It concludes that there is a prevalence of national agendas.This study proposes a geopolitical analysis of opinion dynamics based on a statistical exploration of a press dataset covering 2014–2019. This exploration questions three case studies of geopolitical and international interest: international migration, political borders, and pandemics. Through the framework of  Multiple geopolitical crises have unfolded in Europe and European countries in the last decade: a migration crisis, the Ukrainian crisis, Brexit, and a crisis of representative democracies, among others. The European Union is struggling to cope with these crises. The term “crisis” abounds in public use by journalists, scientists, and politicians to the point “crisis” can appear to be the new normal.What kind of geopolitical crisis can be observed over the period 2014–2019? Are these crises reported at the same time and with the same intensity in the media of different countries? Are they associated with the same types of events located in the same countries? Finally, to what extent can we assume the existence of a common agenda of crisis reported by media outlets from Western European countries?In this study, we propose building a framework to analyze the production of geopolitical crises by the media from a critical perspective and to examine how a geopolitical topic becomes a crisis from the perspectives of European newspapers. A crisis appears as a heuristic concept when it is considered a social construct from the public sphere. First, the crisis is an interdisciplinary object of research, which allows several fields of research to be brought together around complex and multidimensional social objects and to go beyond the frontiers of geopolitics. Second, a crisis is a classical topic in geopolitics but can also be reformulated within the renewed theoretical framework of critical geopolitics. Since the 1990s, critical geopolitics has paid particular attention to the analysis of discourse and representation. Then, the process of analyzing geopolitical phenomena as crisis in the public sphere constitutes the subject of the critical geopolitics of crises. Third, a crisis is an operational concept in data analysis. Indeed, analyzing the public sphere using big data requires transferring the concept into methods of analysis. However, the crisis, as a rupture, lends itself well to statistical modeling.In this study, we undertake a statistical analysis to contextualize and explore geopolitical crises in the daily press prior to in-depth thematic studies. Based on the exploration of a massive corpus of short texts (titles and first sentences of an article) could lead to more qualitative analysis of the full text of the articles or use of methods with more substantial and costly computational procedures, such as precision grammar. This study makes a novel contribution to the literature by undertaking a multilingual and comparative analysis of the agendas of three geopolitical crises over a relatively long period (2014–2019) and a large sample of media outlets located in five countries . For this purpose, we use an interactive dashboard (TELEMAC) that has been developed within a European research in computational social sciences applied to opinion dynamics (Acknowledgments) to visualize and compare the spatial and temporal distribution of crises from a multidimensional perspective.Conceptual framework. First, we present the concept of geopolitical agenda, which could be a framework for investigating the notion of “crisis” as a way to question the changing perception of topics in the daily press. We present this conceptual framework and the related methods as a list of dimensions that should be combined in the phase of data collection and exploration. We also present three case studies of crisis .1) Data collection and exploration. Then, we present the corpus of news that has been collected, the original data source (an RSS feeds dataset from media outlet), and how these data have been enriched . We also briefly present the TELEMAC interface and methodology used for the statistical analysis presented in the results.2) Results. In this section, we present a selection of results obtained through the application of statistical models to each of the three topics for the entire period of observation.3) Discussion. The general results of the analysis are that the salience of each topic is comparable in each country of observation, and the geopolitical agenda is mainly structured at the national level. However, we observe notable exceptions that could be identified as crisis. We provide a solution to build a comparative and multilingual analysis of the coverage of topics by several media outlets to detect the possible emergence of crisis through space and time. Second, we discuss the contribution of the analysis to the literature with respect to each case study. The study concludes with a discussion on the formulation of several hypotheses to explain the differences between crises.4) The rest of the paper is organized in four sections as follows.Political geography and geopolitics have many possible definitions since their emergence as disciplines in the 19th century. Despite important theoretical transformations and the increase in the number of themes since the 1960s , political geography has not departed much from its central themes  by raising the following issue: how the “political” is spatially constituted . Like otGeopolitical agenda is defined as the spatial dimension of the agenda of political topics, which are the subject of concerns, deliberation, and action related to politics . The geopolitical agenda is considered a sub-component of the media agenda, but the limits between what is geopolitical and what is not can be very fuzzy. At first glance, a song contest or a basketball match could be considered external to the geopolitical dimension. However, research has demonstrated that the vote at the Eurovision contest could reveal fascinating proximities or antagonism between countries  during the period of analysis. These events contribute to the global changes in the analysis, which also depend on the temporal scale of aggregation of news . The temporal scale of analysis also affects the weight of some events, depending on their nature. A very brief, but intense, event  has a significant impact on the agenda at the day or week level, but is smoothed at the year scale. On the contrary, a long-running event, like a war, comprises several episodes and has a cumulative effect that increases the level of the country at the month or year scale, but is undermined at the day or week scale.The other important element highlighted by the specialists in this field is that news competition is played out on an international scale. This means that the geopolitical crisis, even if it is related to a situated issue  or place , should be analyzed in a more general system that considers a topic as a part of the wide ensemble of news and places described in the media sphere. Therefore, the geopolitical agenda is necessarily global and even more so if we focus on international news. The international geopolitical agenda is a derivation of the geopolitical agenda of the media. The addition of “international” aims to reflect the contributions from the INFT on the mechanics of publication and competition between geopolitical topics of interest at world scale. In practice, we limit the collection to the list of states mentioned in the news rather than collecting all international organizations. This limits the number of tags collected in each language through the definition of a finite list of UN member countries. Many authors working on INFT have yet to establish such harmonized dictionaries that can be freely accessible on GitHub  or by reConsidering the choices made in the previous section, in particular, the adoption of a state-centric perspective, it is clear that some topics of international geopolitical interest cannot be properly addressed, such as the case of the economic crisis of 2008  or the climate change debate . We need to choose topics that are clearly related to questions of state sovereignty. For this purpose, we select three topics of interest for a comparison of the coverage of international geopolitical crisis by media from Western Europe during the period 2014–2019.International borders. International borders have particular relevance in this area, characterized by a process of territorial integration and the liberalization of mobility. Territorial integration led to two major crises during the period, with the crisis in Crimea and the Ukrainian conflict showing evidence of the difficulties of the EU in implementing a common foreign policy. The challenges regarding defense issues and the building of a possible common geopolitics for the EU are limited by the presence of other cooperation frameworks  and the lack of consensus about this topic, especially the relationship with an external actor (Russia) between the different member states. Then, Brexit has raised several border dynamics between the United Kingdom (United Kingdom) and the EU, and involving Ireland.1. Borders polarize the attention of societies . To underace 1988.This definition of the border as a security device is part of a context of a shift in migratory policies that are polarizing, increasingly restrictive with regard to a part of the world, and increasingly favorable to a migratory elite; and the identification after the attacks of the 2000s and 2010s of terrorism  with its external roots. Today, contemporary borders are spaces of “preventive counter-violence.”citepbalibar• How is the border topic disseminated in the media sphere?• Where are the borders of attention?• Is there a border crisis in Europe?These brief considerations on borders lead us to ask three questions.International migration and the “migrant crisis” of 2015. Migration issues are also related to European integration through the question of the borders of the EU, the management of the Schengen area, and questions related to the treatment of immigrants and the related subject of alterity , it is highly related to the question of borders. Indeed for the countries of the EU, it has a political dimension through the management of the external borders of the EU and the construction of the Schengen area  and its official implementation (1995). Thus, according to a specialist in migration studies, because this delimitation process plays out over the long term, there is no “migrant crisis.” What happened in 2015 is simply a consequence of the destabilization of the system, like the fall of the Qaddafi regime in Libya, which temporarily compromised the process of externalization of the external borders of the EU, or the phase of intensification and generalization of the conflicts in Syria and Iraq since 2013 (civil wars and the rise of ISIS).wir shaffen das” (“we can handle this”) of Angela Merkel (August 2015). In Western European countries [and abroad; .How does the analysis of the changing coverage of “migration” in the press reveal sensible changes in the representation of this issue? In recent years, strong attention has been given to media coverage of the so-called “2015 migrant crisis” in the literature, with several reports and special issues . These n• By taking a period of several years (5), is 2015 really a crucial year for the changing perceptions of migration issues?• Are these changes similar in the five countries, or are they phase shifts between different national agendas? The corpus is interested in covering media located in countries with different situations regarding borders .Thus, this study presents an opportunity to re-examine these two points, as follows.Pandemics are considered as a third topic. Even if it has not benefited from the same research effort by the authors as the two previous ones and was not initially planned as a research topic in the H2020 ODYCCEUS project, it offers an interesting research perspective on the concept of crisis and, as we will demonstrate, present a theoretical example of perturbation of the international geopolitical agenda at the global scale during the period of analysis (from the Ebola crisis in 2014 to the COVID crisis). Many previous research in media studies has revealed strong differences between media from “North” and “South” concerning the coverage of the Ebola crisis of 2014  but also through space . The idea of “crisis” is often criticized by the critical streams of political geography and social sciences, as an artifact produced by the public sphere, as for the so-called 2015 “migrant crisis” .Quantitative changes: relative to a sensitive increase of media coverage .1) Qualitative changes: a transformation of the discourse about the subject .2) Studying the evolution of media coverage of a subject of interest is a classical research topic in media studies. The studies on media hypes  and atteH1: Equivalent interest for international geopolitical topics: each of the three topics of interest benefit from the same coverage in the broadsheet daily newspapers media of the five countries. Indeed, each country has a relatively similar size (40–80 million inhabitants) with an important colonial heritage as colonizer and an important diplomatic network.• H2: National synchronization of the geopolitical agenda through time: regardless of the level of correlation between the timeline of the media outlets in Western Europe, more important differences can be observed between media of different countries than between media of the same country .• Second, we select media outlets fulfilling data quality criteria  to ensure a minimal diversity of editorial lines  to manage the detection of the topics.In this study, we use a 6-year period from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2019. In the final analysis (Discussion), we have extended this central period of interest from 6 months before and after (July 2013 to June 2020) in order to analyze contextual effects and check the stability of results. This is a relatively long period of time, which provides the depth to judge whether a change is possibly a crisis. We show that a smaller period of observation does not allow the context of an event that is cyclical or localized in time. This choice is also related to data availability and because it is a period when several major events identified as major crisis occurred in Europe . A data-driven approach makes it necessary to carefully select the appropriate time period depending on the topic of analysis and the hypothesis.We do not work on a newspaper archive but on native digital data directly produced by the media: RSS feeds. RSS feed data continuously produce elements that can be collected in real time from the feed. We use the Media Cloud database, which is a collection of news RSS feeds. It is possible to obtain not only the title of news (available freely on the Media Cloud website) but also the description part of the RSS, which is generally the first sentence of the full text of the news (available only through specific extraction).This data source is of interest for two reasons: the quality of the collection allowed by technical means, and the standardized collection of news published on the web by each media outlet. As raw material, an RSS item includes everything needed for a spatiotemporal analysis: 1) textual content: the title of the original article published on the website of the newspaper and a description (between one and four sentences); and 2) several metadata describing the context of the publication .foreign news is defined from a state-centric perspective as a piece of text  related to an event happening in another country in which the media outlet is located. According to the definition proposed by Wu, foreign news provides a link between a host country that provides readers with information about a guest country . Their names are What and Why and When Rudyard Kipling, The Elephant’s Child.5W framework” is still relevant in the digital age. Using the work of the H2020 ODYCCEUS project, we develop this conceptual framework to elaborate a specific application for the analysis of international news, in general, and geopolitical crisis, in particular  are used in the school of journalism to define what should be written necessarily and as early as possible in news, in order to provide a full and complete description of an event . Accordirticular .Supplementary Material. Here, we briefly present the data model used for the elaboration of hypercubes with five dimensions than can be further combined for the exploration of data and the hypothesis testing. Each topic of interest for an observer or researcher is the starting point of a data pipeline that starts from textual units and is achieved by the creation of a data table with five dimensions, called hypercubes, which have the same time compact in terms of size, are efficient for visualization, and are free of initial copyright, as the textual data has been aggregated and transformed into counts that cannot be reversed.What: The identification of topics of geopolitical interest is based on the creation of dictionaries of keywords or regular expressions associated with the topics of interest in the five languages of our sample of newspapers. The most important issue is the choice of keywords that are associated with equivalent concepts or objects in the different languages. For example, it is relatively easy to identify topics related to specific names, such as the case of pandemics . By comparison, it is more difficult to define a topic that covers a complex social reality or a fuzzy notion, as in the case of borders and migration. 1) The “border” topic is identified by the existence in each language of a specific word associated with the limit of sovereignty between two states . 2) The “international migration” topic is identified by the existence in each language of a short list of keywords that are associated with categories of migrants and refugees .• When: The idea of news is necessarily related to the question of time, and each news item is associated with a precise day or even hour. However, daily newspapers are characterized by a weekly news production cycle: during the weekend , these media outlets publish 10%–30% fewer items than during the week. Empirical studies also reveal qualitative changes between the day of the week and weekends regarding the topics of interest. Two solutions exist to reduce this disruption of the weekly cycles: 1) work on data aggregated by week; 2) as in the present study, use of a more refined solution with a rolling mean of 7 days  is characterized by a small decrease in the total number of publications, but an increase in the coverage rate of foreign news. This difference suggests that time should initially be employed on a daily basis, but with the possibility for an interface for aggregation at the upper level of weeks, months, quarters, and years.• Who: The RSS feeds sent by a newspaper on the web are generally organized in different “channels” corresponding to different topics. This means that the source of news is not necessarily equivalent to a newspaper’s entire online production, but can be limited to a specialized field. In many cases, researchers have focused on selected channels specifically dedicated to foreign news  is important, because it opens up the possibility of aggregation of isolated media toward a sample of national press. The allocation of a country to the newspapers is generally obvious because we select newspapers characterized by their national audience, that is, because the readers of the print version are distributed throughout the country where the media is located. However, two issues should be highlighted. On the one hand, we have the case of countries where the press is more decentralized than in France or the United Kingdom, and where the qualification of “national” cannot be separated from a more “regional”  dimension. This is the case for newspapers, such as Süddeutsche Zeitung in Germany and Periodico de Catalonia in Spain. On the other hand, we have the case of broadsheet newspapers with international and global audiences, especially through their websites, which provide national coverage but have a wider dissemination strategy .• ign news . HoweverWhere: Contrary to the previous dimensions, which can be considered as metadata of the news, this dimension is the result of textual analysis of the textual content of the RSS feed (title or description). This descriptive variable is the list of the tagged countries according to the dictionary in the five languages , which detects: 1) the name of the country, 2) the name of the country’s inhabitants, 3) the adjective associated with the country, and 4) the capital city of the country . This dimension is crucial because it is at the same time a criterion of selection of the corpus of foreign news (we eliminate the sentences that do not mention foreign countries) but also a dimension of major geopolitical interest because it can reveal which countries are the most associated in the press with the research topic.• Weight: The final dimension refers to the number of news that can be observed in each cell defined by the four previous dimensions and is used to answer to define the “Weight” I.e., the quantity of news that are observed when crossing the previous dimensions.• The details are developed in the The Guardian; 2) a unique day of publication ; 3) a non-empty list of foreign countries mentioned ; 4) a Boolean test of the existence of the topic . When a single foreign country is mentioned, the news receives a weight of 1. However, when several foreign countries are mentioned, the item is divided into a fraction of news to keep the total sum of the hypercube equal to the sum of news .The number of news in the hypercube dataset is as follows: each news item (title or sentence from the description) receives a set of four attributes: 1) a unique news outlet  and the lowest salience (Daily Mirror has the lowest proportion at 0.83%) compared with the reference value of the full sample (2.09%). The comparison with other newspapers from the same country suggests that Die Welt is not an exception in Germany: all German newspapers are characterized by a high level of salience. However, this is not the case in every country: the Daily Mirror is characterized by a lower level of salience than other newspapers in the United Kingdom. This could be related to the nature of the outlet, which is often considered a tabloid when the other outlets are broadsheet newspapers. This result suggests that we should remove it from the sample. We also observe a low level of salience in the case of the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, even though it is not a tabloid.Choice of the relevant scale of time and media aggregation is the second and probably the major function of TELEMAC. In the next section, we aim to test H2 by computing the correlation coefficient between the levels of salience of media over time. Salience is defined as the ratio between the observed and expected number of news items, using the average probability of each media outlet over the full period and is shown in panel When. Who. What in La Vanguardia until April 2017, and this lack of coverage during the major crisis of 2015–2016 explains why the average level of coverage was low in the previous analysis. Therefore, this newspaper should be removed from the correlation analysis.La Vanguardia) or those that do not correspond to broadsheet newspapers, which are likely to produce a geopolitical vision of the world (The Daily Mirror).In conclusion, according to our explorations with TELEMAC, we exclude from the sample two newspapers with too many missing values . We compare the distribution of the level of correlation for the media located in the same country and thus, located in different countries with a variance analysis and a Fisher test. To evaluate the effect of outliers, we compare the results obtained with Bravais–Pearson and Spearman coefficients.To test H3, we compute for each media and each topic the spatial distribution of news over the whole period, and we compute the Spearman and Bravais–Pearson coefficient of correlation between these different distributions. We exclude the five host countries (where the media is located) from all spatial distributions to obtain a better comparison. Then, we use the same methodology as for the timelines and proceed to a variance analysis to compare the degree of similarity of geopolitical maps between media located in the same country versus different countries.This section tests our hypotheses about the possible preeminence of the national effect on the geopolitical agenda. Can we observe the same level of salience in the coverage of the topics for newspapers located in the same country (H1)? Can we observe the same pattern in time (H2)? Can we observe the same pattern in space (H3)? with small variations between media outlets (CV = 0.27), except for the case of Italian newspapers, where the proportion is generally small except in the case of La Stampa. We conclude that nationality of media outlets does not influence this topic (p = 0.246).• The topic migrants and refugees has the highest level of salience of the three topics: 2% of foreign news . It also has lower variability than the borders in relative terms (CV = 0.19). The salience of the topic is generally higher in Germany and lower in Spain, and produces significant differences between all nations (p = 0.032).• The topic of pandemics is the least mentioned during the period of observation 2014–2019  with important variations between media in relative terms (CV = 0.35). This weakness is probably related to the long period of observation chosen and the fact that period does not include the year 2020, when 20–40% of the news related to the words “COVID-19” or “coronavirus.” The differences between newspapers located in the same country and in different countries are very significant (p = 0.003), with a contrast between countries with lower coverage  and those with higher coverage.• The analysis of the salience of each topic by media does not reveal always significant differences between host countries for the period of observation .• The toAs a whole, we cannot validate or reject H1, as the results clearly depend on the topic of interest. However, it should be noted that each topic is characterized by a specific level of interest over the period with relatively limited variations in the sample of the 18 newspapers observed. In each media, the most important geopolitical topic is the question of migrants and refugees, followed by borders, and finally, by pandemics.The second hypothesis is about the temporal dimension of the geopolitical agenda. We assume that, all things being equal in the global level of interest for a geopolitical topic, the distribution of the period of interest is influenced by the national agenda, which produces significant differences in the timeline of the topic over the period of observation.The topic of borders is more synchronized between the media of the same country  than between media of different countries . However, the level of correlation remains low. Major events, such as the annexation of Crimea and Brexit, have apparently not produced common hype that is likely to increase the level of correlation at the European scale.• The topic of migrants and refugees appears to be much more synchronized at the European level than the border topic, even if the synchronization is higher between media of the same country  than between media of different countries . This high level of correlation is clearly induced by the significant increase in the salience of the topic in all Western European countries in 2015 and by a lower level of coordination, such as the crisis in 2018 involving the Aquarius rescue vessel.• The topic of pandemics presents a more complicated pattern with stronger heterogeneity in terms of time distribution, with a major spike in 2014 (Ebola outbreak in Western Africa), a secondary spike at the beginning of 2016 (Zika outbreak in Brazil) and several smaller spikes during most of the period. This explains the divergence between the results obtained with the Bravais–Pearson coefficient  and the Spearman coefficient .• The results support the hypothesis of synchronization for the topics of borders and the topic of migrants and refugees, but not necessarily the topic of pandemics . In thisIn conclusion, the topic of migrants and refugees stands out from the other two topics because of the high level of temporal synchronization between the media located in different countries. On the contrary, national agendas seem to be more visible in the case of the topics of borders and migration than for pandemics, even if the topic of pandemics has a more complex temporal pattern structure.The spatial dimension of the geopolitical agenda is related to the foreign countries mentioned in news related to a topic. The relatively long period of observation leads to a more structural view than the results for shorter periods, which are mechanically more event oriented. For instance, all the media outlets mentioned Turkey and Greece by talking about migrants and refugees in September 2015: the climax of the so-called “migrant crisis.” However, it is not obvious that all these media outlets mentioned these countries in relation to this topic before or after this period of maximal interest. Furthermore, it is not obvious that the media of all countries provided equivalent media coverage to other events related to this topic, like the “Rohingya crisis” (since 2016) and the Trump administration’s decision to build a wall between Mexico and the United States (2017–2018). According to, among others, The map of topic borders is characterized by a focus on news located at the border of the EU  or in its southern and eastern neighborhood . However, the coverage of the border topic is also important in Latin America (Mexico and Venezuela), sub-Saharan Africa, southern Asia, and Korea. Countries commonly identified as major geopolitical actors  are associated with a large amount of news about borders (size of the circle). However, they are not specifically associated with the topic because they are the subject of many other stories related to other topics .• The map of the topic of migrants and refugees shows a concentration of news in the Balkans, northern Africa, and the Middle East. It is related to the period of maximal attention commonly seen as the turning point of the “migrant crisis” between the Northern hemisphere summer of 2015 and early 2016. Other events of the period, such as the Rohingya crisis and the edification of Trump’s wall at the border between the United States and Mexico are visible but less important.• The map of the topic of pandemics is strongly structured by two major pandemics: Ebola (2014) and Zika (2016). Countries associated with the topic are mainly located in the global South . Some Northern countries concerned with dissemination of this news are also represented (the US and Spain). Surprisingly, very few countries from eastern and southern Asia are mentioned during this period, even though they were the sites of many outbreaks or risks. Again, the results would likely be different if the period had included the year 2020.• The results presented in To assess the impact of periods of crisis on our initial hypothesis, we replicate the analysis of time correlation (H2) and spatial correlation (H3) for a shorter period of 12 months for all 720 months of the period of analysis. This disaggregation of the model by rolling periods implies an extension of the time period of 6 months before and after the initial period of analysis, as the measurement conducted, for example, in January 2014, implies the collection of data for July–December 2013 and the measurement conducted in December 2019 is for January–June 2020 data. The results  reveal sIn this section, we first bring to light the global results of this study, that is, the national versus European dimension of crisis. Second, we explain how this study contributes to the understanding of how each of the three topics is framed in the media sphere. Finally, we will discuss some perspective for the causal explanation of the results: to what extent it is possible to precisely explain the convergence and divergence of the geopolitical agenda between the five countries of Western Europe.• There is a comparable level of salience for each topic in the five countries.• There is national synchronization of the geopolitical agenda when a topic is covered by the media outlet.• We provide clues of national organization of geopolitical news maps (the countries mentioned change in each country where the media outlet is located).• There is strong synchronization within each national context when the salience of a topic increases. These moments can be identified as moments of possible crisis at national scale.In conclusion, the results of this study are as follows.This study works on equivalent keywords in the five languages of each country to detect the topics of interest, identify and compare guest countries, and perform a cross-analysis. Doing so makes the results comparable and allows us to question the differences of perceptions across cultural contexts in Western Europe, which is commonly perceived as a coherent cultural and political area.That the focus on the crisis reveals a national agenda is not a trivial result. It confirms that agendas remain at the national level in the context of Europeanization. However, the analysis of dynamics over time shows a more important result: situated agendas can be both framed and synchronous at the national and regional levels. As a mixture of these two levels, we observe in the results a pre-eminence of the national level with some regional exceptions, especially during the moment identified as a crisis.A crisis seems to be moments of synchronization of the geopolitical agenda at European scale. It could be interpreted as evidence of an emergent European public sphere. As mentioned by We briefly discuss the specific results obtained for each topic according to the state of the art.Based on the results, we highlight the contribution of this case study and interpret the general timeline of the news revealed by TELEMAC .First, unlike migration, this topic has a poor level of timeline synchronization but quite a good level of map synchronization. In other words, European newspapers of the corpus are unanimous on places to cover, but vary on the moment and intensity of coverage. This is a specificity of this topic, which is related to the nature of borders. Borders are a political topic whose spatial dimension is well defined: it refers to a line on the ground that delineates two countries that are recognized by most of the international community. There is a type of spatial ambiguity. This is not the case for events as reflected by the timeline synchronization patterns. Contrary to migration or pandemics, the border topic synchronization does not evolve a shock pattern. A sudden synchronization can be imagined as the result of a trigger. In this case, there are no evident triggering moments. This may be linked to the nature of border events that are not well bounded in time, for example, the Northern Ireland border deal within the Brexit negotiations. This has been a long process spread over time. The same holds for the US–Mexico wall of Trump or the recurrence of the Syrian conflict. The lasting nature of border events can encourage journalists to recount them at different moments.This conclusion does not hold for 2015, which was a time of higher Europeanization of timelines (good synchronization), but is a moment of lower Europeanization of maps. This is because of events related to the border topic at this time, when the border topic merged with the migration topic. However, migration at borders involved the own borders of reporting countries and direct relations with neighbors. Thus, the degree of involvement of the countries of the corpus had an impact on the level of synchronization. At this time, French newspapers might have covered Italy extensively, because their common border was at stake, whereas Germany covered Austria extensively for the same reason.On the contrary, the end of 2019 had high synchronization of map and timeline: it is possible that this period had two synchronization parameters. These were the sudden onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and, a distant event that did not directly involve the reporting country, namely, China.• A general topic, such as borders, addresses events of different natures regarding their suddenness and their remoteness, leading to different degrees of synchronization at the European scale.• Synchronization of agendas must be analyzed by taking different dimensions as space and time, because it may be observed in one dimension and not another. Consequently, one should add a qualitative dimension to qualify the content of news and evaluate lexicon synchronization.• The border agenda is weakly European and with a prevalence of coverage at the national level.We conclude as follows.First, if we look at the global coverage of the topic related to migrants and refugees in the whole corpus , the yeaThe evolution of this salience confirms the importance of 2015 as a turning point. It was a time of high salience and high synchronization of timelines and geopolitical maps although it is important relative to the second period of attention in 2018. However, 2018 is not as synchronous as 2015. Timelines and geopolitical maps vary according to the country of observation.This can be explained by the fact that the 2018 “migrant crisis” was first and foremost an Italian crisis. This spike is related to the Aquarius episode: in the European summer of 2018, several countries refused access to their harbors to the humanitarian ship of the NGO “SOS Mediterranée.” This period was a period of intense controversy concerning the responsibility of states for migrant rescue in the Mediterranean Sea and, in particular, over the central role of the Italian government in this issue, and the anti-immigrant politician Matteo Salvini used this event and migration as a central issue in his electoral campaign.Obviously, national agendas are not synchronized: preferences emerge, and they are mainly related to the fact that countries do not have the same role and are not in the same position regarding these issues during the period.Another interesting finding is related to the spatial visualization of news related to migration. The main countries associated with the general idea of the “migrant crisis,” such as Turkey and Syria, play a central role in the geography of migration during this period. However, other countries also play a significant role in the geographical representation of migration issues. The US, for instance, is the most quoted country related to the topic. It has played a central role in the picture, especially related to the question of the Mexican border after the election of Trump. In addition, other countries, such as Afghanistan and Libya, are significantly associated with this topic during the period, but they are more regularly associated with migration issues, even if they were not the most quoted in 2015. In these countries , the crisis became normalized and became a regular topic. These elements highlight the countries hidden behind the exceptional coverage of the Mediterranean crisis.• The organization of the news agenda seems to be structured at a national scale.• These national agendas are significantly different. This point could explain the difficulties in proposing a common politics (geopolitics) at the level of the EU on the issue of migration.• The crisis did not end in 2015. There was also a second focus on the migration issue in 2018, and it may become a focus again.• There are several “migrant crises” in the media, not just in the Mediterranean area, and they are sometimes covered in a less exceptional manner over a longer period. Focusing attention on a limited list of places and events contributes to archetypes and leads to a kind of invisibility of issues that are less represented in the media.We conclude as follows.Even without considering the exceptional event of the COVID-19 crisis, it is clear that the pandemics are characterized by a very specific agenda that can be characterized as more global than European or national. The monthly coverage pattern from July 2013 to June 2020 is characterized by a very limited number of powerful instances of hype that are covered by all media at the same time . As mentTo interpret the patterns of convergence and divergence observed for the two first topics , we propose three causal hypotheses.The nature of geopolitical events: Events that are bounded in time and space and refer to a limited set of actors are easier to grasp and can create synchronization. This refers to what Galtung and Ruge called “unambiguity”: “events which are easy to grasp make for better copy than those which are open to more than one interpretation, or where understanding of the implications depends on first understanding the complex background to the event” (e event” . This exThe degree of implications for geopolitical events: Countries that are not directly involved in a geopolitical crisis are more likely to display similar patterns than those directly involved as actors or locations where events are taking place. This idea is sustained among others by the works of The proximity of media to the geopolitical events reported. Countries that are located at shorter distances, have a common language, or share a common history are more likely to be mentioned by the media of the country where newspapers are located. Divergence is particularly visible when two international geopolitical events compete during the same period (e period .


Dear Editor,In this letter, we explore the potential role of radionuclide‐based molecular imaging modalities, such as positron emission tomography (PET) and single‐photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), in evaluating abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). We further discuss how the developments of promising radiotracers in combination with ultra‐sensitive PET and SPECT scanners may enable the assessment of AAA formation and progression and consequently patient risk stratification and therapeutic interventions.AAA is an asymptomatic, irreversible, focal enlargement of the abdominal aorta proceeding to rupture and eventually resulting in patient death. Patients with early‐stage AAA do not exhibit evident signs or symptoms; hence, AAA is typically diagnosed during incidental health assessments or through dedicated screening programmes, such as those implemented in the USA, the UK and Sweden. Although many studies are conducted to identify more reliable and informative risk factors of AAA rupture, aortic size is the only marker utilised in clinical practice, with elective repair offered to prevent rupture once an AAA enlarges to the intervention threshold of 5.5 cm. The aortic diameter is a straightforward and convenient parameter to extract using ultrasound scanning (USS) but may not consistently correlate with prognosis, as large AAA may remain intact, while small AAA may rupture.Much of our knowledge of human AAA pathology stems from aortic tissue obtained during surgery ; therefore, theories based on findings corresponding to these tissues may not accurately reflect early‐stage disease pathology, when an effective pharmacological treatment may be offered. Indeed, one of the most significant barriers to overcoming late‐stage detection of AAA is the ability to detect early‐stage molecular mechanisms that precede physical disease manifestation. Patient management can be complicated to navigate based solely on the risk of AAA rupture as predicted using USS for aortic diameter measurements; in this case, molecular information yielded by PET and SPECT may improve the management and treatment approaches for AAA by providing more comprehensive information on the molecular processes occurring within the aortic wall that drive an aneurysm towards growth and rupture as opposed to stability. These molecular‐level data make PET and SPECT imaging attractive tools for the purposes of early risk stratification and the assessment of responses to effective low‐risk non‐invasive therapeutic interventions as adjuncts to USS‐based screening and surveillance.18F]fluorodeoxyglucose ([18F]FDG) has been shown to correlate with inflammatory markers in AAA  uptake is increased prior to pronounced aortic expansion in the angiotensin II‐induced AAA murine model, reflecting microcalcification, which may indicate an alternative biological process that can offer a surrogate signal of an effective therapy.18F]NaF localises in regions of microcalcification in patients with asymptomatic AAA, acting as a susceptibility marker of aneurysm growth and rupture and yielding proof‐of‐concept data for the practicability of a PET radiotracer other than [18F]FDG for risk stratification in patients with AAA , has been used to demonstrate that MMP‐targeted SPECT may indicate aortic wall inflammation and help predict expansion or rupture in AAA.18F]FDG uptake and supplement classical clinical parameters, such as aneurysm diameter, since AAA growth—and consequently rupture—is implied to follow a non‐linear and unpredictable trend. As PET and SPECT are currently used in the clinic for non‐AAA applications, further research on these molecular imaging modalities for patients with AAA has functional practicality for rapid clinical translation compared to the process of translating entirely novel technologies to the clinic.Basic research in AAA pathobiology continues to generate important preclinical data and novel imaging approaches to support clinical advances. Undoubtedly, the establishment of reliable and unequivocal radiotracers remains the ultimate objective of any radionuclide‐based molecular imaging study. The widely used PET radiotracer 8FfluorodA Figure .6 Meane Figure .7 In tThe road ahead for molecular imaging of AAA may be intricate, and the smooth translation of positive preclinical findings to the clinic remains a critical aim. The key obstacle to implementing SPECT for AAA imaging in the clinic lies in the relatively poorer spatial resolution of clinical SPECT scanners than that of clinical PET scanners. However, if a SPECT radiotracer provides substantially valuable information, a dedicated redesign of collimators for AAA may enable higher‐resolution clinical SPECT. Meanwhile, in addition to the extensive range of PET radiotracers already available in the market, the development of PET scanners with a substantially longer axial field of view (4–8 times longer than that of the currently most commonly available PET scanners) offers a unique opportunity in accelerating the translation of new radiotracers in the clinic.In conclusion, many aspects of AAA evolution remain poorly understood. Considering the seemingly complex heterogeneity of AAA and involvement of numerous contributory factors, anatomical and molecular imaging modalities must be considered supplementary tools in their role in AAA management. Importantly, the strength of radionuclide‐based molecular imaging is reflected in its power to shed light on the molecular evolution of AAA, which may guide the necessity for surgical repair or response to pharmacological therapies before the disease progresses to a severe and irreversible stage. To facilitate AAA risk stratification, the quest to identify the most appropriate radiotracers is an essential path towards reducing patient morbidity and identifying alternative therapies that are potentially more efficient and economical than surgical interventions.Richa Gandhi is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Marc Bailey is funded by the British Heart Foundation. Charalampos Tsoumpas is funded by the Royal Society.The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research reported.


Cylindrical collectors with alternate conductive and non-conductive segments were used to obtain highly oriented nanofibrous structures at the same time with better mechanical properties. The surface morphology (orientation), mechanical properties and suture retention of the nanofibrous structures were characterized using SEM, mechanical tester and universal testing machine, respectively. The PLGA nanofibrous cylindrical structure exhibited excellent properties  when compared to other polymers. Moreover, the PLGA grafts showed good porosity and elongation values, that could be potentially used for vascular graft applications. The combination of PLGA nanofibers with extracellular vesicles (EVs) will be explored as a potential vascular graft in future.Small-diameter vascular grafts fabricated from synthetic polymers have found limited applications so far in vascular surgeries, owing to their poor mechanical properties. In this study, cylindrical nanofibrous structures of highly oriented nanofibers made from polyacrylonitrile, poly (lactide- Cardio vascular diseases (CVD) are increasing day by day and becoming one of the primary causes of annual deaths around the world . CoronarIn recent years, nanofibers have been used for various biomedical applications ,27. EvenResearchers have investigated use of various types of collectors for nanofibers orientation in a specific direction, yet limited work has been accomplished in the field of orienting the nanofibers in cylindrical shape for vascular grafts. In one of the studies, round collectors with conductive parts separated by insulating gaps were used to acquire orientated nanofibers in the direction of electric field lines in the gap between the two conductive parts. However, this was not successful as the insulating gap was not high enough to achieve the orientation. As the gap increased, the influence of electric field lines on the nanofibers was reduced and control on fiber orientation was also decreased ,31. In aMw: 150,000 g/mol), PLGA , PCL  and PVA  were purchased from Sigma Aldrich . Solvents such as N,N-dimethyl formamide and 1, 1, 1, 3, 3, 3-Hexafluoro-2-propanol (≥99%) were supplied by Sigma Aldrich . All the polymer solutions were prepared separately by adding the required amount of polymer and the solvent into a flask with a magnetic stirring for 24 h.Four different polymers, viz., PAN , manufactured in-house, comprising two parts: conductive part (CP) (brass) and non-conductive part (NCP) (Teflon) as depicted in Axially aligned scaffolds were collected on the rotating collectors. When two conducting parts of the collector, separated by non-conducting parts, are used, the fiber jet will deposit on the non-conducting part in between the conducting parts and a horizontally aligned array of nanofibers will be produced. The electric field lines in the non-conducting part near the conducting part are drawn towards the conducting part. The fiber jet stretches across the non-conducting part as the field lines are attracted towards the conducting part. This in turn orients the nanofibers on the non-conducting part of the collector. Due to presence of charge on the nanofibers, mutual repulsion between the deposited nanofibers will enhance the parallel and relatively even distribution of nanofibers. This process is repeated in all the non-conducting parts surrounded by the conducting parts and thus an array of longitudinally oriented nanofibers could be collected on the entire collector. After spinning, the electrospun vascular grafts were removed from the collector and stored in a desiccator for further testing and characterizations. Preparation and testing of scaffolds are shown in Samples were coated with a thin layer of gold to make nanofibers conductive. Then a Field emission scanning electron microscope was used to determine the surface morphology and diameter of the nanofibers at an accelerating voltage of 100 KV and 50 KV. The Java image processing software [Image J 1.52] was used to measure the diameter of the nanofibers (n = 20). The orientation of nanofibers was quantified by using orientation J, a plugin for image J 1.52 software. SEM micrographs of the region of interest (ROI) were used to find out the orientation values. Samples having high orientation values  and low orientation values   were sel2 size and weighted to determine apparent density. The porosity of the nanofibers was calculated using the formula given below:Thickness of the electrospun graft samples was measured using a digital caliper on glass slides c. Dimens3, 1.14 g/cm3, 1.19 g/cm3 and 0.75 g/cm3, respectively.The bulk densities of PAN, PCL, PVA and PLGA were taken as 0.36 g/cmMechanical properties of longitudinally aligned vascular grafts were determined by using a universal testing machine (UTM) according to a standard test method (ASTM D 882-01). The samples were cut into 50 mm length and 5 mm width. Load deformation values were recorded at 10 mm/min speed and 20 mm gauge length, using 100 N load cell at a constant speed of 0.1 mm/s.Suture retention test was performed on the universal testing machine (UTM) with a load cell of 100 N. For determining suture retention strength, the vascular grafts were cut into strips having dimension of 40 mm × 5 mm. A Prolene suture 2-0 was passed through the strip and surgical knot was achieved 2 mm from the edge of the sample. At one side of the machine, an electrospun strip was clamped and on the other side, the suture was clamped. Then for testing, suture was pulled at a rate of 50 mm/min until it tore out from the strip. The force required to pull the suture was recorded as a suture retention strength.For burst pressure measurement, 5 mm diameter cylindrical grafts were taken (n = 5). The cylindrical graft was clamped on both sides in a glass chamber at 37 °C. The flow rate was adjusted in the range of 3–6 mL/min while the pressure was adjusted between 18–75 mmHg. In order to determine the blood pressure, the initial pressure was increased, keeping the flow rate the same. For the determination of burst pressure, the pressure was increased until the sample showed complete burst. The highest pressure measured before rupture was considered as burst strength.SEM images of not-aligned and aligned scaffolds are shown in No signs of beads and entanglement of nanofiber were observed in the SEM images. The orientation values of aligned scaffolds were found to be PAN: 89 ± 1.58 degree, PLGA: 88 ± 1.67 degree, PCL: 85 ± 1.58 degree, and PVA: 83 ± 1.3 degree. The orientation values of not-aligned scaffolds were found to be PAN: 25 ± 1.58 degree, PLGA: 24 ± 1.56 degree, PCL: 21 ± 1.26 degree and PVA: 23 ± 1.14 degree. Directional analysis confirmed the alignment of nanofibers in the scaffolds. For not-aligned scaffolds, no proper fiber direction was predominant, while in the aligned scaffolds, a prominent direction was observed and a peak was formed. In the cases of not- aligned scaffolds, the histogram is wider while in the cases of aligned scaffolds, the histogram is narrower, which shows the orientation of fibers is in the same single direction. The average diameters of the nanofibers in aligned scaffolds were found to be, PAN: 159 ± 7 nm, PLGA: 378 ± 20 nm, PCL: 327 ± 25 nm and PVA: 451 ± 40 nm. The average diameters of nanofibers in not-aligned scaffolds were found to be PAN: 162 ± 10 nm, PLGA: 379 ± 20 nm, PCL: 329 ± 30 nm and PVA: 452 ± 30 nm. When we compared the morphology of these nanofibers, it was found that both PLGA and PCL have comparatively rougher exterior morphology  of 183% at breaking point with a tensile strength of 9.1 MPa. Similarly, the elongation values at break of PAN, PCL and PVA were 29%, 53% and 107%, respectively. While the tensile strength values for not-aligned scaffolds were comparatively lower and elongation at break values were also low, i.e., 120%, 50%, 70% and 25% for PLGA, PVA, PCL and PAN, respectively. It has been reported that femoral arteries show ultimate stress of 1–2 MPa and elongation at break values of 60–80% ,48. In tSuture retention strength values for aligned and not-aligned scaffolds are displayed in In each graft type, five samples were analyzed and mean values of suture retention strength were recorded. In the cases of aligned scaffolds, PLGA had the highest suture retention strength with a value of 27 ± 2 N, whereas PVA had the lowest suture retention strength of 14 ± 0.5 N. Suture retention strength values of aligned PCL and PAN were 23 ± 1.3 N and 25 ± 0.5 N, respectively. The suture retention strength values for not- aligned scaffolds such as PAN, PLGA, PCL and PVA were 15 ± 1 N, 17 ± 1.5 N, 12 ± 1.2 N and 5 ± 0.9 N, respectively. These suture retention values were comparatively higher than the internal mammary arteries and human saphenous veins . The obtSuture retention strength is important to ensure that graft can withstand physiological pressure during and after implantation. It is well known that suture retention is highly related to orientation of nanofibers in the scaffolds. In the case of not-aligned scaffolds, the randomly distributed nanofibers make a network, which can hinder the passage of structure, but all the nanofibers cannot be obstructed, hence suture retention value is less ,52.Testing of burst pressure is a vital parameter to confirm that a vascular graft can endure the blood pressure after implantation. The normal pressure in the arterial circulation is 100 mmHg, and during standing it further increases in the case of leg arteries. Due to the influence of hydrostatic pressure, the pressure can reach up to 250 mmHg . The mecThese values are comparable to the values reported in the literature . NotablyEven though vascular grafts are successfully developed in the literature, but there are some constraints in clinical translations, such as low cell survival rates and poor proliferation. We will be developing the grafts which are cell-free in future, which will be achieved by the combination of extracellular vesicles (EVs) and nanofibrous scaffolds. EVs are directly released from the cell membrane from various types of cell and involved in immune signaling, angiogenesis, stress response, proliferation and cell differentiation . All the data presented are expressed as mean ± standard deviation and were analyzed using Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for the effect of different polymers and alignment of nanofibers on different response variables is given in p-value for alignment is not significant, which means that diameter of fibers was not statistically different in case of aligned and not-aligned fibers.In ANOVA In this study, cylindrical nanofibrous structures with aligned and not- aligned fibers of PAN, PLGA, PCL and PVA were fabricated using conventional and novel collectors developed via electrospinning method for vascular graft applications. The obtained results showed that the average fiber diameter and porosity values of cylindrical nanofibrous structures with aligned fibers were lower than those with not- aligned fibers, whereas desired higher mechanical properties and suture retention properties were observed in the former case when compared to the latter case. It was also observed that burst pressure of cylindrical structures with aligned nanofibers was comparable to the grafts needed for vascular implants. Among all the polymers studied, aligned PLGA structures showed the best overall mechanical strength, burst pressure (350 ± 50 mmHg) and suture retention strength (27 N), being quite comparable to native blood vessels, which makes it a promising candidate for application as artificial blood vessels.


By virtue of an on-surface synthesis strategy, we report selective cascade dehydrogenation of n-alkane molecules under surface constraints, which yields monodispersed all-trans conjugated polyenes with unprecedented length controllability. We are also able to demonstrate the generality of this concept for alkyl-substituted molecules with programmable lengths and diverse functionalities, and more importantly its promising potential in molecular wiring.Selective C(sp Direct transformation of n-alkanes and alkyl-substituted derivatives has been achieved under surface constraints to yield conjugated polyenes with programmed length and functionalities. The transformed polyenes are separated by regular intervals  within the polymerized chains are recognized by nc-AFM to be cis-isomerization .After annealing a full monolayer als Fig. J that arn-C32H66 molecules is determined to be 2.51 ± 0.02 Å  -polyene) would be finally generated epitaxially above the cooper ridges via consecutive dehydrogenation in a cascade process [n-hexane is activated, the dehydrogenated radicals would prefer to undergo consecutive dehydrogenations on Cu(110) surface rather than coupling with the other one, which is contradictory to the case on Au(110) . The discrepancy in optimized adsorption before and after the transformation also raises the question of whether the dehydrogenation of alkane occurs initially at the optimized groove sites or directly above the catalytic copper rows because of steric molecular self-assembly. According to the adsorption configuration of n-C32H66 determined experimentally, we construct an optimized supercell of three n-hexane molecules assigned to three different adsorption sites: (I) ridge, (II) ridge/groove and (III) groove. Compared with the groove sites, the ridge sites present even enhanced catalytic performance ascribed to the declined distance between the carbon atoms and the catalytic cooper row atoms . This is also consistent with the STM results of the full monolayer sample as presented in Supplementary Fig. S3, where molecular motion is sterically hindered.The consecutive dehydrogenation of paraffin molecules was often thought to be a chaotic reaction involving miscellaneous competing pathways. To completely understand this selective C–H bond scission in irection . The Cu irection . For n-heviously . Passingion on Cu0, DFT can-alkanes is also available for alkyl-substituted molecules, for which a much lower activation barrier is observed. The complete transformation of octadecylbenzene (OB) experiences a temperature drop by 60 K compared with n-C32H66  of different polyene species shares a fairly similar starting point at 453 K, far below the reported onset of benzene dehydrogenation . Throughn-alkane molecules into the corresponding all-trans conjugated polyenes. The proposed strategy is further applicable for diverse alkyl substituted molecules with depressed energy consumption above different crystallographic planes of copper surfaces. Combined with hierarchical on-surface reactions, it is feasible to integrate molecular functional units and construct extremely complicated molecules in conjugation to spur further investigations in molecular circuits, molecular topology as well as organic superconductivity [With complementary microscopic and spectroscopic characterizations, we clarified a cascade process of alkane dehydrogenation under surface constraints that directly transform uctivity . We alsonwab093_Supplemental_FileClick here for additional data file.


Granuloma gluteale infantum is a rare complication of irritant contact dermatitis. For the treatment of granuloma gluteale infantum, the diaper area should be kept clean and dry and the source of skin irritation should be removed or mitigated. For those infants who fail to respond to the conservative management, the use of topical calcineurin inhibitors should be considered. We report the successful treatment of a 12-month-old infant with recalcitrant granuloma gluteale infantum with the use of topical tacrolimus 0.03% ointment. To our knowledge, this is the second case reporting the use of topical calcineurin inhibitors in the treatment of recalcitrant granuloma gluteale infantum. Granuloma gluteale infantum, a rare complication of irritant diaper dermatitis, occurs most commonly during infancy , 2. ClinA 12-month-old boy with a 4-month history of a recalcitrant diaper rash was referred to us. The child was exclusively breastfed for 6 months at which time solid food was introduced. The child appeared well and was thriving. Stools had been loose but not watery since 6 months of age. Parents used nondisposable cloth diapers for the child. The diaper rash was treated with topical zinc oxide and multiple courses of topical antifungals, topical antimicrobials, and fluorinated steroid creams alone or in combination without much success. Past health was otherwise unremarkable. In particular, there was no history of seborrheic dermatitis, atopic dermatitis, or psoriasis. There was no history of powder preparations applied to the diaper area.Physical examination revealed numerous, erythematous, round-to-oval, nontender papules and nodules, located on the perianal and bilateral gluteal areas . Some ofA clinical diagnosis of granuloma gluteale infantum was made. Culture from a skin swab taken from the lesion was negative for bacteria. Microscopic examination of skin scrapings in 10% potassium hydroxide was negative for fungal elements. Histologic examination of the lesions revealed acanthosis, hyperkeratosis, and spongiosis with overlying crust. Additionally, there was a dense dermal infiltrate consisting of lymphocytes, neutrophils, plasma cells, histiocytes, and scattered eosinophils. No fungal element was identified with periodic acid Schiff (PAS) stain.Parents were advised to use disposable diapers for the child and avoid irritant contact dermatitis by keeping the diaper area dry and clean with frequent diaper changes and the use of topical zinc oxide cream. The child was treated with topical tacrolimus ointment 0.03% twice a day for 6 weeks with complete resolution of the lesions leaving residual brown macules in some areas .Candida albicans has also been implicated [Candida albicans from patients with granuloma gluteale infantum and from patients with other forms of dermatitis in the diaper area alone [It is estimated that 7 to 35% of infants have diaper dermatitis at any given time with a peak incidence at 9 to 12 months of age . Irritanplicated . Howeverea alone .The average onset is between 9 and 12 months of age . There iHistologic examination of the lesion typically shows acanthosis, parakeratosis, spongiosis, and exocytosis . In addiThe differential diagnosis is broad and includes Jacquet erosive diaper dermatitis, pseudoverrucous papules and nodules, Candidal diaper dermatitis, seborrheic dermatitis, atopic dermatitis, perianal streptococcal dermatitis, plaque psoriasis, bullous impetigo, juvenile xanthogranuloma, molluscum contagiosum, acrodermatitis enteropathica, nodular scabies, Langerhans cell histiocytosis, and maculopapular cutaneous mastocytosis , 18–22. For the treatment of granuloma gluteale infantum, the diaper area should be kept clean and dry and the source of skin irritation should be removed or mitigated , 15. TheSome authors use topical corticosteroids for the treatment of granuloma gluteale infantum, especially for recalcitrant cases , 24. OthTopical calcineurin inhibitors, notably tacrolimus, have emerged as a reasonable treatment option for the treatment of recalcitrant granuloma gluteale infantum with promising results. Ramos Pinheiro et al. reported an 18-month-old girl with refractory granuloma gluteale infantum unresponsive to multiple treatments including barrier creams, various topical antifungal agents, topical antibiotics, and topical corticosteroids including hydrocortisone butyrate 0.1% cream and betamethasone valerate 0.1% cream . The chiGranuloma gluteale infantum is a rare complication of irritant diaper dermatitis and has to be differentiated from other dermatoses in the diaper area. In the majority of cases, granuloma gluteale infantum responds to conservative treatment such as elimination of precipitating factors and the use of barrier creams. For recalcitrant cases that do not respond to the conservative management, we suggest that the use of topical tacrolimus be considered.


The field of molecular electronics is prompted by tremendous opportunities for using a single-molecule and molecular monolayers as active components in integrated circuits. Until now, a wide range of molecular devices exhibiting characteristic functions, such as diodes, transistors, switches, and memory, have been demonstrated. However, a full understanding of the crucial factors that affect charge transport through molecular electronic junctions should yet be accomplished. Remarkably, recent advances in transition voltage spectroscopy (TVS) elucidate that it can provide key quantities for probing the transport characteristics of the junctions, including, for example, the position of the frontier molecular orbital energy relative to the electrode Fermi level and the strength of the molecule–electrode interactions. These parameters are known to be highly associated with charge transport behaviors in molecular systems and can then be used in the design of molecule-based devices with rationally tuned electronic properties. This article highlights the fundamental principle of TVS and then demonstrates its major applications to study the charge transport properties of molecular electronic junctions. I)–voltage (V) curves allow conveniently extracting charge transport parameters, for instance, the alignment of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) or lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO), the tunneling transmission, and the coupling strength of molecule–electrode contacts.New development of nanoscale devices utilizing individual molecules with active functional elements is a promising approach towards the ultimate miniaturized electronics ,4,5,6,7.hε or εl) between the closest molecular orbital (HOMO or LUMO) and electrode’s Fermi level (EF) /dV should be equal to zero.Within the coherent tunneling approach, the charge transport across the junctions is interpreted by the transmission function  follows :(5)ΤI=Γ between molecules and electrodes from I–V characteristics of the junctions . T. T64]. Tncreased c, indica2, Cl, H, OCH3, and N(CH3)2. 1D histograms of the obtained transition voltages were illustrated in EF can be obtained from Equation (12) .Yu et al. recently demonstrated the gating effect by means of edge-on chemical moieties ,66,67. Tion (12) f 65,67],672, Cl, and the electrode’s work function (Φ). The effective energy offsets htransε for OPT molecular junctions were calculated from tV by using Equation (12), where htransε decreased as increasing n (htransε on the work function Φ of the bare electrodes was shown in Φ (more than 1.4 eV) generated somewhat moderate changes (only 0.2 eV) in htransε clearly indicated the Fermi level pinning . T. TΓ(T) wurements b and nottV to the HOMO position hε varied between 0.85 (in the case of symmetric junctions) and 2.1 (in the case of fully asymmetric junctions) according to the contact asymmetry (η) of molecular electronic junctions [Chen et al. reported that the proportion of unctions , as illutV± for the polarities of positive and negative bias can be employed to accurately establish the energy offset of the orbital energy level nearest to EF, as well as the degree of junction’s bias asymmetry. Using the ambipolar TVS technique, the full I–V characteristics experimentally obtained by Ref. [γ in the junctions. To this end, only quantities that should be estimated experimentally are the tV± for both bias polarities. Noticeably, the Γ value was considerably smaller than that determined by DFT calculations [Later, Bâldea et al. suggested ambipolar TVS derived from polarity-dependent transition voltages , in whic by Ref.  and Ref. by Ref.  could beulations , implyintV decreased for hole tunneling transport via HOMO with the thiol end-group as increasing electrode’s work functions, but it changed in the opposite direction for electron tunneling transport via LUMO with the isocyanide end-group [tV was significantly smaller as compared to that of the work functions. The observation showed that a variety of specific bonding sites of the terminal groups with varied electrodes can affect the measured tV values. Bennett et al. showed a multipeak in the statistical distribution of tV for the porphyrin molecular wires with thiol linkages [tV, because different orbital levels can take part in charge transport through the junctions depending on the molecule–electrode distance [tV can be incurred by the surface oxidized in Si, GaIn, or Hg electrodes [I–V data. They investigated transition voltage spectra of the alkanethiol junctions with distinct contact interfacial configurations employing the single-molecule break junction technique [tV values were similar (∼1.4 V) notwithstanding a large variation in the junction conductance measured with different molecular lengths. This was attributed to a difference in contact resistance (or molecule–electrode coupling strength) but not variation in the orbital level position, indicating that the coupling strength was the major origin of observed conductance distribution in the alkyl-based molecular junctions. Recently, Ge et al. described by using TVS measurement how the surface d-bands in transition metal electrodes consolidate the molecular adsorption and then enhance interfacial charge transport [It has been well recognized that the interfacial properties between the constituent molecules and contact electrodes significantly affect the charge transport through molecular junctions ,93,94,95nd-group . The deglinkages , originadistance . It was ectrodes . Guo et echnique , where transport . This reAs discussed in this review, TVS should be a useful analytical tool particularly to investigate coherent non-resonant tunneling transport extensively observed in molecular electronic junctions ,103,104.


This case study reveals interesting evidence of exceptional preservation in fossils at both molecular and morphological levels, and opens the door for extensive further research, making the argument that DNA sequencing is worth exploring. The present study is significant for at least two reasons. First, it demonstrates that fossils displaying well-preserved cellular and subcellular structures may also preserve molecular information. Second, this study clearly shows that the search for ancient biomolecules should not be constrained by the so-called temporal limit, e.g. the assumption that proteins cannot survive in the fossil record beyond ∼1 Ma and ∼100 000 years for DNA. The preservation mechanism of soft tissues in fossils is far more complex than we have observed in modern environments through taphonomy experiments.Molecular paleontology is the study of ancient complex biomolecules associated within deep-time fossils, which may provide important information for understanding the organisms’ evolution and fossilization process at the molecular level, as well as facilitating the recognition of preserved biomarkers in order to identify life on other planets ,2. In thet al. , the autThe last decade has borne witness to numerous discoveries that have provided mounting evidence of molecular preservation in deep-time fossils, e.g. proteins, certain carbohydrates such as chitin and cellulose, sterol lipids and pigments . As thiset al. [Finally, it is recognized that ‘exceptional claims require exceptional evidence’ and multiple independent lines of evidence should be provided in support of any new discovery of ancient biomolecules in deep-time fossils as done by Bailleul et al. . With th


The results showed that in ethanol/Tris  buffer solution, the host molecular tweezer 7a had a specific recognition ability for Ag+, the detection limit was up to 1 × 10−6 mol/L, and other metal ions had little effect on Ag+ recognition. At the same time, the naked-eye detection of Ag+ was realized by the light red color of the complex solution. Furthermore, the mechanism of recognition of Ag+ by molecular tweezer 7a was studied by a nuclear magnetic titration test and computer molecular simulation, and a rapid detection method of Ag+ using host molecular tweezer 7a was established. Through the determination of Ag+ in milk powder, quinoa and other food samples, it was proved that this novel method had a good application prospect for the detection of Ag+ in food.Chiral cholesteric molecular tweezer  Accordght line C, which 7a to detect Ag+ were investigated. As shown in + were added into the solution of compound 7a, the UV-Vis absorbance value of the complex 7a+Ag+ consistently increased. Taking the concentration of Ag+ as abscissa and the UV absorbance as ordinate, a straight line was obtained in the linear range of 2 × 10−6 to 2 × 10−5 mol/L (2 = 0.991). According to the formula LOD = 3σ/k [+ [7a is clearly more sensitive than most of the other sensors for the detection of Ag+ [+ is visual, rapid and without complicated process and expensive equipment.The linearity and detection limit of the method using probe −5 mol/L D, and thD = 3σ/k ,31  of the complex formed by probe ock form A, and wh form  and Ag+ was 1.994 Å. It was suggested that the oxygen atoms in the 12α-COOCH3 and Ar-OCH3 groups interacted with Ag+ to form a complex and that the possible recognition driving forces could be hydrogen bonds and electrostatic attraction. The possible binding model of molecular tweezer 7a with Ag+ is presented in The computer molecular modeling software (Chem 3D) was applied to systematically search the conformation of the compounds . The min7a for Ag+ sensing in different food samples was investigated. The recoveries of this method were obtained from the ratio of the measured value of the average Ag+ content in the sample determined three times to the theoretical value by adding a series of different known concentrations of Ag+ into the sample. As shown in + in some food samples, namely, milk powder, wheat flour, quinoa and wolfberry, detected by the molecular tweezer 7a, were 19.44, 31.06, 41.40 and 38.37 μg/g, respectively, compared with the AAS method; the relative error was less than 5%. Quantitative spike recoveries for the detection of Ag+ in these samples ranged from 99% to 104% (n = 3), which further demonstrated that the molecular tweezer 7a was reliable for monitoring Ag+ in food samples.The application of the molecular tweezer  to 104% , with a All the reagents and solvents used for synthesis were analytically pure and used without further treatment unless otherwise noted. A Tris-HCl buffer solution (pH 7.4) was prepared using 0.1 mol/L HCl and proper amount of a 0.1 mol/L Tris stock solution . Double-distilled water was used throughout the process of solution preparation and spectroscopic testing. The solutions of the metal ions were prepared from their nitrate salts. Different food samples, namely, milk powder, wolfberry, quinoa and wheat flour, were bought from the local market .1H-NMR spectra were recorded with the AVANCE NEO nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer . The microscopic images were observed with the JSM-7900F field-emission scanning electron microscope . The infrared spectra were recorded with the Nicolet 6700 Fourier transform infrared spectrometer .Chemical reactions were conducted by MCR-3 microwave chemical reactor . Ultraviolet spectra were measured by UV-2600 Shimadzu ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometer . Fluorescence spectra were recorded by RF-6000 Shimadzu fluorescence spectrophotometer . Mass spectra were analyzed by Thermo Q Exactive ultra-high-resolution liquid chromatography–mass spectrometer . The 7a was synthesized according to the method reported in Reference [7a (C41H61N3O10). The synthesis route is shown in 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR spectra of the target compound 7a were consistent with what was reported in the literature [7a is shown in Cholesteric molecular tweezer eference . The intterature . The syn7a was dissolved in 5 mL of DMSO, then ethanol/Tris  was added to a certain volume, and then a molecular tweezer reserve solution of 0.1 mmol/L was obtained. Nitrate and acetate of cations  were dissolved in ultra-pure water, and then 0.1 mmol/L stock solutions of cations were prepared [Compound prepared . At room7a with a concentration of 1 × 10−4 mol/L was added with 5 times the amount of metal ions, and then, by observing the changes of the solution color and the UV–Vis absorption spectra, the selective recognition abilities of molecular tweezer 7a for various metal ions were determined.In the selectivity test, 0.5 mL of host molecular tweezer + (0–20 μmol/L) was gradually dropped into the host molecular tweezer 7a solution with a concentration of 1.0 × 10−4 mol/L. The UV-Vis absorbance values of the complex solution were measured at different Ag+ concentrations, and according to the Hildebrand-Benes equation [7a and Ag+ was calculated.In the UV-Vis spectral titration test, Agequation , the com7a to the guest Ag+ was prepared, and their absorbance values were determined. The Job curve of the complex was obtained by mapping the molar ratio of host to guest, and the combination ratio of host molecular tweezer 7a and the guest Ag+ was determined [In the Job’s plot experiment, a series of mixed solutions containing 1:9, 2:8, 3:7, 4:6, 5:5, 6:4, 7:3, 8:2 and 9:1 of the concentration ratio of the host molecular tweezer termined .7a (1 × 10−4 mol/L) was added into the test tube, and 2.5 mL of the diluted samples were mixed. The absorbance of the mixture at 270 nm was measured. The mean value of each group was determined three times, and the Ag+ content in each sample was calculated according to the standard curve regression equation.Two grams of samples of milk powder, wolfberry, quinoa and wheat flour was taken, dried, crushed and then transferred into a digestion tube. Then, 0.2 g of copper sulfate, 6 g of potassium sulfate and 10 mL of sulfuric acid were added successively. The samples were digested at 400 °C for two hours, cooled to room temperature, diluted to a certain multiple and adjusted to pH 7.0. Then, 5 mL of the host molecular tweezer 7a was synthesized. Using ultraviolet spectrophotometry and fluorescence titration, we found that the addition of Ag+ could cause regular changes in the UV and fluorescence spectra of molecular tweezer 7a, and the addition of other metal ions had little interference, which indicated that molecular tweezer 7a had high selectivity for Ag+. The binding constant of 7a + Ag+ was 1.38 × 104 L/mol, and the detection limit was 1 μmol/l, higher than that of many reported methods [v/v = 1/1, pH = 7.0), adding Ag+ changed the color of the molecular tweezer 7a solution from colorless to light red, while the color of the solutions with other metal ions added did not change; thus, it was easy for us to realize the rapid naked-eye detection of Ag+. In addition, the combination of Ag+ with molecular tweezer 7a was further examined by Job’s method, and the coordination ratio of Ag+ with 7a was found to be 1:1. In order to further investigate the mechanism of the recognition between molecular tweezer 7a and Ag+, the changes in IR, MS and 1H NMR before and after the combination of molecular tweezer 7a and Ag+ were studied. It was found that Ag+ could enter the clefts of molecular tweezer 7a, groups 12α-COOCH3 and ArOCH3 in the molecular tweezer 7a were the main binding sites, and the oxygen atoms in the groups could provide electrons for Ag+. The recognition driving forces might be electrostatic gravitation and hydrogen bonding. Furthermore, molecular tweezer 7a was applied for the determination of Ag+ in real food samples, and a method for the determination of Ag+ in real food samples was established by the determination of Ag+ in quinoa, wheat flour etc., and compared with the method of AAS. The new method is low cost with simple operation, and it is also reliable; therefore, it is expected to be developed as a rapid detection kit for Ag+ detection in food, the environment and other areas.Taking deoxycholic acid as material, molecular tweezer  methods ,34,35,36+ detection in food samples. Compared with other methods that have been reported, this method exhibits some fascinating properties, namely, excellent selectivity, high sensitivity, a wide linear range, cost effectiveness and the ability to visually detect Ag+. Notably, the detection system was successfully used for the analysis of Ag+ in some dairy products, grains and berries, indicating that this novel method is useful in actual food samples. We believe that such a cholesteric molecular tweezer artificial receptor will have great potential applications for Ag+ determination in food analysis, environmental monitoring, medicine and other fields.In summary, we successfully demonstrated a cholesteric molecular tweezer artificial receptor for Ag


Background: Low platelet count might promote resistance to pharmacological closure with indomethacin and ibuprofen of a hemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus (hsPDA). However, no studies have investigated if this occurs with paracetamol. Methods: We retrospectively assessed the correlation between platelet count, mean platelet volume (MPV), and plateletcrit (PCT), as well as the effectiveness of paracetamol in closing hsPDA in infants born at 23+0–31+6 weeks of gestation who were treated with 15 mg/kg/6 h of i.v. paracetamol for 3 days. Results: We studied 79 infants: 37 (47%) Had closure after a course of paracetamol and 42 (53%) did not. Platelet count and PCT did not correlate with paracetamol success or failure in closing hsPDA, while MPV was lower at birth  and prior to starting therapy  in refractory infants. Regression analysis confirmed that the low MVP measured prior to starting the treatment increased the risk of hsPDA paracetamol closure failure . Conclusions: The greater MPV correlated positively with the effectiveness of paracetamol in closing hsPDA, while platelet count and PCT did not influence closure rates. Additional studies are needed to confirm our results.  Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is a common disease of preterm infants who suffer from respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). Medical and/or surgical treatment for a hemodynamically significant PDA (hsPDA) is required for 60–70% of preterm infants below 28 weeks’ gestation . There iStudies in animals have shown that low platelet count was associated with a higher risk of PDA in preterm infants, and with the failure of pharmacological closure, by limiting the thrombosis of ductal lumen during physiological anatomical closure . On the However, no previous study has investigated the possible association between the effectiveness of paracetamol in closing hsPDA and platelet indices in very preterm infants. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the possible correlation between platelet count, MPV, and PCT, as well as the effectiveness of paracetamol in promoting the closure of hsPDA in very preterm infants.Herein, we performed this retrospective study at the third level neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of Careggi University Hospital of Florence and Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli of Rome. Local ethics committees approved the study.+0 to 31+6 weeks, who developed a hsPDA which was treated with 15 mg/kg/6 h of i.v. paracetamol for 3 days [®, Orphan Europe, Paris, France; 10 mg/kg followed by 5 mg/kg after 24 and 48 h) were enrolled. Exclusion criteria were major congenital malformations, chromosomal disorders, inherited metabolic diseases, death within the first week of life, and the lack of platelet data required for the study.Infants with a gestational age ranging from 23r 3 days ,13, as tWe evaluated the platelet count, MPV, and PCT (=platelet count × MPV/10.000) at birth (within the first 3 h of life) and 24–48 h prior to starting the first course of paracetamol, since these measurements have the greatest probability of correlation with PDA response to paracetamol. A complete blood count was obtained from the samples by venous umbilical catheter, venipuncture or rarely arterial puncture.3, IVH ≥ 3° grade), and as second choice when they were refractory to ibuprofen therapy.The diagnosis of hsPDA was made between 24–72 h of life by an echocardiographic presence of a ductal left-to-right shunt, with a left atrium-to-aortic root ratio >1.3 or a ductal size >1.5 mm and by eliminating the cases of restrictive PDA indicated using the closing flow pattern . InfantsEchocardiography was repeated as a minimum after 24 h from the last dose of the first pharmacological course and, subsequently, according to the PDA progress. A pediatric cardiologist or a neonatologist who has achieved adequate expertise in newborn heart ultrasound performed the cardiac ultrasounds.When the PDA was still hemodynamically significant after the first pharmacological course, a second course of paracetamol or ibuprofen was administered 24 h after the last dose of the previous course. The successive pharmacological and/or surgical management of PDA was decided according to the local protocols.2 50–60 mmHg, PaCO2 < 65 mmHg, pH > 7.20, SpO2 90–95%.The daily clinical care of the patients followed the common practice of each center. The fluid intake began at 70–80 mL/kg and was gradually augmented by 10–20 mL/kg/day, according to the changes in body weight, serum sodium concentrations, and osmolality, in order to achieve at the end of the first week of life the intake of 150–160 mL/kg. In the case of systemic hypotension which is resistant to fluid-replacement therapy, the dopamine and/or dobutamine treatment was administered. The treatment of RDS included oxygen therapy, respiratory support, and rescue surfactant replacement, in order to reach the following targets: PaOThe medical and nursing chart review was carried out and for each infant the following data were recorded: Gestational age, birth weight, birth weight <10° percentile, sex, Apgar score at 5 min, mode of delivery, antenatal steroids, RDS occurrence, surfactant therapy, need and duration of non-invasive respiratory support , nasal continuous airway pressure (NCPAP), bi-level NCPAP (BiPAP), nasal intermittent mechanical ventilation (N-IMV)) and mechanical ventilation (patient-triggered ventilation or high frequency ventilation (HFV)), treatment of vasoactive drugs , occurrence of PDA requiring treatment with ibuprofen or surgical closure, sepsis, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), surgical necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), IVH ≥ 3° grade, periventricular leukomalacia (PVL), retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) ≥ 3° grade, duration of hospital stay, and death. BPD was diagnosed in the case of oxygen need at 36 weeks post-menstrual age . NEC wast” test was used to analyze the parametric continuous variables and the Wilcoxon rank sum test was used in the case of deviation from normality assumptions. The Χ2 test was used to compare categorical variables. p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.The infants enrolled in the study were stratified into subgroups of infants who had hsPDA closure after the first 3-day course of paracetamol and infants who did not. Their clinical characteristics were described as the mean and standard deviation, median and range or rate and percentage. The mean imputation was used to replace the missing data with an estimated value based on the other available information. Shapiro-Wilk’s test was applied to assess the normality of data distribution. Student’s “p < 0.100) were included in the model, excluding those who showed collinearity (variance inflation factors <5). Therefore, we studied the effects of gestational age, cesarean section, dopamine treatment, and MPV at birth and before the treatment with paracetamol. Results are presented as coefficients of independent variables with 95% confidence intervals (CI).A multivariable stepwise logistic regression analysis was executed to assess the potential effect of independent variables on the effectiveness of paracetamol on hsPDA closure. Variables that upon univariate analyses were different between the groups  who had closure after a course of paracetamol and 42 (53%) who did not. Paracetamol was given as first line of treatment in 55 (70%) patients or after failure of an initial course of ibuprofen in 24 (30%) patients at a mean age of 5.2 ± 6.8 days of life.The clinical characteristics of infants responding and refractory to paracetamol are reported in p < 0.001) and prior to starting therapy  in refractory infants , after adjusting for effects of gestational age, cesarean section, and dopamine treatment  and this might have made it difficult to demonstrate a possible correlation between thrombocytopenia and paracetamol failure. However, another intriguing possibility is that the effectiveness of paracetamol is actually less affected by platelet count in comparison with indomethacin and ibuprofen. In fact, both of these drugs are known to inhibit thromboxane release and impair platelet aggregation (enhancing the effect of thrombocytopenia in favoring the development of hsPDA), while paracetamol has been reported to have a negligible effect on platelet aggregation, making its closing effect on hsPDA less easily influenced by thrombocytopenia [A recent meta-analysis on the pharmacological closure of hsPDA suggested that the pre-treatment with thrombocytopenia was associated with higher odds of failure of the first course of indomethacin or ibuprofen . Our resytopenia .We found that the larger platelet volume prior to starting therapy decreased the risk of paracetamol failure in closing hsPDA. This might occur due to the fact that a larger MPV is known to enhance platelet reactivity promoting the activation of the coagulation system, and for this reason, facilitating the deposition of fibrin in the microcirculation . TherefoThe limitations of the present study include the retrospective design and the relatively small size population, which precluded the possibility of evaluating other factors potentially influencing the effect of paracetamol in closing hsPDA, such as the treatment with other drugs  and genetics. However, considering the homogeneity of our population, it is improbable that our results are a statistical artefact resulting from a population substructure.In this paper, we found that a greater platelet volume was positively correlated with the effectiveness of paracetamol in closing hsPDA, while platelet count and PCT were not. Additional studies on this topic are needed to confirm our results and to evaluate the clinical values of this biomarker in predicting the response of hsPDA to the pharmacological treatment with paracetamol.