlenecks. Next, we quantify the position and proximity of documents to these innovation paths. The result is an innovation network that more exhaustively captures deterministic knowledge flows with respect to a marketed innovative product. Our dataset, containing over three million biomedical citations, demonstrates the possibility of quantifying the accumulation, speed, and division of labour in innovation over a sixty-year time horizon. The significance of this study includes the (i) use of a purpose-generated dataset showing causal paths from research to development to product; (ii) analysis of the innovation process as a directed acyclic graph; (iii) comparison between calendar time and network time; (iv) ordering of science funders along technology lifecycles; (v) quantification of innovative activities' importance to an innovative outcome; and (vi) integration of publication, patent, clinical trial, regulatory data to study innovation holistically.

Systemic antibiotic treatment of cows with metritis early postpartum does not change the progression of uterine disease or the uterine microbiome at 1 month postpartum.

Background: Postpartum uterine disease (metritis) is common in dairy cows. The disease develops within 1 week after calving and is associated with microbial dysbiosis, fever, and fetid uterine discharge. Cows with metritis have a greater likelihood of developing endometritis and infertility later postpartum. Antibiotic treatment is used to relieve symptoms of metritis but the capacity of antibiotic treatment to improve fertility later postpartum is inconsistent across published studies. We hypothesized that an antibiotic has only a short-term effect on the uterine microbiome and does not change the progression of disease from metritis to endometritis. To test this hypothesis, we studied the effects of systemic antibiotic given to cows diagnosed with metritis and healthy cows early postpartum on the development of endometritis and the uterine microbiome at 1 month postpartum. Results: Cows diagnosed with metritis were compared to healthy ones in a 2 × 2 factorial design, where they were either treated with an antibiotic (ceftiofur hydrochloride) at 7 to 10 days postpartum or left untreated. Cows were slaughtered at one month postpartum and the uterus was assessed for endometritis (presence of purulent material in the uterine lumen and inflammation in the endometrium) and uterine samples were collected for bacteriology and metagenomics (16S rRNA gene sequencing). As expected, the uterine microbiome at disease diagnosis had dysbiosis of typical metritis pathogens (e.g., Fusobacterium, Bacteroides, and Porphyromonas) in diseased compared with healthy cows. At one month postpartum, there was a tendency for more endometritis in metritis cows compared with healthy but antibiotic treatment had no effect on endometritis prevalence regardless of the original disease diagnosis. Likewise, when bacteria were cultured or sequenced, there were a greater number of species (culture) or amplicon sequence variants (ASV; sequencing) in the uterine lumen of cows with metritis. However, antibiotic treatment had no effect on the prevalence of cultured species or the composition of the detected ASV. The uterine microbiome at 1 month postpartum was associated with the clinical observation of the uterus (endometritis or healthy). Conclusions: Early postpartum antibiotic treatment only provides temporary resolution of uterine dysbiosis that is not sustained long-term. Failure to resolve the dysbiosis is associated with a greater prevalence of endometritis in cows with metritis, and the occurrence of endometritis significantly impacts fertility later postpartum.

Physico-Chemical Properties of Magnetic Dicationic Ionic Liquids with Tetrahaloferrate Anions.

A series of imidazolium-based symmetrical and asymmetrical dicationic ionic liquids (DcILs) with alkyl spacers of different length and with [FeCl3 Br]- as counter ion have been synthesized. The synthesized DcILs are characterized by using FTIR and Raman spectroscopy as well as mass spectrometry, along with single-crystal XRD analysis. Physicochemical properties such as solubility, thermal stability and magnetic susceptibility are also measured. These compounds show low melting points, good solubility in water and organic solvents, thermal stability, and paramagnetism. The products of molar susceptibility and temperature (χmol ⋅T) for the synthesized DcILs have been found between 4.05 to 4.79 emu mol-1 K Oe-1 and effective magnetic moment values have also been determined to be compared to that expected from the spin-only approximation.

Opposite-sex associations are linked with annual fitness, but sociality is stable over lifetime.

Animal sociality, an individual's propensity to associate with others, has fitness consequences through mate choice, for example, directly, by increasing the pool of prospective partners, and indirectly through increased survival, and individuals benefit from both. Annually, fitness consequences are realized through increased mating success and subsequent fecundity. However, it remains unknown whether these consequences translate to lifetime fitness. Here, we quantified social associations and their link to fitness annually and over lifetime, using a multi-generational, genetic pedigree. We used social network analysis to calculate variables representing different aspects of an individual's sociality. Sociality showed high within-individual repeatability. We found that birds with more opposite-sex associates had higher annual fitness than those with fewer, but this did not translate to lifetime fitness. Instead, for lifetime fitness, we found evidence for stabilizing selection on opposite-sex sociality, and sociality in general, suggesting that reported benefits are only short-lived in a wild population, and that selection favors an average sociality.

Embedding anti-racism in Schools of Public Health: a pathway to accountability for progress towards equity.

The importance of seeing race as a socially constructed idea continues to produce unfair differences between humans and establishes power relations that lead to injustice and exposure to death. Since the racial justice movement in early 2020, there has been a heightened awareness of, and increased interest in, addressing historic racial disparities across Schools of Public Health (SPH) in Canada. Steps have been taken to recognize systemic racism and increase diversity through structural reforms to advance equity and inclusion; however, addressing racism demands collectively uprooting racist institutional designs still inherent in learning, teaching, research, service, and community engagement. This commentary highlights the need for sustained commitment to establishing longitudinal benchmarks for greater racial equity among students, staff, and faculty; revising curricula to include historic and contemporary narratives of colonialism and slavery; and providing community-engaged learning opportunities as instrumental to dismantle systemic drivers of racial health inequities locally and globally. We also advocate for intersectoral collaboration, mutual learning, and sharing of resources across SPH and partner agencies to accomplish a continual collective agenda for racial health equity and inclusion that is intersectional in Canada, while being held accountable to Indigenous and racialized communities.

RéSUMé: L'importance de voir la race comme une idée socialement construite continue de produire des différences inéquitables entre les gens et d'établir des relations de pouvoir qui mènent à l'injustice et à l'exposition à la mort. Depuis que le mouvement pour la justice raciale s'est enclenché au début de 2020, il existe une conscience aiguë des disparités raciales historiques entre les écoles de santé publique (ESP) du Canada et un intérêt accru pour le redressement de ces disparités. Des mesures ont été prises pour reconnaître le racisme systémique et accroître la diversité par des réformes structurelles visant à promouvoir l'équité et l'inclusion; cependant, pour aborder le racisme, il faut collectivement arracher les modèles institutionnels racistes qui font encore partie intégrante de l'apprentissage, de l'enseignement, de la recherche, des services et de la participation de la communauté. Dans notre commentaire, nous soulignons le besoin d'un engagement soutenu à établir des repères longitudinaux pour une plus grande équité raciale dans la population étudiante, au sein du personnel et dans le corps professoral, à revoir les programmes d'études pour y inclure les discours historiques et contemporains du colonialisme et de l'esclavage, et à offrir des possibilités d'enseignement faisant appel aux communautés, car elles contribueront à démanteler les moteurs systémiques des iniquités raciales en santé à l'échelle locale et mondiale. Nous promulguons aussi la collaboration intersectorielle, l'apprentissage mutuel et le partage des ressources entre les ESP et les organismes partenaires afin de concrétiser un plan d'action collective continue en faveur de l'équité raciale en santé et de l'inclusion ­ un plan qui sera intersectionnel au Canada et qui rendra des comptes aux communautés autochtones et racisées.